colours // yoonmin

one

n e i g h b o u r s ;
News of a family moving into the blue neighbourhood was the talk of the month, or possibly the year if the mayor cancels the annual Halloween ball, that was cancelled far too often to be annual and was more like once every few years, twice in a row if you're lucky.

Word spread around the suburb like wildfire. Everyone was sharing about how they would welcome the new family proudly as if they were owed a reward for thinking about it. But I don't blame their excitement; when barely anything happens, people go over the top when something does.

For instance, my aunt, Mrs Im Hye-Ju, plans on baking her famous apple pie, and the people across the street are planning a small welcome party. Rumours said that the family had a baby boy and so people started to buy small blue shirts bearing small cartoon trains or cars, and lovely Ms Kim who loved to sew was planning on sewing a stuffed puppy for the child.

I wasn't looking forward to the new neighbours like everyone else was but it was somewhat fun to see everyone so excited. Seeing the happy faces on my neighbours were refreshing. The world seemed a bit yellow during that time.

I pity the family and their horrible and inevitable fate of drowning in the monotonous atmosphere of the blue neighbourhood once the craze died down, however.

That's the power of the blue neighbourhood, it could suck the life out of everything.

Soon enough, the family did move into Ms Lee's former house which was sandwiched between mine and the Choi family's. Mr Choi was a stressed man who lived with his wife and their two annoying kids that roamed the neighbourhood on their matching tricycles, thinking they were better than everyone.

Mr and Mrs Choi were ecstatic when they heard that the new family had a boy and started planning play dates for their children to bond and interact. However, those carefully planned dates were thrown away when the family they, and the rest of the town, had anticipated weren't quite what they had expected.

First of all, the 'baby boy' was actually a teenage boy around my age. And second, the family wasn't very friendly.

They were grey and soon the house emitted a dull grey too. I started to worry that their colour, or lack thereof, would overflow to my house.

Disappointment was an understatement on how the whole neighbourhood felt. Welcome gifts were accepted with a glare and a door slammed in the face and soon they stopped giving.

Mrs Im Hye-Ju, however, stayed optimistic and baked an apple pie for the neighbour and ordered me to give it to them. She said that it would be nice if I could become friends with the boy but I knew that she was just afraid of getting a door slammed in her face. I was reluctant too, for the same reasons, but I had no choice after she started giving me the death glare.

So here I am, in a plain blue shirt and a pair of blue jeans, with freshly baked apple pie in my hands, walking to the grey area. My stomach started doing flips the moment I stepped on the grey and I fought the urge to turn around and escape from the horrid place. I never liked grey; it gave off a displeasing aura that made my skin crawl.

I walk up the steps and hold the pie above my shoulder with one hand and ball the other into a fist, trying to prepare myself for what was to come. After mustering up enough courage, I knock on the door. Knock. Knock. The sound hung in the air and time seemed to move slower than it already was. The door swung open. I gulp at the sight of a tall man standing behind the door, towering over me with a hard glare.

"Y-You must be Mr Min? I'm Park Jimin, your neighbour. Pleasure to meet you, sir," I say, just as my aunt had told me to, and put out a hand. The man, however, continued to stare at me. Maybe he didn't notice, I thought and so I shake my hand a little, trying to bring attention to it. I smile at him nervously, waiting for him to shake it, but he just stared with those cold dead grey eyes. "Well, I hope your son and I could be very great friends!" I say, giving up on him and retracting my hand.

I hold the pie with both my hands and held it out in front of Mr Min, softly muttering please take it, because I know my aunt won't let me rest until the gift is accepted. Mr Min let out a short grunt before yanking the pie out of my hands rudely. I bite my lip, holding down a string of profanities I was very tempted to say, as the man took a step back, and of course, slams the door in my face.

But just before I could go into my little tantrum, just before the door closed, I see something behind him, something peculiar.

Something yellow.

~~~

I planned this to be a short story. HAH (it's not) the tense is all over the place :')