Chapter Text
The noises of scratches and struggling groans hadn't stopped coming from the corridor for a while now. Sighing, Kim Rok Soo got up from his bed, he was pretty sure it was a burglar. So he grabbed the golf club he had next to him and walked to the exit of his house to open the door.
What won’t come, will not come. What will come, will come no matter what you do.
However, there was already a stranger who was already standing outside, almost as annoyed as Rok Soo at whoever was trying to navigate in the dark.
Rok Soo couldn’t remember this man for the life of him, and just gave up with labelling him as a neighbour; probably the one with the awkward timings who had moved in 4 years ago. Despite being neighbours for 4 years, they were more like strangers than acquaintances.
It seemed that they both had the same idea; both were in their pyjamas in the hallway with a golf club or a baseball bat respectively in their hands, as a meow echoed through the silent hall.
The culprit had been a cat trying to get into an apartment, probably to steal some food in the middle of the night. Alver sighed. His precious sleep had been disturbed for nothing more than a cat.
He eyed his neighbour, suspicious and slightly concerned of his well-being when he saw the sagging eyebags for a bit before asking him, “Did you hear that?” Rok Soo nodded, “How did a cat get in here?”
They both looked at the cat, puzzled at how this small cat had managed to slip by security, but soon they realised that there wasn’t just one.
Kim Rok Soo looked at his neighbour for a second, seeing that he was also confused and that this wasn’t some sort of elaborate plan to steal his belongings, nor did it feel like a plan of a Sasaeng fan.
He went into the pool of darkness, and after a few mewls and loud purrs, the man was back with a grey and red kitten in his arms.
The little cats looked like little blots of colours in the man's cobalt blue pyjamas that had patterns of moons and stars on them.
“This one's a male,” he said, pulling the red one up, “And this one's female.” he also added, doing the same for the other.
'And what am I supposed to do with that information?' Alver thought as he looked at the eccentric black haired gentlemen confused.
The unknown man looked older than he was and due to his overgrown hair. The man spoke, “You wanna adopt one of ‘em?”
Alver shook his head, “No thanks." His face found itself looking even more so tired than he wanted to let on.
The man hummed in disapproval. Alver found himself letting his emotions free on his face, 'Probably tired.'
He thought to himself, slowly letting his eyes take in the information they were receiving.
A little time passed and the two just stood there quietly.
The silence weighed on them like a mass of carbon dioxide upon the two, Alver at some point leaning on the wall in some expectation.
Kim Rok Soo noticed the atmosphere, turned to walk to his apartment not before turning to the man, “I think you should head back home to catch some sleep,”
Only then did he catch the soft snores that escaped Alver’s mouth.
How the hell this man had managed to fall asleep in such a short time was foreign to him, however he suspected it had much to do with his prominent dark circles.
On one hand, he could just leave him there till morning, but that wouldn't sit right with his conscience. Kim Rok Soo looked at the man, and sighed, annoyed at the fact that he hadn't said anything when they were standing there but was speaking now.
He shifted both the cats onto one of his arms, while clicking his tongue.
He placed the golf club down and nudged his neighbour’s face with his finger trying to push him awake.
The man groaned a bit at the sudden contact, and Kim Rok Soo furrowed his eyebrows at this unnatural sight. This whole situation was rather surreal to him, including this particular event.
“Wake up, you’re going to catch a cold at this rate.” He told him in a brusque way, gently shaking his shoulder. “Huh,” The guy said, now half dazed but still awake. “Look here, you should just go back and sleep, since it is getting late.”
“What?” “Um…Is it already so late,” he mumbled, turning around before he looked back at Kim Rok Soo, “Ahjussi, if it's alright could I visit sometimes?” Kim Rok Soo sighed at the plea.
He had already realised that he was weak to these sort of puppy eyes. “Sure.” The man had a soft smile on his face, “Thank you, Ahjussi.”
He then walked back to his apartment a little peeved at the fact that his sleep had been interrupted.
He put the two kittens down inside before hearing a snarl grow louder.
'The youngest is the feistiest. How funny.' He chuckled, his momentary annoyance melting away.
From what he remembered since he was young, he also had to struggle like this, sometimes steal, sometimes beg.
However, he was a bit more secure after he met with his fortune. Even then, he struggled in the rosy thorns known as upper society and the ever so tumultuous life in the Henituse Estate. So, even if his path was full of thorns, he wished to provide a better life for these two strays.
***
“Alver, did you make another mistake?” The cool voice, full of disdain, spoke. And as it voiced, a metal ruler hit his knuckles, leaving them bleeding red and raw.
Alver’s eyes fluttered open as his heavy breathing tensed.
His upper body was up from the bed in no time.
The bed was soaked and he realised that he had been sweating. ‘Was it a nightmare or was I remembering something again?’ he thought frustratingly.
He looked at his alarm on his side table and winced. 6:00 a.m.
Alver woke up earlier than he planned to, on his precious weekend at that. Not to mention, because of a memory.
He rubbed his eyes and slid out of bed, walking straight to the kitchen in a trance of habit.
He put some water to boil before going to the bathroom to brush his teeth.
Washing his face, he looked in the mirror, staring at the deep eyebags and sweat dripping down their adorning his bronze face.
He sighed at the fact that he had wasted his only holiday of the week by waking up early.
It was not a good start, at most. Becoming the heir of the family was hard work, it was even harder to maintain the high position with his 'different' skin tone and well, different origins.
Honestly, if he thought about it, his whole life was that of a hidden tragedy.
A ridiculous story that would never see the light of the day.
Abused by a step mother every single opportunity back when he lived with his family just because of his colour and hair, he was treated as an outcast by them.
Someone who shouldn’t be in the same house as them.
Someone who wasn’t worthy of holding the last name as them.
Someone they wished that they should never have been born.
An outcast of all means, someone who was cheated out of any love they could get during their childhood.
The only reason he was able to snatch the position was because of his constant hard work and glib tongue.
He scrunched his eyebrows at the disturbing memories, already tensing himself at the expectation of confinement.
He let his breathing steady, his mind drifting to something that could comfort him.
Something that’s fluffy, soft even.
Something like…cats. His mind drifted to the two little kittens that he had met a couple of days ago. It had been a couple of weeks since the incident, so it wouldn't be bad if he dropped by to visit again.
Alver brushed his teeth and went back to the kitchen to brew his tea. He then took a seat and sipped on the chamomile tea that he had grown to take a liking, thinking about the work he had to complete after this seemingly short break of his.
By the time he was done with the tea, it had gone cold in his hand. He gulped it down, and then went to get a watering can to water his plants before deciding to go on a walk to be alone with his thoughts, again.
As he stepped onto the cold tiles of the terrace, he could hear some music coming through the walls.
Smooth jazz was playing through the walls, rather fast paced almost like practising which was followed by a click of a tongue.
Alver had gotten used to this instrument playing in the background of his mornings, although he had been far too late to catch it sometimes.
Knowing that it was the same person who played such beautiful emotional pieces of the music that he had heard in only the operas he visited for work purposes, only to be played so somberly and full of expression by a human was just so fascinating to him.
Alver had visited the apartment a few times since the incident and had gotten a bit more comfortable with his neighbour’s place.
He had even seen him playing his saxophone once.
His neighbour, his name as he learnt now, Kim Rok Soo, almost always needed to leave for work purposes around that time (he worked as a classical musician who was part of the Hyundai Team’s opera) and usually used to let him be there for an hour since Alver also needed to go to his job after.
Somehow this bigshot sax guy didn’t even bother being more inclined about protecting the contents of his home.
Alver sighed.
As a fellow genius of his own field, it was of utmost importance that no one ever entered his home, especially those he met on chance.
Alver really felt like he would be taken advantage of because of his casual attitude; he wasn’t sure whether it was concern or just simply because he shared similarities to himself during his college years.
Engrossed in his thoughts he could feel something wet touch his feet, he looked down to see that the pots had overflooded due to his lack of attention.
After cleaning the mess, he decided since it was early in the morning he could visit his neighbour, probably try to relax with those cats since he had so much free time to himself. This morning felt rather cold.
He covered his face with his hands, breathing through it with a hot breath.
Kim Rok Soo stared at him while opening his door. ‘Why the laugh? Can he hear the meows from my house?’
‘Ah. He heard me.’
Alver looked back, letting his hand drop away from covering his mouth and waved towards Rok Soo.
Kim Rok Soo returned the greeting in a more unemotional nod, and let the younger man pass him.
Alver nodded at the mutual agreement to not talk to each other since he was also not the type to chat up someone in the hallway unnecessarily.
He tried to walk at the same pace but he was rather sluggish from just waking up.
The last thing he saw before the door closed was a family of people who were very excited to go to the beach and the face of Kim Rok Soo who was in an elevator alone with his hand nearly pressing the doors open. “What bad luck,” Alver grumbled as Kim Rok Soo looked at him a bit apologetically.