Stolen Reality ✓

6. Dancer

   Mom is waiting at the front door, looking furious. Her arms are crossed and her mouth is set in a thin line. I slowly get out of the car and shuffle my way towards her.

"So you try to tell me you're sick, when really you're just going to sneak out of the house and just leave?" She growls.

"Mom, please-" I begin to implore.

But Mom isn't listening. "Are you really feeling alright? Saturday you said you were sick, and you looked sick. But now..." She shakes her head. "What's going on, Nari? Are you being bullied at school? Is that why you don't want to go to school?"

"Huh? No." I shake my head in surprise at the turn our conversation just had. "Why do you think that?"

"It's just that you never seem to have very many friends," Mom says, light brown eyes that mirrored mine filled with uncertainty. "Your father and I have become a little worried."

"I have friends," I reply blankly.

"Sure, those girls you hang out during lunch at school. You've told me about them a bit, but they don't seem to be very close to you," the former anger in Mom has disappeared, in its place a protective mother wanting to understand her daughter.

I gulp. In the old reality, I always hung out with Yun-ji, but I also had a group of girls I sat with lunch at at times. And if they were the same girls in this reality that Mom is talking about, then yes, I'm not very close to them at all. They are just friends I like to goof around with sometimes and talk to.

"I'm not bullied Mom," is all I say.

Mom is exasperated, I can tell. "Then what it is it?" She throws her hands in the air. "Do you just not want to go to school? Besides, where did you even go?"

"Seoul Institute of the Arts," I say slowly.

Mom's eyes widen, then narrow. "Why?"

I'm at loss for words. "I need to figure something out," I tell her vaguely.

"Does this have to do with the school club you were talking about? BTS or something like that?"

"Basically."

Mom huffs, annoyed with my cryptic responses. "I didn't know you were involved in any clubs."

"I joined a while ago." Not exactly a lie. I had joined the BTS fandom about a year ago. Fandom, club, same thing, right?

"So is one of the requirements of the club something to do with skipping school?" Mom looks at me drily.

"It's a research project."

Mom heaves a sigh. "I already called the school and you've been dismissed a week," she say, the hardness in her voice returning. "You do whatever you want with this week, but I don't want to see any of your grades drop a single percent when you go back, or there will be consequences."

I nod. "Yes, Mom."

Mom looks at me fiercley for a few more minutes before brushing past me to go to work.

I twist my hands together. I feel horrible, at the same time excited. I now have the full week off to try and see if I can find all the boys. After that, I don't know how I'll manage to reunite them with school going on, because when Mom actually threatens me, she means it.

I stand in the doorway, debating what my next move will be. I had to tell Jungkook and Jimin that I needed to leave this morning, but we had agreed to meet tomorrow in the morning to drive over to Konkuk University. Jungkook is going to stick with me for a little while like he promised, and Jimin is interested in meeting Kim Seokjin. But both are at school now and I don't have anything else to do today. I don't feel like going into the house, so I get back into the car and begin to drive.