fireflies || haechan

chapter 11

meili awoke the next morning to the soft sounds of birds chirping.

she groaned, brushing her tangled hair out of her eyes. she attempted to roll onto her stomach but was held back by a lump in the blankets next to her.

confused, she turned her head to look and was met by the side of her twin's face.

'renjun?'

she remembered, after spotting her laptop on the end of her bed, that the two had fallen asleep watching movies.

"renjun," she shoved the boy, attempting to wake him up. the time read 7:36 am, meaning they had leas than an hour to get to school.

the boy stirred, but didn't wake up.

sighing, meili reached for her phone on the table next to her bed.

she typed into her youtube search bar, clicking on the first video that appeared.

holding her phone to her twin's ear, she pressed play and the sound of a horn echoed through her room.

"arghagh!!" renjun jolted awake and slapped the phone away from his ear.

"what the heck?" meili let out a laugh and hopped out of her bed.

"we have school, c'mon."

———

meili rushed into the school alone, avoiding eye contact with anyone that passed.

her classes went by extra slow, the girl spending each minute staring at the clock and waiting for class to be over.

it was now her lunch period and she stood in the cafeteria alone, just like she had been the whole day.

she didn't have anywhere to sit and could feel the eyes of her old friends staring and judging her from their table nearby.

sighing, she turned to leave but remembered what renjun had told her.

"the boys and i have started eating in the cafeteria again," he had said to her the day before. "our table is always open."

she glanced over to their table, the 6 of them fooling around and eating their food.

a bunch of negative thoughts went through her mind as she struggled to push them away.

'everyone will talk about me'

she cringed.

'but they might talk about you if you sit alone too'

taking a deep breath, she manages to take a step towards her brother and his friends.

the rest of the steps were easier than the first, and she found herself standing in front of their table.

feeling their eyes on her, she tries to ignore them and drops her tray down in the empty spot next to renjun and jaemin, across from donghyuck.

they all look at her confused, renjun smiling.

after a few silent moments, jisung decides to speak up.

"noona?" he blurts out, meili lifting up her hand to awkwardly wave.

"hey..."

"about time" jaemin smiles at her, jeno on his other side flashing his famous eye smile.

"nice to see you again," chenle tips his imaginary cap, making her laugh.

meili starts to visibly relax, ignoring the weird looks from the students around the lunch room.

"hey meili," donghyuck speaks up for the first time since she sat down, startling the girl.

she glances up at him nervously, scared from the stern tone he had used.

he notices her expression and smirks.

"you never said hi back the other day" he teases the girl.

"oh shush," she lets out a breath, relieved it wasn't anything serious.

the group begins to relax into their regular conversations, letting meili feel at home.

she finds herself looking at her twin's hair, noticing his roots were growing in.

"hey jun, are you going to get your hair re dyed?" she asks, taking a sip of her milk.

he glances over, shrugging.

"yeah, probably. want to come?"

"why would i need to?" she looks over at him in curiosity.

"we could get our hair dyed matching, so we look like twins again..." the boy shrugs. "what do you say?"

meili looks down at her hair in thought.

"i needed a trim anyway... sure!"