A Shiny Future

Chapter 23 | Surprise

I woke up early the next morning due to a heavy weight falling onto my torso. My eyes snapped open as I grunted in shock.

"Jiminie?!"

He rolled off of my stomach. "Good morning!" he chirped mischievously.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"You didn't answer my calls last night or the door today, so I used the extra key," he stated simply. I glared at him.

"You didn't answer my texts or calls for almost two days, but I didn't break into your house and try to smother you with my body weight!"

He smiled sheepishly. "About that, I'm really – "

"Don't bother," I said, heaving myself out of bed.

"Mirae – "

"I'm really upset with you guys, Minie. I don't wanna hear it."

He sighed. "I understand. I'm sorry, Mirae. Please let me explain."

I cocked an eyebrow and stared at him. He sighed again. "We've been planning something, and we didn't want to tell you about it yet because..." He paused, avoiding looking at my face.

I didn't move or say anything; just stood there blankly, waiting for him to continue. "You're really bad at keeping secrets!" he blurted out.

My mouth dropped open. "Yah! I am not!"

"You are though! And we needed time to finalize details before we could risk anyone else finding out."

"So you just ignored me?! You guys couldn't have interacted with me and just not told me about whatever you're planning?!"

Jimin looked down, ashamed. "You're right, we should've kept in touch regardless."

"That at least would've been a hell of a lot less suspicious. Maybe it's the rest of you who suck at keeping secrets," I huffed as I narrowed my eyes at him. "Can't even plan to make plans without raising suspicions."

"Mirae," Jimin began carefully. "I totally understand why you're so upset..."

"I swear to god, Jiminie, if you say 'but'..."

"But," he continued cautiously, despite my previous statement. A deep scowl set itself on my face. "It seems almost excessive. Is something else going on?"

Tears suddenly stung the backs of my eyes. One of them finally bothered to ask, and my resolve to be angry and angry only immediately crumbled. It was frustrating, but I guess my loneliness was more bothersome at this point.

"My mom's not here," I said quietly. "She said it was a business trip, and she left on Sunday." I turned away from Jimin, not wanting to appear weak. I knew I was about to cry, and as soon as I opened my mouth again, I did. "I've been all alone since Sunday."

Instantly, there were arms around me. Jimin pulled me down onto the bed and I buried my face into his shoulder. He was silent until I managed to calm my tears.

"I'm so sorry," he said quietly. "We didn't know."

"I know you didn't," I said, my voice muffled against his shoulder. "I didn't think it would matter because I fully expected us all to hang out this week. We always spend spring vacation together."

"I wish you would have told us."

I pulled back and looked at him, suddenly irritated again. "Would it have made a difference? Seems like your planning was pretty damn important."

He sighed. "Of course it would have made a difference."

I scoffed. They all knew how mom was on a good day, which was a piss poor excuse for company, let alone a parent. They'd left me to be on my own whether she was there or not.