'She's dead.'
Han Myung Soo and his wife, Na Hee Young stared at the young girl blankly. It took a long moment for her words to register in their minds.
"W-what...?"
Yeo Ri repeated her words again, "She passed away."
Mr. Han helped hold his wife together. Taking a long, deep breath, he asked: "When?"
"Hmm... maybe thirteen or fourteen years ago?" Yeo Ri tilted her head in a thinking manner. She was too young to remember exactly when her mother had passed away, so she only gave them an estimated number.
"T-that long ago...?" Mrs. Han croaked, her voice hoarse. She choked on a sob as she crumpled, her body trembling with grief. "How... why...?"
"Lee Do Joon," Yeo Ri said softly, a repulsive feeling lingering on her tongue, "killed her. It made the news some time ago. Didn't you see it?"
"N-no," Mrs. Han struggled to reply. Ever since she and her husband retired almost two years ago, they had stopped paying attention to the secular world, only keeping to their small circle of friends and hobbies and concentrating on raising their young daughter well. They rarely ever tuned in on the news anymore, and even when they came across such gruesome articles online or on the newspapers, they would merely skim through the headlines and think to themselves, 'the world is such a scary place,' and then forget about it. It was no wonder that they remained oblivious to their daughter's death for so long.
Yeo Ri observed the two's reaction with her ever-calm eyes. 'How nice,' she thought. As lonely as her mother had been when she passed, the woman still had people—parents—who cared for her and grieved for her.
"Hey! What did you do to my parents?!" A shrill voice rang out.
Han Ka-eul glared at the girl with hostility. She had looked away for one minute and the girl went and made her parents cry.
Yeo Ri met her angry gaze with her own apathetic eyes. She narrowed her eyes at the girl and responded to the challenge in her gaze with concealed antipathy.
Han Ka-eul flinched from the coldness in the younger girl's eyes, but before she could lash out, her mother loudly yelled her name.
"Han Ka-eul! Don't be so rude to our guest!" She scolded, her face red and her eyes brimming with tears. Finding out that her daughter was dead clearly took a toll on her as she seemed extremely distraught.
Han Ka-eul grounded her teeth as she seethed silently. She couldn't believe that her mother would protect that girl instead of her even though she had only raised her voice for their sake.
She turned away from the three and angrily stomped her way up the stairs. Several seconds later, a loud slam could be heard.
"Sorry about her behaviour," Mrs. Han apologised as she dabbed her wet eyes with a tissue. Her hands were still trembling but she tried to hold herself back from breaking down. She forced a smile as she stared at the girl who looked so much like her now-deceased daughter, a trace of unconcealed affection and regret in her gaze.
"It's fine," Yeo Ri airily replied. She thought for a moment before exclaiming, "ah."
Yeo Ri rummaged the bag she carried for some pen and paper. Fortunately, she kept a little memo pad and a pen just in case. She took them out and scribbled an address onto it.
Once she finished, she neatly tore the page out of her memo pad and slid it over to the elderly couple. "This is where my mother's grave is. Feel free to move her or whatever, but just remember to inform us beforehand," Yeo Ri explained.
At that moment, the elderly couple felt that Yeo Ri's reaction was too calm and too emotionally detached. She was talking about her own mother's passing as if she was talking about the weather. It perturbed the couple but they comforted themselves with the thought that since it had been so long, the girl had probably got to terms with it ages ago.
Mrs. Han reached for the small piece of paper and carefully etched each letter and number written on it into her head.
"Thank you," Mr. Han replied on both his and his wife's behalf.
Yeo Ri's lips slightly quirked up in response. She looked as if she was smiling softly at the couple, but the smile did not quite reach her eyes. However, the elderly couple were too absorbed in their emotions to notice the unfathomable depth in her gaze.
After witnessing Han Ka-eul's aversion to her, Yeo Ri had no mood to play family with these people anymore. It was clear that the girl did not like her for some reason, and Yeo Ri did not want to waste her time trying to fix whatever 'bad blood' they had between them. Rather than make things hard for herself, she'd much rather avoid it entirely.
"It's getting late, so I'll be going now," Yeo Ri suddenly said, glancing at the time on her phone. Although she had only been there for less than an hour, she felt that it was sufficient enough to gauge their reactions. Inwardly, Yeo Ri had already decided to limit her interactions with the Han family.
"Already?"
Yeo Ri masked her inner thoughts and smiled at them again. "I have something to do later, so I have to go. Perhaps we should meet again in the future," Yeo Ri paused briefly, "Mr. and Mrs. Han."
"Oh," Mrs. Han dejectedly wrinkled her nose. She felt sad over the fact that Yeo Ri referred to them so distantly, but she was also disappointed that they did not get to spend as much time together as they hoped. There was still so many things to talk about; they hadn't settled about when Yeo Ri would move in with them, or if she wanted to transfer to Ka-eul's high school, which was closer to their house. Of course, it would be understandable if Yeo Ri wanted to remain at her current school, Mrs. Han thought, since the new semester had already started, and it would be a pain for the young girl to start over at a new place.
"If you're fine with it, should we have lunch together some time in the future?" Mr. Han asked. He knew from the way Yeo Ri referred to them that she still did not feel comfortable with them. Unlike his wife, he wanted to take things slow and bridge the gap between them and their granddaughter first before adopting her into the family.
"Oh, oh yes! We should!" Mrs. Han added with a slightly more cheerful tone. "We should get started on your adoption papers as well. We can meet up later with your current guardian and get the custody settled first." Thinking about all the paperwork that would keep her busy, Mrs. Han felt somewhat better. At least now she had something to occupy her mind instead of letting herself brood over Yeoreum's passing.
Yeo Ri's already cold eyes chilled even more.
She had only came over to see them once but they were already thinking so far ahead. What custody? Adoption? Were they thinking about taking her away from her brothers?
Yeo Ri fixed the smile on her face and nodded her head as if to humour them, "I'll ask my brothers first."
Neither of the elders seemed to have noticed Yeo Ri's strange mood. They were too elated thinking about having one more member joining their family that they completely forgot to ask if Yeo Ri even wanted to be with them. After all, the Han family was well-to-do, and they were fairly influential in the society, so why wouldn't she want to?
"Great!" Mrs. Han bounced up from her seat. With a warm smile, she went to give Yeo Ri a hug.
Yeo Ri could not find the timing to avoid it, so she begrudgingly accepted the hug while trying to stop herself from pushing the old woman away.
After an excruciatingly long, tight hug, Yeo Ri bade the two elders goodbye without even turning back a second time.