Sweet Devil [BL]

Chapter 30. Sneaking Out

Every step the two children took made the stairs creak and squeak, yet Dereck's grandmother never reacted, not even tilting her head toward the noise. Her wrinkled hands didn't stop, and she continued to quietly knit, glancing at the television from time to time. The volume on the television was turned up high, covering the noise the children made.

Silently, the two boys observed the old lady through the staircase railing, waiting for the right moment with a pounding heart. They knew what they had to do, but the first step was always the most difficult. They only had one chance, and they were afraid to mess it up.

To leave the house, they had two options.

The first one was to use the front door directly, but they would have to pass through the living room to reach it, which meant that Lucette, Dereck's grandmother, would inevitably see them.

The second option was to use the backdoor in the kitchen. However, the living room was an open area. Therefore, Lucette only had to turn her head slightly to see what was happening in the kitchen. Even if some furniture could hide them while they moved around the room, the kitchen was mostly empty. So, it wasn't the best place to play hide-and-seek.

In this house, sneaking out was quite tricky, and that wasn't only because of where the doors were located. The house's foundation was slightly elevated, meaning that the first-floor windows were higher than usual. Considering their small bodies, jumping out of said windows would surely result in an injury. Although Misha was reckless, he still knew when to court death and when not to.

Also, he had eaten enough hospital food in the past few days to last a lifetime, if not several. So he certainly didn't want to be hospitalized again because of a stupid injury. Better be safe than sorry.

Discarding the previous idea, they then thought of climbing out of the basement windows instead. But they had to walk through the living room to reach the stairs that led to Lucette's apartment, which wasn't any better than walking directly to the front door.

They were in a deadlock, and Dereck proposed telling his grandmother that they would play outside for a while. Then, they could use this excuse to leave and buy whatever Misha wanted to buy. However, this plan also had a big loophole. A bay window overlooked the backyard, and he knew his grandmother would sit beside it to watch over them as they played in the yard. They couldn't leave under her watchful eyes. She was half-deaf but not blind.

Therefore, the only choice left was the backdoor in the kitchen.

The two boys looked at each other, and Misha nodded, signaling that it was time to move out. They couldn't exactly stay in the staircase forever.

Just now, Lucette glanced at the television before turning her attention back to the slippers she was knitting. Relying on his previous observation, Misha predicted that she wouldn't lift her head for a moment. Thus, it was the best time to sneak out.

After taking a deep breath, the two children silently made their way toward the door, half-crouching. For once, Misha felt somehow happy to be so small. Being short and thin made it easier to hide behind the furniture and move about unnoticed.

Even if the old lady's hearing wasn't good and the television volume was turned high, Misha didn't want to try his luck, so he was careful not to make noise.

They quickly reached the door, and Misha slowly opened it, letting Dereck step out first before following him out. Then, he gently closed the door, and both of them fled, restraining their nervous laughter with an awkward smile.

Once they reached the sidewalk, they stopped dead in their tracks. On the one hand, Dereck was not in shape, and it didn't take much for him to be out of breath. On the other hand, Misha's current constitution was also not too good, almost as bad as his friend's. He couldn't sprint for long. Otherwise, it'd feel like his lungs had been set on fire.