BWI Airport, Sunday Evening

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With the possible exception of Sarah, no one in the Li family had appreciated Kathy's performance at the Talent Show--including Kathy herself, once the gremlin venom had worn off. There had been a bout of tears and hiding in Mary's special lounge, but she knew better than to think she could hide in there forever--no matter how tempting the idea was. There might have been a few minutes of trying to convince herself that she could totally live off soda and fancy peanuts until everyone who'd been there had left the island for good, but that hadn't lasted longer than four, five minutes. Tops.

As a family, they'd decided to skip the brunch--which meant that Sarah had asked about going, Kathy had given her a look of wide-eyed fear, and their parents' mutual glares had been enough to peel the paint off the wall behind her. Both sisters had spent the day in busy silence; Kathy studying and Sarah playing on her phone. Both parents had spent the day having muttered conversations in Korean, voices pitched too low to be heard except by one another, and treating Kathy to utter silence.

She'd actually never been go grateful for the silent treatment in her life. The look in her dad's eyes when they rested on her promised a lecture of the most epic proportions, once he'd gotten to the point of actually being able to deliver it.

At one point, her om had stepped out to make some phone calls, but she remained stuck under her father's flinty gaze, which kept her from even trying to start up a conversation with Sarah.

The day had passed very slowly, with a feeling of creeping dread the just got more and more acute while she waited for the other shoe to drop.

***

Mrs. Li had informed Kathy that she would be accompanying them to the airport and had proceeded to hold her hand for the entire trip there, like she was afraid that Kathy might run off at any moment to humiliate them further. When they arrived at the drop-off site, Mrs. Li exited the cab first, yanking Kathy out along with her.

"Umm, shouldn't I just stay in the cab?" she asked, while Sarah and her father pulled their suitcases out from the trunk. "So I can get back to the island? You could tell him to go as far up the Causeway as he can, with no stops, just to make sure I go straight there? Not that I wouldn't! I mean, of course I'd go right back to the school. But this way, you'd know for sure that's what happened. I mean, if you didn't feel you could..." She swallowed hard. "Trust me anymore."

Her parents said nothing. Mrs. Li finished paying the cabbie, her grip on Kathy's hand tight to the point of pain, while Mr. Li set the other suitcase down and grabbed Kathy's backpack from the back seat, where she'd shoved all the stuff she'd brought to the hotel room from her dorm over the weekend. He let her bag fall to the ground and stepped back from the curb while the cabbie pulled away. She and Sarah exchanged looks, Sarah's just as baffled as her own.

[Warning for emotional abuse and manipulation in the comments.]

Comments

[the-family-li.livejournal.com]

"Sarah Jin Li!"

Had both her daughters lost their minds this weekend?

[the-family-li.livejournal.com]

"Whaaaat?" Sarah whined. "I'm serious! I'm so sick and tired of her always butting in! 'Be good, Sarah!'" she mimicked. "'Behave yourself, Sarah!' 'I'm so perfect all the time, Sarah!' 'Why can't you be more like me, Sarah?' Ugh! She leaves for like a year and a half but I show up for a weekend and suddenly she's back to being the perfect big sister and treating me like some stupid baby? Yeah, I'm so over that."

Making sure she had both her parents' attention, she dropped the bomb. And not the kind that could be danced to at DDR.

"Kathy caught me with a boy. Kissing. And his hands were up my shirt." She gave her parents a defiant sneer, challenging them to do something about it.

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"But--I--but--no--that didn't--I--"

Kathy stuttered, amazed at the sheer audacity Sarah had to come up with something like that and then tell their parents about it. Her sister had ovaries the size of one of the jumbo jets circling overhead.

"Mom, Dad, that's not true. That never happened..."

True to form, however, her parents were ignoring her.

[the-family-li.livejournal.com]

"At first, I just thought she was jealous that I have something up there for the boys to play with and she still doesn't--"

Several of the eavesdroppers winced. Sick burn, yo.

"But then she started talking about how embarrassed you'd be if you found out and how much trouble I'd be in and how I was shaming myself for having some fun with a boy who was much too old for me." She rolled her eyes again. "Please! He wasn't even eighteen yet!"

Sarah was of the Go Big Or Go Home School of Acting. And, dammit, she was determined to graduate valedictorian.

"She sounded just like you, Mom. Which, you know what, Kathy? You aren't! You're not my mom, you're just my boring big sister who goes to boarding school on the other side of the country and still won't even get a boyfriend! It's pathetic!"

[the-family-li.livejournal.com]

"SARAH!" Mr. Li thundered, marching over to grab Sarah by the forearm. They were a creepily matched set, each parent grasping a daughter by the arm. "Stop talking! Just stop talking this instant! I will not hear anymore from you!"

[the-family-li.livejournal.com]

"Yes, you will because I'm not done," Sarah said, chin high. "Kathy chased off the guy--before I even got his name--and started on this whole rant about keeping an eye on me and keeping me safe. So I made a deal with her. She'd either go onstage and do something completely embarrassing, or I'd spend all weekend making out with any guy willing. And then I said that if I got caught, I'd tell you and Mom that she encouraged me to."

She laughed. "You know, I'm still not sure whether she agreed because she was worried you'd believe her, or if she would have done it anyway just to 'protect me' from the boys."

Her eyes locked with Kathy's. "Well, Kathy? What do you say? Would you? Just to protect me?"

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Kathy had no idea what to say. How was she supposed to respond? There was no way to stop this now, Sarah was too fast and too good. Even if she denied it all, there was no way her parents would believe her. She could tell by the horror in her mother's eyes, the way her father was breathing too hard, too fast for normal.

She could either ruin everything her sister had done, or take the out she was being offered.

"Yes," she whispered. "Yes, I would. Sarah, I'd do anything to protect you."

[the-family-li.livejournal.com]

"I know," Sarah replied, giving Kathy a small smile. "You've done it our whole lives. I didn't know how much until you went away."

For over a decade, Sarah had been ignorant of just how much her sister did for her, of how much Kathy's struggle for perfection had kept their parents' attention and focus on her. She'd always thought that Kathy had been jealous of Sarah's effortless ability to be the good daughter.

Sarah had never realized how much of Kathy's own efforts had been directed to keeping her there. Not until the first time she'd been on one of her father's tirades about disrespect that had culminated in the silent treatment for three long days, before he'd gone back to acting like nothing had been wrong in the first place.

It had been a bewildering experience. And an eye-opening one.

"I'm a big girl now, Kathy. I can handle myself."

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"Yeah, but you'll always be my little sister," Kathy said, biting her lip to keep from crying.

[the-family-li.livejournal.com]

"Not if we're comparing bra sizes," Sarah joked.

She looked back up at her dad. "Are you really gonna waste all that tuition money?" she asked. "Have you seen that place? It's a castle! I bet they have lawyers up the butt. Some even among their alumni, probably. Do we have a castle's worth of lawyers, Dad?"

[the-family-li.livejournal.com]

They didn't. It wasn't even a question. They lived in a small apartment in Koreatown, and for as much as Mr. Li enjoyed throwing his weight around at home like he was some kind of hotshot at his firm, he was just another middle management drone. Sure, Mrs. Li was a realtor, but even with both of them working, living in L.A. wasn't easy.

He dropped Sarah's arm like it burned him and turned away from her. "Katherine, do you have your belongings from school?"

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"Of course, Dad, but--"

[the-family-li.livejournal.com]

"Then we will hail another taxi and you can return to your dorm."

Thank goodness they hadn't already bought her ticket. Airline tickets were non-refundable.

"I am still gravely disappointed in your performance on the stage and the way you chose to keep your sister's behavior from us. But removing you from your education is unnecessary."

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Kathy wanted to kick him. It was unnecessary now that he thought that she was the good daughter? Before, her stage act had been the end of the world, that she'd somehow managed to insult her entire family unto fourth cousins and pets she'd never heard of in Korea! Now, however, it was pretty much some kind of light-hearted schoolgirl prank, deserving of maybe a slap on the wrist before she was sent off for candy.

"I can't believe--"

[the-family-li.livejournal.com]

Sarah coughed.

She was about to be grounded for roughly five-ever and possibly never spoken to by her parents again. Don't fuck this up, Kathy.

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Kathy swallowed and manufactured a smile. "Yes, Dad," she said. "Thank you for understanding. I was just hoping to avoid all of this unpleasantness. I didn't want you or Mom to have to know about it."

Every word was like swallowing glass. She wondered if this was what it felt like for the Little Mermaid to walk.

"Still, I guess Sarah's innate honesty couldn't let her keep silent about it for long."

She had to try to help somehow.

[the-family-li.livejournal.com]

Mr. Li just grunted and nodded at his wife, who dropped her hold on Kathy and crossed over to snatch up Sarah's hand instead.

"We need to go and get ourselves settled so we don't miss our flight," he said, holding his arms out for a hug. "Be good, work hard, and call often. We don't hear enough from you these days."

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Stepping into that hug and getting a warm kiss on the top of her head nearly made Kathy scream. How could he do that, switch from cruel and cutting to genial and affectionate in seconds? Someone snapped their fingers and he was suddenly perfectly charming and affable.

"I will, Dad," she promised. "I'll send you the dates for my AP exams when I get them, too."

Then she turned to her mom and had to go through the same rigmarole again, arms out for a hug. "Bye, Mom. Love you."

[the-family-li.livejournal.com]

Her mother, at least, had the grace to be stiff in the hug, keeping it short and perfunctory. She was furious at both of her daughters; finding about the behavior of one hadn't miraculously gotten the second off the hook.

"Hmm," she said, before stepping out of the hug. "Yes. I love you, too."

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And finally, Sarah. Kathy clung to her sister for as long as she could. "Love you," she whispered. "And thanks. Let me know if there's anything I can do for you..."

[the-family-li.livejournal.com]

"Dad's totally gonna break my cellphone," Sarah muttered, speaking Spanish to ensure neither of their parents understood. They both considered themselves 'too good' to learn the dominant, non-English language of the city. "You so owe me a new one sometime."

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"Done." Kathy would make Barry build Sarah a phone, twice as awesome as the newest iPhone, but that looked like something else entirely so their dad wouldn't have any idea. "Take the sim card out before they make you hand it over and send it to me. I'll make sure you get everything."

Eventually, though, she had to draw away. "Love you, brat," she said again.

[the-family-li.livejournal.com]

"Love you, too, nerd."

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Kathy waved until her parents were out of sight, each of them carrying a suitcase while Sarah was dragged behind. She was the only one who saw Sarah open her phone and palm the sim card, an action that made her smile.

And when they were finally swallowed up by the airport crowds, Kathy turned back towards Baltimore proper. She'd been told to go back to her dorm and, being a dutiful daughter, she absolutely would.

But only long enough to grab her mask and her gi, dammit.

Tonight, Banzai was going to be on patrol and woe betide anyone who got in her way, dammit.