𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐜 • 𝐣𝐢𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐥

I

"how's your writing journey coming?" chan asked, while jisoo tried to balance his phone on his shoulder. he was busy. "weren't you making a new novel?"

"jesus—let me unpack my things first, please, and why is your voice the literal definition of pixelated?!" jisoo complained, coming quite short-fused today. "can't you call later? i'm settling in my hotel room!"

"can't you unpack later?! it's jisoo-and-chan-bonding-hour! i want to know about your day and whereabouts and stuff!" chan yelled on the phone, which made jisoo want to throw his phone out the window.

"you just want to know what i'm doing so you can steal my car and go to parties or something!"

"true, but i'm not a heartless monster!" chan complained. god damn it. lee chan, can you not? "what if you settle in with seven boyfriends in that cottage-core province and you might never come back again and i might assume you're dead and get all your properties and sexy expensive suits mhm—"

"I'M ALIVE, LEE CHAN!" jisoo yells. the little monster even laughed. if jisoo gets his hands on chan's bass, he will hit it against a wall 22 times because chan is 22. "just go and practice with your tone-deaf bandmates and perform in front of a convenience store!"

"meanie!" at that, chan finally hung up. jisoo knows that the ugly ass college senior loves his bandmates, so the way to go was insulting them.

ah. i don't want to unpack anymore. chan was a vibe-killer. sucks to be his cousin. that kid has lots of hobbies, taking up so much space in their shared apartment. guitar? ukelele? bass? crocheting materials? baking apparatuses? figurine collections? gaming setup? rotting garden? you name it, chan's got it. plus the trash. the trash. their apartment's aesthetic is like a department store with a touch of dumpsters.

jisoo's only resolution to it is to sell his whole cousin. not the stuff, no, jisoo could still use some of that—lee chan cannot be used anymore. he is an official trash producer and he is expired. better get money from something useless, right?

now that the current situation in their apartment is explained, jisoo going to the province for a clearer mind is most probably reasonable now. how can you get inspiration from that trashy apartment? jisoo's pretty famous as a writer, you know, and he doesn't want to put dirt on his pretty name because he wrote a novel in a dumpster and he wasn't inspired enough.

(but in all honesty, lee chan was good at everything he was doing. just not in university.)

anyway, as jisoo's agenda was destroyed, he heads out of the hotel room—and the hotel itself minutes later—to calm down and find inspiration from the beautiful 'cottage core' sceneries in this province. it's like a vacation.

"there we go." jisoo muttered under his breath, seeing the sun set into the horizon. his timing was perfect. chan's timing of killing jisoo's mood was perfect, too; if he hadn't called, jisoo would still be unpacking right now, boring.

as jisoo walks further away from the hotel and to the open field, he sees the little cottages scattered around—it was so beautiful! so perfect! the sky was orange, the sun was setting, the field was full of plants, the cottages were not over the top, the fresh air to breathe! jisoo had tons of ideas for a setting like this.

problem is: what's the plot?

jisoo sighed, walking around the field. he inspects each mini cottage as he explores. "a love story would be good for this kind of setting. kisses or hugs or meetings. but maybe, an immortal who's trying to blend in? like zhongli!"

uh—what, no, no video games! fresh ideas only!

"hmm, well," jisoo cleared his throat, pushing away the idea of copying concepts. jisoo wants to start anew. completely original. "what about strange gods or something? oh! maybe witch girlfriends living in a cottage!"

jisoo giggles, writing his new idea on a small notebook. as jisoo walks further down the field, he sees pretty flowers too—which jisoo took note of for his idea. oh! that one cottage looks cozy too! jisoo smiles, deciding that it would be—

"what the fuck."

it was almost perfect, until jisoo sees a goddamn castle. big, dark red walls, roof appearing to be old-fashioned, vines wrapped all around the infrastructure. in contrary, it had a variety of plants on the lawn, and... i'm stepping on one of their plants!

(actually, it wasn't a castle. it just appeared to be gloomy, and it was thrice bigger than the normal cottages around. about half the size of the hotel jisoo's staying in.)

"...dear!"

"understood, my love!"

jisoo hears incoherent comments assumingly from the inside of the house. ther were people who lived there?! jisoo understands that it's big and shit, but what if there are ghosts in there? is living in that dark looking cottage even worth it?

just as jisoo was about to comment on it loudly, a couple of vines (yes, the vines were alive and it came from the inside) wrapped around jisoo, turning him into a panicked jisoo burrito.  he was painfully yanked towards the big doors of the house, but jisoo was not able to scream; he was in a great shock!

"i am not dreaming. this hurts! WHAT THE FUCK!" jisoo yelled, finally—maybe the townspeople can help! "HELP!"

ah. cottages are godsends for writers with writer's block like jisoo. but not for a writer with writer's block who stepped on a plant in the lawn of a scary looking castle thing.

that's because there's nobody who'll help.