.·°¯°·.¸.->Vanilla Latte<-.¸.·°¯°·.

9

Sunghoon and Youngchan walked through seperate Isles, collecting any snack that caught their eyes.

They met at the cold drinks section. Not knowing what to get, they decided on buying a mango drink, since it was one of Bomi's favourites according to Youngchan.

"So...how long have you liked Bomi?" Sunghoon asked, pulling out his card at the register

Youngchan blinked and then errupted into a small shy smile. "I didn't think you'd call me out on that so soon."

Sunghoon smiled. "My bad, did I overstep?"

Youngchan quickly shook his head. Secretly, he was greatful that he now had someone he could talk to about his one sided crush.

"I've liked her since we were young. But I've been starting to question those feelings lately."

Sunghoon didn't say anything, he encouraged his new found friend to go on.

"I mean, I don't think I like like her. I think she was just the first girl I ever hung out with. That lead to everyone in my life teasing me about her. I think I tricked myself into falling for her."

Sunghoon nod his head in understanding way. He had heard about things like this happening before. It seemed to be pretty common.

"Will you ever tell her?"

Youngchan shook his head. "There's nothing to tell. Why would I ruin a perfectly good friendship over some feelings that might not even be true?"

Once again, Sunghoon had to agree with the boys logic. The two made their way to the car and stood outside.

"Can I drive?" Youngchan asked hopefully

"You wish. Get in, passenger princess."

-

Bomi entered her house quietly. Her dad's car wasn't parked in the driveway, meaning that he wasn't home yet. This was unusual.

Sneakily, Bomi attempted to crawl up the stairs without being noticed, only to hear her mum's voice echo through the hallway.

She did not sound pleased.

Bomi knew that her brother must have already relayed the message of her 'messing around' with two guys.

"Bomi? Come here."

The girl walked towards her mother's voice, which turned out to be coming from the kitchen.

"Can you tell me what the time is?"

"It's 10.30"

"Is this an appropriate time for a girl to be coming home?"

Bomi stood silently. She knew she had done nothing wrong, but trying to defend herself would only end up in her being dragged into a bigger mess.

"Answer me."

"No."

Bomi's mum sighed and pinched her nose bridge. "What were you doing with those boys?"

"Nothing. They're my friends. We went out to the carnival, that's all-"

Bomi was interrupted with a slap on the cheek.

"How did I end up raising such a disgusting daughter? Tell me, what did I do to deserve this?"

Bomi felt the knot in her throat grow. Gosh, she couldn't cry now. It would be too embarassing.

Bomi attempted to defend herself. She brought up the topic of how her brother, who was younger than she was, still hadn't returned home even though it was close to 11.  "He's hanging out with girls too-"

Bomi felt her phone get snatched from her hands. "That's different. He's a boy."

Bomi's mum left the kitchen first, but not before locking the doors and taking the keys with her. 

"No more going out for you unless your with me. Uni is the only exception." Her mother called out as she gave her daughter the cold shoulder. "I'm doing this to protect you."

Bomi walked to her room, dejected. The sleepover would have to turn out well now, it was the only thing that could distract her.

-

It was 2am and the girl sat in the middle of a couch under a heap of blankets, being cuddled by her two best friends.

She had already told them about her punishment, and so the group had decided to talk instead of watching movies.

Youngchan placed a bowl of chocolate covered almonds in Bomis lap and encouraged her to eat.

"I mean, she'll probably forget about that soon right? She'll relax on the rules after a few months." Sunghoon suggested as he looked at his friends uncertainly

Youngchan and Bomi simultaneously shook their heads. "My mum's crazy, seriously. I'm doomed."

Youngchan tried to settle into the couch to be more comfortable and dropped his phone in the process. "This time, it seems that your mum is determined to cut you off from the world. I've never seen her like this."

Bomi moved forward to grab the boys phone for him, but yelled a little too loud when she put pressure on her right hand.

The two boys froze and looked at the girl weirdly. "What was that?"

Bomi couldn't hide it, her wrist hurt too much to pretend. Massaging her arm, she turned to the boys. "I fell out of my window and hurt my arm when I was coming here."

The boys paused. Not knowing what to say. Seriously, what was with the girl?

"It's fine, the pain will go away in like a day."

Youngchan turned on the flashlight from his phone and shone it on the girls wrist

Before, the room was dark and light-less. To create a comforting ambience, as Sunghoon had said.

Now, thanks to the light, the three adolescents could see what they couldn't before.

Bomi's arm was bruised a blue-ish yellow, and it was swollen three times the size of a normal wrist.

"You need to go to the ER. I'll get the car started." Sunghoon spoke, getting up in an instance

"That's a good idea, the ER will probably be empty at this hour. Do you have health insurance?" Youngchan asked, forcing the girl up onto her legs.

"No...I don't know."

Youngchan held Bomi's hand as Sunghoon left the room. He smiled at her softly and spoke almost as if he were whispering.

"Bomi...how long are you going to run from your family? It's clearly hurting you."

Bomi tried to shake off Youngchans hand and play everything off as a joke, but he wouldn't let her.

"You need to call someone. Sunghoon and I will always have your back. If you get in trouble, we're here for you. Right now, we're trying out best."

Bomi acknowledged this fact.

"But, there's nothing more we can do right now. You need to call a parent."

Youngchans words seemed to get through to the girl. The next moment, she found herself saying something she never would have said a million years before.

"Call my dad. He'll know what to do."