Luhan sits comfortably, patiently waiting and watching Misook diligently remove her make-up. Her setup looks cheap, but it means a lot to her; the small mirror that she’s using is from the households first ever outing and the shoe box she has the mirror resting on is from a pair of Adidas that Luhan had gifted her their first year of Christmas.

And that’s one of the many reasons why Luhan likes about Misook; the older woman finds more meaning in the small things compared to the big, unlike Luhan who loves huge things. But having lived with Kim Misook for more than a year and a half, Luhan has come to learn that the small things can mean the same, or even more, then the big.

Luhan rotates the pillow on her lap and rests her chin back atop it, feeling nothing but comfort watching Misook hum quietly to herself. But Misook’s humming quiets down as she puts her things away into her drawers and turns in her chair to be frightened by Luhan on her bed.

“Oh my gosh. I forgot you were in here.” Misook gently pats where her heart is.

Luhan chuckles nervously. “Sorry.” She mumbles and makes a move to get up and off of Misook’s bed, but Misook clicks her tongue.

“I said you scared me, not to leave. You’re fine.” Misook assures Luhan with her palms facing the younger, motioning for Luhan to sit back down. Luhan does, slowly, with an awkward smile.

Nothing else is said as Misook walks in and out of her room, preparing things for the outing at the park. Luhan doesn’t know what to do and feels like she should be doing something other than sitting on Misook’s bed, doing nothing. But she already has everything she needs; dressed in her sportswear and bag already downstairs by the shoes. So she looks around Misook’s room.

Every color she sees is soft and light; the main color scheme seems to lead off of purple. Luhan spots no harsh or dark colors, and really, Misook’s room seems to be spilling with her personality.

Up against the walls are large light wooden bookshelves filled with books, photo frames with pictures in them, cute tiny trinkets and colorful boxes; on the top of every shelf holds a gathering of stuff animals. It strangely makes Luhan think of Toy Story, for some reason.

Luhan places Misook’s pillow back to place and gets up from the bed to walk over to one of the shelves filled with colorful books. She allows her eyes to fly over each spine of the books and reads the titles. The lighter colored books seem to be romance novels whilst the darker ones sounded like horror or crime novels. Polar opposites, Luhan thinks to herself with her hands behind her back and walking to another bookshelf. A title catches her attention:

Photo Album

Luhan stills and shifts her eyes to Misook’s door where she had disappeared to shower, probably. Luhan looks back to the light purple album book and shakes her head roughly. No, no. It’s wrong to look at something personal. Plus, she’ll blacklist me like Kris. Luhan shivers at the mere thought of being hated by Misook; she wouldn’t know how she’ll live if she ever was.

“Hey, Luhan.” Misook voice would probably sound like a slap to Luhan’s face if she was snooping around, but she isn’t and therefore Misook’s voice is only a jolt back to reality.

“Yeah.” Luhan answers before tearing her eyes away from the album book. What she sees makes her knees go weak that she actually wobbles forward but catches herself with a hand on a shelve.

Misook is in shorts and a sports bra that almost seems like it just won’t hold her s and has her hands loosely holding up her towel to her chest. She isn’t topless like some flaunt in the household, but for Luhan, it is the same effect as if she was. “Do you know where that undershirt that Kyungri got me is?” Misook makes momentary eye contact with Luhan before looking away with a frown. She doesn’t wait for Luhan to speak and makes a bee-line for her top draw to her dresser.

Luhan swallows a squishy lump in and allows her face to express the discomfort of the lump. Luhan drags her eyes away from Misook’s exposed back and starts to look around the room—for the shirt or to avoid Misook’s body, she doesn’t really know.

A thought that it doesn’t make sense to be holding a towel to her chest is passed through Luhan’s mind but she shakes it away violently because it does makes sense. She’s living proof.

The sound of Misook closing the draw calls for Luhan’s attention and as she turns to look to Misook her eyes catch the shirt. She makes an inhuman sound that Misook responses to and points to the shirt draped on the back of the chair.

“Oh! Silly me.” Misook chuckles to herself and Luhan wishes she can too but her chest hurts so much, her arms are tingling and her legs? She doesn’t even feel like she has feet to keep her standing but here she is, standing in front of the changing Misook.

When did we become close enough to change in front of the other? Luhan abruptly turns away from the changing Misook and the shirt that seems to have been made to fit her body like a glove. Lewd thoughts go away, please! Luhan screws her eyes shuts and pops them back open.

“Okay. Let’s see…” Misook’s voice is drawn out into the background when Luhan notices something behind the nightstand to Misook’s bed. She bends down and fights to get it out; it’s a picture frame.

Luhan blinks her eyes and suddenly her body isn’t on fire nor is hurting. Instead she feels very… mushy.

“Are you listening to me, Lu? I asked if—” Misook’s voice is cut when Luhan turns around with the frame in hand. Luhan looks up with the dumbest smile Misook has ever seen on her but Misook can’t say the same about herself. She feels a ton of pebbles falling to the depths of her stomach.

“Is this you?” Luhan shows her the picture.

Misook drop her eyes to the floor and mumbles, “Yeah.”

Luhan frowns and stares back at the photo. It’s a young Misook with two adult on either side of her—a woman and a man. They’re all smiling; the adults look proud and Misook looks happy. She has a gold medal around her neck and is holding a framed document in her hands. “You’ve never told us about your parents before.” Luhan mutters bitterly. She looks to Misook.

Misook doesn’t move her eyes up nor does she stop her little moments around her deck. “It’s never came up.” Is her excuse but Luhan knows there’s more, there has to be more or Misook wouldn’t look so closed off at a simple childhood picture.

It dawns on Luhan.

“Are you… ashamed?” Luhan’s question is confirmed at how fast Misook’s head snaps up; her eyes wide. Luhan glances back at the photo and frowns sadly. “Why are you ashamed? Because you were big?” Luhan looks back at Misook whose eyes are elsewhere. “There’s no need to be ashamed. You were a kid, kids shouldn’t worry about their weight; just their happiness.”

Misook’s fingers rubs at her towel she draped on her chair as her eyes dances across her floor. “I don’t know.” She says. “I just don’t like to be reminded of how overweight I was in grade school.”

“Oh.” Luhan lamely responses. She turns awkwardly with the frame before popping the stand out and placing it on the nightstand, facing the bed. “Well, I don’t think you should be ashamed. You won something and that deserves to be shown off. Also,” Luhan turns to Misook, “You were a cute kid.”

Misook blinks, momentarily stunned at Luhan’s choice of words but she laughs which in turn stuns Luhan. “Thanks.” Misook says softly, making shy eye contact.

“No problem.” Luhan wants to just kick herself for saying nonsense replies to her. A simple nod would suffice. “Well I should,” Luhan gestures to the door, “Go out there and see if the young ones are ready.”

“Okay.” Misook chuckles at the awkward motions of Luhan backing out of her room.

Misook takes the place Luhan was previously and stares down at her picture. She feels her stomach turn but her heart isn’t as heavy as it was when Luhan found it. She’ll leave it out for today, Misook tells herself as she fixes the sheets to her bed.

A thud is heard from her door and Misook looks up to Luhan whose face is burning red. “Also, um, you’re pretty no matter what. Okay. Thanks. Bye.”

Misook straightens and thinks over Luhan words. She laughs at them and how genuine they are to her.

So maybe she’ll leave the picture up for more than a couple of days.