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Taehyung…was an odd neighbor.
At least, that was the impression Seokjin had so far.
He’d like to be lenient, as it had only been about a week and Seokjin believed that first impressions weren’t always everything, but once he had gotten to the fourth, fifth, and sixth impression, instead of each new encounter with Taehyung challenging his original viewpoint, it only solidified it further.
Don’t get him wrong, it wasn’t like Taehyung was an awful person—he was anything but that. However, he was definitely unlike any other person Seokjin had met before.
He could still remember the first time Taehyung knocked on his door. Seokjin opened the door to his apartment to find him standing in the hallway, toothy grin and all.
“Hi there, neighbor! My name is Kim Taehyung, I just moved in next door. What’s your name?”
Seokjin quirked a brow. Of all the possible people to show up at his door between the postman and the landlord, some bright-eyed kid was the last person he expected.
“I’m Kim Seokjin,” he answered.
Taehyung grabbed Seokjin's hand without warning and shook it vigorously, his face radiating happiness. "Nice to meet you, Kim Seokjin-ssi! I'm so glad to make a friend here already! I'm not from around here and grew up in a more rural area. City life is a new thing for me, but I think I might like it. There are so many buildings around and everything is so close by. Back home, I would have to bike twenty minutes to the grocery store, but now I only have to walk for five minutes! Convenient, right? Although, the biking did give me a chance to exercise my legs—"
Geez, the guy was a talker.
As Seokjin listened to Taehyung ramble on about his life at home, he decided to take a closer look at him. He was tall and somewhat lanky in the way young adult males usually were. His outfit was rather plain—just a t-shirt and sweatpants combo—but he noticed there were splatters of paint in some areas, which made him wonder if that was how the clothes came or if those were accidental stains. His hair was dark brown and severely mussed as if this…this Taehyung person must have spent hours scrubbing his hand through it. As for his face, it practically screamed innocence. Especially his eyes. Seokjin didn't think he had ever seen a pair of eyes sparkle the way this kid’s did.
“—and that’s when I realized it wasn’t the best idea to blow dandelions indoors. Funny, right?”
“Hm? Oh, yeah,” Seokjin fumbled. He was so focused on getting a profile on Taehyung that he forgot the guy was still speaking. “Anyway, it was nice meeting you.”
Taehyung smiled, but then glanced down from his face and gasped in shock. “Oh, your hoodie! I’m going to the same place!”
Seokjin followed his gaze to the hoodie he was wearing. His university’s logo was embroidered on the front.
“You attend this university too?” he asked. “Are you a first-year?”
Taehyung nodded. “Yep! I’m starting this year. I thought I’d move in ahead of time to get settled. What year are you in?”
“I’m in my fourth year,” Seokjin answered. “And my classes don’t start until the week after first-year orientation. So we probably won’t see each other on campus a lot.”
“Lucky we’re neighbors then, right?” said Taehyung, nudging him lightly with his elbow. “I’m sure we’ll get plenty of time to know each other! Anyway, I gotta go, I still gotta unpack some boxes. See ya later!”
And just like that, he was gone from sight, the door to his apartment on the left closing behind him.
After their first meeting, Taehyung made it a daily routine to visit his apartment. He never stayed for long, only chatting for a few minutes at a time, and Taehyung never came inside Seokjin’s apartment either. He always dropped by unannounced when he was going to or coming back from somewhere, which meant he came by at any time of the day. It wasn’t uncommon for him to come by in the early hours either, which was how Seokjin currently found himself opening the door to see Taehyung standing there, dressed and ready for the day, while Seokjin was hunched over in his pajamas, clutching the blanket he wrapped around his frame before rolling out of bed to answer the door.
“Morning, Seokjin-hyung!”
Seokjin, eyes half-closed, stared across at the cheery boy in front of him.
“Taehyung. What a surprise.”
It wasn’t.
Not in the slightest.
But Seokjin was used to rolling with the punches.
“It’s so nice of you to drop by at—” Seokjin turned to glance at the clock on his wall and barely reacted when he saw the time, “almost half-past six in the morning. What can I do for you?”
“Well, I was just about to go for a morning walk when I remembered you talking about the library downtown the last time we spoke. Would you mind telling me where it is? I was thinking about visiting it today.”
Seokjin wanted to point out that Taehyung could have just searched up where the library was on his phone and followed the directions, but mentioning that meant extra dialogue, and he didn’t have it in him to say any more words than necessary.
“You walk three blocks down to the bus stop, ride the bus for ten stops, then it’s on the opposite side of the street. You can’t miss it,” said Seokjin. He watched as Taehyung lit up at this new information he had been given.
“Thank you so much!” he exclaimed. “I’m still finding my way around since I haven’t ventured that far from the building yet. Only to the park nearby, the grocery store, and the university campus, of course. It’s huge, by the way. How did you even get from one class to the other in your first year?”
“With ease,” Seokjin replied drily. “Have fun at the library.”
“Thanks! Bye now!”
And again, he was gone from sight.
Seokjin closed the door behind him and trudged back to his bedroom where he flopped back into bed. For the next few minutes, until he fell back asleep, his mind would drift to thoughts of Taehyung and how different his day-to-day life would be now.
…
Even though it had been a short while since Taehyung had moved in and Seokjin had already gotten accustomed to his tendencies, it didn’t change how bizarre it was for Taehyung to knock on his door and talk to him every day. None of the other people on their floor had ever done this before.
He confronted him about it one day, and after he popped the question, there was an awkward silence between the two for a few moments, Taehyung fidgeting and looking down at the floor as his face began to flush a light shade of red.
“Well, since I was kind of raised in the middle of nowhere my whole life, I’ve never really lived in a place with immediate neighbors before. I’ve always wanted to know what it was like to be able to wake up and say hi to the people living next door. So…”
Cute.
At this bashful admission, Seokjin eyed Taehyung for a few more moments in silence before stepping aside, Taehyung gazing up at the open doorway in confusion.
“Wanna come in?”
Seokjin watched Taehyung’s look of confusion morph into one of genuine happiness.
“Sure!”
And so, for the first time since Taehyung moved in, they talked inside Seokjin’s apartment for longer than they usually did in the hallway. And Seokjin had to admit, it was a pleasant experience.
Before Taehyung went back to his own apartment, they decided to exchange numbers, so they wouldn’t have to wait until the next time Taehyung decided to knock on his door to have a conversation anymore.
Later that night, long after Taehyung was gone, Seokjin was making himself dinner when his phone buzzed on the kitchen counter. He unlocked his phone and read the notification. It was a new message from Taehyung.
Next time let’s hang out at my place :)
Seokjin smiled.
…
As the days flew by, Seokjin and Taehyung continued to hang out more frequently. They alternated between each other’s apartments at random, but the more they spent time with each other, the more Seokjin realized they had in common, which then made him look forward to their next hang-out sessions even more than the last. Even after Seokjin’s classes started, he would still make time out to go see Taehyung.
What they did while they hung out always changed depending on their mood. Sometimes they played video games. Sometimes they watched shows. Sometimes they just sat and talked for hours. Seokjin liked it the most when they talked. Every time that they had a conversation, he would get introduced to more sides of Taehyung’s personality.
Taehyung was an old soul. He liked jazz, he had a love for nature, and his unique way of thinking was unlike anything Seokjin had ever seen from anyone else his age. And yet, he continued to live each day as if it was his first—as if he had just been born into this world and had his entire life ahead of him to explore every new challenge the day would bring him. Seokjin admired and, if he was being honest, slightly envied his optimistic attitude. Even when Taehyung was inconvenienced, he still found a way to turn it into something positive.
“It’s okay,” he said to Seokjin one day after he tripped and fell on their way to the bus stop. “This is a sign that something good is gonna happen to balance out the bad.”
Seokjin snorted, rolling his eyes at his statement but still helping him up from the ground and dusting off his clothes. “I highly doubt that, but whatever you say, Taehyung,” he replied.
Later that same day, Taehyung found a fifty thousand won bill on the sidewalk when they were making their way back from campus.
Seokjin never doubted him again.
…
Whenever Taehyung visited the library, he would always talk about whatever he checked out in detail with Seokjin when he got back. Seokjin didn’t really read the same types of books as him anyway, so he was more than happy to listen to Taehyung talk about how good or bad a book was, even if there were spoilers here and there.
On occasion, however, Taehyung would check out a cookbook and bring it over to Seokjin’s place with a determined smile on his face.
“Let’s make something from here for dinner!”
And they would. For most of these instances of impromptu cooking, it would require Seokjin and Taehyung to go back out and pick up some extra ingredients at the grocery store, but Seokjin found that he enjoyed it regardless. It was equally as enjoyable to make whatever recipe they decided to pick from the cookbooks, even if Seokjin did most of the hard-carrying.
“Taehyung, you’re supposed to be helping me cook this food, not eat it before it’s done.”
Taehyung paused in the middle of lifting a cherry tomato to his lips and laughed that deep rich laugh Seokjin had gotten accustomed to hearing over the weeks. “I was just making sure the ingredients are fresh! You can never be too safe, you know. You’re a better cook than me, anyway, so my culinary assistance isn’t really needed.”
“Which is exactly why you need to practice by helping and not eating,” Seokjin quipped, swatting him in the backside with a wooden spoon and smirking when Taehyung yelped in pain.
“After all that I've done to ensure we only use the highest quality ingredients in our food—I’m offended, Kim Seokjin. Offended!”
“If you say so. Now, does Mr. Offended want to set the table for me?”
“…Yeah, whatever.”
…
Four weeks into becoming neighbors, Seokjin learned that not everyone enjoyed Taehyung’s presence the way he did.
The day started out like any other. He woke up, got dressed, and left for class. Taehyung wasn’t in on that day—his schedule was different—so Seokjin had spent his time in between classes messaging him. Taehyung was working on a project back at his apartment and was complaining to Seokjin over text about how tedious it was.
“It’s so boringggg” he had lamented, followed by ten crying emoticons. Seokjin could only chuckle in amusement and offer to stop by later on if he decided to take a break.
However, when Seokjin finally entered the apartment building after his day was finished and hopped into the elevator, it had just gotten to his floor when he began to hear muffled shouting from the other side of the door. Concerned, he darted out of the elevator as soon as the door opened and ran to the source of the noise, only to come face-to-face with a middle-aged man towering over Taehyung, loudly berating him in the hallway while Taehyung just stood there, mouth closed and head down.
Seokjin saw red.
He was practically on autopilot as he strode over, grabbed the man by his arm, and yanked him away. The fire in his eyes was enough to immediately quiet the man’s protests.
Whatever he said in the heat of the moment had completely slipped his memory the moment the words left his lips. All he could remember was the man turning around and retreating once he was finished.
Only when the man was gone did he turn to face Taehyung.
“Taehyung, what happened?”
Taehyung didn’t answer him. His face remained expressionless as he kept his eyes to the floor. Seokjin did nothing to push him to speak. Instead, he gently nudged the younger boy inside his apartment and closed the door. Seokjin guided Taehyung to the couch and sat him down, taking the spot next to him and wrapping an arm around his shoulder. They continued to sit in silence while Seokjin absentmindedly rubbed Taehyung’s arm, the rustling of the fabric of Taehyung’s hoodie sleeve mixing with the sound of his soft breathing.
Seokjin couldn’t tell how long they had been sitting in the living room like that, but it had been some time before Taehyung spoke at long last.
“My music.”
Seokjin looked up at him and quirked a brow. “What?”
“My music was too loud,” he mumbled. “That’s what the man had said.”
“If he has a problem with your music then he should have talked to you calmly,” said Seokjin. “Something as trivial as loud music should never give him the right to yell at you like that."
“I guess…”
“Are you okay?”
Taehyung jerkily nodded. Seokjin wasn’t convinced.
“Tae…the guy yelled at you. You’re allowed to be upset about it.”
Taehyung nodded again, and it was quiet once more, but then a noise derailed Seokjin’s train of thought.
A sniffle.
Taking a closer look at Taehyung in the darkness of the room, the younger boy’s shoulders trembled as he cried softly into his hands.
Seokjin didn’t know what else to say, so he simply just wrapped his arms around Taehyung and held him. He held Taehyung like he was the most precious thing in the world.
And perhaps, at that moment, he was the most precious thing in the world.
…
After that incident, Taehyung stopped knocking on his door every day. It wasn’t a gradual decrease. The day after it happened, he just stopped coming. It worried Seokjin to no end. Every day, he would sit on his couch and wait for the three telltale raps of knuckles on his door, but nothing ever came.
What puzzled him even more was the fact that he could hear Taehyung in his apartment next door, so Seokjin knew he was at least alive, but he just wasn’t coming by to visit. Even his texts to the younger boy went ignored, which begged the question: why?
For several days, Seokjin tried to understand the sudden avoidance. Was it because he was still upset about getting yelled at? Was it because he intervened? Why did Taehyung not want to be around him anymore?
Four days after Taehyung started avoiding him, Seokjin had decided he’d had enough, marched into the hallway, and knocked on Taehyung’s door himself.
A muffled “Coming!” came from the other side of the door as quick footsteps padded their way over. When the door opened, Seokjin watched as Taehyung’s expression went from inquisitive to mortified. They stared each other down for a few seconds before Seokjin took the initiative to speak first.
“Taehyung—"
The younger boy immediately tried to close the door again, but Seokjin wasn’t going to let him get away.
He reacted quickly and pushed back, Taehyung becoming even more panicked at the prospect of Seokjin prying the door open.
“Hyung, no!” he whined. “You can’t come in right now!”
“Please, Taehyung. I just want to talk,” Seokjin reasoned.
Taehyung shook his head, pushing back against him. “No, you can’t see it, it’s not good enough yet!”
Seokjin scrunched his face in confusion. Not good enough yet?
With one great big heave, he managed to fully open the door back up, looking around Taehyung’s apartment to find nothing out of the ordinary.
Nothing…except for the cake on the kitchen counter.
Seokjin slowly walked over to the kitchen and looked down at the dessert resting on the counter. Now that he was up close, he saw that this cake was definitely not store-bought. It was lopsided, the frosting was spread too thin in some areas and too thick in others—even the placement of the strawberries on the top of the cake was a bit wonky. Yet out of all the imperfections he could spot on this cake, the detail that stood out to him the most was the words written with a chocolate pen in the center.
Thank you Jin-hyung
“You weren’t supposed to see it.”
Seokjin whipped his head around to Taehyung. He wasn’t angry like Seokjin expected. Rather, he was quite sheepish.
“Taehyung, what’s all this about?”
“Well…” Taehyung scratched the back of his neck as red began to dust his cheeks. “I wanted to make this as a thank you gift.”
“For me?” Seokjin asked incredulously. “What for?”
“For hanging out with me; for showing me around town or around campus when I ask; for always opening the door when I knock; for being there for me…for everything.” Taehyung looked over at the cake with a forlorn expression. “I wanted to learn how to make it nice, the way you make food nice, but none of my attempts these past few days have come out right.”
Quickly putting the pieces together, Seokjin realized how much everything began to make sense now. The lack of visits, the ignored text messages—Taehyung was just busy trying to perfect a thank you cake for him without giving away his secret. Warmth bloomed in Seokjin’s chest as he looked on in what he could only identify within himself as pure unadulterated fondness, putting a hand on either side of Taehyung’s shoulders and bending slightly so he was at eye-level with the younger boy.
“Taehyung…I should be thanking you. You’ve been amazing company to me as well, and my days have been so much better with you around. You’re the greatest neighbor a person could ask for. And you don’t need to make food the way I do for it to be considered ‘nice’. I can see how much effort you put into this, and that will always be more important than how it looks. Besides…” said Seokjin, going into one of Taehyung’s kitchen drawers and pulling out a knife. “I came all this way; I might as well try the finished product.”
Seokjin cut out a slice of cake and set it on a plate, then he grabbed a fork from the drawer as well and used it to bring the first bite up to his lips. Taehyung watched him nervously as he slid the cake into his mouth, chewing slowly. When Seokjin swallowed, his eyes softened as he reached over and cupped the side of Taehyung’s face.
“Taehyung…” he said, voice dripping with honey. “It’s terribly undercooked.”
Taehyung looked positively humiliated, snatching the plate from his hands. “I knew it wasn’t gonna be good enough!” he moaned in despair. “Even though I followed the cooking time and everything.”
“So much for that, huh,” Seokjin chuckled. “Just toss it out, it might be better to start over and make a new one.”
Taehyung looked up at him with a hopeful grin. “Together?”
Seokjin returned his gaze and smiled back. “Yeah. Together.”
Yes, Taehyung was an odd neighbor…
But Seokjin wouldn’t have it any other way.