#eorumverba

Chapter 1:

Taemin hates this place already. The house is big and old and creaky and nothing at all like their last place, where Taemin had grown up. Lived there for most of his life in fact. He was happy there. His mom and dad were happy there. Everything was great.

And then his mom found out she was pregnant, and all of a sudden they “needed more space”. But more space meant a higher rent, and Taemin had heard his parents, more than once, discussing finances in the kind of low, frustrated voices that meant he wasn’t supposed to hear it at all.

So this place had been a sudden windfall, bigger than their old place by quite a bit, and inside his parents’ price range. And, of course, nobody had bothered to ask Taemin what he wanted to do, just told him one day that they were uprooting his whole life and dragging him to a new school, miles and miles away from his friends.

So now he’s here, and he hates it already. He hasn’t even been inside, but just seeing it makes him irrationally angry, because it’s not their old place with plants on the windowsill and the piano in the front room.

That’s not to say the piano won’t be there. It will be -- it has to be, if they want his dad’s livelihood to continue, you know, being a thing. But the move probably wrecked it, and they’ll have to get it tuned before it’ll even sound right again. That’s kind of a good summary of this move -- not that far, but still enough to basically ruin everything.

“Why don’t you go check it out first?” his dad says, and Taemin turns. Jinki is smiling at him, and it’s not really his usual sunny smile. It’s a little tense, like he knows Taemin is already upset with him and is smiling to soothe the tensions rather than because he’s actually happy. “You might like it if--”

“Should mom really be carrying boxes?” Taemin asks, more to cut his dad off.

It works. Jinki whirls around, a little wide-eyed. “Luna, honey,” he starts in, and Taemin slips away before he can figure out that she’s just carrying a box of pillows from their living room furniture and turn his attentions on Taemin again.

When he pushes open the front door of the house, it sticks a bit, and Taemin has to push with a lot of his weight, leaning into it hard enough that when it opens, almost abruptly, he nearly stumbles into the entryway, frowning.

“The fuck?” he mutters, loud enough to feel vindicated but quietly enough not to get scolded for it if one of his parents overhear. Not that it matters. The house seems to swallow the words up, empty enough that Taemin’s voice echoes a little jarringly.

He doesn’t exactly want to go in for some reason, but it’s hardly like he actually gets a choice. He shuts the door behind him, a little annoyed when it doesn’t stick this time. The lights, thankfully, already have power to them, so it’s not miserably dark as he explores, but it looks and feels barren. Lifeless.

Taemin sighs through his teeth and pushes open the door of what he’s pretty sure is supposed to be his room, taking stock. Just as empty as the rest of the house. Awesome. He didn’t know what else he expected.

For the sake of curiosity, and because he doesn’t really want to stay in his room any longer, he goes picking around, finds the bathroom, an empty room probably destined to become the nursery, and a closet before he pushes open the door the the master bedroom. It’s all stupid and boring and empty, and some small filial part of himself thinks that he should probably go help move stuff in so that it stops looking like this before he remembers that he’s pissed at his parents for moving them in the first place.

But if he wants to avoid getting a stern “talking-to,” he should. That doesn’t stop him from dragging his feet though, shuffling his way back out towards the front of the house. He passes Jinki, carefully carting some sort of box towards the kitchen, and steps out of the way in case it’s full of knives or something. His dad isn’t exactly the most graceful person on the best day, and Taemin’s life is pretty sucky right now without having to visit the ER because Jinki fell over him and impaled them both or something.

He stares after him for a second, debating the pros and cons of helping, but he hears his mother’s voice from outside, calling for him, so makes his way back to her instead. It’s bright outside after the dimness of the house, and Taemin blinks a few times to clear away the after image before he looks around for his mom.

She’s standing by the car, and has somehow, apparently, located another teenager. Taemin blinks again, more surprised this time, but Luna spots him and beckons him over, flashing her mom smile and holding her hand over the slight swell of her stomach as she’s wont to do nowadays. “Taeminnie,” she says cheerfully, (and Taemin only slightly cringes at the childish name), “Come meet the neighbor boy.”

The “neighbor boy” is taller than Taemin by a few centimeters, his skin a warm tan color, and he nods at Taemin in greeting, smiling as he sticks out a hand. “Jongin,” he introduces himself. “I live right next door.”

“Oh,” Taemin says. “Yeah. Hey. I’m Taemin. If my mom didn’t already--” He turns to gesture at his mom, but Luna has disappeared somewhere. Taemin’s pretty sure this is her attempt at making friends for him. He snorts a little to himself. “Okay then.”

“So,” Jongin says, maybe a little awkwardly, “you guys are moving in? It’s been awhile since we’ve had neighbors.”

Taemin nods. “Yeah. Mom and dad said this house had been on the market for a while, which was probably why it was so cheap…”

He trails off. Jongin has this look on his face, and Taemin doesn’t know him well enough to read it, but he can follow Jongin’s line of site back towards the house, where Jinki is just coming out of the front door.

He stops when he sees Taemin talking to someone and then comes over, smiling wide and friendly, the corners of his eyes crinkling with laugh lines. “Hey,” he greets. “Who’s this?”

“Kim Jongin,” Jongin introduces himself again, a little more proper towards an adult than he was towards Taemin, and then again, “I live next door.”

“Ah,” Jinki says, smiling even harder. “I hope you don’t mind music too much. We’ve always been a musical family, and I teach lessons out of our house as well. Not too late, of course.”

Jongin shakes his head. “No, no, that’s awesome,” he says, perking up a little. “I’ve always wanted to learn how to play. An instrument, I mean. Like, uh, music.”

Taemin lifts an eyebrow. Is Jongin always this fidgety? Maybe. Not like he would know.

But Jinki only smiles. “That’s great. Well, once we’re all set up, I’d be happy to get you signed up for a couple of sessions if you want to give it a try.”

“Yeah, that sounds, uh, awesome,” Jongin says, smiling sheepishly.

The sound of a car pulling up interrupts him before he can say anything else, and Taemin looks to see the moving van finally arriving. Jinki perks up. “Oh, good. If you’ll excuse me, boys. It was nice meeting you, Jongin. I hope to see you around.”

Jongin nods, and Taemin grimaces. “I should probably help move stuff in,” he admits sullenly. “I’ll, uh… see you around? Or at school?”

“Yeah,” Jongin says. “Good luck with the--” He gestures at the back of the moving van which has just opened to reveal enough boxes that Taemin can already feel his arms aching.

“I’ll need it,” he admits, and grudgingly walks over to the truck while Jongin ducks back toward his own house.

“Taemin, is this one yours?” Jinki asks, pushing a box towards Taemin, and Taemin picks it up and hefts it towards the house. The door sticks again, and Taemin really does fall this time, unable to keep his balance.