Innocence // STRAY KIDS' Han Jisung

one

In which she's the bowling queen.

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It was a chilly night of April.

The wind made the tree's leaves move forward and back, as well as her hair underneath her black cap, tied up in a ponytail. The girl, whose hands were hidden under the warmth of her red hoodie's pockets, walked through the very few blocks left to finally arrive to her destination. She was glad she wasn't the only person on the street, otherwise she would've chickened out and ran back straight to the protection of her bedroom.

She walked past the blank faces of strangers, regretting not having accepted her father's offer to ride her to the bowling alley. Despite having her jacket and some hot-packs on her bag, she was freezing. Her house was just four blocks away from the bowling alley, but under the current weather conditions it felt as if she had to cross the entire city just to get there.

Finally, after her second sneezing, she saw the place's shiny letters above its entry. She blew warm air onto her cold palms and entered, meeting a much darker hall. She fixed her cap and quickly removed the small tangles on her ponytail as she waited to pay for the entrance. Once she did, she walked into another room, this time meeting the large bowling alley.

The girl walked to the counter and asked the young woman for a pair of shoes after giving out her size. She took her bag off and left it on top of the counter as well as her black sneakers and waited. Once the worker came back, she left her items there, making sure to have her phone on her pocket, and saved the ticket with a 'SK9' written on it. She thanked her and went to the tracks, looking for her friends.

"Mirae!"

The girl squinted her eyes up front, trying to distinguish who had called her. Having myopia made her life incredibly complicated, especially since her glasses had been damaged few days ago. The new ones wouldn't arrive until two more days, and Mirae was getting already dizzy from squinting her eyes, trying to see what was ahead.

She saw the blurry face of Soobin, her smile quickly appearing on her face, relaxing her eyes as well. Soobin ran up to her and embraced her into a tight hug before giggling, "I love the face you do when you can't see clearly."

"Unnie, I hate you and your perfect sight."

Soobin laughed and hung her arm around her, leaning onto her due to their height difference. Mirae was the tallest between her mom and older sister, but standing next to someone outside her family, she was rather on the small side.

"Let's go, we're ordering what we're going to eat," Soobin announced and guided Mirae towards the crowded table on the alley.

Mirae tried to guess who were also there besides Soobin and her boyfriend, but the lightning and her sight were not much of help. Just when they had already arrived she saw clearly who the other companions were: the first ones who she distinguished were the ones she had classes with, being Hwang Hyunjin, Han Jisung, the foreign student Felix and Kim Seungmin. She saw some boys who had graduated the year before, which were Soobin's boyfriend, Woojin, Bang Chan, Lee Minho and Seo Changbin, the latter being a year ahead of her; and next to them was Yang Jeongin, a year below her, whom she was friends with since they lived in the same neighborhood and often rode the bus together.

The first one to notice the girls' arrival was Jeongin, who let out a small gasp at the sight of Mirae. "Mirae noona! I didn't know you'd come!"

She smiled at the boy and shortly bowed to the others, since she barely knew them at all. They bowed at her, except Woojin who waved her hand at her friendlily, "Haven't seen you in a while, Mirae."