city lights - jaemin

6

THEY all ate their dinners together and for the rest of the evening Micha and Jaemin had managed to avoid each other. Expect as the night went on their parents kept talking and the two teenagers left to sit in the lounge room.

The awkward silence fell around them pretty quickly, but they tried to cover it up by ignoring each other and playing on their phones.

Micha called Youngmi and the two talked about whatever came to mind. Jaemin sighed loudly, trying to get Micha's attention but then resulted in coughing loudly.

"who was that?"
Youngmi asked over the phone. Micha looked over at Jaemin who was glaring at her before showing his phone where he had typed out.
'Shut up. you're loud.'

Micha screwed her face up before talking a bit quieter. "I'm with my parents at someone's house."

"Poor you. Always having to be formal. don't get sick of it?"
Youngmi spoke into the phone with a slightly hushed voice.

"You get used to it."
Micha blankly responded before bidding goodbye to her friend and hanging up. She leaned back into the couch and felt thankful Jaemin was sitting in a different seat this time.

Jaemin stared at Micha for a while. A distasteful look across his face which Micha tried to ignore. She ended up looking over at him and also glaring.

"You don't want me around yet you keep looking at me."

"You're in my house."
He shot back at her and leaned forward in his seat as if he was ready to argue with her.

"I'm forced to be here. Trust me I tried to get out of it."

"You probably wanted to see me so bad. So obsessed." He whispered under his breath, yet he was heard loud and clear by Micha who looked at him in utter shock.

"Excuse me?"
She couldn't believe her ears for a moment. Did he really think so lowly of her?

"You're always around-"

"Please don't embarrass yourself Jaemin. We just happen to have mutuals that are all friends. Don't get it mixed up."

He rolled his eyes with a scoff and stood up to his feet. He left the lounge room, ignoring Micha completely now and instead walked up to his mother where he muttered goodnight. she smiled at him warmly, asking "so early?"

Micha saw this interaction and found it interesting. What mother stared so lovingly at their children? She saw lots of other parents doing it to their child but her parents never did so she assumed that it wasn't common.

"I have a headache that's all."
He lied, placing a hand on his head while squinting one of his eyes. She said goodnight to her son and told him to take panadol if needed before continuing her conversation with Michas mother.

Unfortunately for micha, she wasn't lucky enough to be able to get out of here.

☁️

The next day rolled around and Micha had managed to get a hold of the list for the swimming competitions before summer break. surprisingly, this year there was a lot for her. Usually most of her swimming competitions involved their whole team but this time, majority of it was all solos.

The girls of the swimming team all nervously jumped around trying to warm up while they chatted about the competitions.

"I've heard the other schools had the swimmers go in during holidays to practice."

"That means they're either really good or a shit team"

A couple of the girls giggled yet Micha sat quietly and stared at the waters gentle waves as a few other swimmers swam on the other side. She started regretting not having practiced during the holidays, because now she was trying to catch up to her own past record.

"Micha! no need to worry about anything! we are all a great team and can easily pull this off!"
Hana said cheerfully, putting a smile on Michas face. Ignoring her worries, she put her hands in the air to celebrate with the other girls who copied her in a fit of laughter.

—

Jaemin sat down on the ground, leaning his back against the walls of the gym. Sweat was building up over his forehead again, and the whole gym smelt like smelly teenage boys. They all tiredly played with the basketballs and threw it into the hoops.

They had a game to begin the semester soon and everyone was trying their best to stay prepared. Yet today seemed like the toughest and longest practice. They had done all types of warming up and now they had to practice shooting.

Jaemin along with Haechan had stopped for a few minutes but were well aware of the continuous glares from the coach.

"I'm getting too old for this."
Haechan said, causing Jaemin to laugh and slap him on the arm. The two stood up and walked back into the court, collecting a basketball and started throwing the ball into the hoop.

He was tired and on the edge of having sore muscles by the time training was over. He went home and went straight to sleep after telling his parents about his day quickly.