Evening dawned on Saturday, and Umbramoor Manor was currently the liveliest place in Moonhaven, with early every student from Somber Ridge High had showed up there.
Every year on the first Saturday of the first week of school, since their freshman year, Ziro threw 'the party to start the year', and invited most of the kids that attended Somber Ridge. Encouraged by Ridley to consider widening his coterie of friends, Ziro, though unenthusiastic about it, arranged for these parties to be executed with the help of the group, and this year would be the last one.
Alex loitered in front of Ziro's closed bedroom door as he contemplated what to do. There was a metal sign with rope attached that hung from a nail on the door. It read: 'Do Not Disturb' in a menacing font and black lettering. After scouring the near entirety of the massive house, and then just resorting to asking Lev, Alex had deduced that Ziro was definitely in his room.
Though Lev had also warned him to obey the sign on the door, Alex couldn't fight his curiosity on knowing what exactly Ziro was up to while his own party was raging on. None of the group seemed to know the answer either, and usually communicated with him by phone if an issue arose during the event.
After a full minute of eyeballing the door in thunderous silence, Alex grabbed the knob and slowly twisted it open. To his surprise, it wasn't even locked and the lights were on too, but before he could get a clear view of anything, something sharp flew at him in with curt speed. Alex staggered back a full two steps before catching his bearings. He glanced over to the left of his head, and saw a black shuriken with six points stuck in the wall.
His gasp came out breathless, more in amazement than disbelief, then looked over and saw Ziro perched crossed-legged on his bed, earphones in and all his attention seemingly on the pack of cards he was playing with.
"You missed," Alex said from the doorway.
Ziro took out a single earphone and lifted his head to look back at him. "Yes, on purpose. It was a warning shot, meant to scare anyone not welcome in here."
"What about the group and me? Aren't we welcome?"
"You are. If you know me at all, then what I did shouldn't have scared you. Were you scared?"
"Well, no actually...wait, was this like a test or something?"
Ziro grinned, small yet warm. "Yes. But just for fun. It took almost four years for one of you to figure it out. Feel free to flaunt your accomplishment to the others. Now shut the door and come sit."
Alex gently impelled the door and ambled over to Ziro's bed. Before sitting, he reached a hand out and plucked the unoccupied earphone from Ziro's fingers, and slipped it into his own ear. Ziro glared at him with jagged vexation, but he was hesitant, too late to take the earphone back.
"Oh, you like k-pop?" Alex asked, eyes glittering with excitement.
Ziro swiped the earphone back, then moved to pause the music on his phone. "닥쳐 (dak-cho)."
Alex continued as if he hadn't heard. "And Syn really likes it too. I've been meaning to start listening to some songs myself...Hey, maybe one day the three of us can do a cover! My singing actually isn't that great though, so maybe a dance-"
"죽을래? (Jug-eu-llae)" Ziro uttered, his face twisting partially, becoming threatening.
It took a moment for Alex to understand what he had said. "Oh...oh. No thanks. I'm very fond of living. Why don't we talk about something else, like why you're holding yourself up in your room during your own party?"
"I'm not a party person," Ziro said blandly.
"With all the setting up we did today, you've fooled me."
YOU ARE READING
Moonhaven 2 (M2): Round 2
Teen FictionBook 2 of 2 in the Otherworldy series. It's been three weeks since Alex Prior had his lethal meeting with a drug dealer, and a baneful encounter with a sinister individual known as Eric Hyve. It hasn't been easy keeping his feelings about those rece...
