Detach

1. Loco

Mirae felt like she was cursed. It was the only logical explanation. Surely no one could be this unlucky.

Rubbing at the forming bruise on her shin that she had gotten when making contact with the bathroom doorway, she knew she would have to ignore the ache for now. Mirae had to get ready for work. She had already slept through her alarm and ran the risk of incurring the wrath of her boss for what was sure to be the hundredth time. Whenever something went wrong at the museum, Mirae was always the one that got the short end of the stick. Being late would just give her boss unnecessary fuel for the fire.

"Kismet, you have a bed. Why do you always camp outside the bathroom door?" asked Mirae as she turned to look at her gray and white speckled cat who sat innocently staring at her from the other side of the doorway. "You made me trip."

Shaking her head with a tsk, Mirae turned to start running water for her shower before beginning to undo the elastic that tied her hair back. Throwing the elastic at the sink counter, she quickly shut the door before hopping in the shower. Almost immediately she let out a yelp due to the water not being quite warm enough yet. Meanwhile - out in the heart of the apartment - her cell phone started to ring on the kitchen table. The chorus of "Loco" by Itzy began blaring out loud and clear.

"MIRAE, YOUR PHONE IS RINGING!" shouted her roommate and brother as he let out a groan from where he laid on his bed. He had been having such sweet dreams before her phone started ringing.

'I swear if Mirae gets that song stuck in my head again...' he thought, already finding the tune circulating in his mind.

Letting out a louder groan, he grabbed his pillow and tried to box it about his head like glorified earplugs as Kismet walked into the room to look at the adult throwing a fit like a child.

"MIRAE GET YOUR STUPID PHONE!" he yelled again.

When there was nothing to answer his call except the continuing ringtone and the sound of running water, he sat up with a groan and tossed his pillow aside. Throwing his feet over the side of the bed and cramming his feet into his slippers, he walked out of his bedroom and down the hall to the kitchen table where the phone's screen was still lit up.

'How long does that ringtone last?' he groaned internally as he picked it up and looked at the caller ID.

"Hornet Lady?" he asked out loud with a snort.

Amused by the name and relieved that the phone had finally stopped ringing, he walked down the hall to the bathroom where he could hear the shower had just turned off. Standing outside the door, he moved to rap a knuckle against it.

"Mirae, your phone was ringing while you were washing up and woke me from my beauty sleep."

"Oh...who was it?"

"Hornet lady?"

His brows both shot sky high when he heard her start listing off substitute swear words as she got ready. He could clearly tell that that one summer with the swear jar had definitely scarred her. After one more utterance of 'flipping son of a rooster', the bathroom door flew open. He stared at the face of his younger sister, not able to keep the small smirk from flicking across his face.

"I think your shirt is on backwards."

"What?"

Looking down, she saw that he was right. The tag of her blouse was tickling the underside of her chin.

"I'm going to go crazy!" she muttered as she backed up into the bathroom and shut the door to fix her shirt.

"You might even say you're loco like your ringtone," he remarked as she re-emerged from the bathroom.