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They’re a close knit community, the tenants in Jaehyun’s building. A year ago, upon finding out that he—a young, single man—was moving into his own unit, he was gifted enough side dishes and homemade meals to last his first month. (He’s not a bad cook himself, though, and made sure to repay everyone with his own hand rolled kimbap and promises to “stop by any time”).
All of the residents in the homely three-story building are lovely, but Jaehyun isn’t ashamed to admit (in his head) that he has a favorite neighbor in particular. Not to be dramatic, but Doyoung—second floor, unit 5—is quite possibly the most beautiful person Jaehyun’s had the honor of laying his eyes upon. He greets Jaehyun with a wide, gummy smile in the elevator every morning as they cross paths on their ways to work, and they chat until they must part at a stoplight a few blocks north of their building: Jaehyun goes left to a bus stop, and Doyoung turns right towards the train station. Doyoung is around Jaehyun’s age, has an affinity for mint chocolate chip ice cream, and insists that he is unbeatable at karaoke. Even now, a year and some change after their first awkward morning walk together, Jaehyun thinks that every new thing he learns about Doyoung is simply the most fascinating information he’s ever heard.
But what gets to him the most—what really, truly destroys him—is the fact that Doyoung is great with kids. Jaehyun loves kids. He’s nowhere near ready for his own, but he wants one someday—or two; maybe even three—and seeing Doyoung with Jeno makes Jaehyun’s heart just melt.
Jeno isn’t Doyoung’s kid. There was a brief period where Jaehyun went through premature heartbreak when he thought that Doyoung was a happily married family man, but one day he saw a couple carrying Jeno out towards the parking lot with the little boy crying, “No! I wanna stay with Uncle Doie!” and his heart swarmed with reinvigorated butterflies. It turns out that Jeno’s parents are often busy with work, so—much to Jaehyun’s delight—Jeno spends a lot of time at Doyoung’s place.
Holidays in their warm and friendly building are often a communal event. The whole neighborhood is made of closed off apartments, and such tall, looming buildings aren’t exactly inviting to outsiders even on the cheeriest of days. Instead, kids stay inside and roam door to door on makeshift Easter egg hunts; dumplings are shared between floors for Chuseok; and there’s never a shortage of Christmas and New Year’s gatherings around every hallway corner during the end of the year.
Jaehyun loves holidays here—partly for the cheer and joy or whatever, but mostly because they give him an excuse to see Doyoung outside of their usual casual routine. As the last unit on the third floor, Jaehyun twiddles his thumbs and waits for the familiar sound of little feet running towards his door. Jeno will leap inside and latch onto his leg, and Doyoung will hurry behind with an adorably exasperated expression (“Jeno, how many times have I told you to be gentle?”). Jeno won’t get in trouble though, and he and Doyoung will spend the rest of the evening hanging out with “Jae-neighbor”—laughing and stuffing their faces with snacks and feeling like a real life family, almost.
Jaehyun is currently waiting for this part of the night now. It’s Halloween—about 8 PM—and the flow of children has all but completely subsided. He’s handed out candy to superheroes, princesses, and a very convincing Chucky doll, unfortunately. Interacting with all the kids has been wonderful and precious and Jaehyun’s heart is just about full, but he’s still eagerly waiting for a particular pair of dewy eyes to tip him over the edge.
“Jeno, no running!”
“I wanna show Jae-neighbor my costume!”
Jaehyun’s off his couch in an instant, corny old slasher film completely forgotten and hands grasping haphazardly for his bowl of nearly depleted candy. Jeno’s legs are very small, so Jaehyun must wait a few more seconds for that quiet little knock; all he can do is stand in the middle of his apartment and try to calm his mind while surrounded by pumpkin string lights, glittery bats, and paper skeletons taped to the ceiling.
Knock, knock, knock.
Jaehyun takes a breath and opens the door.
“Trick or treat!”
Jeno stands proudly in a fluffy white jacket two sizes too big, material going all the way to his ankles, and a white tail peeks out from beneath it. On his head, nestled in his jet black hair, is a headband with white pointy ears, and he has a black dot painted on his nose.
“I’m a samoyed!” Jeno says before Jaehyun can even ask.
“He’s very into dog breeds right now,” a voice says three steps behind the excitable child.
Jaehyun wants to give Jeno attention, but his eyes immediately turn to Doyoung—and he feels his mouth go dry. Doyoung is a very simple, very lazy vampire, but god he looks good. His eyes are lined in smudged, smokey black and his lips are a deep, ruby red. He wears a loose white top with a very low neckline. Flowing sleeves cinch at his thin wrists and its hem tucks into form fitting black pants. Hardly any skin is showing but Jaehyun still finds himself wondering if it’s appropriate for Doyoung to just walk around like this.
“Trick or treat!” Jeno says again, and Jaehyun snaps back to reality.
“I dunno…” Jaehyun says, crouching before Jeno. “Dogs aren’t supposed to eat chocolate…”
Jeno gasps and looks at Doyoung with a concerned expression.
“That’s okay,” Doyoung says, kneeling behind Jeno and pulling him into a hug. “Jeno is only half samoyed, right? His human side can have chocolate.”
“Yeah!” Jeno says, holding his plastic pumpkin out expectantly.
Jaehyun laughs and dumps all of his remaining candy into the bucket. “That’s a relief,” he says. “I was saving the best chocolate just for you.”
Jeno’s eyes practically sparkle. “I have so much now!” he says. “Jae-neighbor, wanna see?”
Jaehyun stands and steps aside to let the two of them in, as usual, but suddenly the lights flicker, stabilize for a moment, then—blackness. Silence drops over the whole building and suffocates the air like an eerie weighted blanket; in Jaehyun’s apartment, the TV shuts off and even the quiet thrumming of the refrigerator is missed.
“A power outage?” Doyoung wonders out loud. “Too many electrical decorations around, you think?”
Jaehyun feels a small hand grab onto his sweatpants.
“Well… Come on, Jeno,” Doyoung sighs. “We have flashlights back at the house.”
Jaehyun’s heart sinks at the thought of Doyoung leaving so soon. He didn’t even get five minutes with him—the night can’t be taken from him this quickly.
“No!” Jeno shouts.
Both adults jump in surprise at the unusually loud voice.
“Jeno,” Doyoung begins, but then Jeno starts crying.
“I don’t want to go down there,” Jeno sobs. His grip on Jaehyun’s pants tightens. “It’s scary!”
Doyoung tries to pick Jeno up, but Jeno is anchored to Jaehyun. “The stairs aren’t scary,” he says, voice soft. “You go up and down them all the time.”
Jeno cries louder. The wheels in Jaehyun’s head turn.
“They are scary!”
“Honey, we have to go home,” Doyoung urges gently. “It’s not safe to stay out in the dark. Home is safe, right?”
Safe—
“Stay here!” Jaehyun blurts out. As his eyes adjust, he can just make out Doyoung blinking up at him. “Like you said, it’s not safe,” he adds hastily. “Even with your phone light, going down the stairs in a blackout isn’t great. He seems pretty spooked, too… Let him rest here. I don’t mind, really.”
Doyoung hesitates, but Jeno is still crying and he’s glued himself to Jaehyun’s leg at this point. “If you’re sure…” he says hesitantly. “I don’t want to impose… We don’t know how long this will last.”
“It’s absolutely fine,” Jaehyun says. “I promise. Please, stay.”
Doyoung takes a moment to stroke Jeno’s hair and wipe at his cheek with a thumb, then, finally, he smiles at Jaehyun. “Alright. Thank you.”
By the time Jaehyun finds all the candles he owns and gathers them in the living room, Doyoung has managed to calm Jeno down to small, hiccuping whimpers as he bounces the boy in his arms and paces around the couch. Jaehyun tries very hard not to steal glances at the sweet scene as he adds light to the room one flickering wick at a time. He’s so focused on not paying attention to Doyoung, that he knocks a candle off of the coffee table when Doyoung speaks to him.
“It smells so good in here now.”
Jaehyun scrambles to put the—thankfully unlit—candle back onto the table. “Oh, yeah,” he laughs slightly. “Sorry if it gets overwhelming. I’m pretty sure pumpkin spice and ocean aren’t meant to go together, but my mom keeps giving me candles whenever she visits and she loves scents, so…”
Doyoung smiles and rubs soothing circles into Jeno’s back. “I like it,” he says. “I think candles make a place feel like home.”
Jaehyun lights the last flame and stands, rubbing his hands on his pants nervously. In the soft yellow glow surrounding them, Doyoung looks even more like a mythical creature than before. “He seems to be feeling more relaxed too,” he says, nodding his head at Jeno.
Doyoung rests his cheek on Jeno’s shoulder. “I think he tired himself out,” he whispers, then smiles widely when Jeno lets out a very timely yawn.
“You can put him down in my room,” Jaehyun offers. “I left the flashlight in there so he’d have something brighter.”
Doyoung’s eyes soften. “Thank you.” He takes Jeno out of the living room and goes to Jaehyun’s bedroom—a thought that Jaehyun definitely doesn’t need to fixate on at the moment.
While Doyoung is gone, Jaehyun rummages through his kitchen for anything that he thinks might suit the occasion. He ends up with a plate of mini brownie bites and two hard lemonades—Doyoung is either going to find him very pathetic, or very endearing.
Fortunately, it’s the latter. Doyoung laughs when he enters the living room again and sees Jaehyun sitting on the couch staring at the coffee table where his sad attempt at being a host is expertly placed between two candles and some plastic spiders. He slinks down onto a cushion, pops a brownie into his mouth, and opens one of the chilled drinks.
“So,” Doyoung says, raising his bottle, “not exactly a roaring Halloween party.”
Jaehyun opens his own lemonade. “I dunno,” he says. “It’s not every day I get to hang out with a vampire.”
Doyoung snorts and nudges Jaehyun’s shoulder. “Don’t make fun of my costume,” he warns. “I’ll bite you.”
Jaehyun’s ears grow warm. “You look good,” he says. “I should have dressed up too. I’m sure Jeno would have loved it.”
“He likes you no matter what,” Doyoung says, leaning his head against the back of the couch. “He was dying to see you all evening.”
“Really?” Jaehyun asks. He makes the mistake of looking down at Doyoung and his breath catches in his throat at the soft expression reflecting back at him.
Doyoung takes a long, slow sip of lemonade. “Well, he wasn’t the only one.”
It takes Jaehyun’s brain a second to register that. He opens his mouth—to say what, he doesn’t know—but he’s cut off by a brownie being pushed against his tongue. Doyoung’s fingers—his long, pretty fingers—are feeding him right now.
“Ah,” Doyoung instructs, and his mouth opens slightly to mimic Jaehyun accepting the treat. Subtle flames dance across his painted red lips.
Jaehyun chews through the sticky chocolate then downs half of his drink in one go. It’s nowhere near strong enough to get him tipsy, but it does make his cheeks pink. Doyoung notices and strokes the skin with his thumb.
“I can’t tell if you’re innocent or not,” Doyoung hums, pressing the top of his bottle to his lower lip. A smudge of red stains the glass.
“What do you mean?” Jaehyun hears himself ask.
Doyoung’s thumb moves up to trace the shape of Jaehyun’s flushed ear. “Tonight turned out to be very convenient,” he says. “I think most people—if they were just friendly neighbors—would have thought, ‘Oh well, Halloween is over.’ Maybe escorted me and my scared nephew back to our apartment, to be extra nice. But to let us in when the blackout could last all night… Surely that’s going above and beyond.”
Jaehyun swallows dryly, but he’s too afraid to move and drink again.
Doyoung shifts—turns his body on the couch so he rests on his hip and faces Jaehyun completely, blouse pulling loosely across his chest. “So, Jaehyun…” he drawls. “Are you innocent or not?”
Jaehyun surprisingly has half a mind to snatch their bottles and place them on the table, but that’s all the thinking he can muster before he’s pulling Doyoung in by the waist and kissing him as though he’s the vampire and Doyoung, the enticing snack. Fittingly, Doyoung tastes of sweet, decadent chocolate. He feels Doyoung react positively to the kiss, arms draping over his shoulders and mouth parting easily.
“This is okay?” Jaehyun manages to mutter.
Doyoung laughs and pushes Jaehyun back enough to give him room to—sit himself in Jaehyun’s lap. Jaehyun’s eyes flutter at the position and he pulls Doyoung as close as he can, but Doyoung takes the reins from there. He cups Jaehyun’s cheeks and leads him in kiss after kiss; lips sliding in sloppy, wet presses of long overdue desperation. He moans against Jaehyun’s tongue and Jaehyun’s hands clench at his waist.
They have to be quiet—Jeno’s sleeping in the other room. They have to be quiet, but… for what? How far is this going? Jaehyun doesn’t know what to expect because Doyoung is so warm and eager and good, and the way he saw through Jaehyun so clearly tonight must mean something, right?
Doyoung begins to move. He rolls his hips so slowly, so teasingly; every press down in time with each new kiss. He moves, so Jaehyun moves: hands roaming up Doyoung’s sides, palming roughly at Doyoung’s chest; rubbing fabric over sensitive skin and eliciting a lovely whimper. Doyoung copies him and shoves his hands under the hem of Jaehyun’s T-shirt, pushing it up as his fingers wander along toned, tense muscles, making Jaehyun’s body twitch in response.
When Doyoung trails his lips to Jaehyun’s jawline, Jaehyun can finally catch his breath. He sucks in deep, inhaling a concoction of scents, and moans on his exhale as Doyoung nips at his neck in a hot, slick trail. Jaehyun feels a rush of ecstasy shoot from his stomach to his toes.
They have to be quiet. Jeno’s—
Noise blasts through the apartment, exploding through the once-dead silent air. Lights shoot on, the fridge whirrs, and the TV blares with high pitched suspense as a woman screams for her life. Jaehyun’s heart pounds in his chest and his eyes shoot wildly around the room.
From the hallway comes crying.
Swiftly and with purpose—as though he wasn’t just making out with his hot neighbor—Doyoung slides out of Jaehyun’s lap and wipes at his mouth as he hurries into the bedroom on legs that seem much steadier than Jaehyun’s feel.
Jaehyun presses his hands to his face and takes a few breaths before reaching forward for the remote and turning off the loud, very disruptive movie. He goes around the room and blows out each candle, watching the remnants of his perfect night disappear with each fading wisp of smoke.
When Doyoung returns, Jeno is holding his hand and walking on his own. Aside from looking like he’d just been rudely startled from a nap—which he was—he appears to be in much better spirits than before. He rubs at his face and checks that his puppy ears are sitting perfectly on his head.
Jaehyun must admit that he’s more concerned with how Doyoung is feeling, though. He braves a glance at his neighbor and sees, with relief, that Doyoung is looking at him with an amused smile. There’s a challenge in his eyes, as though he’s daring Jaehyun to continue what they started.
Jaehyun, feeling confident, runs a hand through his hair in a calculated display of nonchalance. He’s good enough for Doyoung. Doyoung wants him. He has to play it cool, though; be a little hard to get. Keep it exciting. Doyoung came on to him because of his plan, so he has the upper hand here. He’s sexy, he’s desirable, he’s so fucking smooth—
“Jae-neighbor, what’s that red stuff all over your face?”