𝑻𝑹𝑨𝑰𝑵 𝑻𝑶 𝑯𝒀𝑶𝑺𝑨𝑵 [ 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒅 ]

eighteen

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Minari beamed at her, smiling brightly, "I love you too, Choi Nam-ra. More than anything." The girl on her lap smiled softly, hiding her reddening face in her chest. "You're so pretty, don't hide!"

She cupped Nam-ra's face in her hands, tilting her head up and moving her hair out of her face, "See? So pretty." The Choi girl wrapped her arms around Minari's waist under her shirt, and the pair held each other close for a few quiet minutes before the others slowly began to wake up.

Nam-ra glanced at the window in the storage room, slowly standing up and walking towards it. "What is it, Nam-ra? Do you see something?" Minari asked.

"The smell is stronger," said Nam-ra. Dae-su inhaled before sniffing his arms.

"I can't really smell anything."

Nam-ra turned back to them, "I think they're all coming this way. The smell is really strong." She sat back on Minari's lap.

"Doesn't matter," Joon-yeong said bluntly. "We're all trapped in here for good now. Snd there's no way to get out."

"Please don't say that," Hyo-ryeong asked.

"So don't," Joon-yeong responded. "I think we're done."

"Ah, damn it," Dae-su said, standing up. "Let them kill us if they want." Minari watched Nam-ra pick up a baseball bat and try to mess with the handle.

"Ha-ri, you didn't fail in the preliminaries, did you?" Wu-jin asked his sister. Cham-jo watched Ha-ri exchange a glance with the archery senior that Minari had saved before turning to her brother.

"No. I did really well."

"Your tournament," Wu-jin said. "What happened? Why did you come to the school?"

"You're her brother?" Mi-jin questioned, putting her hands in the pockets of the archery jacket she wore.

"Yeah, I am," Wu-jin said. "I heard you two are a thing."

Ha-ri and Mi-jin both glanced at him, and then at each other. Mi-jin smiled whilst Ha-ri tried stifling a smile. "She got a perfect score, so she made it to nationals," Mi-jin said. "I was there with flowers and chocolates--"

"Hey," Ha-ri had grabbed a volleyball and was threatening to throw it at the girl. Wu-jin looked at his sister with excitement.

"Really?"

"Mm-hmm, it's true."

"No way. Really? You're really in the nationals?" Wu-jin asked. "Mom and Dad don't know?"

Mi-jin scoffed, "Bro, how could they know? Look around. She jumped out of the archery bus and ran to the school to find you. Kid. You be good to her. And me too. I'm her girlfriend." She glanced away, fixing her eyes on Minari and Cham-jo, who smiled innocently and waved.

"Why does she keep talking for you?" Wu-jin asked his sister.

"She's my girlfriend. It's an unstoppable habit of hers," Ha-ri crossed her arms and looked at Mi-jin with love in her eyes.

"Or as the adults would say, we're the best of friends," Mi-jin drawled teasingly, her hand reaching out to tap Ha-ri's chin. Dae-su stood in front of them.

"Jesus, you scared me. What's your deal?" Wu-jin asked his friend. Cham-jo's eyes widened as he rapidly tapped Minari's shoulder to get her to watch what was about to happen.