back home ☽
月に吠える | tsuki ni hoeru ☽ ㅡ discontinued
❝All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust❞
ㅡ J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan.
Jiu woke up the following morning to the sound of arguing voices; for a cabin as big as this one was, the walls were quite thin. She slowly sat up and suppressed a yawn, carefully getting up and noticing that her ankle didn't hurt as much anymore.
Jiu made her way out of the room, not minding the fact that she was wearing a shirt three sizes too big for her and pajama shorts that could as well have been undergarments from how revealing they were; neither did she mind that her waist-long hair looked like a rat colony had nested in it. No sooner had Jiu set a foot in the living room than the voices from before continued to argue.
"And you let her stay?!" Yelled a feminine voice.
"She had a sprained ankle, Xun! What was I supposed to do? Tell her to go back to where she came from?"
Jiu recognized Kris' voice, though she couldn't really see him, for a person (Jiu figured it was a female because of her voice) with a very long red riding hood blocked her view.
She almost laughed right then and there; at Vetus, the elders used to wear long blue riding hoods when they held meetings, it wasn't unusual to wander through the village at night and come across a dark, cloaked figure.
Jiu saw Kris staring at her when suddenly, the woman turned around, and she found herself facing a gorgeous, tall (she was at least 4 inches taller than her) woman with dark, expressive eyes. The woman, Xun, as Jiu heard Kris calling her, had dark brown hair that was short enough to be a bob, yet it had two long strands of hair that came from the back of her head.
Xun huffed.
"So, you must be Jiu." It wasn't a question.
"Yes...," yet, Jiu answered anyway. After a minute of intense staring, Jiu turned to Kris. "Thanks for letting me stay last night, it was very kind of you. I'm afraid I have to get going though..."
"Oh, so soon?" Sehun complained as he stepped inside the living room. "Why don't you stay for lunch?"
"Sehun, she said she had to get going," Xun spoke through gritted teeth. "We should just le-"
"Actually," Kris interfered, a smirk plastered on his face. "You should-, no you must stay for lunch. We can't let her leave with an empty stomach, now can we?"
"I should really head back home though, my parents are probably very worried about me."
"Oh, come on, Jiu!" Exclaimed yet another guy as her walked into the living room. Chen, if she remembered correctly. "Join us for lunch. And then you can go back home."
Jiu heaved a sigh, she should really go back home as soon as possible, in fact, she was supposed to be back hours ago, but, as she realized that her mother was going to yell at her anyway, she decided that another few hours wouldn't actually make a difference. After pondering about it for another minute or so, she looked at the guys that were now in front of her and then at Xun who was a few feet away and spoke:
"Alright..., but only for lunch..."
Jiu expected a lot of things to happen when she stepped into the dining room, what she didn't expect though, was for nine other guys to be there, waiting for them to start eating. How did so many people live there? Sure, the cabin was big, probably bigger than most houses in Vetus, but, still... She just couldn't fathom the fact that so many people lived together.
In Vetus, the most people living in a house were the Park family, whose household consisted of six people, married Joe and Kim and their three children. It was unusual for a resident of Vetus to see this kind of living conditions, well, it was unusual for a resident of Vetus to enter the woods. Endpoint.
Sehun hanged an arm around Jiu's shoulders, thus waking her from her little reverie, and ushered her to sit on one of the vacant seats at the table before sitting down next to her. Nobody asked who she was or what she was doing there, rather than that, they just sent her small smiles when there was eye contact, but, apart from that, they didn't make any attempt to socialize with her.
"Where's Luhan?" Kris, who was sitting at the head of the table, suddenly questioned.
"I don't know...," a guy who had quite an adorable expression on his face and was a little too thin answered. "He sent us away yesterday, told us he'll be back later. I haven't seen him yet, though..."
"He's taking a shower," Sehun joined in the conversation. "He came back late last night and said he wasn't feeling very well..."
Jiu watched as the three spoke, slowly eating her food, when she suddenly met eyes with Xun, who was sitting opposite from Kris and was staring holes into Jiu's head. Jiu quickly looked down, dropping the fork softly and setting her hands on her lap. She suddenly had a flashback; she remembered something quite alike happening to her when she was still very young, she had asked the teacher if the rumors of men who turned into beasts living in the woods was true, the teacher (an old woman with hair so hoary it almost looked white) had gotten really mad. To date, Jiu still had a long scar that ran through her spinal column and another, not as long but ten times more deep and painful, on her arm. Thoughtlessly, she traced the outline of the scar on her arm.
"Aren't you going to eat, Jiu?" Chen asked her from the other side of the table.
She looked up at him and then back down at the plate, she hadn't even eaten half the food served while the boys around her were already serving themselves another plate. Slowly, she lifted her fork and resumed her eating.
"I should head back home now..." Jiu said. She had already finished eating and changed back into her clothes. "Thank you for your hospitality, I really appreciate it."
As she was about to walk out the main door, Sehun came running after her.
"Wait!" He yelled. "At least let me you, it's quite easy to get lost here..."
After some conning, Jiu ended up agreeing and after saying goodbye, the both of them started walking towards Vetus.
"So...," Sehun started. "How's your ankle?"
"Much better, thank you."
Sehun smiled.
They had been walking for a while, and Jiu could swear they were walking in circles, all the trees looked the same and the pathway seemed neverending. Soon enough, though, Jiu distinguished what was the end of the woods, and so, the beginning of Vetus, and felt a rush of adrenaline coursing through her veins. She never liked being away from home, it made her feel restless, unsafe.
Sehun knew, too, that they were nearing the village, so before he lost the chance, he spoke:
"Will I see you again?"
Jiu looked at him quizzically, what would he want to see her again for? Still, she smiled and nodded her head.
As they kept walking, Jiu felt a sick feeling in her stomach that only intensified as they went nearer and nearer to Vetus. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
And only when the were fully out of the woods she realized.
Jiu looked around at the scene before her.
Everything was wrong.
Hello! Well, chapters 1 & 2 are kind of a prologue, I plan to make chapter 3 happen a lot in time after this one, like month or maybe a year, but i'm not really sure, so you'll have to wait until the next chapter to know. Thanks for all your support! Love you lots, Lyu.
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