Unusual

chapter 6

hyunwoo's desk was perched by the window, where he can see hoseok's house, the forest not far behind. silently working on his homework, his ears catch odd whispers of rattling bells, soft, almost frightening flute, and voices of something like "come, come, come" calling.

hyunwoo looks up and glances outside, looking at the nearby street. nothing.

the old lamp post flickering as it had been for the last few months. the lights in hoseok's home are gone except for one upstairs. no harsh winds, no vehicles, no stray dogs, nothing. he closes the window after one last look. he wasn't scared, it was a common occurrence.

one time, when he was a few years young. he heard a commotion while he was playing alone in their backyard. at first, he thought it was a party from one of the neighbors but soon realized it was coming from the forest. he was unsure what it was about. the crunches of leaves, the cracks of branches, the chatters, and distant drums. his mother would always say he has excellent hearing and that what he hears are just the natural sounds nature makes. claiming that she too sometimes hears them. it runs in the family, she says. hyunwoo cannot find other explanations for the things he hears, so he chose to believe her. but there are days that he doubts her claims.

three knocks on his bedroom door took away his attention from the strange noises. he turns around and sees his mother standing by the door with a glass of milk and cookies in hand.

"am i interrupting?" his mother asked sweetly.

hyunwoo shook his head, telling her that it was alright. his mother smiled and entered, placing the food on top of his bedside drawer.

"how's your homework going?" she peeks at the empty bond paper in front of her son, another stack of papers with scribbled numbers and shapes neatly placed on the side. she gently places her hand on his shoulder.

hyunwoo looked back at his things. he just had finished his math homework, to which he was sure he got the questions toward the end wrong. the last few problems had been quite confusing, and no matter how many times hyunwoo tried to solve them with the given equation the answer looked odd and didn't feel right. he's sure he was doing something wrong but can't figure it out and just gave up. he won't be able to finish his other things if he stay long for one subject. mr.hwang will just correct it later on and then he'll know what went wrong.

" it was okay, i'm doing art now " he answers his mother, staring at the blank paper in front of him. "mrs. yun tasked us to draw what we think best represents a classmate. then we have to give a brief explanation of why we choose that"

" hm. that's lovely. what's the problem though?" she noticed how hyunwoo looked almost quite dejected at his materials, the tiniest of frown wrinkling on his forehead as he think.

" i'm not good at drawing, " hyunwoo says, almost saying his mother should've known that as he never drew anything since he realized this. one of the few things he ever drew was the silly family portrait when he was six, that was now framed and hanged on his parent's room. " i also don't know what to draw. i feel like he expects a lot"

mrs.son noticed a green strip of paper in hyunwoo's hand. the boy was not really hiding it so it was easy for her to see. the letters that completes the name yoo kihyun were scribbled over it which made her guess that he was the one her son needs to draw for.

" i'm sure you'll do well, dear " his mother said, running her palm on hyunwoo's head. " and kihyun seems like a sweet kid, you'll find the perfect one for him and he'll most definitely like it" remembering what she can about the young yoo from her frequent visits at their mansion. he definitely was not the warmest boy around but he was polite enough. definitely a spoiled boy, but then again, what parent wouldn't want to spoil their child?