"What are you doing here?"
Sakura probably should've expected that Eunchae wasn't going to run at her with open arms, but still the absolute grumpy aura the girl admitted as soon as she saw her took her a bit off guard. She came out of school smiling, chasing after Lucas as the boy laughed and ran to his dad, but her entire body language changed when she saw Sakura standing there with no Chaewon or Yunjin by her side. A few emotions passed over her face, fear, confusion, and then anger. She had marched over, scowling then asked the question.
"Yunjin called me and asked me to pick you up while she and Chaewon went to a check-up."
"Is Yunjin okay?"
"Oh yeah, the doctors just wanna make sure she is healing alright." That was a half-truth. From what Yunjin had grumbled about over the phone, she woke up running a slight fever and chills, and Chaewon had freaked out. Yunjin had made it clear that she just thought she caught something from Eunchae, as she went to school where illness passed through children constantly, but from what she was saying Chaewon wanted to make sure her wounds were infected or she was having a bad reaction to the medicine. Personally, Sakura was on Chaewon's side, Yunjin was always one to minimize her state, even when Eunha was alive that was the thing they fought the most about. Eunha would always say how was Yunjin supposed to care about her if she couldn't care about herself. Sakura thinks now she was a bit of a hypocrite for saying that.
"But I'm going back home, right?"
"Of course, they just needed someone to pick you up because they are running a bit late," Sakura assured, holding out a hand that Eunchae took after a few moments. She leaned down and whispered into Eunchae's ear, "I was thinking you and I can get some ice cream on the way home."
She was absolutely craving ice cream with fries right now, just the thought of dipping the salty fries into the cool vanilla milkshake felt like heaven. Pregnancy cravings were just as intense as she thought they'd be, Kazuha was still trying to get used to being woken up in the middle of the night to go down to the corner store and get random combinations of food. Along with taming the beast of her hunger, it would give her and Eunchae a chance to talk. The only time she saw Eunchae since giving her back to Yunjin was at the hospital, and they didn't really talk at all. Both of them were upset and nervous, Sakura didn't have the words to comfort Eunchae, Eunchae didn't want to talk. Kazuha had shown up later on, but just brought food and a change of clothes for Sakura.
Eunchae nodded and let Sakura lead her down a few blocks until they reached 'The Ice Box' a small family-owned ice cream restaurant that handmade all their flavors. And sold burgers and fries on the side. A solid yes. The two of them made their way inside and made their orders. Eunchae just wanted a simple vanilla cone, Sakura copied her and got an order of fries for them to share.
"So how's school?" Sakura tried to make conversation when they settled in.
Eunchae shrugged, "it's okay."
"Yunjin told me you got into a fight."
"Yeah."
"Good job," Eunchae seemed surprised by that, "I bet Yunjin gave you a high five for that."
"She did."
"I actually wanted to tell you something," Sakura smiles, reaching into her purse and took out the ultrasound she was planning on giving Yunjin later on. She had gotten it done a few times and immediately asked for a few extra copies to give to her and Kazuha's parents along with a copy for Yunjin and Chaewon.
Yunjin wouldn't admit it to her, but she was still nervous and Sakura knew that. Her last pregnancy had been traumatic, but it was also her own fault. She knew she shouldn't have been doing field work yet wanted to for the selfish reason she thought she'd be bored. And Yunjin was just in a bad place when it all happened, and the baby was probably the only thing keeping her holding on. Sakura would never forget it, when Yunjin had her complete mental breakdown after Eunha's passing. It started at work that day, something was just off about her. Then she went home early, complaining she didn't feel good, which set off red flags in Sakura's head because Yunjin had stayed for shifts before while throwing up. It all came to a head about an hour later when Yunjin had called her bawling and blabbering about how sad and upset she was, how she couldn't take it anymore. The pure panic that ran through her while she was on the phone trying to talk Yunjin down while simultaneously texting Kazuha to get to her apartment as soon as possible to make sure she didn't do anything stupid was something she had never felt before and only felt one other time, when Yunjin got shot. Kazuha got there in time, and the two of them spent the better part of the night convincing Yunjin to go to the hospital. When she announced she was pregnant months later, Yunjin had something to look forward to, a new little niece. It was the first time she had seen her look happy in a long time. To lose that probably took a lot out of her, maybe even more than Sakura herself. That's why Sakura wanted to give her the ultrasound, to assure her she's okay if she wants to feel happy about this.
She laid the picture down on the table, which Eunchae took and looked over, squinting her brow. "What's this?"
"You're new cousins."
"What?" Eunchae was confused, her brows furrowing as she took another bite of her ice cream. Sakura let out a little chuckle, placing her hand on her stomach.
"I'm having babies!" Sakura cheered, smiling a bit before pointing out the picture, "Look see, this is one baby and this is another. The one on the left, this is a boy, and this one is a girl."
Eunchae went quiet, really squinting at the photo, "How did you take a picture of them when they're in your belly?"
"They put a machine on my belly and it can see them and take pictures."
"Is this why you gave me back to Yunjin?" There was no bite to that, just a simple question. "You had babies of your own so you didn't want me anymore?"
"Huh?" Of all things, that was not what Sakura was expecting. "Of course not sweetie."
Eunchae didn't answer, just took another bite. From Eunchae's point of view, Sakura figures that being tossed around probably was a bit traumatic for her. She was with her mom, then Yunjin, then her, and then back to Yunjin, all without Eunchae getting a say in it. She was probably trying to look for reasons why. Her real mom couldn't take care of her, Eunchae seemed to understand that. Yunjin had made it clear at first she was just watching her until she went to Sakura. But Sakura never explained to her why she was letting her go back with Yunjin, she had just assumed she would think she's getting what she wanted. She didn't think about how it would impact her. And that was her mistake, and she was sorry for it. "No, you wanted Yunjin to be your mommy, and Yunjin wanted to be your mommy. Both of you were unhappy, so I let you go back."
Sakura was no Yunjin, she didn't know how to read the girl. So when Eunchae took another bite of her cone and looked back over the image, she didn't know if she should say more. Eunchae made that decision for her, "So do they have names?"
"Not yet, Kazuha and I are trying to come up with some."
Telling Kazuha about this had been a rollercoaster. It all started out with a really bad fight, honestly Sakura wasn't sure they had ever fought like that before. Kazuha had come home with a small cactus stuffed animal, a tub of ice cream, and an apologetic expression, looking around for Eunchae to apologize. She hadn't even yelled at her, just scolded her a bit but Eunchae's reaction had been one of pure terror, trying to put as much space between Kazuha and herself as she could. She even hid in a closet for hours after Kazuha had left, leaving Sakura to gently try to coax her out. That was what proved to her this wasn't right, if Eunchae had the capability of bring that scared she didn't trust them. And her walking all the way to Yunjin just for comfort showed who she really trusted. So when Sakura informed her of what she did, Kazuha had flipped. She was trying, she really was and Sakura knew that. Her and Eunchae just never got along, and Kazuha felt sensitive about that. It felt like a slap in the face to be trying so hard and just have a decision made without her.
Cue the fight to end all fights. It was coming, they both knew it. Eunchae had been a catalyst for it. Sakura wanted the girl to sleep in their room, and Kazuha was so stubborn about it. Eunchae got anxious about not being able to eat whenever she wanted; she started stealing food at night and hiding it under her bed. When Sakura had discovered her stash and told Kazuha they should let her eat when she wanted, Kazuha bunkered down on that she needed to have set times with meals available at that time. Eunchae had very obvious signs of PTSD, Sakura had seen it in a lot of victims and witnesses throughout her career, but sometimes Kazuha accidentally triggered her by nothing more than her personality and left Sakura to pick up the pieces. Sakura was loud by nature, and Eunchae didn't like that, covering her ears and crying whenever her voice got too loud, leaving Kazuha to ask Sakura to kindly be quiet which the woman got a bit offended at. Little arguments like that built up to that one moment where both of them were screaming at each other til they were red in the face. It got pretty bad, Sakura was sure the neighbors were going to call the cops with how loud they were both screaming. Kazuha was upset that she made that decision without her, and that Sakura continued to go against everything she tried to implement based on the research she did. Sakura was upset that she was talking to her that way, and that Kazuha was so strict with Eunchae who very obviously was suffering because of it. It had underlying meaning she was afraid of what their kids would think of her when they were old, but at the time Kazuha had no way of knowing that.
They reconciled a week later with apologies and promises to talk things out next time. Their anniversary was coming up, and Sakura had it all planned. They had dinner at a nice little restaurant by the river and finally told Kazuha. The lawyer had started crying, and rushed to embrace her. Things have been going good since then. They started attending some classes teaching them how to parent, how to care for babies, that kind of stuff. A small set back had happened when Yunjin was shot, but they were right back on track now.
They finished their ice cream cones and made their way to Sakura's car. Eunchae was good on the way home, playing around with Peng. Sakura smiled at that, that the little toy she gave to her the first day they met still gave her a bit of comfort. Yunjin and Chaewon were already home when they got back, Chaewon opening the door and immediately scooping Eunchae up into her arms pressing a series of quick kisses onto her cheeks, "Hey you! How was school?"
And just like that Sakura was completely forgotten.
"I learned how to subtract today! And Kyujin brought in new gummies and they actually tasted good!"
"Wow, that's so cool!"
"Is Yunjin okay?" Eunchae asked, squirming out of Chaewon's grip to take off her bag and shoes when she was set down.
"Yunjin's fine." Yunjin grumbled walking up behind them. She was looking better, Sakura noted. Her left arm was still in a sling, and she walked kind of funny, as if she was trying to be as stiff as possible so she didn't agitate the area on her abdomen that was still healing. But her face had that health back to it, one that was far gone when Sakura last saw her in the hospital bed. "I just have a little cold, and Chaewon overreacted."
"I did not!"
"Sure, keep telling yourself that,"
Eunchae tugged at Yunjin pant leg, looking up, "Can we watch the fish movie again?"
"Nemo?"
"Yes!"
"After you do your homework."
Eunchae took off into the house, no doubt ready to do her homework as possible. Yunjin chuckled and then turned back to Sakura, Chaewon wrapping her arms gently around the detective's waist and resting her chin on her good shoulder. "Was she good for you?"
"The best, I don't think Eunchae could be bad."
"Grumpy Monster Eunchae disagrees with that."
"Oh actually I have this for you," Sakura dug the ultrasound out of her purse and handed it to Yunjin, as Chaewon looked at it from behind her. She watched as Yunjin took it in.
"TWO!?"
"Surprise."
"You are crazy, Miyawaki Sakura."
"And you're going to babysit both of them for me."
Yunjin signed, and shook her head before looking back at the picture. Sakura could see it from the soft twitch on the corners of Yunjin's lips to how she had practically melted into Chaewon's embrace; she was happy again. Eunchae ran back over, saying something in English Sakura didn't understand, but Chaewon answered back and Eunchae seemed content with whatever she said. They all were happy. And Sakura didn't regret her decision one bit.