second lead. | 정원

chapter 72.

lxxii.

Elephant pajamas.

Shark slides.

Choi Yunseo.

Those were the first three words that popped into Mira's mind upon seeing her classmate. Yunseo was dressed in her grey elephant pajamas, her hair was tied up into a side ponytail secured with a royal blue scrunchie, and her bare feet were covered with a pair of shark slides. Mira admired the way Yunseo had no ounce of embarrassment being dressed like that so out in the open. Maybe she should try going out like that as well. That would be fun.

Her slippers are cute too.

"Yunseo? What are you doing here?" Mira questioned.

The girl pointed at one of the houses behind her with her thumb, "I recently moved here. So uh... I'm assuming that tiny Santa is your brother? I saw him from my window and he ran away after I caught him," Yunseo explained, rubbing her eyes. "Would you mind telling him to stop?"

"He's been doing that for the past ten— no, fifteen minutes," Mira trailed off, looking over her shoulder to find said boy moving from one house to another. She didn't know what Hyunjoo's objective was but the next house he came across had a large Dobermann situated at the front porch. Hyunjoo was scared of dogs. "I tried to, really. He won't listen to me and I don't even know why he's doing that."

"Then, tell him to go to E18," Yunseo suggested, confusing Mira with the information. Before she could question it though, Yunseo cupped her mouth with her hands and shouted, "GO TO E18, KIDDO!"

Jeon Hyunjoo halted and looked over his shoulder, keeping his eyes on the two girls. Processing the words inside his head, he understood what Yunseo meant. Although reluctant at first as he hardly knew who the elephant-pajama-female was, his gut was telling him to comply so he found himself running past the next few houses and went straight to unit E18 by checking the number plaques.

"Don't worry, I didn't lead him to his death or something," Yunseo assured after noticing Mira's worried expression, "Let's follow him," She forced, pulling the girl's arm and running after the tiny Santa who had disappeared around the corner.

Soon enough, the girls found the young lad standing in front of a familiar house — The Yang family's residence.

Truth untold, even if Mira had slept over at Jungwon's house before, she didn't really pay attention to his house number. She did remember what it looked like though. She would never forget the creepy gnome standing menacingly outside in the front yard holding a mini axe. She gulped upon making eye contact with the inanimate object, feeling as if it would come to life at any moment.

"Mira noona!" Hyunjoo called as his face was pressed against the window, "I can see hyung," He continued, pressing his face harder against the window. The nine-year-old boy had his eyes glued on Jungwon's figure who was situated in the living room appearing to be conversing with someone. "Noona, a really cute girl is hugging him!" Jeon Hyunjoo exclaimed with a gasp.

"Eh?" Mira blinked.

"He's hugging her back. Oh, they separated. Wait no, another girl came out of a room and now she's hugging him," Hyunjoo narrated with genuine curiosity. Hearing this, Choi Yunseo patted Mira's shoulder after noticing the frown on her face, "There there. I'll punch him for you at school."

The grade-schooler huffed out, his warm breath making fog materialize on the glass, clouding his vision. He quickly drew a smiley face for fun before the fog faded. However, once the condensation disappeared and his vision became clear again, he let out a gasp. "Uh-oh."

Jeon Hyunjoo gulped upon making eye contact with Yang Jungwon. Apparently, the second girl who was hugging his older sister's boyfriend had taken notice of him and informed Jungwon about it. Now, Hyunjoo had to deal with three people staring at him in shock. He wordlessly waved before making another condensation on the window to write a short message.