paper cranes | ✔️

xl.

even though she's the one you like more,

and even though none of these feelings are reciprocated,

the attention you give me

makes me feel like 

i'm the one you want.

✕

The monitor beeped faintly, indicating that her little brother was still alive. Mae held his hands as she softly snored, the hospital tray filled with food next to her, unattended. She grumbled softly as she woke up to her phone ringing, wondering who it was.

"Hello?" she asked groggily, and was greeted by the voices of her friends. 

"Hey, how are you holding up?" one of them asked. (Mae was simply too tired and so she didn't try to figure out who it was.)

"'M okay. Could be better," she replied softly, still rubbing circles on her brother's hands as he slept soundly. After a few minutes of school and homework updates, Mae sighed, and Toad got ready to end the call.

"Wait, Mae! Take care of yourself, alright?" Jasper asked, worry present in his tone. She mumbled a quiet "yeah" and then hung up, slumping in the seat and putting her heads in her hands. Moments later, her parents and several medical personnel walked in, talking in hushed tones about the situation. 

"Doctor, is he going to be alright?" she asked softly, on the verge of tears. It had already been half a week and Jiao was nowhere near recovering—still stuck in the hospital bed with frequent asthma attacks.

"He will be. After doing some more tests, we've realized that it's pneumonia, and he will take longer for him to recover," the doctor reassured, "though had we noticed earlier he would be okay by now," they muttered under their breath. Mae shot him a glare, as the comment didn't go unnoticed, but there was no point fighting them or yelling at them because that wasn't going to help her brother get better at all. They left the room, and her mother sat in front of her, holding her hands as tears spilled from their faces.

"Mae, get some sleep, alright? Dad will take you home, and you can take some rest. I'll watch over him tonight," her mom said, using her thumb to wipe a tear from Mae's face.

"A-alright," Mae conceded after some heavy thinking and grabbed her stuff before leaving with her father. The ride home with her dad was tense—not because there was animosity, but because they were so worried about Jiao and that was the only thing occupying their minds. He pulled up in front of a small house, and Mae looked at him confusedly.

"Dad, this isn't our house, you know that right?" He sighed.

"Yeah. I want you to spend some time with your friends. Toad's family isn't here right now, so he's staying with the Sinhas and I thought you could do with some friendly company, especially because there's so much going on now. I know that you might not want to see them right now, but hanging out will them make you feel a little better for some time, alright?" Mae nodded, clutching her backpack straps and trying to fight the tears that were threatening to escape her eyes once again.

"Hey, star, don't cry. Everything is going to be okay, and Jiao is going to get better. I have to get going now, otherwise mom's gonna worry. Call me before you sleep, okay? See you later," he said, before giving Mae a warm hug and pulling out of the driveway.

She apprehensively stood in front of the Sinha household, unsure whether she should ring the doorbell or not, but before she could, Jasper opened the door, his bedhead still visible despite having gone to school with everyone else. Mae couldn't help but smile. Cute, she thought. 

He looked at her once, taking in her appearance; her prominent eyebags, sunken cheeks, messy hair and his gaze softened. He took a step closer to her, and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in for a hug. She relaxed and soon her tears began to fall again, making his blue shirt wet and despite her being a crying mess, he stayed there, head resting atop hers as she cried her heart out.

✕

okay, the pneumonia wasn't super significant, but it did allow for this cute hug between mae and jasper! 

i'm having a few problems with the book, unfortunately, because i want to write certain scenes but they make more sense for mae rather than minhee but the scenes have minhee in them. so i'll try to figure it out.

idk if this is a good ending to the chapter either lol but i suck at ending things you know. also because i'm a terrible writer and i have a lot to improve on. but i'll admit that a lot of these chapters are much better than my beginning chapters.

yeap.

- daze