23: I DON'T LIKE BANANAS

"Cat," by SunWoo Jung-A (feat. IU)

                “Looks like we’ll be having sunnier days this week, doesn’t it?”

                Naeil dug her face deeper into the pillow on her bed. Sunny days were only nice if you weren’t stuck in your room all day.

                “Perhaps we’ll have a warm summer this year. What do you think?”

                “I think s—”

                “Shut up,” groaned Naeil, clawing around for the remote but refusing to pull her face up from the cushy valley in her pillow. The remote, however, refused to be found. Opting for the less logical of options, Naeil pounded her head into the mattress repeatedly, growling out incoherent sounds of disgust as she did.

                When she finally sat up, Naeil gingerly pulled out the strands of hair that stuck to the bandages on her face. The wounds had almost healed since that run-in with Bul-ui Agma three days ago, but Ji Jaehee forced her daughter to rebandage them anyway.

                It was nearly impossible to come up with a satisfactory explanation for Jaehee. The school reported it as a particularly nasty bullying incident, but even that seemed improbable. It was the motive that no one could figure out. If Naeil had problems with bullies in the past, perhaps it would’ve made sense for such a large crowd of boys to beat up on one girl. If it had been ual assault, it might’ve made sense. But neither of those things were the case.

                Her mother, of course, demanded answers. Not surprisingly, the school remained vague in their responses; surprisingly, Naeil’s explanations were similarly vague. Her daughter was not one to keep secrets, and it worried her. Nevertheless, her daughter seemed to be doing unusually well. As much as Naeil hated staying in her bedroom all the time, it was a relief to be away from people. Quiet time had been long overdue.

                “What to do…” murmured Naeil, toying with the edge of her blanket.

                There was one question that had plagued her mind since the day she arrived home from the hospital: Should I go back to school? Graduation was just around the corner. Just a few more weeks, and she could be out of that school. But what if…

                The doorbell rang.

                Naeil’s brow furrowed. “Who—”

                It rang again, this time at least ten times, rapid-fire.

                “Seriously, aish,” growled Naeil.

                Her footsteps pounded down the stairs, every moment gaining steam, ready to punch whoever dared drag her down from the sanctity of her bed. The doorbell was still ringing when she stood up on her tiptoes to peek outside.

                She could see part of Hoseok’s face, and the top of Taehyung’s head. Judging by the movement of his arm, the younger one was busily jabbing his finger into the doorbell over and over again.

                Naeil unlocked the door and swung it open.

                A bright smile broke out on Taehyung’s face. Naeil’s eyes trailed over to where his finger, sitting comfortably on the doorbell button. Taehyung quickly pulled his hand behind his back.

                “Hi, noona!”

                Hoseok smiled brightly. “It’s a nice day, right?”

                “Yeah. I heard.”

                The dull look in Naeil’s eyes made Hoseok wonder if maybe she didn’t like sunlight as much as he did.

                “We came to visit you,” said Hoseok. “I bet you’re bored.”

                A tapping noise drew Hoseok’s eyes to the doorframe, where Naeil was drumming her fingers against the plastic edge.

                “So....can we come in?”

                “I’m tired.” Naeil’s expression was as blank as a sheet of paper. She hadn’t even blinked.

                “Because you’ve been working so hard today?” Hoseok said with a raised eyebrow.

                Naeil pointed at her bandages. “Working hard to heal, yes.”

                “Oh, yeah, I can see that!” piped up Taehyung. “You must be too tired to make lunch, huh? How about we take you out for a meal!”

                “Actually, I just—”

                “GREAT okay let's go.”

                Realizing where the situation was going, Naeil made one last desperate grab at the doorframe before Taehyung grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the apartment.

                “Idiot! Let go of me! I’m not even wearing anything but pajamas and slippers!”

                “Hyung! Lock the door for us!”

                “What about the bolt—”

                By this time, Taehyung had miraculously dragged Naeil past the front gate and to the sidewalk, where he pointed across the street adamantly. “Oh look! That place seems nice, let’s go there!”

                It was hard to ignore the long stares they were getting as Taehyung pulled her to the restaurant he had indicated. Hoseok had caught up quickly and went inside to look for a table. What are these idiots doing?

                Naeil couldn’t help but slap herself on the forehead once.

                “Noona! Be careful! Don’t reopen your wounds!”

                “They’re already healed, remember Taehyung-ah? I spent all day getting better.”

                They stopped walking, reaching a table at the very back. Hoseok pulled out a chair for her. “Why don’t you sit down?”

                Naeil stopped and dug her toes into her slippers. The table wasn’t empty. Leaning back in one of the chairs, casually reading a book, was a face she recognized as Yoongi’s friend, Namjoon. He looked up, smiling a very wide, close-lipped smile.

                “Hello, Naeil-ah.”

                She wasn’t about to sit down now.

                “What the heck are you doing here?”

                “Me? Oh, I uh, I drove Taehyung here.”

                “No, I mean what are you doing here, in this restaurant, with me?”

                “Ahhh!” He nodded knowingly, as if understanding her now. “Well, I just thought I, you know, might as well join, since I’m here.”

                “You don’t mind, do you?” asked Hoseok.

                “Oh, no, I don’t mind, I was all ready to have fun as soon as I got dragged out without real clothes on.”

                Namjoon looked Naeil up and down: blue pajamas, spotted with bright yellow bananas.

                “I guess you…uh…like bananas, then?”

                “Not really.”

                Taehyung finally got Naeil in a seat after begging her to sit next to him. They were just about to order, when Naeil heard a familiar voice behind her.

                “Eh…Namjoon-ah…”

                Naeil turned around. Yoongi was standing just behind her, holding his arm out to Namjoon, a small key dangling on his pointer finger.

                “You left your house key at your house and I was worried you wouldn’t be able to get back inside because I might be gone later so I brought this here to you so you can safely get back home at the end of the day.” Yoongi’s voice was so wooden it made Namjoon cringe. Taehyung was fighting to hold back a snort of laughter.

                Naeil’s accusing eyes turned to Namjoon. “How on earth did you leave your key if you drove here? Don’t you keep your house key with your car key like everyone else?”

                Yoongi pulled out a chair and sat down.

                “Guess I’ll stay. Since I’m here already.”

                Naeil turned and glared at him. He was leaning over to get a look at Namjoon’s book. It seemed to be a compelling book.

                “Yah! Yoongi-yah, were you just going to leave me out there?”

                Someone really needed to stop Naeil before her face exploded right then and there. She turned around, only minimally surprised to see Kim Seokjin strolling toward their table.

                “Uwa, this jerk,” rambled Seokjin, sitting down and slapping a hand on his knee. “I took the time to drive him here and he just left me in the car while he was chatting away with friends. Uwa! Yoongi-yah! You’re really terrible, do you know that?”

                “Yeah,” said Yoongi, absently scratching his chin.

                Naeil smacked herself in the face.

                “Noona, stop that!”

                She was practically fuming. There she sat, bandages still patched over her face, body snugly settled into oversized banana pajamas, surrounded by five of the strangest, stupidest boys she had ever met—which, apparently, was all a coincidental meeting at the same exact restaurant in Seoul.

                “What the heck are you idiots up to?!” snarled Naeil. “If you wanted to talk to me, why didn’t you just say so INSTEAD OF DRAGGING ME OUT HERE LOOKING LIKE A COMPLETE DWEEB.”

                Hoseok huffed. “No way! You would have never met us if we asked you!”

                Naeil pursed her lips. “…you have a point there.”

                She looked from face to face, nodding slowly. “Fine. But this better be good.”

Author’s Note

So…………………………..yeah.

I got nothing.