spectrum【fem!reader .lookism】

A/N: Heads up that this entire chapter is just a flashback!! Spoilers to Eli's past just in case you haven't read that yet (doubtful, but yeah—)

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No one was supposed to see her that day.

(Y/N) was supposed to do it as she has been doing for the past years. After she dug for food in that house's trashbin, she would've just vanished as silently as she came.

But the backdoor opened before she could even leave. And a pair of eyes blinked at her.

(Y/N) stumbled back, almost toppling over the trash bin in her haste. She could only feel slight relief that it didn't make too much noise to alert others, but it quickly vanished as the other presence remained.

"A–ah...I'm sorry..."

The boy's dark eyes only stared back at her for a while.

And then he turned back to go inside with no other word. As if he never saw her in the first place.

(Y/N) decided she must've been lucky.

When she returned that day out of curiosity, she caught sight of the boy throwing the trash and closing the lid.

Maybe it was a sudden spark of confidence that prompted her to ask, "Why did you turn away?"

The boy refused to look back at her in the eyes, simply choosing to keep walking back inside the house.

"I shouldn't be with a girl in the same room, or I'll get in trouble."

And then he left again.

Against her initial plans, she came back the next day. And the next. And the next. But not once did the boy talk to her more than a sentence.

He repeats the same thing he told her before, almost like a broken record.

It must've been her own insistence and want to find answers that left her looking up at the tall wall. Behind that wall is the same trash bin that the boy passes every day. She waits for a while, until she hears movement.

"I'm (Y/N)," she spoke loudly.

She hears the sound stop for a long time.

After a few more minutes of nothing, she was convinced that the boy already left.

"Why are you there?" a faint voice carried out.

"Because you said you can't be in the same room as a girl."

To the young (Y/N), her logic made complete sense. As long as there is a barrier dividing the two of them, they are technically not "in the same room".

"You're always here."

"Because I want to talk to you," she responded.

"Why?"

Because he is odd. Because he spouts weird things every other time she talks to him.

Because her own curiosity wants to know why she wasn't caught the first day.

But all she said was a meek "...I don't know."

...

The pause in between is awkward, neither knowing what to say next.

Then,

"Eli."

(Y/N) stared blankly at the wall for a while, processing the information.