Nayeon couldn't fathom which of the three thoughts that occupied her head were more irritating; she couldn't figure herself out, skipping school to not face Jeongyeon, or the heat of the sun entering the room. She settled on picking all three, continuing to tumble around in bed. The more she thought of her excuses, Nayeon grew painstakingly agitated. She didn't like this at all. She's never really had to worry about anything before since she first started losing her eyesight.

"Why is this so hard?"

Groaning for the fifth time since she woke up. Nayeon felt around for a pillow, grabbing it and smacking it to her face. She screamed into it as loud as she could to release some tension. 

Her loud shriek alerted her mom, rushing over and knocking on the door twice before going in.

   "Nayeon, what's the matter? What's the deal? Are you okay? I wanna know."

Nayeon expected this to happen. She blew some pieces of hair out of her face.

   “Sorry, mom. Just frustrated."

Sighing with relief, Nayeon's mom placed a hand over her racing heart.

   "Oh, thank god. I thought something was wrong."

She observed her daughter's expressions; Nayeon's face was disrupted into a set of uncomfortableness that her mother wasn't used to seeing in her. The concern she slowly felt egged her on to say something, but decided against it. She didn't want to push Nayeon because that wasn't something she would ever do. Standing in the doorway, not entering the room, she waited for any last words from her daughter as a cue to leave the room.

"Just standing here, honey."

Pinching her eyebrows as she glared towards the ceiling, Nayeon fumbled with her own thoughts, pondering whether she should tell her mom she wanted to skip. But what would the reason be? Hey, mom, can I not go to school today? Jeongyeon confessed her undying feelings for me and I sorta bailed on her because I'm too much of a dysfunctional mess to face her or anyone right now.

That type of irrationality would only work in fairytales with princesses who are the apparent heir to the crown of some small European country and can do anything they want because they're the boss. In Nayeon's case, hopefully that illogical alibi would work. It was worth a shot.

"Mom?" A tiny voice in her large bedroom.

   "Yes, my child?"

A prickle formed in Nayeon's mother's stomach. She let herself into the room, her mother's intuition telling her this was a serious time for a deep mother-daughter talk.

   "Can I.."

The words trailed on her tongue like an infinite rope, waiting to reach the end of it.

   “Not go to school today?"

Her mother gave Nayeon a puzzled look, not exactly hooked on her excuse, but still concerned now more than ever. This wasn't Nayeon's typical behavior.

   "Why the sudden change of attitude? You're never like this." 

She sat down at the edge of the bed, looking over at Nayeon, whose head was still pointed up at the ceiling.

Nayeon backtracked to that time Jeongyeon convinced her to skip; she had insisted that they only miss half of the day since she was such 'a good student', quoted by Jeongyeon. But they somehow lost track of time and missed the entire day. She never told her mother about that one. . . Yet. Saving it for another time.

Unmoving from her position, Nayeon figured it wouldn't make much difference in her mother's response, whatever it would be, whether she was laying down or sitting up for it. Nayeon wanted this to be a heartfelt moment between them, bringing her immobile self up. She sensed the slight dip of the end on her right, sifting her body in the direction of her mother. 

Nayeon let out a shaky breath over her left shoulder, dropping them down, and returned to her mom.

   "You know the Chou's daughter? Tzuyu?"

The tranquil way her fake nemesis's name came from nearly made Nayeon believed that Tzuyu didn't hate her guts. 

Her mother nodded, quite invested into their conversation.

   "Yes, what about her, honey? Is she bothering you?"

Not at the moment. Nayeon was still contemplating her sudden amends with Tzuyu over a short period of time. She'd have to look further into that.

"She has a girlfriend; Sana." Another name who despised Nayeon's guts, or that's what her mind was telling her. 

"Hmm.." Wanting her daughter to go into details with this.

"What do you think about that?"

   "About Sana?"

She gave Nayeon a perplexed look, her sharp eyebrows stitched together in a locked V line.

   "I've only seen her once whe—"

"No, I mean.. about gay people." 

"Ahh, well, I have a lot of gay friends and some of them have gay kids, and they're all wonderful people." Placing her hand on her chin, Nayeon's mother dig deeper into her explanation, wanting to be able to give her daughter better answers.

"I even experienced with a girl one time, during coll—"

Once Nayeon heard her mom start to trail off into further fantasies, giving her more than what she asked for, she slung her arms out to quickly stop her mother. It was a good thing her mother caught on to Nayeon's plea and stopped her sentence.

"Okay, mom. Oh my gosh."

She laughed lightly at her embarrassed child. Nayeon didn't want to hear the end of that sentence. Shaking her head with pink shades on her cheek, Nayeon laughed along with her mother.

"I didn't think this would be the outcome."

Seeing the time on her watch, she realized she was minutes away from being late to work.

   "Is that the only question you have, Bunny?"

"Well..." Her tone wandered off into the distance along with Nayeon's confidence. She tried to avoid facing her mother, feeling it was the same thing if she had vision.

Say it, coward. Like an automated response, Nayeon slammed her eyes shut, twitching her head as if to say 'no' to her own battling thoughts. 

You got the answer you wanted. 

She's your mother. She'll love you no matter what.

 Believe.

Having that comforting thought settled in, Nayeon ripped the band aid right now.

"What if I'm gay, mom?"

Her mother did not think that kind of question would come out and at such a bad time. If only she didn't have work. She blinked twice.

   "Oh dear.."

Her mother brought herself to place her hand over Nayeon's.

   "We will totally support you even then, Nayeon. You know that."

She smiled at her daughter.

   "Not even who you're attracted to could change our love for you, Bunny. Keep that in your heart."

Leaving a warm kiss on her daughter's head, she wished that Nayeon could see the loving stare her mother was giving her. It would've made the whole talk more meaningful. Her mother tried to pour her care into her words instead.

Knowing her parents felt that way gave Nayeon some sense of assurance. Another prickly thorn was pulled out from her palm. She she was going to be alright with whatever choices she made, with being said, the only thing left to do was to figure herself out.

A beep sounded off. Nayeon's mother checked her watch, she only had fifteen minutes to get to work now.

"We'll talk more of if you'd like, honey. Gotta get to work. Pizza's on the counter. Don't forget to check up on Yama and take her temperature."

Nayeon has almost forgot that her little sister had the flu since last night and couldn't get out of bed. Although she wouldn't be going to school either, at least her sibling had a valid excuse. Nayeon was too afraid to face anyone right now and her solution to her problems was hiding away. Humming in response, Nayeon listened to her mother's footsteps fade from her room, heading into the hallway and down the stairs. Her room was the first one you reach the last step and her siblings were neighboring hers, Ryler and Yamaha having separate rooms.

Taking all the motivation she had left to get up, Nayeon swing her legs over to the other side. She could hear Kookeu's soft snores from his little corner. Nayeon wondered how the little one was able to sleep through their entire talk. He must've thought it wasn't important to interrupt since he wasn't called over like usual protocol.

Nayeon sighed, walking out of the room and going over to her younger sister's room. She didn't need Kookeu's assistance; knowing her room was jsut next door. Silently opening the door, Nayeon listened in for any type of movement that wasn't hers; Yama would normally be on her laptop and was a habitually pounded on her keys so loudly that the clicking sound was constant. No one, not even Nayeon, would be able to miss it.

"Yama?" Nayeon asked in a gentle whisper.

Her sister gave no response back. She must still be asleep.

Nayeon tiptoed over to Yamaha's bedding, feeling around a few pillows before she got to her sister's forehead. It was warmer than normal but not to the extent like the heat of a thousand fires. In a jiffy, Nayeon went into the bathroom to fix up a cold compress. Yama squirmed in her sleep as she placed it gently. Opening a bit, Nayeon inserted the therm