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“Mom, I'm back.” Miae monotonously said, tired and weary of her long day of just studying. She edged to her room; the summer heat didn’t help her exhaustion either, her clothes were always at a range of dampness from sweat.
“Dinner is in a few minutes, don’t take long!” Her mom yelled out from the kitchen, eyeing her daughter to make sure she didn't sleep as she closed the door.
Miae’s eyes felt heavy, but her stomach overpowered how delightful her bed looked that evening. Out of habit, she looks over at the window across from hers, Choel’s room. The memories of that night are still imprinted vividly within her, it still haunts her till this day, mostly due to her newly-given nickname.
Miae wondered whether Choel had gone back from night soccer, the window was wide and open, which hadn’t been since that event. Her thoughts trailed around for a bit, wondering about how guys could play in such sweltering heat and if she could score a goal against Choel in soccer. She shrugs off her thoughts, ‘not like he’ll invite me to his night games.’
“Miae! Did you see the bag on your bed? It’s some clothes I thought you might like.” Her mom shouted through her door, Miae found it a mystery how even with or without the door, her mother’s voice roared like a lion.
She sees the bag, “Yeah I see it!” She picked up the bag and looked through the clothing items. Scanning through, she stopped at a pretty stylish sweatshirt, well, stylish to Miae’s standard. ‘ Off-season but not bad.’
Taking a glance at Choel’s empty, dark room, Miae deducted the chances, ‘haha, like that will happen.’ She looked at the sweater, ‘ it will only take a second.’
Swiftly taking it off, she took another moment to look at the other side. It was fine. Miae looked in the mirror, ‘Nice pick mom!’
The heat finally urged Miae to change back. Grasping the sweater’s bottom seam, she lifted it across her shoulder. Then came an odd sensation, a survival instinct of her per se; Miae instantly snapped her head at the neighboring window.
‘Buddha…’
Choel, across the other window, looked as if he had just stepped out of the shower, shirtless, wet, and barely had anything to cover his lower half; stared back in astonishment. If someone never saw red before they’ll know the color once they saw these two; not only had this already occurred, it’s happening again.
Almost 5 seconds passed before one of them could react. Miae flinched once she saw Choel was about to move, she needed to act first—her name was on the line. Throwing the sweater down, she ran to the ledge of her window, “You pervert! Close your windows properly!”
Choel stood, dumbfounded. “Hah? I’m the pervert?!” The disbelief that Choel had slathered on his face, “Tell that to yourself!” Choel also stomped towards his window, “Who changes with their windows up?!”
“Who gets out of the shower with barely anything on and NOT close the window?!” Miae fired back viciously, habitually also pointing at his bare chest. “I’ve seen that way too many times already!”
Reactively, Choel quickly covers his chest with his hand, “Shut up! Whoever hears that will misunderstand!” He hissed out. However she brings up a good point, these coincidences keep happening.
Miae grinned as if she had won the fight, “Not much to misinterpret, it seems like you’re always shirtless in front of me these days!”
Choel shouted an indistinguishable noise as Miae finished her sentence.
“You…” his voice was dead, all his remaining energy of the day had been depleted in a few words, “-should really cover up.”
Miae, who was too absorbed in winning, anxiously glanced down, “!!!!” she had been in her bra since the beginning of the talk. All she gained pride from the victory all vanished in a matter of seconds; instantly pulling curtains to cover her window with.
She scrambled on the floor searching for her previous shirt. From the other side, Choel had an unhideable smirk with an incredible urge to just taunt the girl one more time, “Same for you too.”
Miae bit her lips in defeat at that, she cursed white clothes, she cursed water, and she especially cursed this damn summer heat that was the start to all her recent troubles.
Choel was amused, he watched the closed window as he heard noises of Miae moving around with an unbeknownst smile stuck to his face.
Then unexpectedly he saw the curtains slightly open, with Miae peeking out her head, pointing down. Choel was confused.
“Your towel slipped.”
A devilishly lie, however a really effective one, as before the boy even checked whether she was lying, he shot the window close.
He felt he lost a few years in a few seconds, the towel was securely still on and his face warped, annoyed and ticked off; he exhaustedly sat on his bed.
“She got me.” He groaned out, covering his face. It was burning still, whether it was his embarrassment or flusterness, he couldn’t help to smile through all that occurred.
The two barely had slept that night, scarred by the memories, but both won in some way in the end.
[bonus]
“Choel, why were you screaming so much earlier?” Sunjeong peeked in, seeing her brother sprawled over his bed still unchanged from his shower. “You’re going to get a cold like that~” Sunjeong watched curiously at her younger brother’s mysterious suffering.
While Sunjeong blabber about something dumb, Choel internally thought to himself. ‘ I swear to god that I closed that window.’ Ever since that incident, he made it a habit to triple check his windows.
“Oh, you covered your windows. You know your room was so stuffy before that I did you a solid and opened it so the room could freshen up.” His sister innocently smiled.
Choel instantly shot up, an intense, heavy glare beamed at Sunjeong. “It was you.” Choel spoke with a deep, resounding resentment.
“Hey you shouldn’t glare at your sister like that, I was trying to give you some sweet sisterly love-“
“Don’t need it.” Choel ripped any bs his sister was trying to pull.
“Ouch. I think you’re overreacting. It's not like opening the window and walking out of the shower would lead to—oh.” Sunjeong connecting the dots, didn’t result in an apology, no, she is a sister. She laughed, she cackled hard.
Choel wasn’t laughing one bit.
Sunjeong is experienced though, she knows when she is treading the dangerous area, “Oh, well, I bet Miae enjoyed the view.” And slid out.
Choel was furious, he sprang up right as his sister pulled her head out, “YOU—get back here!!!”
“I wouldn’t run around the house like that if I were you~!” Sunjeong snickered, as Choel was left in his room. His dignity had been shattered, all for what? His damn sister's entertainment.