pointed teeth || iz*one

12

"I'm Choi Sungmin," he said, holding his hand out. "Miyawaki... how have you been? D-did you behave well like I asked?"

Sakura couldn't answer, picking at the rip in her jeans, lump in her throat choking her. She just nodded and shook his hand.

Chaeyeon and Eunbi looked capable of murder. Yujin looked like she wanted to strangle someone.

"Sungmin-ah," Yena said, "you can leave now. Fetch me on Wednesday, I'm not going to school tomorrow."

"Okay. Got it." He shifted and got up to leave. He opened the door, but before leaving he looked back. "Bye, Miyawaki. Be a good girl and take care."

Sakura nodded again.

"I think that's enough for today," Chaeyeon said, breaking the silence. "Get to bed."

"But it's only eight twenty-"

"Now, Yujin."

...

Sakura stirred in Chaeyeon's hold.

"Hm?" Chaeyeon sat up. "Kkura, are you okay?"

"Jjaeyeon," Sakura murmured, mispronouncing the 'ch', "does it bother you?"

"Does what bother me?" Chaeyeon couldn't see anything besides the outlines of sleeping bodies. She reached for Sakura's face and cupped one side with her hand.

"That I'm not completely human," Sakura said hoarsely, touching the hand on her cheek. A bead of wetness rolled down and landed on Chaeyeon's thumb. She swiped it away.

"Not at all." Chaeyeon let her body lean forward and fall onto Sakura's. She moved her face forward and kissed Sakura's forehead, then the tip of her nose.

Sakura pulled Chaeyeon's back down so they closed any gaps and kissed her lips, cupping her face.

"Who's top and who's bottom," Yujin said.

Sakura jumped, startled, and Chaeyeon violently flopped over, smacking Sakura's tummy with the back of her hand.

"What the hell are you doing awake?!" Sakura hissed, sitting up and hitting her head on the top bunk. Yujin's outline stood out against everyone else's because she was standing up.

"I couldn't sleep. I was thinking... my uncle is a lawyer. And he could help," Yujin said, scratching the back of her head.

"Cool," Minju murmured.

Chaeyeon got up and walked over to the light switch, careful not to step on anyone sleeping on the mattresses on the floor.

"Were all of you awake?!" Sakura gasped. She saw Yujin's foot disappearing upwards as she climbed back onto her and Wonyoung's bunk.

"I was half asleep," Wonyoung said, raising her hand.

"Yena and Chaewon are asleep though," Hyewon croaked, pointing below at them snoring on their mattresses.

"Hey, hey wake up," Yuri whispered, lightly slapping Yena's cheek. Minju shook Chaewon gently.

"Hm... what time is it," Chaewon grumbled, squinting to adjust her blurry vision to the light.

Everyone looked up at the clock on the cabin wall. 1:12AM.

"Why're we awake?" Wonyoung asked, sitting with her oversized shirt tented over her knees hugged to her chest.

"I was thinking about getting my uncle to help. He's a lawyer," Yujin repeated. "You know Ahn Tae-i?"

"Wasn't he the lawyer in that one episode of Paranormal," Minju yawned.

"Yea," Yujin answered, "but bear in mind that Paranormal is an actual show and not a drama series. He took me on one of his trips once to protect this guy in Asan who had blotched skin and a condition which made him unable to eat animal meat. Or vegetables or fruits. Or anything but people."

"So he was a cannibal?"

"Not by choice." Yujin cricked her neck and sighed. "But he never killed to eat, just ate the bodies of executed criminals, so he got sick easily. I talked to him and he was coughing and really sentimental. So my uncle protected his rights. Don't worry though, his case won and he's a police officer himself, so I think it'd be a good idea for him to protect Sakura. She doesn't even eat people."

Eunbi clucked her tongue and nodded. "Agreed."

"Agreed," Hyewon and Minju repeated. Everyone murmured yes and nodded amongst themselves.

Chaeyeon clapped her hands. "Can everyone sleep now that we all feel safe?"

"Nope!" Nako said. "Now," she leaned over and reached for her discarded coat under the folds of the blanket and brought out a few colourful packets, "we eat pop rocks."

"Gimme one," Hyewon said from her bunk.

"You bought those at the fair like, two weeks ago. Can we still eat them?" Yuri asked, sitting up and crossing her legs.

"Yep." Nako tore open one packet and tossed one at Hyewon. "They expire next week."

Hyewon poured them into her mouth and let them crackle. She made a face because of the sour taste and Wonyoung threw herself sideways onto Yujin above Sakura and laughed.

Sakura looked at Hitomi on the opposite lower bunk eating some. She looked like her face was going to shrink in.

Sakura wanted to stay up a little longer, but Chaeyeon pushed everyone to sleep after 1:40, so she frowned and waited for everyone to fall asleep before getting up.

...

At 2:30, she got up and carefully snuck out of the cabin to head for the coop.

Her stomach grumbled wildly, she hadn't had anything to eat besides that glass of orange juice, and they'd all skipped dinner to talk with Sungmin.

She knew chicks would be in abundance; they were basically carpeting the floor. She went a round around the coop, looking for an opening, and found one. She pushed something like a little door upwards with her index finger and put her face close to it. She found her face near a nestling sleeping hen.

A few chicks were glued to its mother, but one fluffy white chick stuck out too far.

Sakura reached out and grabbed it with lighting reflexes, fingers closing around it like a mechanical claw. It cheeped sharply in a futile attempt to call for help, and Sakura saw a few adult chickens stir and start to cluck, so she pulled it out of the opening and shut it as fast as she could.

"I'm sorry," she whispered as it struggled in her hand, "but I'm starving."

She took off her sweater so there would be no stains, ate it in two bites minus the feet, snuck back into the cabin bathroom to wash her mouth and hands, and then slipped the sweater back onto her body.

It was some time later Yena got up to use the bathroom and saw Sakura examining her teeth in the mirror.

"What're you doing?" she asked sleepily.

"I thought there was a hair in my mouth," Sakura said.