Tiny feet thunders through the hallways of Joohyun's house. Seunghyun has always been very energetic.

"Mom!" she hears her calling. "Mommy where are you?!"

"Kitchen!" she replies. It feels like it's where she always is these days.

There's a pattering of small feet and Joohyun knows the little girl has something she finds exciting enough to share. Or ask. Little Seunghyun can also be pretty inquisitive.

"Mommy look!"   

Seunghyun waves around something familiar. Definitely familiar enough to have her chest constricting, screaming and twisting the same way it used to all those years ago.

"Mommy?"

It must have shown on her face. Joohyun quickly blinks back the wetness in her eyes, hands surreptitiously brushing her cheek in case there's anything spilled.

"Yes, I see you've found something," she clears . "That's my old notebook."

The covers are nearly tattered, definitely looking worse for wear. The pages are a bit frayed at the edges. It's what's inside, ultimately, that gives it away. The doodles, the secret words, the little hearts.

"Who's Wannie?" her daughter asks, shining eyes round and curious and so achingly familiar that Joohyun has to hold on to the countertop to keep herself intact.

"A friend," she somehow manages to say. A lie, not well executed, but works well enough in the face of young innocence.

Seunghyun flips through the pages carefully, always smart enough to know when to be gentle, her kindness almost to a fault.

"This hamster looks funny."

Her cheeks puffs up when she smiles, little dimple peeking out as she points at a tiny doodle and it pulses something reminiscently devastating around Joohyun's heart.

It's been years. So many years and she's growing to be so much like her.

Joohyun's always said lost things will always have a way of coming back. Even in ways no one really expects.

She walks closer and places a long kiss on Seunghyun's hair, arms coming around to hold her dearly, lovingly.

"I love you."

Seunghyun, predictably, scrunches her nose the way kids her age always do and playfully calls her weird.

"But I love you anyway," the little girl adds.

The resemblance is too uncanny. She's definitely her mother's daughter. Joohyun can't help the longing sadness that breaks inside.