Chapter Text
University was slowly, no, quickly approaching and Wonwoo would yet again have to leave home to go drown in schoolwork. This time, however, he wasn’t living in a dorm, he was going to move into an apartment. Of course he would be sharing it since even tiny apartments cost a fortune in Seoul. His roommate and him have never met since they went to different schools but he has messaged him a few times.
Wonwoo wonders what he is like. Wen Junhui sounded nice in his messages. He just hopes they will be compatible together so he wouldn’t have to move out in a month.
“Wonwoo!” Wonwoo’s younger brother, Bohyuk, barges in his room.
“What do you need now?” Wonwoo sighs. His brother was always charismatic and loud.
Bohyuk takes several breaths before replying, “the Flower That Doesn’t Bloom in Summer is playing here, tonight! You have to come see it with me, hyung.”
“Why can’t you just see it yourself? You’re 18 years old.”
“I need a companion who I can absolutely gush over the play with and you’re the perfect match! Please Wonwon? I already bought tickets.”
Wonwoo rolls his eyes.
“Ok, be ready by 7:25. Show starts at 8. I’ll meet you down by the garage then,” Bohyuk heads out with that.
Wonwoo would rather stay in his room and read then go watch a show. He’s leaving in 5 days though and won’t see his brother again till another couple of months, so he might as well just go. Wonwoo is probably going to regret his decision once he’s halfway in the play.
“I am excited! I am not ready!” Bohyuk exclaims. “They’ve been mostly playing in Seoul and had two plays in Busan but this the first they come to Incheon.”
“Well if you don’t want to be late then move it,” Wonwoo takes out his car key.
“You don’t know how much I love the book, Wonwoo-hyung.”
“I believe you’ve told me you loved the book hundreds of times before. You’d think I would already figure out that you were obsessed with it”
“You’re so sassy, hyung,” Bohyuk grins.
Wonwoo doesn’t reply. He was driving to downtown Incheon where the theatre was located. In the summer, they would usually stay at their house in Busan but this year they decided to stay in Incheon since it was closer to Seoul. Wonwoo also managed to be able to shadow one of his dad’s friends who is a physician in Incheon. He probably only managed to shadow him because his dad had done him a favour a while back.
“You’re going to love the play, I promise. I’m surprised you’ve never read the book.”
“I’m not a big fan of romance.”
“Most of it is crime though!” Bohyuk throws his arms up, “I bet you 50,000₩ you will like the play.”
“Game on, dongsaeng,” Wonwoo 100% sure he will get some extra cash tonight.
They made it 5 minutes before the show was about to start and Bohyuk looked like he was going to explode from all the excitement and happiness in him, He smiled at everyone and acted like it was the best day in his life. Bohyuk was like the real life version of an excited teenage girl from an anime.
The curtain started to ope and Wonwoo looked at his dongsaeng for a reaction. He was leaning so forward in his seat that Wonwoo didn’t know how he managed not to fall off yet. Two women talking about how one of them was about to be married off to the son of a big businessman was the opening act. So far, the show is on a -5/10 on Wonwoo’s list.
It was slow and kind of boring at first. The only two deaths were of the businessman and his maid. It felt like Wonwoo had to endure this play rather than enjoy it. He was thinking of just leaving Bohyuk here and head back home when things took a turn. A man, around Wonwoo’s age it looks, steps on stage. He was…stunning? Amazing? Beautiful?
Wonwoo shakes his head to get rid of that chain of thought. His eyes were huge, Wonwoo wonders if he went under the knife. He suddenly pays a whole lot more attention to the show, or really just to him. He looks like the stereotypical guy every Korean entertainment company wants.
“Hwasa! Hwasa! Hwasa!” The man screams.
The man was on his knees, shaking the woman on the ground even though she was clearly dead. Wonwoo could see tears come out of his eyes and that made his heart ache. All Wonwoo wanted to do was to reach out to him and comfort him. He didn’t know exactly why he wanted to. Perhaps it was because his acting was so good.
The show was over. It didn’t feel that long. The plot and the actors, especially that guy, were, to Wonwoo’s surprise, pretty good. He didn’t expect the plot to twist like that and the surprise made the show much more better. It surprised him how much he liked the play.
“You coming or what?” Bohyuk asks, already out of his seat.
“Huh?” Wonwoo breaks his gaze from the stage, “oh yeah, I’m coming. Be patient little Bohyuk.”
“Don’t tell me you liked the show so much that you didn’t even notice it end.”
“Please, that thing was so boring it made me fall asleep,” Wonwoo lies.
“Yeah, yeah, tell yourself that, hyung. I’ll be awaiting your money once we get home,” he smirks.
“Evil little brat,” Wonwoo mutters.
“What was that, hyung?”
“I said what time is it?”
“Time for you to get a watch, Wonwon.”
“Treating your elders with respect sure never made it inside your pint-sized brain,” Wonwoo retorts.
“You’re finally acknowledging you’re turning into a grumpy old man?”
“Shut up.”
Bohyuk laughs. By the time they finished bickering they safely made it inside their car and was on the way home.
“Do you think mom or dad will be home, hyung?” Bohyuk stares out the passenger window.
Wonwoo was 95% certain that they wouldn’t be there but he just said, “I don’t know, I guess we’ll see.”
Sure enough, the house was empty by the time they arrived. Their maid that they hire on the weekends would have gone by 8pm. It was just a big lonely house once again. Wonwoo spites his parents at times, after all, it has pretty much been him taking care of his dongsaeng since he turned 13.
“Do you want to go watch a movie?” He asks.
“Sure but I don’t think anything could even come close to The Flower That Doesn’t Bloom in Summer.”
Wonwoo rolls his eyes. They watched a subbed version of The Avengers and Wonwoo couldn’t remember the movie ending. He dreamt of chasing opening curtains just to see them close in front of his face, but what he mostly remembered from his dreams was the man with the huge eyes.
All of his stuff was packed and ready to go. Earlier in the day, he sent out some boxes filled with textbooks, a microwave, kitchen utensils, etc., to the apartment so they wouldn’t be overcrowding the car. He wasn’t all that sad about leave the house as much as leaving his dongsaeng. Of course he’d never tell Bohyuk that or else his ego would only get 10x bigger.
Wonwoo brought the last box down and thanked the maid for taking such a great care of cleaning the house, and for helping him and his dongsaeng when needed. He placed the box carefully in the back seats of the car and called Bohyuk who was 500ft behind him to be faster.
“Be patient, hyung!” Bohyuk grins.
He ignores him and gets out the book he is reading. He would never let Bohyuk see him reading it or else Bohyuk would always remind him of it and how he is always right. Bohyuk would probably use as blackmail against him too.
“Goodbye house!” Bohyuk waves at it like it’s a person.
“Get your ass in here,” Wonwoo throws the book in one of his boxes.
“You’ve just been so nice lately, hyung,” Bohyuk puts his last two boxes in the car.
It’s about a hour drive from Incheon to Seoul. Wonwoo and Bohyuk talk and bicker about a wide range of topics like why Bohyuk wasn’t given a car yet, how Bohyuk can’t wait to see his friends, Bohyuk, Bohyuk, Bohyuk. Wonwoo doesn’t mind that all the topics contain Bohyuk though since he gets to catch up more and more with him.
“We’re 20 minutes from the outskirts of Seoul, hung.”
“Good. That means 50 more minutes till I can leave your ass.”
“Please. You’d be the saddest out of both of us once you leave me. Anyone would be.”
“Egotistical sure describes you, Bohyuk,” Wonwoo thinks of the time he missed Bohyuk a lot during his first year of uni.
Even though they both went to school in Seoul, neither had the time to see one another. Between Wonwoo being drowned in schoolwork and Bohyuk’s modelling career plus school, the days they had off were never matching the other. The only reason why Wonwoo went home in the summer was to see Bohyuk.
“What do you have in this box?” Wonwoo’s arms feel like they’re about to fall off from the sheer weight of it.
“2 packs of chilsung cider, and a cooler.”
“A cooler? Why couldn’t you have just shipped it off? Wonwoo dumps the huge box on their foyer. “Also, those chilsung ciders are like 95% sugar.”
“It’s way easier to just bring it in the car. Yeah, I know that but they’re so good,” Bohyuk says, matter of factly.
“Why do you even have cooler?”
“Ice packs, makes it so I wouldn’t have to walk so far to the kitchen, and mom told the maid that if there was any chilsung cider in the cooler downstairs to dump them all out. You know what I mean?”
“Yeah, I got the part where you said you were lazy and not listening to her.”
“Still healthier and more athletic than you, hyung.”
There is a silence as Wonwoo doesn’t reply and just looks at Bohyuk. It’s time for Wonwoo to leave.
“Don’t stare at me weirdly, hyung,” Bohyuk turns his face away from him.
“How could I not stare at you like you’re the craziest person on this planet?” Wonwoo tries to joke.
“Are you tearing up, hyung? Is this about you having to leave me for a couple of months? I swear I won’t, probably, get killed in the time that you leave,” Bohyuk smiles.
“Oh, shut up,” Wonwoo pulls Bohyuk in for a hug, “I wouldn’t disagree with the person who murdered you. You already make me want to kill you.”
“Thanks, hyung. I appreciate that you care.”
“No, but seriously, try not to get killed, be benevolent, study smart and maybe mom and dad might just have a sliver of hope in you. The next time I see you, you better have a picture of your face in, at least, a sort of well-known magazine.”
“Don’t worry, hyung, no company can resist my beautiful face. By the way, your life advice kind of sucks…like you do.”
“I swear, somebody could kill themselves just jumping off from your ego to your IQ,” Wonwoo releases Bohyuk.
He waves goodbye while walking away. He’s sad as always but he knows he’ll be seeing him again soon.
“You still owe me my money, hyung!” Bohyuk shouts.
“In your dreams, kid!” Wonwoo shouts back.
“Mean!”
Wonwoo turns around to laugh at him. Bohyuk sticks his tongue out. What a kid, he thinks. One of the reasons he loves him though. Sighing, Wonwoo pulls out his car keys and starts driving to where his apartment is located.
The door clicks open and the smell of something spicy greets Wonwoo. He closes the door and walks over to where the smell is coming from: the kitchen. Wonwoo sees the side of a man…shit. Is that him? The guy from the play? Wonwoo clears his throat.
The man jumps and takes out his earphones, “oh shit. You sure scared the shit out of me,” he puts his hands over his heart, “almost gave me a heart attack and everything.”
“Sorry, should have given you more warning,” Wonwoo says, truly sorry.
“It’s fine, my friends love to pull pranks on me that makes me want to cut him into a million pieces,” he smiles, “I haven’t even introduced myself to you. Hi, I’m Wen Junhui, your new roommate.”
“Um, I’m Wonwoo,” he says, awkwardly.
“I ramble when I’m super nervous so if I’m annoying you, you can just tell me and I’ll shut up.”
“No, I don’t mind,” Wonwoo half smiles.
“Okay. I’m currently cooking some spicy ramen, I’m guessing you’re probably hungry, and it’ll be ready in 10 minutes.”
“I’ll just go and bring up my stuff then.”
When Wonwoo leaves the apartment, he immediately feels reassured that his roommate wasn’t the one that’s like, “this is your room, here’s mine, let’s avoid one another for the rest of the time we stay here”. He sure is happy it didn’t turn out to be when he dormed up with somebody in first year. He ended up moving into a single room dorm.
Phew, Wonwoo thinks when he puts his last box in the small living room. This whole apartment could be the size of their two master bedrooms in their Busan house. His stomach grumbled and Wonwoo was glad he’d be getting food soon.
“We’re going to have to eat on the floor since the only things I’ve unpacked was a pot, and other kitchen utensils,” Junhui carries two bowls of steaming ramen to him. “I hope you can take spicy food.”
“I can handle most foods except for seafood,” Wonwoo tells him.
Junhui hands him a bowl, “then dig in.”
The food was not bad, better than the instant ramen packages he’d just heat up in the microwave. It was really, really spicy and halfway in, Wonwoo’s nose started to drool.
When Wonwoo finished he asked him, “I feel like I remember you from somewhere.”
“Maybe. Where do you think you remember me from?”
“Were you in a play called The Flower That Doesn’t Bloom in Summer?”
“Yes! I was the guy who decided to take revenge on the people who killed his soon-to-be wife and eventually went stir crazy.”
So it was him, “have you read the book?”
“I read it when I was first learning Korean. The book was really amazing.”
“Are you Chinese? You have a little bit of an accent.”
“Yeah, I am. Come, we should actually unpack and make like rules or something,” Junhui gets up.
Wonwoo washes the dishes even though Junhui argues that he should be washing them.
“You cooked, now the not-cooker must not not wash the dishes,” he smiles.
Junhui stares at him for a second, “was that supposed to be a joke or something?”
“Maybe.”
“Your jokes are terrible Wonwoo.”
“Terribly amazing.”
“That only confirms my thoughts about you making terrible jokes.”
Wonwoo just smiles.
“Which room do you want?,” Junhui changes the subject, “They’re both pretty much the same size, one just has a smaller closet.”
“I don’t mind, you choose.”
“No, I’m fine with whatever. You choose.”
“No, you choose,” Wonwoo says, almost menacingly. “You cooked food for me so you should choose.”
“Fine! I need to actually look nice so I’ll go with the bigger closet.”
“Are you saying I don’t need to look nice?”
“Yes, no. You already look nice.”
Wonwoo flushes.
“Besides, you could wear the same thing everyday and nobody would notice since your major is biochem.”
“Just because I’m studying science does not mean no professors care about what we wear. Whenever we do labs we have to wear safe clothing or else we don’t get to do it.”
“The struggle is so real,” Junhui exaggerates. “Anyway, let’s move on to rules.”
“Yeah, let’s move on them before I disprove your ass.”
Junhui rolls his eyes, “No hosting parties or having friends over before telling the other person, we’ll divide chores and switch them per week. So for like one week, I’ll do laundry and you can do dishes.” Junhui pauses, “I don’t think you can cook but I’m willing to cook for both of us.”
“Ah, yeah. Cooking ain’t my expertise.” Wonwoo admits.
“That’s cool with me. I’ll teach you one day,” Junhui smiles, their mini argument already forgotten.
His smile made Wonwoo’s stomach twist weirdly. Wonwoo ignored it, maybe it was because of the spicy food. Wonwoo never really learned to cook since he always had people cook for him before. It was a big mistake now since his meals in uni mainly consisted of cafeteria food or ones that he just needed to heat up.
They spent the rest of the evening unpacking and chit-chatting. Their whole apartment was unfurnished but, luckily, Wonwoo brought two air mattresses so they at least had something to sleep on. Junhui proposed they both sleep in the living room but Wonwoo, sort of, lied that the living room was too small, so he slept in his room.
“We need our apartment to have a colour them,” Junhui looks at all the furniture in the store.
Wonwoo didn’t want to have the same thing repeat from yesterday so he said, “I’d like to have a modern theme.”
“Like glass tables and such with dark and light accents?”
“Sure,” Wonwoo didn’t mind.
“Okay, let’s just look at tables and beds today then.”
Wonwoo had already decided what his bed frame and mattress will be like. He still needed a study table but he didn’t like the ones they had in the store. While Wonwoo actually chose stuff, Junhui was very indecisive.
“Have you picked anything at all?” Wonwoo looks at him.
“No. I don’t know which one I should choose,” Junhui groans.
“Want to look at dining tables then?”
“Maybe I will finally be able to decide something there.”
“What about this one?” Wonwoo points at a table.
It was a small round table with a glass top and a dark wood for its stand.
“Not bad but if we were going to choose that then most of the wood would have to revolve around that kind and colour.”
Wonwoo just sighs.
In the end, they chose the glass dining table and a coffee table that was similar after Junhui gave up on looking for others. They spent 3 hours in there just to buy one mattress and bedframe, a table, two chairs, and coffee table. Wonwoo paid for his stuff and the round table, while Junhui paid for the coffee table.
“We need to go grocery shopping,” Junhui says once they’re in the car.
“Didn’t you already buy food yesterday?”
“Yes, but I didn’t know what you liked.”
“I’ll eat pretty much anything.”
“Still.”
“You’re so bossy yet so indecisive.” Wonwoo grins at him.
“Don’t act like it won’t benefit you too,” Junhui grins back.
The feeling occurs again in Wonwoo’s stomach. He doesn’t like the feeling of it and turns his head back to the road.
They get lots of chicken and more vegetables and fruits, specifically cauliflower, boychuk, and apples.
“Looks like all our meals will contain chicken from now on,” Junhui stares at the bag that only contained chicken.
“I don’t mind,” Wonwoo loves chicken.
“Of course you won’t.”
“Let’s go over to the beer store over there.”
“Are you serious?” Junhui stares at Wonwoo.
“Yes, come on. I’ll pay.”
Wonwoo saw Junhui shake his head and smiles. Wonwoo learned that Junhui’s parents were also filthy rich. That wasn’t surprising since studying abroad means you’re either well off or in years of debt.
When they got to their apartment, Wonwoo and Junhui carried the boxes that contained their round table and chairs. All their other stuff were being shipped off and would arrive sometime tomorrow. While Junhui cooked, Wonwoo built.
“How close are you to finishing it?” Junhui pokes his head in the living room.
“Nowhere close,” Wonwoo says, forcefully, “why did I not buy power tools?”
Junhui eyes the hammer and screwdriver beside Wonwoo, “idiot. Guess we’ll just eat on the floor again.”
“You didn’t think of buying them either!”
Junhui pretends not to hear him.
“When are your lectures,” Junhui asks once they start eating, on the floor.
“I got mainly morning and early afternoon lectures,” Wonwoo gets up. “I’ll just show you my schedule.”
Junhui looks at the paper Wonwoo gives him, “okay, most of your classes are when mine are ‘cause mine are mainly morning and early afternoon too- you go to SNU?!”
“Maybe.”
“Junhui has his mouth open, “I can’t believe I’m rooming with Korea’s top 1% students.”
He looks at Wonwoo like he’s this rare endangered species.
“And that’s why I don’t tell anyone,” Wonwoo looks down at his food.
“Don’t worry, I hardly doubt you’re perfect. Anyway, since most of your classes line up with mine, I won’t have to worry about waiting for you to cook meals.”
“That means I have to spend more time with you,” Wonwoo fakes being annoyed.
“You wish. Besides, I don’t like studying at home since there are too many distractions.”
“Me too,” Wonwoo agrees. He’d much prefer a library.
Wonwoo spends the rest of the afternoon building the furniture with little help from Junhui. His hands hurt but he feels proud when he sees the final product. Perhaps it was a bit weird to feel proud of it since many other people don’t have power tools either.
“Um, Junhui?” Wonwoo feels kind of awkward.
“Yes, your majesty?” Junhui smiles at him.
“Idiot. So, The Flower That Doesn’t Bloom in Summer, what do you think about the woman who took on the arranged marriage?”
“She obviously did that because she wanted to make her parents proud of her and she didn’t want to become a disgrace to her kingdom. Seems like why she did it.”
“Well if she didn’t agree to it then she would have never killed her future husband’s mistress and caused a whole massacre.”
“Well, do you really think she had a choice though?”
“Not exactly?” Wonwoo thought of when her father came into her room to threaten her to agree with the marriage.
“Then I think you should blame the society and her parents.”
That ended their conversation. Afterwards, they both order more furniture online. They agreed on a small black couch and two black bookshelves. Then both of them spent the night making sure they have everything ready for university and studying. Only two more days till Wonwoo doesn’t sleep for another 8 months.