ꜱᴀɴᴛᴀ'ꜱ ꜱᴏɴ ♔ ɴᴏᴍɪɴ

♔25

"Oh? Well what do we have here young lady?" 

Dongbaek laughed as she was caught red-handed. A little game of hide-and-seek with a 7 year old Dongbaek that got hungry in the middle of it.

Her mother huffed and crossed her arms, although no one would mistake the look in her eyes - fondness.

"Yes, you were very discreet about stealing a bite of Grandma's cupcakes, weren't you?" 

She rolled her eyes when her daughter nodded in agreement, the frosting at the corner of her lips already starting to slide off. Very discreet, indeed.

She took a piece of tissue and handed it to Dongbaek, and she wiped the frosting off of her face. Honestly, who was this child fooling. 

Then her mother reached out and poked the girl's forehead gently, "Haha, you're caught now."

"Mom! That's not fair!" Dongbaek argued, but her mother was already running away. 

"Wait for me!" She hadn't even thrown away her tissue yet.

Originally a few metres ahead,  her mother  had gone to 200 metres in front of her while the girl was stumbling to keep up with her pace.

"Mom!" She panted. "Wait up! You're going too fast!" If she heard anything, Dongbaek's mother didn't respond. Her back and hypnotically swishing ponytail disappeared so far ahead until there was nothing but dark. 

Dark was cold and shivering. Choking and bleak. Suffocating enough that she couldn't breathe, grasping at her neck for hands that weren't there. 

Dongbaek woke up with her body tangled in the sheets and her hair stuck to her uncomfortably sweaty forehead, chest heaving like it hadn't been a dream. In her right hand, a part of the blanket was bundled up and squeezed tight by her fist. 

Like where the tissue was.

She took in generous gulps of air and stared around the room. It was dark. Not as dark as it had been in her dream, until it was drowning, but enough for her to be scared. 

Dongbaek pulled the blanket tighter over herself as she sat up with her back propped to the pillow against the head of the bed. In this position, she could better see her surroundings. Observe her surroundings.

Was that movement in the corner? Was the darkness growing bigger? Why did it seem darker than it was before?! Paranoia kicked in at full speed, the thick tension and anticipation that something would happen and fear of it grasped Dongbaek in its grip. 

She wished her mother was here with her. 

♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔

Jaemin woke up that night by a knocking on his door. Groggily, he rubbed his eyes to clear his sleep-blurred vision and opened the door, ready to give a snarky remark to whoever interrupted his blissful sleep.

"Dongie?" 

The girl fiddled with the loose strings at the corner of the blanket wrapped around her shoulders. "I couldn't sleep," she muttered, and Jaemin made a worried face. She'd been sleeping fairly well since they got here, as far as he knew. 

He quickly opened the door wider to make space for her to come in and led her to his bed. There was more than enough room for another person, a small child like Dongbaek held no issue.

"Wanna talk about it?"

She shook her head. Fair enough.

"Want any midnight snacks? Something to drink?"