ʀᴀɢᴇ ʀᴏᴏᴍ | ᴘ1ʜ

Familiarity

‼️

June 13th
5:41 PM

"Ow..." Intak flinched as Indiya placed a towel-wrapped ice pack on his temple.

"Man, quit jerking away," Indiya warned the boy. "Not unless you want that big ass knot on the side of your head..."

"I'm sorry." Intak gritted through his teeth.

"Do you bruise easily, dude?" Jiung passed Intak a water bottle.

"Sorta..." Intak winced. "Like if I bang my knee on something, I'm fine. But say I get hit in the face with a frisbee – my whole face will start swelling and I'll have a bruise on my face for a week."

"And in this case...?" Keeho raised an eyebrow.

"Baton to the head," Intak explained. "That I didn't block in time..."

"Welp, that oughta do it." Keeho nodded, chuckling. "Great introduction to the class, eh?"

"Yeah, no kidding." Intak chuckled as well but quickly winced again, prompting Indiya to take away the ice pack for a few seconds. "Now I don't know what my dad was thinking, putting me in these classes, man..."

"Nah, don't talk like that." Indiya swayed her head from side to side. "This was literally only one class, Intak – you can't base your whole experience off one class."

"Yeah..." Jongseob agreed. "Now you know to dodge the next time you get hit in the face with a baton." He snickered.

"As if I wanted to get clocked in the head..." Intak rolled his eyes.

"Well, obviously you did, otherwise Indiya wouldn't be icing the fuck out of that knot." Theo softly chuckled. "Speaking of...hey, Indiya?"

"What's up?"

"Do you know what time you're closing up today?"

"Uhhh...soon." Indiya shrugged. "Probably in like an hour or so since business was slow today..."

"So that makes us what then?" Keeho feigned disappointment, clutching his chest and falling dramatically on Jongseob. "Indiya, you wound me!"

"Okay, calm it down, first of all." Indiya giggled. "Second of all, most of y'all work here now, so I don't wanna hear that."

"You know, you're like a magician, Indiya." Theo pointed out. "How were you able to get most of us jobs when you've only known us for a few weeks?"

Indiya shrugged again. "What can I say? I have my ways."

"Well...do you think I can join?" Theo asked a little softly.

"I was hoping you'd ask eventually." Indiya snickered. "I'll talk to you later about it, cool?"

"Fine by me." Theo showcased a small smile.

While the group continued conversing, a lone boy approached the glass doors, his hand ghosting over one of the handles, but he hesitated, gnawing on the inner corner of his cheek with anxiety.

The first person in the store to notice the boy was Keeho. "Did you lock the doors, Indiya?"

"Yeah, not too long ago..." Right as Indiya prepped to say more, her eyes floated past Keeho and to the mentioned doors, watching the boy blink and try to take a look inside.