Chapter Text
It took a while, but Min-su and Se-mi were finally having an eye-to-eye conversation. At first, it was still about the crazy coincidences that they find themselves in.
“What if we knew each other in another life and the universe put us together because we had unfinished business back then?”
Min-su quickly found out that Se-mi is open to many beliefs, and the universe is not exempt from that. It’s a cool thought, knowing a girl like Se-mi in his past life. He has no idea what he did, but he thanks the past him for finding this girl.
“What, like star-crossed?”
He doesn’t mean to be negative, but she did say “unfinished business.” Who knows what that could mean?
“I guess something like that. I mean, there seems to be something that wants us together now. So it must be an apology. Who would’ve thought?”
Exactly, who would’ve thought that? Not Min-su; he just thought he had gotten insanely lucky. But divine intervention honestly seems more plausible than him having good luck, which sounds incredibly pathetic.
“Enough about this, though. What about you? I only know that you live on my floor and know those two junkies. What do you do for work?”
There it is, the dreaded scenario. Having to tell people he’s unemployed. And then on top of that, he has to say to people he’s in college and not studying something that will have him respected.
“I don’t have a job. I, uh, I’m a college student, actually. You know, the one by our apartment?”
He blushes a bit at referring to his apartment as “our apartment.”
“Ah, really? What are you studying?”
“Education.”
Min-su scans her face for any kind of confusion. The confusion that arises when someone doesn’t fit the box you put them in. But he doesn’t see that, just curiosity. She intertwines her fingers to put on her chin, and she tilts her head.
“Why education? I don’t see many people going into that nowadays.”
Because who wants to deal with children and angry parents twenty-four seven? Min-su, apparently.
“Yeah, I wanted to go into it because I think I work well with children. I want to help people develop early on.”
He doesn’t tell her the whole reason on purpose. She’d probably think he’s a wimp for getting bullied his entire childhood. He doesn’t want looks of pity either.
“What a noble reason!” She laughs.
“I think I do well with children, too. However, I didn’t go into that field.”
Min-su raises an eyebrow. Se-mi chuckles.
“I worked in a bunch of small gigs when I first came here. I was working in a restaurant before I went to Club Pentagon. It’s why I wanted to be a bartender there in the first place. When making drinks, I get into this type of autopilot mode. And the people aren’t half bad. Well, most.”
As Se-mi speaks about her job, Min-su can only stare at her. Her story is interesting and explains why she’s at Club Pentagon. Not that he didn’t expect someone like her there.
“Anyways, I never got to actually ask, what was it like with Thanos and Nam-gyu?”
Gyeong-su chose that exact moment to come back with Se-mi’s order—she ordered it right after they started talking, placing it down in front of her. Good, the way she was eyeing Min-su’s cake had him worried just a little bit. She gives a big smile before thanking Gyeong-su and immediately picking up the small fork provided to stab into the moist food.
Se-mi shoves a piece of her cake into her mouth. And Min-su embarrassingly finds himself hypnotized by the way her mouth moves as she chews. Moving around in small circular motions, it has him entranced. What would they feel like? Against his skin, he means. Would they be as soft as they looked? Like being kissed by a cloud.
God, what he WOULD give to be kissed by a woman like her.
“-ood, Min-su-a?”
The whipped boy blinks rapidly as he comes to. Suddenly, he remembers he’s inside a cafe. You know, a public area, in which he just fantasized about kissing this girl that he had just met.
Like a loser. What is wrong with him?
“What was that?”
“I asked if you were okay. I asked about Thanos and Nam-gyu, and you got all… spaced out. Kinda freaky. Your eyes got huge.”
Great. Now she thinks he’s a freak..
She’s not wrong, but damn, already?
“Yeah, haha… uhm. SO! Thanos and Nam-gyu?”
Se-mi startles at Min-su’s sudden loud tone, but she quickly gathers herself and nods. She takes another bite of her cake, which she notices sadly is almost gone.
“They were…” Min-su gives a very long pause as he tries to find any word in his current lexicon to describe the two men he was subjected to spending an amount of time with.
“Interesting.”
Future teacher, by the way.
Se-mi snorts into her cup before actually taking a sip of her drink. Min-su watches her throat as she drinks. When done, she sets it down on the table.
“Well, that's certainly a nicer description of them than I’d give.”
Min-su completely forgot that she knew those two—kind of weird how they’re all connected like that. He chuckles and starts to scratch his skin, feeling that familiar itch of nervousness.
“Heh, yeah, they brought me into this weird private room. Not going to lie, I was kind of scared. I thought they were going to do something strange.” Min-su shivers as he remembers standing alone with Thanos as Nam-gyu went to fetch Se-mi. If he hadn’t accepted Nam-gyu’s offer to go to the club, he wouldn’t have gotten to meet her. Well, at least, not at that exact moment. Given that they live on the same apartment floor and know the same places in the city, it's a miracle they haven’t met already. He’s kind of glad he went, even with how uncomfortable it made him and all.
“Honestly? When I caught you outside the building, I thought they had drugged you for some sick entertainment purposes. Not to scare you further or anything, but they are the type to do something like that. If they weren’t so stingy over their shit.”
It didn’t scare him, but he’s now ten times more cautious of the two.
“No, nothing like that, I was just drunk. That’s really all we did—drink. Nam-gyu and Thanos had found out I was a ‘heavyweight’ and kind of… went crazy?”
Min-su makes a quotation gesture with his fingers as he says ‘heavyweight’. He isn’t trying to brag or anything. He doesn’t really think he’s all that special for knowing how to hold his liquor, but Thanos and Nam-gyu seemed to get a real kick out of that fact.
“You? A heavyweight?”
Se-mi was busy flagging down Gyeong-su as he was speaking, but after he mentioned the alcohol thing, she looked back at him—-hand still in the air—-with slightly widened eyes.
“Mhm…” Min-su fidgets with his hands a bit. Does she think he’s some sort of alcoholic now? Shit shit shit, what does he do? He’s not some drunkard who gets irrationally angry and drinks excessively to feel a buzz.
“Didn’t expect that from someone of your size. That's kind of cool. I can only handle so much before I have to tap out.”
Min-su blanks as he looks at Se-mi. She’s turned from him and is talking to Gyeong-su, who has made his way to their table, and orders another slice of cake and a refill on her drink. He expected her to look at him weirdly. Not think it’s ‘cool’. It’s supposed to be a strange quirk of his.
When the waiter boy leaves, Se-mi turns to him and rests her chin on her intertwined hands. She tilts her head and looks at his face.
“You’re quite expressive.”
That takes him from the prison that is his thoughts.
“Am I really?”
“Mm, yeah. Though, I can’t quite tell what you’re thinking exactly. Usually, I can read people like a book. But you’re different. I like that. I’ve always liked different.”
“Oh, you’re really red now.”
Min-su touches his face and isn’t shocked to feel how hot it is. Se-mi really knows how to push his buttons. And he loves it.
“I guess I am. Well, enough of me. I want to know more about you, Se-mi. If that’s alright.”
Min-su gives a nervous chuckle as he looks at Se-mi. She looks at him too, blinking owlishly. Her face stretches as she gives him that lovely smile.
“Of course it’s okay! Now, what do you wanna know?”
“Uhm, how old are you?”
“How old are you?”
Min-su adopts a confused look on his face as he stares at Se-mi. She had just asked him to ask a question, and instead of answering… she asked a question in return? Why would she do that? Is there some sort of trick here? Does he answer honestly? But if he answers honestly, wouldn’t that make his whole being seem more pathetic?
Not the time.
“I asked you first, Se-mi.”
“Well, I asked second, so there.”
Is she actually doing this? Why be so childish? Wait, why is he even entertaining this? He guesses it’s more silly and cute rather than irritating, but still! Why do this?
“Twenty-four.”
“Damn, you got lucky, so am I. What month?”
“June..”
“Hah! I’m older than you!”
Min-su breathes in, “Should I call you Noona then?”
Se-mi says nothing as she bites her lip and blushes a little. He’s glad he made her react that way. She traces the rim of her cup with her index finger as she looks up at him.
“Well, aren’t you bold?”
She pops another piece of cake into her mouth. “But no, you don’t have to..”
They fall into a comfortable silence as they both think of what questions to ask each other. Min-su doesn’t want to ask anything too personal, but he yearns to know everything about her at the same time. The conundrum has him wanting to pull his hair out. Meanwhile, Se-mi happily eats her cake while observing the man in front of her. To some, he wouldn’t be all that interesting, but to her, his very existence is compelling. Min-su’s eyes are enormous. They’re so dilated that the color of his eyes is almost gone.
“What are you thinking about, Min-su?”
That gains his attention, his eyes lock onto hers, and they contract. He’s not very expressive facially, but his eyes do all the talking.
“H-huh? What do you mean?”
“Your eyes get super dilated when you’re deep in focus. Also, I could practically hear you thinking, It’s really only us in here.”
Se-mi is right. Besides the noises of Gyeong-su working behind the counter on god knows what, it really is just quiet. The only patrons are Se-mi and Min-su. It's quaint.
He was lost in thought, but he didn’t think it was so apparent on his face. Thinking back, he does remember his father saying something about that, though.
……
“Min-su-ya, so lost in thought! You’ll lose your mind that way.”
Poor 16-year-old Min-su is sitting with his parents at dinner, seemingly glaring down at his bowl. His father looks at his son with vague amusement. His son was always staring at something. He must have his own little world in his head; it would certainly explain why Min-su would never talk to anyone.
“What’s on your mind?”
Min-su looks up to his parents and startles a little as he notices their eyes on him. He had been approached by a group of boys today and ‘gently coaxed’ into taking care of their work for an indefinite period of time. He is not looking forward to that.
“Nothing.. It’s nothing.”
“Min-su-ya, if you keep wandering around in your head, you’ll eventually get stuck there.”
Min-su’s mother is only politely telling him to join the real world for once.
“Bah! He’ll tell us if anything's wrong; he’s probably worrying about a girl! You see that look he gets in his eye.”
He feels his body run hot as his father teases him. He’s never been with a girl. His mother ‘gently’ smacks his father on the arm with a yell as his father laughs, but Min-su pays no mind to that.
What looks? Is he giving a look? Oh god, what else can his parents tell if he has a ‘look’ in his eyes? He doesn’t want them to worry. But if he doesn’t want them to worry, wouldn’t it be right to tell them? But he’ll look like such a wimp. He doesn’t want to disappoint them..
“See! That look right there! His eyes get all big!”
“Oh my, you’re right! Min-su-ya, your pupils are...!”
They both share a chuckle.
……
“So, what’s on your mind?”
“Nothing, just thinking about my parents, really. They said the same thing.”
That gains Se-mi’s attention, and she perks up at the chance of learning something new about Min-su. “Your parents? What are they like?”
And boy, isn’t that a question.
His parents are good people. Really good people who only have Min-su’s best interests at heart. Making sure that he had a decent childhood, from what they could see on the surface. His father is probably the walking definition of ‘bundle of joy.’ His mother is a social butterfly. Two people who were drawn to each other from their first meeting. Picture perfect, those two.
“They’re great. My father is bubbly, and my mother is talkative. Two traits they didn’t pass down to me, huh?”
Se-mi latches onto every word that leaves his mouth with rapt attention. Filing information into little folders all in one cabinet labeled “Min-su” in the back of her mind.
“I don’t know, it seems to me you’re being pretty talkative right now.”
Huh.
“Guess I’m learning new things about myself today.”
“Just as I’m learning things about you. What is it? Dissect Min-su day?” She smiles as she says that, looking at him with eyes full of mirth. The air feels fuzzier when she looks at him like that. Min-su’s fingers twitch around nothing, wishing to grab at her hand and feel the warmth of her. He smiles back at her.
“I guess it is, but I kind of want to know more about you, Se-mi. What’s your life like?”
……
Se-mi has been having so much fun with Min-su. Not the average fun you’d get from riding a rollercoaster or dancing in a room with blinding lights flashing. However, that might just be adrenaline because Se-mi usually always feels sick after those types of activities.
Never mind that, back to her current focus. When she’s with Min-su, she feels so comfortable and happy that it’s quite unlike her. Despite her outward appearance, she is a giggly person. She loves cracking jokes and laughing. But most of the time, she is treated with hostility.
Min-su is a breath of fresh air from all of that. She feels like she can be normal around him and not have some sort of defense up. Not saying all defenses are down because they’re not.
But she can be normal with him now, or at least as normal as someone like her can get.
Min-su asks her about her life. What a loaded question.
“Well, you already know about my bartending job, but out of it, I like to do a bunch of things. Since I'm personally not in school, I like being productive. I can’t stand being lazy, honestly.”
Se-mi would tell Min-su the actual reason she doesn’t like being unproductive; being alone with her thoughts is terrifying. She picks up activities to give her mind something to focus on. Bartending was a good job for her, but she had her own little hobbies outside of making drinks and playing therapist.
“Like, I recently decided to take up baking with my friend Jun-hee. Well, she coaxed me into it, we’ll hang out and try to bake little things that we’d enjoy.”
Min-su’s eyes are dilated again as he listens to her talk. She finds it so funny. What an odd man.
There's a period of silence as the man in front of her thinks of what to say to that. Se-mi watches with amusement as he is clearly lost in thought.
“Are you… any good at it?” He hesitantly asks her, afraid she’s going to take the question as shade and blow up on him.
“Oh hell no. We suck at it, Jun-hee and I can’t measure for shit. Honestly, it’s terrible.”
“Oh, well. I’d like to try anything you make sometime, even if it's terrible..”
She laughs, “Oh, don’t lie. You’re just trying to butter me up. You’d throw it out with the first bite.”
He flushes at being called out. “No, I wouldn’t!”
Se-mi throws her head back as she laughs. From somewhere not too far from them, Gyeong-su looks at them and cringes as he wipes another glass. “God, why can’t I be at a cafe with a bad bitch?” He whispers under his breath.
……
“Come back again!”
Se-mi and Min-su bid farewell to Gyeong-su as they walk outside the building. They walk side by side as people rush past them, all having places they need to go. It’s all so incredibly fast-paced that it’s giving Se-mi whiplash. The two navigate the busy street that's on the way to their apartment.
As they’re walking, Se-mi turns to Min-su as he initiates the conversation first.
“You said you were good with children, but never went into the field. Can I ask why?”
She's surprised he even remembered that.
“Well, yeah, I think I'm good with children and all, but not many people would trust me with their kid.”
She watches as Min-su's eyes narrow a bit. He's going to question why.
“Why?”
She's so fucking good at this.
“Well, look at me. You wouldn't even expect someone like me to be good with kids.”
Although she told Min-su to look at her, neither of them stopped walking—they would be trampled if they did—weaving through crowded bodies like experts.
“Back when I looked ‘normal,’ I'd take care of some of the kids around town, but after some…changes, I kind of stopped that.”
“What did ‘normal’ you look like?”
Uglier in every way.
“Longer hair, fewer piercings, modest clothes, you know, ‘normal’.”
Min-su is back in thought, a blank look on his face as his feet carry him through the street.
“So someone like me.”
Se-mi feels like gagging at the comparison. The girl she was before was nothing like Min-su. He just insulted himself, and he didn't even know it.
“Nah, you're way cooler than I was back then.”
He turns to her with a grin, “Now look who's lying.”
That gets a laugh out of her. Good, she was starting to hate how glum the mood was getting.
The two were able to walk most of the distance back in a comfortable silence. Both are just enjoying walking together. This type of interaction pleased Min-su greatly, and he couldn't think of a better way to walk home.
Their apartment building looms over them as both Min-su and Se-mi stand in front of it. If you look up, one would think it’s falling down. Se-mi looks at Min-su, who is staring off into space. She steps towards him and waves her hand in front of his face. Blinking rapidly, Min-su comes back to the present, and his eyes snap to her fast-moving hands.
“Sorry, sorry. I was just thinking.”
She can tell. “Doing a lot of that now, huh?”
He gives her a small smile before glancing at the building, a subtle ask if she also wants to go inside. Or maybe, do something else.
“Do you want to go inside?”
“Mm, yeah. I’m supposed to talk to a friend soon anyway. I’m sure you probably have studying to do?”
Se-mi watches with barely concealed amusement as Min-su's face goes through all five stages of grief in what may be a second. It goes from a shade of green to blue (or maybe purple, the lighting outside could affect her judgment) in a semiquaver of time. Snorting, she puts her hand on his back and pushes him lightly as she walks into the building. She’d hate to be in school right now, but she won't take anyone away from their studies (that's a complete lie; she has taken multiple friends away from studying on the prospect of having fun, but she digresses).
From her hand, she can feel as Min-su tenses up at the touch and as she lifts her hand—not wanting him to be uncomfortable—from his back. He stays a little tense even after making their way into the building, but as they walk into the elevator, he calms down.
Okay. No touching, she can do that.
The elevator comes to a slow stop, and the silver colored doors open. The long hallway of doors that greeted them would be a little unnerving if they weren’t so used to it. Min-su stays behind to let Se-mi walk out first, a gentleman if nothing else. She smiles, giggling internally, as she walks past him. Min-su watches, entranced by her entire being, and he stares for so long that the door almost closes on him, and as he freezes up in shock, Se-mi puts out an arm for him to walk through.
Guess they both are gentlemen in their own way. Min-su blushes and chuckles in a way that just radiates, “I’m embarrassed, please don’t draw extra attention to me”.
“Thanks, that could’ve been really embarrassing.”
She snorts, as if it wasn’t already.
“No problem, let’s try to focus some more, though, keep zoning out like that, and you’ll walk yourself off a cliff.”
They both walk down the long hallway until they reach the area in which they have to part. They look at each other, silently trying to communicate something. Both Min-su and Se-mi speak at the same time.
“So I guess-”
“Do you maybe-”
A pause.
“Sorry, you go first.”
“No, no. It’s fine, you can-”
“Min-su, spit it out.”
YES MA’AM!!
“Do you maybe want to hang out again? Sometime soon?”
He shoots.
Se-mi tilts her head up, making a dramatic show of thinking about it, then, without moving her head, her eyes move to look at Min-su.
“I suppose I could squeeze you in my incredibly busy schedule…”
Ball flying…
Extending her hand out, she motions for something.
“C’mon, let’s exchange info.”
HE FUCKING SCORES!!!
Min-su reaches into his pocket to grab his phone with trembling hands. He hands it to her, breath almost stopping as he feels their fingers brush against each other. Oh damn.
Se-mi navigates her way to his contacts list, not commenting on the barren wasteland that it is, and inputs her number with the precision and speed that only comes from doing this over and over again. When she hands him the phone again, Min-su swears she lets her touch linger.
“Go on, send a text.”
Listening to her ask, Min-su opens the newest contact in his phone—it sits right under Nam-gyu’s contact—and sends a simple text.
Se-mi
Hi<
…
Se-mi smiles as her phone buzzes right as the message goes through. Quickly pulling out hers and sending a message back. They’re standing in front of each other, mind you.
Min-su
>Hi
Hey you<
…
Min-su nearly chokes. Basic human interaction shouldn’t feel like this.
Pocketing her phone, Se-mi speaks, “Well, I really wasn’t joking when I said I had to get back with a friend, so I guess I’ll see you around?”
Considering they live on the same floor, that isn’t far off.
“Yeah…yeah. See you around.”
They both stare at each other for an awkward moment before Se-mi smiles, effectively breaking the tension, and turns to walk off, but not before saying one last thing.
“Thanks for today, Min-su-a. It was fun.”
She doesn’t let Min-su get a word in before walking off as if she didn’t just tilt his world on its axis.
……
Min-su got approximately zero studying in, too busy marveling at the fact that he actually got Se-mi’s number. He didn’t think he’d actually be able to do it. He was even able to ask to meet up again! He didn’t freeze up like a loser.
He stares at his phone. No grown man should feel this happy-go-lucky over a simple number, but Min-su barely fits the description of an adult at all, at least, in the ways that don’t count.
His eyes drift up to the ceiling. Things are looking up.
……
“So, you gave the dude your number?”
Se-mi is sitting on the side of her bed as she calls Jun-hee. She swung her legs over the edge while biting her lip, not unlike a schoolgirl. It’s all just so funny to her.
“Well, yeah? He said he wanted to continue to meet up.”
“You guys live on the same floor, I don’t see the reason for numbers.”
”Jun-hee, oh my goodness, I will be okay. He’s not some weirdo. He’s honestly quite cute when you get to know him.”
“You barely know him.”
“That’s just semantics.”
“That’s the truth?”
Se-mi stifles a laugh. Jun-hee is way too worried about this guy. Nothing is going to happen, and she’s so going to rub it in her little face when she proves it.
“Apples and oranges. Anyways, how’s Loverboy over there? Still pissing you off?”
“Se-mi, do not even get me started.”
Jun-hee proceeded to shit on her (on and off) boyfriend for thirty minutes straight. Se-mi happily flopped down on her bed, sighing comfortably, knowing she didn’t have these problems.
Love really is scary.
Hah, suckers.