I PICKED UP A CHILD IN A DUMPSTER

Chapter 222: Shiori — III

"Hmmm."

I stared at the ceiling above me, familiar and plain, and took stock of the situation. On my right— Hon. On my left— Jisoo. Me in the middle, pressed warm between both of them like a sandwich... CUTE SANDWICH. Hehe, yep yep.

I tapped my chin looking at the ceiling. "We look like a family right now. Hehe."

Jisoo twitched on my left for no reason, I turned my head and watched her go pink, then red, both hands coming up to grab her own hair and pull it forward to cover her cheeks like that was going to help anything.

(Hmm. That’s extremely uncool. You’re supposed to be scary Noona.)

"Y-yes," she said, voice doing something embarrassing. "We do look like a family. Heh. Hehe."

"Yeah," Hon said, from my right, easy and unbothered. "We do. But we should sleep now."

Hmm, Hon is smart.

Though, for no reason that only made Jisoo worse. She leaned sideways into me and pressed both her very red and very warm cheeks against mine, and I let this happen because I had decided I was being generous tonight.... Savor it, Scary Noona.

This is a limited time offer.

Then Hon put his hand over my head, palm resting across my hair, and I used it as a pillow immediately because it was warm and the right size. "Okay. Sleep. (⁠◡⁠ ⁠ω⁠ ⁠◡⁠)" I said immediately.

Both of them settled.

I nodded to myself.

But, they’re not that smart like me, I was not going to sleep. I was going to wait for both of them to fall asleep first, and then I was going to stay awake the whole entire night. This was a plan I had made and intended to keep.

After a while, their breathing evened out slowly, one then the other, and the room went quiet in the way rooms only went when nobody in them was pretending anymore.... But I’m pretending to sleep. That’s why... hm, it’s hard to explain...

I just kick that explanation away and lay there with my eyes open halfway, watching the faint moonlight move across the ceiling in very slow movemint.

After a while I sat up carefully, moving in small pieces so nothing shifted too much.

I looked at both of their faces— Hon first, then Jisoo. Both of them just... there. Still. Faces relaxed in the way people’s faces went when they stopped holding everything up... hmm, is my explanation working? Hmm... yes, like when they stop holding everything up.

After a while, I reached over and tapped Jisoo’s cheek, very soft... hmm,,, I tapped mine... softer, and that earned me a smirk (⁠´⁠ㆁ⁠⁠ω⁠ㆁ｀⁠).

Tapped Hon’s next, lighter, and he stirred just slightly and I immediately dropped flat and shut my eyes immediately and held completely still.

Nothing happened.... Luckily.

I opened my eyes again, sat up, and looked at both of them for a long moment.

"I wish this last forever," I said, very quietly, looking at them both, I lay back down between them, stared upward, and added even quieter— "Please don’t abandon me."

And before I knew it. I was asleep.

***

(Morning.)

The ceiling was the first thing that came to my view, same as always. Hehe. I blinked at it for a second, the way you did before the rest of waking up caught up with you.

Then I noticed the quietness.

Not just quiet— empty. The kind of empty that had a specific weight to it. I turned my head right. Then left. Then sat up and looked around the room properly, taking in every corner and finding the same thing in all of them.

Nothing.

I was alone... again.

I stood up. Walked to the door. Opened it.

Walked down the short hallway to the living room with my face doing nothing in particular, my thoughts going in a direction I was trying not to follow them.

’They’re probably just in the living room.’ I said this inside my head clearly and reasonably. ’Of course they are. Hon and Jisoo are just in the living room. That is where they are.’

The living room was empty.

I checked the bathroom. The kitchen. Jisoo’s room— door open, nothing.

"H-hide and seek?"

Then my own room, which I’d just come up from my mind. The little window that looked out at the camp.

After awhile of searching around the whole apartment, I didn’t remember sitting down on the couch.

But I was sitting on it, and somewhere between standing at the window and sitting down, my hands had found the old stuffed rabbit I hid, that my dad gave to me— white, stitched across three different places where it had come apart and been put back together, one ear slightly longer than the other.

I didn’t remember picking it up either. My hands just had it, and then I was holding it against my chest, and the room was quiet. Very quiet...

I cried quietly at first. Just a little... I don’t even know why I’m crying. Maybe because I’m sad...? I don’t know, maybe because I miss them already.

I didn’t want to cry.

But I couldn’t stop.

Then it got harder.

"I’m abandoned?" My voice came out small and cracked in the middle. "Again...?"

I kept telling myself to stop.

The sob that followed was the real kind, I hate this, and I pulled the bunny tighter and pressed my face into it and let it happen... because there wasn’t anyone here to see it happen anyways.

’I hate Jisoo,’ I thought, and immediately thought, ’but I like her too, scary noona. And Hon, Ahjussi.’ And the crying got worse instead of better the way it did when you tried to reason with it.

I sat there with the bunny and the empty apartment and the quiet camp sounds coming through the window and just— cried.

Hard. Super hard that... that I wish, I never even tried to approach them... "Hon, Jisoo, why... is it because I’m being annoying...? Or, is it because Scary Noona is actually scary and took Hon away far."

After crying for a while, holding my stitched bunny.

I heard a click.

The front door of the apartment opened.

I looked up so fast my vision blurred. Wait, why did I even look up fast... I slowly stood up. Just stood there, still.

It’s probably those mean looking uncles who wanna get my supplies again...

After a few seconds, I walked toward the front door, and when the door opened.

Si Hon stood there, at the doorway holding two backpacks, one in each hand. Jisoo was right behind him, the one who’d opened the door, hand still on the handle.

Both of them stood there looking at me on the hallway standing up with the bunny and the tear-tracked face and the expression I hadn’t had time to put away.

I couldn’t care less about those, so I ran.

Across the room, off the hallway, across the floor in bare feet, and I hit them somewhere in the middle of the doorway with both arms going around whatever parts of them I could reach, one arm around Hon’s waist and one around Jisoo’s, and the crying that had been getting quieter started all over again— louder this time, embarrassingly loud, voice cracking on every breath.

"You’re here," I choked out, against Hon’s jacket. "You’re both here, you’re—" It dissolved into something that wasn’t words.

Hon’s hand found the back of my head.

Jisoo made a sound above me that was very small and not scary at all.

The bunny was still in my hand, pressed between us, its one longer ear sticking out sideways against Hon’s arm.