MY OWN STORY. minsung

four

"Look to the side for me."

"Other side."

"Okay, now look down."

The nice optician seemed to be jotting down some notes on a random piece of paper. Jisung's world now had a filter — a pair of glasses sat neatly on his nose.

"Great! These glasses are for everyday wear, not just in class, so make sure you get into the habit of wearing them as soon as you wake up." She curtly smiled, scribbling down more notes. "Since your prescription has worsened, of course. Avoid wearing them too little as your eyes can strain from squinting too much —"

This lady spoke too much.

Jisung had no idea why his prescription worsened. He hadn't been doing anything different to what he usually did — he took notes in class as usual, looked at the board as usual, did everything as he usually did. Maybe he stopped wearing them in some classes because he got placed closer to the front, but that surely wasn't enough to drop his prescription down to a solid 3.00.

"Alright Jisung, since you're a minor, any pair under 130,000₩ is free. And the one you chose was under that, correct?"

Jisung nodded.

This time she typed on her computer. Each click sounded like the time ticking.

"You don't have to start wearing them immediately. Wear your old ones all day to begin with, then transition to the new pair."

Jisung nodded again.

"That's all. Thank you very much, Jisung, hope to see you again for your next yearly eye-checkup!"

Jisung nodded for what he hoped would be the last time in this opticians' place without any delay, standing up and bowing politely yet speedily. "Thank you, have a nice day."

How could his prescription worsen? He stepped out of the cramped building and took his glasses off with both hands. He fiddled a little with the legs, watching them snap back and forth, and then had to take in how thick the lenses got. He would have paid extra for the lenses that were thinned down if he properly took into account how thick the glass would really be.

A vibration from his blazer pocket snapped him back into the cold, autumn day. The caller ID said 'Sunshine'.

"Jisung, has your eye thing finished?"

Jisung nodded then remembered the person behind his screen would not see. "Yeah. What's up?"

A faint sigh could be picked up. "Nothing. But have you really got new glasses? Are they ugly? Do they suit you?"

"None of the above," Jisung sniggered. "Seungmin, what are you doing right now?"

"Laying around and praying my prescription didn't get worse too."

Jisung only laughed when he was around or speaking to Seungmin. Only fun times. "You're already at -5.00, I don't think it can get any worse."

"I've been going around telling people I have 20/20 vision, it's so much fun. The power of contacts!"

"You're abusing this power of yours," Jisung gasped playfully, "I can't imagine wearing contacts. Imagine touching your eye!!"