After trying to avoid them for so long, she finally contacted her grandparents. Since they wanted to meet, then she'll meet them.
Immediately, they arranged a lunch meeting at a luxurious hotel restaurant that the two elders liked to frequent. The date was set four days after the phone call, considering that Yeo Ri did not want to dally any longer.
Yeo Ri laid low for those four days. She did not leave the house or made any sort of contact with the outside world, avoiding the fate of getting recognised on the streets. Not even her best friends could reach out to her, causing them to be worried.
With so much time to herself, Yeo Ri found herself spending more time on the computer. She had recently gotten into online shopping ever since she had her first big pay-check, since she could now afford to get more luxuries for her and her brothers.
Ding dong!
"Package!"
The doorbell rang, and a delivery man came to deliver some of the things she bought.
As expected of South Korea's delivery services; it was very fast and efficient. Within a day or two, her packages arrived one after another.
In the first batch, she had bought new clothes for her brothers.
Gun was often wearing the same old clothes until they wore down, so in order to commemorate their newfound wealth, she had bought several outfits for him to wear. She had also bought some for Hyuk as well, but those were useless since the man in question was still rotting in prison.
In the next batch of parcels, she had bought skincare and other beauty products. Most of them had been recommended by Park Soo Yeon, who had even contacted a famous dermatologist to give some recommendations.
Finally, on the third day, the final packages arrived. There were three full bags of groceries, and one heavy package with unknown goods inside it.
Gun helped his little sister unpack and arrange the items. After they finished organising the groceries, it was finally time to open the heavy box.
"What's this?" Gun asked in confusion as he hauled the item out of its box. "A... whetstone?"
"Mm," Yeo Ri nodded nonchalantly. She pointed towards the kitchen counter, "Put it over there, Oppa."
"Why'd you buy a whetstone?"
"Hm? Well, the kitchen knives seem to have dulled a bit, so I bought one to sharpen them. It'll save us some money instead of buying new knives, no?" Yeo Ri touched the surface of the whetstone as she spoke. A peculiar expression flashed on her face briefly before she turned to pick out the 'dull' knives. Almost all of them needed to be sharpened, including the one in... ... .
Gun did not notice the strange connotation of Yeo Ri's words. He held her arm and volunteered to help her do the labour. "I'll do it; you go sit down and rest."
"Will you? Then, I'll leave it to you, Oppa." Yeo Ri smiled gratefully at her older brother. Gun reciprocated her smile.
Soon, the sound of the stainless steel blades scraping against the hard surface of the sharpening tool could be heard. Yeo Ri sat at the study desk, writing meaningless things in her letter to Hyuk.
Schiieeeee—k!
Shiiiiii—k!
Schreeeeeee-k!
The sound was loud and rather painful to the ears, but Yeo Ri paid it no mind. Accompanied by the sound of sharpening knives, Yeo Ri's mood soared as she thought of her future plans.
There was so many things to do... but many of them needed to be done without her brother present.
Pretending that nothing was wrong, Yeo Ri hummed a song as she allowed her pen to freely move on the paper.
The sweet words she had grown accustomed to writing contrasted against her calculative thoughts.