my youth | stray kids ninth member

3

Worried about who was on the other side of the door, Lou braced herself. Whatever happens, we take it with a pinch of salt, she thought, expecting it to be someone that wouldn't take too kindly to her.

She was right to expect that exact kind of person.

"So, finally decided to stop whoring around our oppas?" one girl asked as she barged into Lou's studio.

"Look, poor baby can't go anywhere without a teddy," another girl mocked as she held up a plushie of a little ginger cat.

Lou could only helplessly look around as another headache came on.

"Ouch," she said quietly to herself as she held onto her head.

"Mina-unnie, Sora-Unnie, maybe we should leave this for another time..." a girl who hovered by the doorway said, looking around in case someone appeared.

Lou shut her eyes as she saw something else in her head.

"Promise me, Louisa, that you won't stop yourself from reaching your dreams, okay? Don't do it just because of me," a woman in a hospital bed held Lou's hand as she cried.

"I promise, Mum," Lou wiped her eyes, holding on so tightly to a hand that slipped away from hers, as a machine started beeping.

"Guys, it's gone quiet in the next room, I think we need to go," the younger girl scratched her head awkwardly, watching as Mina and Sora noises around Lou's belongings.

"Hey, Lou-ser, guess you won't mind if we take these. Yah! Don't ignore us!" Sora prodded at Lou who was holding onto the wall for balance and her head in pain. Meanwhile Mina was holding onto that very plushie, sensing it meant something, and onto Lou's purse too.

"Hey look at Lou's plushie, so cute," the members of SKZ cooed as they looked around her room as part of a house tour they were doing in a vlog.

"Guys why are you all in my room?" Lou burst out laughing in her head.

"Who got you this, so so cute," Felix held up the plushie.

"Ah, my, my mum, my eomma got it for me," Lou sadly smiled, Lee Know going up to her and giving her a hug noticing her slight discomfort around the subject.

Lou blinked her eyes seeing Mina flipping through her notebook too.

"Hey, give that back!" Lou went over to take back her own things. It felt like a big thing for her because in the normal way in her home reality she hated confrontation, but something within her now was bubbling.

"Jiah! Don't just stand there, don't let her win!" Sora hissed at the younger girl who clearly didn't want to be there. She didn't understand why her unnies chose to harass an idol, they were still trainees. This would not look good for them.

"Jiah!"

And so the girl went behind Lou and pulled her back, stopping her from snatching her own items from Mina.

"Stupid girl actually writes some decent songs, mine now," Mina tore out the most recent pages from Lou's book, nodding her head towards the door as she held onto the money and toy.
"Guys, leave her like that."

And so they left, Lou beginning to feel a horrible choked feeling in her chest. She didn't know her mum in this universe, yet she still felt the heartache of her loss and the last thing her mum must have gotten for her being taken away. She couldn't imagine losing her actual mum so having to be forced to live through a life where that was the reality wasn't all too ideal.

Wiping her tears away after doing some deep breathing to get rid of the horrible feeling, she stood up and went back to her notebook, trying to remember as many of the words she had written to 'She Plays Bass' as she could. There was a new found determination to finish the song, before any of those girls could claim it as their own and take all the credit for her hard work.

"Ah! For fuck's sake!" Lou slammed her pencil down, rubbing her temples as the next lines, which already existed, weren't flowing out as they should be.

"Woah, this a bad time?" Seungmin had popped his head through, but was clearly regretting it now as he saw the rarely angry Lou.

"No, it's just, ah maybe..." Lou stared at her notebook tiredly.

"Hey, where did Garfield go?" Seungmin said, pointing at the little seat where the plushie usually sat, shocked at it not being there.

"Ah, I lost it."

"Really? You ok?" he tiptoed around the obvious as he asked Lou, standing next to her now to gage her reaction.

"Yeah, I'll find it, I'm sure, I probably left it at the dorms earlier," Lou hummed in thought.

"Ok well, come on then, let's have some fun," Seungmin had a mischievous grin on his face.

Soon they snuck into the 3RACHA studio, seeing Changbin and Han had fallen asleep and Chan was deep into the zone with his headphones on.

"Okay, so on the count of 3, you press play," Seungmin instructed Lou as they hovered around the doorway.

3

2

1

'Shoot Me' by DAY6 came blasting through the Bluetooth speaker that Seungmin was holding and the two of them started crazily jumping around and dancing as Changbin and Han's screams shocked Chan out of his creative mode.

"YAH"

"AHHHHHH!"

"Guys what the f-"

"Bang bang!" Seungmin and Lou sang along whilst trying to fit the Miroh choreo to the song.

"Turn it off!"

"So loud!"

"Guys I'm on live!" Chan shouted over them, which quickly froze the two mischief makers, Lou rushing to stop the music from her phone as Seungmin did the same trying to find the off button on the speaker.

Lou slowly walked to where Chan was sat and looked over his shoulder at the screen,
"You're live?"

The comments came rushing in:

Hahaha Flo looks so confused

The way Binnie and Han jumped out of their skin 😂😂😂

Seungmin definitely made Lou do this ahahaha

How did Chan not notice ahhhhh

"Yeah, how didn't you see us?" Lou poked Chan's shoulder.

"I was too invested in showing stays how I produce," Chan rubbed his head tiredly.

"Today isn't even Sunday?" Lou carried on confused.

Han burst out laughing,
"Yah, Lou doesn't know the days of the week!"

"What day did you think it was?" Seungmin laughed from his spot on the sofa next to Changbin and Han.

"Tuesday?"

Chan shook his head fondly.
"We'll leave it there stays, Lou needs to go back to school!"

As Chan was doing his outro, Lou facepalmed and went off camera.
"That was so embarrassing."

"And you don't think it's not embarrassing in the normal way," Changbin joked as he sat back with his arms folded.

"I'm just going to lay here and never move again," Lou laid across all three of them, her head resting in Han's lap who automatically played with her hair. This was sort of Lou's kryptonite because she was already feeling tired.

"Hey don't make her sleepy we haven't had dinner yet," Chan turned around in his chair.

"What's for dinner?" Lou sleepily muttered.

"Bulgogi, kimchi-"

"I'm up. I'm awake!"