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My periods always have the best timing.
Not.
Luckily, I locate a packet of pads in the bathroom cabinet, knowing that this is only just the beginning of the worst five days of the month. Except this time, I’m not in the comfort of my own home where I can binge eat and lay around as much as I want. Plus, Eonjin’s outfit is not exactly ideal for my situation, but if I change out of it, that means I’ll have to explain why, something I don’t think I am ready to do. But after the look of disappointment on Eonjin’s face once she sees me in a baggy sweater and track pants, I decide that it’s better to tell her the truth.
“I have my, you know,” I gesture downwards, feeling awkward because I’ve never had to tell anyone other than my mother before, not even my own so-called friends back in high school.
Eonjin cocks her head to the side. “What?” then she gets it. “Oh! I see,” she winks. “If you need anything, just let me know, okay?” she touches my arm, and I nod, forcing a smile as a flash of pain slices through me. Here we go.
It’s dinner time, and the entire time I am sitting there, breathing deeply and trying not to show on my face that there is a storm brewing in my lower abdomen. Everyone is talking and laughing but all I can hear is my inner voice screaming.
“You okay? You’re really quiet,” Taehyung whispers to me in the middle of the meal, brow knitted with concern.
“I’m always quiet,” I quip as lightning strikes through my uterus.
“True.” Taehyung chuckles, turning back to his food.
As soon as the meal is over, I corner Eonjin. “Do you have any painkillers?”
She nods, eyes wide. “Of course. Follow me.”
“Thank you so much,” I say after swallowing the pill dry, and Eonjin watches me with the same concern her brother showed me.
“Would you like to lie on my bed?” she is already guiding me to her bed before I can answer, and she practically forces me to lie down, pulling a blanket over me. I can’t help but stare as I marvel at her kindness, this same kindness that seems to run through the entire Kim family, even Jeonggyu, who demonstrates his kindness in strange ways, but it’s still there, nonetheless.
“Comfortable?” Eonjin smiles, and it is then that I am reminded of our age gap of three years. She seems so mature for her age, although she is the youngest in the family. But then again, sixteen-year-olds are not that young.
“Thank you so much,” my smile becomes a grimace as I clutch my stomach, and Eonjin frowns, reaching over to rub my lower back.
“Would you like me to get you a hot water bottle? Those always help for me.”
I nod, and she leaves the room as I shut my eyes, trying to flood my mind with happy thoughts. Come on, happy thoughts, where are you?
The happy thought appears in the form of a face. A face with large almond shaped eyes framed with long lashes, and every time those eyes smile, they become crescents, like the moon on the first days of the month –
Month. Time of the month. Period. Pain. Aaargh.
“Where’s Aria?”
I hear his voice outside the bedroom, and then I hear another voice, responding to him. “She’s sleeping.”
“Sleeping? But it’s six thirty!”
“Hey, she’s tired, okay? Now go away.”
Eonjin enters the room carrying a bright pink hot water bottle. She is about to hand it to me when Taehyung barges in carrying a ball of fluff. Yeontan.
“Yah, get out!” Eonjin drops the water bottle onto the bed and I quickly grab it, hugging it to my chest as I watch Eonjin attempt to push Taehyung away, but he just won’t budge.
“Hey, I’m gonna tell Yeontan to bite you if you don’t let me see Aria!” as soon as the words leave his mouth Yeontan begins to bark, causing Eonjin to back away, hands up in surrender.
“Fine, but don’t blame me when she tells you to go.”
“Why would she do that? I brought Yeontan,” Taehyung grins as he adjusts Yeontan in his arms for better support. The grin is gone once he sees me, curled up in a ball on Eonjin’s bed clutching a hot water bottle to my abdomen.
“Aria, what’s wrong?” he sits on the mattress in front of me, and as he does Yeontan squirms in his arms to the point where he escapes, and I am face to face with his furry face.
“Taehyung, I’m just tired, that’s all,” I smile as Yeontan blinks at me, tilting his head to the side. It almost looks like he knows that I am in pain, for his eyes seem softer and more sympathetic, but maybe I am just imagining it.
“You’re not tired,” Taehyung scoops Yeontan back into his lap, stroking his fur as he gazes at me. “I’m not stupid.”
“That’s debatable,” Eonjin jibes. I crack a laugh that turns into a groan as I am stabbed in the gut. Taehyung visibly tenses, completely ignoring his sister’s remark.
“Do you want me to stay with you? Until you feel better?” he asks softly as Yeontan delivers a lick to his neck. Usually, Taehyung would react, but this time, he barely notices, his attention devoted to me and only me.
“Hey, you can’t stay here, this is my room!” Eonjin cuts in, and Taehyung doesn’t even hesitate.
“Yeah, but this is my girlfriend, and she’s got her period, which means she’s in pain, which means I should stay with her,” he snaps back, not missing a breath. I gape at him.
“Ugh, fine, but you have to give me Tan,” Eonjin holds her hands out, and Taehyung hands her the puppy without taking his eyes off me.
Once they leave the room, he carefully climbs over me, landing on the other side of the bed with a heavy sigh. He drapes his arm over my waist and shuffles close to me, close enough so that I can feel the delicate skin of his ear against my neck, as well his hot breath that sends all the blood to my cheeks. Somehow, this alleviates the pain from my abdomen, and I shut my eyes, sinking into the moment.
Taehyung is spooning me right now.
And as if the moment couldn’t get even more heated, I feel a pair of lips make contact with the nape of my neck as his other arm snakes beneath me, holding me even tighter than before. I am frozen as his lips linger, and I feel a hot and cold sensation flush through my veins, my heartbeat doing a strange dance.
“Mm, you smell nice,” he groans huskily as he buries his nose in my neck.
“Um, th-thanks?” What is he doing?
“I think I could fall asleep like this,” he murmurs, nuzzling my neck. “This is nice.”
It really is.
【★】
“Aw, look at them! So cute!”
“Such babies, hold on, let me get a photo before they wake up.”
I blink slowly, confused. What happened?
I hear the sound of a phone camera shutter, and that’s when I am yanked back into reality, my eyes opening wide to take in the faces of my mother and his mother. Oh God.
“Oh, no, look what you’ve done, you’ve woken them up with your camera!” my mother slaps Eonjae’s arm, and I raise my eyebrows. Since when did they get so close?
“Hey, someone had to capture this moment, who knows when we’ll ever see this again!” Eonjae counters, snapping another one. Behind me, Taehyung moans.
“Ah, why? Go away,” he hides at my back, still gripping my waist tightly. And that’s when the situation really kicks in.
“This isn’t what it looks like!” I hold up a hand to them, and they laugh.
“Oh, so you didn’t fall asleep in the same bed?” my mother teases, and I stutter.
“Uh, I mean, when you put it that way, yeah…”
“Aigoo, look at her, she’s so embarrassed,” Eonjae says this to my mum as if I’m not right in front of her, and my mum has the audacity to laugh along with her.
“You know, this isn’t the first time they’ve done this, and yet every time she looks as red as a tomato!”
“Eomma!” I cry, and this time Taehyung completely jolts awake, sitting up behind me.
“Argh! Who – what – where?” he has his hands out as if he’s ready to fight someone, and this time I join in on our mothers’ laughter. Once he notices them properly he becomes as still as a statue, and I can almost hear him gulp.
“Uh, this isn’t what it -”
“We’ve been through it already,” Eonjae sticks her hand up to stop him. “Now get out.”
Taehyung slides off the bed, and I am about to as well when I am held down by my mother’s hand on my shoulder. “No, you stay. Only he goes.”
I watch Taehyung leave with a pang in my gut, until I remember. My period.
The two women, both small yet mighty, scrutinize me as I sit on the bed, feeling small and not so mighty. At least my cramps are gone…for now.
“What’s wrong with you?” my mother asks.
I hold up the hot water bottle as an answer. “I got my period.”
The two women hum in understanding. “Ah, poor thing,” Eonjae clicks her tongue in sympathy.
“Oh, no, I feel a little better now, actually,” I assure them both, standing up.
“Oh, good! Because you have to come with me,” my mother roughly pulls me by my arm out of the bedroom and down the hall to our bedroom, shutting the door behind us. Once she turns to face me, I gulp.
“What is it?” I ask feebly.
“We need to apply for jobs. Right now.”
And just like that, my cramps are back again.
【★】
“Ah, why is it so hard to find a job these days?” I whine as we scroll through every single job seeking site. Everything is either too far away or requires a master’s degree and five years experience.
“Wait, how about this one? Click on this one,” my mother points to a job opening at a retail store, and I immediately wrinkle my nose.
“Retail?” I click on it anyway, and we read through the position together.
“That doesn’t sound bad, and all you need is experience in customer service, which you and I both have,” my mother reasons.
“Then you take it, I personally don’t like retail,” the one month that I worked at a retail store still stands as one of the worst months of my life. Never again.
“Aria, we can’t be picky, we really need jobs, okay? I’m adding it to the list,” my mother has a whole list of all the jobs we are going to apply to. So far, there are three.
“Eomma, what’s gonna happen to the shop? Are we selling it or what?”
“Don’t worry about the shop, Aria,” my mother replies.
I frown. “What do you mean don’t worry? Of course I have to -“
“It’s getting shut down,” my mother blurts, and I gasp.
“Shut down? As in, they’re -“
“Taking away the business and replacing it with another one,” my mother sighs. “Someone – I don’t know who – has bought it from us.”
“Wait, so they paid you to close it down or…”
“We didn’t get paid anything, Aria, we got kicked out,” my mother examines her hands. “Our shop wasn’t doing so well anyway, and since we’re in a lot of debt, they thought it wouldn’t matter if they just got rid of us for their own business. That’s all I know, Aria, and I don’t know if it’s because they’re racist or something, but they’re not telling me anything.”
“That’s not racist, that’s illegal!” I exclaim. “It’s your business and they just…told you to give it up? Without paying you first?” Why am I just finding this out?
“Aria, I tried my best, but I was in no position to argue with them. We are in a lot of debt, Aria,” she looks up at me then, and I see her tears.
“We need to find out who took the business from us, and demand our payment,” I clench my fists, feeling furious. It doesn’t make sense that my mother just gave up so easily, but at the same time, it’s not easy doing everything alone. And that’s why I, her only daughter, have to step in.
“We’re going there tomorrow, and we’re going to face those people,” as I say this my gut constricts with nerves at the idea of facing people, but I ignore it. “This isn’t fair. We have to fight.”
“There’s nothing to fight for, Aria, they’ve already packed up the shop. The business was never mine originally, don’t forget that.”
“That doesn’t mean we should give up,” I say, softening my tone. “Let’s go together tomorrow, okay? Just to see who they are.”
My mother nods, sniffling. “Okay.”
【★】
We pull up in front of the shop the next morning, but our usual parking space is taken up by a truck. Workers in fluorescent orange vests and helmets mill about the footpath, and from what I can see through the windows, they are also inside the shop.
Emptying it out.
“What are they doing?” I wonder aloud, and my mother cuts the engine, unbuckling her seatbelt.
“Let’s go find out.”
We pile out of the car, and are immediately confronted by one of the workers.
“Excuse me, ladies, you can’t park here.”
“Can you just tell us what is going on?” I am surprised that those words shoot out of my mouth in that tone of voice, and the worker raises his eyebrows.
“Uh, we’re working here, miss, so if you two could kindly move along…”
“Who paid you to be here? Who are the new owners of this place?” I interrogate, and beside me, my mother touches my arm, whispering, “Aria, don’t be rude.”
But I don’t care.
“We’re not allowed to disclose that information, miss,” the worker replies, mimicking my gesture by folding his arms.
“Well, what if I told you that this shop used to be ours? And that it was stolen from us by the people who are paying you to be here?”
I await his answer, but we are interrupted by a tall man with silver-blonde hair and crow’s feet when he smiles. Why does he look so familiar…
“Everything alright here?” even his voice sounds familiar, but I don’t understand why. The worker looks slightly relieved to have him here as he points to us, saying that we were asking a lot of questions. The familiar looking man turns to us.
“Can I help you?”
He stares straight at me, and I can feel the cogs in my brain working, slowly but surely.
“We were just leaving, sorry to bother you!” my mother grips my arm, tugging it, but I stay grounded, not taking my eyes off the man.
“Wait…do I know you?”
The man squints, rubbing his chin. “I don’t think so…”
“I’ll get back to work, Mr Armstrong,” the worker juts his thumb over his shoulder, backing away.
Mr Armstrong? Hold on…
“Are you the buyer of this place?” my mother asks tentatively.
“That I am. Now, could you please move your car? We have another truck coming in and -“
Mr Armstrong cocks his head to the side as he scrutinizes me. “On second thought, I do remember you!”
And that’s when it all comes crashing down.
“You’re Ella’s friend, Aria!”
【★】
dun dun DUNNNN
Dedicated to _KookieRabbit_ for being the 200th vote hehe
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