the most brilliant darkness;; jwy, csan

01

four minutes past five o'clock, you step into a new life. the floor under your feet is oddly cold when you slip your shoes off beside the door. carpet slides between your toes like a weak attempt to warm your foul mood, but the stiffness in the air keeps you from finding any comfort in the feeling. no one greets you right away, which is what you expect, but still, there's a sting that dulls and aches in your chest for too long. you suppose there could be some poetic semblance to going from a lonely, empty apartment in a busy city to a small town where the population is mostly middle-aged and older people. and at twenty-four, you suppose there could also be an argument that maybe you're creeping up to join them.

"ah, y/n! i just saw yunho's text! does he need help bringing your stuff up?" the voice comes from your right, and the woman who rushes out of a cramped kitchen greets you with open arms and a tight hug. she fits the bill for typical citizens of this town — hair greying enough to be noticeable and a dirtied little apron tied around her waist. hard-working people, that is, who work until they're physically incapable of doing so even when they get paid dirt for it. such a concept seems odd to you who has friends who work for the money and to retire early.

"there are only a few boxes, you don't need to strain yourself, aunty."

"please, you're the only one who shouldn't be straining yourself. you had to pack everything yourself anyways! let us get the rest for you, okay?" the woman flashes a crooked smile as she pulls out of the hug, and that smile persists even as she steps around you to get to the open door. the argument is on your lips but she's gone before you can voice your complaints, leaving you to stand in the middle of your new and foreign home.

it's a nice enough place, you suppose, and a serious upgrade from your ratty apartment that you had to leave because you couldn't afford to rent it any longer. although part of that is because of the job you were forced to leave, as well as the boyfriend (now ex) who left you with the cost of having to pay twice as much when he moved out. it wasn't entirely his fault — you weren't about to tell him to refuse the overseas job offer he received, especially not when it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for someone fresh out of university. it was more unexpected than anything else: five years of dating sent down the drain by a simple job offer on his side of things and a rejection letter from the only graduate school you truly wanted to attend on yours.

if you had to describe the feeling of your life at this very moment, you'd say it's very much like the feeling of seeing your parents' nicest vase fall off a table and knowing it's going to break, then not being able to pick up the pieces fast enough. between the rejection, the breakup, leaving your job, not being able to afford your apartment, and now having to move to the only family who would take you — you'd say it's safe to say your life is falling apart in every place imaginable. your aunt and cousin are making it manageable, especially yunho who was the one who dropped whatever he was doing to come help you move out and drove you down to this town in the first place, but the change is still in freefall and you don't quite know what waits at the bottom yet.

"here, i'll show you to your room!" yunho says, stepping through the front door with a large box of your belongings in his arms. there's a clump of black hair sticking to his forehead, accentuated by the red highlights that streak through it, and he does his best to flick it out of the way with a huff of air. you trail behind him as he leads the way through the modestly sized house.

you and yunho frankly don't know each other all that well. you are cousins, yes, but yunho was adopted by your aunt around the age of thirteen, and your family had already moved to a different city when that happened. the times you met up for family functions were few and far between, but even with the tragedies yunho has suffered in his own life, he's always remained bright and peppy to a fault. he never seems to carry what happened to his own parents with him, and the life in his eyes never leaves either. as your aunt said on the phone when she first heard about your situation, perhaps this will be a good chance for the two of you to get closer as family. you won't have much of a choice thanks to your severe lack of friends in this area.