ROOM OF MIRRORS° h.sj

012

suho followed the group of guys following jugyeong and seojun into the dead end. the only people he found were a half dozen boys that looked like they hadn't taken a shower in days.

"why'd you follow us?"

"he goes to saebom too."

"are you seojun's friend?" he showed obvious disgust at the last comment.

sumin pointed at suho who was now surrounded and seojun just shrugged his shoulders, "not my problem." she remembered that he was a martial arts prodigy, so she just leaned back against the wall and watched until he finished them off.

she checked her phone and it hadn't even been five minutes before they all laid on the ground or ran away. they stepped out of their hiding spot and walked up to him.

"are you stupid?" sumin started off. he looked at the two of them like they had four arms.

"where's jugyeong?"

"at the karaoke place? where else would she be."

"she ran out with seojun."

"i ran out with him, we were going to get dinner."

"oh," suho looked around the alley trying to find something else to say to dig himself out of the grave of embarrassment.

sumin looked at seojun, who was glaring at the awkwardly standing guy. "wanna come to dinner with us?"

they both answered, "no!" one louder than the other, before she could even finish the question. she put her hands up and backed away out of the alley. once seojun didn't come out after her, she walked back in.

"do you jugyeong?" sumin recognized this as seojun's voice.

"what about you, do you like her?" she rounded the corner to stop a potential fight, and she'd rather not hear his answer.

"i think i might."

sumin paused right behind seojun, whose back was to her. suho looked directly at her with what she could tell was pity. her sister may have seen him as a love interest, but him and sumin had more of a platonic, sibling relationship that continued until he shoved everyone out of his life. from years of quiet observation, she didn't doubt that he knew about her feelings for seojun.

she immediately held her breath and turned out of the alley. to hell with dinner. sumin entered the karaoke bar that still held the tone deaf singers to grab her school bag, and stormed out before anyone noticed.

just what was so good about her? is it because she's nice? is it because she's pretty? is it because she's an idiot? sumin bit at the insides of her cheek at the bus stop as she tried to find just one thing to hate about her. she wondered if she could silently hate her existence even if there was nothing to hate.

it wasn't like she led seojun on, it wasn't like she went out of her way for him. sumin just couldn't wrap her head around it. absolutely nothing was jugyeong's fault, and sumin hated that she had no one to blame.

the bus pulled up along the sidewalk and she pressed her bus card to the scanner to pay for the ride. she ended up deciding to sit in the back instead of the middle in order to mope without people staring.

a figure sat directly next to her, so she moved closer to window. the person moved over again, so she moved farther. eventually she was squished against the window and looked up.

"do you need something, suho?"

"i don't understand why you like him."

"he's hot." she wasn't lying, he was.

"that's it?"

"of course not, he's nice to me." sumin thought about the times in middle school when seojun would find her first and invite her out to play a game or eat lunch with him and his friends. in middle school was probably when she struggled the most with her family situation, so having someone like him kept her stable.

"that's it?"

"does there need to be anymore? he's good to me and that's all that matters."

"he was probably just saying it to spite me," he tried to console her.

"stop talking to me about it or i'll sob," she answered blankly as the window looked extremely interesting. sumin's hand reached for her rubber band and snapped it a few times against her wrist in boredom.

suho's hand slapped her wrist, "stop it."

"what are you, my mother?" she set her hands back down on her lap and waited for the ride to be over. sumin decided to end the silence and ask another question, more for sujin's sake than hers. "do you like jugyeong?"

the silence was all she needed to slouch down and try to come up with ways to avoid seojun until she got over her silly middle school feelings.