“How did this happen…” I muttered to myself.

One glance at me, covered in piles of bags full of clothes, being pushed down the hall was enough to understand my plight. We bought so much clothes, both for me and Lucy. Sena had been right about her mom being a shopaholic, the woman just. Did. Not. Stop after she got started. We had to have been in that outlet for another half hour as she zoomed around followed by Sam. The two of us just watched on in amazement as the pile he was resigned to hold grew taller and taller. At the end of that haul, Lucy refused to let me see the final price. And honestly? I was a little scared to, so I let it go. 

Sam sighed. “Well… I guess I should take most of this out to the car. We can’t exactly walk around like this the entire time.” 

“Would you kindly?” Lucy offered with a sweet(?) smile.

“Of course dear,” He then scooped up the majority of our bags. I had to hand it to the guy, he made it look so easy even though they were weighing down on me like bricks. “Where do you want me to meet you three when I come back in?”

Lucy hummed and tapped her chin. “Well, I doubt we’ll do any major shopping again. So we may just walk around and take a look at a number of places. So… how about we just choose one direction to walk, and if you can’t find us then just give me a call?”

“Sounds good to me. Don’t get into too much trouble!” And then he was off.

“Shall we?”

“Yep!” Sena and I chirped as we began our search.

You know how everyone says ‘the age of the mall is over?’ Well… apparently not this one. The darn place was massive and packed with stores. Usually a mall would have a few galleries sparsely dotted with active stores, or even outright empty. This place was not like that as every single alcove was taken and open to the public, advertising their wares. Big name brands, one off family owned, and small pop up stores colored the place. There were even kiosks and those aggravating people who stopped a person, cleaned their shoes or something similar with their product, and all but forced them to buy it. A few tried to reach out to Sena and I with a glint in their eye, probably thinking we were an easy mark, but they whipped around and fizzled into the background with a single glare from Lucy. Though that obviously wasn’t enough to stop them entirely as the mall was packed now with potential buyers. 

It had been reasonably busy earlier, but I guess it was rush hour now.

“Ah!” Lucy stopped on our left. “Here’s a tech store. Perfect for a new phone.”

“Oh sick. Uh, did we ever find out what happened to your old phone, Yun?”

I shrugged. “I never heard anything about it, and never asked. The thing had trackers and stuff on it, so maybe it’s for the best.”

“Well, it’s not like they could use it to find you again.” Sena mumbled. 

That sparked a thought. “By the way… what happened to, uh, ‘mom’?” 

Sena and Lucy froze, and I saw an awkward smile on Lucy’s face. Sena probably looked pretty similar. We hadn’t really talked much about my old family during the past week and a half, and I didn’t really want to. But this was probably something I needed to know. She did try to kill me and everything…

“I’ll be honest,” Lucy finally decided as we slowly moved into the tech supply store. “She’s awaiting trial currently, and the police would like for you to speak with them before that happens.”

“Wha?” Sena sputtered. “Why the hell do they need her to speak to them?! Everyone knows what that woman did!”

“Language, and indoor voice, Sena.” Sighing, Lucy continued. “Of course we won’t make you, and Sam and I were going to talk to you about it later, but we do think it would be a good idea to offer your perspective.”

“Would I have to see her?” 

“No.” She shook her head confidently. “That’s a given. The police know better than to do something like that, especially with all the allegations against her. Frankly, The only reason you should do this is so she can get the maximum penalty.”

“Maximum penalty?” Sena and I questioned.

“Right now she’s facing just a confirmed murder attempt and a few charges of abuse. But since the authorities haven’t actually spoken with you -only with the hospital and us- they don’t know the full extent of what happened. If they, and consequently the court, know that you’ve been abused for years, likely all your life, then the chances of her getting off even a smidgen lighter than max turn even slimmer.” Lucy rubbed the bridge of her nose as we entered an aisle dedicated to phones and tablets. “I hate to talk about your… mother… that way, but she needs to face justice.”

“No… I-I get it.” I mumbled. “Really, and obviously I don’t have any inclinations to go back to her. Or take her side. It’s… I-it’s just hard to hear. But I agree. I’ll t-talk to the authorities.”

Sena patted my shoulder but stayed quiet, while Lucy gave me a warm smile. “We’ll talk about all that later, for now? We have a phone to buy.”

 

A phone. 

A phone. She said.

Yes. Indeed, they did get me a phone. A nice new model that came out a year ago, expensive too. A cute yet sharp and sleek white one with a matching case. But no, that wasn’t all. We walked around ‘looking for accessories’ for a bit after finding the model we wanted, grabbing a cord to attach, some stickers, one of those little pop things you suction to the back to make it easier to hold. All leading to the laptop section. Well, Lucy tried to get us over to the desktops… but I wasn’t up for that. No way. The phone was nearly a grand for Pete's sake! So we compromised by strutting over to the laptops and picking out a nice, but middle of the line, model and heading to checkout. It felt… dangerous to be in this store any longer. If Lucy went on a shopping spree there…

I shuddered, and I had a feeling Sam did too from wherever he was. Not that he was the breadwinner or anything! Lucy made enough on her own, but the sheer numbers… brr.

“You think Dad got stuck somewhere?” Sena asked as we strolled down the hall passing different stores. 

“Well, we weren’t really in the tech store very long.” Lucy said, tapping her lips. “I’ll give him a call.” In one quick smooth motion, she had the phone up to her ear and was waiting for her husband to pick up. Not three seconds later and she got just that. “Hi honey, we just left the tech store. Did you get lost in the crowds? Ahuh. Yep. Wow. Yep. Pushed all the way to the food court? That’s a little ways away. Alright, let me see if Sena and Yun are done shopping. We may just head over to you, give me one sec.” She held the phone away from her ear and gave us a look.

“I mean, if she’s done I’m done.” Sena tapped my head as she had started playing with my hair. 

“I’m done.” I confirmed. 

“Aww, okay.” Lucy pouted. “We can just come back another time like we said we would. We can really go shopping then. Alright honey we’re heading to you. Yep. Stay put and don’t get lost, love you.” Pocketing the phone with a smile, she gestured back the way we came. “He got pushed in the crowd a little far back. Apparently a whole bunch of people came in at once. Keep a good hold of our treasure, Yun.”

I nodded and gripped our bags laid out on my lap a little harder which earned a giggle from Sena. “If someone tries to take anything from us, I’ll beat ‘em into the ground! Don’t worry about it, Yun.”

Mimicking an old wizened sage, I jutted my chin up. “Two lines of defense is better than one.” 

“Pff.” She snickered. “Where’d you get that? Sun Tzu?”

“Secret.”

“I’ve actually read that one.” Lucy commented as we weaved through groups of people. “It’s a pretty interesting book, though a lot of it is painfully obviou-”

“Sena? Wait, is that Yun?” A female voice blurted from our left. 

“Oh crap.” Sena whispered as a group of three familiar girls waved and lit up when they saw us looking at them, right before they started heading straight for us. “M-mom! Those are kids from school!” She practically hissed.

W-what were Hailey and her friends doing here?! Oh shoot they had no idea about what happened and what’s been going on. All they know is that I got attacked and whatever rumors have been floating around in my absence. I wasn’t wearing any makeup, my hair was down, and even though my chest was pretty flat… it obviously wasn’t a guy's chest.

“Calm down,” Lucy whispered as she stepped between us and the incoming girls, directing Sena to steer me towards a blank wall. “What are their names?”

“H-Hailey, Hannah, and Juniper. Hailey’s the blonde, Hannah’s the brunette, and Juniper has the pitch black hair.” I recited, voice trembling. Most of the people we went to school with all started together in elementary, unless they transferred in. 

I tore my eyes away from the approaching trio, who gave me a look of confusion as Sena steered me off and Lucy went to talk to them. I found myself breathing heavily.

“Hey? Hey, Yun?” Sena asked, stepping in front of me and kneeling. “Yun, you okay?”

Shaking, I clutched at my chest. “D-don’t want to see them.” I muttered.

“Yeah,” She nodded. “Yeah, okay. Don’t worry, Mom’s talking to them. Just look at me. Hands?”

“Y-yes.” 

We sat there for a few minutes with my hands in hers, it was hard and I had to unconsciously strain my ears to hear, but I heard the conversation.

“Uh, ma’am? Are you Sena’s mother?” Hailey asked with a note of confusion.

“I am. I’m sorry, but we’re in the middle of some rather private affairs. I hate to ask this of you, but could you all wait to ask her anything until tomorrow?”

“U-uh, y-yeah-”

“Was that Yun?” Hannah piped up, ignoring Lucy.

“Yeah, was it? Why was he in a wheelchair?”

I hunched over and screwed my eyes shut, my stomach felt queasy. He.

“Girls,” Lucy clapped with something… different in her tone. Something I hadn’t heard before from her, but felt familiar. “Questions tomorrow? Yes?”

One of the other girls scoffed and tried to speak up, but Hailey was faster. “Yep! S-sorry to bother you. W-we were just worried about Yun, no one’s heard much… c-can we at least know if he’s fine?” He. Another groan escaped my lips.

“Yun’s recovering, that’s all I’m at liberty to say. We’ve been working with the school and the authorities, but we haven’t decided on a date to release more information. I imagine it will be soon though.” Her tone was flat, but that weird thing in her voice was gone. Replaced by a sliver of sympathy. “We’d love it if you three could keep this run in to yourselves for the time being, but if you must spread any information be good about it. Yun’s shaken, and hurt. Keep that in mind.”

“Y-yes ma’am.” I got the impression Hailey bowed to Lucy just then as her friends probably gave her weird or dirty looks. “P-please tell him we miss him at school, and maybe say hi to Sena for us?”

Lucy chuckled. “Of course, dears. I didn’t want to sound all threatening and whatnot, but things are a bit tricky right now. I’ll pass along your concerns and have Sena send you all a thanks from the both of them.”

“Thank you! W-we’ll get a move on then, see you around Mrs. Meyer.”

And like that they were off, or at least I figured they were. I was hunched over my lap with Sena’s hands on my back, rubbing small circles to keep my stomach from tossing the sandwich I had for lunch. Today had been so fun, so peaceful, but here I was with a stomach ache and my head thumping in pain at a short conversation between my friend’s mom and some classmates. How was I meant to go back to school like this? 

Maybe it’d be better if I just stayed home from now on…

“Yun, sweety, can you lean up?” Lucy asked, now in front of me as Sena moved her rubbing to my shoulders.

“G-give me a second.” I choked out. “N-nauseous. Head h-hurts.”

Reaching up to lightly pet my hair, she cooed. “Okay, take your time. Take your time. Everything’s aaallll right.” 

It took me maybe two or three minutes until I was back to normal. Though I couldn’t keep the jittery shakes in my hand out of the mother daughter duo. They offered to get me some medicine and a drink, but I shook my head and powered through it. I just wanted to get back to the house. I was so glad we were done shopping when the trio found us.

We ran into Sam right where we were aiming to meet him, at the food court, and he flashed a warm grin before noticing something was off.

“What happened?” He asked, expression slipping into that of a… of a father protecting their daughter. 

“We ran into a group of Sena and Yun’s classmates, the three of them got a look at her but not before I stopped them from going further.” Lucy explained as he fell into step on my right, his wife on my left still.

She then went on to explain the conversation, the girl’s attitudes, the fact they probably would talk to some classmates about seeing me in a wheelchair with Sena, the need to talk to the school pretty soon, and how I was feeling after the conversation. One I hadn’t even been a part of.

He sighed as we exited the mall and started our trek to the car. “We probably should’ve expected to see some of their classmates here. After school hours and all that, Thursday too. How you feeling, Yun? Any stomach issues?”

“N-no. Just shaky, I think.”

“We’ll get you wrapped up in a blanket at the house in no time, don’t you worry. Cup of hot chocolate too.”

“T-that sounds nice.” I mumbled, already feeling a little drowsy. 

“Sorry this all ended on a bit of a bad note, dear.” Lucy sighed. “We wanted you to have a good time…”

I snapped out of my stupor and tried to give my best non-strained smile. “I had fun. And them showing up wasn’t your fault. Honest. I-I’d like to go shopping again some time. Like you said.”

“Aww!” The woman couldn’t help it and wrapped her arms around me, gently. “You are so sweet. How do you feel about cuddling on the couch with Sena and I after a light dinner?”

“W-what about me?!” Sam cried. “Don’t exclude me! I want in on this!”

Sena and I giggled while Lucy snorted. “Of course you can join, Sam. Though You’re confined to either next to me or Sena. Both of us get to be around Yun. Of course, if Yun’s okay with that?”

The slight worry in her voice that I wouldn’t say yes, that I might not be comfortable with them yet, forced a smile to my face. “I-I’d love to.” And before I could flush with embarrassment, I swapped the topic. “By the way, what’s for dinner?”

“Smooth.” Sena whispered in my ear, eliciting the blush I’d tried to hide straight up my cheeks. She then turned to her mom. “Take out or homemade?”

“Hm… is everyone okay with some pasta? White sauce maybe?” Lucy mused. “I think Yun’s stomach’s fine enough to handle that now.”

Humming, Sam unlocked the car that was now in sight. “Think so?”

“She had a nice solid sandwich earlier, no pain or complaints.”

“That so, Yun?”

“Yup.” I confirmed. The thought of having a nice creamy pasta was… captivating. I hadn’t had something like that in a long time. Stomach be damned, I wanted pasta.

“Sounds good to me!” Sam finally grinned. “Let’s get our little ladies in the car now, shall we?”