GAUCHE, kageyama

二十

chapter twenty!

GAUCHE

"How are you?"

Thursday nights. It was reassuring for Mina to know that her mother would call to check on her on that day— well, a chance of 67% since the woman lived an awfully bustling life back home. But there was no holding grudges on that, it would be childish for the brunette to do so.

"I'm doing good," Mina replied with a stifled yawn, eyes closed as she leaned back on the wall. "Progressing a little better now."

"Oh?" Her mother raised a brow at this, expression a little cheeky. "Are we progressing well with any boys at all?"

She couldn't hold in her little chortle at that and she peeked an eye open. Mina would've wanted to answer it in a more straightforward manner but she felt a little playful, wanting to mess a little bit with her mother. So, she leaned on the table with a contemplating expression on her face.

"Hm.. what do you think?" A small smile grew on her face, clearly skittish with the way it looked.

Her mother's eyes widened by a fraction as she dramatically gasped with a hand over her mouth. It was only a second apart did she only then start to squeal like a mouse, clapping her hands out of excitement— Mrs. Lee was definitely elevated. But before it could escalate any further, she stopped and glanced around the room before looking up to the screen again.

"Hey, Lee Mina, you're not throwing away your studies because of a boy, right?" There was a twinge of seriousness with a mixture amusement in her tone. "I'm happy for you but make sure that studies are first and guys come second. At least studying won't betray you."

Ah, there it was.

Mina wondered when she would hear those types of concerns from her parents. It just sounded so— typical of them to say something along those lines that it was almost comical. She could only allow a breathy chuckle to escape her lips when she shook her head.

"I'm still going strong with my studies here, Eomma, don't even worry about it," She replied. "Anyways, any interesting news back there at home?"

At the question, Mrs. Lee seemed like she was contemplating for a few good seconds about the topic before slowly wording out, "Well, I think your sister might be an interesting story."

When the word sister came out of her mother's lips, Mina held in a sigh that would've been tempting to release but it didn't seem like a very polite thing to do, especially when she hasn't seen her sister in a while. Maybe she had changed a little bit, growing from her natural talent at ruffling someone's feathers.

"What's wrong with Minji?" She queried.

"No, nothing's wrong with your sister. She's still doing well and all but," Mrs. Lee seemed to have the words clogged up in her throat, a little unsure of how to word it. "We just think she misses you."

Now that just sounded straight up ridiculous.

"And she's probably going to visit."

The brunette mindlessly nodded to the words of her mother until they registered slowly but surely. Mina had to pause like an immovable statue as she tried to understand whether she heard that right or not but when she gauged her mother's expression, no hint of playfulness in that visage of hers, her heart plummeted down to her stomach.

"..Huh?"

"LEE-SAN?"

The said girl awoke from her stupor, simply holding the guitar to her chest without strumming it once. Fujie Murano, the President of the club she partook in, casted a worried look towards the brunette. While there were tunes heard in the background of people playing their pieces, Mina simply sat in silence as she gazed blankly on the piece of lyric sheet she had. It was quite embarrassing, being caught like that. Mina felt heat crawling upwards her neck.

She was still hung up over her mother's words from less than a week ago and now it was consuming her energy like a parasite thirsting over human secretes.

"S-Sorry!" Mina immediately fumbled to read over the lyrics of the song. "A little distracted but no problem, Murano-san!"

Fujie didn't seem too convinced with the complexion that the Korean girl had but she didn't want to pry any further into someone's life that she barely knew about. So she simply nodded, a little reluctant but she did anyways.

"...I see," She mumbled before averting to another topic. A small chuckle came from Fujie before she continued. "Oh! Something interesting happened this morning and I just couldn't find the time to tell you earlier."

This piqued Mina's interest, the girl now leaning her body towards her fully.

"I was walking on my way to school and I saw a poster that looked pretty interesting," Fujie hummed as she envisioned the scenario once again. "It was some sort of advertisement for a watch brand but you wouldn't believe it— the model looked just like you!"

Now that was concerning.

The interested smile that was painted on the Korean girl's visage seemed to fade by the second after that revelation she heard. Someone that looked closely like her was modelling for a watch campaign. Mina haven't had the faintest clue when she would have modelled for anything but— her lips pursed at the thought. God forbid that her intuition would deem correct.

"It was kind of crazy. I definitely thought it was you!" Fujie shook her head with a disbelieving laugh.

"... The girl has long black hair, yes? And a mole on the left cheek?" Mina cautiously questioned while she placed a finger on her cheek, eyes dreading over what answer she could give.

"Well, now that you ask that," She hummed with an affirming nod. "Yeah, she did have those features. Wait, you've seen the poster too, Lee-san?"

Now, it was getting too concerning.

Very concerning.

Mina didn't want to believe the strokes of thoughts roaming endlessly in her mind. She cooked up several possibilities but one stood out the most; the possibility she wanted to deny the most. Just thinking about it drained all the colour on her face, all ashen and withered. Fujie immediately expressed concern for the girl but she was too immersed in the fear that consumed her soul.

Have I done a great sin in my past life? Mina dreaded.