on the day the mirror broke . kth

07 | FIGURE IT OUT

Sumin had been feeling off-balance for two weeks.

It was like someone had taken her centre of gravity and skewed it on its side, or replaced her skin with a body that was a size too small. There was a persisting roughness in her interactions with the world and she did not like it one bit.

Nothing had really changed, except everything had - 'everything' meaning the new dynamic in her relationship with one Kim Taehyung, and the strange blankness Seonhi would slip into every now and then. The first she was planning on avoiding addressing for as long as possible, but the latter and been left for long enough.

Ever since the situation at Jinyoung's party, Seonhi would fall into moments of thoughtful silence. This was nothing new, but usually Sumin can tell that she's simply thinking, whereas now it was different. Lately, she seemed muted and washed-out - like pressed flowers; still as pretty, but the weight of her thoughts hung heavy on her.

As for Taehyung... Nope nope nope, I can figure that out later.

What did matter right now was Seonhi.

Almost like she heard Sumin's thoughts, Seonhi waves her and the three boys over to seats she had saved, popping herself onto a desk with a sweet grin. "So. Joonie and I have been talking and—"

"Behind our backs?" Yoongi pretends to be scandalised, goggling at the others and making awkward eye-contact with an unimpressed Sumin. "You're a biTCH SEON!"

Seonhi gives him a mock-weary sigh. "Shut up Yoon, unless you want me to rip your tiny shrimp-dick off. FUCKTARD!"

"It's not tiny! Dicks shrivel up when it's cold, woman, don't diss my majestic peen! You could only duh-ream of a dick this big!" Yoongi pouts at her, only for her to return the gesture with a poke to his cheek.

"Don't try to fight the facts and just accept that it's tiny. Plus, size doesn't matter baby, it's how you use it that counts." She winks at him, making him flop back into his seat with a flustered sputter.

"Anyway." Sumin, having had years to get used to the way Yoongi and Nam Joon pushed Seonhi's buttons to get a reaction out of her, steers the conversation back to what it was supposed to be. "Seon, you were saying?"

"Yeah, uhm. Joon and I were thinking that since we have to get into groups for music, it should be the five of us. Joon on the chikky-chikky, Yoon on keyboard, Min on drums and me on vocals because my only other option is the triangle, how sad. Tae, do you play anything? If you've got a nice voice, you can sing I guess, and I'll learn basic bass or something."

"First of all," starts Nam Joon, dutifully ignoring Seonhi's hand carding through his hair to give her a glare, "it's not called the chikky-chikky, it's a turntable. Second of all, Tae? Is that what we're calling him now?"

Seonhi flips her hair over her shoulder, accidentally swiping Sumin in the face with it but not noticing. "Well, that's what I'm calling him because obviously I love him and you give people you love nicknames. As friends though, calm down."

Taehyung, who was beginning to visibly panic after hearing the word 'love', breaths a sigh of relief. "Okay. Then Tae's alright, I guess. Um, as for instruments... It's been a while since I last played, but I have a saxophone at home."

Cue the surprise from everyone but Sumin - on Jinyoung's balcony, he had told her that he'd played the saxophone since primary school, but had to stop two years ago for some reason. From the way he said it, it had seemed to Sumin that he hadn't wanted to stop, but now he had a soft, happy tilt on his lips as he answered Seonhi's relentless questions about his saxophone playing.