FILTHY || J.JK

1| Face the reality

6 AM

"Are you awake?" A small hand rubbing over my forehead, it brings me away from my sleep, gently. I slowly open my eyes, struggling to feel good and breathe after having a terrible nightmare again, I look down at her next to me.

Haerin's doe eyes peer on my face as she's already wide awake and once she sees that I'm awake, she grins. "Good morning."

She greets me in her morning voice of a baby's, inching closer and resting her head on my chest, my little sister feeling really comfortable with only me, most of the time. "Good morning, honey. Have you been awake since a long time?" She does not make any movements now but just sucks on her fingers, busy with her mindless thoughts, and she shakes her head.

"I wake up some minutes before." I take my phone as she answered me what I wanted to know. It's six in the morning and I can't be late to school again today, so I'll have to hurry.

"Can you please hurry with your bathroom and brushing, sweetheart? I'm going in the kitchen and making some breakfast for us, and I'll give you a nice lunch today if you do everything nice and quick." Because she's unable to work and be active in the morning, just like me, I lure her with this harmless deal.

Her eyes sparkling, she rises and sits down on her knees, smiling adorably with her baby rosy lips.

And with this said, she hops down the bed and rushes into the small bathroom which is attached to our bedroom in this small house which has a mezzanine roof. I search for my cardigan, the brown one which I had hung on the chair last night, not in my mind as I was done and tired from everything, especially him.

"Cherry," Haerin calls my name from the bathroom, her head peeking out from the crook of the door and looking towards the door of our room. She thinks I'm downstairs. "What happened?"

Not intending to scare the little one in a good, calm start of the day, I head to her gently but purposefully create noise with my foot and drag my slippers on the carpet. "Oh." She still seems a bit baffled when she sees me, "umm, my toothpaste got finished."

"I'll get you a new one, don't worry. Have you done your toilet?" She nods, speaking less but using her head more often, proving that she's really my sister and is already a placid introvert.

She stays silent, waiting for my next move. "I'm gonna get you a new one, but you stay here, sweetheart. Don't make any sound, okay? You know he doesn't like noises, right?" Her soft eyes stare up at my lips, hearing everything I'm speaking carefully, "okay."

She grabs the cap of her toothbrush and plays with it, the flexible bunny ears attached to the cap interesting her to grab them in order to toy with it.

No time to waste, I find my cardigan near the nightstand. I quickly wear it and go outside to get into the lower floor. The sound of snoring coming from the sofas as I ignore the mess which has been made in the living room by Jungwoo, I only go and get what I want.

I enter the kitchen and check the kitchen island and the drawers and cabinets. It's not in the kitchen, maybe it's in the cabinets near the sofas.

Holding my breath as I walk across the thrown cans of beer and a half-eaten pizza kept in the box on the coffee table, my nose messes with the back of my throat and strikes a weird smell in my stomach, causing a hard swallow down my throat. This sofa is stinking so bad, I'm sure he has spilled the entire can of beer over it, or it could possibly not spread the stink over the entire room.