It happened on a muggy day in July.

Jaehyung and Hyerin went to the movies that morning – something that they revelled in, as it marked the first time that their mother’s let them go into town on their own, rather than just the silly old park.

Parks are for the little kids anyway, they thought.

When they got back to Hyerin’s house, her younger sister sat on the front porch, curled into a tight ball as loud sobs ripped through her body and her fingers dug into her knees. Hyerin’s throat closed into itself at the sight, tears springing to her eyes, and her hand somehow found its way to Jaehyung.

Jaehyung reacted first, taking in a sharp breath and running to the little girl’s side, all the while tugging Hyerin along with him.

He ran his fingers through her hair soothingly before carefully picking her up and setting her unto Hyerin’s lap, to whom she instinctively clung to. Hyerin hugged her sister tight and found a tear of her own slipping down her face, though she still didn’t know what was wrong.

A strong arm wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her against the side of its owner. With a deep breath, she looked into Jaehyung’s glistening eyes for an answer neither of them had.

The troubling thing was the absence of her mother. She would have been holding her youngest child just as Hyerin had been then, cooing something soothing into her ear in the way that only a mother could.

Jaehyung read the question in her eyes, the realization hitting him in a way that made him square his shoulder and put on a brave face. He let go of Hyerin and walked inside her house, though his hand lingered on the doorknob as he went in, unsure of what to expect.

He returned quickly, with less fear in his eyes than Hyerin expected to see. He bent his head to whisper to her as she still cradled her crying sister, “She needs you.”

Hyerin stared at him for a moment, and he gestured indoors. Faint sounds came from inside, now that the door was open – pained, heart-breaking sobs.

A new pain hit Hyerin, she closed her eyes as her heart shattered; though she’d never heard her mother cry, the sound was unmistakably her mother’s. Jaehyung bent to take her sister from her, hugging her to his chest as he made his way to the rocking chair that her mother liked.

Hyerin looked between him, with her sister on his lap, and the door to her home.
This, she thought, was fear.

-

They called him a war hero.

Her father’s wake was too large. Too many people she didn’t know, too many men in uniforms. All of them talked to her mother, never her or her sister, but her sister clung to her mother’s leg the entire time.

This left Hyerin on her own mostly.

Her father, the hero, lay to rest at the front of the room, with more war heroes paying their respect to him. Hyerin’s eyes burned at the sight. They didn’t know her father like she did; they didn’t love her father like she did.

He was more than a war hero to her. He was her father that had been taken from her a lifetime too soon.

Jaehyung’s family arrived first, just as she’d secretly hoped they would. She’d received hugs from all four of them, but Jaehyung lasted the longest. He held her tight against him and rubbed her black dress in a soothing manner.

“It’s going to be okay,” he whispered, eyes closed and lips brushing her ear. “I can’t be like your father, but I promise to protect you.”