The alphabet, A to L

A Genius Life

Guang sighed as she sat down on the curb by the school surrounded by her many suitcases. It was about four in the afternoon and everyone had already left with their things for over the weekend homework. Finally, the bus pulled up and she was able to get to the address. The sun was hiding cheekily behind a few broken clouds, and the wind picked up gently. The bus was filled with soft sounds of idle chatter and the wheels rolling against pavement. Every once or twice the bus would hit a bump on the way and Guang's irritation with her things would spike up along with her gratitude for Mrs. Lee.
Finally arriving at her new house not but thirty minutes later, Guang breathed out a sigh of relief. The homeless life did not suit her in the least, but the showers were nice. Shrugging off those thoughts she stepped up to the front door.
Suddenly, as soon as she was about to ring the doorbell, the ringtone for Mrs. Lee sounded.
"Oh, hello? I'm right in front of your door Mrs. Lee." Guang answered.
"Oh! I didn't believe it at first so I thought a pretty girl just showed up at my door! And please, you can call me Zhu!" Zhu laughed and hung up. The door opened as she hung up.
    It opened to reveal a woman in her forties, just slightly taller than Guang, who had short silky looking hair, and had a dark complexion with caring youthful brown eyes.
   "Oh my your so pretty up close! Come inside so you can meet my boys, one of them is in his room doing whatever, but everyone else is watching tv waiting for you." Zhu took two out of the four bags Guang had and they walked inside. 
   The interior of the room was large, and as Guang walked inside the open living room she noticed that the house had a modern rustic look to it. The ceiling was white and was a high rising one, and the stairway was one that spiraled up towards the small upstairs rooms.
   "Oh! You're Hui's kid?! You look exactly like her!" A man of the same age stood up in shock and took Guang into his arms.
    "It's good that you're alright, I mean after everything that's happened to you, you must be so tired and hurt. Come in and I'll grab you a nice drink." The man, obviously Zhu's husband greeted warmly and patted Guang on the back as he left. Guang fell down on the white couch next to a boy who looked to be in third grade. It took an 'oof' and a confused wind knocked out of her expression to set him off laughing.
    "Aha! This girl's funny. Ma! Can I show her her room cause it's in between big brother's and mine?" The handsome third grader took Guang's hand in his and led her towards the steps while she grabbed her two backpacks.
    "I'm Guang, what's your name? Your house is really nice. Ah, since your room is next to mine you can hang out with me whenever you want." Guang introduced herself and smiled. The boy stopped and gazed at Guang, who stopped and was waiting patiently for him to answer his question.
   "Is this how it's like to be loved by an older sibling?"
Guang let out a pfffft and picked up the young boy.
   "You talk a lot and use bigger words than other kids your age do, I bet you'll be the next worldwide genius." Guang teased, and continued walking up the stairs.
   "I'm Min-gi by the way, and this is your room!" Min-gi cheered and hopped down. Together they walked into the small space. The bed was for one person and looked like a couch on the left of the doorway and next to it on the right side was a tall window ledge with pillows on it. In front of the bed was a circular rug and on top of it was a low table for studying with pillows to sit on and such. Then on a secluded part of the room was another small bed, the opening of the secluded place was a curtain of silk drapes and the style for the room was like heaven. Something else caught her eye though in the room. A large piano sat next to the bed, and looked exactly like the one from the hospital.
    "Ma and Ba made it for you, it's nice right?" Min-gi piped up.
   "Mhm, its great." Guang murmured softly.
Snapping out of the amazement, Guang set her things down in their respective places while Min-gi played with her stuffed animals. Not long after she finished Min-gi ventured into the heaven room.
   "Guangie? Can you play for me?" Min-gi timidly asked, running his small fingers over the black and white glossy keys.
    "Of course I can," Guang smiled and sat Min-gi on her lap.
   "Hm, what song sounds nice?" Guang asked.
Min-gi tapped his head in thought and beamed when he finally figured it out.
   "Big brother's favorite song is a violin duet, but he doesn't have anyone to play piano for it. I wanna hear that. I think it's called like rondo capriccioso." 
   "Alright, let's see if this is the right one"
Guang stuck out her lip in concentration to remember the keys and started to play.

Hei An sat in his room, his eyes were focused on the computer in front of him as he reread the programs for the newly developed technology he had created himself. The technology was supposed to be able to scan a person and show their internal injuries within a span of under a minute. The scanner was small, which meant it would be easier for doctors in the ER to carry around. His usually straight posture was slumped and his usually calculating eyes were dull and reflected the bright screen. They glanced down towards his watch and he yawned, figuring that it was about six or seven.
"I'm going to stay up all night if I have to go figure this thing out." He mumbled to himself, his usually wonder-like voice was deeper and rougher. Hei An stretched his broad shoulders by the open window ledge he had. His stretch was stopped midway when he heard the faint sounds of a piano.
    "Who the heck is playing piano right now? Ugh, this unnecessary noise is going to give me a headache. Ah, Ma said something about a new person to live here. I guess they need to be told how to behave." Hei An groaned. His button up pajama shirt stretched. Hei An didn't have a big strong frame but it was a solid one. His shoulders were broad and he did have muscle from working out once or so a week whenever he could. He shuffled into the newly decorated room and had to do a quick double take.
    "This is a girl's room? That doesn't change anything, but it does make it interesting." Hei An whispered. He pushed through the curtains to find Guang, still dirty and sweaty from playing, but he didn't think of stopping her. There wasn't a deep seated hatred for her, but he didn't want to deal with her again like his first year. He watched and picked out every detail of Guang as she played and realized something.
    Guang was playing a violin duet, his favorite one that he'd play, just for the sensation. Usually it would be ridiculous for anyone to do a duet without the other instrument. However, Guang played like you could hear the violin and both were attention catching sounds.  Hei An's eyes widened and he hit his fist on his open palm silently.
  Min-gi seemed to sense his older brother and yawned in Guang's arms.
   "Tired then? Hm? What're are you-" Guang's voice cut off as she turned to see Hei An standing watching her. Guang coughed into her hand at how he looked. His usually messy hair that she had gotten used to was now combed and slicked back loosely with a few strands getting into his eyes.
   Hei An seemed to somehow scoff at her without doing anything and turned out of the room.
   "Dinner is ready kids!" Zhu spoke up from her spot at the beginning of the actual door.
   "Oh, okay!" Guang called back. Min-gi went and took Guang's hand in one of his and Hei An's on the other.
   They met each other's eyes and held each other's gaze before Hei An turned away. In the stairway light, Guang could see the slight pink hue in Hei An's cheeks.