in silence ᴰᴼᴵᴸ

２４.

☁️📚☁️

As fast as the new year has begun, the exam season has rolled, scaring and stressing out many students.

Taeil, being one of them, was hurriedly running around his bedroom, stepping even into the kitchen and bathroom. It was obvious he was looking for something. His eyes scampered all around the room he was standing in — the kitchen, before he walked over the counter where a heap of papers laid and tried not to scatter them on the ground.

Yujeong watched the whole scene unfold in front of her eyes while slowly chewing her breakfast. Since she was the younger one, she wasn't stressing that much as her older brother.

"Yo, Taeil. Calm down."

"Where. Is. It." Completely ignoring the words his sister just said, the boy stopped in the middle of the room, and while standing still, his hands were in the air with his fingers stretched resembling a frozen frog that tried to fly away. The younger girl wasn't far from losing it.

"Taeil."

Nothing.

"Taeeeil." She whined louder, amused by her brother's state.

Still nothing.

"TAEIL, FOR GOD'S SAKE!"

"Yes?" The boy finally snapped out of the trance that just took over him, and gave his full attention to the girl. The school could torture him however it wanted to but his family still came in the first place.

"I'm worried about your mental health."

At that, he gave her a look 'I'm so done with you' and continued searching for whatever he was looking for. He couldn't lose any more second because of distractions.

Yujeong sighed while rolling her eyes. "Wait, I'll help you." She stood up.

He walked towards a shelter "That would come handy."

"So," The girl scanned her eyes around the room. "What are we looking for?"

"A pen."

Her head snapped in Taeil's direction, eyeing a cup filled with all kinds of pens. "A PEN?!"

"My lucky charm." He shrugged, opening a box that used to carry shoes but now was packed with papers.

She was about to shout at him but then she remembered how much of a freak was her brother. So she just shook her head at him "Oh my god, you really do need help."

Not sparing her a glance, Taeil moved to another box "Yeah, yours, to find the pen."

"A damn pen, as if we didn't have plenty of them here!" She snarled under her breath but joined her brother anyway.

It took them about five more minutes and lots of lost pens that just weren't the right one when they found what they were looking for: an elegantly shaped ink pen of dark blue, almost black colour. Even Yujeong was taken aback by how pretty the little thing was and that's when the boy took it away from her sight and hid it in his pencil case. They still had a school to attend.

The ride in bus was rather uncomfortable, Taeil trying to keep balance by holding onto a handle while his sister was clenching onto his body. It was always like that, the bus packet at this hour because everyone was travelling either to work or school. So when they reached their destination, the mass of people squeezed them out—like a pimple. (Taeil always referred to that and tried to make a joke only to get a disgusted scoff from his sister.)

"Good luck!" Taeil patted the girl's dark hair when they reached the front of the school.

"Good luck to you too, pimple head."