ROOM OF MIRRORS° h.sj

020

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SAEBOM HIGH
MORNING
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✧──────✦ the morning of the trip came a few morning after that night. once the twins were dropped off at the field, they walked up to jugyeong taking pictures of sooah and her boyfriend.

"what an eyesore, maybe i should get myself a girlfriend." hyunkyu sighed into the distance and ripped his glasses off to look cool.

sumin yawned as she awaited seojun to come. she seriously doubted her sister was going to sit next to her, and she knew he would agree. he walked up and tapped her on the shoulder.

"did you wait long?"

before she could answer, sooah gasped. "is this your way of announcing that you're a couple now!" the two looked at their shirts, and sure enough, they had matching striped shirts. sumin hadn't purposely tried to guess what he was going to wear, but all of her clean clothes were already packed in her suitcase.

"did you want to be my girlfriend that bad?" seojun nudged her shoulder playfully, "you could've just said you wanted to date."

"over my dead body," sumin grumbled and walked towards the bus. she figured the walk over would be enough time for the rosy blush on her cheeks to fade to nothing.

half an hour later, the advisors gathered everyone to do a headcount and let them onto the bus. sujin of course made a b-line for the empty seat next to suho, and sumin headed to the back with a following seojun.

she sat on the window seat while he had to squeeze past chorong to sit next to her before he could.

"you're sitting next to each other!" hyunkyu fawned over not-so coincidental seating arrangements. before he could even speak another word, sumin shoved her headphones into her ears and played music on full volume to blur out the outside conversations.

the bus ride wasn't all too long after sumin fell asleep with her head on the cold glass of the window. she'd only woken up after they'd gone over a bump and her forehead smashed against the glass, leaving a small oil mark from her moisturizer that she secretly wiped away.

sumin had ended up in a tent with three other girls she'd never met. she had tried to get into the one with her sister and her friends, but they'd already met the maximum number of people sleeping there. she could hear sooah's distorted voice and she thanked the limited space of the tents.

sujin came to grab her when it was free time for pictures. she met up with the rest of them in the grassy area, and she must've been late since more than half of the camp's population had already inhabited the area.

jugyeong held the selfie stick and took numerous pictures of different angles, accidentally clicking the button when sumin came into view of the camera.

the more sujin tried to pull sumin closer, the more jugyeong shifted the camera away. she'd rather not have such a horrible person in her happy memories.

sumin caught on after the first few pictures and stepped completely out of the frame. "i'm going to go find seojun, i'll see you guys later!" she returned their hand waves and made her way to her other friend group.

not even minutes later, the class gathered for a complete group picture. hyunkyu yelled out with sooah, "take pictures of these two! they're dating!"

sumin shook her head in disapproval and was about to voice out her opinions, but seojun's hand gripped her elbow and pulled her to his side. he stuck bunny ears behind her head, and she did the same.

when mr. han had them look at the picture, she saw that seojun wasn't looking at the camera, but at her. safe to say she had him send her the picture later that night.

the very short string of events had her thinking of the topic until the blare of the microphone caught her attention. "everyone form groups of four!" sumin looked around and automatically gravitated to her sister after seojun wasn't in her line of vision.

jugyeong skipped up to them and took the empty space that she was heading for. sumin thought she must just have bad luck, jugyeong was the nicest person she'd met, but the nicest person wouldn't have side eyed her. for what seemed like the millionth time, the warmth of a familiar hand lightly gripped her arm and pulled her along to the outer edge.

seojun, chorong, sumin, and another classmate of theirs stood on the newspaper provided. each had a foot on the paper and held each other's backs to ensure no one fell.

the round ended and the announcer had them fold the newspaper into fourths. while all of the guys had picked up the girl next to them like a bride, sumin had expected seojun to do the same. it all happened too fast before the blood rushed to her head and her hair fell into her face.

she wondered how long he'd be able to hold her like this. she wasn't short, more on the taller side. and with that privilege, naturally came with a higher weight. as another team fell, sumin laid limp on his shoulder, breathing as steady as she could to make it seem like it was no big deal.

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the sun began to set once everyone sat to eat dinner. sumin leaned closer to the grill to make sure none of the meat got burnt, occasionally setting pieces in someone's bowl when they didn't have any left.

she kept an eye a somewhat large piece of meat in particular. once it was just barely crispy and still a bit red in the middle, she grasped it with the tongs and set it down into seojun's bowl.

just as he was about to reject it and give it to her instead, the campsite owner came over to talk to chorong and the others. he'd asked about why they weren't allowed into the forest.

"there's a well, deep, deep in the forest. long ago, a woman fell in and died a tragic death. now she roams the land as an ugly spirit. if anyone would run into her, she'd steal their face!" the entire table shook as the boy's legs bounced in thought. "people have even held rituals at the well for her!"

before he left the table he spoke once more, "just don't walk alone."