Her mouth was slightly agape, her hazel eyes wide, face pale. Going off her face, she was obviously shocked. Her hands were sweating, from what I could see, clutching the sides of her white, too-big Pooh-Bear shirt tightly. She slowly nodded her head, pulling herself together again. "So you always talk like this? It isn't just because we don't know each other? It isn't b-because my home isn't as...?" she trailed off again, her face flushing in embarrassment. "What am I saying?!" she asked herself aloud nervously.

I stared at her in incomprehension for three seconds.

Wait...She honestly thinks I care at all about money? Is she serious?

Seok, she doesn't know anything about you. It is only logical that she's going to assume you care at all about anything…

Raising a hand up to rub at my temple, I shook my head once. "No, it is not because of that. Again, Miss Arnold, this is just how I am."

She cut me a long glance, before slowly taking in a deep breath. After another second, her face softened out into another smile. She nodded, her hand rising as if to reach for me, before dropping to her side. "Alright. Well, we'll just have to get used to one another, won't we?" she asked brightly.

"Yes," I agreed. Turning on my heel, I took in the house.

From the outside, it was a one-story modern bungalow-style home with an attached garage on the left front-facing side of the house. The siding had been done in a dark, slate grey shade. There was a front porch, which held a white wood porch swing in front of a large window looking out to the front of the house. Along the top edges of the house, as well as the pillars that held up the front porch itself, were beige accents, which helped brighten the dark color of the house. The actual door to the house was located a few feet further in from the front steps and led into a very small entry room.

To my right was a door that I assumed opened to allow coats to be hung in. It was a simple white color; very little decoration having gone into sprucing the mudroom up. Though—even as I had that thought pass by in my mind—I saw there was a small brown table set up in the corner of the far-right side of the room with a pot of fake dark blue orchids resting there to add a bit of color. A dark tan mat for mud and wet shoes was right in front of the entrance. I was standing on it. Beneath my thin brown flip-flop sandals, I could feel how firm the mat was. Besides for the mat, the rest of the mudroom floor was made up of a wood tile design.

Leading out in an open doorway to the rest of the house were two hallways just past the mudroom. The hallway walls were done with an interesting wallpaper I'd never seen before. Truthfully, I found myself liking it almost instantly and it helped me feel a little better about this whole arrangement. Sure, it might just be a small thing, but everything would be helpful in my adjustment to living with strangers…

The wallpaper was white at the top, up until the middle of the wall. From there, it shifted into an ombre palette of blues and blue-green before the wallpaper reached the floor which continued the wood tile design. The hallway I was currently facing led toward what looked like the living room, and the second hallway had only one door that I could see from here at the very end. To my right was a gold-leaf mirror on the wall that was against the entry room and a corner around the far end of the hallway I couldn't see. Across from the mirror was a collection of family photos in white frames.

Mackenzie's voice pulled my attention away from beginning to observe the photos. She started down the right-side hallway, glancing at me over her shoulder. "This is the hallway that leads to the girls' rooms," she was explaining, "as well as the bathroom they share. The other one is connected to my room, the master bedroom."

I left my suitcase in the mudroom since I saw no real reason as to why I should bring it any further inside quite yet. Unhindered, I followed her, feeling awkward. With how big I was compared to her, I was worried the four-foot hallways would make it a little too easy to accidentally touch…Especially when I thought about having to share this place with two other people. Even so, my face showed no sign of my internal thoughts.

Mackenzie pointed to the door that had been visible at the other end of the hallway. "This is Maria's room, for now, maybe. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with your living space," she admitted a little hesitantly, blushing faintly.

"I wish to cause you three as little trouble as possible," I started, but she let out a short, nervous laugh.

"Anyway, this is the door to the hall bathroom." A door right next to Maria's I hadn’t been able to see because of the corner. "This is the hallway closet for the towels, extra toilet paper, stuff like that." This one was right across from the bathroom door. "This is Selena's room." This door was in between the other two doors, which would mean it was the room that looked out over the front porch I had observed earlier. All the doors were white, but had dark blue trim along the edges, accenting the effect of the ombre wallpaper.

Mackenzie turned around, careful to avoid brushing against me, returning to the hallway intersection. She pointed to a door which had been on the right, closest to the front entrance. "This is the laundry room, and this is the inside door to the garage." She pointed to a door on the left further in. We passed by the two doors and continued on into the rest of the house.

On the near left was another door that Mackenzie told me opened into the pantry and the mechanical part of the house. To the extreme right was the open kitchen and dining room design, done in matching colors and in a style I was a little surprised to find didn't instantly make me cringe. The floors of both rooms were white and light grey checkered tile.

Starting from where I was standing right past the hallway opening on my right in a wall-hugging, sideways L-shape was the refrigerator, counter space, stove, more counter space, corner of the house, sink, and then the dishwasher. The cabinets were all done in pure white, as was the kitchen island in the middle of the room. The countertops were all a black marble, with dark pink wallpaper against the backboard of the kitchen walls. This design followed into the dining room with the walls being dark pink, the upper trim white, as well as the window curtains. A round table big enough for five people, white with black chairs and dark pink seat cushions, took up most of the space.

Surprisingly though was an ocean-blue, wide-brimmed, low-hanging lamp over the dining room table. It took me a little by surprise, considering how all the others colors of the kitchen and dining room had matched so meticulously.

A window on the far side of the dining room revealed a wide window which looked out over a small back porch. Close to the window, on another wall in the living room proper, was the door leading out to the back porch. The living room walls kept up the same shade of dark pink, the color somewhere in between a cerise and ruby pink shade. The floors here were a very pale-yellow wood color, different from the hallways darker wood tiles. But what differentiated the living room walls from the dining room and kitchen were the designs. Along all the upper and corner edges were large, white, and elegant vines which were in full bloom with white morning glories.

The furniture of the living room itself—which included a black, low-level stand for the 40" TV, a short but wide black cabinet to the far left wall of the living room, a very comfortable L-shaped black couch, and a black bookshelf to the immediate wall leading to the rest of the house—was pretty sparse. There was a large white carpet at the foot of the couch. Anyone sitting there would have a soft texture for their feet, which was a plus, I supposed. The wall with the bookshelf led to another door which Mackenzie pointed to. "That leads to the master bedroom where I sleep with my own bathroom," she murmured as she turned from near the couch to face me. "...Well, that's it. This is home," she chuckled, reaching up to brush her curls behind her ears.

I turned my head a little to take the whole place in one last time. "I see you all like to keep things colorful," I observed.

She winced, biting her lip. "Is it the pink?" she worried.

I shook my head, facing her again. "No. I have no qualms about the colors you've chosen. In fact, the expectations of today's society of my tastes based on my gender aside, I quite like it. The tone is very well done. It is not as painful as hot pink, which would honestly hurt my eyes after five minutes, but it's not so light of a shade that I get the sense you are ashamed to admit you like the color enough to incorporate it into the design of your home."

She blinked, staring at me, before slowly shaking her head. "Seok, please don't take this the wrong way...You're going to take some getting used to."

This is a perfect moment to smile and make it seem like it's a joke.

"Yes, I am aware. But I can flip that around and add that living in a home with three females will take quite a bit of getting used to as well," I replied blankly.

Instantly her eyes filled with guilt that she hadn't remembered, as well as a small hint of surprise. "That's right, your mother passed in childbirth...Mat never remarried?" she cleared her throat to hide her curiosity. She didn't realize she was an open book to me though. I already knew, acknowledged, and accepted that this woman could have easily been my own mother if her feelings had been returned.

This was all some sick, poetic justice Mathew had wrought by naming Mackenzie as my godmother.