Seyun stumbles down the flight of stairs like that of a cartoon character but luckily catches herself three-fourths of her way down. She glances up to the dead light on the wall and curses under her breath at the fact that it still hasn’t been fixed by either Chanyoung or Kris—the tallest of the household. Someone could died, literally, from the lack of light.

Seyun tries to get her jumbled thoughts calm by straightening her back and breathing in deeply and then follows with an exhale from . She feels only a fraction of calm when the thought of being late slaps her behind.

She adjusts her bag on her shoulder as she makes use of her long legs and practically leaps into the kitchen for a quick meal to only jolt and whimper like a hurt puppy.

“Honestly? Don’t know if I should say sorry for scaring you because you scared the crap outta me coming down those stairs.” It’s Luhan, sitting eerily peacefully at the counter, munching on cold pizza.

Seyun gulps down her heart in but it’s proving difficult because why is she in the dark, eating disgusting cold pizza at six in the morning?

“But—” Luhan starts with food in , “I’ll apologize because it looks like I really scared you. Sorry.”

Seyun wants to throw sass or something sarcastic because it’s in her blood, but she doesn’t, and just sighs with her eyes close. She bothers to not answer and slams her bag onto the counter [to which Luhan quickly shields her mountain of cold pizza from danger]. The younger doesn’t notice Luhan giving her attire a once over with imaginary question marks floating above her head; Seyun’s only focus is picking the flavor of granola bar for her quick breakfast.

“You go to class this early?” Luhan’s innocent question is like a sharp knife to Seyun’s gut. In fact the words are so cutting that Seyun almost feels cold liquid on her abdomen. She’s in a state of pure panic and terror as her thoughts question which gave her away: her spotless loafers, her iron black slacks or ironed white blouse.

Seyun, discreetly, runs her hands over her clean blouse as she turns to face the innocent Luhan. “Huh?” Seyun opts to playing dumb but she knows it’s ridiculous so she adds, “O-oh, yeah. It’s pretty early. Want to, uh, get everything out of the way so that I can have the rest of the day to myself.”

Luhan doesn’t reply quickly and instead takes another bite of her [disgusting] pizza before talking, again, with a mouth full, “...sounds reasonable. Wish I could do that. I can imagine all the things I could get done, but oh well.” Luhan shrugs and Seyun quickly grabs a random bar from the cabinet, shuts it, and turns back just as Luhan asks if she’d want her to drive her to her class since she’s already up.

“Oh!” Seyun almost screams but she bites her lips to prevent that from furthering. She takes two breaths before finishing, “Oh no it’s cool. I take the bus, or walk. Or Uber. Or… no, I’m cool. But thanks for offering.” Seyun hopes her smile is sweet and makes sure to give Luhan a deep bow before she grabs her bag and hightails it out of the house with high anxiety.

“There’s no shame, Seyun.” Misook allows her body to drop onto the two-seater without warning. Seyun reacts quickly by removing her long legs from Misook’s spot. It’s an awkward position—with her legs squished up against her chest. So once Misook looks comfortable Seyun places her legs back to their prior positioning, but now over Misook’s thighs that “are in the way”. Misook gives her a look and suddenly the sitting positions are swapped with Misook relaxing comfortably on the sofa’s armrest with her legs atop Seyun’s.

“You say that because you already know people like me.” Seyun mumbles. She crosses her arms in a childlike manner but doesn’t actually shove Misook’s wiggling feet from her thighs. Seyun sighs and looks to Misook with a defeated expression. “What if she doesn’t? What if they don’t? They’re going to think I’m some retard or something—”

“Hey!” Misook jams her right foot into Seyun’s gut. Seyun exclaims in pain and rubs at the burning spot but doesn’t say anything else at the expression Misook is wearing—it’s frightening her. “You’re not a retard—in fact don’t ever use that word loosely around here like an insult, got it?”

“...yes…” Seyun mumbles weakly; feeling as if she’s caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She drops her gaze to Misook’s feet and her toes that are currently trying to “massage” the injury.

“And what do you know of them, huh?” Misook’s pats the spot once before removing her legs and setting her feet onto the ground. “You’ve been here for three weeks, Seyun, and it takes longer to get to know someone.” Misook takes one strong hop to sit thigh by thigh to Seyun with a hand on the younger’s knee.

“Yeah...” Seyun starts softly shaking her head so that her bangs can somewhat hide her eyes. She feels like she’s going to start crying. “B-but—” Seyun jerks her face up, expression troubled, but falls short of finishing at Misook’s.

“No “yeah but’s” here, Seyun.” Misook’s expression is fierce. “If anyone in this household has a problem with a twenty year old still in high school, is going to have to talk with me.”

Seyun feels her chest grow tight at the tone Misook uses. It’s gentle enough to not hurt Seyun’s feelings, but keen enough to get the meaning of the words to her heart. Misook, right here and right now, appears almost motherly to Seyun and it makes the younger woman breath more difficulty.

“...you know…” Seyun sniffles and wipes her unshed tears. She allows Misook to embrace her with her short arms and tries to make the mood a little more lighter, “...at first I thought you were really mean.” Seyun feels Misook stiffen and the grip on her right shoulder is suddenly a little tighter.

“That’s because you moved in on my off day.” Misook comments casually but her fingers digging into Seyun’s arms tells her otherwise.

“But… you threw a chair at Kris.” Seyun pushes. She’s completely oblivious to Misook’s body language even when she’s staring at the side view of Misook’s face.

Misook turns to face Seyun and smiles. “Off. Day.”

Suddenly Seyun is pretty sure Kim Misook could get away with murder.

Seyun blinks and goes back to the beginning of their topic. “I… should tell Junhee first, right?” Seyun laughs for an effect but Misook is having none of that.

“The fact that she doesn’t already know is alarming because you have no sense of income.” Misook grunts as she stands up. “Come on, let’s get talking.”

Seyun is suddenly overcome with fear and guilt that she can’t stand up even if she wants to. “I-I lied and said I was taking a break.”

“Of course you did.” Misook soft scoffs in a manner that isn’t rude but a mere sound effect to her words.

“I… I also said that I just moved from the U.S. so I don’t have—” Seyun is cut short when Misook heaves the taller woman up from the sofa and starts dragging her to the hall.

“By any chance, Oh Seyun, are you a compulsive liar?” Misook’s voice is filled with a gleeful tone of playfulness as they walk up the stairs to Junhee’s room.

“No…” Seyun mutters but then corrects herself. “Yes.”

A / N:
okay, i tried researching if it's actually "possible" for a to still attend public high school in South Korea, but i came up empty handed?
or everything i found was vague?
but where i live, you can. so. Seyun can; because it's never too late.
anyways, this is the last of my pre-written one-shots, but i currently have 3 in the process so hopefully i'll be seeing ya'll next Monday with an update?
Thank you for dropping by! c: