Innocence // STRAY KIDS' Han Jisung

sixteen

In which there's a home-day.

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It didn't matter how many times she kept asking herself how she ended up being sick, she still couldn't find the answer.

On Tuesday's morning, she had woken up with a sore throat with her body feeling loose. Even so, she went to school and somehow managed to take notes on classes while she felt like her head might blow out in any minute due to a huge headache that started after the morning recess.

By the time she arrived home, her nose was runny and had a bit of fever. Poor Jeongin hadn't known what to do, and he made sure to take her safely home before going to his despite Mirae's constant assurance of being just a bit sick. But when she almost fell while crossing the street to go to her house, she accepted the younger boy's company and gave him as a reward a bag of cookies she found on her bag that she hadn't eaten earlier.

But the next day, oh boy, she could barely breathe.

Her nose was completely obstructed, her legs and arms felt weak and she complained of being cold while there were sunrays coming through her window.

She had to convince her mother to not miss a work day just to stay taking care of her, despite having a coughing attack in the middle of her argument. In the end, with her father having to interfere in the conversation, her mother agreed on going to work but she had to inform her about her state every once in a while.

"And you have to eat your medicine, eat the food I left in the microwave and drink lots of fluids, doesn't matter if it is just plain water, you understand?"

"Mom, don't worry," she murmured and sniffled, "I've been sick before. If I need anything I'll call you, I promise."

"How can I leave you when you don't even want to cook when you're healthy," her mother had argued while shaking her head.

Her father had rolled her eyes behind her mother and gently pulled her out of the room while telling Mirae to take care of herself.

"Remember to call me at lunch!" her mother had exclaimed from the hall as Mirae rolled under her covers, trying to get as warm as she could.

However, at around ten she fell asleep and didn't wake up until two in the afternoon.

As she removed the covers off of her sweaty body, she grabbed her phone and gasped at the seven missed calls from her mother and three from her father.

"Crap, they're going to kill me," she whispered as her fingers quickly tapped on her mother's contact for a call.

It didn't even rang twice before her mother's voice spoke, "Why weren't you answering your phone? I called seven times! Does your phone not ring or something?"

"I was asleep, and no, I keep it in silence most of the times since I'm always at school."

"Well, you're at home today. Raise the volume or something, I was so worried. Jeez, what if something had happened to me or your father while you were sleeping? Or what if something had happened to you without us knowing..."

Mirae rolled her eyes and leaned her head to her side, knowing she was about to have another lecture of her mother. As if she didn't had enough ones on her everyday basis.

As much as she loved and cared for her mother, there were times when Mirae wished she could just mute her mom's blabbering and scolding; out of the seven days of the week, at least three of them she was scolded by either her father or her mother, and when everything was conspiring against her, there were days were both of them would scold her and yell and get mad and even threaten to take her phone away just because she had forgotten to do something so mundane like washing the dishes or picking up her clothes from the floor when she showered.