Sonorous and rapid, knocking at Lotus' door caused her to jolt from the nap she was taking at her desk that was crammed between the corner of her room and her bed. The incessant pounding on the entryway continued as she quickly wiped the drool from the corners of her lips and tossed Tofu, whom she was using as a pillow, onto her bed.
"What is it?" She called out in hopes that the person would stop the noise.
"My precious baby sister!~" She could hear Jeongsoo's ungodly loud voice, "Are you decent?~"
She gave a loud reply of confirmation before her door opened to reveal said brother with his chin-length hair tied into a ponytail and a goofy grin stuck on his face. "Did you just wake up? Your voice is kinda groggy." He took the pleasure of pointing out.
She looked down at the book the Tofu had once covered. Thank goodness he was there to protect it from her drool. She shut it as she gave Jeongsoo a short and simple answer, "Yes."
Despite being given such a bland reply, he stayed excited. Clasping his hands together, he exclaimed, "Well, Seyeon and I are doing a project!"
Despite just waking up, she decided to indulge him. Obviously, he came to her because she would care about whatever he wanted to either brag or talk about, so she would freely listen to what he had to say.
"A project?" She tiredly repeated.
"We're making origami stars. We're trying to beat Jaewook and Ava's amount." He explained before scoffing, "I don't know how they can make so many so fast but they showed up with this bucket full this morning."
Lotus nodded along, having no idea why in the world they would make a competition out of paper stars.
"And your unnie is here, too~"
He was quickly moved out of the way by the bleached haired lady who barely took a second to gasp as she saw the interior of the room.
"This is so you!" Luna exclaimed, "It's so cute!"
Lotus blankly stared, taking a moment to let her newly woken mind compute why this woman was fawning over her room. As she was finally able to take in what was happening she slowly nodded.
"Thank you!" She chirped, clearing her throat to wash away whatever waking croak was left in her voice.
"It reminds me of my childhood! You know, I had a friend I used to have sleepovers with and her's looked a little bit similar! Though it wasn't as adorable as all of this." Luna told her.
If you put her and a kid who was seeing snowfall for the first time, they'd look the same.
"Take some notes, girl. You need to add some colour to your apartment." Jeongsoo passively commented to the woman.
Luna's sparkly aura dropped and she playfully glowered at him. "And you need to organize your room, you little shit." She shot back.
Jeongsoo chuckled and left the doorway to go waste his day making those origami stars.
"Aren't you a part of their competition?" Lotus questioned now that the talkative duo was split up.
"Nah, I suck at that stuff. I can make origami dogs though," Luna answered, sitting on the storage chest in front of Lotus' bed, "Do you have some paper?"
Lotus quickly nodded, opening the drawer of her desk where her notebooks were stored away. She didn't have any plain paper, so she'd have to settle for lines. After tearing a blank page from one of them, she handed it over to the woman.
"Thank you, sweetie!" Luna chirped.
She folded the paper in half to make a square before tightly creasing the fold. Opening it, she tore it in half by the right crease.
"Let me show you this perfect dog origami!" She exclaimed, showing off one of the squares.
All she did was fold the paper a few times. Lotus expected something a little more complex, but no, she just folded it into a triangle and folded two of the points down leaving the third to be folded upwards.
With that, she was done. The woman held it out appearing proud of her simplistic work. "See! All you have to do now is draw on the eyes and nose."
"Uh...good job!" Lotus said.
"Anyway," Luna threw the origami dog head onto her bed, "If I knew I was going to be here, I would've brought some snacks so we could have a mock sleepover!"
"This wasn't planned?" Lotus rose a brow.
"If only! We were at that pancake place and Jeongsoo decided to, out of nowhere, drag Seyeon back here to make more of those stars."
Luna rolled her eyes, her bottom lip jutting out slightly as she lingered back on that moment. She continued, "I don't have plans today and I'm sure as hell am not getting left out."
The pout turned into a cheeky smile. "But this means sisterly bonding!" She announced.
"Oh, yay!" Lotus chirped.
This wasn't particularly a sleepover, nor did it feel like one. Not that she would know how being in a sleepover felt. Regardless it still stood that she was excited to spend time with a sister figure. It was about time she had one.
Luna leaned back, placing her weight on her hand as she thought. "You know, you have a lot of plushies." The woman picked up the big whale plush nearby, "Do you name them?"
"Yep! That one's Bloo."
"Bloo, huh," The woman hummed and set him down.
She looked around more before grinning and pointing to one of her shelves that were lined with stuffed animals. "That one is so precious! What'd you call it?"
She was talking about the small pink piggy leaning against a Winnie the Pooh. It wasn't one of the cutest, but Lotus loved all of the plushies.
"Lucky!" She said its name.
Luna admired it as she commented, "Did you know that pigs are my favourite animal? Especially the ones with spots."
"They have spots?" Lotus quirked a brow.
"Yes! Some of them do. And it's precious!" She fawned.
"Wow, I never knew that," Lotus said.
"It makes sense. They're always shown as pink in media." Luna began to make a list, "Cartoons, photography, movies."
All of this time she was only seeing one type of pig. How unfair was that?
"That kinda sucks! We're missing out on so many piggy looks." Lotus huffed.
"You're so right!" Luna cried out, "It's not fair! I'm telling you—oh."
They paused and looked over at her phone that was ringing. From where they were, they could see her screen that showed Haneul's contact picture as her phone rang for the incoming video call.
She wanted to answer it, which she didn't know if Luna would like that. Hopefully, Haneul would understand if she didn't answer!
"You can go ahead and take it. I don't mind." Luna waved her off once she saw the expression of contemplation Lotus had.
"Okay..."
Lotus hesitantly picked up the phone, promptly answering the video call.
"Hey, Haneul." She greeted.
The girl looked exhausted, with droopy eyes. Left cheek was red from pressing her palm against it for hours.
"Hey! I'm finally done with the stupid amount of work my parents gave me." She said, her voice giving more life than her appearance.
"That's good! It still sucks that they're making you study harder during the break." Lotus sighed.
Luna cupped her cheeks in interest. She was planning on staying quiet, but that was impossible for her. "Whose that?" She whispered.
"My friend," Lotus whispered back as Haneul spoke.
Luna gasped, looking even more excited. "Awe you have a bestie!~" She chirped a little too loudly which caused Haneul to stop speaking.
"Was that a feminine voice? Lotus, who was that?" Haneul questioned in confusion. She quickly got excited, "Did you make a new friend? Ugh, about time!"
Lotus decided to respectfully ignore that her best friend just said that. Man, she's trying.
"My big sis," Lotus answered, "Luna Myung."
Whatever joy Haneul had at her friend breaking her shell had diminished as fast as it came. "H-Her?! Where are you both?! At your house? With Jeongsoo?!"
Lotus awkwardly laughed and nodded. Her friend covered her face and groaned. "No way..." She murmured.
Despite hearing the conversation and how disapproving Haneul sounded, Luna asked a simple request. "Can I meet them?"
When Lotus nodded, she moved closer to where she could see the screen and was caught by the camera.
"Hi, there!" She chirped, waving her hand.
"H-Hello..." Came Haneul's defeated reply.
The girl wasn't trying to hide her disappointment, not that it affected Luna either way.
"How long have you known Lotus? Isn't she just a cutie?" Luna gushed.
"For a few years." Haneul gave a blunt answer.
"It's nice to learn she has friends!"
Luna quickly covered her mouth, glancing to the girl beside her, "I don't mean that in a bad way, Lotus."
"I understand." She did, she was more worried about Haneul. Her character was completely changing. She's usually bubbly yet now she's offering short, crisp answers, going total serious mode.
"Uh," Lotus strained to stir the conversation, "What'd you have to study this time?"
"Piecewise and transformations."
"Right...what is piecewise again?"
"A function using the common functional notation. You know, the notation where the body of the function is an array of functions and associate subdomains." The girl explained.
"Um...what?" Lotus murmured. She swore she heard it before. Maybe she forgot. Hey, forgetful or not, at least she wasn't as bad as Jin at maths.
"A function. Defined by multiple sub-functions. Where each one applies to different intervals in the domain. It's a way of expressing the function."
"I see now," Lotus nodded.
"I...could not understand a word that was said." Luna trailed off.
"Well, it is hard at first," Haneul said.
At least she wasn't being outright mean.
"Which is one of the exact reasons I'm not going to college!" Luna chirped.
Which was typically not the best decision, but it made sense for her. She was already working. Not in some high paying job in an office or something, but part-time in some cashier position and part-time working in a barbershop as the receptionist. It took up a lot of time, but she felt content for now.
Plus, when she got done in cosmetology school, she'd have more of a chance to be where she wanted. Even if that meant working years at some helpless place that would grab up any hairstylist with minimum experience and getting the credits there before opening her own hair shop.
Yet, despite Luna being so lax with herself not going to college, Haneul couldn't help but squirm. She was practically going to be forced to go to college. That's all her parents nagged on her about, especially with her studies, so hearing this woman openly talking about not going just felt like a spit in the face.
As she moved her camera around, there was a flash of blue. Just the slightest glimpse that had captured Luna's attention. What she had caught was like a pot of gold. Shining, glorious gold!
"Is that a Gucci Jackie?!" Luna gasped.
"Yeah..."
"How'd you get one?! I've been wanting one forever!" Luna exclaimed, "They're so expensive!"
"My uncle got it for me. He knows I'm interested in fashion..."
"Really? You would like my friend Yujin, then. She's planning on majoring in fashion when she goes to university." Luna proudly said.
"Majoring in fashion?! That sounds so cool!"
Lotus smiled at the excited tone that Haneul held. She was opening up, finally!
"I want to as well but I can't." The girl finished.
"Why not?"
"My parents think that it would be a waste of time. They want me to become an engineer or they want me to go into neuroscience like my aunt."
"They can't control what you study in university. If you want to go into fashion, go into fashion. It's best to pursue your dreams, and if your dreams are unrealistic, then it's better to make your dreams realistic then follow them." Luna stated.
Which is what Luna herself was doing. Was it realistic for her to get famous off of her fantastic hair skills? No, it wasn't. But she could make connections with the people in her class. One of them is bound to know someone with influence, especially that Geum-seon.
"But...I don't want them to be disappointed in me. I'm pretty sure their biggest wish is for me to get a full education."
"What matters is what you want," Luna added.
"Wow...Thank you!" Haneul exclaimed.
"No problem. Now, can we get a closer look at that glorious handbag?" Luna eagerly asked.
Haneul nodded and set her phone down, letting it lean on the pencil holder so it could still capture her. She quickly grabbed the bag and sat down, the bag looking even better as Luna saw all of it. It would look even better in person!
"I wanted the black and white one, but now that I'm seeing this I'm rethinking that." Luna breathed out in awe.
Lotus wasn't that into fashion to know why this Jackie bag was a big deal, but if Haneul was getting along with Luna, that's all that mattered! She smiled softly at their interaction.
What could've been a disaster turned into a beautiful thing just because of a handbag made from the flesh of animals. Who would've thought?!
And as they babbled away about which handbags they wanted, she didn't mind only speaking a small amount. They still made her feel included by asking for her opinions on what colours would match their overall aesthetic and which bags they should get next. And thus, with conversation about Gucci bags and whatnot going, time seemed to go by fast.
It wasn't until Haneul paused and looked towards her door in the background, that the time that had passed was apparent. An hour and a half felt like mere minutes.
"Huh?" She sighed before looking back at the screen of her phone where she could see the two of them, "I need to go."
They couldn't clearly hear who was at the door, but it was obviously one of her parents.
"Okay, see you!" Lotus exclaimed.
"Bye!" Luna cooed, twiddling her fingers.
Haneul grinned at them, waving her hand. "Bye Lotus. And you too Luna-Unnie!"
With that, the video call ended and Luna covered her mouth in an ostentatious motion. "She...She called me 'unnie'!" She cried in happiness, almost with tears in her eyes.
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The day had passed after that, leaving the stars twinkling as the sun had gone away for the nighttime hours. Many people weren't outside to witness their gleaming glory, including the Gyeon family.
Everyone was asleep. The only other ones who would be up this late were— at times— Chance and always Jin. Jin would stay in his room unless he needed to go to the bathroom or felt the need to snack, though. Mainly because if he moved around too much, he'd wake up Chance who was on the bottom bunk of their bed. When he woke up, he chose violence.
Lotus was also awake, which happened time-to-time. She was binging one of the shows she just got hooked on and wanted at least a little something to snack on while staying up late watching it. So she sneaked into the kitchen with her phone in her hands, the show paused so she missed nothing. She set it on the counter and opened one of the cabinets towering above her.
They didn't have many snacks because their mom thought that such a small amount would stave the hunger of her growing children. Which was a big loss for them because every time the boys had friends over, they would eat most of them. Which left only the ones that they didn't like.
Banana kick puffs.
Fortunately for Lotus, she happened to think the banana kick puffs were good. Unlike her brothers who would grimace at the sight of the bag and would only touch them if it was the very last option of food in their home.
Standing on her tip-toes, she reached up as best as she could. She was determined to get those damn things. Reaching a little higher, her nails finally pinched the bag.
"Almost got you!" She softly cheered, before trying at it again as it slipped from her pinch. Her second try was more successful as just enough of the bag was pinched, allowing her to pull it down. Coincidentally, her's phone's notifications dinged, almost causing her to lose balance before the heels of her feet could hit the floor.
With wide eyes, she hugged the bag she was able to retrieve to her chest. "That was close." She whispered to herself, checking to see what had caught her off guard at such a bad moment. It was a text.
'Call me' was the notification above her lock screen wallpaper. The person it was from? Donald Na.
Puffing out her cheeks, she debated if she should or shouldn't in her head. Ever since he saw that text from her mom, she was still too embarrassed to talk to him a lot. And she certainly was embarrassed that she freely opened up to him like she did that day!
Plus, there were plenty of ways she could dodge this text! She could pretend to be asleep, but she would feel super bad for leaving him on 'sent' or even 'seen' like that! And so, she reluctantly pressed the call button, pressing her phone to her ear. The other side rang a few tones before being picked up.
"I'm surprised you actually called." Was his amused greeting.
There goes that feeling like her insides had vanished into thin air. But she was already in the call, no backing out now.
"I saw the text and couldn't ignore it." She stated, turning around and leaning against the counter, "Why...did you want to talk?"
"It's been a few days. I thought you might've missed me." He didn't fail to tease.
"I--!" She was lucky he couldn't see the state she was in or else he would be encouraged to keep it up, she had to stay calm and not seem so affected or else he'd continue. But what was she supposed to say to that?! Where was Tofu when she needed them?!
She settled with the simple reply that she was currently feeling towards his words, "I don't know what to say to that..."
"About what you said a few days ago: 'maybe next time' to going to get something to eat. We should do it tomorrow."
...
"Okay." She said.
"Then we'll see each other tomorrow." He stated before ending the call.
Lotus slowly lowered the phone from her ear, cheeks a darkened hue as she held her breath. Now it felt as if she was malfunctioning.
Did he have to call for that or was he just calling to see if she could entertain him with her messy personality? Either way, she would need to snack on the banana kick puffs and watch her show to get her mind off of this or else she wouldn't sleep at all.
ns 15.158.61.6da2
