On a summer night at seventeen, the air was so thick it felt impossible to breathe. Their parents had traveled south for a relative's wedding, leaving the old apartment as an autonomous territory for the three of them.
Late at night, a sudden downpour hammered madly against the window frames. Lightning occasionally lit the pitch-black living room a ghastly white, as if someone were repeatedly pressing a shutter in the dark. Yuxi, exhausted from an intense dance practice in the afternoon, had already fallen fast asleep in her room. In the living room, only Yuan and Yuhan remained.
"An, could you check the water heater for me? It seems to be acting up again."
Yuhan emerged from the bathroom wearing only an oversized gray loungewear T-shirt. The loose collar slipped off one shoulder, revealing half of her fair collarbone. Her damp long hair hung casually over her shoulders, with tiny droplets of water sliding down her neck into the depths of the neckline.
Yuan stepped onto the narrow balcony. Rain slanted in, instantly soaking the hem of his uniform trousers. The cold sensation helped clear his head a little. He mechanically fiddled with the water heater switch until he saw the faint flame ignite.
As he turned to head back to his room, Yuhan was standing at the balcony doorway waiting for him.
"It's fixed." Yuan lowered his head, intending to walk past, but as they crossed in the narrow corridor, Yuhan caught his arm.
"An, your clothes are wet. You'll catch a cold." Yuhan frowned, her expression filled with that irresistible elder-sister concern. She naturally reached out to brush the raindrops from his shoulder, her fingertips even grazing his ear in the process.
BOOM——!
A deafening thunderclap exploded nearby. The lights inside flickered violently twice before plunging into dead silence and darkness.
With sight instantly stripped away, the humidity and scents in the air amplified a hundredfold in that second. Yuan caught the scent of soap on her after her shower, mingled with the faint warmth of a girl's body heat, wrapping around him like a fine, inescapable net.
In the darkness, though Yuan couldn't see her face, he could feel her breath just centimeters away.
"Sis, don't touch me." Yuan's voice was hoarse, unlike his own. He could feel the beast caged inside him for seventeen years thrashing wildly against the iron bars named "blood relation."
Yuhan's hand froze midair. In the dark, her voice carried a trace of wounded confusion: "An? What's wrong? You've been acting so strange lately…"
"I told you, stop being so nice to me!"
Yuan violently shook off her hand, the force so great it frightened even himself. He stumbled and fled through the darkness until he locked himself in his room, back pressed against the door as he gasped for breath.
Her skin's warmth still lingered on his fingertips. Staring at the mirror at the face identical to Yuhan's, he thought masochistically: If he pressed his lips to this face that shared every strand of his genetic code, would he feel love—or destruction?
He knew this thunderstorm had not only soaked his clothes but had also completely drenched the calm he had tried so hard to maintain.