Crossing Over

Four

Dae yawned as she climbed out of Joon's car and started up the walkway to the house. Academics had always been more his thing than hers. She would much rather curl up with a book or her phone and read for pleasure than study. She cast her eyes up towards her window to see her curtains remaining still. 'Good' she thought to herself. 

"It couldn't have been that bad," Joon said from beside her. 

"They spent the entire hour for each class going over the syllabus. It was dreadful and I was bored to tears!" She may have been being dramatic but it was boring. 

He chuckled. "Well it was the first day. Besides, I already have homework so count yourself lucky." 

Dae grumbled and pushed the door open to see Jin covered head to toe in paint standing in the living room. The two stopped and stared at him for a moment before laughter filled the room. 

"Did you manage to get any paint on the walls?" Joon asked between bouts of laughter. 

Jin glared at him and huffed. "The paint can upstairs fell over the banister all over me. You know, the paint can for your room? The one I asked you to make sure the lid was secured on?" His face was growing more and more red with each word. There was a small vein in his forehead that looked as though it was going to burst at any moment. 

Namjoon held his hands up in defense and looked back at Jin with wide eyes. "It was on the can tightly! I double checked it myself," he sounded sincere. Or rather like he was afraid of what Jin was going to do. 

"Well it obviously wasn't!" Jin yelled. He held his hands out and gestured to his clothes. 

Dae took a cautious step back and edged her way around the two towards the stairs. Their bickering could go on for hours. She had seen it enough times to know better than to interfere. Just as her foot met the first step of the staircase the doorbell sounded. 

"Oh would you look at that! A conveniently timed interruption," she sang out and made a dash for the door. 

Two guys were standing on the doorstep smiling when she yanked the door open. "Hello!" she greeted them in an overly cheerful voice. 

One of the men stepped forward with a plate of cookies that he practically shoved in her face. "Hi! You must be the new neighbors, I'm Jimin!" 

His voice was angelic and matched his cherub like face perfectly enough to cause Dae to step back directly into Jin's chest. She looked up at him and back at the guys in front of her. 

"Calm down before you scare them off," the guy with lighter hair next to him laughed. "Sorry about that. He gets excited. I'm Jungkook. We live next door and wanted to welcome you since it's been a while since we've had neighbors." 

The two men in front of her exuded cuteness. She wasn't sure if Jimin was actually an angel or maybe a fairy. When Jungkook smiled she was certain that he was part bunny and other part pure adorableness. Though he looked like he was at least a couple of years younger in his face, he was several inches taller than the one who introduced himself as Jimin. She blinked a couple of times after realizing that she was still staring while Jin patted her on the head. 

"That's very kind of you. I'm Jin, the lanky one behind me is my brother Namjoon and the little mute here is our baby sister Dae." He smiled down at her waiting for her to snap out of her daze. 

"I'm not a mute," she mumbled. The two in front of her laughed as though it was the best joke they had heard. 

Jin stepped back, pulling Dae with him, and opened the door wider. "Please feel free to come in. It's so nice to meet the neighbors. I'm afraid we're still organizing and unpacking so the house is a bit of a mess right now." 

Namjoon cleared off the table while Jin made tea for everyone to go with the cookies. Dae kept her eyes on the table while the guys  chatted. 

"So how are you liking the neighborhood so far?" Jimin asked casually. 

Jin sat the cups in front of everyone and took his own seat. "Well it's pretty quiet but I guess that's to be expected. Have you two lived next door for long?" 

"We grew up there. It was originally our parents house but when they retired they wanted to move so they left it to us instead of selling it," he replied. 

Jin nodded and took a cookie from the plate. "That's nice. I noticed the outside of it while we were moving in. Your roses look great." 

Jungkook chuckled and elbowed Jimin. "Looks like someone else appreciates your babies." 

Jimin cast a dark look towards him and huffed. "I'd rather have gardening as a hobby than video games." 

The two held eye contact for a moment before laughing. It was clear this was something they teased each other about. The shorter man turned his attention back to Jin. "So are you planning on staying here or just renovating?" 

Jin looked around the kitchen at the assortment of tools he had left strewn about. "Renovating for now but it'll take a while to completely fix the house up in order to sell it. I'm honestly surprised we got it for the price we did." The last bit came out softer and was something he had still been trying to figure out. 

"Oh, that's probably because of the ---" 

Jimin elbowed his brother sharply in the ribs and glared at him. He gave a subtle shake of his head but Jin noticed. 

"Because of the what?" he asked. He leaned forward on his elbows intrigued with the conversation. 

The older let out a sigh and rolled his eyes at his brother. "Blabbermouth." He looked back at Jin for a moment before finally speaking. "The house doesn't exactly have a great history. There have been a few deaths over the past couple of years with varying causes. The last family that moved in stayed about a week before they moved out. They said it was haunted or something." He shrugged it off as though he didn't believe it. 

Jin's eyes widened and he looked first at Namjoon then at Dae. "Oh dear. That's awful!" 

Joon finally spoke up. "We don't really believe in ghosts but it did lower the price to at least a third of the other houses in the neighborhood so I guess it works out. Tragic that it happened here though." 

Dae kept her mouth shut as she watched them converse. She didn't believe in ghosts, did she? Nope. She didn't believe in anything she couldn't see. As long as she couldn't see them, there wasn't a problem...