The Siren's Song

Chapter 5- things that go bump in the night

(Y/N) POV:

I throw the house door open, rushing through and ignoring the way Mi-sun unnie rushes after me. Habaek oppa emerges from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a small towel- looking confused at the two of us.

"Did you enjoy the performance?" he asks, approaching us where we're standing in the hallway.

"Unnie stop deceiving me and trying to set me up!" I exclaim furiously, exasperation bursting out into my voice when she'd slyly confessed on the way home that she'd decided to sign us up after seeing the instructor somewhere and somehow deciding that she wanted to set me up with him.

"She what?!" Habaek oppa yells, storming over and standing in the middle, placing himself between the two of us, incredulous eyes turning to Mi-sun unnie who only shrugs her shoulders, looking completely unabashed. I've been on the receiving end of oppa's intense stares- and I still don't know how Mi-sun unnie can smile unaffected when she's on the receiving end.

"Mi-sun do you never learn? It clearly makes her uncomfortable...and you know she doesn't seek casual intimacy. She's not as comfortable with the idea as we might be." He says, face expressing concern and frustration.

There. The first time I see her look slightly ashamed.

"But she needs to try opening up more to others. She can't live life avoiding meeting people." She says.

The words sting. Just as her hidden agenda had.

I didn't like meeting people because I started seeing the good in them, saw them as potential friends or people I'd want close to me. But knowing I was immortal, knowing I wouldn't age- how could I continue or initiate relationships with others when eventually they'd notice, and down the line it would be me left to deal with the hurt and guilt and loneliness? I just couldn't deal with endless cycles of hurt and pain.

I didn't want to have casual intimacy when every encounter and try at it through the centuries had left me feeling drained and hollow, as if I had been a shell, an object used and discarded. It wasn't pleasant.

And her words are tinged with truth and memories. She's clearly recalling the first century we'd been together, when it had been so hard to move on and accept that I was alive and the ones I knew weren't. Hard to accept that my family grew old, withered away and left the world and I was destined to wonder it, trapped in the state and age I had been when the change had first happened.

"Let's not fight over it. I try unnie, I really do...please don't push me and ask for more. I will try even more." I mumble without facing her, heading upstairs instead- appetite soured with her words, no matter how well-intending and true have left only a bitter taste in my mouth.

And I quickly change and pull the blankets over me, letting sleep wash over me and just for a while to put a stopper to thoughts that are best left unopened and explored- better for them to wither away in the darkness of the night.

----

The next day passes by in a blur, deciding to use the day to organise my room properly, to give it a new fresh look- Habaek oppa joins in happily, helping me lift and move the furniture around until I'm happy with it and helping me pick out covers, stringing up fairy lights, helping me arrange the curtains, filling the drawers with me. And then the two of us sink gratefully onto the large bed, lying side by side, content with the way the room looks now.

"You want help with yours tomorrow?" I say, turning to face him. He twists his head so he can face me too, nodding.

"I'd like that. Might have to buy some stuff first though." He muses, eyes drawn back to the ceiling, to the way the light throws out dancing shadows across the room.