fireflies || haechan

chapter 9

meili was in renjun's car, the two were on their way back home.

it was silent, meili rested her head on the glass with her eyes closed as renjun drove through the almost empty streets heading to their house.

"so..." renjun decided to start, one hand on the wheel as his eyes were trained on to the road.

meili opened an eye, trying her best to look in renjun's direction without moving her head. but that failed, a jab of pain went through her eye causing the girl to bang her head onto to car window.

"ouch!" she cried, sitting upright and clutching her eye.

renjun flinched and looked at her out of the corner of his eyes.

"whats wrong?" he asked, unfazed by her commotion in the passengers seat right next to him.

"i keep straining my eye and i just did it again," meili whines, resting her head back on the seat while sighing.

"maybe its because you stare at your phone too much."

"oh shut it!"

the car goes back into its silent state as renjun pulls up to their house.

meili hops out, quickly unlocks the house door and kicks her shoes off, running up the stairs and into her room. the door slams shut, meili winces before throwing herself face first onto her bed.

renjun follows not far behind, but stops at the top of the stairs.

"icecream?" he asks himself, and heads back down the stairs into the kitchen.

from behind her closed door, meili hears her brother retreat down the stairs and start making loud sounds in the kitchen.

she decides to shrug it off and pulls out her phone.

"im not on my phone too much," she scoffs as she proceeds to scroll through tiktok.

a couple minutes later, renjun comes running up the stairs before tripping over the last step.

the two ice cream cartons went flying and hit the wall as the boy lay face down on the floor with his arms above his head, not making any move to stand up.

meili heard the commotion coming from outside her door and glanced up from her phone.

"dude are you okay?" she lazily called through the door.

"ugh, yeah," renjun sighs and pulls himself up.

he picks up the ice cream cartons and goes to open meili's door.

she looks up at him and gives him a dirty look.

"what?" renjun furrows his brows.

"ever heard of knocking?" she rolls her eyes.

renjun just stands there not moving.

"uh."

meili nods to the door.

"try again."

"sorry?"

"try. again."

sighing, renjun walks out of the girl's room and closes the door.

he then knocks.

"come in~," meili responds.

renjun drags his self into the room, glaring at the twin.

"that wasnt that hard, was it?" meili smugly smiles.

"yeah whatever," he mutters before flopping down on meili's bed without warning.

he holds up the ice cream cartons, nudging meili to get her attention.

"which flavour?"

"mint of course," she answers, placing her phone face down on the bedside table. "who do you think i am?"

"i was just checking," he rolls his eyes.

renjun tossed the carton and a spoon over to her which she catches, immediately opening it and taking a bite.

"thankyou," she says with a mouth full of icecream.

"yuck, dont talk with your mouth full please," renjun opens his as well.

meili ignores him and puts her carton of icecream next to her, pulling her laptop onto her lap and then patting the empty spot next to her.

"movie?"

renjun crawls over to her as she pulls open netflix.

"what should we watch?" she asks renjun who then points to a new sci-fi movie.

meili presses play and continues to shovel her ice cream into her mouth.

a few minutes in, renjun lightly kicks meili's leg.

"so..."

"what," her eyes stay glues to the screen.

"can you tell me everything now..?"

at first meili doesnt respond, but then she pauses the movie.

"if you really want me to."

renjun nods.

"okay but its gonna take a while," meili relaxes into her pillows.

"in middle school i used to hang out with you and the boys. only you and the boys. did you ever wonder why?" she asks her twin, who just shrugs in response.

"well its because i didnt have any other friends."

"you and minju were friends though?"

"she only used me to get to you."

"oh..."

"yeah. all the girl were either out to use me to get close to you and the dreamies since you all were the type of boys that were cute and popular. everyone either wanted to be you or be friends with you. or they didnt like me because they were jealous that someone like me was always around you all.

"at the beginning of high school, i started getting dirty looks from a lot of your fangirls and notes began appearing in my locker. i was afraid of being hated by everyone because you and the boys became so popular. so then i turned to distancing myself away from you and made new friends.

"they would always ask me about you guys and i would always tell them i wasnt close to any of you anymore, so they stopped asking. i thought we had a pretty good dynamic as friends, the four of us.

"but then hyuck had to ruin it, making it seem like i was friends with you all still. i guess the girls thought i had been lying to them."

renjun was silent.

he didnt know you had to go through all that and felt guilty for not noticing or doing anything about it.

he felt like it was all his fault.

but meili never said anything about not being happy when she with the boys, when other people werent around to judge her.

"you liked being friends with us, right?" he asked, his twin looking up from her hands.

"i loved it and i miss it." she admits, slightly smiling.

"then be friends with us again."

"but ill-,"

"we'll take care of it if anything happens, dont worry about it. and maybe another friend will come along. you know how hyuck has a twin?"

"yeah but shes in america."

"well you never know what could happen."

"..."

"just think about it," renjun ruffles his sisters hair and pulls her into a hug.

"thanks ren, i wont distance myself from you anymore."

"good."