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Jiwoo shifted all his shopping bags onto one arm, body drooping with the weight as he dug his keys out of his back pocket and struggled to shuffle through them to find the right key for the door. Almost at the right key he got hasty and attempted to skip a few only to fumble the lot and drop them, his reflexes saving him from having to scrape around on the floor weighed down by groceries.
He was more careful this time, taking his time shuffling through them, securing his hold on the correct key and trying to slide it into the lock only to find he had it upside down. He sighed to himself, flipped it over, unlocked his door and slipped inside, kicking it shut behind him before kicking off his shoes in the entryway and walking into the main room.
There was someone on his couch. He froze mid step.
Even from across the room Jiwoo could see bruises ringing around his neck despite the high collar in place attempting to hide it. The make up on his face not enough to truly cover the darkening bruises nor completely mask the swollen curve of his cheek. His leg was gingerly pillowed on a cushion though it looked like a casual footrest too anyone unfamiliar with people looking too casual to hide injuries. Peaking out from behind the couch he could see a full bag of what he assumed were his belongings.
Sucheon, who was on his couch, looked up from his phone and stiffened in his spot, sprawled out on his couch. The longer they stared the more nervous Sucheon began to look until his face scrunched up into nervous anger and opened his mouth to snap at Jiwoo.
Jiwoo continued on into the room as though nothing was off.
“So we’ve got two options for dinner tonight, Naengmyeon or beef Bulgogi, I really can’t decide so I bought both. Any preferences?” He asked and let Sucheon stare at him from his couch like he was a crazy person for not questioning him. For instance, how did he get in? No, Jiwoo only moved into the kitchen and started to put his groceries away, humming some cheery song whilst he waited for Sucheon to answer him.
All the fight in him poofed out of existence and he dropped back against the couch cushions, forcing down a round of what would be hysterical tears that he doubted Jiwoo ever wanted to deal with.
“Bulgogi.” He said, voice heavy, and Jiwoo chirped back his acceptance and set to prepping hours before dinner so he wouldn’t have to rush later and to give Sucheon a bit of time to adjust. Noticing how he’d laid back and covered his eyes with his arm.
Jiwoo chopped up the meat, readied the marinade and sealed it all in a ziplock bag before tucking it away in his fridge. Suddenly regretting doing all his chores early in the day he looked around for something to do and found only Sucheon back to absentmindedly scrolling through his phone.
It was polite to provide tea for guests...
He put on the kettle, grabbed two mugs and hung tea bags over the side of them.
“Do you take milk or sugar with tea?” He called into the lounge, and immediately felt Sucheon’s heavy gaze baring down on his back, then it slid away.
“Two sugars with a teaspoon.” Sucheon said.
Jiwoo slid the sugar over and pulled open his cutlery draw to grab a teaspoon. He laid it next to the sugar, committing Sucheon’s preference to memory before he wandered off into the bathroom. Crouching at the sink, he opened the cupboard and dragged his box of medical supplies out, popped off the lid and rummaged around until he found a bottle of pain killers. He shook one out into his palm and packed everything else away just as the kettle binged to let him know it was done boiling.
He hurried back, made their tea’s, two sugars for Sucheon and none for him and carried them over, the singular pill making it a little difficult to carry both mugs at the same time. His own he set on the arm of the couch across from Sucheon and he handed the other directly to him.
“This as well.” He said, holding out the pill, Sucheon eyed it with suspicion, “It’s a painkiller… It seemed like you might have a headache?”
Sucheon’s face did a thing, like he was holding his face still to stop it from doing something else making it look almost comically like a fake scowl. He held out his hand and Jiwoo dropped into his palm then went and sat down with his tea and pulled out his phone to see what he’d missed on his social media. All the while ignoring Sucheon being very still and watching him like he was going to jump up, call sike and kick him out.
“You’re not going to ask anything?” Sucheon demanded, and Jiwoo met his gaze sipping from his tea.
“Do you want me to?” He asked and Sucheon’s face flew through several emotions Jiwoo wished would never be there again. Instead of speaking, which Jiwoo suspected he might not be able to right now, he shook his head and Jiwoo smiled.
“Then I won’t. I don’t need to anyway. You’re welcome to stay as long as you want.” He said and went back to his scrolling for a second before he paused and looked back up.
“You should know though,” across from him Sucheon looked like the backhand he’d been waiting for since Jiwoo got home was about to send him through the wall, “Jisuk, Subin and Wooin like to drop by whenever, without warning. It’s kind of an open door policy here.”
And he went back to his phone and Sucheon drooped back on the couch, face blank.
“Oh,” he said, “that’s fine I guess.”
He took more than a moment to digest that, Jiwoo’s house was basically open invitation at all times. No questions asked. Nothing to be answered for. He looked at the little pill he was still holding and took a sip of his tea before shoving it in his mouth and swallowing it down with a disgusted grimace. Then he looked at Jiwoo a little more as though if he looked hard enough he might be able to learn just what the fuck was going through the younger’s head. When that didn’t work he made himself comfortable where he could see Jiwoo out the corner of his eye just in case and went back to mindlessly scrolling.