The Elephant Between Us || SKZ

chapter one

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

HONEY CATCHES MORE FLIES THAN VINEGAR

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

A new car being parked on the edges of those streets wasn't something that happened any often there. In fact, seeing a single car roaming around those parts was, by itself, an occurrence able to catch every neighbour's attention. That place was the end of the world, to say the least, and that was exactly what she had been looking for during the whole night.

"So... this is it. We've arrived." Jeongin said as he took off his seatbelt, turning his head to the side to look at his sister, who had her gaze stuck outside the window. "Are you fine?"

He knew how much his sister hated to move, to leave everything they had built with so much love and care behind, to abandon all those memories in those places they could no longer return to.

The absence of an answer caused him to tap on her shoulder, calling her back to the real world.

"It will be fine, Jeongmin, you'll see."

"I hope you're right." Finally looking back at him, she smiled shortly, taking off her seatbelt as well. "I really, really do."

"Let's get this." He raised his hand in the air and, high-fiving his sister, Jeongin left the comfortable warmth of the car and closed the door behind him, taking a very deep breath with his hands landing on both sides of his waist.

He was positive that was the last time they were starting over. Something deep inside him told him that apartment, that huge building with soft baroque glimpses right in front of his eyes, was the right key for the door they'd wanted to open so hard. They deserved it.

After glancing at all the curious heads of the neighbourhood looking at him, Jeongin walked over to the back of the car to take off the luggage and, on his way to the building's front door, he called his sister, who was still inside of the car.

"Jeongmin, people are looking. Hurry up."

Taking a deep breath, she took a look at the neighbours through the window.

She couldn't stand gossip, and that, all those people looking at her brother entering the building, seemed like a lot of gossipers.

"You could pretend, at least," Jeongmin murmured to the neighbours, clenching her jaw. They obviously didn't care if they were making the new residents uncomfortable with all that unrequested attention or not.

Biting her bottom lip, she forced her hand to open the door and left the car. She couldn't wait to lay on her bed and get all the rest she hadn't gotten in the past four nights, and that was why she looked up at the two elderlies leaning over their balcony railings and smiled widely, waving her hand as a way to greet them. As much as Jeongmin didn't enjoy the process of befriending new humans, she needed allies if she wanted to stay in that village for more than two months, and she was damn well aware of that.

As the elderlies waved back, clearly embarrassed, she got inside the building and walked over to the elevator. Jeongmin only needed to click on the buttons three times to sigh with a roll of eyes.

"Don't tell me this middle of nowhere does not even have the hell of an elevator working..." She mumbled, raising her eyebrows as a loud noise came from inside the cubicle.

"I'm afraid I'll be the one to tell you this middle of nowhere does not even have the hell of an elevator working, indeed." Her chest jumped as she suddenly heard the voice of a male coming right from behind her.

For God's sake.

"Hey!" She turned to face him with a huge smile - the same she had shown the elderlies before - her eyes widening as she noticed the naked torso behind the three brown boxes he carried in his arms. "Oh..."

"Believe me, I know this sucks."

"You don't suck at all..." She mumbled, her gaze fixed on the skin of his shoulders only.

"Excuse me, what did you say?" The boy chuckled as he asked, visibly confused.

"It does suck at all." Jeongmin laughed and shook her head, surprised with her own behaviour. "Ahm, are you taking those upstairs?" She asked, pointing at the boxes he still held.

"These?" Again, he chuckled. "Yap. Fifth floor."

"Great! Let me give you a hand."

Before he could even say anything, Jeongmin grabbed one of the boxes, the lightest, and hurried to walk upstairs, her nice bright eyes being immediately replaced by her dominant ones.

In fact, she was just starting to enjoy that middle of nowhere.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━