ROOM OF MIRRORS° h.sj

010

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SAEBOM HIGH
AFTER SCHOOL
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✧──────✦ chorong and his friends took it into their own hands and called suho to the back of the school to none other than threaten him for getting seojun in trouble.

sumin sat on the desk chewing a piece of gum as suho corrected chorong's incorrect grammar and pronunciation. she felt no need to get involved if it didn't get violent. as soon as she thought that, chorong raised his hand to punch suho. he would have been successful if it weren't for the hand around his wrist.

she still made no signs of movement as he raised the other fist, now stopped by seojun. "it's like you guys are catching a pig," chorong tried to joke his way out of the situation.

"are you punks fighting again!" the disciplinary director jogged around the corner and sumin hopped off the desk. "you guys are always causing trouble."

"we were just working out, sir."

"workout my ass, i can tell you don't work out!"

"sir, we actually have a study group soon. so we'll be going on our way now!" sumin linked her arms between seojun and suho's arms to pull their tense bodies away and help them avoid punishment.

mission failure.

suho mopped one side of the court, seojun sat on the steps, sumin laid on the ground tossing a ball up and down, while chorong and the others tossed around the equipment that had already been put away.

"lee suho, i let you off the hook because i didn't want to kill you," chorong walked up to him.

"cool off. unless you want another detention where i'll make you work, shush." sumin complained from her lying position. chorong yelled out about a muscle cramp in his neck and his group of friends carried him off to the nurse.

sumin saw from the corner of her eye, seojun walking away with them until suho called his name. "what do you want from me?"

"what do i want," seojun thought about it for a split second, "stay out of my sight."

"if you don't want to see me, then don't come near me."

sumin turned her head to watch the conversation.

seojun didn't respond and suho kept talking, "that day, when seyeon came to see me..."

"what, isn't it too late to give excuses?" naturally, sumin put two and two together. "he counted on you and ran over to see you. so don't say his name again."

seojun stormed out of the gym with heavy footsteps and left sumin and suho in the gym. she stood from her previous position and began to collect stray basketballs and volleyballs to put in the storage closet.

"it's not your fault," sumin said in a flat tone, not even looking if he was still there. "he never got closure on it, so his first idea was to blame you."

"what if it was?" suho asked back.

"it's not. if it was your fault, you would been in juvie for pushing him." she knew it sounded insensitive but there was no other way she knew how to put it.

"i didn't answer his calls."

"you had other things to worry about. you didn't know what was happening."

"he called so many times."

"and you weren't in the right mindset to answer them." she heard the wooden mop drop onto the ground and footsteps signaling he kept the gym. once the stray items were placed in the closet, she dragged the mop in and left.

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THE NEXT DAY
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✧──────✦ "would anyone like to come up and finish these problems on the board?" the class put their heads down on the desk to avoid being called.

"what about our lovely su-su couple!" sumin could barely hold in the laugh that stuck in her throat. "and our new girl, jugyeong!" two out of the three were able to solve it successfully, while jugyeong stood at the board without a single thing written.

seojun and sumin let out matching chuckles at the clueless girl and froze after getting caught. "come and try it, one of you. if you have time to laugh, you have time to solve."

they elbowed each other to go up, since neither wanted to. eventually, sumin walked up to the front of the board and took the piece of chalk from jugyeong's trembling hands.

it took a few seconds to look at the problem before solving it step by step. she may not have been as smart as her sister, but she was in no way stupid. sumin walked back to her desk while wiping her chalky fingers on her skirt.

the bell rang soon after and the trio of girls walked out with a trailing sumin. they walked through the school's garden talking about how jugyeong could never go to college with her current academic abilities.

sooah brought up the topic of a study group to suho, who coincidentally sat on a bench nearby. he turned it down immediately after hearing who was going and walked away.

"jugyeong, i gave your number to that guy for the blind date."

sumin saw suho stop in his tracks and look back. she stared him dead in the eye and let him know she was suspicious of him. he cleared his throat of out utter intimidation and kept walking. as she turned back, she checked her phone to see a text from seojun.

'i'm picking my mom up from the hospital, you can come too.'

after school, they met up at the front gate and took the bus to the hospital.

"why'd you come here instead of going home after school?"

the two jumped up and grinned at the woman.

"sumin! it's been so long," seojun's mother took her into a tight hug.

"sorry for not visiting, i was grounded and couldn't leave the house."

"it's nothing to worry about, i'm glad to see you again." she patted sumin's head as she leaned into her hand like a cat. "did seojun bring you here on his motorcycle?"

seojun thought she was about to snitch on him, "of course not! he hasn't rode it since you told him not to."

"really?" sumin nodded not so subtly, winked at seojun, letting him know his secret was safe.

"should we go out to get something to eat? my treat since i never came to visit!"

"maybe for dinner, i have some errands to run before."

the three of them walked as the girls teased seojun on whatever topic and ended up in front of a pandora shop. as soon as they walked in, the lady paused, "mihyang, is that you!"

the two students trailed behind her. jugyeong looked at the people entering and paled, she didn't have makeup on. she grabbed the mud mask in her mother's hand and quickly applied it and ran to lay down.

"was that the saebom uniform?" sumin poked seojun and nodded her head towards the maroon blazer peeking around the corner. once it disappeared, the person fell from a bed collapsing and ended up on the floor.

"are you out of your mind?" the mother scolded.

"lim jugyeong?"