Innocence // STRAY KIDS' Han Jisung

forty three

In which there are
birthday presents.

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Mirae was stressed. The day hadn't even started and she was already stressing out.

How could she forget it? It was May 11th, her best friend's twenty-second birthday! Ever since the beginning of their friendship they both had constantly reminded the other about the importance of celebrating their birthdays.

And she totally forgot about it!

Mirae gasped loudly, her eyes wide when she realized she had not bought anything for her best friend. She quickly removed the covers off and jumped up, running to where she had left her wallet. Well, at least she had money to buy it later.

But she had rehearsal. The girl whined childishly upon realizing she would be running late for Soobin's small party—because she had organized a party of course. That woman would not lose an opportunity to party, especially not since that year her birthday was also on a Friday. It was her perfect opportunity to party.

Mirae rushed to her school bag and slipped inside her wallet, praying that she would remember to buy something right after rehearsal. In moments like that she wished she could just skip school to have enough time to prepare everything—but she had two exams that day so there was no way her mother would allow her to skip.

She did her usual morning routine quickly so she could at least have a little time to write a letter to Soobin for her birthday. Every year they both wrote letters to each other, basically saying nonsense for the first few paragraphs before saying how thankful they were for the other's friendship.

Mirae struggled as she tied her hair in a ponytail, eyeing worriedly at her sneakers on the corner. She kept calculating how much time it would take to tie her shoes as she finished, knowing that she could take long doing simple stuff. She plopped down on her bed as she tied her shoes, her eyes moving around looking for any missing thing she could have forgotten.

As she finished, she jumped up and grabbed the charger from the table on her room, putting it inside her bag knowing she would be late that night. Then she grabbed her phone upon remembering that random message Chan sent her the night before with some things she should bring for that night's party.

"Bathing suit?" she mumbled as she read, her glasses dropping down her nose. She pushed them up as she sighed, leaving her phone on the bed before going to her wardrobe.

However she stopped abruptly, eyes wide in panic as she remembered who Soobin's friends were as well. Crap, Jisung's going to be there. Crap, he's going to see me in a bikini. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.

Her hands were shaking as she took out all of her bathing suits. Sadly none of them were one-piece, otherwise she wouldn't have been that worried about picking one that fit correctly.

"Oh my God, my stretch marks are going to be on full display," she whined.

She snatched a black sports short from her closet and dropped in above the bikinis, trying to choose which one was best. There were four options: an aqua bikini with flowers all over, a black one with white straps, one with the strapless upper part yellow and the lower part green and yellow, and the final one was orange with some small details in different colors and some striped on the back part.

They were all going to sand out just because she would be wearing them, if she had to be honest. As far as she remembered, Mirae's last time at being in a pool was when she was in vacations at fifteen, when she went to Jeju with her family. Ever since then, she had been out on land, away from pools.