Our Winter

to the moon and back

"Jia, come on girl, it's not even that bad." Mei convinced her friend. Atleast, she tried to. "NO WAY IN HELL. I TOLD YOU I DON'T LIKE HORROR MOVIES." Jia retorted, behind the locked door of her room. "You won't even be scared with all the squealing Mei will be doing next to her crush." Jun lazily stated, rolled his eyes. Mei stopped banging the door.

"W-what are you talking about!" She retorted, slapping his arm.
"I'm only spitting facts." Jun replied, mouthing a "trust me". "YEAH. 50 BUCKS MEI ISN'T GOING TO PRETEND TO BE SCARED SO SHE CAN GO OUT WITH MINGHAO" He yelled loud enough for the entire street to hear. Mei gawked at him, fighting the urge to kick him in shin. He wasn't wrong tho. Within the next two seconds, Jia had grabbed her blanket and taken her usual spot on the couch, an evil look on her face. Mei was disgusted but her friends, who were also her landlords, laughed it off.

"Okay!" Jia said, jumping off the couch. "Let's start prepping. So, let's ask who's free first" she picked up her phone. "We already called Minghao."

"WHY?!" Mei squealed.
"I'm already winning." Jia looked at her brother, a mischievous grin spreading across her features. Mei threw her head back, rolling her eyes "oh my god." She exclaimed. "Who else is coming over?"

"Uh, everyone I wanna call is already busy." Jun said, looking up from his phone.
"I didn't really wanna call anyone, so..." she checked her phone again. "I guess we're done with that. Uh, movie is decided, people are decided, oh snacks! How did I forget." She turned towards Mei. "My dear best friend, who is rivalled to a sister of thy" she started, trying to be dramatic. "Would you set forward on a selfless quest to retrieve provisions for thy?" Jia closed her eyes for more inspiration. She opened her mouth again, but Mei cut her off.

"Yeah yeah shut up, I'll go to the grocery store. Chips, chocolates, cola, popcorn, anything else?" She asked the pair who were both sprawled out on the couch, scrolling on their phones. When Jun said no, Mei grabbed her purse and opened the door, running straight into something — or in this case, someone.

"Oh my god Mei Mei, I didn't see you, are you okay?"
"Y-yeah, fine. Sorry, come in." She back tracked into the house, finding Jun and Jia looking up from their spots on the couch. "Oh Hao, you got snacks!" Jun jumped up and took the bag from him, opening it to check the contents. "Great, you got everything, Mei will pay you back. Thanks!"

Mei shot a side eye at the guy before opening her purse and holding out two fifty bills to cover how much ever the snacks could've cost.

"Hey, don't bother." Minghao said, changing into the guest slippers Jun had previously given him. "No, I insist." Mei replied, thrusting the money toward him. He simply took it, before putting it back in her empty hand and folding her fingers over it so that he was holding on to the knuckles over her closed palm. He leaned in closer, crouching down to her height. "No." He whispered, walking away and taking his place next to Jun on the couch.

Mei followed, fighting the urge to put her hands up to her chest to feel her own heartbeat. She heard the siblings snickering from the other side of the couch, but chose to ignore it, taking the last spot on the couch — next to Minghao.

***

The so called horror movie wasn't scary at all. It wasn't that Mei didn't enjoy horror either, the jump scares were so predictable and it wasn't serious at all with Jun laughing at Jia every ten seconds. Mei couldn't say she didn't enjoy it though. The snacks were good, and she'd even fallen asleep halfway through, so atleast she got a good nap out of it. Mei was starting to grow tired of the staying at home. It'd been a whole five days since she'd returned from Korea, and all the participants got a week off from work. Mei's laziness stopped her from stepping outside at all — the most she'd done was head to the public garbage disposal bin and dropped off their trash. Suddenly longing for a night walk, Mei excused herself from the group, grabbing her phone and a sweater before making her way out.