Mean to Me | Im Youngmin

Mean - 7

"Aren't you going to school today?"

Ji-hye grumbles as someone disturbs her sleep by opening the curtains and letting the warm rays in her room.

"Ji-hye..."

She chooses to ignore.

"Ji-hye, I really need to leave by now because I'm going to be late for first period," Hayoung, although afraid, continues to nag her. "If you're not coming, I'll go now."

In response, she covers her face with her comforter.

The other girl sighs and chooses to leave the still sleeping Ji-hye behind.

Ji-hye wakes up two hours later to non-stop sneezing. At first, she thought it was just her allergic rhinitis acting up again, until she started coughing too.

She reaches for her neck and she notices she feels hot. She tries to stand up but she feels dizzy the moment she lifts her head.

It's confirmed: she caught a bad case of flu because of staying under the rain yesterday.

She tries to recall what happened after she visited her twin's resting place but to no avail. She doesn't even remember how she got home last night.

Because her head aches so much and she can't get out of bed, she tries to sleep again, thinking that she still has a few hours before she has to get up for her afternoon classes.

For the second time that day, she wakes up. She reaches for her phone on the bedside table and sees that it's already almost four in the afternoon. Her eyes widen in shock.

"Shoot! I missed today's classes!" She slaps her forehead and realizes that she feels even hotter now than earlier. "Ugh, what was I thinking, though? I could never have gone to school in this state anyway."

For a few minutes, she lays on her bed just staring at her room's ceiling, until she hears their doorbell ring.

She grunts. "Who could this be?" She's certain it isn't any of her family members because they all have keys. Her thoughts are interrupted as she hears the doorbell again.

"Ugh... Will you please wait..." She brings herself up although all her muscles and joints are aching. She stands, and although a little bit dizzy, makes her way towards the main door. She doesn't even bother to check herself in the mirror.

As she steps out of the house slowly, she sees a familiar cherry-haired boy outside their gates.

She hesitates to move for a while.

What is he doing here?

He then catches her eye. Taking it as a signal, Ji-hye slowly walks to their front gate to meet Im Youngmin.

She doesn't know why but she finds herself opening the gate for him.

And she doesn't understand why he also seems...

A little different?

Well, he's not glaring at her today...

Ji-hye and Youngmin are now facing each other but no one is breaking the ice. She doesn't know what to say. Meanwhile, he doesn't even know why he's there.

"Hey," they both say at the exact same time. This shut them up again.

Ji-hye then looks down, and it is only then that she realizes that she isn't exactly in her best appearance. She's still wearing her favorite purple alpaca pajamas. She bites her lip because she suddenly feels embarrassed. Youngmin probably thinks that she doesn't even care about her looks. This might be another thing that he'll take against her. She sighs.

While still looking at her feet, she whispers, in a rather hoarse voice. "If you're looking for Hayoung---"

"I didn't come here for her. I just saw her at school today," Youngmin interrupts before she can even finish.

"Then why..." She raises her head abruptly and covers her mouth in shock as she remembers.

"Oh no!" She suddenly feels frantic.

"Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about the group meeting!" She panics, almost slurring her words in an attempt to let everything out fast.

She looks at Youngmin, "I know, I know. I'm irresponsible and I'm selfish, but I really didn't mean to---"

For the second time that afternoon, Youngmin interrupts her.

"I didn't come here for that, too." Youngmin calmly responds. "Since I'm here, I actually missed the meeting myself," he adds.

Ji-hye looks at him in disbelief. So why is he here?

Out of nowhere, he grabs her hands, which feel warm and small against his that it surprises him for a second, and places something there.

Before Ji-hye could even react, he starts to walk away without even saying anything.

Left in utter shock of how fast things happened and in confusion as to what just happened, she doesn't even remember that she's unwell until she opens her palms to see what Youngmin just placed there.

Flu medicine.

She looks at it in disbelief. "Waaaa? How does he know, though?" She thinks to herself while closely inspectioning it.

"Hayoung must have mentioned," she says out loud.

Still, why would he give her meds? He hates her to the point that she actually feels like he's happy she missed school so he wouldn't have to see her face today.

"Mentioned what?"

She slightly jumps in surprise as Hayoung suddenly appears in front of her.

"Hey, Ji-hye. Are you okay? You look pale," Hayoung says as she tries to reach for her step-sister as if to feel her temperature. Not wanting any form of physical contact, Ji-hye flinches and accidentally drops the metal packet in her hands.

Before she could even bend to pick it up, Hayoung already has it in her hands and looks at it in confusion.

"Huh? Flu meds?" Hayoung looks at her.

"Ji-hye? Are you sick?"

Hearing this, Ji-hye's jaw drops.

What? If Hayoung doesn't actually know she's sick, then she wasn't the one who told Youngmin...

Suddenly, she forgets her headache, her runny rose, her itchy throat, her aching body.

All she knows is her heart is beating so fast it feels like it will actually jump out of her chest.