damn, my ✨ˢᵖⁱᵈᵉʸ ˢᵉⁿˢᵉ✨ didn't tell me about your 𝓈𝓉𝓊𝓅𝒾𝒹𝒾𝓉𝓎 - jisol

i: mistakes

🕸️🕷️✧･ﾟ: *🕷️✧･ﾟ:*🕸️*:･ﾟ✧🕷️*:･ﾟ✧🕷️🕸️

about twelve years ago

"seungcheol! thanks for coming at such short notice."

"hey, man," seungcheol stepped into the house and giving his older brother a hug, "it's no big deal."

"come in."

seungcheol shut the door behind him, following his brother into his house. the house was pretty old and small, but it was filled with many personal objects and care that it definitely looked like a place someone could call home.

seungcheol shoved his hands in his pockets, right as his brother's wife walked into the room. she smiled. "hey, seungcheol!"

he smiled back. "hey!"

"how have you been? is your senior thesis going well?"

"oh, yeah," seungcheol let out a chuckle, "since i'm a business major, my thesis project is actually pretty cool. i decided to do like a business simulation."

"really?," his brother crossed his arms, "that sounds really interesting. my thesis project i remember was boring... i just did a report."

"ugh," seungcheol let out a snort, "yeah, i'd rather die than do a report."

"yeah," his brother set a hand on seungcheol's shoulder, "man, i can't believe you're graduating from college this year. my little brother is growing up so fast."

seungcheol playfully shook his brother's hand off of his shoulder. "geez, don't remind me. i mean, look at you, you already have a family! ...speaking of, where is little vernon?"

"he's in his room sleeping right now, but he's probably going to wake up soon," his brother's wife sent a glance down the hall, "he's a pretty energetic boy. i hope you'll be able to take care of him."

"ah," seungcheol flicked his hand, "i've babysat him before. you don't have to worry."

his brother nodded. "right... well, we should probably get going. they told us not to be late."

seungcheol let out a sigh. "yeah, about that, i... um... nevermind actually."

his brother furrowed his eyebrows. "wait, what were you going to say?"

"oh, it's nothing, just," seungcheol shrugged, "are you sure about this? the two of you going to participate in this research study? it just... sounds super dangerous and i really don't know about this."

"i get that, seungcheol," his brother responded, "but they promised a lot of money for participation and you know that," he looked down the hall, his voice lowering in volume, "because of our financial problems this is a good opportunity to remedy some of them. i mean, all we want is for vernon to grow up well and have a good life, and unfortunately in this modern world we need money for that."

"yeah, but," seungcheol let out air through his teeth, "there's other ways you can get money, just-"

"seungcheol, please. it's okay. we'll be fine."

seungcheol wasn't convinced but he decided to just let it go. "alright, fine... please promise you will be safe though."

"i promise you we'll be okay."

seungcheol said his goodbyes to his brother and his wife, telling them that he will be sure to take care of vernon while they were gone.

and then seungcheol was alone in the house.

well, not entirely alone.

"uncle ch-cheol? why are you h-here?"

seungcheol turned to see his nephew emerging from the hall where his room was located, who was currently dressed in green pajamas, clutching a teddy bear, and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. seungcheol kneeled down so he was eye level with his nephew. "hey, vernon. good morning!"

vernon looked around the house, eyes curious. "wh-where's mommy and daddy?"

"your mom and dad left for a bit," he gave him a small smile, "i'll be taking care of you until they come back."

"o-oh." vernon suddenly grinned, bouncing on his toes as if he didn't just wake up a few minutes ago. "i g-got some new toys, uncle ch-cheol, you have to see them!"

seungcheol followed a very excited vernon down the hall with a smile. "okay!"

he was going to make sure vernon was happy, after all, that's all his brother ever wanted for him.

🕸️🕷️✧･ﾟ: *🕷️✧･ﾟ:*🕸️*:･ﾟ✧🕷️*:･ﾟ✧🕷️🕸️

Word Count: 639

a/n i'm not even going to lie to you guys i originally wasn't going to have an interlude for this act and i was originally going to integrate some of this stuff in like flashbacks and stuff like that, but after looking over my outline i think it was really important for good story progression to just put all of this here.

a lot of stuff in this interlude was written kind of vague on purpose. do any of you know how this fits into the overarching story? :)

unedited