mark truly was a loving brother, there was no doubt about this.

he was trying his best to take care of his sister when he knew she didn't have a fatherly figure – none of them had heard anything about their dad after the divorce.

mark knew how much it was hard for their mother, and so, he tried helping her as much as he could by picking maria up from school, or simply babysitting her at nights, when jane wasn't there.

he had always been kind and loving with her, but he couldn't do it anymore. not when maria wouldn't shut up about her dolls.

"mark, do you think he'll look better with the grey or the yellow shirt?" maria asked, tugging on mark's sleeve while the boy was texting his friends.

"maria, please, i don't care about your doll." mark rolled his eyes.

"but i need your help. i want haechan to look beautiful." she pouted, looking at her only male doll with sad eyes.

mark sighed, putting his phone aside to give his sister some attention.

"what did you ask me?" he raised a brow.

"what shirt i should put on him." maria replied nonchalantly.

"i think the yellow one will fit better." mark pointed at the miniature yellow t-shirt. "it will make a nice contrast with his tanned skin."

"okie!" maria happily exclaimed. "and do you think i can make butterfly wear pink?" she continued, showing mark her newest doll who had beautiful butterfly wings.

"pink it is..." mark nodded before picking his phone back up and replying to his messages.

mark couldn't understand the admiration his little sister had for dolls, let alone for her male doll. he didn't even remember her liking male dolls in the first place.

in his mind, the sole thought of a male doll was strange. for him, dolls were supposed to be pretty girls, wearing colourful make up, having well-combed hair, and gorgeous body proportions to fit in the most beautiful dresses. he couldn't understand the purpose of a male doll.

but it seemed like maria didn't have the same opinion as she worshiped haechan like no other doll.

mark had noticed how his sister would get bored of a doll.

usually, after receiving a doll, maria would play with it for two weeks before getting bored of it and asking for a new one, or simply focusing on an old doll that she had forgotten about.

but it wasn't the same for her male doll.

in fact, she had been given this doll three weeks ago, and she hadn't stopped playing with him or talking about it.

haechan this... haechan that...

mark couldn't bear it anymore.

it felt like haechan had become a member of their family.

maria kept bringing him everywhere, and she had even arranged him a seat next to her around the dining table.

haechan would always be there, eating with them, watching tv with them, doing basically everything with them.

he was like a pet, but a lifeless pet that didn't have needs. mark found it weird.

and what was even weirder was that this was the only male doll his sister seemed to like. and also, that she seemed to like it even more than any of her female dolls.

🎀

mark's eyes shot open, but he closed them again as soon as they got burned by the bright ass sun rays that went through his open window.

placing his hand over his eyes, mark reopened them and rolled on the side of his bed to grab his phone charging on the bedside table.

"fuck!" he yelled, realising it was 9:12a.m., more than an hour after the beginning of his classes.

the boy stood up in a hurry, picking clothes randomly on his desk – they were clothes from a few days ago that he had been too lazy to put in the laundry basket – and wearing them on his way to the bathroom. mark brushed his teeth while placing a few copybooks inside his school bag, doing it too quickly for those two actions to be well done.

things like these kept happening to him, because he was very forgetful and tended to forget to set his alarm before going to bed. and he wasn't woken up earlier by his sister's yelling early in the morning because she had slept at a friend's house, and their mother was surely already at work.

anyway, this was a tough morning for mark.

the teenager got out of the house at 9:23a.m., ready to run his way to class.

and he started doing so. however, he stopped at the end of the road, too out-of-breath to even continue.

while panting, mark pulled his phone out, intending to text his friend lucas and warn him that he was on his way to class, but before he could even do that, he realised that eh actually had one unread message from this lucas guy.

mark unlocked his phone, and opened the message immediately.

'don't bother coming to class if you wake up late, mr son isn't there today, so we don't have class until 1pm'

mark let out a choked sigh, closing his eyes as he leaned on the fence of a property nearby.

so, he had rushed like that for nothing? he could have stayed in his comfortable bed longer?

after sending lucas a thank you message, mark turned around, walking back slowly to his house.

once he saw his porch, mark pulled his keys out of his pocket, cursing at himself when he recalled he had forgotten to lock the door because he was in a hurry – if his mother came to know this, he was dead.

mark pushed the door handle of the house, without inserting the keys, but strangely, the door was locked.

"i locked it?" he asked himself, wondering how he could have forgotten that he had locked it.

he shrugged it off and inserted his keys before opening the door. when he closed it, he realised that another set of keys were already inside the lock, inside the house.

"god, i wasn't awake, like, at all." he chuckled, rolling his eyes as he kicked his shoes off.

he still had a few hours in front of him to rest, and he intended to use this time very wisely.

"let's get back in my pyjamas, and then sleep." he spoke to himself as he headed towards his bedroom. however, something made him stop in his tracks before he could reach his bedroom.

someone was singing, and mark was sure this was no illusion. someone was singing inside their house. and more particularly, a male.

mark's brows furrowed as he allowed himself to be guided by the – beautiful – singing voice that he could hear.

the sound led him to his mother's bedroom, and once he had entered the neatly organized room, mark understood it came from the attached bathroom.

he had no idea who could be in there, and he was seriously starting to stress about who he was going to find out.

mark grabbed the wireless lamp that was on his mother's side table before approaching the bathroom. he took a deep breath, and once he had gathered enough courage, he pushed the door open, lifting the lamp to hit the person that was in the bathroom if he threatened him.

"ahh!"

mark flinched at the stranger's scream of surprise, and let's say he didn't expect to meet this kind of person.

he was standing in front of a tanned boy with blonde hair that looked around his age. and judging by the way mark's mother's make-up palette was smashed on the floor – and the fact the boy had glittery eye-shadow on one eye only – mark guessed he had been applying his mother's make-up.

"now, who the hell are you, and what the fuck are you doing here?"