It wasn't so weird to be carrying around a fox plush for comfort, right? No, it was very weird. Lotus was once again second-guessing herself as she trudged after Jin, squeezing the life out of the fox plush she called Tofu.
The poor thing was her main. She would cry into it, scream into it, rant to it, cry into it more, suffocate it in her sleep, cry more into it, and squeeze it to death like she was doing now. It must've been relieved when she cried to Bloo that one day. But now, once again, she was back to using it as emotional support.
"What turn were we supposed to take?" Jin asked her as they came upon an intersection.
"Um...I don't remember. I think the turn is on the next one." Lotus answered, finally catching up with him once he stopped.
He huffed, ruffling his hair. "Dammit, this sucks." He complained, "Where even are we now?!"
"We're—" Lotus tried to tell him but he cut her off by continuing his whining, "—Man, this is the last thing I wanted to do after school! Why couldn't she just get this stuff herself?!"
"Text her and ask her for the directions again!" He ordered.
"Wait!" She chirped and turned on her phone after fishing it from her bag, "What was the name of the place, I can just look it up and get directions myself!"
"Uh..." Jin trailed off before shrugging, "I dunno. Don't you remember it?"
"No..." She answered and opened the conversation between her and her mom. She quickly scrolled through the recent text to find any mention of the place, but no, there wasn't one hint. Their mom only told them by mouth, but it was better safe than sorry. Even if her search efforts failed.
As she began to type a text to their mother, Jin began to move side-to-side in annoyance. Neither of them wanted to do this but Lotus couldn't deny doing something for their mom and he was the only one in the house at the time to go with her. Jeongsoo was out and Chance was who knows where!
"Okay, I sent it!" Lotus exclaimed, beginning to get antsy herself as a few other people began to cross the road.
It would look weird if they kept standing there each time they were allowed to cross, wouldn't it? Maybe they should walk further, but slower than before! But Jin seemed like he wouldn't walk further if they didn't know where they were going. It wasn't like they didn't know how to navigate Yeongdeungpo (though Jin was complaining about where they were just to complain), they always ran the streets of the district! They just didn't know where the shop their mom wanted them to visit was nor the name of it.
"Did she answer yet?!" Jin asked after a minute of standing there.
"Let me check!" Lotus said and pressed the power button. Maybe she had missed the vibration of her phone alerting her to a notification!
Any second now the screen would turn on...any second now. When it remained blank, she pressed it again only to see the battery symbol with 0% under it.
She paled and slowly looking up at him. "...Do you have your phone?" She meekly asked.
"Nah, it died in science class." He answered before pausing and furrowing his brows, "Wait, why are you asking?!"
"It's...It's dead." She answered and showed him the screen, repeatedly pressing the power button, "And I didn't bring my charger! I didn't think I needed it."
Jin sighed heavily, "Man, I knew I should've charged my phone before we left!"
Lotus looked to the side and hummed in thought. Next time she would have to check her battery life before leaving. Right now, they needed to at least attempt to find their destination. But they need to make a decision: turn to the left or to the right of the intersection.
"I think we should turn right," She stated and turned to him. He was silent as he thought on it before nodding, allowing her to lead the way.
"What did she even want from this place?" He huffed.
Lotus shrugged, "I don't know. Cole was yelling so I was a little distracted when she was telling us."
Jin groaned, probably covering his face with his hands. He was behind her so she couldn't see him. That didn't mean she couldn't hear the frustration in his tone.
"I just want to take a nap. Ugh," He whined.
They continued in silence. She didn't feel the need to talk, especially when he was tired— as he usually was after school.
She continued to lead the way, taking guesses based on what she could remember from the instructions her mom gave her.
'It's easy! You'll get there quick.' That was what her mom had told her. But that clearly was a lie. Lotus felt like she was getting nowhere without the name of the damn building.
"This is harder than I thought..." She murmured to Tofu as she paused at another crosswalk.
Yes, it was hard but she had to try a little bit more before it started getting dark because once the sky held no sight of the sun, she and Jin would call it a day and go home. And it wasn't like they could go home now to ask about the place since their mom was already at work and they only had so much time before sunset. It would be best to drain time trying and go home empty-handed than to give up early and tell their mom they decided to go home without looking until they needed to stop.
Though, that may just be the pleaser in her talking. Jin wouldn't have cared if he gave up or not. He was probably hoping she would decide to go back home.
Just as they were passing by the glass windows of a shop that smelled so, so good, her stomach growled. She had skipped lunch because one of her assignments was so long and she needed to get it submitted right away. It didn't reach her mind that she might have needed even a little bite to eat before going on this journey. She glanced at the window, seeing both her reflection and the inside of the cafe which smelled of coffee and pastries. Coffee and pastries; a glimpse of heaven.
She couldn't focus on how delicious it would've been to eat something from the aesthetic place because her eyes widened as she didn't see anyone behind her. No one. She jumped and turned, looking to see if Jin was lingering behind farther than she had thought. But no, she couldn't see anyone who looked like her brother. How couldn't she have noticed he was gone?
"Jin!" She softly shouted. It wasn't loud enough to reach very far since she wanted to spare any stranger glancing at her.
Seconds passed and her chest began to feel faint. 'Where would he have gone?!' She questioned herself and began to retrace her steps, pressing Tofu into her to the point the plushie could be flattened for a good amount of time afterwards.
Down the streets, the turns, until she was halfway to the intersection where they first noticed they had no idea where to go.
'Oh no!' She cried inside of her mind, her tears almost breaking free.
She wanted to go home, but she couldn't knowing that Jin was somewhere else. They were supposed to be together! And he had the money for the bus.
She fell into a squat and buried her face into her knees, Tofu squeezed between her legs and chest.
This was terrible! Something bad always happened when she went outside! Always!
It didn't help when she felt legs bump into her back and she had to catch herself from falling over. The rough ground wasn't nice to have her hands stop her body from tipping. It hurt when her skin created friction with the tiny bits of stone.
"What are you doing?"
She looked up to see a towering figure. She had to blink a few times to unblur her vision from the tears, taking in the face which stared down at her.
"You're that...that boy!" She exclaimed, reaching up to wipe her eyes.
"Kingsley Kwan," He stated in a deadpanned tone.
"Right...Kingsley Kwan..." She murmured before biting the inside of her cheek and giving an uncomfortable hum.
The energy between them was tense. Kingsley knew she was put off by him, it was clear. But from what he knew of her, she was unnerved by anyone. Still, he couldn't care less. She wasn't his problem.
"Sorry for being in the way," She uttered, crab walking a few steps away, continuing to squat.
He turned back, looking down at his phone to read a message he was sent. He couldn't finish reading it the first time because bumping into her halted that. Less than a minute, after reviewing whatever was written, he began to take his leave.
Lotus sharply inhaled. She could try to ask him but...did she want to? She wanted to find Jin, yeah, but she didn't think she was comfortable bothering the tall boy anymore. But with each step he took, she turned more fretful.
"Oh, uh, Kingsley Kwan!" She forced her voice to be loud enough to catch his attention.
She continued when she saw him look back at her from over his shoulder. "Have you, uh, have you seen a boy with really messy hair and eye bags in the last past thirty minutes?"
That description wasn't very detailed, she knew that for a fact. She felt it was ruder than anything, then again, when was describing someone using their appearance respectful? But adding what he was wearing probably wasn't even going to help anyway, so she didn't think of mentioning it. All she wanted was to find her brother and get what their mom needed before going back home.
"I haven't." He answered.
Maybe it was bad to admit, but she didn't want to be alone on the streets. Not when the sun was just starting to set. Kingsley was freakishly tall and clearly unvarying, he was enough to find comfort in even if she still held her nerves around him the past few— very few— run-ins. She could ask him if he had a charger that would fit her phone or if he could give her directions to some random place so he would talk to her for a few more minutes. If she was able to diminish any shame, she could even ask him to keep her company until she managed to find Jin.
No, she couldn't do any of those. All she could do was stay where she was and hope Jin came across her. He had probably noticed that the sun was setting and that his sister was nowhere to be seen and he needed to find her or else his parents would probably punish him. However, she very much did not want to stay where she was.
On another note, maybe she should buy herself time and try to get Kingsley to stay near her for at least a few more minutes like she originally planned.
"What are you doing out here?" The girl asked, cloddish in nature. She squeezed Tofu tighter to her, trying to look at the boy, but she just couldn't.
"I was about to go home." He stated causing her to bite her tongue.
And here she was stopping him from going? Lotus couldn't help but feel terrible. She buried her head into the top of Tofu's.
"Sorry for keeping you." Was her muffled response.
Now she just looked pathetic. It actually made him feel a tiny bit bad. Silently, he lingered a few seconds longer, not quite catching onto a boy walking towards them. The boy's head was turned so that he was staring across the street, away from them.
The moment he caught the sight of someone squatting in his peripheral vision, he faced forwards. His brown eyes widened once he saw Kingsley. He quickly looked towards the squatting girl and then back to the plain-looking boy.
"You–You!" Jin stammered, stumbling back slightly as Kingsley turned to face him.
His face paled at the tall boy, shock lacing him. He glanced at Lotus once more and quickly regained himself as he saw she appeared confused but relieved to see him.
"Jin!" She exclaimed.
"Damn, dude! You're scary!" Jin played it off and jokingly added, "How could you stand by him without crying like usual, Lotus?"
She ignored his question and almost latched onto him with misty eyes. "Where were you?!" She exclaimed.
"I decided to go see if I could find someone I knew so I could borrow their phone. I ran into Ki-woo and he let me use his to call mom." He explained, leading her away, "If we hurry we can get to the place we need to go to before it gets fully dark."
"Huh?" She groaned, "Why didn't you tell me before you left?"
He chuckled, shrugging his shoulders, "I dunno. I thought you would've noticed. Sorry, Lotus!"
Sighing, she buried her face into Tofu's plush body as Jin led her to where they needed. "I'm just glad you're okay!" She huffed, the plushie dampening her words.
"Hey, I'm the one that should've been worried!" He playfully retorted, glaring over his shoulder at where they had left Kingsley.
This was a problem.
ns 15.158.61.6da2
