city lights - jaemin

14

"Wake up micha."
Her father said, shaking her until her eyes blinked open a few times. She groaned, reaching for her phone and read the time.
5 am.

She looked up to her father who had switched her light on and was standing by the door. "Today you will go to school early."

Before micha could question him, he walked downstairs. Micha took that as her cue to get up and get ready for school despite it being 2 hours before she could normally wake up.

She dressed into her uniform and put her hair into a normal pony tail and a ribbon tied into a bow around the hair tie. She did light make up and walked down stairs with a smile, just like her parents wished her to do when they see her.

"Why am I going to school early?"
She questioned once she entered the kitchen. she saw her mother cutting up some fruit and putting it into a container. It was still dark outside and there was no light yet and the sun was not meant to rise for at least another hour.

"You will be practicing your swimming"
Her father said, eating his cereal as he sat back down at the dinner table. Micha raised an eyebrow, looking to her father.
"I have practice today after school-"
She was cut off however, and decided to keep quiet after that. "I want you to practice in the mornings as well from now on."

Micha held back a shocked expression as best as she could, just widening her eyes slightly as she looked down at the fruit in the container. She nodded her head, hearing a pleased "good" coming from her father. Her mother smiled at her for a split second. The type of smile she only received when she followed their orders well.

"If you don't want to walk to school early in the morning by yourself, we can see if jaemin will walk with you."
Her mother said, putting the knife down and placing the last of the fruits into the container. she closed the lid and handed it to Micha.

"At 5 in the morning?"
Micha said, confusion laced through her voice. Her mother just turned to her and looked at her with a serious expression.
"a gentleman would."

A teenager who goes to sleep late a night due to studies and games wouldn't. She didn't even want to, but with her parents, she had no choice.
"I'll be fine."

☁️

She was indeed not fine. walking in the cold morning air, with the dark skies surrounding her and only the street lights gave her some light. She could see where she was going obviously, but it was creepy to be out alone. Yet somehow, it was relaxing. It was even better when she arrived to the school grounds and saw that a few other students were there, studying in the library. The school opened at 5:30am for the students, who can't study after school, to study in the morning. It was definitely helpful, but she didn't want to be apart of the group that woke up at 5am to practice and study.

Micha pushed the swimming doors open and saw a different coach, doing some work. She was known as the morning coach, as she worked the hours before Micha's coach arrived. micha greeted her politely and walked into a changing room. She changed out of her uniform and into her swimming bathers. She was grateful majority of the makeup she owned was water proof, otherwise she would be swimming with messed up make up. Of course though, she was prepared and brought her makeup and wipes just incase.

She walked to the pool, thankful that it was instead and heated to a comfortable temperature. She put her bag down on the seats and stood at one end of the pool. She got into position and dived into the water feeling relaxed now by the heated water. She swam comfortably for a few minutes, before swimming more competitively.

She kept a board with paper on it and wrote down her time of how long each lap took. She had a goal she wanted to reach and that was her best time last year. She knew it was going to take a long time to reach that goal with how she was going now. And with her parents pushing her to work harder, she couldn't tell if it was going to tire her out more, or improve her skills.