The Mannequin (Jiyoo)

Real

Minji stayed frozen, only able to blink at the woman standing in the kitchen with her apron on. Woman? No.....She was a mannequin. An object made of plastic and synthetic hair. And yet, she seemed very much alive, looking at her with expressive eyes, her head slightly tilted to the side, and walking up toward her with concern.

« Minji, are you okay? Are your feet okay? » She frowned, scrutinizing the glass-shreds scattered all around her barefoot feet on the floor. Minji instinctively took a few steps back as she approached her « Careful! » Yoohyeon's frown deepened as she witnessed some pieces sink under the sole of Minji's feet while the other woman stared at her in shock not even feeling herself getting hurt.

« This is not real » She muttered « This is not. You're not real. I'm dreaming. This is a dream » Her breathing started to intensify and her eyes shut close. She slammed the palm of her hand against her temple repeatedly to wake herself up, still rambling frantically that the situation she was living wasn't real.

« Minji, stop! » Yoohyeon pleaded and stepped closer, hurting herself as well since she, too, was barefoot. She shrieked out of pain, a pain she had never experienced before. It was harder and more painful to be human than she had imagined when she first gained consciousness. Minji stopped moving, unlike her heart drumming inside her chest, she stared at the woman sat on the floor nursing her wounded foot. Blood....there was blood. Impossible. Mannequins couldn't bleed. She approached her slowly and kneeled in front of her, observing the blood leave the sole of Yoohyeon's foot « Minji, you're going to scrap your knees » The silver-haired girl let out, concern filling her voice.

« How is it possible? » She let out in return, her eyes finally raising to Yoohyeon's face « How are you alive? » She asked completely lost.

« I.....I don't know » Yoohyeon confessed, she, too, in the dark over her own creation.

Minji sat down, assessing the damage to her wounded feet which had started to sting « It's not a dream » She whispered to herself, the pain finally being detected by her brain.

« No, it's not » Yoohyeon answered nonetheless.

« I'm sorry » Minji put back her gaze on her « I....I can't even start to comprehend it. You're....you're.... »

« Alive » Yoohyeon weakly smiled and Minji's heart skipped a beat at such a stunning sight. She didn't know it could have been possible for the mannequin to be more charming but being alive had enhanced her beauty somehow. Suddenly, her now full-of-life eyes widened « The pancakes! » She squawked and Minji got up in a jolt, running despite her injured feet toward the stove before stopping, eyebrows furrowing, and slowly turned back to face Yoohyeon still on the floor looking at her expectantly « It's my first time cooking. I...truly don't know what I'm doing and the instructions are not really clear. Did I mess up the preparation? » She asked, tilting her head to the side like a puppy about to get scold. Minji took a deep breath, she had thought the pancakes were getting cooked in a pan and that they were about to burn but the batter wasn't even finished « I wanted to make you a good breakfast before work » Yoohyeon dropped her head sadly. Minji immediately looked at her watch and sighed in relief when she saw she still had two hours before going. She looked back at Yoohyeon who still had her head down in shame, trying to take the glass pieces out of her foot.

She sighed and walked back toward the new human « Let's patch up our feet first and then we'll make the pancakes » She stretched out her hand for the silver-haired woman to take. Yoohyeon raised her gaze with shining eyes that made Minji's heart accelerate.

-

They ate the pancakes in a peaceful silence, bandages and band-aids covering their feet. Only the sound of the forks rattling against the full plates echoed in the small main room.