𝔹𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕐𝕠𝕦//_[𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧]

17: ᴜɴᴅᴇʀꜱᴛᴀɴᴅ ᴍᴇ

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Althea bites her lip as her mother gets closer to her room. Each step seems to hammering another nail into her coffin for when Bang Chan kills her. 

And they were just starting to get along. 

She tries to rack her brain for any Korean words she can say to warn the boys. It's hard to remember when her anxiety and panic are threatening to take over. 

Suddenly, she shouts the first thing that comes to mind. 

"엄마!" (Mom!)

"Yes?"

Althea's eyes widen at the quick response. Her mother's head whips to her curious. That's weird. Since when did her mother know Korean? As far as she knows, Lucas' dad was Hispanic and she has no Asian friends. 

She can't dwell on that now. She needs an excuse. 

"A-Ah well....how's the business? Youne gimme much work lately..." she asks weakly with a brief glance to her room.

She hopes the boys heard her.

Her mother sighs and rubs the back of her head. "Well...I have enough money from what your father left. He says he'll send another deposit on Saturday March 1st. But, not having customers isn't good."

"You think once the rules ease up you could do one house visit?"

"As nice as that'd be, it would put me at a much greater risk for catching COVID. Maybe once everything settles down..." she trails off. 

No one knows when that'll be.

The pandemic's still raging on and COVID cases are still rising daily. The news says the nurses have started catching it as well. 

The government has yet to open the foodstores and banks and she knows people are starting to get antsy. She thought they mentioned about implementing a system for people to go on certain days but nothing's been said about it lately. 

People can't live like this. 

"Anyway lemme get those clothes."

"Alright..."

Another grumble comes from Althea's stomach and she quicky covers it while running past her mother to her room. She can feel two stares boring into her back and she prays the idols managed to hide themselves properly inside her room.

She bursts through the door with her mouth ready to warn them but stops upon seeing the empty bed. She immediately darts to the bathroom where as she expected, the pair are hiding inside. She sighs in relief and Jisung looks worried. 

"We heard you shouting and thought you were trying to warn us about your mom so we hid," he whispers. 

"You're right. Good job. Stay here and gimme them towels." She hears the footsteps approaching and hisses. "Quickly!"

Minho yanks the towels off the rack and shoves them in her arms. Althea closes the door just as her mother enters and tries to fight off the heavy beating in her heart. 

She puts the towels in the hamper and picks up a bra that was stuck under her bed. Hopefully the boys didn't see it. 

Camila thanks her for the clothes and moves to head out when her eyes catch sight of the screen. A K-drama called Hotel del Luna was playing and Althea's blood runs cold. Episode two was playing so it's difficult for her to play it off and say she wasn't watching it. And her mother knows she's not interested in K-culture.