[crow]

Sol stepped off the bus and looked around. It was strange being back here like this. There was so much about it that was familiar, and yet it didn't quite feel the same... There were the superficial things--- some of the shops had changed, and there were new buildings, new advertisements. Even in a small town like his, things moved on.

But more than that, it was this sense of... something not quite fitting the way it should anymore. As if he had gone to Seoul, become someone different, and the town itself, all the people in it, had gone on in the meantime without him.

[crow]

Which is just as it should be, of course. Why wouldn't they? But all the same, he felt something tug a little at his heart every time he came back here.

He tugged up his medical mask as he walked out from the bus terminal building. He had come alone, begging a few days off from the company, and eschewing the entourage of managers in favor of taking the bus by himself. It wasn't for the lack of an offer; one of their managers would have come with him if he had asked, and very likely even if he didn't. He had specifically arranged to go alone this time.

[crow]

Nothing else, he felt, would have been appropriate.

Yul... was leaving for America.

He hailed a cab, and smiled his way through some polite small-talk as he stepped into the car. The driver, a middle-aged man who seemed to exist in a halo of cigarette smoke, asked him where he was from. Sol tried not to dwell on the fact that he no longer seemed like a local. After all, anyone covering so much of their face was bound to look a little odd. Still, it nagged at him for a moment before he could chase the thought away.

[crow]

Fortunately, the restaurant hadn't changed much, and neither had the street around it. Sol was already feeling more at home as he paid the cab driver and shouldered his pack.

He peered inside for a moment before stepping in, and smiled involuntarily at the sight of his mother bustling about, serving piping hot bowls of jjigae to the uncles and aunties of the neighborhood. His father must have been in the back, manning the kitchen. School was let out by now, so maybe the twins were helping him.

[crow]

"Welcome!" said his mother as he walked through the door.

"Mum," he said, tugging down his mask and lifting his sunglasses, grinning unabashedly at her as she bustled towards him.

"Sol! Look at you," she fussed. "So skinny. Are they feeding you up there in that big city, hmm? Did you get a little taller? Bom-ie, Byeol-ie, come out! Your brother's home!"

"Oppa!" A head peered out from the back. The girl's hair was tied back with a scarf, and she brandished a ladle with one hand. "If you're here, come help."

(placeholder; Bom is supposed to be a Spectrakuhna)

[crow]

"Think before you talk!" said their mother, rounding on her daughter. "He just came back all the way from Seoul."

"So?" said Bom, not at all repentant. "He's just been sleeping on a bus all day. You're not tired, right, oppa?"

Sol laughed. Bom had grown a lot since the last time he'd come down to visit, but some things didn't change. "Where's Byeol-ie?" he said, stowing his bag in a corner and rolling up his sleeves, heading towards the kitchen.

"Piano," said Bom.

"You're not taking lessons too?" Sol said.

[crow]

Bom rolled her eyes. "It sucks, I hate it. Byeol is just doing it because she thinks it'll make boys like her better."

At those words, Sol couldn't help but frown. "Is she having boy troubles?"

Before Bom could answer that question, however, he was ushered back out of the kitchen by their mother. "Go upstairs," she said. "Go, go, go. We'll be fine here. Go help your brother pack. He's been waiting to see you." She grabbed Sol by the shoulders before he could protest, and pushed him until he was at the entrance to the stairway that led up to the second floor, where his family lived.

[crow]

Sol knew without needing to ask that his mother was just saying that. He hadn't been around as much as he would have liked for Bom and Byeol's growing up, but he'd had a hand in raising his younger brothers, at least... And he knew that he was just about the last person Yul ever wanted to see.

Still, he wanted to say goodbye to his baby brother before Yul went all the way to another continent. Maybe it was a little selfish of him, but... Well, he'd already come all the way out here, hadn't he?

[crow]

It wasn't a good excuse though--- definitely not one that Yul would have accepted. But even if Yul chased him out immediately, Sol still wanted a chance to say goodbye.

The layout of the house hadn't changed, but the clutter in it had. Gone were the babies' toys--- his parents weren't planning on having any more kids, and the twins had finally outgrown them. With Sol and Geon both moved out, it was just Yul and Shin to one room, and the twins to another; their parents had moved their bed out to the living room to accommodate the kids.

[crow]

Sol stared at the big bed and felt a little nostalgic; he remembered back when everyone had slept together, all of them on the same bed. It had been crowded, and everyone had complained, but thinking back, all he could remember was how warm it was.

The sound of footsteps made him turn. "Did you find it?" said a voice that was at once familiar and not--- and then Yul caught sight of Sol, standing in the living room with his pack slung over his shoulder, and stopped cold.

[Wild Pet Found]

[crow]

Slowly, his eyes narrowed. "... Hyung," he said. There was an almost sullen note in his voice.

"What were you looking for?" said Sol, trying a smile.

But Yul just shook his head. "Never mind," he said, turning away and walking back into his room.

Sol drifted after him. Yul... He had grown too. It wasn't as obvious as it was with Shin or the twins, who had been in elementary school when Sol first left for Seoul, but from the looks of it, Yul had about an inch on him now.

[crow]

He was still skinny, all long limbs and clothes that fit too loosely around his frame. Idol-thin, almost. Sol understood how his mother felt then, whenever she asked him if he was eating. There was no one to stress the importance of keeping his weight down here, in this comparatively sleepy small town, but it was all too easy to imagine Yul forgetting to eat as he bounced between cram school and cramming at home.

The words itched in his throat, but in the end, he didn't speak them. Yul wasn't going to listen if Sol tried to urge him to do anything anyway.