The bathroom mirror cracked.
Not visibly, Ha Ria pressed her palm against the cold glass and felt it whole, but something deeper had fractured. Her reflection wavered like she was looking up from the bottom of a well, and behind her own dark eyes, something ancient stirred.
Not again.
Her pulse hammered against her throat as the familiar dissolving began. Jin's tears from this morning still echoed in her chest. Mom's worry about the electric bill sat heavy in her stomach. Dad's exhaustion weighed down her shoulders like a coat made of lead.
She was disappearing, piece by piece, swallowed by everyone else's storms.
"Ha Ria?" The voice drifted through the door, warm honey over steel. Halmoni's voice, which always seemed to come from somewhere deeper than just her throat. "The tea is ready."
In the kitchen, steam rose from two cups of jasmine tea like tiny spirits ascending. Halmoni sat with her back straight, her weathered hands wrapped around porcelain painted with blue dragons. She looked …
