TROUVAILLE.
something lovely discovered by chance

.❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。

        SCREAMS.

        Loud, high-pitched screams...

        —echoing inside the four corners of the room,

        body quivering from the noise.

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        "W-What the fuck!?"

        Jisung shrieked in terror, waking up from his incredibly wonderful afternoon siesta as he forcefully pulled his body up the sofa, straightening his flimsly back which was threatening to fall back into the indulgent comfy pillows and blankets. His heart was palpitating insanely in his chest, heaving up and down in a rapid pace as Jisung blinks his eyes repeatedly, hoping to regain his vision as soon as possible but quickly resorted to old-fashioned rubs-on-the-eyes as all he could see was a blurry outline of the rather messy living room.

        His hand brushes against the dark circles under his eyes, feeling sweat slowly trickling down his face.

        Jisung ran a hand through his disheveled brown locks, attaining vision as he slowly pans his head from one side of the room to the other.

        His heartbeat ran a hundred kilometers per hour, his body shuddering and his chapped lips quivering in the absolute terror that was suffocating him and the heavy air around him.

        His first suspicion was that someone had attempted to break into the property, urging Jisung to quickly wake up to a rather unfortunate event.

        And despite knowing that why the hell would an intruder scream, the boy decided to think of all the probable situations, as if following his gut feelings was actually a good idea.

        His second guess was a homicide but no, he's the only one here so that wouldn't line up.

But needles to say, Jisung was terrified.

        The boy was debating whether or not he'd turn around, since usually at around this point of those action-packed movies the assassin should be just right behind the victim, and at that point where he'd actually turn around, he's already being held hostage with a gun pointed on his temples.

        Well. This is fate.

        This is his end.

        After coming down with his final decision, he, excruciatingly slowly, turns his head behind.

        "Adios the fuck world."

        Jisung shut his eyes tight, his breathing unsteady as his hands were sweating madly, his lips twitching and his nose scrunched up, preparing for the utmost worst moment in the seventeen years of his life and accepting his tragic fate of living a sad, short life.

        But it's been a solid half-minute.

        Where's the gunshot?

        Reluctantly, Jisung slowly flutters his eyes open.

        He widens his eyes in disbelief and could already sense his palm coming right at his face for jumping into completely insensible and exaggerated conclusions.

        His back slumps back on the couch as Jisung heaves a big sigh of relief, and a sigh of "holy shit I am so dumb please kill me now."

        He stares blankly at the TV with pathetic eyes and watches a scene of a handful of self-proclaimed tech teenagers battling a hundred-meter-footer mind-flayer demogorgen creature that is, most likely, trying to kill them at all costs, but it seems like a dozen firecrackers and conventional human slaying machines could surprisingly defeat this intimidating monster flesh blob fish.

        Jisung suddenly remembered how he was so goddamn excited for the third season of Stranger Things to air and despite not being able to sleep for four solid nights on-end because of his massive obsession with Noah Schnapp and his pretty face, he, shockingly, ended up sleeping on his favorite show and missing almost all of the eight episodes on Netflix.

        After reality hits, Jisung has his mouth opened wide with shock and disbelief.

        The last thing he could remember was seeing Mrs. Byer's magnets fall off of her fridge and frantically persuading Hopper to go back to the rusty ol' lab despite it being a huge risk and safety hazard.

        Yep, that's it.

        And now he's seeing a scene of—wait, is that Dustin?! And Steve?! And Erica?! Oh boy, and Robin, too?!

        —the characters in this weird, intimidating, probably-Russian lab sort of thing with strange glass bottles with oozing green liquid and a,

        a portal to the upside down?!

        Okay, he's had enough, Jisung thought, quickly patting down the sofa, searching for the remote to quickly switch off the TV, preventing himself from spoiling more of season three than he has already. He was more than glad to finally find the remote to turn it off.

        But he, too, was more than happy to find out that he'd still live longer than what he had expected.

        It was the TV—thank God it was just the TV.

But despite the small sign of reassurance, he still felt uneasy due to the rain.

        It's been roughly two weeks since it started pouring, and afterwards it had never stopped. Sure, there were five to ten minutes of short drizzles here and there, but subsequently they all progressed to another terrible rainstorm. Thus, the streets were heavily flooded with dirty water and as a result, Jisung was forced to stay indoors the whole time. It has been a really boring experience for him, in his humble opinion.

        And what made matters even worse was the fact that his mother is currently in the US for a convention, for you know, the States is pretty advanced in terms of medical studies—his mom is a surgeon. His brother, on the other hand, is studying Culinary Arts in Shanghai, China, and it's been four months since his departure from South Korea. His dad is gone too, for he works as a seaman in an overseas shipping company—which leaves Jisung alone, with the house all for himself.

It was quite a big home actually. Since surgeons pay big, and a seaman's wage is really no joke, his family is able to afford things that are a little bit more on the pricy side of the market. But sadly, the beauty of this house is expected to be wrecked by the dreadful thunderstorm any time sooner.

Big raindrops boomed loudly as they bounced on the roofing, large heavy thuds radiating the room. Jisung stares at the window as another flash of lightning draws on apace, followed by a loud crash of thunder. The boy looked unfazed, as if he has seen the bolts of electricity way too many times—which, he has, to the point that it's aleady impossible to get shocked. The sky was so dark, despite the fact that it was only half-passed four in the afternoon. Jisung was so bored, and he wanted to go back to sleep even if he had just woken up ten minutes ago from, yet again, another good nap.

His back slowly fell onto the stacks of pillows tossed on the couch and his eyes slowly narrowed down. His body started to grow comfy beneath the blackets and cushions, his breathing slowly going back to normal and so does his heartbeat. His body softens under the covers and his system was ready to shut down, and take another nap—

until the doorbell rang.

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        Jisung would be lying if he'd say he wasn't nervous to go up to the front door. Just a moment ago he had just calmed himself dowm over suspecting a gun man ready to shoot him to death, but now he's up to yet another surprise up the front door.

        Suddenly he's lost his appetite for death.

        A second ago he was ready to write his will and testament, but now he's more than afraid to get a bullet stuck up his ass if he ever opens the door.

       Or, the person outside could easily bust the door open, leaving Jisung no other destination but death.

        His life is basically the grim reaper running late.

        Jisung was cut off of his trail of thoughts as the doorbell chimes in again, and this time the boy was pressured as ever to make a decision quick. He didn't have time to write down a list of supporting facts for each point he'd had to consider, nor could he put into deep thought and consideration on what he should do next.

        It was a tough dilemma since no wasn't an option, nor is letter c. So all he could do was follow his really weak gut feelings—again.

        And this time, he really hopes he won't screw up this time.

        Not twice in a day.

        After making up his mind in his—well, mind—Jisung quickly went on his feet, immediately grasping balance as he frolicked his way to the front door.

        Indeed, he was nervous.

        His heart was pulsating madly in his chest, beating crazily fast in ways that shouldn't be humanly. His lips were quivering with the thick atmosphere that sent his body going even more tense than it already was. Beads of sweat accumulated on his forehead as some slowly trickled its way down his cheeks, and some that had formed in the palms of his own, shaky hands. His feet were wobbly, but having just woken up from a nap was not a valid excuse, as he was pretty much wide awake even before the doorbell had chimed in.

        Taking careful steps, he slowly and stealthily made his way to the front door, looking at the doorknob as if it was his worst enemy. In this case, that was quite true.

       The doorbell rang thirdly and holy lord did Jisung feel so much pressure in his life.

        Jisung's chest heaved up and down in a Lightning McQueen type of fast, and when he meant fast, he meant really fast.

        "Calm," Jisung breathed out in an airy whisper, clutching his chest as his heart was beating in incredibe speeds to the point that it actually hurt him physically.

"—Down."

However that didn't quite work out as he was even more nervous to answer the door.

But before the doorbell would ring in for the nth time, Jisung hesistantly outstretched his shaking arm, slowly and steadily reaching out for the doorknob that was both inviting yet intimidating.

A big lump formed in his throat as he reluctantly held onto it, gripping it firmly and engulfing it into his sweaty palm.

Jisung felt his heart rate increasing with every degree displaced, slowly turning the doorknob with his trembling hands.

He felt his body grow numb with the building tension in the pit of his stomach, with the suspenseful situation only becoming even more nerve-wracking by the second.

Excruciatingly long moments after, Jisung has done a complete one-eighty on the doorknob, a loud click resounding throughout the area.

Jisung bit his lip in anxiousness, carefully pulling the door open with the loud creaking hinges adding tension and suspense to the already stressful situation.

His heart was pounding insanely in his chest, to the point where it could jump out of his body any minute now.

Sweat ran down his flushed cheeks, and at that moment pure grief and sadness gushed into his system, feeling all sorts of negative emotions slapping him on the face.

But despite the boy drowning in his own weaknesses,

He couldn't just stop there and chicken out all of a sudden.

Taking a deep, long, heavy sigh, Jisung pulled the front door open, his lips quivering in anxiousness with all the fright and terror.

But this is not what he had expected.

"Hello!"

Jisung blinked a couple of times, checking his vision just in case he was hallucinating and just seeing things aside from the real deal.

But they didn't disappear.

Jisung widened his eyes as he sees four boys right on his porch, rain gear on, indecipherable faces.

The black-haired boy greeted Jisung under the pouring rain, giving him a small smile, but you can see the glint of pain in his pupils.

Jisung unconsciously gave him a smile. "Yes?"

The boy played with the hem of his raincoat, signifying the nervousness running through his veins.

        "Well..." the boy took a deep breath, licking his chapped lips and letting out a huff.

"We are sorry to bother you."

Jisunv stared at the four boys, bewildered, confused as to why they were here, or what they were talking about.

"But..."

The boy taps his shoe on the porch, finding the right words for a proper reply.

The other three boys only remained quiet as they fiddle with their fingers, had their heads hung low, and with dry, pale lips.

"Maybe we can stay at your house for a while? Maybe a night or two?"

It took Jisung a solid minute to digest all the information he had to handle.

And as a result, they took the silence as a no.

The black-haired boy sighed heavily, putting on another forced smile.

"W-Well we'll get going, s-sorry to disturb—"

"Sure!"

Jisung exclaimed with a bright smile on his face, nose scrunched up in a cute manner and lips curved into an adorable heart.

The four boys drenched in the rain were taken aback by this boy's hospitality, and all of them couldn't help but curve their frowns upside down.

It's been a long time since they've been genuinely happy.

"I'm Mark, by the way!", the black-haired boy added with a wide genuine smile, his heart racing in pure joy and happiness.

"Hi, my name is Renjun!", the purple-head exclaimed, flashing Jisung a quick toothy smile.

"It's Jeno!", the boy with chestnut-brown hair said happily, a grin plastered on his face and his eyes curving into cute crescent moons.

The last boy laughed in a high-pitched manner that the others surely missed.

"I'm Chenle!", the boy giggled joyfully, feeling the adrenaline coursing through his veins.

And of course, pure happiness.

.❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。

        🌸 | a/n !
— before i revised this chapter, it was onlg 1,700 words. but today i changed it a bit and it's now at a whopping 2,300+ words lmao
— i hope this revision was worth it... i also revised chapter two and maybe i'm going to revise a few chapters when i finish the whole book
— i hope this chapter was nice !! ilysm !!! 💚
[ revised 20190807 ]
— HYUCKHAN !