"Elle!" My mom fusses, her eyes wide and shocked. She's looking at the room thermometer, and going insane that the temperature had dropped one degree. "Why in the world did you let this drop? It could affect your health!"

As you can see, my mom isn't the hardest person to faze.

"Mom," I groan. "It's one degree. I'll be fine."

"You will not, young lady. The doctor said constancy of temperature. And the last time I checked, constancy means to—"

I bite my lip, tuning out her voice like I always did when she got like this. She worried about everything. Even the slightest shift in temperature, just the tiniest amount of outside air—

Apparently, according to her and her precious doctor, could kill me.

"Mom." I repeat, going over the usual answer to one of her episodes. "I'm sorry, and I won't let anything like this happen again. The temperature will always be 68 degrees, and will always stay 68 degrees."

"It better be," She sighs, adjusting the dial furiously. "Remember your medicine—at exactly 4 o'clock. Take it with 100 milliliters of water—not one milliliter less or more."

As always.

"I know, mom." I say in practiced monotone, watching her close three layers of doors as she leaves the house.

The first one was an air filtration system—so that not even a single molecule of "contaminated" air—according to my mother—could get in. The second door was a system that cleared the visitor from all outdoor contaminants, and the third a regular door that was locked from the inside at all times.

I thought we only needed the third door.

She believed that we needed one more, just in case anyone decided to break into the house.

When I heard that, I told her she was delirious, and she scolded me for not caring about my precious life so much.

And then I told her I technically didn't have a life—with all these walls separating me from the outside world—and she told me to go to my room.

Knowing that my mother would constantly be going over the many cameras in the house, I decide to follow the tedious protocol—check if all the windows were locked, if the doors were all working like they were supposed to.

It would make her happy to see me doing that, and I intended to keep the only person who'd ever been in my life pleasant.

The only glimpse I could ever get of the outside world was through the large windows my mother had workers built all over the house. As if it made her guilty that her seventeen year old daughter had never gotten a chance to see what world actually looked like, she had basically made the house into something she thought would keep me satisfied enough to not venture out.

But if she thought that real world was full of soft, artificial grass and blooming flowers, I couldn't disagree with her more.

The real world was nothing like the paradise built into my room.

Pressing my forehead against the cool glass, I look out at the house next to ours.

It'd been empty for months, ever since the boy living there had accidentally broken the glass with a drone.

And my mother had been so angry that she took the matters to court, where I guess people went to to get kicked out of their houses.

Because that's exactly what happened.

And it had been unoccupied since—

Until now.

A boy's face fills the window opposite mine, his eyes wandering until it catches my surprised ones.

His already big eyes go even bigger, and he ducks down so I can't see him anymore.

An incredulous laugh chokes out of my throat.

Was he afraid of me?

But only a few seconds later, I can see the top of his ebony-haired head, slowly emerging until it shows his eyes again.

When I hold his gaze curiously, he waves at me, which just takes me aback even more.

What's wrong with him?

But he was the first person I'd ever had to talk to, and I wasn't about to pass this chance up because of stupid rules that my mother made up.

1. Never engage in conversation with someone you don't know.

2. If that person does try to start one, then simply leave, and don't look back.

I smile, and wave, deciding that I'd been a good enough girl for the day.

An unfamiliar warmth flushes my cheeks as I see him smile, his eyes crinkling into cute crescents and his lips wide and genuine.

It isn't one of those fake smiles my mom and the doctor gives me, and it's enough to hand all of my trust over to this stranger I'd officially started interacting ten seconds ago.

Were all outside-world boys were as cute and adorable as this one?

He slides down his window, waving me to do the same.

I cringe when I see him do it so freely—so deliberately. But he doesn't have the stupid allergy that I have- an allergy that could kill me with just a tiny dabble of the outside world air.

His eyebrows rise when I shake my head, signaling a wide X with my arms. Something prickles in the back of my mind, growing bigger and bigger with every passing second.

Please don't leave. Please, please, please.

But he doesn't, and my smile is brighter than the stars at night.

The boy makes a sign that he gets it, and looks down at his lap for a few seconds before pulling up a piece of paper and pasting it against the window.

I'm Jungkook! What's your name

Something in me feels excited than I've ever felt before, and I hurry to scribble down an answer on the nearest piece of paper I can find.

Screw rule number 15.

15. Never tell strangers your name, or any other information about you. You never know if they are vampires or not.

My hand trembles with excitement, and some of the letters come out a bit warped. But the boy understands, and looks down again.

Do you have a phone?

My face falls a bit at the fact that I didn't. My mother thought that giving me a phone would only expose me to the outside world, just make me more curious than I already were.

I have a laptop. Do you have an email?

But even she knew that I had to be educated, and online courses were the best idea she could come up with. Of course, all social media sites were completely blocked off except for gmail, which I only had one known contact.

Mom.

It makes me more than happy as I add Jungkook, and I make sure to check that my mother wouldn't be coming back to catch me before immersing myself with this unexpected friend I'd found.

It wasn't an understatement that she'd literally kill me if she found out I was doing this without her knowing.

From. Jungkook

Hi, Elle. Is the person I just saw driving away your mother? Blue Sonata?

To. Jungkook

Yes! Sorry I couldn't open the window. My mother is kind of against that.

From. Jungkook

It's completely fine. I have a hyung who hates opening windows- he says it only brings pollen and he's the one who always has to clean it up.

I giggle, and a new message dings from Jungkook.

From. Jungkook

Just made you laugh, didn't I?

I laugh again, and nod through the window. My heartbeat has been abnormally fast the last couple minutes- my mother would be freaking out to know that it had gone past a regular 90 bpm a while ago.

To. Jungkook

You have a hyung? You're so lucky- I'd love to have someone other than my mother.

From. Jungkook

It's great- but not really when six of them are trying to hug and kiss you every second.

My eyes go wide as I reread the message a few more times before confirming that I hadn't mistaken the shocking number.

To. Jungkook

SIX? You have six brothers?

From. Jungkook

Well, they're not my birth brothers, but they might as well be one. They practically raised me in place of my parents.

From. Jungkook

Mind if I come over?

Do you guys like the start?