milk tea

03:00

"Charms, wake up. Charms?"

Shotaro, who was attempting to wake up the girl, tried to shake her lightly. It was of no use when he noticed that she was experiencing a nightmare. Her eyebrows were furrowed, while her lips pouted.

"Inseol, it'll take only a couple of minutes. It won't hurt," her mother assured. Although she said it wouldn't hurt, it wasn't her who was feeling the immense pain. "You can do it, right? It's for a good cause."

"But it hurts," Inseol, who was six at the time, sobbed. Tears were running down her reddish cheeks.

"You want to help her, right?" her father questioned. His arms were folded as he emitted a serious aura beside her mother. "If so, then bear with the pain."

"But..."

"Do you want to stay in the house forever?" her mother threatened. Her strong aura was scaring her. "If you still want to go outside, then let the doctor continue."

"Mom... Dad..."

"Ahn Inseol!"

"Help..."

Serene jolted up as she muttered the word helplessly. Taking a look around, she seemed to be aware that everything was all just a nightmare. Looking at Shotaro, she breathed.

"I... I told you to wake me up when we were going to leave," Serene pushed aside the nightmare and focused on the matter present. She was currently in Shotaro's zone as she suspected.

"You weren't waking up and I brought you here in time just before Taeyong could catch us," Shotaro mumbled, keeping his head low. He wasn't sure what to do, so he brought her there on a whim. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay," awkwardly replying, she looked at the door and back at him. Slowly getting up from the floor, she stood in front of Shotaro. "I'll be at the tech room if you need me. Thanks for last night, Ghostie."

"You know... You can tell me if you're having a hard time," he mentioned, which made the girl stop in her tracks. "I know I'm probably one of the most complicated people out there, but I'm a good listener. Just saying."

"I don't think you're complicated," she voiced out her honest thoughts. She made eye contact with him before continuing her words. "You just have problems you don't want to talk about. It's most likely the reason why you wear white eye contacts. It might've happened after we met three years ago. Anyway, that's what I think."

Opening the door, she immediately left the zone. Walking with thoughts that bombarded her mind, she made it to the tech room. It was a long day ahead of her with missions that she needed to finish.

🧋

"You're done for the day?" Haechan questioned, spinning his chair to face the girl. Watching her eat snacks, he grabbed a handful of her snacks. "Thanks."