ROOM OF MIRRORS° h.sj

011

╭━ ⋅✶⋅ ━━✶━━ ⋅✶⋅ ━╮
THE SALON
AFTER SCHOOL
╰━ ⋅✶⋅ ━━✶━━ ⋅✶⋅ ━╯

✧──────✦ while mihyang and jugyeong's mother talked about her hospital stay and surgery, sumin and seojun sat on the couch.

"if you take one more picture i'll break your phone," sumin scolded. "it's obvious you're making her uncomfortable." jugyeong nodded in thanks to her once seojun shoved his phone in his pocket.

jugyeong stood up, mud mask and all, and yelled over to her mom, "i'm going home." this left seojun and sumin alone in the room.

she pinched his thigh until he slapped it away, "what?"

"show me the pictures." seojun grinned at her demand and pulled his phone out again. she didn't think there was any harm done in looking at them if she wasn't going to spread them.

sumin grabbed his phone and sat on it once jugyeong came back into the salon, she couldn't lose a friend she'd only known for a week or so. the three students walked up to the mothers and stood in front of them.

"being pretty must make you popular at school!" mihyang doted over jugyeong's face, "you three must be close since you're classmates."

sumin nodded while seojun stood at her side with a blank look on his face. jugyeong seemed to be contemplating life, "we aren't. well, i'm friends with sumin, but i haven't really talked to him."

"then they can start today," jugyeong's mother pushed, "you both have everything going for you!" mihyang leaned over to whisper in her ear and jugyeong's mother gave a not so subtle thumbs up, "since we said hello, come by the house tomorrow, i'll cook you a meal."

"i'm studying with friends tomorrow," jugyeong cut in.

"she's going on a blind date," seojun pointed at her. sumin stepped on his foot and looked at him like he was stupid, which in this case, he was.

"a blind date? so that's why you desperately wanted a facial."

"let her live a little, you're only young once," mihyang tried to persuade her. "i'd love for seojun to have a girlfriend," her view switched to sumin who was looking at her feet, "but all he does is ride his motorcycle. he recently quit though!"

"he rides it all the time!" sumin looked over at jugyeong. right next to her stood dumb and dumber. all that acting for seojun's wellbeing was right down the drain. "he sped—"

seojun's hand found its way over her mouth to stop her from talking. once jugyeong threw it off, she continued her speech. "he sped right past me and almost hit me!"

"are you serious? you both promised me!"

sumin decided it was every man for himself, "you almost hit her?" she turned back to mihyang, "i'm so sorry, i had no clue that happened."

"how can i not ride what i own? the bus is a waste of money." seojun pouted and sumin's grimaced as he openly tried to act cute.

"jugyeong, could you do me a favor and stop him from riding his motorcycle? since it's obvious i have no one to trust right now," sumin and seojun elbowed each other, almost saying 'it's your fault!' 'no, it's yours!"

"let me know if you ever see him riding it."

jugyeong put her hand on her heart as a pledge, "of course, i won't let you down."

╭━ ⋅✶⋅ ━━✶━━ ⋅✶⋅ ━╮
SAEBOM HIGH
MORNING
╰━ ⋅✶⋅ ━━✶━━ ⋅✶⋅ ━╯

✧──────✦ jugyeong pulled her phone out and snapped a picture. seojun gave his helmet to sumin and walked over to her. "your mom said to stop riding the motorcycle, you shouldn't ride it if your mom said not to."

sumin now stood in front of her, "are you the mafia or something?"

"sorry to drag you down with this piece of trash," jugyeong decided she would beg sumin for forgiveness later instead of letting the chance to get seojun in trouble slip past her clutches.

"you're not the only one," seojun pulled his phone out with a smirk and showed her the picture of jugyeong wearing a mud mask. "delete it while i'm being nice."

sumin nodded while walking backwards towards class and put two fingers up to her eyes to form a silent 'i'm watching you.' she really didn't want to risk her mother-daughter like relationship with mihyang.

a few hours of classes went by and the students made their way to the lunchroom. seojun sat with his friend group laughing at video from a few years ago.

jugyeong walked in and noticed everyone was laughing at something on seojun's phone. she did the quick mental math and decided that he was showing everyone the pictures of her bad angles. she walked up to them determined to grab the motorcycle keys from his pocket.

everything got fuzzy and suddenly she was already outside and running for her life. jugyeong turned the corner to the garden and ran into someone, she didn't have time to look or notice that the key had slipped out of her hand, and continued running like a mad woman.

from a different perspective, sumin was looking happily at the chocolate milk carton in her hand. she'd sprinted all the way across campus for it since it was always limited stock in the vending machine and always sold out within minutes.

she walked on the concrete path and looked up momentarily after hearing yelling. pushed into the bushes, the carton slipped out of her hand and landed on the ground with a splat. once she thought the torture was over was over, something hard hit her directly on the head.

sumin rubbed her head in temporary pain and looked around for the cause. her hand landed on a shiny pair of keys. she thought she must've been concussed, because why was she holding han seojun's keys when he never let them out of his sight?

the keys were now pushed into her blazer pocket as she brushed off the leaves and looked at the scratches on her palms and knees.

seojun ran out of the cafeteria looking for the girl who stole his keys. while jugyeong was no where to be seen, he encountered sumin walking towards him. she tossed the keys at him and threw away the trash from the empty milk carton.

"where'd you get these?"

"someone pushed me into the bushes and then those fell on my head." sumin bit her bottom as she peeked into the trash can, "my milk spilled too."

"sorry about your milk."

she only nodded and made her way to the nurse. not one thing had gone her way since she'd came back from suspension and she was determined to turn it around. "can you help me clean up my hands? i can't reach."

it was a completely invalid excuse, and was an obvious lie, but seojun agreed anyways.

instead of her doting on him, it was the other way around now.

sumin kicked her feet in boredom as seojun tended to her palms. "stop moving so much." her legs paused and her vision moved to the boy kneeling in front of her.

"you know, i could get used to you down on one knee," she half heartedly teased. if anyone were to walk in on them, they'd think he was proposing.

his only response was pushing the medication drenched cotton ball onto her palm. she pulled her hand away and blew on it to relieve some of the stinging.

sumin looked at him with narrowed eyes, "i was just joking," she definitely wasn't and the flushed cheeks would have given it away had he been looking.