“What the hell is this?!” Seulgi hissed

“Those are your phones,” her father smiled  

“What did you do with our smartphones?” Irene questioned,  

“I confiscated them,” her father smugly responded   

 

Seulgi tightly gripped the Nokia-esque phone

“You can’t do that!” she angrily spat

“I can and I just did!” her father sneered,

“You can't treat us like this, we’re grown-”

“THEN ACT LIKE IT!” her father roared,

“You act like children, I will treat you like children”

 

“Tch,” Seulgi clicked her tongue at the memory.

 

She laid on her bed and stared at the phone in her hands. She pressed the protruding buttons. They gave out an annoying beep. She tapped on the screen. Nothing. She jabbed at the buttons, hitting the menu and then the call log. Empty. She went to the contacts. Only four numbers were listed: her dad’s cell number; her stepmom’s cell number; the other Nokia phone  number; and the police’s phone number. She looks for the “Add contacts” option but there was none. The phone was only programed to allow four emergency numbers and that was it.

 

“Stupid old man,” Seulgi grumbled, tossing the phone onto the foot end of her bed.

The phone bounced and tumbled and fell onto the floor. She didn’t even blink. It could break for all she cared.

 

“The more you think about it, the more painful it would be,” Irene said, noticing her bitter expression.

 

Seulgi looked at the girl by the door. Irene was moving some of her stuff into Seulgi’s room. Initially, they argued about whose room the other one would stay in but they ultimately settled for Seulgi’s room since it was bigger.

 

“Stupid Irene,” she grumbled under her breath.

 

“What do you know..”

 

---

 

 

“We can move this…and...” Irene pointed up.

“Move that…” she pointed down

“And...maybe this could go here, so….” Irene pointed right

 

“Seulgi?”

 

Seulgi looked up.

Irene pointed to the closet,

 

“Could we move some of your clothes into the drawer so there’s room for mine?”

 

Seulgi looked at her closet.

She looked at the nicely hung shirts, and the row of folded  pants.

Then she glanced at the stacks of neatly folded clothes; clothes in which the closet had just enough space for; clothes in which lingered with her scent.

Now, she will have to move them out of their environment just so there is room for Irene’s clothe; whose scent will probably taint her closet.

 

“No, they’re staying right there…” she growled,

 

“Don’t touch them.”

 

Irene stared at her. Then she heaved a deep sigh.  

 

“Look, I know you hate this,” she placed her hands on her hips, “and I don’t like this anymore than you do,”

 

“But,” she sighed again; her hands dropped to her sides,

 

“Can we try to be civil while we room together for the next month?”

Irene let out a soft smile

 

Now it was Seulgi’s turn to stared at her.

Did the girl..just smile at her?

Like actually, genuinely smiled?  

 

“Why are you smiling?” Seulgi asked out loud  

 

Irene blinked at Seulgi’s sudden question,

She took a moment to process her answer,

 

“Because…”she smiled again,

 

“Smiling is the best way to face every problem, to crush every fear, and to hide every pain.”

 

Seulgi’s eyebrows furrowed as she thought about that.

Then she nodded to herself.

Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad.They could be civil for the time being.

She opened to agree to the girl’s offer, but like once before, her words failed her,

 

 

 

“You’re pretty when you smile.”

 

------

 

 

Stupid.

She inhaled.

 

Stupid.

She exhaled.

 

Stupid.

She gasped.

 

Stupid mysterious black bag.

She grunted, shifting the heavy weight onto her other half of her body.

She was transporting some of Irene's stuff  into her own room.

If she had knew how exhausting it would be, she wouldn’t had agree to help.

 

“W-where..” she stopped and gasped for air, “should I put this?”

She dropped the heavy bag onto the floor without waiting for a response.

 

Irene turned around and walked over,

“I got it,”she said, untying the top.

 

“What the hell do you have in there anyway?”

Seulgi rotated her pained arm,

 

“Bricks? So, freakin’ heav-”

She stopped when she saw the items inside.

 

Irene picked one up and held it up to her face,

“Cabbage,”

 

Cabbage indeed.

Cabbage plushy.

 

To say that Seulgi was surprised would have been an understatement.

She glanced down at the bag and saw that there were all types of cabbage plushies.

She recognized the variety of cabbages.

There was a typical green cabbage plushie, a red cabbage plushie, a purple cabbage plushie, a napa cabbage plushie, and even a savoy cabbage plushie.

Seulgi mentally kicked herself for knowing the actual name of that last cabbage.

 

“I collected them when I was little,” Irene explained when she saw Seulgi’s bewildered face.

She fondly took them out, placing each one gently on the floor beside her.  

 

“This one’s my favorite,” Irene said, pulling out the last one.

 

It was huge. Half of her size. It was a chinese cabbage; white all over with green leaves on top. It had a smiling expression with two lines for eyes and meek smile with two pink blushes.  Seulgi watched as the girl tightly hugged and squeezed it; her expression mimicked the toy’s expression ;her eyes closed; her nose crinkled; her lips tugged into a cheeky smile.

 

The girl looked really cute.

No, she looked adorable.

No, she looked adorably cute hugging the the stuffed plushie.

 

Seulgi didn’t notice that she herself had been smiling herself until the girl opened her eyes and stared at her.

 

“Why are you smiling?”  

 

Seulgi blinked at the sudden question.  

She cleared and prepared a snarky answer.

She opened ,

But for the second time that day, she blanked out with words,

 

“Because you’re cute.”

 

 

-----

 

“What?”  Irene furrowed her eyebrows

 

“N-nothing.” Seulgi looked down.

 

“No, I really didn’t hear,” Irene turned and placed her plushie down on the bed,

“What did you say?”

Seulgi breath a sigh of relief.

Thank god Irene didn’t hear.

After her first slip up before, Irene kept teasing her by randomly smiling and asking whether or not she looked pretty.

She definitely wouldn’t have let Seulgi live this day down.

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