Chapter 4 - House Mates?
Haunting of the Past and Present•Areum's POV•
My body automatically whipped around to the unknown voice inside of my house. There, in the middle of my hallway stood a tall male, tapping his foot and whirling an empty tub of chocolate ice cream around his finger. He had thick rimmed glasses that covered at least a third of his face, and he seemed like he was a teenager about my age or maybe older. The boy had a skinny body, but not skinny, and of what I could make out of his eyes, they were dark and ominous but had a mysterious glow in them. *Where have I seen those eyes before?*
"I-Wha-WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, snatching the tub and throwing it into the garbage.
The boy smirked and walked slowly towards me, "Sorry to intrude."
I gaped at him, "That still doesn't answer my question! Who are you, and why are you in my house?"
He raised his eyebrow at me and tilted his head, while eyeing me up and down. Subconsciously, I began to grow uncomfortable at his roaming eyes, and quickly covered my body with my large cardigan. The boy strided closer and closer, still not giving me an answer and at this point I was ready to throw a punch at him.
"Are you going to answe-"
"L. Eighteen years old. I'm looking for a place to stay and seeing as you have so many spare bedrooms and so little to do with them, I decided to enlighten myself with your home," he leaned down to my face, "I mean, if you're okay with that."
I was speechless. Who did this guy think he was?! I leaned closer to him and stared at him with fierce eyes, "Listen, I don't know who you are or why you're here but nobody just barges into someone's home and expects them to be okay with it!" I snapped at him.
He pulled back from me and chuckled, making me realize just how close our faces were a couple seconds ago. Upon the thought, I could feel my ears getting red and I dropped my gaze onto the floor.
"All you have to do is ask about my life, no need to get so emotional," he sighed, "But before I get into my personal life I think it's best if you told me what your name is as well so that I can refer to you as something other than Miss Stranger," he spoke quietly but loud enough for me to hear clearly. I noticed that the smirk on his face never wore off during the entire time that we were talking.
I huffed and pointed at the chair in the living room, commanding him to sit. As he took his seat and I took mine, I looked at him with a serious expression. "My name is Song Areum. I'm currently sixteen years old and I own this house," he gave me an interested look and nodded his head to make me continue. "Now that I've told you about myself, you have some explaining to do."
The boy exhaled and repositioned himself on the chair before speaking, "I told you before, my name is L and I'm eighteen years old."
"L? Like the letter L?" I interrupted him to confirm.
He nodded and continued, "I need a place to stay for the time being, just until the end of the school semester. I saw that your house looked pretty spacy from the outside so I knocked on your door a couple days ago to ask you if I can stay. You didn't answer, but the door was open and I'm pretty desperate so...I guess I just helped myself."
"Wait, you've been living in my house for a couple of days now?" my jaw dropped, and he nodded sheepishly. "How did I not know?!"
He smiled and bit his lip, "Well you went to school in the morning, and that's usually when I sleep in, and I go out at night so I guess it was only a matter of time until you figure it out," he twirled a silver chain that was hanging on his neck, "I guess that day was today."
"O..kay...But what's this about school? You're eighteen so you're a senior, why are you not going to school?" I questioned him again, staring at the chain.
He sighed, "school is overrated. I don't like to surround myself with those who only like me for my money..." L on his teeth, and looked at the ground, making me feel a tinge of sorrow for him.
"What about your parents?" I asked softly, knowing that this would be a sensitive topic.
"They're not alive." His expression hardened and he tugged on the necklace.
"O-Oh..I'm so sorry," I apoligized quickly and looked over to him.
"Don't be." He spoke coldly but I knew he wasn't meaning to sound harsh towards me intentionally.
I felt the pang of guilt build up in me once again, but I managed to shake it off quickly. *He seems so...lost. I want to help him regain himself somehow..But what about aunt? She would absolutely kill me if she found out I was living with a boy. Especially if that boy is out of school and two years older than me*
"Look, I understand your situatin L ssi, but I'm a girl and you're a boy. I just don't think it's a good idea for us to liv-" I started to explain but he soon cut me off.
"What, you think I'm going to take advantage of you or something?" he smirked cutely and raised his hand towards my face, tracing the outline of it and stopping at a strand of hair before pushing it behind my ear.
My eyes immediately widened at his actions, "W-What are you doi-"
"Relax Areum, I'm not that kind of guy," he laughed heartily and leaned back away from my face. "Like I said before, I'm really desperate for a house just until the end of the semester. I'll even pay you if you want, name your price."
I knew that my inner conscience was bursting at the seams to say no, but something in my mind stopped me for saying it. I looked up to find L's smirk had suddenly transformed into a pout that made me melt at first glance. "Fine. You're allowed to stay in my house, BUT on the condition of no physical touching!"
His pout immediately turned into a wide grin as he pulled me into a tight hug, "Thank you Areum! I promise I won't tou-" he stopped for a second and released my body slowly, "I won't touch you, starting now," he smiled happily.
"Good! And only until the end of the semester?" I coughed nervously at his hug.
"Only until the end of the semester," he repeated and grinned again. "I guess this means we're house mates!"
"Yeah, I guess so.." I smiled unsurely.
*There's something off about this boy...*
♦L's POV♦
"You did what?!" Sunggyu screamed, making me wince from his voice.
"Keep it down! She knows only I'm staying here, not you too" I hissed at him.
He pinched the bride of his nose and paced around the room before turning to me again, "She's not supposed to know you L, I've told you this before! How is The Judgement going to take this?"
"They're obviously not going to take it well," Hoya appeared in front of the doorway, "But it doesn't mean we can't keep it a secret from them."
I nodded at Hoya and pointed to him, "He has a point, I can keep it a secret from them as long as Areum doesn't figure out my real name."
"Ahh! I totally forgot that the only way they can track you is if someone says your human name!" Sungjong chimed from the window.
"Okay, whatever. Say you don't get caught for a while, what's your motive? What's the point of talking to her now? And what about The Society, did you forget about us? We're in charge of making sure all spirit activity is followed by the rules which also means that you're not supposed to interact with humans," Sunggyu began to argue.
"The point of me talking to her...I want her to know that nothing has changed. Whether it be a hundred years or a thousand, I'll stay the same. And about The Society..." I hesitated but continued on shortly, "I'm saying this as a friend. Not as a member of The Society. You guys know how much I've suffered in my human life. I'm asking you as a brother...Don't tell The Judgement." I could tell that every member of The Society was in the room, judging by the number of sighs and groans.
"Well, I'm always on L's side," Woohyun spoke slowly.
I smiled at him and patted the seat next to me on the bed, and he complied by the weight of the bed shifting towards the opposite direction of me. I could tell he was seated next to me.
"L deserves another chance at love in my opinion.." Dongwoo said and the pressure of the bed increased immediately. Another body joined us on the bed,
"We agree with L too!" Sungyeol and Sungjong exclaimed.
"You know I'm already with L on this one," Hoya sighed and joined us quietly.
We all stared at our leader, pouting and rubbing our palms together in harmony. "Come on grandpa Gyu! You can't just let L down like that," Dongwoo teased the leader.
Sunggyu sighed and closed his eyes, "Call me that one more time and I'll-"
"Gyu Ji Ji!" Dongwoo chanted playfully, and soon enough, we all joined in.
"ALRIGHT FINE!" He yelled, throwing his hands up in defeat. "But if The Judgement catches you, we can't do anything about it...you know that right L?"
I gulped, The Judgement was nothing to play around with, especially when they were the ones that could send us all straight to hell. "I know, I just her to see me one last time."
Sunggyu nodded slowly, "Then I guess you can count me in." We all cheered for grandpa Gyu, until he stopped us soon after, "You have to be careful L, there's a lot of things that you need to remember. You have to be indoors when the clock strikes midnight everyday. I know you had a little experiment today but I'm sure you don't know the rules about appearing in front of humans."
I nodded sheepishly, "I just appeared in front of her without me even knowing it...I didn't even know she could hear me until today."
"She can see and hear you, only when you decide to appear in front of her. I'll give you lessons on appearing at a later time, but for now be careful because you can easily disappear if you don't know how to control it, and I think it would freak her out if you were next to her one second and gone the next," Hoya explained.
"By the way, how did she not recognize you from her dream?" Sungyeol asked suddenly.
"I wore glasses just in case she could see me, and good thing I did, because she saw me pretty clear," I pointed at the pair of frames that were hanging off of the lampshade in the corner of the room.
"The most important thing to remember. Never, ever let her know your true identity," Sunggyu said firmly, "Your name is what separates you from The Society and hell."
A/N: Hi Hi! I'm back after a long time with an update! I cannot believe that it's so close to summer and I'm getting pretty excited to be honest. So basically you guys know what L is now, but there's so much more that will be revealed soon! And what will happen when L and Areum start living together?
Thanks to all of my subscribers so far!
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