I drag my bag into the house, and put my shoes under a cupboard, and signal Matthew to do the same. We're practically study buddies, almost living at each other's houses when we have tests. He and I used to be especially close when we were teenagers, but we drifted slightly away after we started to get a larger friend group. Nevertheless, we're still pretty close, and that's enough for me.
"Your mom's not here?" Matthew asks, looking around for any signal of a woman with too much makeup, kind eyes, and loud voice approaching.
"Step-mother. And no, she's not." I say. Matthew nods, looking at me cautiously. He's the only one that knows what really happened with my family, since he and I were best friends exactly at the time the whole Situation happened.
I take a few snacks from the kitchen, and we walk upstairs, Matthew walking up ahead of me. He opens the door of my room, and suddenly stops. I frown, and lean on him to look at what is inside.
Jude? Since when did she even know where my room is? She's sitting on my bed, nearly laying down, and on her phone.
"What do you think you're doing?" I ask, my voice raised. She looks at me, a scowl shown on her face.
"There was a spider in my room. I thought that maybe you could kill it?" She says
"All for favours, huh? I thought that you didn't know that I exist" I say, before walking out of the room and stomping into Jude's room.
Immediately, I spot a really, and when I mean really, I mean extremely, huge, hairy, and fat spider. I freeze at the sight, and stop myself from running out of the room. Instead, I calmly walk out of the room, making sure to close the door behind me, and walk back to my room.
"You kill it" I say, once entering.
"I have a phobia! Why can't you just do it for me?" She asks, making me try to quickly think of an answer.
"I'm not here to do your dirty work," I say, taking Jude and dragging her to the door "I'll ask you kindly, to leave. We need to study"
"You're such a liar. You both never study anyways."
"How do you know?"
"I can clearly hear you not studying from my room" she says, rolling her eyes. I look at Matthew, who is looking at his phone, probably not to disturb our argument.
"C'monnn" Jude nags, swinging my arm left and right.
"Jude, go annoy someone else. Just go to the living room and wait until your mom comes back" I say.
"No."
"No? Jude, don't be so bitchy and petty. Just go, neither of us want you here" I say.
"No. Kill the spider." I look at her cold hearted brown eyes. I feel my own narrow, as I grab her shoulder tightly. She flinches violently, a bit too violently for my liking.
"Jude. Go now. I'll actually fucking throw you out" I say, in a calmer way than of what I expected.
"Hanbin, I want my room back. I'm not going to the living room. There's no privacy there."
"Well, that's too bad. Deal with it brat" I say, pushing her out of my room and locking the door behind me.
As I turn, I see Matthew frowning at me.
"Aren't you being too much? Why not just kill it?" He asks. Clearly, he doesn't know about my fear of spiders.
I quickly sit next to him, my eyes turning wide at the flashback of the spider.
"No, man, I don't think you understand. That spider is HUGE," I emphasise the 'huge' with a motion of my arms "it is hairy, like the ugly kind of hairy, and it was kind of-"
A knock at my door is heard. I roll my eyes, stomping to the door like a kid and unlock the door.
"What do you want?" I ask in a demanding way, looking down at Jude.
"It's not only one spider now. It's a whole bunch of them" She says, her voice shaking.
"Oh my god, Jude. Just go to the living room for god's sake. Your mom won't take too long. I think that you can survive until then.
"Do you know when she's coming back?"
How am I supposed to know? Just text her. She won't bite you"
"I know that," she says, rolling her eyes "it's just that she might be busy"
"Since when do you care about that?" I ask, my eyebrows raised
"Since she told me to not call her anymore when she's busy, because if I do, she'll take my phone away." she says, her big eyes looking coldly at me. I scoff
"Aw, poor baby," I say sarcastically before pushing her outside of the room. "I don't care. Go take care of it yourself, you're not a child"
I close the door once again.
"She is a child though?" Matthew says, probably laughing at my annoyed expression
"She's a teenager. She should learn how to handle shit by herself."
We stay silent for a while, me looking at my phone, while Matthew looks at a book that he found on the floor. I finally feel calmer, still slightly annoyed, but happier. That is, until a text appeared.
From Jude.
I open it while rolling my eyes, until they stop rolling midway and open wide instead. Damn, she really meant it when she said that there's a bunch of spiders. Black dots can be seen on the walls, on the ceilings, on the floor, on her bed, and on her cupboards.
I choke on air, shoving my phone close to Matthew's face.
"What the fuck?" he says, alarmed.
"How did that happen? It's not like we're living in Australia," I say, horrified at the struggles that people living there might go through "i really hope this is photoshopped or something"
I jump off of the bed, and run to unlock the door. Right outside, Jude stands.
"You see? I told y-"
I cut her off by shoving her to the side and speed walking to her room. I cautiously open her door, and just like the picture, a big bunch of spiders can be seen spread out around the room. I hastily close the door and look at Jude.
"There's no way you're sleeping there tonight. Take a cushion and put it on my floor. Don't bother me though" I say.
"Nuh uh, there's no way I'm sleeping in your room today. I need my privacy." she says
Would you rather your brother be in a room with you, or a whole bunch of crawling creatures watch you and crawl on you to disturb your privacy?"
"Exactly, that's what I thought" I say, after no words come out of her mouth.
I walk away, both shaking in anger, and shaking at the sight of so many spiders.
â¡â¡â¡
Yes. A whole chapter about spiders.
Ik it might have been like extremely boring, but I promise that something will come out of this.
And no, there won't be any spiderman stuff in this book.
Just trust the process
Maybe Hanbin will have a better relationship with his step-sister?? Or they'll have a fight that will end up horribly?? It's you to guess
I'm seriously having so much fun writing these days tho.
Cuz I didn't even have time to write the year bc of so much work, but now that break is coming in like two days, I'm so happy I'm able to write again.
(Stream 'tricky house' by xikers)
P.S. I'm actually so dissapointed with this chapter but its vital for the plot yk so I can't really change it. There's a reason why I wanted Jude and Hanbin to stay in the same room so that they can talk abt some... important stuff. Also, for the book, not everything will be romance cuz there's also gonna be action and those stuff. Yknow, for the plot.