WORDS. |Kim Seungmin

Nineteen.

Aria was sure that the sound came out from Seungmin's house and that made her scared. Seungmin can't be the one screaming. Seungmin lives alone. Seungmin has no friends to be in there and scream. The whole situation was scary to Aria but she managed to gather up her courage and walk into his front yard.

Aria took up the three steps to his front porch and stood at the door. She gulped before her shaky hand made its way to the door. Hesitantly, she knocked on it two times. Seconds were passing by Aria, waiting for any response from inside but there was nothing.

Aria inched closer and shoved her head to the side to stick her ear to the door, trying her best to listen to what was happening inside. Aria jolted once she heard footsteps coming closer. She backed off from the door and waited in anticipation, but then the door was never opened for her and she heard those steps fading away again.

Aria scrunched her face in suspicion. She leaned closer to the door one more time and resumed knocking on it more solidly.

"Seungmin!" She called. "It's Aria. Open the door."

There was no answer and no more sounds from behind the door which made Aria starts to panic. She resumed knocking frantically on the door.

"Seungmin!" She yelled. "Open up! If you don't open, I'll call the poli-"

The door swinging open ahead of her stopped her words from coming out. She looked up to see Seungmin looking at her with confused eyes. And it was only his eyes she could see, cause the rest of his face was covered with a facemask. The boy was standing there, barefooted, wearing a wide white shirt that had a big fat red stain on his stomach, slightly to the right.

Aria's eyes widened at the scene and she gasped loudly. She didn't think twice before she storms into the house to where he was standing. Her eyes were still wide and her hands started moving in every direction around the boy, not knowing where to touch and where to not.

"W-What is that? What-t happened?" She questioned. Her hands finally rested somewhere. And that 'somewhere' was Seungmin's belly where the red color was staining his shirt. Aria Panicked for a few seconds once her fingers touched the cold viscous liquid. She was about to scream but a familiar smell stopped her from doing so. She sniffed the air around her then inched closer to Seungmin to sniff his air too. Her panicked face turned into a confused one. She pulled her hand up to her face and smelt it. "K-ketchup?" She questioned.

Aria looked up at Seungmin who was still totally confused. He looked down at her extremely close face. Seungmin felt heat creeping up his face. He gulped loudly, making it hard not to notice how his Adam's apple moved up and down. Aria caught that scene along with his nervously blinking eyes and reddening face. She stepped back.

"What is happening here? I heard someone screaming."

Seungmin stiffened and his pupils started going from left to right. He finally moved his hand to point at something to his left. Aria looked at where he was pointing to find the TV screen occupied by something.

Aria walked to the middle of the boy's living room without even asking for permission. She stood there, looking at the screen displaying a familiar scene from 'Insidious Chapter II'. She looked back at Seungmin who slammed the door close and was making his way to her. He stood there awkwardly, rubbing his nape.

"You were watching this?" She asked. He nodded. "And the scream came from it?" She asked. He nodded again. "Then why didn't you open the door once I knocked? You were close to it!"

Seungmin rushed to the coffee table in front of the TV. He started ramming around, looking for something. That was when Aria started looking around her and her jaw dropped.

The place was a complete mess. The table had pizza boxes, empty and filled. There were empty cups of noodles, beer cans, soda cans, chips bags, and leftovers everywhere. His couch was the same plus having some blankets and abandoned hoodies. The floor had pairs of jeans and some shorts too. Aria didn't want to look more once she spotted a pair of briefs by the stairs to the second floor. If that was how his living room looked, then what about his bedroom? She didn't want to think of that.

Seungmin snapping two fingers to her face diverted her attention to him. He held a paper up to her face.

"I had to look for my mask before I open the door. I got a bad cold and I didn't want you to catch it. And for the scream, yeah it was from the movie. For the ketchup, well, I was eating my pizza peacefully but that jump scare made me spill the ketchup on my shirt. That's it."

Aria lowered the paper and looked at him. Her clean hand moved to his forehead to push his bangs and then rest there to check his temperature. The boy startled and backed off. She scrunched her face. "You don't seem to be that fevered."

Seungmin shoved his head in the opposite direction and started coughing silently. He then looked back at Aria shrugging.

"Okay, then you shouldn't be eating pizza. You should eat some soup or porridge." She said. Seungmin quickly shook his head and crossed his arms to his face. "What? You don't like them?" She asked. He nodded. She sighed at how he was acting like a spoiled stubborn kid. She looked at him with knitted brows. "Okay. Go change up this shirt first and we'll discuss the soup thing later." She ordered.

The boy quickly turned around and started walking to the stairs. Aria was turning too but stopped once she noticed something. As he was going upstairs, the sleeve of his shirt that stopped right above his elbow, moved up showing something written there in black.

He had a tattoo?

She never noticed that before and she never thought that he was a tattoo person. He didn't even have a piercing like most of the guys their age. But a tattoo? Interesting!