It had been a few days since she became fully conscious and a week since she had fully healed from H1N1. The routine of them leaving her cold food outside her door while she ignored and avoided them continued. The only difference now was that she came out of her room more. She realized that locking herself in was really detrimental to her health. She needed to walk about, take regular baths, and get some fresher air. The air in her room kind of started to make her feel stuffy. Maybe it was because of the lingering signs of her illness. When she was sure nobody would be staying at the mansion for a day, she stripped the sheets off her bed and washed them in the barely used laundry room. The smell of clean bedding made her feel slightly better for all of two days before a new problem arose.

Wiping the sweat from her forehead with the back of her forearm and roughing up her bangs, she resumed scrubbing at the sheets where the embarrassing stain slowly faded. She threw the whole tangled mess into the washer and washed her hands in the sink. Heading back to her room, she dug through the duffel bag that Key had packed so long ago. He stupidly did not think to pack the essential toiletries that all women of age should have with them. Luckily for her, she had survived her captivity here because she made it a rule to have a small, zippered make up bag that contained feminine sanitary napkins and the like in every bag she owned so that she wouldn’t have to worry about transferring over feminine hygiene products over to a new bag every time she decided she needed to pack or switch to a new bag to match an occasion. Unluckily for her, she had run out.

Her stress rose a few levels as she stared into the empty pouch that used to contain pads and tampons. She used the last one this morning when she had discovered the unexpected accident. The stress must have thrown her cycle off.

Jinki and Jonghyun returned a few hours later, having finished their schedules early. Jonghyun, clutching closed the towel wrapped around his waist moved to the bathroom to take a shower but found the room locked. He knocked and heard the sound of items dropping and a growl. “Oh sorry!” He quickly left to seek cleanliness from a different bathroom.

A few hours later, Jinki came to the bathroom door in his robe, intending for a nice long soak in some heated water and scented soap bubbles. He tried the doorknob but found it locked. “Hello?”

“Occupied!” he heard her sort of yell. He was shocked at the sound of her yelling at him and shrunk back.

“Sorry sorry!” He retreated to go to a different bathroom.

Kibum returned and rushed past Jinki and Jonghyun who were sipping tea in the kitchen while wearing pajamas. “Hi! Bye! Talk to you later! I really need to go to the bathroom!” He zoomed past them to the nearest bathroom and slammed into the door, fully expecting it to swing open when he tried turning the knob, but he was gravely mistaken. “Ugh!!!!” Jinki and Jonghyun saw as Kibum ran back into the kitchen and out the other exit. “WHY IS IT LOOOCKKED!!”

The two older guys were amused. “He’s so desperate, he forgot he can just hop through a mirror to any of the bathrooms inside the mansion in less than two seconds,” Jonghyun laughed.

The two sipped at their beverages before both their thoughts got close to the same question. “Hey...I went to take a bath today but she was in that bathroom...,” Jinki trailed off.

“Yeah...I wanted to shower fast today too as soon as we got back, but I think she was in there,” Jonghyun said.

“That was hours ago...,” Jinki said. “Did she ever come out of there?” Worry lined his face.

In the locked bathroom, the girl was wallowing in humiliation. Not only did she have to worry about crazy, homicidal powerhouse demons and being traumatized and alone without her friends and family, she had to worry about her menstrual cycle on top of all that too! She wanted to just drop dead right then! “You wouldn’t happen to be really hungry right now and want to eat me?” she asked Luna, who lounged on the tiled floor like a lazy cat who just ate too much.

She couldn’t just stay in the bathroom all day. Sure, that was where she, and everything else for that matter, was kept cleanest but she was starting to get hungry. But she be damned before she stepped out that bathroom while those boys were here! Momentarily, she didn’t know what she was more afraid of: the fact that these guys were dangerous demons who could murder her race without any remorse or the fact that these were just guys who she didn’t know THAT well, not well enough to feel anywhere near comfortable letting them know she was having a difficult situation that wasn’t related to their atrocious actions and completely related to her bodily fluids and that she needed sanitary napkins right NOW.

Her head snapped up as somebody knocked on the door. Without saying a word, she moved things around to make noise to indicate the occupancy of the room, but the knocking persisted. “Umm…sorry but…” She said just a bit over normal speaking level.

Onew nervously asked, “Are you okay in there?” Jonghyun and Kibum next to him whispered and shushed each other continuously while Jinki tried to ignore them. They were not making his nerves any better.

“…..” No matter what she said or didn’t say, by the sound of their voices, they weren’t going to leave her alone. The girl needed help, but she really didn’t want THEIR help. She heaved the biggest sigh she had ever heaved in a long while. Tiptoe-ing to the door, she leaned against it, and the guys fell silent, somehow just knowing she was really close to them.

Which one to ask? When they used to be friends, she was most comfortable speaking of her girl problems to Jonghyun and Kibum. To Jonghyun because he would listen and seemed to understand. Maybe it was because he had a sister? To Kibum because he’d listen too and would give her feedback, even if he didn’t know what the heck she was talking about or didn’t want to hear it. He’d complain about his boredom or unwillingness or discomfort but, in the end, he’d still listen to her. But even though she used to tell them girly problems back in the day, that wasn’t saying much. This was a little too personal.

“….Can I talk to Kibum-ssi….?” She chose him mostly because he seemed to be the slightly barely just a tad bit safer choice in terms of having abilities that could kill her.

The people on the other side of the door exchanged looks. Kibum responded first, “Umm…sure.”

“Can the others leave….?”

More exchange of looks. Kibum shooed at them with his hands, and they lightly exchanged slaps to the hands before Jinki and Jonghyun retreated back a few meters, just out of sight if she opened the door. “Okay they’re gone.” But she didn’t open the door. “Umm…”

“I…I...need you to g-get something for me…please.” she mumbled through the door.

The three males had gathered in the kitchen to seriously discuss their mission.

“Okay so all we have to do is go to a store and buy some. Simple,” Kibum stated as he searched for the nearest convenience store on his laptop.

“Are you crazy? We’ll be recognized! I mean, we should be. We ARE SHINee.” Jonghyun said it proudly.

“Yeah and it’s not like I can tell the people in the store to look away or ignore us. Well, I can…but you know those fangirls and even nonfangirls. People will be recording us and snapping photos with their cell phones as soon as they see us on the streets. I won’t know if I missed mind tampering with somebody.” Jinki said nervously.

Jonghyun agreed with a nod. “Yeah, and they’ll see what we’re buying. It’ll be the biggest gossip because people don’t have lives.”

“Okay fine. Plan botched.” Kibum suggested, “How about you just steal some from your sister?”

Jonghyun looked like Kibum had just suggested he go jump off a plane without a parachute. “No way! She’ll know. She ALWAYS knows. And I don’t want her asking questions. I didn’t tell my family about her.”

“Really? I told mine.”

“Well that’s not surprising. You tell your grandma everything.”

Kibum looked proud.

Jonghyun went on, “Why don’t you ask your grandma or mother for some? Or at least to go out and buy some for you.”

Kibum’s expression changed. “I might have told my grandma about her but that doesn’t mean she’s happy. She wasn’t exactly unhappy either but…And I haven’t told my mother at all yet and I don’t think I’m going to until I get my grandma’s full support. Steal some from them? Are you kidding me. You know how old they are? I don’t think they’d be using those….things…anymore. Then again, I wouldn’t know about it in the first place….”

“Why steal from our families when we can just steal from the store?” Jinki interrupted.

“…Good point.”

A little while later, Kibum came back with a duffel bag. “I got the goods,” he said as he placed the bag on the counter. “You know how many brands they have? And different kinds. Cardboard. Plastic. “Applicators.” Light. Regular. Super. Super PLUS? Long. Extra long. Overnight? With wings. Without wings….UGH!” He sounded exhausted. “So I grabbed like one of everything,” he said as he rubbed his temples.

“One of them is bound to be right.” Jinki said as he dug through the bag curiously. He paused and held something up. “Umm…Kibum-ah…?” Jonghyun burst out laughing.

“Hmm?” He opened his eyes and looked up.Then his eyes widened and he sputtered out, “Wh-what the hell? How’d those get there?!”

Jinki lifted an eyebrow and looked at his dongseng mischievously. “Mmhm. Sure. I think we’ll leave these out when we give her the bag. Don’t want to shock her anymore than she already is,” he continued with less mirth. He put down the boxes of condoms and the one stray pregnancy test kit.

“Yo can I have one of those?” Jonghyun grinned as he caught the pregnancy test box. Then he frowned. “Hey! Not this box!”

“No doing naughty things Jonghyun-ah.” Jinki said sternly.

“I wasn’t going to…,” he deflated.

Kibum was still defending himself. “No seriously! I didn’t know I put them in there! I just wanted to grab as much crap as possible and leave quickly. I wasn’t even really looking! Really! It’s not my fault that section is right next to the ‘feminine hygiene’ section!”

“Alright alright. Settle down.” Jonghyun still looked like a struck down puppy and Kibum was still mumbling. “We should get these to her,” Jinki said. “Kibum.” He held the zipped bag out to him.

The guy took the offered bag and walked away.

He knocked gently on the door. “Hey…Umm…I have the…stuff.”

Quiet. And then “…Send it through the mirror.”

“What?” Key was taken aback.

“You can put it through the mirror. But you can’t come in!”

“So you…want me to use my power?” ‘While you’re conscious of it?’

“Can you please just give it to me?” she said against the door, almost pleading for as little interaction as possible and for a quick delivery.

“Uh. Sure.”

She nervously watched as a slender, perfect hand protruded from the shiny surface of the bathroom mirror and dropped a large duffel bag half into the sink.

“….Thanks…,” she whispered with slightly tinted cheeks.

Kibum returned to the kitchen. “She said ‘thanks’.” All exhaustion had left his features and he beamed at them.

Back in the bathroom, she was sorting through way more products than she needed. The girl was truly relieved and a bit thankful but very embarrassed. And then she came across a small square of plastic. She picked it up cautiously and read the label before dropping it into the toilet as if it burned her. ‘THEY’RE EVIL, VILE CREATURES!’ She flushed it down the toilet.

Jinki was bored and fumbled with the box of condoms. “Hmm…They say there are supposed to be 10 in here? I only counted 9.”

“What are you doing even counting them!” Key scolded him and confiscated the box from him. He threw it in a random empty drawer along with the other misstolen stuff and closed the drawer with a final sounding thump.

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THEA's Corner <3

Not a very serious chapter. I hope nobody was too uncomfortable with this chapter's plot's main motivation. It was amusing but weird to type this up. Uh yeah...so there you go. Nothing really to say in today's corner.

Posted: 30 Dec. 2010
Word count: 2,132