"Minho."
"Min
ho."
"Minho!""Tch." Lee grabbed the blankets from where they rested against his shoulders, pulling them up over his head before turning his back completely on whatever intrusion to his room had decided to wake him up. There was an unknown weight on his bed for a moment, followed by way too much squirming, and then Jin was leaning over him, trying to see his face. "Miinho," she whined again. "Jeoneun baegopayo."
Lee sighed deeply, reached up one finger to pull down the blankets covering his eyes. His sister was having upside down, blinking at him innocently, hair a mess like she'd just woken up. She probably had.
"In English," he demanded, because they'd been working on this all summer. She got to talk to their mom in Korean, but him it was English.
She considered for a moment, then disappeared form off of him. A second later her feet were padding across his floor, and Lee rolled over one more time to arch an eyebrow at him. "I am hungry," she repeated, nodded proudly to herself, then picked up his alarm clock. "Dis was...noisy."
Lee arched an eyebrow, wondered why...and then he saw the time. 8:45AM.
"Sibal," he swore under his breath, because at least she didn't know what they sounded like in Korean yet, before he pushed himself out of bed. He swiped his toothbrush out of the sink when he passed it, haphazardly covered the thing with paste, and shoved it into his mouth on the way to the kitchen.
There wasn't much to offer, but Jin followed him without a word, and didn't argue when he shoved a packet of uncooked poptarts into her hand. She busied herself with trying to open them alone while Lee threw the fridge open, poured her a glass of apple juice that landed more on the counter than in the cup, and passed it down to her before he slid back into his room.
He finished up his teeth, spat and rinsed, then dropped his toothbrush in his sink before throwing open his closet. His St. Jude's uniform and the few suits he owned were packaged up and hanging pristine in the back, out of the way of three year old grabby hands and his general disregard for cleanliness, but the first day back also meant he would be the only one wearing it. Everyone else used this day to rock whatever look they had just gotten from Malian. As usual, Lee's decision came down to a difference between not giving a shit and not wanting to stand out.
In the end he pulled a pair of black pants off the hanger and jerked them on while he debated if the black Pink Floyd shirt on his floor was still clean. He swiped it off the floor next, gave it a sniff, and pulled it on. He threw his jacket on after, slid by his full length mirror just to make sure that all three shades of black matched, and tugged on his shoes a little painfully. One last stop at poor excuse of bathroom for hygiene purposes, followed by running his fingers through his hair a few times so he at least didn't look like a twelve year old, and then he was rushing back to Jin.
Getting Jin ready was more of a fuss than it should have been. She complained about the first dress he put her in, saying it was itchy around her neck, and then threw a fit the whole time he tried to put her hair up in a ponytail because she wanted to eat rather than get ready. Lee finally told her she could either eat on the bus, or have messy hair all day.
In the end, she got to wear her blue dress and have her hair in a messy bun. Lee wanted to cut that damn hair off more than anything, it would make it easier to fix, but Jin loved it so he left it alone. She was probably too spoiled for her own good. At least in terms of affection.
They nearly missed the bus, which meant Jin ended up on his back while Lee ran the last block, messenger bag beating his side to death while he went. She got to daycare on time, but the ride to Manhattan would take longer. Lee sighed, sent a text to Isabela that simply read:
>I really hate life before starting a new one to Sebastian, asking where he was so they could meet up the moment he got off the bus.
He was about to hit send before everything hit him in the center of the chest like a freight train. Right. They weren't friends. Lee was running surprisingly low on those lately. His jaw clinched as he canceled the message, then slowly slid his phone back into his pocket. It was fine.
Somehow, he wasn't too late when he finally made it off the bus. In fact, he was almost at perfect timing. The doors were open, but there were still people hanging around outside. Seniors, mostly. Lot's of familiar faces, which meant no one was going in without a posse. Lee rolled his eyes, hopped off the bus, shoved his hands deep in his pockets, and walked straight to the auditorium. He didn't have a posse.