ghostly ➳ kim taehyung

one; "who are you?"

❁

A sigh escapes Chaewon's lips as she heaves yet another cardboard box and carries it into her new home, a tall brick terraced house situated in an unfamiliar and new town near the outskirts of the city of Daegu. 'Yejun' is scribbled messily onto its lid in a thick, black marker which navigates her towards her younger brother's new room.

"I've got another box of your stuff. God, what do you even have in here?" Chaewon grumbles in annoyance as she sets it on the edge of his bed. "Rocks?"

"Obviously not," the teenager remarks tiredly.

"Mom says to be ready for dinner in ten, by the way."

"We literally just moved here, is there even food?"

"Dad ordered a takeout whilst you were asleep in the car," Chaewon informs her brother. "Just be ready, okay?"

"Fine," he mumbles and Chaewon is satisfied with his response.

She heads into the room adjacent to her brother's and glances around. It's visibly old as the wallpaper is slightly wearing but it's rather large, much more spacious than her previous shared bedroom in Seoul. There are boxes littered around the room in an unorderly formation, but she somehow manages to tiredly manoeuvre her way around the obstacles and fall onto her new bed. To her distaste, the springs inside are prodding slightly at her spine, but it's nothing that can't be fixed with an extra layer of blanket.

Her eyes wander around the fading wall opposite until they land on a few marks decorating the bottom corner. Intrigued, Chaewon pushes herself upwards and kneels in front of what appears to be an illustration of some sort. It depicts two messily drawn figures which she interprets to be mother and son. Gingerly tracing her fingertips over the creation, Chaewon frowns when she notices an intentional unhappy expression on the younger figure's circular face.

"What is this?" She whispers to nobody in particular, her words disappearing into a passing breeze which suddenly sweeps into the room.

With a frown etched onto her face, she stands and turns to see the window is open. There's a thin navy curtain flailing around and it almost engulfs Chaewon as she attempts to grab the window's handle.

"I swear that wasn't open earlier," she mumbles to herself again, a habit she inherited from her father.

Brushing off the rather odd occurrence, Chaewon turns with the intention of heading to dinner but stops dead in her tracks at the sight of a boy leaning against her doorframe. A practically silent cry of fear escapes her lips at his sudden appearance as her heart pounds heavily against her chest.

"Oh my god," she says breathlessly, hand clutched to her chest. "Who are you?"

The intruder has dark, tousled hair and is attired in extremely dated clothing which Chaewon assumes is fashionable in this town. It's certainly not back in Seoul, however. He has decently structured features that are complemented by sharp, hazel coloured eyes. His skin, however, is what catches Chaewon's attention; it seems to be an unhealthy hue -- a greyish colour, almost. She blames it on the practically nonexistent lighting inside her room.

"I'm Taehyung," he greets politely. "I live in the neighbourhood, I thought I'd come and say hello to my new neighbours. Your father let me inside, by the way."

"Oh, I see. Well, it's nice to meet you, I guess, even though you almost gave me a heart attack a few moments ago," she jokes and is acknowledged by a pleasant toothless smile. "I'm Kim Chaewon."

As if on cue, the sound of her mother's voice from downstairs bellows: "Chaewon, Yejun, Subin! Pizza is here!"

"I guess our first encounter has been cut short," Taehyung observes quietly, his choice of words rather old-fashioned similar to his clothes. Chaewon almost smiles at his quirky character.

"It seems so."

"I'll be leaving now," he says, offering a polite little wave. "I'll see you around, Chaewon."

"Yeah, see you," she smiles in return and watches as he disappears just as swiftly as he appeared by her door. Turning away once again, she mumbles to nobody in particular: "That was weird".

❁

The following day, Chaewon's mother, Miyeong, somehow encourages her daughter to visit some of their new neighbours. The neighbourhood is rather secluded so there isn't exactly a wide selection of houses to choose to visit. She decides to head straight to their direct neighbour to their right whose house seems pretty much identical to her own.

It takes a few moments for the door to be swung open but when it does, Chaewon is greeted by a middle-aged woman with a food-stained apron tied around her waist.

"Hello, dear," she greets kindly with a welcoming smile that meets her eyes. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Um, I just moved in next door yesterday. I thought it'd be nice to come and visit a few of my new neighbours."

"Oh, you did?" The woman questions with a smile, to which Chaewon nods in confirmation. "I'm Park Sooan, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise. I'm Kim Chaewon."

"How old are you? If you don't mind me asking, sweetie."

"I just turned seventeen, Mrs Park."

"Oh, that's great! I have a son your age, do you want me to call on him for you?" Sooan suddenly seems excited which Chaewon finds quite cute. She guesses she's eager for her son to make a friend or perhaps she's just a joyful person in general.

"I guess so," she says quietly in response before wincing upon Sooan's loud call for her son who's upstairs. "Jimin!"

"Come inside, come inside. It's getting cold out here," Mrs Park says and ushers Chaewon inside.

"What do you want, mom?" A soft voice asks as a figure bounds down the wooden staircase.

Within seconds Chaewon is greeted by a boy, slightly taller than her, with messy black hair and a cute smile. He looks somewhat shocked when he notices Chaewon, his eyebrows raising a centimetre taller.

"This is Kim Chaewon, she's our new neighbour. Why don't you show her around the neighbourhood, son?" Sooan suggests and Chaewon feels slightly guilty considering he doesn't exactly have much of a choice.

"Yeah, sure," he obeys quietly and begins to throw on a slightly dishevelled pair of trainers. "There isn't much to show, mind, Chaewon."

"That's alright," she smiles. "I'm sure this neighbourhood has a lot of interesting stories to tell."

❁

author's note: Hello everyone, I'm back! I'm super excited for this book because it's been so, so, so long since I last wrote and I miss everyone!

Seriously, I've been off school for over 10 weeks and I've only just gotten rid of my writer's block (and I go back in 2 days) :(

Anyways, I really hope you all enjoy this book because I'm super excited to write it! Please vote and comment, I'd love to hear your feedback so far! (But please be nice I'm sensitive haha)