never | h.rj

4.

It had been ages since Mina has stepped foot in this house. She was bombarded by memories of running on the cold tile floor, falling down the steps, and playing hide and seek in the large rooms. The nostalgia was almost sickening considering the circumstances.

Renjun led her inside to the kitchen. "We're going to work upstairs but I need to do something first, so wait here." He instructed before running up the steps with his book bag.

He hurriedly grabbed all of the clothes off of his floor and threw them in the hamper. Then he placed all of the drawings scattered across his desk, in a folder and placed them on a shelf.

While Renjun was upstairs repairing the effects of "Hurrican Renjun", Mina was downstairs viewing the family photos, displayed in the foyer.

She saw one picture of two familiar children with big smiles and icing all over their faces. Behind them was a woman who had been perfectly photographed right in the middle of laughter.

"I miss this..." she said quietly to herself.

"What was that?" a voice came from the steps, startling Mina.

"I said I miss Mrs. Huang." She quickly tried to save face. Thankfully, Renjun genuinely hadn't heard her.

"Yeah, me too..." He said solemnly. He missed her so much, especially since his dad was never around.

"Well, uh, we're good to go upstairs now. Come on." He said breaking up the silence. It wasn't awkward or anything, just sad. Besides, what would he look like if he started crying in front of his enemy?

Mina was surprised to see his bedroom had changed as much as he has. The walls were bare except for a few posters in place of where his drawings used to be. His bedding was now boring blue with weak white stripes. He used to have a comforter with cute cartoon figures printed on the front.

Despite Mina's change in appearance, her room hadn't really gone through that much of a makeover. She still had her yellow accent wall to match the yellow sheets on her bed. She even still had that eyesore of a cow-print comforter.

"Alright, let's hurry up and get this over with."

~

It wasn't long before they were at each other's throats.

"That's spelled wrong." Mina pointed to one of the words on his paper.

"What? No, it's not." Renjun brought the paper close to his face. "That's an 'R'."

"Well it doesn't look like it. Your handwriting is still terrible after all this time." Mina complained. "My grade depends on this too so I would really appreciate it if you would take it seriously."

Renjun took a deep breath and forcefully erased the word almost ripping the paper. He mumbled under his breath almost inaudibly. However, Mina was able to make out the words, "spoiled brat".

"Would you like to say that a little louder?" She squinted her eyes at him and tilted her head.

Renjun looked over at her, scoffing as he rolled his eyes before turning back to his paper.

Mina took this personally.

"If you're bold enough to say it, why not say it where I can hear you? Hmm?" Mina stood up. She wanted him to repeat what he said so badly so she could have a valid reason to verbally kick him where the sun doesn't shine. Or physically. Either one would work for her.

Renjun looked up to the girl who was clearly bothered. He stood up as well, not liking the way she was looking down at him.

"Am I supposed to be intimidated?" Mina chuckled. "You're literally only like two inches taller than me."