Sancutary | 박성훈

5. New House, New Housemate

Maena had packed a bag for herself, not big at all but big enough. And like her father said that she doesn't need to pack everything now, since she can always come back home to get more of her belongings. She's not the type to usually get nervous about things, but somehow the move started to make her nervous. Probably because she didn't know Sunghoon at all. Maybe she was worried about a lot of things there. If he turns out to be some systematic snob and everything should be perfect and neat, or if he's physically and mentally very intrusive. One would never know.

The door to her room opened, where from her mother entered. "Sunghoon arrived. Have you packed?", she asked.

"Yes.", Maena answered and nodded.

"Come then.", her mother urged and left the room again.

Maena stood up from her bed that was nicely done. No one would sleep on it for a while, maybe for a big while. She looked around the room lastly before she also left the room. It's like she'd leave something important behind, but she surely can always come back there. 

She dragged her bag downstairs and put on her shoes before stepping outside. Sunghoon was standing there talking to Maena's father. "She came. Aren't you ready then?", Jinwook stated.

"Yeah.", Maena replied, still feeling unsure. Her mother stood on the yard too. Sunghoon's black car was parked in front of them, ready to get started. She heard her mother sobbing and looked at her. "Mom! Don't cry, I'm not moving to another country after all. You'll soon make me cry too.", she complained.

"I'm sorry, darling. I was never ready for my daughter to move away.", Miyeon sobbed. Maena walked over to her and hugged her tightly. "Sunghoon will take good care of you. But you can always contact me, your mother. Call anytime or visit the workplace.", she assured as her voice became shaky through all the sobbing.

Maena hummed as a response, then soon ended the hug. "But I need to go now, mom."

"Yes you do.", her mother nodded and stroked Maena's head.

"Bye.", Maena said and started walking to the car where Sunghoon already was, standing next to it. Her mother yet waved at her and she waved back, before the parents then went back inside the house.

"I'll put it in the back seat.", Sunghoon said with the same cold tone of his, referring to her bag she was holding. He stretched out his hand for her to give the bag and so she did. She handed it to Sunghoon and that's when her hand lightly touched Sunghoon's. He quickly pulled his hand away when he felt it too. Like he didn't want to touch her at all, like he was grossed out or just shy. Maena glared at him silently as he opened the back seat door and put the bag in there.

Then she just shrugged it off and entered the passenger's seat. 

-

The car ride was quiet. As she thought about her mother more and more Maena felt like about to cry. However, she held it back. She gazed out of the window. The landscapes were unfamiliar, an area she had not been to before. The houses he drove past were expensive-looking and modern. Not just anyone could afford to live there.

Sunghoon drove into the yard of one of the houses that was presumably his. It wasn't big, but expensive indeed. It had lots of windows, plants outside and some other decorations like small waterfalls.

They entered the hall inside the house together. She took off her shoes while looking around her surroundings. Everything was so clean, neat and pristine. As if no one lived in the house but it'd be cleaned every day.

"You can choose either room upstairs. And make yourself at home.", Sunghoon welcomed, still sounding so insensitive. After taking off his own shoes he walked to the living room to do something.

She stepped further to the house. The living room and kitchen were in the same space. The kitchen was small and the living room twice it's size. The living room had large windows to the back yard.

Sunghoon sat down on the sofa and took some papers to work on. She bet he was busy, so she didn't want to bother him and went upstairs. The second floor wasn't big. There was four rooms. Two bedrooms, a bathroom and a small room that was obviously used for nothing. 

Maena looked around both the rooms. She found the room at the start of the corridor most attractive. There was a big window and the room overall wasn't too big. And that's what she likes. It looked untouched, nobody had slept there for times. Though, it still was nice and clean.

She dropped her bag on the bed and then looked around the room more closely. There was a bed, bigger than normal but not a double bed. A big wardrobe, a desk and some kind of mini sofa. 

The wardrobe interested her, so she opened it to see inside. Empty, no clothes, but couple pairs of bed sheets on the lower shelf. The space is more than enough for her all clothes to fit there. She then sat on the bed and started unpacking the stuff from her bag. She had only packed like half of her clothes, make up, skin care, accesories and other stuff.

-

Maena sat on her new bed for hours looking out the window. It was already midnight and she didn't feel like she could catch up on sleep. She was tired but just couldn't fall asleep. Maybe she wasn't used to the new bed, the room, the whole house. If she was home now, she would have fallen asleep hours ago. However, tomorrow was Saturday and she didn't have to go to lectures, so staying up late didn't matter.

She got bored of just waiting for herself to fall asleep, so she decided to go downstairs for a tour. She came down the stairs into that small corridor. It had paintings on the walls and she observed those for a while. At the end of the hallway was Sunghoon's bedroom, most likely. He must have gone to bed already, so Maena was quiet and crept to the other end of the corridor, leading to the large room that included the kitchen, living room and hall.

However, as soon as Maena got there, she saw the living room light on and Sunghoon still sitting on the couch, working. Now he had a bottle of wine on the living room table and had maybe drunk about half a bottle of it. 

Sunghoon was still wearing the same clothes as during the day, but he had taken off his suit jacket and loosened his tie. He heard movement from behind and turned to look at Maena. "Why aren't you sleeping? Don't you have lectures tomorrow?", he asked, his voice sounding tired and calm.

"No, it's saturday.", she cleared.

"Oh, yeah that's right.", he realized and took a sip of his glass of wine.

Maena felt like she had no reason to keep on her tour anymore, since Sunghoon surprisingly was still in the living room, working, drinking, in the middle of the night. She still didn't feel tired and going back to her room to wait for the tiredness to come would've just been useless again. She went to the vestibule and started putting on her shoes. 

"Where are you going?", Sunghoon asked, hearing her movements.

"I'll go outside quickly, maybe it would start to tire me."

"Don't be for too long. And put a jacket on, it's chilly.", he urged.

"Um.. I didn't take a jacket.", she muttered, now fully acknowledging it that she's only wearing her t-shirt and pajama pants. The weather at the current season is pretty warm and she didn't think she'd visit outside at night, so of course she didn't pack a jacket with her.

 "Borrow something of mine."

"Oh, okay..", she replied, quite surprised of his kindness and care. There were a lot of Sunghoon's coats in the coat rack. Winter jackets, leather jackets, some windbreakers and zipped hoodies. She took on of the hoodies and wrapped it around her.

It was really cool outside. The rustling of leaves could be heard from the trees, the sounds of the highway could be heard in some distance away, but it was quiet in that area. The houses were not opposite each other, but they were all built next to each other. On the other side of the road there was only a forest, which now in the dark looked more creepy than pretty.

She walked around the front yard and looked at everything she could find there. Nothing much, just those plants and little water ponds. She got bored of that too after a while and went back inside. She left Sunghoon's hoodie back on the peg and turned back to head upstairs. Sunghoon was no longer on the sofa but doing something in the kitchen now. "Good night.", Maena said and started to climb the fabric covered stairs upstairs.

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