A/N: Long chapter~! Because I haven't updated in a while!

-Chapter 12-

A Mistake?

The faint rays of early morning sunlight streaming through your bedroom window delicately crawled up your skin and over your lidded eyes. Clenching your eyes and letting out a strained groan, you stretched out your body and sluggishly opened your eyes. Blinking a few times, you felt yourself gradually easing out of your morning trance. Lying there, you immediately took notice of the congestion in your nose and your swollen and dry eyes. Bringing a hand up to your face, you lightly scratched at the dried up tears settled on your cheeks.

You had no recollection of crying this hard last night to cause you to wake up in such a state but you did, however, remember the moment you had with Luhan.

“I’ll… protect you…” you quietly recited in unison to the memory of Luhan’s voice in your head. What exactly did that mean? Protect you? Protect you from what?

You didn’t spend too long racking your brain thinking about it when you removed your blanket off your body and slipped out of bed. You had school today so you had to put this issue aside for a bit- just until school ended. Taking one step forward, you unexpectedly felt yourself stepping on some type of firm object that roughly jerked at the sudden contact, causing you to lose your balance and topple onto the ground with a staggered shriek.

“Ahhhoowwwwhhh!!!” came a painful cry from behind you. Midway from pushing yourself up off the floor, your body stiffened at the yelp that had followed the contact- not out of fear or anything, but out of surprise for you recognized the voice. Looking over your shoulder, you were stunned to see your brother Sehun lying on the ground with one of his legs pressed up against chest and arms wrapped around it and face contorted in pain.

“S-Sehun??” you sputtered, quickly crawling over to his side and pulled at his arm to get him to sit up.

“You stepped on my leg, Jaeyun!!” Sehun angrily berated. Muttering a quick apology, you silently watched Sehun as he massaged his now sore leg and letting out a few painful groans here and there. Trailing your eyes downward, you noticed a thin blanket tangled around Sehun’s lanky body and a deflated pillow resting behind him. What was all this about anyways?

“Sehun? …What are you doing in my room? …Sleeping on my floor?”

“Huh?” Sehun paused and turned his head to look over at you. He had gone silent for a moment as if he was carefully processing your question until he finally his eyes uneasily broke away from yours. “I was… watching over you…” he almost inaudibly muttered. He was staring down at his own lap, refusing to look you in the eyes. Sensing your confusion, he uncomfortably continued on. “Something… happened in your room last night. Something really weird.”

Oh no, what if it had something to do with Luhan? You thought, now a bit alarmed but managing to keep a straight face in front of Sehun.

“So I was…” Sehun awkwardly cleared his throat and peered off to the side. “…worried about you… so I stayed in your room for the night just in case something else were to happen.” You were quiet, practically rendered speechless now that you thought about it. Your brother, Oh Sehun, was worried or rather cared for you? Of course you knew Sehun cared for you to a certain extent but after all these years of him teasing you and ignoring you at school and especially after that small argument you two had gotten into at the store the other day, you were considerably taken aback by this.

“You were… worried about me?” you finally asked, having the question stewing in your head during this five minute silence. The question seemed to have dissolved into the air the second it came out of your mouth for Sehun sat there completely mute. His facial expression was unreadable to you (more so than usual what with that 24/7 poker face of his). It seemed like Sehun was allowing the question to sit in my head for a bit before he would reply back.

“You’re seriously asking a question like that?” his voice suddenly rang, immediately breaking the silence in the air. He twisted his head to the side to look in your direction though he wasn’t exactly looking you in the eyes when he spoke once again. “Of course I’d be worried about you. Because I…” Sehun abruptly stopped himself; his words being caught in his throat. Sehun closed his eyes and pushed a long sigh out of his lungs. He opened his eyes and stared ahead.

“Because I’m your big brother after all.” He finally said, relaxing the tension in his body. “Man, this is the last time I sleep on your floor. My whole body is stiff.” He casually went on, grabbing his shoulder and swiveling around his arm to loosen up his aching muscles.

You weren’t sure why, but you felt some suspicion creeping up the back of your mind while you stared at Sehun. He was going to say something different so the question was, what was it going to be anyways? You quickly brushed off your doubts and stood up on your feet.

“So Sehun, what exactly was that weird thing that happened last night?” Sehun visibly tensed up at the question and he unnervingly cleared his throat.

“You’re not going to believe this… but, take a look at your door.” Sehun’s eyes were glued onto his lap once again, for he couldn’t bear to look at it again after the events from last night. Sehun quietly and patiently waited for a response or reaction from you- a gasp, a shriek, something along those lines. However, he didn’t hear anything. Perhaps you were speechless? Sehun looked up at you, but was surprised to see confusion lingering on your unresponsive face. “Jaeyu…”

“My door? What are you talking about Sehun?” Sehun arched an eyebrow at you who was tilting your head curiously at the door. Sehun followed you gaze and in a moment, his mouth dropped open and it felt like everything in his body abruptly stopped all at once. In a flash Sehun struggled onto his feet, stumbling a bit on the blanket wrapped around his body that eventually slid onto the floor, and rushed over to the door. He stood inches away from it, his fingers lightly running along the wood of the door, all the way down to the icy metal doorknob. That’s impossible… This is impossible…!  

The door was in perfect condition- free from any marks or scratches. It looked completely and utterly untouched. It was almost as if last night’s incident never even happened. “I know I wasn’t dreaming or imagining it… the things that happened last night.. whatever it was, it really did happen…!” Sehun hysterically whispered to himself. Sehun hand were roaming wildly around the mahogany door along with his eyes darting aimlessly from top to bottom. “It did happen… It did happen… I just know it!!”

You quickly strode towards Sehun and placed a hand on his arm. “Sehun, are you okay?” you nervously asked. To you, Sehun looked frantic- completely out of control, and you were beginning to feel a bit scared of your brother’s uncalled for actions. Your voice didn’t seem to reach Sehun at all as he continued hysterically examining your door and muttering who knows what to himself. “Sehun!” You recoiled back when Sehun instantly stopped and snapped his head down to stare at you with consuming eyes.

Thankfully enough, after a second Sehun regained his composure and slowly pulled his hands away from the door and took a step back. With a trembling hand, he held onto his head and stared down at you. Using some type of hidden communication, you somehow could sense a sort of desperation from Sehun. Gazing up at him, at the anxiety filling his dark eyes, at the helplessness written all over his face, you found yourself staring face to face with something that you had once experienced yourself- something you thought you would never see on someone other than yourself.

Paranoia.

Studying the expression Sehun bore was like looking into a mirror of your former self from what seemed like ages ago. Back when you were afraid to be in your own house, in your own room, in your own skin. Everything about this helpless boy standing in front of you was identical to your previous, paranoid self.

Why was he like this though?

You were awoken out of your daze when Sehun swiftly swung your door open and ran out the door. “Sehun, wait!” you called out, taking a step out of your doorway and looking out only to see Sehun’s door slamming shut. You turned back and closed your door behind yourself.

Leaning your back against the door and staring down at the ground, you felt a very subtle chilling breeze blow past you and the sound of your bed squeaking faintly. You slowly looked up and scanned the room where your eyes landed onto the edge of you bed which was dipping slightly as if there was some type of weight upon it. “Luhan…” you murmured. Your chest felt a bit heavier as sorrow began to creep up on you and a single thought ran past your mind.

I hope whatever is upsetting Sehun… isn’t because of Luhan…

“Sehun come on, we’re going to be late for school.” You called out from the bottom of the staircase. Leaning against the wall, you held up your arm and scrutinized the third hand on your wristwatch ticking away. A few seconds later, you heard a door shutting and the sound of approaching feet stepping down the stairs. You glanced up and saw Sehun basically dragging his feet down the stairs with his head hung down low.

“Let’s go.” He muttered, walking past you towards the front door. You promptly trailed after him and slipped out the front door along with him. The moment you stepped out of the house you felt a small, unexplainable shiver run down your spine.

“Whoa…” you muddled. You involuntarily looked over your shoulder only to, of course, see nothing. “What was that about?” Rolling your shoulders to release some tension, you carried on but stopped when your head bumped into Sehun’s back. Stumbled back a couple of steps, you looked up at Sehun whose feet were planted on the ground. “Sehun, what’s-“

“Jaeyun, who’s that?” Sehun slowly pointed, not even turning around to look at you. What was he talking about? Curiously, you leaned to the side to gaze over at whoever it was that he was talking about. Before you could say anything, Sehun took off towards your front gate.

Sehun stood at the gate’s entrance and stared strangely at the short man who stood in front of the house’s gates, gazing up intently at the house. Despite possessing slightly chubby cheeks and a baby face, the man appeared to be older than Sehun, perhaps in his 20s. But then again, Sehun really couldn’t give a good guess what with this mystery man’s light and youthful complexion and height. The man didn’t seem at all perturbed by Sehun’s intense and intruding gaze on him. The man simply continued vacantly staring up at the house with his small hands behind his back.

“Excuse me?” Sehun finally called out. After about thirty seconds, the man finally turned his head to stare up at Sehun. (It almost looked like he peered up at Sehun out of his own will rather than from hearing Sehun’s voice.) The man smiled at Sehun and looked back at the house.

“Do you live here?” the man finally asked after another long moment of silence.

“Who wants to know?” Sehun said with arms crossed over his chest. The man let out a small chuckle at the response, making Sehun feel a bit childish because of his reply.

“How’s the house treating you?” The man asked. His eyes were still glued to the house, almost making it seem like he wasn’t even talking to Sehun in the first place. Sehun arched an eyebrow at the man.

“You know, most people would get the wrong idea if they saw you staring up at their house and asking them question about it.” The man didn’t reply back. It seemed like all he was focusing on was the house. Sehun let out a sharp sigh. “Look, if you’re one of those people around town who’s a believer of those dumb rumors then I’m just going to tell you this right now- this house isn’t haunted. There aren’t any ghost in this house.” Sehun found it a bit difficult to get the last sentence out but didn’t falter in the presence of the creepy, mystery man.

“I believe you.” the man nodded. “There weren’t any ghost in this house when I lived here either.”

“Wait, what…?!” Sehun rushed outside the gate to stand at the older man’s side. “W-what did you say? You used to live here?!”

“Are there any ghost here now? I’ll let you decide.” The man disregarded Sehun. The man’s gaze slowly trailed over at you who was still standing at the front door. “Is that your sister?” he asked, finally looking Sehun in the eyes. Sehun glanced over at you and then back at the man.

“Y-yes… she is…” he uneasily said. The man slowly nodded and looked up at the sky. His eyes seemed to have been scrutinizing the clouds floating from above until finally he spoke.

“Don’t make the same mistake I made.”

“What do you…”

“Sehun!” Sehun jerked his head to the side at the sudden voice and saw you sprinting over towards him. “What are you doing Sehun?”

“I was…” Sehun turned his head but was shocked to see nothing in front of him. The man completely disappeared.

“You were...?”

“Um… I-I was talking to this guy that was standing here a second ago. Do you know him?” You eyed Sehun with eyebrows knitted together in total puzzlement.

“A… guy?” you carefully repeated. “Sehun… what are you talking about?” Now Sehun was giving you a confused stare.

“That guy who was right-“

“Sehun… there wasn’t anybody here. You were standing here alone this whole time.”        

`Author's Corner

I just wanted to point out that I was eating a baozi while writing this... lol Sorry for the long wait for an update. I had prom and I was lazy....... BUT ANYWAYS, yeah hope you enjoyed the chapter! I kinda did it in a rush so forgive me if it didn't turn out well and if there's repetition in the vocabulary *runs away shamed*