ELECTRIC ϟ LEE HAECHAN

fifty three

"Is everything alright in there?"

Minseo couldn't differentiate who's voice it was. Her body trembled on the cold tiles of the restroom, curled up with her knees against her chest. No matter how hard she shut her eyes, the pain didn't subside. She sucked in uneven breaths that didn't reach her lungs and was turning pale as seconds flew by. The rattling of the door handle spiked even more panic in her system, scurrying back onto her feet.

She gripped the edge of the sink, pushing her weight onto the marble she swore she could break with the unintentional force she put upon it. "I-I'm just washing my hands!" she mustered up enough energy through the aching pain to say, shakily reaching for the sink handle. The water hitting the surface echoed in her ears for a moment, ringing at an unpleasant volume. Desperate to snap out of what seemed like a never ending nightmare, her palms reached into the lukewarm liquid, splashing it onto her face with a gasp.

And just like that, the pain came to a halt.

Taking in more breathy gasps, she rubbed her eyes to remove all the excess water, looking up to see some sort of normalcy. Both her eyes had turned blue and of course it wasn't ideal, but it was enough for her to pace her heart rate. Minseo wiped herself off, hurriedly taking a last glance at herself before unlocking the door. To her surprise, Renjun was bouncing in place off of each of his feet, hands to his crotch with a pained expression much like hers from earlier. "I seriously need to piss." he shoved her out of the way, slamming the door behind him.

Momentarily taken aback from everything that just happened, she was frozen at the door. She could barely process the unbearable sensation that she had just experienced, shuddering at the simple remembrance. As always, multiple questions popped up in her head. The curiosity never failed to follow after her unearthly experiences, but it was awful to have more things to unravel. Before she could delve too deep into her thoughts, the sound of Renjun's toilet time rung her out of them, face contorting into a grossed out look.

Out of embarrassment and just to simply avoid any questions being asked, she greeted everyone in the living area with a brief smile and headed straight to the back door. Thankfully, the dads were far too busy grilling even more, so they settled for a simple wave. She lousily returned it, pulling her hoodie closer to her figure. Finally, she felt like she could breathe. Though, it wasn't necessarily a fresh breath. It was those seconds of recovery after getting your head dunked into a pool, burning in your nostrils and eyes widened at the shock. A tickle in her neck was felt, and she shriveled up at the touch.

It seemed like she couldn't catch a break. Pulling the hood over her head, she walked further out near the river. It was like a siren luring her over, the force like an entrancing tune. She stopped before her feet could reach the strip of sand and looked out into the vast body. Yet again, a cold breath huffed onto her neck, this time flinching at the suddenness through her warm fabric. She turned around abruptly and looked for anyone playing tricks on her. As expected, it was just a bunch of adults that were, thankfully, too occupied to pay attention to her antics. Instead of a sigh of relief, her lips pressed into a thin line, glancing over at the lake again.