✓ the second half. | 정원

chapter 10.

010 — our pyjama party.

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I jumped off the bike with a bright smile on my face. I adjusted the bag around my shoulder, and took the steps to the front door. It was a beautiful, Friday night. It was getting warmer, which informed all of us about the fast approaching summer.
        
        
        
Jungmi invited Jiwon and me to study together for our final exams. The girl was really smart, so together with the navy-haired girl we decided to take advantage of her offer.
          
         
        
The door was opened for me by Jay, who with a slight smile invited me inside, and told me that Jiwon was at her room. I didn't feel awkward in this house anymore. All the household members — except for Jungwon — welcomed me very nice and warm here, so I was at ease here.
       
       
         
My parents were delighted to be informed that I would be gone until Sunday. It was important to them that I had friends, so they didn't forbid me anything. They even forced me to go out of the house, which amused me terribly.
         
          
        
Jungmi and Jiwon were already sitting, and waiting for me. They supposedly had books, and other things prepared, but it was immediately obvious that we were not getting ready for late learning. There were laid out blankets, pillows, girls' magazines, snacks, and make-up products everywhere in the room. There was going to be a pajama party for sure.
          
            
            
The two girls pulled me into the room right away, and made me talk about idols and other shit. I've never thought in my life that something like this could bring me so much joy. I was never interested in idols and singers, but when I talked about it with girls, I was able to find myself in it.
       
         
          
The evening came surprisingly quickly. We dressed into our pajamas, and went back to talking. I had my favourite pyjama with cute dolphins on it, Jiwon's one was with frogs, and Jangmi had a white one with small flower pattern. In the background we played some cheap romance that didn't require much attention from us, and plunged into eating our snacks.
          
        
              
"Maybe you would like to eat something normal?" Jay asked, as he entered the room.
         
          
          
There were packets of chips, cheese puffs, cookies, and chocolates scattered around us. He shook his head, and set a large plate of Emouk and Corn dogs in front of us. Jungmi hugged him gratefully, making him laugh out loud.
          
          
          
"Jungmi please, don't let them drink soju. They're still underage." he left us with our soju bottles, as he couldn't take this one from us.
         
         
         
The snacks prepared by the boy disappeared very quickly. In the meantime, a conversation started between us about the changes of boys into their wolf form. They told me exactly what it looked like, so every now and then I winced at the pain they must feel when their bones shift.
            
       
         
"But the funniest thing in this," Jungmi laughed, barely catching her breath, "Is that when they change their form uncontrollably, they can't become wolf again for some time, and they don't have any clothes on themselves! They are completly naked!" all three of us laughed out loud (probably already being a little bit drunk).
          
          
         
The topics changed at a dizzying pace. We managed to talk to all the boys from the school, our clan, and Jungmi talked a lot about Jake.
           
         
           
And of course, I had to hurt myself one more time because I probably wouldn't be myself without it. "By the way, who is Yeeun?" I asked, and the girls immediately went silent. They looked at me, both feeling uneasy with me mentioning about her.
           
          
            
"Well.." Jiwon adjusted the blanket she was wrapped in as if she was collecting her thoughts, "She has been dating Jungwon for some time now." she muttered quietly.
       
             
       
Jiwon was really lovely that she didn't want to upset me, but I needed to know about those things. And the girl had to read it from my eyes.
          
       
       
"She is two years older than our brother. When they started seeing each other, they hoped that they would turn out to be their second halfves, but despite the passage of time, nothing has happened." Jiwon explained with unaffected face.
          
        
        
"I can't understand Jungwon," Jungmi said indignantly, "Nobody likes her. She's a two-faced bitch, and she does everything just to please him. We have had problems with her more than once, but our brother doesn't seem to notice it." the girl rolled her eyes with a slight grimace on her face.
          
           
         
"Are they happy together?" I asked, curious a bit, "No. Definietly not." they answered confidently, "You are the second half of Jungwon, and without you he will never be happy. That's how it works." Jungmi said.
          
        
           
"But I asked if they were happy before I showed up." I was asking more questions, still wanting to know more.
          
            
          
"It's.. hard to say.." Jiwon stopped for a second, "They were supposed to be together, but they probably weren't a normal, and happy couple.. I don't know the rest. Maybe we were the only ones who felt it because we don't like her." she shrugged helplessly.
          
          
        
I felt an ugly pain in my chest again. I didn't want to spoil the girls that evening, so I immediately changed the conversation to a lighter topic, and after a while we were laughing again.
            
        
          
About one in the morning, we heard a soft knock on the door. We thought that maybe we were too loud, and disturbing the rest of the household, but Sunoo appeared in the room, smiling cutely. He was wearing panther patterned pajamas, with a large pillow in his hand.
           
          
          
"Can I sit with you?" he asked happily to which of course we reacted with a quiet giggle, and Jiwon patted the place next to her, letting him know he can sit beside her.
          
          
          
The boy looked genuinely involved in our conversations when we invited him to our pajama party. We sat in a circle so that everyone could reach each other, and we started combing each other's hair.
          
          
         
I couldn't believe what Sunoo did on my head. He braided my hair in a perfect braid around my head, and decorated it with colorful beads, making my jaw drop to the ground.
        
            
        
"My Noona taught me a little bit." he explained with a shrug.
          
        
        
I was afraid to go to sleep so as not to destroy this masterpiece that the boy had created. But I was happy. I felt that I was really where I should have been a long time ago.
          
          
          
Jiwon thought that such a wonderful night should be captured, so she took out her polaroid camera, and decided to take a picture of us. And after at least twenty unsuccessful attempts, it finally turned out to be normal. We sat side by side on the floor, me between Sunoo and Jiwon, with Jungmi hugging us from behind while we all did a peace sign. At the mere sight of it, I smiled broadly.
            
          
            
We fell asleep only in the morning. Sunoo didn't feel like going to his room anymore, so he lay down on the floor next to us, and just fell asleep. Fortunately, he didn't snore, otherwise neither of us would even sleep.
        
        
        
I haven't had nightmares this night. I wondered if it was because I was tired or if it was because of the hundreds of dreamcatchers hanging in Jiwon's room. After much reflection, it didn't matter to me. What mattered was that I did not wake up screaming, screeching or crying as I often have.
         
        
        
We didn't eat breakfast until 12PM. Jay prepared us all kinds of tasty thing, but we just had to reheat it.
        
        
        
At one point, the door slammed loudly. It had the feeling that all the walls were shaking because of it. Jungwon burst into the kitchen, and angrily pulled a glass from the cupboard, pouring himself some water. Surprise crossed his face as he saw me, in my dolphin pajamas, sitting next to Sunoo, and eating breakfast with him.
        
        
         
Sunoo accepted me very quickly so drinking hot cocoa from a shared cup with me was nothing weird for him. But Jungwon looked even more furious than he had been a minute ago.
          
       
       
He let out a loud scoff, "And what are you doing here?" he asked, especially stressing the word 'you'.
         
          
        
I could hear him trying to speak to me in a severe, angry tone. However, he still had his warm, ordinary voice.
        
         
        
"We had a pajama party." Sunoo explained, throwing his arm over my shoulder. I smiled a little embarrassed, then went back to eating without a word.
        
       
        
"Jaeun is our guest," Jiwon said, and Jungmi nodded at her sister's words, "It shouldn't concern you." the younger sister added.
          
        
        
I was sorry that I made them angry with their brother. On the one hand, it was wonderful to have such devoted friends, but nevertheless Jungwon was their brother, and they should not fight together.
             
       
          
The boy rolled his eyes, and snorted under his breath. He left the kitchen with the glass still in his hand, leaving me with this unpleasant guilt.

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