I closed the door behind me and hopped onto my bed as soon as I stepped into my room, closed my eyes and slept till nightfall.

I only woke to eat, but I didn’t have much of an appetite, so I just rummaged around the fridge out of habit with no intent of actually eat something. I sprawled back onto my bed and waited to fall asleep.

 

It was already noon when I woke up. I couldn’t sleep anymore so I left my room and walked around the house, brainstorming for anything to do. I spotted the calendar along the way and saw that it was a Sunday. I thought about going to church to get rid of a couple inches on my horns that would soon sprout out of my head but it was already too late to head to church, by the time I got there, they’d be finished.

 

Okay, back to brainstorming.

 

I had practically killed all my brain cells from all the thinking so I just gave up and headed to the shower and cleaned myself more than needed just to have something to do—by the time I finally finished, I’ve probably become the cleanest girl in the city— and dressed myself in a loose pair of leggings, a big neon shirt and sneakers. I sat on my bed and started remembering what happened yesterday. I had a fun day yesterday and I couldn’t believe how close I’ve gotten with Kris, I felt as though we’ve been friends for months.

 

 

*Luhan’s POV

 

When I first opened my eyes, my vision was hazier than usual. I blinked again and again until they slowly cleared. I was wet with cold sweat and my eyes felt like they weighed a ton. I wasn’t feeling well. I rarely get sick but when I do, I detest every second of it more than anybody else would.

 

 I sauntered sluggishly to the bathroom and scared myself with my reflection. I had dark circles under my eyes and my hair was a mess, pointing in every direction and full of knots. I still looked like me but I had that just-woke-up look and my eyes were swelling a bit. Now add a little bad lighting and there you have it, a scary face looking back at you in the mirror.

 

I’m not saying I looked like a horrifying creature that crawled out from the ocean to terrorize man-kind; I’m just not used to myself looking a wee bit unsightly. Although, I have to be honest, this is as ugly I’m ever going to get and I still look better than most people out there. Thinking this to myself, I started feeling conceited.

 

I shook my head at myself. “Why’d I even come here?” I turned around and walked back to my room. I crashed myself on my bed, staring vacantly at the ceiling. Even though I didn’t want to admit it to myself, there are definitely times I’m selfish and smug.

 

Do people really care that much about physical appearance? I guess.

Nobody wants to kiss a person who looks like a toad. Nobody falls in love at first sight with a guy or a girl that resembles an ogre.

I settled that dispute in my mind and went back to sleep.  The next day—or later that day, I’m not sure if I had woken up earlier during the early hours of the morning or the late hours of the previous night—I woke up at noon. No, actually, Kris woke me up for lunch.

 

“I don’t feel like eating.” I slapped the hand he shook my body with.

 

“Suit yourself.” He said.

 

I tossed around trying to get back to sleep but I couldn’t. I gave up, got out of bed and went to take a shower and spruce-up.  After all of this, I looked better. My eyes weren’t swelling, the dark circles under my eyes were gone and my hair wasn’t such a disaster anymore, but inside I still felt sick.

There isn’t much to do in the apartment, aside from watching TV, listening to music and reading a book. But after a while you get sick of repeating the same thing over and over again. I was on the brink of going crazy from boredom. I was actually banging my head on the dining table just to have something to do.

 

“Why don’t you go take a walk?” Kris suggested.

 

“You mean out there?” I asked, looking out the window into the outside world.

 

“No. In your room!” he replied sarcastically.

 

“But there are people out there.” I moaned. Even to myself I sounded silly.

 

“Lulu,  wee live in a city, not a remote island.”

 

“Somebody’s awfully sarcastic today.” I mumbled more to myself than to him.

 

He heard me and said, “I’m just encouraging you to go get some fresh air or something. Your brain needs it.”

 

I sighed.

 

 I do sort of want to go out. Since we arrived here, I’ve only left the building once.

“I guess you’re right.” I told him as I headed for the door.

 

Hweji, my new front door neighbor whom I met the other day, stood at the far end of the sidewalk. I’m not fond of her; I’m more on the side of disliking her to be honest. I don’t plan on taking her into notice, walking right by her would be an easy task. After all, just because she’s my neighbor doesn’t mean I have to be her best friend.

 

Meters away from her I noticed she wore headphones and was in a world of her own. A delivery van was speeding on the road and onto our drive way. I was mystified to see her step onto the road to cross as if that van was a cotton ball. You could hear the sound of the van’s tires braking. Hweji continued to walk slowly across the pavement, unaware of the danger she was in. Before I knew it my legs were sprinting.

 

“Hweji!” I yelled at her. She didn’t hear me.

 

I may not like her, but I can’t let her get hurt or possibly die when I can prevent it – I may act like a mean troll that lives under a bridge but I’m not that awful. Yet.

 

 I grabbed hold of her arm and she spun backwards when I pulled her off the road, inches away from being road-kill. I tripped on the slightly elevated sidewalk and fell down, dragging the girl with me.

 

She was noticeably irritated but when she saw it was me who had pulled her off of the street and onto the sidewalk she became confused.

 

“What the hell?” she snapped, pulling off her headphones.

 

I turned to the van, which had finally stopped. The driver was a tubby man. He was scurrying his way to us as fast as his obese body could.

 

“Are you two okay?” he asked as he reached us, he continued before one of us could answer, “I’m really sorry.” he said, helping us to our feet. Minutes passed and the man finally stopped apologizing.

 

Geez! How many times do you have to apologize?

 

I told him we were fine, and that we weren’t mad but I lied. I wanted to tell him he was driving too fast, I wanted to chew at him and make him grovel, but I was feeling too sick to do so.

 

The fat guy left and I spoke my mind. “Do you know how close you were to being that van’s new hood ornament?” I asked, frustrated.

 

She ignored my statement and said, “Thank you.”

 

“Yeah. Well, whatever. Don’t expect me to save you next time.”

 

She smiled and turned away, I thought I heard her say something like, “I guess you’re not evil after all.”

 

“What?”

 

“Huh? Nothing. Are you okay?” she asked.

 

“I’m fine.” I said, letting it go.

 

I decide to go out for a short, relaxing walk and what do I get? I get a near death experience thrown at my oblivious neighbor and a sore .

 

Its times like these that I miss the large yards back home where I could walk all I want without any disturbance from others. Sigh.

 

I turned around and headed back to my new home, permanently or temporarily? I don’t know. I’ve had enough of this walk. I’ve had enough of Hweji. I never thought in my life I’d say this, but I wish I were home. Two seconds after thinking that, I realized I was wrong. I may not like it here but it’s still far better than that giant house filled with numb people who were supposedly my “family”.

 

No, I’m not a family person. The only person I consider family is my brother, and sometimes our head butler, Lawrence.

 

My mother overlooks me and doesn’t even try to hide the fact that she prefers my brother one hundred percent over me. My father tries to mingle with both me and my brother but no matter what he does, you can still feel he’s all bogus and doesn’t truly care. I wonder how such a heartless pair created my brother, whose kind and warmhearted? Not only that, in my whole eighteen years of existence, I’ve never felt comfortable with those people. Not once. That’s why I spent most of my time at home locked up in my room with my brother or in one of the huge yards.

 

I was too engrossed in my thoughts to notice Hweji calling me.

 

“What?” I snapped at her when I finally heard her.

 

She seemed to be shocked by my response. “I just wanted apologize.”

 

“For what?”

 

“Anything. Everything.” She said.

 

“Apology accepted, now leave me alone.” I retorted.

 

As I looked away I saw her stop following me and got left behind as I continued walking.

 

I wanted to slam the door as loud as I could but I wasn’t in the mood to be interrogated about what happened, so I did the exact opposite. I shut the door as softly as possible and headed for my room.

 

“Back so soon?” Kris spoke.

 

“Yeah.” I replied.

 

“Why?” He asked.

 

“No reason.” I shrugged and walked to the fridge to get out some ice cream.

 

I looked at my brother. His bangs tied on top of his head to keep them out of his eyes, they looked like antennae to me but I was used to him looking like this.

He pulls it off.

 

“Summer’s almost over.” He said, arbitrarily.

 

“So?” I asked, not really interested. I was too focused on the pint of ice cream I was eating straight from.

 

“You may not be here on our parent’s account, but being older than you, I have to take responsibility of you.” I wanted to cut him off but I waited for him to finish instead.

 

“I don’t have parents.” I said coldly.

 

He didn’t get mad at what I said. He understood me. He himself doesn’t much care for those at home, but he wasn’t as open about it as I was. He keeps it between the two of us.

 

He cleared his throat. “Anyway, back to my point.”

 

I made a gesture with my hand for him to go on.

 

“I want you to go to school here.”

 

I turned to look at him so fast that I almost dropped the spoon that was in my mouth. “Why?” I complained.

 

“You can’t throw your future away Lulu. I don’t know when were going back and if we ever will. The money in my bank account isn’t going to last forever, you know?”

 

“Of course it won’t. When we both die it’s going to end up unused until the world comes to an end, and then it’ll disappear.”

 

He frowned at me. “When school starts, I’m letting you have an extra three days, after that you’re going to school.” He said. Kris had decided and arguing would be useless. I hate everything about school even though I excelled in it. But I knew my brother had a point, so I’ll just have to live with it.

 

Back at home I’d go back and forth from going to a university and being home schooled because I’d run into trouble every so often, being kidnapped in kinder garden by a lonely teacher, getting hours of detention for not paying attention in class and sleeping all the time and of course I can’t overlook the fights I’ve gotten into.