The Twin | Kim Gyuvin ZB1

3 You Don't Belong To My World

Gyuvin looked at the girl with the bob cut, who was sleeping on her desk at the back of the classroom. Sometimes, the more you wish not to cross paths with someone, the more likely it will happen.

A year had passed. The boys were placed in the same class in year 11, while the girls were scattered across the other classes. Minah, again and again, warned the boys to stay away from Siwon after she found out they would be in the same class as Siwon. Gyuvin scoffed at Minah's reminder internally because the girl isolated herself from everyone else anyway. There wasn't a need to actively maintain distance from her.

For the last whole month, he barely even heard her voice. Like what he had heard about Siwon from the others, she would lie down on her desk from the moment she came into school until lunchtime. And after lunch, she would continue to sleep through the lessons till the end of the school day. She had probably made a name for herself among all the teachers because they hardly even tried to acknowledge her existence anymore.

Gyuvin was supposed to have soccer team practice after school today, but the coach fell sick and cancelled it. Thus, he went to grab some food with Yujin and headed home earlier than usual. He got off the bus station near his home, and as he was walking past a narrow alleyway, he heard sounds from cats coming from the alley. He stopped to take a look, as there were a lot of stray cats around the area, and sometimes, he would find them hurt or in pain. There, he saw a group of cats huddling around a girl while eating from cans of cat food that the girl seemed to have brought. The girl, who had a black, short bob, was hugging her knees while watching the cats. Gyuvin found this scene weirdly familiar and started having a flashback of an episode that happened a few years ago. What shocked him was that the face of the girl in his flashback and the back of the girl he was looking at right at that moment overlapped with a figure he knew from school. His jaw dropped to the ground.

"Ryu... Ryu Siwon?"

Siwon's soft expression immediately turned cold when she looked up and saw it was Gyuvin. Gyuvin managed to catch a glimpse of the gentle look on Siwon's face, which left him in even greater shock. She was capable of having that expression on her face?

Siwon was obviously uncomfortable with Gyuvin standing there and staring at her, so she looked up multiple times, giving him the signal to go away and leave her alone, but Gyuvin wouldn't even budge. She looked down at the cats, hoping that they would finish their meal quickly so that she could clean up and leave as soon as possible.

When she was finally able to leave, Gyuvin stood in her way. When she tried to leave through his left side, he moved to the left. When she tried to leave through his right side, he moved to the right. When she tried to leave again, he extended his legs and pressed his arms against the walls on either side of him. Thanks to his long limbs, he completely blocked her way out. He looked at her as if he had caught his prey.

"What do you want?" Tired of this 'game' they were playing, Siwon eventually opened her mouth.

"This might be the first time I actually heard you talk." Gyuvin had a smug grin on his face.

"I'm assuming you have a lot of time." Siwon crossed her arms and stared at him.

"I actually do." Gyuvin raised his eyebrows and nodded.

But she didn't. "Cut to the chase. What do you want?"

"Do you hate me for some reason? Or do you just hate everyone in general?" His expression softened.

She wasn't expecting that question from him, but she had no intention to answer him either.

"I will stand here until you give me an answer. I really do have a lot of time today."

"Do I need a reason to hate you?"

"Wh..What?"

Siwon ran out of patience. And the quickest way to get out of here was...

"Ouch!" Gyuvin knees fell to the ground after being kicked in the shin by Siwon. "Yaa!" He shouted at the girl, who was already walking away.

Gyuvin was that close to adding 'unreasonable' to the list of adjectives he would use to describe Siwon, but he then remembered Siwon with the cats. He could never have imagined someone as obnoxious as Siwon taking care of street cats. Neither would he have ever associated tenderness with her, yet he saw it with his own eyes; it was almost like she had two personalities inside of her.

Siwon walked hurriedly for another 10 minutes until she arrived at an antique bookshop.

"Annyeonghaseyo, Sajang-nim." Siwon pushed open the door and greeted the boss, who was standing behind the counter. Her face had the same softness as it had when she was with the stray cats. It was still nothing close to bright and bubbly, but the aloofness was gone.

"Siwon-ah, you came later than usual today." The boss, Choi Inseong, was a man in his late sixties. His presence radiated genuine warmth. The creases on his face and his grey hair only accentuated the wisdom he earned through his years of living.

"Sorry, I met a crazy guy on the way." Siwon went straight behind the counter and put down her bag.

"Crazy guy? Did he try to hurt you?"

"No no, he was a harmless crazy guy." She deadpanned.

The boss let out a chuckle after hearing what Siwon said. "I have to head out for a while. I'll come back after dinner time. I received some second-hand children's books this morning. Can you pack them up so we can bring them over to the orphanage this weekend?"

"Of course."

"Alright, I'll leave you to work then. Thanks, Siwonnie."

Siwon's work at the bookstore mainly consisted of attending to customers and arranging books. Other than that, she was free to do whatever she wanted, and she would always be found behind the counter, either reading a book or on the computer.

After checking all the children's books were in satisfactory condition and packing them into a box, she picked up the book she had been reading for the last few days from the bookshelf and started reading. But after a few lines, she found her mind wandering back to the encounter with Gyuvin a while ago.

Did she hate him? She simply decided to distance herself from most people, especially those who were associated with Siyoung. She had decided to live in a completely separate world from her twin sister a long time ago.

And Kim Gyuvin was definitely someone who belonged to Siyoung's world, not hers.