Egocentric [Book I]

Mockery

The cream-colored walls, blankets, a lamp and some not-so-good thoughts accompanied Minah for four days of being sick, which she loathed very much.

Friday came, and all she wanted was to just get her feet somewhere else besides the house. Her body craved for the outdoors because her mother didn’t allow her to go to school for the whole week despite being very persistent about it.

Minah experienced staying inside on her own – this day being one of them – at times when Umma had to go to the grocery store or run errands. Appa has a regular job and of course, Minjae had to go to school.

It was boring... not to mention, lonely.

Staring at the empty ceiling, Minah pulled the sheets up to her neck and blinked a few times.

When she had no one to talk to, she contemplated hard on things and remembered stuff she shouldn’t even remember. Like that terrible Monday afternoon when she fell onto her knees the second she stepped on their porch. She came home exhausted, having been walking down the shortcut and plenty more streets just to get home.

Minjae found her panting and sweating, face completely drained of color and fingers shaking from the cold. It wasn’t that cold, actually, but when your body’s not in the right temperature, everything around you would be unusually affecting.

Her phone resting on the bedside table rang and she had to decide whether to answer it or not since the caller was unregistered. She figured that it must be important, so she picked up.

“Who’s this?”

“It’s Eunri.” She sounded annoyed, and Minah sat up so she could tolerate whatever madness Eunri would say to her.

“Sorry, I forgot to save your number.” She massaged her temple and leaned back on the headboard.

“That’s fine. How are you feeling?”

“Better now. I wanted to go to school today, but my Umma won’t let me.”

“We didn’t do much for the past days anyway. You know, just the frequent math assignments but other than that, there’s nothing you should be worried about.” There was some mumbling at the other line; Eunri was probably letting Nara listen. “Will you be able to go to school next week?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Minah nodded, even though Eunri couldn’t see her. There was a short silence between them for a while before she thought of something that’s been bothering her for quite a while. “Hey Eunri, can I ask you something?”

“Why do I have this feeling that your question involves either M or K?”

“Maybe because it does...? I don’t know.”

“Fire away.”

“Who’s Yeonjae?” Minah stated slowly as she tried to remember the other name. It wasn’t that big of a deal, but she was curious as to why Baekhyun compared her to them.

“She’s Chen’s girlfriend.” Although Eunri sounded unsure, Minah knew that her friend was positive with who she was talking about. “Why do you ask?”

“Nothing, I just heard it somewhere.” Minah lied. She couldn’t believe that those people really think of her Xiumin’s girlfriend. How could that be when they obviously hate each other’s guts? They couldn’t even pass as classmates. “There was another girl, but I’m not certain about the name...”

“Well, Chen is the only one who isn’t single but – “

“Eunchae!” Minah exclaimed, straightening up on her seat. “It’s Eunchae.”