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Considering there was nothing left to lose, Iris Kepley let Jaemin convince her that "one heck of a seamstress" could patch together Xuxi's halved jacket. It didn't help that the rest of school she was just a heap of a damn mess.
The fabric was limp and weak against her chest as she hugged it all the way back to her house while Jaemin followed behind on bike.
The bus tumbled against uneven asphalt, making her stomach churn and growl in protest. The whole situation just made her want to dry heave. What made it even more sick was that she knew Jeno's tummy was happy as a lark and content that Iris wasn't there to give it rubs if he ever had bellyache.
"What do you mean, 'you never learned how to ride a bike'?" Jaemin exasperated after Iris had jogged across the street to meet him in his front yard. The helmet with a lizard sticker on the side hung on the handlebars of a bicycle much smaller than Jaemin's. He didn't drag his little bike from elementary school out of the shed just to have Iris fumble an excuse as to why she couldn't follow him to wherever the hell the seamstress was.
"I think it's best that you don't make me anymore upset than I already am," Iris bit back, hugging the torn denim to her chest even tighter. Her classmate held back the want to roll his eyes.
"Fine," Jaemin huffed, turning on the ball of his right foot to pace back to the shed for a clumsy idea. "Don't move!" He held up a finger while continue walking, and despite his demand, Iris considered fleeing back to her room to call her mom and beg that she take her out of the country. (Poor choice there, Iris. Your dad only lets Mom have you on her days.)
Iris sat her bum in the dying grass until Jaemin's silhouette came closer than closer. A circle of jump rope hung on one shoulder while a rusty, red wagon followed where he was dragging it by one hand.
"What the hell is that?" Iris immediately inquired, standing to her feet and brushing off her ass. Jaemin parked the wagon while raising an eyebrow at her.
"A wagon?" He crouched to the ground while tying one end of the rope to the back of his bike. With a quick glance over his shoulder, he chirped to Iris.
"Sit."
"Sit?"
"Sit."
Iris' gaze followed to where the other end of the rope was being tied to the handle of the wagon. Her mind went straight to the amount of potholes littering the road and her hand flew out to grab Jaemin's sleeve.
He lifted his head to glance at Iris' startled expression while yanking his limb back where it rightfully belonged. "Iris, take a seat, will ya? Don't you think Xuxi wants those unholy rags back?"
"I'm not riding that! I'll steal Dad's keys! Here—" Iris threw the tattered garments at Jaemin where they ended up draping over him like a ghost. "Just wait for me. It's been a couple months since I tried retaking the driving test—"
He pulled the jean jacket off his head and grabbed ahold of Iris' fleeing hand. "Can you breathe for half a second? You're not gonna die or anything, and if you do so happen to get a scrape, check it out." He positioned himself onto one knee and dug around in the pocket of his school blazer. "See?"
His hand lifted to reveal an unwrapped Scooby Doo bandaid (or plaster, if you're not in America). It still had the paper on the back, but Iris wrinkled her nose.
"It's not even sterile."
"We gotta save time somehow," Jaemin explained, shoving the bandage back in his pocket before standing up. "You spit on the cut and I slap on Scooby. Now... get in." On that note, Jaemin plopped on a toy construction hat from his five-year-old days onto Iris's head and gestured towards the wagon.
Iris eyed the empty cart with wary, her classmate already positioning his tush onto the seat of the bike.
She swallowed. "Promise this'll be over in a few hours."
"Ten minutes top," Jaemin reassured, putting the sole of shoe into one pedal.
So, as expected, Iris racked through her choices of what she had to lose, and none of them seemed worthy enough to convince her not to get in the wagon. So on they went, the mission of knocking on the seamstress' door was at bay.
