ROOM OF MIRRORS° h.sj

027

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THE HOSPITAL
NOON
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✧──────✦ after a few days of suho and seojun being roomies in the hospital, they're getting along a lot better than they had a week ago. the banter is even playful now, not even a hint of actual threats! sumin is glad she didn't interfere too much because it seemed to work out on their own.

sumin hadn't been able to visit recently (thanks to sujin and her tantrums about jugyeong, though it was understandable), so she'd been floored when she entered the room and saw them feeding each other. apparently they weren't ready for their public premier of friendliness because they'd thrown their utensils at each other and limped back to their own beds once she'd walked in.

"it's nice to see you guys again," sumin cheered after picking up the utensils near her shoes off the ground.

"where've you been?" seojun asks as he tries to itch the skin under his cast. not wanting to bring up the whole sujin situation, sumin can only shake her head and reply, "just stuff."

suho half-heartedly ignores her, "do you know if jugyeong is coming back anytime soon?"

"sorry, but your girlfriend totally doesn't like me. i'm the last person you should be asking right now." seojun's ears perk up at the first sentence and tries to hide his confusion. he thought that you guys were good friends, but he guesses it's just a guy thing not to read in between the lines.

"she's not my girlfriend." suho protests.

seojun grits his teeth at him, this can't be good.

"that's what you're thinking about right now? sumin literally just told you that jugyeong hates her." he waits for a response as suho pointedly ignores him, too busy flipping through his memories to try and find out why. suho has this stupid blank face every time he thinks of something and his eyes are drifting from one side of the ceiling to the other. "of course you ignore us, you're the same as always."

sumin steps in before anything can get too heated, "seojun, quit it. he isn't in her mind, he has no clue what you're talking about." since seojun only had a broken arm instead of a broken leg like suho, he stands up and walks out of the room with sumin, who will follow him to the end of the earth. no joke.

they end up in the garden, sitting at some metal bench that's too cold because it hasn't been sunny for a week.

"how's your arm?" sumin asks in attempt to make some small talk so seojun doesn't just fume and bubble up until he explodes.

"i just don't get why jugyeong hates you," he mumbles.

"i probably did something wrong," sumin picks at her nails. the voice in the back of her head is telling her that she's never done wrong, but reality sucks and it probably was her fault.

"that's stupid."

"it doesn't really matter to me," she laughs at his face. he's looking down at the ground, kicking a pebble once in a while. "anyways, once your out, did you want to go out to lunch?"

seojun's head snaps up to look at her. "are you asking me out on a date?" it's apparent who wears the pants in this 'relationship'.

sumin has to squint when the sun appears for the first time in days. it's like all is well in the world, mother nature approves! seojun pointedly ignores the fact that she gives him a stare that looks so judgmental because she's so pretty in the sunshine. he's having a hard time controlling himself because all he wants to do is go home and roll around in his bed where he kicks his feet like a schoolgirl so much that his sister personally comes in and tells him to shut up.

"if you really want it to be, then i suppose i can make arrangements." she really likes to pretend seojun doesn't make her heart pound when he's within a hundred miles of her. sumin notices the way he's grinning all of a sudden and facing away to pretend he's admiring the flowers. she wonders if they can be classified as high school sweethearts yet or if she's getting too ahead of herself (seojun wonders the same thing).

"so what's up with jugyeong hating you?" sumin deadpans at his question. why would he even ask her about another girl when he's with her.

"it's just little things, you know. she always crops me out of pictures and like, refuses to talk to me. at all." he stays silent and waits for her to continue. "can i tell you something, promise you won't tell anyone?"

"did you do something illegal?"

"i'm not the one who rode a motorcycle without a license for a year." seojun looks away and mimics her words because it was her who always needed a ride. "anyways, sujin is going really crazy because jugyeong stopped by our house just to tell her that she's dating suho."

seojun looks bewildered almost, and furrows his eyebrows while he shakes his head. "wait, what?"

"sujin has had this massive crush on suho since literally forever and is tearing up our bedrooms and crashing and burning. i'm really worried about her. any advice?"

"she likes suho?"

"you know, just shut up and listen, forget i asked. i'm really nervous she's going to do something jurassic and ruin herself. it's just not my place to hold her back if jugyeong does something out of pocket." sumin almost completely understands the way sujin feels because of her own personal predicament with seojun having that weird fixation on jugyeong. but now that she knows he was only doing it to piss of suho, she's owed out. "will you at least keep suho from saying something stupid to her?"

"it's hard to keep that idiot's mouth shut, you realize that. right?" seojun half-heartedly complains.

"i know, but it's not my place to say and you guys are friends."

"we aren't friends." he scoffs.

sumin doesn't bother replying and starts to walk back inside the building. seojun follows of course and says his goodbyes when she leaves him to do whatever hospital patients need to do.

after months of not hanging out, saemi calls her up the next week and plans a girls day. their usual plan is get their nails done, cut each other's hair (optional), get dinner, and then walk to the bus stop where they part ways. but for some reason she has sumin meet her for lunch instead of dinner in the evening. they order their food and catch up for a while before saemi pulls out her phone and flips it towards her.

"do you know this girl?" she's showing her a picture of jugyeong's instagram.

she nods, confused. "she's in my class, why?"

"just curious. she beat me out in that online beauty competition. is she as pretty in school? i bet she's a real bitch."

"she's cute, a lot of guys like her. but we don't talk enough for me to know." sumin replies truthfully. "she refuses to speak to me."

saemi tilts her head at this, "refuses? sounds like she's a little high and mighty, don't you think?"

"i don't even know, and i don't care. she was friends with my sister until some stuff happened." sumin swirls the ice in her drink around with her straw. she grabs the phone from her friend's hand and scrolls down her account and turns the phone again. "i was in all of these pictures."

"then where are you?" she swipes through the collection.

"cropped."

"what a girl. if i were you, i'd rip her to shreds."

"you know i'm not that kind of person." saemi widens her eyes in judgment. "sure."

sumin's phone goes off and she groans. "i've got to pick up seojun from the hospital, i promised him."

"let's hang out again soon, i'll visit you at school and rough that girl up for ya!"

she pushes at her shoulder and laughs, "don't, i feel bad for her as is." sumin doesn't give saemi a chance to question what she means. she says it out of consideration for sujin's wrath, but saemi assumes that sumin knows what jugyeong looks like without makeup. maybe they have more in common then she thought.