Artificial Love || Minho

65 || Decision

"What is this?"

Minho frowns, holding the painting up in front of my face.

My heartbeat quickens as I look all around the house, searching for an excuse. With a pout, his eyebrows turn upwards, suddenly looking more upset than anything else.

"Jisung..?" He leans even closer to me, eyes now pleading. His voice was like a mixture between nervousness, anger, and upset— all of which added together to make me panic even more.

What do I do, what do I do?!

Not to my advantage, Minho only continues to pester me. "What, is, this??" He asks again, increasingly confused. "Why won't you tell me?"

"I... uhhhh—" I stutter, feeling the grip on my collar tighten.

Jisung, think.

"It's just- wait." I stop, furrowing my brows. "You went in my room."

A moment of silence comes right after this, and the hand holding the fabric of my shirt loosens as I see the boy's eyes in front of me come into a realisation.

Minho opens his mouth to speak, but barely anything comes out. "I was only-"

"Only snooping around my room and going through my stuff, right?" I walk away from Minho, crossing my arms as I turn my back to him. "That's not a completely innocent thing to do, Minho."

"Are you-"

"No, no, no." I shake my head, looking towards him. "Why did you do that?"

Minho rolls his eyes. "If you could stop cutting me off, I would-"

"You weren't supposed to see that," I say. "Just like you weren't supposed to invade my privacy by going into my bedroom when I'm not home."

"I- it's-" Minho groans, hanging his head in shame with nothing else to say. "...Sorry."

I frown, going to my door, my hand resting on the doorknob.

"I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow."

"Jisung, wait—" Minho begins, but quickly close the door to block him out of my sight.

Scrambling in, I let out the biggest sigh of relief ever as I throw myself onto my bed. I pick up the squirrel plush Minho investigated, quickly petting its fur before I set it in its rightful place.

"Holy heck..."

Han Jisung, why did you have to hide it there, out of all places?

I roll over, squeezing my pillow, before grabbing my phone to dial Hwamin.

"She's going to be mad at me, she's going to be mad me, she's going to be mad at me—" I mumble under my breath, still having no idea why I'm dialling her with the conclusion of what's going to happen coming out of my mouth.

*Beep*

-sorry, but the user is currently unavailable, please try again later.-

I groan, burying myself into the blankets. My stuffed squirrel has failed me.

"Time to die, I guess."

Minah's P.O.V.

Taking off my shoes, I walk in, the door behind me shutting with a small thud.

"I'm hoooommeee~" I call inside as step through into the house. The familiar furniture greets me as I take off my shoes, darker silhouettes becoming more comprehendible as I flick on the lights.

On the walk way back, I had sometime to collect my thoughts. About things Jisung said, and to take in consideration of my own feelings on how to reply to mom.

And I've made my choice.

"Now, Hwamin." I mumble to myself. "You know what you're doing is your own choice, and people will understand that. Now, just to find a way to casually bring it up in conversation."

But before I could quickly devise up any possible plan, I hear a voice sound from afar.

"Hwamin, is that you?" My mom's voice emits from the living room. "I would ask where you've been, but could you come and lend me a hand here?"

Taking my coat off as I hang it upon one of the racks, I walk further in and turn a corner from where the sound came from. "What do you need help with?" I ask, seeing my mom packaging some suitcases, along with a stack of papers in her hand. "And for your information, I was with Jisung."

She nods her head, before nudging her head towards the side of the coffee table. "Well, I hope you had fun. But since you came back, I was organising some files and they spilled over. Can you pick those up for me?"

I bend over to grab the papers on the floor, the white fluttering sheets literally blanketing themselves around the edges of the table leg. Piling them together so they form a stack, my eyes widen at the amount. "Is this all for work?"

"Yep." A hefty sigh was all I heard, along with the swift sounds of zippers and miscellaneous items being put in place. "Gotta read all of those by tonight, and I still need to finish packing everything up."

"Oh..." I feel my voice trail off. "You must be busy then."

"Mhm."

I laugh. "But, do you want me to go make some food? It's already evening and almost time for dinner."

I can tell everything and explain to her tomorrow, it's fine.

Upon those words, my mom finally looks up from the pile of stuff. "Oh, of course. Call me when it's done."

"What would you like?"

"You can make anything, I don't mind."

I give her nod, fixing the last few pieces of paper before standing up again to walk towards the kitchen. But right as I turn the corner, I hear one last sentence that makes me stop in my tracks.

"But before that, isn't there something you'd like to tell me?"

I turn around again. "Was it really that obvious?"

"I'm your mother, I can tell when something's off." She raises an eyebrow, peering at me. "Spill."

"Oh..." I began, hands awkwardly fumbling around me back. "You see, it's about what you told me yesterday. I've made a decision."

"Hmmm?" Just slightly, I see her eyes widen, shoulders straightening up a bit in attention.

I gulp, taking a deep breath. "You see, about going to America..."

"I...."

______________________

I told myself to hold back a bit to make this update longer but hey Dream's comeback is tomorrow and I'm not going to be ready anyways so like have this before you never see again until next month ;_;

Crying squad please assemble they're all going to have my soul