Sweet (not) Home || Lee Eun-Hyuk

Chapter 1: The Three Forms of Man (...Boys)

Lilith groaned as she glanced at her phone. The screen had lit up while she was cleaning the kitchen, and she almost fell off the step stool when she saw her mother's name.

That woman could not leave her alone.

To anyone else, it may seem wrong to be annoyed with a parent texting them after they moved out of the country. To Lilith and Apollo, well, they would rather just block the numbers if given the chance.

Lilith did block her number, actually. Her mother called her from everyone else's phone instead.

She sighed as she stepped down to the ground, grabbing her cell from the table. She knew what it was going to say. It didn't exactly make her eager to see it.

When are you coming home? I can't stand Alice's sly little remarks anymore. They won't even let me see Alexandra. It's awful for our reputation, you know.

Alice, Apollo's mother, who had treated Lilith more like a daughter than her own parents.

And Alexandra, Apollo's sister, who Penelope treated more like a daughter than her own.

And Apollo, who was treated as no more than anybody's offspring, including the parents who raised him.

It was impossible to decipher the relationship between the two families, but if you were looking for a rundown, the overall conclusion is that Apollo got fucked in all aspects.

The two knew their families never approved of their decision to move away, for reasons ranging from reasonable to just petty.

Lilith's family thought that she was throwing her life away to live with an impulsive, attention-seeking boy who was dramatic and ungrateful. Apollo's family thought that he was stupid to run away with a girl whose family was crazy and narcissistic, and even though we love her, it isn't a good idea for you to live in a foreign country with her, who knows how similar she really is to her parents.

Leaving home was not a pleasant experience, but it only reminded the pair why they needed they made the decision in the first place.

Their parents only reminded them that leaving never truly got rid of the problem.

Or perhaps it did get rid of the problem, and these new ones took its place.

Whatever it was, it really put a damper on her mood. She hoped Apollo's parents weren't harassing him as well, especially with him being at work.

Lilith had run out of responses for her mother, and at this point, she did not care enough to be creative. She shot back a simple text saying,

You can always ignore her.

The girl ran her hand through her hair, frowning as she pocketed her phone. It was three now, meaning Apollo would be arriving home shortly. She decided she should start cooking since she had been planning to bring leftovers to the boy who lived with his sister across the hall.

It had become a sort of routine between the two since she had moved in. He had originally brought the best friends freshly made kimchi a few days after they arrived, and in return, Lilith decided to bring over a chicken pot pie that she had made herself. Ever since then, the two would go back and forth bringing food for the other on random days of the week. Apollo teased her relentlessly about it, but he didn't seem to complain when he was eating the authentic Korean food neither of them knew how to cook.

Plus, they saved money on groceries. And considering the boy lived with his sister at such a young age, she felt fairly confident in saying both households needed all the help that they could get.