𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘-𝗛𝗔𝗧𝗘﹕ni-ki

－ 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐄

Third person.

Yunmi's one of the people who get sick easily. So the next day, she had to stay at home after her mom had heard her rough coughs overnight. Truthfully, she's glad she got to miss a whole day in school and maybe a few more too. But being in a bad condition and having to stay in bed the whole day isn't good either (she's always liked the idea of doing nothing but lay in bed, just not when she has a runny nose and irritating cough). Either way, it's like a lose-lose situation.

Ni-ki, on the other hand, went to school despite being told not to this morning. He only drank medicine to hopefully get rid of the tiny sickness, and thankfully it did not get much worse when he arrived at school. He had assumed the absence of Yunmi, sensing that she would get sick because of what they did yesterday, so he wasn't worried at all.

Okay, but having no one to annoy was kinda boring. He does it to his hyungs too many times (who swore it must stop once he turns eighteen), but they're not Yunmi. It's just different when he teases her. The whole day feels empty without her, and perhaps it's because he's not used to a day without seeing Yunmi's hideous face.

"I know you're missing someone but I'm this close to snatching your food if you don't eat it right now." Sunoo looked at Ni-ki's tray as he says.

"I'm not missing anyone though?" Ni-ki said, encircling his food with his arms and mockingly eating it while facing Sunoo.

"Yes, you are." Jake joined in the conversation.

"No, I'm not missing her." Ni-ki blurted out.

"Who's her?"

"Yunmi- hyung! I hate you, I really do." The whole group burst into laughter except for Ni-ki who was glaring at Sunghoon seated next to him.

"Yeah okay, caught you red-handed." Sunghoon chuckled.

"Whatever." Ni-ki rolled his eyes.

Sometimes, being the youngest in the group is the worst.

━━━━━

Four days since Ni-ki last saw the girl, or heard anything about her. He contemplated whether to send a message to her or not but always ends up deleting them before pressing send. He couldn't think of an interesting topic that would hide the actual reason why he texted, which is to see how she was doing.

He doesn't even know if she is sick, or if it's just what he thinks. There could be some other possible reasons why she's not in school, or maybe she just wanted to ditch for a few days.

Ni-ki does not care. He's only thinking of this because he's worried about the dance project.

"Next please?"

'What if she still doesn't go to school on that day? No, that can't happen!'

"Your turn, kiddo." A tap on his shoulder wandered him off from his thoughts. He looked behind him to see a young man raising their eyebrows at him, then averted their eyes to the cashier to imply that it was his turn to pay for what he bought.

"Sorry." Ni-ki placed his chocolate milk drink and a lollipop on the counter.

Taking out some cash to pay, he didn't mean to glance again at the person behind him, but he did. Only then does he realize it was Yunmi's brother. He didn't see his face properly clearly last night, but the light inside his car gave it away.

"Thank you." Ni-ki grabbed the plastic before scurrying away. He stopped outside the convenience store to open his drink.

"Hey!" Ni-ki abruptly turned around when he heard someone approaching him. He widened his eyes as Yeonjun waved.

"You're my sister's friend, aren't you?" Yeonjun asked.

"Yeah." Ni-ki answered shortly, sort of muttering it. Yeonjun's smile grew wider.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Yunmi's brother, Yeonjun." Yeonjun lends out his hand for a small handshake. Ni-ki didn't hesitate and took it.

"Riki. B-but you can call me Ni-ki too." Ni-ki stammered unknowingly, causing the older boy to nod.

"How's she? I haven't seen her at school after that day." He went on with casually asking.

"Ah, got sick the next day so mom didn't let her go to school. She's all better now though, I think she's coming back tomorrow." Yeonjun chuckled as he explained.

"Oh, I see." Ni-ki let out an awkward chuckle as well. At least, his instincts were right.

"Do you wanna come over to visit her?" Yeonjun's question was what Ni-ki least expected to hear. His reaction didn't go unnoticed by the older.

"Come on, she'd love to see you. That girl hasn't come out of her room since." Nah, he'd probably get kicked out immediately once she sees him.

Still, Ni-ki pressed his lips thinly and nodded, saying yes.

━━━━━━━━━━

It's almost a year since I started
this book yet we're still far from
the ending 😭 I have exams coming
up too so the next update might
take a while?