wander [ hyunlix ]

25

It's never best to assume things based on appearance.

As the saying goes, one is never to judge a book by its cover... With that being said, however, one glance at a certain kindly older woman would give you certain ideas of what her house could possibly look like... and all of them would be completely right.

Tonight's lady in question was a smiling waitress from a roadside diner, and alongside her, standing awkwardly in the doorway of her home, were two boys of similar age, both glancing around nervously.

Felix swore he'd never seen so many balls of yarn and knitting needles strewn about a living room before in his life. Meanwhile, Hyunjin was more astounded at the fact that the relatively large home they stood in (two floors tall at least), could manage to appear so incredibly cozy from the inside.

"Well," the older lady slipped off her coat and hung it at a rack near to the door. "Here we are! I'll show you two to the spare bedroom."

The pair only silently nodded, too preoccupied with scanning over the countless trinkets, antique lamps, and avant-garde art pieces hung on the walls. At one point Felix found himself so busy trying to understand just what the hell one painting even was of, that Hyunjin had to tug the boy's sleeve to follow along with them towards the room.

The hallway through the interior wasn't any less decorated than the rest of the house, aside from one closed door, bearing a simple "keep out!" sign scrawled on a sheet of paper and taped to the handle.

"Sooo, what's that about?" Hyunjin asked, glancing dubiously at the sign in question.

"That's my grandson's room," the lady answered with a sigh. "You won't have to worry about seeing him very much, probably. The kid's kind of a hermit. If you ask me, I say he should get out more, but he always says he's fine with his video games," she ranted in a typical motherly fashion.

"Anyway, right over here is the room!" she gestured as she strode towards a door at the end of the hall. "I'll leave the front door unlocked so that you two can bring in your luggage. Sounds good?"

"Oh! Actually, that's okay," Felix began responding on instinct. "We don't have—"

"Thanks," Hyunjin cut off the younger boy's sentence, and Felix instantly felt a tight grip on his wrist. "We won't be long."

The lady seemed to pick up on something being off, but chose to ignore it, and instead gave them a warm smile.

"Great. If you need anything, you can find me in the kitchen. Feel free to join us later for dinner," she declared, and gave a small wave before she gracefully exited the area.

The very moment she was gone, Felix found himself being yanked sideways into the spare room, and looked over in alarm to see Hyunjin pulling him in there.

"What?" was all Felix asked as he saw Hyunjin shut the door, and then proceed to give Felix one of the most bewildered looks he had ever seen in his life.

"Don't just...!" Hyunjin struggled to even put his thoughts into words. "Don't tell her we don't have any stuff! She would think that's so weird!"

"Ah," Felix nodded slowly in understanding. "Got it. Sorry."

Hyunjin simply let out a tired groan before strolling over to the bed and letting himself fall down onto it, the mattress accommodating his weight well.