Viridescence | Yunho

༻ 10 ༺

"Hey little boy, why you look down?"
- Good Lil' Boy by Ateez

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"We played with barbies last time, can't we do something else today?" a young boy whines to his younger sister. She simply sits with her arms crossed, dolls messily scattered in front of her.

"What else is there to do then?" she challenges, her developing mind unable to think of anything else to do. "Why don't we play hide and seek?" he suggests. The girl's eyes light up. "Okay! As long as I'm-"

"I'm it," the boy interrupts, giggling uncontrollably. He feels euphoric with his sister. She's the only person that has ever accepted him, the only person to spend time with him. The days where he can meet her mean the most to him, and he can confidently say that.

"That's not fair! I want to be it!" the girl complains. The boy smiles widely in response and covers his eyes. "One, two, three..." he begins. The little girl jumps up and has no choice but to hide. She frantically scuttles around the room until she spots the door leading to the kitchen.

She hurries to it, nearly bumping into her mother who is coming through it. She pats her daughter's head and walks past, but the girl doesn't notice as she dashes straight to one of the kitchen cupboards. She opens the door and squeezes in, her tiny body curled up tightly to fit perfectly.

She can't hear her brother's counting anymore, but she assumes it's because of the walls of the cupboard.

A few minutes pass although it feels like a few hours. There's still silence from the other side, but the girl is determined to win this game so she keep her mouth shut and her breathing quiet.

After several more minutes pass, the girl really gets bored. She prepares to laugh in her brother's face for losing with a sly smile on her face. She quickly exits the dark hiding spot, entering the bright kitchen again. She cheerfully skips to the living room, her energy refilled after seeing the sunlight from outside again.

Her mouth drops to a frown when she doesn't see her brother anywhere. She hurriedly throws cushions around, searching for him instead now. "Where are you? The game is over!" she screams. No response.

Her heart beats faster as she runs around, growing scared that he suddenly disappeared again like he usually does whenever he visits.

Her heart eventually stops and drops when she reaches the front door and notices that her brother's shoes aren't there anymore.

He's gone again.

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Jihyun's eyes flutter open again as she wakes up from her nap. She feels a pain in her chest after recalling her dream, but at the same time she feels an emptiness. Her memories are back to haunt her in her dreams again.

This has been happening more and more frequently lately. Maybe the additional stress triggered it.

She feels restless lying in her bed right now, so she decides to finally go on a walk to clear her mind. Her wound doesn't hurt as much anymore. Only an annoying but constant hum of pain buzzes through her abdomen, but it's quite dull by now so she can manage.

She slides off the bed and lightly stretches her legs, not having used them at all for a little over a week now. They feel weak and shakey, but at least they're somewhat functional. She flicks her eyes around the room searching for a clock before remembering that this floor doesn't have much of an indicator for the time of day except for the singular clock in the hallway.