Silence ○ Lee Haechan

○ 9

Mari was walking around her room, putting away the last pile of clothes that sat on her chair and lighting a candle to make her room look a little bit more presentable.

She was hoping school that day would drag on, elongating the amount of time before Haechan would turn up to her house- actually wishing for once that school would go slow, but instead it went ridiculously fast. The last bell chimed signalling their release as it rung  through her ears and her soul sunk.

She had around an hour and a half to get home and clean the house before he arrived. Her dad was at her brothers middle school for a parent teacher interview night and luckily they dragged along their step mum too- leaving just her in the house for a couple of hours.

It was perfect. Her brother wasn't the most well behaved, studious one of the family so she was sure they'd take a while getting through all of his, well, defiance.

Grabbing her phone out of her pocket she looked at the time, sighing when reading she had half an hour till he would be knocking at her front door.

Falling back on her bed and staring up at the ceiling she contemplated what was about to happen.

Civil- that's what they promised.
But how could she be civil if every time she saw his face she remembered everything that once was.

A sigh left her lips as she ran her hands over her face and began biting at her lip. The skin being peeled away to be raw and red as her mind ran a thousand miles an hour.

A churn in her gut formed by a heavy weight resided inside of her as her nerves started to grow.

Her eyes flickered around her ceiling before she dropped her head to the side looking at her bedside table. Gaze falling on the photo frame and she couldn't help but let out a jagged breath. Her hand deftly pushing the frame down as she looked away as her mind alienated the image of them.

Using her hands to push herself up off the bed and quickly pulling her hair up into a messy ponytail she put her phone into her pocket and started making her way down stairs.

As she hit the last step there was a knock at the door which took her by surprise.

But instead of answering right away she stood there, staring at the blank side of the door for a few seconds before walking down slowly and placing her hand on the door handle.

She exhaled a deep breath before opening the door to reveal the boy. Tall, adorned with black cargo pants and a white shirt, rings and chains littering his skin and his black hair pushed behind his black cap. The sun had hit an angle in the sky that it shun behind the boy and illuminated his melanin skin, kissing it with a golden glow.

"Mari," he said simply with a small smile which Mari did not reciprocate as she stood to the side to open her door wider and said "Donghyuck."

"That was very civil Ma," he spoke with a wry tone and Mari just rolled her eyes, shutting the door behind them and waiting for him to take off his shoes.

"Don't quite care hyuck," she said a little patronising as she began to walk up the stairs.
"We'll do the work in my room."

She could hear his steps behind her as she rounded a corner and into her room, a breath of air expiring from her lungs as she tried to calm her agitated stomach and heart.

"You can just put your bag on the bed," she spoke as she made her way to her desk and sat at her chair.

Her eyes flowed the way his body moved to her bed and grabbed out a notebook, taking a seat at the chair she had pulled from her brothers room.