o n e

"Seolhee, that's enough television for today. Its past your bed time." Her mother walked into the darkened living room with something of a sigh where the only light provided came from the lit television. Her voice was drenched in a scolding tone that she took on whenever her daughter wouldn't listen to her.

The ten year old was sat on the couch with a comfortable blanket wrapped around herself, her dark brown eyes glued to the screen while music played in the room at a low volume. The lights from the television danced across her skin in the darkness. "Mommy..." The little girl began to complain in a whiny voice. Still, her eyes never left the television screen as though she were mesmerized by it. "You promised you'd let me stay up to watch EXO's Music Bank performance tonight. I want to watch oppa Jongin and the rest of his friends."

Her mother gave a shake of her head and walked to stand in front of the television, now blocking the view just as Sehun's rap part was coming up in Monster. "You never said this performance would keep you up a half hour past bed time. Watch it on youtube tomorrow, after you get home from school. Your brother won't mind if you miss one performance."

Seolhee huffed, "But eomeoni..." 

Her mother stopped her with another shake of her head. "No excuses. Go to bed."

She turned around and shut the television off, leaving them in darkness.

Kim Seolhee was Kim Jongin's--also known as Kai--younger sister. She was only ten years old and her parents, as well as her brother, agreed to keep her away from the public eye. For that reason, he had told everyone in interviews and talk shows that he only had two older sisters. He didn't want the fans or the media harassing his little sister Seolhee. It was also for that reason that she'd had little to no interaction with him since he debuted--other than the occasional visit on her birthdays or Christmas, or the dozens of presents he'd periodically send. 

But Seolhee missed her brother. She also had a big crush on one of his group mates. EXO's maknae, Oh Sehun. She wanted nothing more than to be able to interact with him as well.

She knew that if she were older, her parents and her brother wouldn't hide her they way they did. She couldn't wait until she could be a teenager, so that she could see her brother again and maybe also meet her idol oppa.

-

The next day at school Seolhee had been sulking all day, upset that she wasn't able to watch EXO's comeback on television. She made her emotions obvious when her mother picked her up from school that afternoon. She sat in the back seat with her arms crossed over her chest, and even let out frustrated sighs every so often.

She was even more annoyed when her mother decided to stop in the mall. She said she needed an outfit to wear to a business dinner she would be accompanying her husband to. It was likely that they would be leaving Seolhee with one of her older sister, as much as she would beg them to drop her off with her brother Jongin. But he was always busy with schedules of his own and his parents didn't want to burden him further.

Seolhee's mother held her by the hand so that she wouldn't get lost in the crowd and they went to several stores. Eventually the ten year old became impatient and her stomach grumbled hungrily.

"Mommy..." She tugged on her mother's hand.

Her mother nodded, more concentrated on finding a nice dress to wear.

"I'm hungry." The little girl whined. "Can you get me something to eat?"

Mrs. Kim gave it a second to think about it. She quickly reached into her wallet and got some money out. Handing it to her, she now had her full attention on her daughter as she explained, "There was a pretzel place two shops down that way." She gestured behind the little girl. "Buy a pretzel and then come right back. Don't talk to strangers, keep your money out of sight until you get to the pretzel place, and if someone tells you that I sent them to pick you up, what do you do?"

"I start screaming and run back here to you." The little girl gave the obedient reply that was by now automatic in her mind. 

Her mother nodded happily and kissed her forehead before watching her skip off to find the pretzel shop. She didn't feel comfortable shopping while her ten year old daughter was gone and she remained by the front racks, watching for her.

Seolhee found the pretzel place, which was actually three shops down instead of two. The place two shops down was a store that sold health products for women. There was an employee at the door handing out free samples of snacks that looked like cashews, only they were pink. Seolhee quickly forgot about the pretzel and walked up to the woman handing out samples.

"Can I have one of those?" She asked, pointing to the bowl full of individually packaged pink nuts.

The woman gave a polite shake of her head. "Those are only for adults, sweetie. They contain special hormones which prevent breakouts and make period cramps more bearable. We don't know what side effects they can have in children."

Seolhee sighed in defeat, having been told that she couldn't have any. But pink was her favorite color, she was hungry, and the nuts looked so good. Without thinking twice, the ten year old reached into the bowl and grabbed a handful of the small packets with pink nuts in them. Before the employee could even react, the little girl raced back towards the store where her mother was shopping.

She stuffed the other packets into her school uniform pockets, but kept one back out to snack on. She waited on her mother while she ate the little bag of nuts, and eventually went home.

Seolhee went to sleep that night with a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach, but she willed it away. She thought that it was just something she ate, that didn't agree with her, and that she would eventually feel better after getting some rest.

The next morning, she woke up after stirring uncomfortably in her bed for what had felt like hours. Her clothes were tight--constricting her ability to breathe. It almost felt like her clothes were about to explode. She opened her eyes and gasped as she saw she had outgrown her pajamas over night. Her feet were also hanging off the end of the bed. Everything in her room looked about three times smaller than it used to be, or maybe she had just gotten bigger. In her panic, her eyes widened and her breathing became shallow. She didn't know what to do at first.

She jumped out of bed and went to her little white vanity mirror in the room.

The person she saw in the mirror was not her ten year old self. But there was a young woman who looked about sixteen or seventeen, in her pajamas which made her look like a giant in them. 

She had miraculously become a teen.

-

first little update for this story, which turned out kinda filler ish. but since i said i was going to update this after lotto ended, and lotto is over halfway done--i'd say about sixty percent done--i thought i could start writing for this.

thank you all so much for reading and supporting my stories. i hope you like it and i hope to not disappoint with this.

have a wonderful week!

-clary