[013], aera and the most embarrassing moment of her life

TWO miserable weeks have passed since that fight. It's all Aera could think about, it keeps her up at night as she recalls her words, Sunghoon's words, and the events that lead up to the said fight. It keeps Aera tossing and turning as she tries to figure out a way to prove Sunghoon was in the wrong. A way to prove everyone left in that apartment was in the wrong — a way to verify what she and Yena did was right. 

      Two weeks of relentless tossing and turning did no good for Aera.

      Aera was glad she didn't have to be around Sunghoon anymore since they handed in their history assignment on Jake's birthday, but poor Yena has to be around Jake and Nicole for another week. Every day, Yena arrives back at the dorm and throws herself onto her bed, screams into the pillow, and then asks Aera if she wants to go and do something. Aera, of course, agrees and enters a McDonald's with Yena, orders some food, and slumps over in the booth for hours on end as they sulk over all the 'What If's'. 

      So much for that December cheer. 

      "Your birthday is coming up, Angel," Yena commented over some chicken nuggets one night. "What are you going to do for it?" 

         Aera shrugs, "well, I would invite. . ." Aera trails off and nods her head. Yena understands the girl well and gestures for her to continue, "but, Jin is coming over for Christmas, which means he's coming over for my birthday as well, so I think I'll spend some time with my family — you included, of course, mom wants to see you again." 

         Yena smiles, "alright, I mean, I was always going to come to your house over break even if you didn't ask me to." 

        "We're going to have fun, like always!" 

       Yena licks the Sweet N Sour sauce off her fingers, "you should throw your birthday party at that fancy beach house. I haven't been to the beach in ages."

        "It's the beginning of winter, honey, why would we go down to the beach?" 

        "Okay? It's winter? You have that fancy-ass beach house and now I'm giving you a reason to finally use it." 

        "I'll ask my mom," Aera sighs, relenting to Yena's pestering. 

        "Yay!" Yena dances happily on her seat and reaches across to swipe another box of chicken nuggets. 

          "So, it'll be; me, you, Jin, Moon. ." Aera trails off, staring pathetically at four fingers. She glances up at Yena and closes her hand into a fist, her heart stinging. "That's pathetic." 

        "You forgot your parents and Seokjin's family, angel," Yena says, happily dipping her chicken nugget into more Sweet N Sour sauce. 

        "Are you sure you want Jin's family with us at the beach house?" 

        "Who else are we going to invite, Aera? The Three Musketeers? Sunghoon? Jay? Jake? Heeseung?" Yena frowns, her fingers stilling for a moment as she watches her nugget sit in the orange sauce — Yena was right, who else would Aera invite? 

         "Fine, Jin's family can come. But don't expect it to be a raging party." 

        Yena shrugs, "going to raging parties every night gets kind of boring and exhausting. I think it'll be nice to just be able to unwind and relax, we definitely need it after everything." 

        "Yeah," sighs Aera, her eyes wandering away from Yena's face and over to the entrance of the McDonald's. Her eyes widen as she watches the familiar group of seven enter the vicinity. "Oh shit." Aera slumps down in the booth and gestures for Yena to do the same. 

         "What? What's going on?" Yena hisses across the table as she follows Aera's waving motions. 

         Aera peeks up and cringes, "what the fuck are they doing here? I thought they were better than McDonald's." 

          Yena peeks over the seat, much to Aera's discontent. Turning back, Yena scoffs, "they're college students, angel, of course they'd go to McDonald's for dinner." 

          "But they had to pick this one?" 

      "We're sitting in the McDonald's nearest to campus, Aera, it's like we're asking them to bump into us." 

      "Stop being logical," Aera hisses, frowning. "Go back to being the stupid one." 

      Yena gasps and throws a chicken nugget at Aera, "I'm not and never was the stupid one! You were always the stupid one! You still are the stupid one!" 

      "Am not!" 

      "Am too!" 

      "Am not!" 

      "Am too!" 

      "Am not!" 

      "Am too!" 

      "Am not — shut up!" Aera sinks lower in her seat, "they're coming this way, quick, hide our faces!" Aera pushes their giant bags still full of chicken nuggets and Sweet N Sour sauce to the edge of the table, building a barrier to hide their faces. Both Aera and Yena then lean forward, their noses touching as they shield their faces from the boy approaching them. 

      "I'll be sitting here!" Sunoo calls out, and Aera sneaks a peek to see Sunoo slide into the booth right across from theirs. Aera groans internally. 

      "Sunoo chose the booth across from ours," Aera informs Yena in a hushed whisper, "what do we do now?!" 

      "We should've left the moment they entered!" Yena hisses back, "but no, we just had to fight over who is more stupid. Which is still you, by the way." 

      "If we weren't hiding, I would totally strangle you in the middle of McDonald's without any regret." 

      Yena glares at Aera. "That's something a stupid person would do." 

      Aera growls, "you're so lucky I'm not like Scott McCall." 

      "Furry." 

      "Don't call Hottie Scotty a furry, you piece of slutty trash!" 

      "Shut up!" Yena hisses, "stop being so loud!" 

      "Maybe think twice before insulting Hottie Scotty!" 

      "Stop calling him that, Aera!" 

      "I will if you apologize for calling Hottie Scotty a furry!" 

      "Are we really doing this right now?" 

      "Yes."

      Yena groans and drops her head onto the table, gently grazing Aera's nose. "Fine. I'm sorry for calling Scott McCall a furry. He is not a furry." 

      Aera sniffs. "I accept your apology." 

      "Good. Can we leave now?" 

      "I suppose we can," Aera peeks around their barricade, squeaks and headbutts Yena who groans and rubs her forehead. 

      "What was that for?!" 

      "They're all coming over now! We can't escape! Oh no, this is the end for me. Tell my mom and dad that I love them lots, tell Jin that he's a little bitch and I wish him all the bad luck in the world, tell Moon she can have all of my things and tell Jungkook that he's a little —" 

      "Shut up!" Yena flicks Aera's forehead and glares at the girl, "why do we always have to get into small and pathetic fights? We could've been out that fucking door if we hadn't fought over your obsession with that furry!" 

      "Don't call Scott McCall a —" 

      Yena slaps a hand over Aera's mouth, muffling the rest of her words. "Could you be any louder?" 

      Aera allows tears to well up in her eyes, "I'm sorry, Yena I just —" 

      "Don't pull that shit with me." 

      Aera blinks away her tears and pouts, "you're no fun." 

      "Instead of arguing, we should be planning our escape —" 

      "Excuse me?" 

      Both girls stiffen, and Aera hastily pulls her hoodie over her head, Yena quickly following suit. 

      "Excuse me?" Jungwon asks again and Aera kicks Yena beneath the table. Yena kicks back, so Aera kicks back, which leads to Yena kicking back harder and Aera yelping in pain. "Um. .?" 

      "What do you want, kid?" Aera grumbles. 

      "Do you mind if we get some napkins? Ours ran out and —" 

      Aera reaches out and grabs a bunch from the napkin thingy — she doesn't know what it's called. The napkin dispenser? She bunches it up into a ball and shoves it in what she hopes to be Jungwon's direction. "Here." 

      "Uh, thanks?" 

      "No problem." 

      Jungwon lingers for a moment before walking away and the tension disappears from both of the girls. Aera finally gasps for air and Yena kicks her in the shin again. "You're so fucking stupid, Aera. You made Jungwon uncomfortable! He probably thinks we're druggies or something!" 

      "Druggies of what? Deez Nuts?" 

      "That makes no sense, Aera. . ." 

      "To you, it doesn't. If Jake were here — " 

      "No, no, continue on with that sentence." 

      "No." 

      "Say it, Aera." 

     "No. Let's figure out how to escape, I have Vincenzo to finish watching." 

     "Vincenzo?" 

     "Yeah, Jake recommended it. . ." 

     Yena scoffs, "you're so in love with Jake it makes me sick." 

     Aera squeaks louder than she should've. "I am not—" 

     Once more, Yena has to muffle Aera's words with her hands, burning a glare deep into Aera's skull. 

     Aera licks Yena's palm, finally breathing fresh air instead of Yena's hand. "Look, I don't know why you're complaining about me being so in love with Jake when you haven't seen yourself with Heeseung." 

     "We're not talking about Heeseung when he's sitting across from us!" 

     "Well, don't bring up Jake." 

      "You brought him up!" Yena hisses. 

      "Excuse me?" This time, it's Riki. 

       Both of the girls tense up again. 

        "Here's some money," Riki says. "In case you need it for more. . . Chicken nuggets." 

         "We don't  need your money — oh shit." Aera makes the mistake of looking up. 

         Riki's eyes widen and his face goes comically white. Beneath the table, Yena kicks Aera's shin harshly causing the girl to shriek and jump in her seat, drawing in more attention. "Aera?" 

         Aera laughs awkwardly and raises a hand to wave, "H- hi, Riki, uh, how are you?" 

         "Is that Yena?" Riki points to Yena who is trying to make herself appear smaller. 

         "Yep!" 

        Yena kicks Aera beneath the table. "Stop kicking me, slutface," grumbles Aera, rubbing her leg, "I'm going to get bruises." 

          "Hey, Riki. We don't need your money." 

          "Yeah," Riki draws his hand away, "I realize that." 

          Awkward silence is draped over them like someone giving you their coat on a cold winter's day. No one knows what to do. Aera and Yena have been caught. There's no way they could stay in this McDonald's any longer. 

       Aera and Yena share a look. 

       (Years later, whenever this moment is brought up, Aera scolds herself and Yena for not just staying put. Or actually not arguing after seeing the seven boys enter the McDonald's because then they wouldn't have to embarrass themselves in front of the seven boys.)

         Aera suddenly leaps up from her spot in a rush to exit the McDonald's, but, Aera isn't as smooth as she likes to think she is. Trying to maneuver around Riki was more tricky than Aera expected. Her knee hits the table and she trips over her own two feet. Aera lands all on floors, and as she looks up, her face flushes a bright scarlet as six pairs of eyes all staring back at her, surprised and shocked. 

        "Hi." 

        Yena yanks Aera off the floor, but didn't expect Aera to lean onto her after being pulled up, so, Yena falls backward, with Aera on top of her. Both of the girls stare at each other, telepathically cussing the other out. 

         Someone behind them snorts and Aera climbs off of Yena, not bothering to help the latter off the floor, and practically runs out of McDonald's, with Yena hot on her heels. 

◾◾◾◾

Aera's never put this much energy into avoiding people before. Ever since the mishap in McDonald's, Yena and Aera have been doing everything to avoid the seven boys. It was kind of hard to avoid Jungwon, Riki, and Sunoo but they did their best too. 

       At first, Aera and Yena blamed each other for what happened, but after cornering Riki and interrogating him, they decided to pin the blame into Riki for what happened That Night In McDonald's. 

         (Aera catches Riki before he enters his dorm, Yena behind her. She pins the boy to the wall and glares at him fiercely. "Riki, why the fuck did you try to give us money in McDonald's the other night?" 

         Riki gulps, "hey, Aera. Hey, Yena." 

        Yena scowls and flicks the boy's forehead, "answer the damn question, Nishimura. We know where you live in Japan, so we'll send you back home if you don't answer our question."

          "How do you know that? And! You can't send me back without my consent!"

        "Answer the damn question, Nishimura!" 

       "Look, Sunoo thought you were homeless, so I volunteered to give some money since, you know, I'm known to be a charitable guy!" 

        "You — you thought we were homeless. . .?" 

         "I mean, you definitely looked the part!" Riki snickers as he easily slips out of Aera's grip, who is still trying to understand Riki's words. He thought she, Kim Aera, was homeless?

         "RIKI NISHIMURA GET BACK HERE!" Yena shouts after the younger boy as he slips into his dorm.)

       "He thought we were homeless!" Aera pouts to Taehyun and Kai in their 8 AM class. "Since when did I look homeless?" 

        Taehyun raises an eyebrow and gestures to Aera's outfit; an oversized hoodie and pajama pants. 

        "It's eight in the morning, Taehyun, why should I be the best dressed in the class?" 

         "You're going straight back to bed after this class, aren't you?" Kai asks, amused. 

       "Do you think I have anything better to do today, Kai?" Aera scoffs, "I'm going back to bed to watch some depressing k-dramas and cry my heart out. Maybe call my brother because I'm talking to him more than I should all because of — oh my gosh!" Aera stares at Kai and Taehyun, her eyes wide. "What if you two, Beomgyu, Yeonjun, and Soobin come to my beach house for my birthday!" 

        "Are we replacements, Aera?" Taehyun asks. 

        "What? No!" 

       "Liar." 

      "I am not a liar, Taehyun!" 

      "You're playing with your rings, Aera," Taehyun points out, his smile matching Kai's amused one. 

        Flustered, Aera shoes her hands beneath her butt. "No." 

      "Do you think you'll ever apologize to them, Aera?" Kai asks curiously. 

       "Only if they make the first move," Aera says, "they didn't believe Yena, so why should we be the first ones to apologize to losers like them?" One look from Kai and Aera sighs, "okay, maybe they aren't losers, but still, I don't like them right now — hell, I defended Sunghoon in a violent manner! Shouldn't he be slightly thankful? Or impressed, because I don't think anyone knew I could slap some bitch that hard!" 

          "I can see why you were Sunghoon's friend," Taehyun muses, "you're both narcissistic." 

         Aera reaches over and attempts to grab Taehyun's collar, but Kai intercepts. "No attempted murder before noon, remember, Aera?" 

      Aera scowls and slumps back in her seat. "You two will be my bodyguards for when I have to leave this class. Understood? I don't want any run-ins with Jake, or Sunghoon, or Jay, or Heeseung. I don't mind all that much for the other three." 

       "Understood, boss!" Kai affirms with a giddy grin. "I've always wanted to be a bodyguard."