home, jaemin

chapter forty-two

"it was kinda a dumb decision."

"in the moment! but now, it doesn't even matter."

jiyoung laughed, rolling around in her older friend's bed. "you literally saw the boy that you had a crush on and memorized his school routes?"

nayeon rolled her eyes, "only to stay away from him, seriously. but it's fine now."

"does jeno know?"

"yeah, i told him and he was like 'wow that's crazy i tried staying away from you too cause i was too scared we'd have to talk to each other' or something."

"wow. a perfect couple, i guess."

nayeon smiled, rolling her chair over to the side of her bed and grabbing some more of the buttery popcorn pieces from the bowl sitting in jiyoung's lap.

"we talked through the ending of the movie." jiyoung realized.

"i think he died."

"interesting," jiyoung nodded. her hands clasped the sides of the bowel and sat it on the white nightstand beside the bed, standing up to stretch.

her bones cracked in different places, letting soothing comfort take over her body once again. that was until her left eye began to burn.

the sound of thunder crashing outside the house as water droplets rained down with speed from the sky took both of the girls by surprise, both of them slightly jumping.

when landing back on the ground, jiyoung felt an irritation coming from her right eye- making her eye squint shut as tears began flowing.

"i'll be right back, i think my contacts are a bit irritated from something," she said, walking out of nayeon's room and to the bathroom in the door right next to it.

her hand reached for the handle to close it but before she could touch it, it had already been pushed away. she tried to look away, convincing herself she was just seeing stuff still.

her fingertips brushed the area under her eyes as she pulled the two contact lenses from her eyeballs.

before she could recognize the sound of footsteps coming towards the bathroom, it was already too late.

nayeon walked inside, a bottle in hand. "i think these are eye drops my mom uses for my bro-"

her words cut off as she made eye contact with her panicked friend. jiyoung's hand formed a curve to grasp the bottle but yet again managed to pull it towards herself before even coming in contact with the bottle.

"jiyoung? what just happened-"

"i don't know." jiyoung blurted out. nayeon's eyebrows drew down with a bit of confusion, not understanding how jiyoung couldn't tell what was happening.

"oh-okay." she replied calmly, "just take a deep breath, okay? let's work this out before either of us start freaking out and i have to call the guys over."

"no," jiyoung replied after hearing the hypothetical situation, "no calling or telling the guys. i'll tell you but for now, they can't know. jaemin might know, i don't know. but the others have no idea and i plan on keeping it that way."

jiyoung's chest went up and down as she drew in deep breaths, calming her racing heart and silencing the pounding sound in the back of her head.

thunder clapped outside again, louder than before. nayeon flinched for a second but regained her composure.

she watched in silence, waiting until jiyoung was done to bring the dark-headed girl back to her room. locking the door- nayeon made sure to tell her to keep the contacts out of her eyes so they could rest.

after a minute, she spoke again. "so, do you want to tell me why you've been wearing blue contacts for the last two months? and why you just air bent when you said you were a water bender?"

a harsh breath was drawn in, "okay, i'll start from the beginning."

so she did. jiyoung started from the beginning. or at least in the beginning she was okay with nayeon hearing. how she got accepted into their school and then moved and how her father made her wear contacts and put on a fake identity to keep from getting bullied.

"okay.. so you were just a normal non-bender? and then the other day you went out and accidentally started air bending?"

"yep, that's it." jiyoung sighed.

"maybe you're just a late bloomer?" nayeon reasoned, swirling her chair and opening up her computer to begin typing.

"i mean.. it's possible, i guess. but i've never been one to be too spirit-y? i don't know." she sighed, sitting up and standing over nayeon's desk. "what are you doing?"

"google says it's possible that you're just getting a late start. i texted ms. jinae to see if she knew anything about being a late bloomer to see if it could affect your spirituality."

jiyoung nodded, maybe jinae could help her.