city lights - jaemin

10

HER head felt heavy that day. She walked home with a hand on her head, trying to walk straight. Everytime she walked past someone she would try to straighten up and act casual yet as soon as they were behind her she was walking as if she was drunk again. Exhaustion was catching up to her faster than she wanted.

She opened the front door and saw her parents talking to Jaemin's parents. She wanted to yell and cry but never the less she stood there and smiled at the couple. The door closed behind her and she walked up to stand beside her parents, knowing that if she went up to her room she would only get a scolding later.

"you look tired darling."
Jaemin's mother said in a soft spoken voice. She was almost like the epitome of what Micha thought a mother would be like before her own mother changed her way of thinking. Micha knew she had dale circles under her eyes and her whole body felt weak of tiredness, but she tried to keep smiling and just shook her head. "I'm okay."

"Jaemin should be coming over soon. You two can get to know each other."
His father said in a gentle voice, yet it was still sounding rough. His father felt like what an actual father would feel like. It was that moment that Micha felt a pang of jealously towards Jaemin. She looked towards her own parents beside her and felt her smile falter.

There was a knock on the door and before anyone could offer to go open it, her father spoke up. "Go open it, Micha."

His tone of voice was so different to Jaemin's, it seemed to startle the couple a bit. It wasn't surprising to Micha though, as she was already walking towards the door. She opened it and saw Jaemin standing there in pants and hoodie, the hood over his head and his body limp and tired.

"You two must've had a hard day at school." his mother said with a chuckle. Jaemin smiled at his parents and looked towards Micha, who looked twice as tired as he felt.

He walked past her and stood next to his parents as Micha closed the door and stood next to hers.

"can I go upstairs and change?"
Micha asked in a hushed voice as her father was speaking. Micha's mother looked towards her, eyeing her up and down before muttering. "yes."

Micha quickly grabbed her bag off the floor and rushed up the stairs, practically going as fast as she could to her room. Once the door was closed behind her, she leaned against it and sighed heavily. Her eyes built up with tears of exhaustion.

She changed out of her school clothes and was quick to immediately fix her hair and add perfume on. She roughly did some makeup in an attempt to cover up her tiredness but she knew it was still so obvious.

There was a light knock on her door. Micha sighed and quickly fixed her hair once again and stood up, walking towards her door while preparing her smile. Yet when she opened it, she saw jaemin.

"Your parents said I should hang out with you instead of the adults." Jaemin muttered quietly. his hands in his hoodies pocket and head down.

"I was about to come down-"
Micha said, about to walk past him when he cut her off.

"can we not go down stairs?"
he asked in a hushed voice so the parents downstairs didn't hear them speaking.

"why?"

"I'm exhausted and I don't want your parents to see me like that."

Hesitating, Micha moved away from the door and let Jaemin in. She looked outside her room and saw her mother looking back at her with a smile. It was odd to see her mother act that way to her but she knew that her parents must be talking about more adult things. So she closed the door, now alone with Jaemin.

Jaemin had sat on her floor, his legs crossed and his back leant against the wall. His eyes were closed and he knew he was close to falling asleep. But with Micha only a few feet from him, sitting on her bed, he felt it would be awkward to sleep in her room.

"What did you do today to make you so tired?" Micha asked, looking at her phone still, but engaging in a conversation.

Jaemin opened his eyes and glared at her. When a few seconds past of not receiving a reply, Micha looked towards him and glared at him as well.

"If you're going to sit in my room, at least talk to me." She rolled her eyes and stood up to grab her water bottle on her bedside table. She couldn't sit still, feeling somehow nervous about so many things. Jaemin was only one of the reasons, but he was apart of so many others.

"Why should i? I don't even want to be here."

"Then get out."
She deadpanned, turning to him and glaring. Jaemin looked at her with just as much hatred in his eyes, but he sighed and broke the eye contact to close his eyes again.
"I can't."

"Then why can't you reply to my one question."
she walked back to her bed and sat on it, still looking at jaemin with a burning glare. She wasn't sure how one night of fun had ended up making them feel as though they were enemies, but she knew she was starting to grow more and more hatred towards him.

"Practice game and training. That's all."

Micha hummed and went back to looking through her phone. She had nothing to do on it but it was better than sitting awkwardly with Jaemin glaring at her.

"what about you?"

"none of your business."
She smugly said. Jaemin picked up and pillow from beside him and threw it at her legs. Micha scoffed and looked at him with a surprised expression yet she laughed and picked it up, throwing it back at him before replying properly.
"Just practice."

"How about we both sleep and set an alarm for twenty minutes."
Jaemin said, getting himself comfortably set against the wall.

"Fine."
She laid down on her bed and set an alarm on her phone and fell asleep almost instantly. The only thing she didn't do was press start.