Someone to stay || minsung

20

Chapter 20: Sunggie.

"You infected me last night with nostalgia."
Virginia Woolf—

My bathroom has been turned into a water park, the kitchen became a battleground and now my living room is being transformed into a hair salon.

I have messy makeup smeared over my face and my nails are rainbow themed. Soonbok and Hyerin want me to be a unicorn, or so they've said.

When they both yawn in sync, as if they've planned to do it together, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. They're getting tired. It's past 10 pm and no kid should be awake now, so I'll finally put them to bed on Felix's room.

Before I can speak, someone rings the doorbell. The girls look at me, confused. Then, Soonbok's face beams with excitement. "Is Fefi coming?!" she asks, overly excited once again.

The renewed energy spreads like wildfire and now both six year olds are jumping around once again.

I grit my teeth, rest far away from me once again. "I don't think so."

I walk towards the door just to find Jisung on the other side.

Motherfucking Jisung.

With an angry expression, I open the door. "What?" my tone is one of annoyance and I see the brunette's eyebrows furrow.

"I wanted to apologize for before. You told me to leave and I didn't respect it. I just— I don't want to feel better about myself, I just want to sincerely help you out with whatever I can, but I understand that you don't want to have me arou—" he rambles, speaking fast. Really fast.

"Fefi?!" Soonbok and Hyerin run to the entrance, shouting, and hide behind me when they see a person they don't know. "This isn't Fefi."

So clever.

I can practically see Jisung's eyes become little hearts, they would do just that if it wasn't biologically impossible.

The girls tug at my t-shirt. "Who is he?" asks Hyerin.

"No one." I reply, my voice a little harsh.

Jisung looks sad with my response, but the expression is whipped off his face quickly when Soonbok smiles and latches onto his leg. She looks up at him with big, round eyes that shine. "Are you Minmin's friend?"

"I—" he tries yo answer.

"No. He's not my friend." my expression is hard and annoyed, my eyes never leaving his disappointed face.

Soonbok hits me softly. Her eyebrows are cutely furrowed as she tries her best to come off as intimidating. "Don't be mean to him, Minmin! You're making him sad!" then, she turns to look at him again, leaving me with a baffled expression.

I want to protest, get her back inside and close the door on Jisung's nose. How is it fair that I'm the one being scolded by a six year old little sunshine girl when he's the one invading my home?

"What's your name? I'm Soonbokkie!"

Jisung, stupid Jisung, kneels to her level and smiles and the scene is too cute. My heart flips and I want to strangle half of the population right now because, oh my goodness, stupid Han Jisung just made my heart skip a stupid beat. "I'm Sunggie."

Only when Soonbok's eyes start beaming do I realize what's happening. "Sunggie! You're Sunggie!" she jumps and the boy's expression is one of confusion. Hyerin, who's still hiding behind my legs, also looks at her best friend with perplexity. "Minmin, can Sunggie stay?"

"What?" my eyes are as wide as plates. "No, Soonbok. He's not staying."

She pouts. He pouts too. "Please, Minmin! Please!"

Her puppy eyes. Those stupid puppy eyes. I sigh. "Fine, but just for putting you two to bed now. It's late."

The sky, suddenly enraged, apparently, wants to mock me. There's a beam of light and then a loud thunder that resonates all around, making Hyerin and Soonbok quickly latch onto me with a scream. Then, one droplet, two, two thousand. It starts heavily raining out of the blue.

I try to pull Jisung inside the house before he gets too wet under the cold water that pours outside my home, but he still gets drenched just by having stood there for mere seconds.

He's cold, really cold. Just like the night I found him.

I almost curse, but remember the little girls still clinging to my legs like their life depends on it. I remain quiet.

My mind stops functioning for some reason. I can just stare at the small droplets that fall from his hair, can just feel the freezing tips of his fingers curled up in my hand, can just go back to being two years old and helpless. My breathing gets erratic, I don't know what to do.

I think Jisung catches on to my state, because he lets go of my hand and steps back. "Okay, that was unexpected!" he calmly says. His voice is like a breeze of fresh air right into my lungs. "Girls, can you go and play for a bit while Minmin helps me get all dry again?" the nickname doesn't even bother me anymore.

He speaks softly as to not startle them. At this point it might be to not startle me more than the kids. Hyerin grabs Soonbok's hand and they both walk towards the living room, obeying Jisung without putting up any fight.

Then, the boy's eyes land on my face and his eyebrows furrow as he frowns.

"Why are your eyebags so big?" he asks, touching them with his cold fingers. I shiver at the contact and he retracts the hand quickly.

I grab it suddenly and press it to my skin, my cheek. I feel the need to make him warm again. "I haven't been sleeping good lately."

"Good or at all?"

I close my eyes and lean into his touch. My mind is all over the place, shaky. One part of it hates Jisung, another one is just trying to take care of him and the biggest one of them all is scared and paralyzed, unable to think properly.

"It really started raining out of nowhere." he comments. "Will you lend me some dry clothes, please?"

I reopen my eyes and don't see a crying baby wrapped up in a blue blanket, which brings me back to the present and out of the overwhelming cycle of past memories my brain had decided to play inside my head. "Yeah, follow me."

I don't want to leave the girls alone on the first floor, so before anything I go and pick them up, carrying both in my arms even if it makes me dizzy.

I push through and climb up the stairs, Jisung following after me. I signal with my head towards the door to my room. "Get whatever clothes you want. Comfortable ones, you'll be staying the night. There's a bathroom next door, if you wanna take a shower. I'll be changing the girls to their pajamas."

The brunette nods and soon disappears behind my bedroom door. I sigh. Thankfully, Soonbok and Hyerin are seemingly tired again and putting them to bed won't be much of a struggle.