「CURSE'S VESSEL」bnhaxjjk

37: Everything Is Going Wrong

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"Ne ne! Ju!" Eleven year old Yuji crouched down in front of his six year old sister, his bright smile not once faltering even with Yuju blankly staring at him in disinterest. He looks at her with wide, shiny eyes; his excitement for whatever made him feel that way clearly evident. "Wanna play hide and seek?"

It was a saturday afternoon, the sun nearly setting behind the mountains as an orange hue began to cover the sky.

'Why is he so happy?' Yuju didn't understand why he was acting like that, and the overt display of emotion honestly annoyed her more than anything. There was no point in showing emotions. There was nothing to gain from it. If a person gets all happy because they have good news, it doesn't make the good news any better, now does it?

With the lack of undestanding of expressing emotions like joy or anger, she didn't understand why or how people act certain ways. To her, they were the weird ones and she was the only sane person on earth.

Hence the reason she didn't feel like she belonged there. It was like an introvert in a bar or club: out of place and uncomfortable. That was how Yuju felt around other people, so she prefered to stay inside and away from society.

She does go to schoolㅡ currently in her last year of kindergartenㅡ and she does interact with her peers even if it was just a bit, but her lack of emotion or empathy for others did throw off the people around her. The principal even had to call her grandfather to express the school's concern and questioning the environment they had at home.

Yuju's blank face didn't falter, simply blinked once before finally speaking. "Why?"

"Eh?" Yuji tilted his head to the side, genuinely confused. "For fun." He answered, albeit hesitantly before shaking his head and going back to being happy. He grinned, "You never play with me! I thought it would be nice to have some sibling time, y'know?"

Yuju shook her head and looked down at the chess board, going back to playing the board game on her own. "No thanks."

The eleven year old pouted. He silently watched as his sister moved from one white piece to black, intelligently moving each one as if what she was doing was merely pressing dots.

That was how fast she was going. And within less than a minute, she had finally checkmated white.

Yuji groaned when she started to rearrange the pieces to start another round.

Without thinking, he brought his hand up and ruined the what was once arranged black pieces. He huffed and looked up, immediately meeting the eyes of his angry sister, her hold on to the white king tightening until it cracked.

Yuji whined, "Play with me!"

Yuju narrowed her eyes at him, visioning the walls around them splattered in crimson.