ROOM OF MIRRORS° h.sj

017

╭━ ⋅✶⋅ ━━✶━━ ⋅✶⋅ ━╮
SEOUL
NOON
╰━ ⋅✶⋅ ━━✶━━ ⋅✶⋅ ━╯

✧──────✦ sumin ran into jugyeong at the bus stop and walked to gowoon's place together. as much as she hated being around her, sumin had to stick it out for gowoon's sake. she really appreciated how jugyeong supported and helped her out at the festival.

in her hand she held a bag of various drinks for the han family. she figured mihyang was still recovering and deserved a gift every once in a while even if it was nothing big.

once gowoon let the two girls in, sumin made a b-line for the fridge to put the drinks that needed to stay refrigerated, and jugyeong set numerous different zipper pouches filled with makeup on the table in the living room.

sumin made herself comfortable and draped herself over the arms of the chair nearest to the window. she expected just a day for her and gowoon, but this wasn't so bad either. she'd rather lounge around at the apartment than in 'her' room in the house that she so loathed.

jugyeong had just begun on gowoon's eyebrows when the door to the bathroom slammed open.

"is it true, yes! okey dokey, yo!"

the girl horizontal in the chair lifted her head at the voice. gowoon had told her that he wasn't going to be there. what a liar. a grimace distorted her face as soon as seojun slid around the corner with his headphones in, dancing. despite the fact that he was training to be an idol, it seemed he was a little stiff, a lot more than a little.

if it weren't for the incidents of yesterday, sumin would've had her phone out and recording while trying to swallow her laughter. but for now, the circumstances were different.

seojun danced his way to the fridge and grabbed one of the bottles of water she'd just put in. the lid cracked open as he twisted and poured the cold water directly onto his hair and face.

he stomped his foot along to the beat and turned towards the three girls. slowly, his eyes opened and seojun took in the current situation.

sumin's eyes trailed from eye contact with seojun, to the leopard print boxers that she'd bought him as a gag gift for his birthday, of course it was along with various other animal prints. she raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips while subtly shaking her head from side to side.

"you were home?" gowoon asked as jugyeong pulled the eyebrow pencil away from her face. "please put on some clothes when you're home!"

seojun attempted to retrieve his cool attitude, "sumin, you're here?" after she nodded, he turned his body to the side and continued to dance down the hallway, unsuccessfully covering up previous embarrassments. the door quietly shut behind him, and a deep scream leaked through the entire apartment and probably into the neighboring buildings.

jugyeong's jaw went slack, "we didn't see anything!"

sumin took in a deep breath of air and stood up. "i'm going to head out."

"what? why?" jugyeong reached for another brush while looking at sumin. gowoon nodded along and spoke up, "did you and him get in a fight?"

"something like that, i'll see you at school on monday." sumin slipped on her shoes and exited the apartment.

after few minutes, seojun comes rushing out of his room while hurriedly pulling on his jacket, "did she leave already?" the two nodded and watched as he nearly ran into the metal door during his escape.

he caught sumin only a block away, kicking stones every once in a while as an attempt to kill time before she went back to her residence.

"sumin!" she didn't turn around.

"sumin!" she looked around, but still didn't turn.

seojun jogged to catch up to her and gripped onto her hair to pull her back. he dusted off the few hair strands on his fingers and acted like it never happened.

"ow! what?" sumin rubbed at the sore spots on her head and pulled her palm away to check for blood.

"you should've stopped when i called you." seojun pointed to her while acting like it was her fault. he zipped his mouth shut when she pulled her headphones out of her ears that played music almost at the highest level.

"why'd you call for me?" sumin stretched her neck as she waited for an answer.

"oh, no reason."

"no reason? you have absolutely nothing to say to me?"

"i'll walk you home."

"forget it, go back home. i can take care of myself."

"i'm still worried!"

sumin blinked at his sudden outburst. "why?" he looked at her like she was stupid. "if this is about my situation, bite me." 

now it was seojun's turn to blink at her retreating body. he forced his legs to start moving again and eventually slowed his pace when they stood side by side. sumin's pace fluctuated as she tried to get seojun off her tail.

blocks later, chorong and their other friends trailed behind them after somehow seeing them while leaving the local sauna.

"look who it is." the voice of sungyong was like nails on a chalkboard to them.

"kang sumin!" semi perked up a little despite being in a foul mood only seconds before. she skipped around to her side and linked her arm through hers while pushing seojun to the side. sumin leaned into semi as a greeting while seojun and sungyong glared at each other.

"why do you keep running when you see me?" sungyong lightly punched seojun's shoulder. "we used to be best friends! i'm hurt."

"don't cause a scene," sumin and semi argued.

"keep him under control," sumin whispered to semi. "he's like your dog, do something!"

"you do something!" semi whispered back. "he's kind of scary when he talks serious though. it's hot."

sumin nodded back, knowing exactly what she was talking about.

chorong tossed his half empty milk carton at sungyong's forehead. "my bad, i thought you were the garbage can."

semi and sumin unlinked arms as seojun and sungyong lunged at each other. "don't waste your time," sumin pulled the collars of chorong and seojun.

"looks like your bitch still has you on a leash!" sungyong slowly eyed her from head to toe.

sumin released her grip from the boys and walked up to him. a singular slap from her was enough for sungyong to taste his own blood.

the boy now held his left cheek as she smiled at him, "looks like it!"