“Slap.”
Everyone has a door in their house. It could be a Dutch Door, French Door, Hinged Door, Pivot door, wooden door, glass door, steel door, PVC door, fiberglass door, aluminum glazed door, or fiber-reinforced plastic door. There are pink doors, blue doors, white doors, black doors, and so on. The door closes whenever someone leaves the house. It opens when someone enters. In the middle, we meet and part ways. In my case, it was the latter.
I used to stick together with my sister all the time. I talked with her about my school life, fought about mundane things, and ate dinner together. She always gave me good advice and sympathized with my words. She was my family but also a good friend. We used to go to cafes together and study. She always drank honey grapefruit black tea, and I drank frappuccino. I was always next to her, and for me, she was always next to me. As my sister entered puberty, the relationship became slightly neglected, but we maintained a good relationship. One day, she started to read books about a school in China that her friend recommended. She felt interested in it, and she began to search for that school. Her interest in books was natural, so I didn’t care much. Then suddenly, she decided to go to that school in China with her friend, and my parents agreed to send her. She was offered an interview, and she decided to leave in a month. I felt shocked. I never thought of her leaving me (before becoming an adult). However, I felt that this was a choice for my sister, so I should respect it. I was surprised, but I thought that just because I didn't have a sister didn't mean I couldn't live my daily life. I was sad, but I thought I would be fine. The day when my sister left Korea finally came.
“Slap.” The door was closed, and my sister was gone.
My Sister headed to the airport with a 36-inch carrier, almost the size of her body. I didn’t go to the airport with her. My dad took her to the airport and called me before my sister walked to the restricted area.
I said, “goodbye.”
It felt weird not having her in the home. I was fine at first. A day passed without seeing her. Then another day passed. I was fine. Then a week passed. I started to feel the vacancy. So I called her. She had strict school rules, so I could only call her between nine to nine-thirty. She could only use the public telephone, and smartphones were banned. All electronic devices were prohibited. I called her at nine thirty-two, and someone received the call. I asked her to hand my sister the phone, and I heard her voice.
“Hello?”
I started to miss her badly when I heard her voice. She said she was adapting to the place and she missed me too.
After the call, another week passed.
I had to draw something for my school art project, and I was terrible at drawing. My sister used to help me draw, but I had no one to help me since she left.
One time, I wanted to buy a new shirt, and I had no one to ask about how the shirt looked. It was a small and trivial thing, but there was no one to help me. It was only then that I realized the importance of things that I had taken for granted.
A few months passed, and my summer vacation began. Her summer vacation began around the same time as mine. My sister decided to come to Korea on summer vacation. She had a call with me before the vacation.
“Did you pack the bag?”
“Yeah I'm done with packing and I'm going to the airport tomorrow. I even bought a souvenir for you.”
I told her how I was doing over the phone, and this time, I decided to go to the airport together to meet my sister, not just my father alone.
My dad drove, and I sat in the back seat and hummed a song while going to the airport. I still remember some songs that I heard while driving to the airport. It was more nerve-racking than I thought to go to meet my sister. Maybe it was because it was the first time I'd been away from my family for a long time. When I saw my sister coming out of the terminal, I was a little choked up. I have never felt that feeling before that hard.
I enjoyed my vacation with my sister. I felt like I was back in my daily life. I went shopping with my sister and went to a cafe to study. My sister still drank honey grapefruit black tea, and I drank frappuccino. Nothing has changed. I missed my calm daily life with my sister, and it finally came back. There is nothing special, but my daily life, as calm as flowing water, was also happiness for me. I fought and fought with my sister during the vacation, but it was still good. It's because we can fight together. You can't fight when you're apart. Afterward, I even thought that I was sick and tired of being together. It was a champagne problem.
As I spent my vacation with my sister, I realized once again the importance of my family. The people who fill my daily life and take up a part of me are my family. They are people who can cry with me when I am sad and laugh with me when I am happy. I always took my family for granted and acted indifferently or complained. However, I realized the importance of my family through my sister's incident, and I decided to express my affection a lot to them.
Writer: Grace Jun
