Bright Eyes and Hair Dye

4. (title undecided)

"Do-Hyeon, you need to sleep," she said, breathing out through her nose to keep herself from yelling. "Your work will still be there in the morning, and you'll probably work better when you're running on more than two or three hours of sleep."

An indignant snort sounded from her phone's speaker.

"I'm the older one here, you know. I should be telling you these things," he joked, but she could hear the tiredness creeping into his voice.

"You can tell me them tomorrow, when-"

"Oh, shoot, I almost forgot why I actually called you," Do-Hyeon cut her off.

"Why'd you call, then?" she asked, an amused smile on her face.

"When you come to Seoul, can you please bring some of those donuts from Sweet Maggie's? That one bakery near your University. I swear I'll die if I can never taste another one of the maple donuts again."

What? "Your brain's gotta be a lot more sleep-deprived than I thought if you're calling me from the studio at three in morning just to ask for some donuts. And I'm pretty sure that, even if I did try to bring you donuts, they'd get confiscated at customs."

She was momentarily distracted by the opening of the bathroom door.
Da-Eun had apparently finally turned her music off at some point in their conversation, and was now ready to go as she had moved to put her shoes on.

"I need to go now, Do-Hyeon. Da-Eun and I are going grocery shopping," she said, copying Da-Eun and putting her own sneakers on. "And you need to get some sleep. Maybe Maggie's maple donuts will visit you in your dreams, because unless you fly out here, that's the only way you're getting them."

"I hate you," came the grumbling reply. But there was no bite in his tone, and the three words he said were the opposite of those he meant.

She grinned into the phone. "I hate you, too. Now get some sleep! Good night, Do-Hyeon."

"Mmmhmm... Night," he replied.

The loser's already falling asleep, she thought, still smiling.

She pressed the END CALL button, shoving her phone back into her jacket pocket, before actually putting the jacket on, and being careful not to jostle her shoulder too much as she did so.

"Was that your brother?" Da-Eun asked, opening the door.

"Yeah, it was. He was calling about donuts."

"Isn't it, like, four in the morning there now, though?" Her roommate's expression morphed into one of incredulity. "Why the hell is he calling to ask about donuts at four in the morning?"

"I know right? That's what I said," she laughed, thinking about her brother's tired voice as he made his request for maple donuts. "We'll have to stop at Sweet Maggie's on the way back from the store. We can eat the donuts for him and pretend that he's there with us in spirit."

~~*~~

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, girl! Get your ass up out of bed! We're supposed to be meeting the others in, like, ten minutes, and you're not even awake!"

If I wasn't awake, then I am now, she thought, groaning and pulling her blanket over her head.

"Five more minutes.." she mumbled.

"Five minutes, my ass!" Da-Eun shouted, yanking her blanket back down. "Next it'll be ten, then twenty, and the next thing you know, it's tomorrow already."

"Ughhhhh...." she groaned, rolling over and pressing her face into her pillow, willing herself to go back to sleep.
But Da-Eun was on a warpath.