36 MINUTES TO FALL, jaemin ✓

30 | crying

❝ When did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself?❞

It took Yumi a moment to realize that he was asking the next one in the quiz and not just throwing a random one at her to change the subject. When she did, she pursed her lips and looked out the window. "We're at our stop," she chose to say, standing up.

"Yumi, that was—"

"I know it's a question, don't worry," she told him. He got up and moved to the aisle, and she followed. "And you were there barely fifteen minutes ago, weren't you?"

"Oh. Right." He stepped off the bus and turned around, watching her carefully as she hopped off the vehicle and stepped onto the pavement with him. The bus rolled away. "Are you really okay from that, though?"

"I'm fine, it felt good to cry after a while," she assured him. "What about you?"

"Last night, in my room," he said. "After...after my sister said...some pretty horrible things to me. It went both ways, but I cried anyway. I'll tell you about it later. For now, run home. It's already ten."

Her eyes went wide. "Oh, crap!" she slapped her forehead. "I'll call you tonight, Jaemin. Give me fifteen minutes to get changed."

"Sure," he agreed. "I'll be waiting for that."

***

"You're fifteen minutes late," was the first thing her mother said when Yumi poked her head into the living room to see if her parents were still up. Her mother was awake but her father wasn't there. Probably upstairs.

"It took longer than I expected and the bus was late by a few minutes," Yumi replied. "I'll be in my room."

"Going to bed?"

"I guess so." She didn't let her mother question her further and headed upstairs to her room, closing and locking the door behind her. Automatically, she picked up her phone from her pocket to call Jaemin, but she figured that it would be easier if she showered and changed first, so she tossed it onto her bed.

As soon as she had that task out of the way, she threw on her most comfortable pair of pajamas and crawled into bed, picking up the phone again and dialing Jaemin's number. He picked up immediately.

"Hello?"

"Hello," she responded. "It's me. Holed away in my room."

"Oh. You sure you're feeling well enough to keep going?"

"I wouldn't be calling if I weren't, Jaemin. Fire away."

The sound of pages being flipped. He was looking through his notebook. "We were on the one about the crying?"

"Yeah."

"Huh. Okay, question number thirty-one, then."

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WORD COUNT: 437