ROOM OF MIRRORS° h.sj

022

╭━ ⋅✶⋅ ━━✶━━ ⋅✶⋅ ━╮
CAMPGROUNDS
MORNING
╰━ ⋅✶⋅ ━━✶━━ ⋅✶⋅ ━╯

✧──────✦ after the 'small' disagreement with sujin, sumin hadn't had a good night's rest. the entire time was full of quiet tossing and turning, plus the occasional time check. and once she'd finally gotten sleepy, the sun had already peeked over the mountain and beamed through the thin fabric of the sleeping area. although with the pillow stuffed over her face, it was easy to sleep.

an hour later, her roommates shook her awake and told her they were leaving. sumin threw off the covers and looked at her phone camera. her eye bags were a dark purple and were extremely similar to a black eye.

from her last time check at sunrise, she'd only gotten around two or three hours of actual sleep. she pulled on the clothes set beside her bed. the roommates she just met were already better than any friends she'd had previously. they'd even lent sumin one of their extra jackets since she lacked a warm one.

she was having a hard time focusing her eyes on the shoes on the ground. a few times she'd completely missed it and had grab something to keep her balance. the last time sumin got this little sleep was never. she always made sure to get seven hours or more, not caring how late she would have to sleep in.

her classmates were running around the field area and she walked over to mr. han.

"sumin! your roommates said you'd probably sit out since you were sick."

"oh, is that okay?" she asked, confused. sumin thought looking halfway to death was just from a lack of sleep. but now that she thought about it, her nose was runny and her head was pounding.

"go ahead and take a nap on the bus, it's pretty warm in there." sumin thanked him and avoided dips in the ground that would definitely make her pass out if she fell.

she sat in a seat and rolled up a jacket to put in between her head and the window. her eyes naturally closed on their own and she slipped out of consciousness.

"sumin, are you sick?"

seojun had followed her to the bus after he saw her stumble a few times. even from the far distance between them, he could clearly see the bags under her eyes.

so now he leaned down to look at her face. he didn't receive an answer to his question and guessed she was dead asleep. seojun put his hand against her forehead and she grimaced at the chill of it.

"you're burning hot, how'd you even end up with a cold?" he pulled his hand away and headed back to the teachers to get some medicine.

when he came back, he flicked her forehead and she grumbled.

"get lost sujin."

"i'm not sujin." he pinched her cheek until her eyes opened. "i have medicine for you."

sumin plucked the pill from his palm and chugged water to ensure it went down. "how'd you know i was sick?"

seojun pulled his signature leather jacket and laid it around her shoulders. "i can just tell with you."

"don't let it get to your head," she scolded. "thank you."

sumin decided to make whatever moves she needed at this point. she placed her head on his shoulder and prayed he wouldn't be repulsed by it. but instead he stiffened for a few seconds and eventually relaxed.

once she woke up, seojun's head weighed against hers. no way in hell was she moving any time soon, so she looked out the window for a few minutes of enjoyment. not to mention the bracelet that adorned her wrist that had most definitely not been there earlier.

━ ⋅✶⋅ ━━✶━━ ⋅✶⋅ ━

✧──────✦ it got dark after hours of napping in the bus, and seojun dragged her out to the stage area whether she liked it or not. the entire class surrounded the two of them as different acts went up on stage to perform.

"i hear we have a former idol trainee here this weekend!" the emcee's voice roared through the microphone and out of the speakers surrounding the class. "let's have him come up and sing us a song!"

seojun turned to chorong in betrayal, "did you tell them?"

"i want to hear you sing!" jugyeong spoke happily over sumin.

"do you?" he leaned over to sumin. she just shrugged, but he knew that was code for yes after years of receiving it as an answer. seojun stood up and made his way to the stage.

as he sang, jugyeong abruptly got up and walked out of the area. sumin looked back to ask what was going on, but ended up just watching her walk out, not wanting to stick her nose in whatever was wrong with her.

after the stage performances, sujin pulled sumin onto one of the paths behind the camp.

"i wanted to say i'm sorry for last night. i was just jealous." she said looking at sumin. "i shouldn't have acted like that, i think i went insane for a couple minutes."

sumin let a small smile show and she patted her sister on the shoulder. "i'm sorry too. but if i ever catch you acting like that again, i'll throw you into the river."

sujin nodded, "gotcha." they talked for a few minutes and ended up going their separate ways. sumin continued towards the river and sujin went back to camp.

she rubbed her eyes to make sure she was seeing things correctly. but there he was, suho stood behind a bush looking out to the river.

"what are you looking at?" she asked, peeking around his shoulder. his hand slapped across her eyes and pushed her back so she couldn't see anything. "are you insane? did you just witness a murder or something?"

she pried his hand off her eyes and looked. sumin wished she hadn't. she wished she'd walked back to camp with the actual insane person.

seojun kneeled next to jugyeong with his hands gently cupping her face. sumin's sick and fever-ridden heart could only stand so much before it was ripped to shreds. she looked down at the bracelet around her wrist.

she pulled it off and stuffed it in seojun's stupid leather jacket. sumin tore his jacket off from around her shoulders like it was diseased and shoved it into suho's arms.

"give this to him the next time you see him."

that night, sumin got an entire night's sleep, a full nine hours. she should've known, and she wasn't going to die over something that was out of her control. all she could be mad at herself for was convincing her own heart that he'd liked her, like she liked him.