off limits ✧ zb1 applyfic

✧ twenty one

Business school was far from the most exciting to attend, but Lilah had promised her parents she would try her hardest to make it work. As she'd followed in her older brother's footsteps, she'd sworn to herself that she would always study diligently, respect deadlines, and get good grades. That was the least she could do, to repay them for all they'd done for her. But today, as she found herself sitting at her desk, working on an assignment on whatever the hell price elasticity of demand was, Lilah thought maybe she'd be better off just landing a job at McDonald's.

The sudden knock on the door was the perfect excuse to stop thinking about percentages and quantities. Lilah took both of her earbuds out of her ear, waiting for another knock to come. Her parents were out on their weekly date, and Matthew had just started showering. It was up to her to open the door, but she quite frankly would rather have stayed in her room. If it was a package delivery, they would probably just drop it off at the neighbor's anyway.

But another knock came, and it seemed maybe this was a bit more important than she'd first thought. Abandoning her textbooks, Lilah rushed down the stairs, running past the bathroom, from which she could hear the sound of water barely muffling out music. Maybe her parents had forgotten their keys? Still, it was a bit too early for them to come back, they'd left less than half an hour ago.

Thankfully, their front door had a peephole. The best friend of any introvert who's far too scared to talk to strangers trying to sell them something. Standing on her tiptoes, Lilah peered through the peephole, and found... Gyuvin? What in the world was he doing here?

Her confusion taking over, she immediately opened the door. Indeed, Gyuvin was standing here with his usual goofy smile on, and his weird looking dog at the end of a leash.

"What are you doing here?" were the first words to leave her mouth, before she corrected herself. "I mean, um, hello."

Gyuvin did not seem fazed in the least by her rough introduction. "Hi, Lilah."

Feeling self-conscious all of a sudden as Gyuvin's eyes pierced right through hers, Lilah half hid herself behind the door. "Um, sorry, Matthew's showering right now, and he always takes a really long time, so you should come back later. Or I can pass a message on."

The smile evident in his eyes, Gyuvin shoved his free hand in his pocket. "Nope, I actually came here to see you."

Lilah's lips parted in surprise before she could even register what he'd just said. He'd come to see... Her? He'd come to Matthew's house, his own friend's house, to see his sister? For a second, Lilah found herself unable to retort. Surely he was messing with her. But she could see it in his eyes, in the way his lips curled up innocently, that he wasn’t lying. And somehow, that made less sense than if he had been.

Finally, all she could muster was, "huh?", as she instinctively slinked back even more behind the door.

"I was wondering if you wanted to walk Eumppappa with me, since you two were getting along so well last time!" he announced almost triumphantly, an edge of mischief in his voice.

Somehow, that single sentence had managed to shake her out of her stunned state. "We were not getting along." There was simply no way she could ever be friends with that dog. "But... Okay." Unfortunately, she couldn’t say the same of the owner.

"Really?" Judging by his wide eyes and overjoyed grin, he'd expected she would refuse.

"Yeah, let me just get a jacket and put my shoes on."

And quite frankly, she’d thought she would refuse, too. But when Gyuvin looked at her with that expectant puppy look, and his boyish smile, it felt a little too cruel to reject him. It wasn’t like her, to make friends so easily with a random person. And it certainly wasn’t like her to pretty much sneak out with a guy behind her brother's back. When it came to Gyuvin, it seemed she was willing to make an exception. Whatever that meant.