Work Text:
1
The thing was, Taerae had been lucky to find this apartment.
Especially on such short notice.
Lucky to have a friend of a friend that had a friend that knew the landlord of a building that just happened to have an opening and was able to help get him in as soon as possible, without even really looking over the place beforehand.
He’d lucked out again with the apartment being in a good neighborhood, with enough space for his meager amount of boxes and complete lack of furniture. The only real downside was that the place was a little outdated, a little behind on the times. The appliances had seen better days, and instead of the doors opening with a keypad like his last place, his entry into his apartment depended solely on a set of keys, a notion that almost seemed archaic nowadays.
But beggars can’t be choosers, and Taerae needed a new place, more than he needed to be picky.
“Don’t worry if you lock yourself out,” Jiwoong, his new landlord, explains as he hands the keys over to Taerae, “I keep a spare to everyone’s apartment in the main office downstairs, just call me and I can let you back in.”
Apparently Jiwoong’s family owned the building, and had given the charge of the building over to Jiwoong as a gift when he had successfully landed his first modeling gig. Taerae’s friend had described it as a backup plan, something solid for Jiwoong to fall back on if the modeling career didn’t work out. Though with a face like his, Taerae was shocked Jiwoong was still bothering with the landlord business at all.
Taerae nods a little as he pockets the keys. He’s diligent enough that he doubts he’ll ever actually need to make that call, but it’s good to know, just in case, “Does that happen often around here?”
“You’d be surprised,” Jiwoong replies, his gaze shifting to look off somewhere just over Taerae’s shoulder as he speaks. “Speaking of which…”
When Taerae turns to follow his gaze, he spots a young man peeking out from the doorway of the neighboring apartment. He looks around Taerae’s age, his dark curls in an artful mess, wearing a university hoodie and pajama pants despite it being well past noon, and heading towards them with a too-wide grin.
“Is that all you have?” he asks, his Korean carrying a slight accent—clearly a foreigner.
“I—” Taerae stammers, glancing at the seven boxes he’s brought. “...Yes?”
The neighbor’s brow lifts. “Where’s your bed?”
Blunt, straight to the point.
It’s really not the time or the place to go into the whole sordid story, especially not with some nosy neighbor that he’s just met. So Taerae plasters on a fake, customer service smile, and says, “I’ve ordered a new one, it should arrive in a few days,” in a polite enough tone that hopefully convinces his neighbor to stop being so terribly nosy.
“What happened to your old—”
“Matthew,” Jiwoong cuts in, his tone a touch warning.
So, Matthew is his name.
“I’m just being safe, hyung,” Matthew protests, undeterred by the clear warning in Jiwoong’s tone, “What if he had to get rid of it because of bed bugs! And now he’s going to unleash a plague of bed bugs upon my apartment!”
Taerae can’t help but laugh at Matthew’s dramatic sincerity, even as Jiwoong sighs, clearly used to his antics.
“It wasn’t bed bugs,” Taerae reassures him.
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure.”
“On a scale of one to sure, what number would you say—”
“Matthew,” Jiwoong interrupts again, this time with a question clearly aimed to distract Matthew, “Are your keys in your pocket?”
Taerae watches as Matthew frantically pats down the pockets of his hoodie, and then those of his pajama bottoms, before making a dismayed expression. “Jiwoong-hyung, my favorite hyung in the whole wide world, will you please let me back into my home without charging me the lockout fee this one time please .”
Jiwoong pretends to consider it for a moment before he relents with a sigh, “Only if you leave Taerae alone and let him move in peace.”
Matthew presses his hands together in mock gratitude. “I swear!”
It doesn’t take much, a quick exchange and Jiwoong using the master key to let Taerae’s neighbor back into his apartment and out of the hallway.
It’s only once Matthew has disappeared that Taerae asks, “There’s a lock out fee?”
“Not for you, just for Matthew.”
2
All things considered, Taerae practically forgets about his brief encounter with his neighbor by the next day.
Between unpacking, ordering new furniture, and half-considering unblocking his ex’s number, that moment of him meeting Matthew becomes nothing more than a blip on Taerae’s radar.
That is, until nearly two weeks later, when he runs into the same neighbor again.
This time, though, he’s not in the hallway—he’s sitting on the ground, blocking the front entrance to the apartment building.
“You’re not dead, are you,” Taerae asks, mostly joking.
Partly not.
With the way his year has gone, stumbling upon a dead body wouldn’t even surprise him.
“I might be soon,” Matthew groans, slouched against the door, a light dusting of snow accumulating on his shoulders.
It’s snowing, the air cold enough that the heat from the few drinks Taerae had with the other grad students in his cohort had long since faded. Which only leads him to feel more concerned about the way his neighbor is hunched over in nothing more than a thin jacket as he sits on the step, despite the weather.
There’s a rosy pink color on Matthew’s cheeks, either due to the cold or due to having had a few drinks of his own.
“You’re Matthew, right,” Taerae asks, pretty sure he remembered the name.
“Yeah, I—wait, do I know you,” Matthew replies, blinking up at him with bleary eyes.
“We’re neighbors,” Taerae points out, nodding toward the building Matthew is currently blocking.
Matthew squints at him for a long moment before recognition dawns. “111?”
“That’s me.”
A grin spreads across Matthew’s face. “That means you can let me in, right? Since you live here too?”
It’s now that Taerae remembers their first encounter—when Matthew had locked himself out, right on Taerae’s moving day. The memory of keyless Matthew had been a good reminder for Taerae to always double-check for his own keys before leaving the apartment, even if Jiwoong promised he wouldn’t charge him unless it became a habit.
“Did you lose your keys again?”
“I think they’re at my friend's house, or the bar, or…” He trails off, shutting his eyes like he’s trying to summon the answer from thin air.
Even under the low evening light, Taerae notices how striking Matthew’s face is. He pushes that thought aside though, focusing on the present.
“My phone’s dead,” Matthew says when he’s returned to himself. “I tried to call Jiwoong-hyung, but…”
“I’ve got a charger at my place,” Taerae offers, “You could charge your phone there and then call Jiwoong to let you back in.”
Matthew seems to consider that for a moment before shaking his head, “If you can get me in this door, I’ll just take the elevator up and bang on Jiwoong-hyung’s door until he lets me back in.”
Taerae tries to squash the tiny part of him that feels upset that Matthew didn’t take him up on his offer. They don’t really know each other, after all. They may be neighbors, but really they are just strangers.
For now.
“Sounds like a plan to me. Let’s get you out of the snow.”
3
Taerae’s not expecting to run into Matthew again so soon, but he’s there again, trapped in the hallway the next morning. Clearly still recovering from a hangover of the night before, dressed in his pajamas, and holding an iced coffee in his hands.
Taerae had been planning on doing much the same himself, hoping that caffeine would help to get him out of this weird funk that has been keeping him up all hours of the night. He’d thought drinks would have helped, but last night after he’d let Matthew in, Taerae had laid in bed for far too long, staring at his ex-boyfriend’s instagram account and trying to piece together what he’s been doing for the last few weeks since they ended things.
Not exactly a healthy coping mechanism.
Though his plans get squashed to bits the second he sees Matthew resting his head against the door to his own apartment, a look of defeat on the other man’s face.
“Uh, you good?”
Matthew doesn’t answer with words, just shakes his head from where it rests against the door.
“Well… feel better,” Taerae offers awkwardly.
“I ordered in for breakfast,” Matthew explains with a sigh. Apparently, iced coffee is considered breakfast, but really Taerae can’t judge. He loves a good energy drink for dinner as much as the next guy, so coffee for breakfast seems totally normal. “Purposely ordered in, because Hanbin can’t run my keys by until this afternoon. I went down to the lobby to get it and—well, I forgot to unlock my door first, and—“ Another groan finishes the story for him.
Taerae presses his lips together.
There’s probably a very slim chance that the Hanbin that Matthew is friends with is the same Hanbin that had broken Taerae’s heart after four years of dating. Surely, he would have met Matthew before if that was the case, and he would have remembered if he’d met Matthew before.
Still, there’s something off in Taerae’s tone regardless of what is probably just coincidence (Hanbin is a common enough name) when he asks, “Did you try calling Jiwoong?”
“I’m mentally preparing myself,” Matthew says. “Five more minutes of suffering, then I will.”
True to his word, Matthew stands there, head against the door, content to suffer through the morning without any other concern for the world. Taerae should just let him be, should go on his way, and relish in the fact that he always remembered his own keys.
But something stops him.
Before he can second-guess himself, he blurts, “If you want, you could wait at my place until your friend brings over your keys. It’d save you the lock-out fee?”
It’s partly to be kind.
After all, it would be nice to get to know his neighbor a bit better.
And partly to see if Matthew’s Hanbin and the Hanbin that used to be his are one in the same.
The speed at which Matthew whips his head around causes him to stumble a bit, clearly not out of the hangover zone yet. “That would be—I mean, are you sure? You don’t have places to be? People to see?”
Taerae shakes his head.
It’s not a lie.
He really doesn’t.
Life has been moving slowly for him lately. After the whirlwind of everything before, his only weekend plans are to start a drama his friends recommended and maybe try a new Pinterest recipe.
Nothing too crazy.
“I was planning to make pancakes, but I usually make too many. If only I had someone to share them with…hmmm… What to do,” Taerae says with a slight smile.
“You know,” Matthew drawls, “I was actually a famous pancake critic in a past life.”
Taerae laughs suddenly, at the ridiculousness of it all.
“Then this must be fate.”
(It’s hours later, two episodes of his new favorite drama and a pile of pancakes later, when Matthew’s friend finally arrives, keys in hand, and whisks him away with a laugh. Thankfully, wearing an unfamiliar face.)
4
Once becomes twice, then again and again, until it becomes something between the two of them.
Matthew insisted they swap numbers “just in case” after that second time, and soon enough, Taerae’s so used to his frequent “ heyyy u home??? ” texts that he doesn’t think twice before opening his door.
It helps that he’s usually home, and Matthew’s usually in the hallway or down at the building’s front door, depending on whether he’s managed to sweet talk his way inside yet.
Somehow, Matthew’s presence always has a way of brightening up his day. The over-the-top energy Taerae once found to be a bit ‘too much’ has become something he looks forward to. Something that could cheer him up on even his worst days.
Which is why the first time he gets one of Matthew's familiar texts asking if he’s home, and Taerae has to reply with a ‘no,’ he feels guilty.
Guilty enough that his friends that he’d gone out to dinner with are able to pick up on his mood at once.
Everything okay?” Woongki asks, catching the frown on Taerae’s face as he looks at his phone.
“Yeah, it’s just—” Taerae waves his hand, dismissing it. “Matthew’s locked himself out again.”
“Who?”
“His new boyfriend,” Seowon answers before Taerae can, and by the time Taerae catches up, taking far too long staring at the three dots indicating that Matthew is typing, it’s way too late to correct Seowon.
No one believes him anyway when he tries, laughing it off.
He’s told them a bit about Matthew—well, mostly Seowon—and he’s tried to ignore the knowing looks Seowonon shoots him whenever he mentions him lately.
But it’s not like that.
Really.
As much as Taerae’s thought about it, they’re just neighbors.
Maybe friends.
But nothing more.
“You should bring him next time we hang out,” Woongki says, when Taerae finally looks up from his phone. “We can give him the shovel talk.”
Woongki dramatically mimes using a shovel to really drive his point home.
But Taerae just shakes his head, “Hard pass.”
They’re just friends, and he knows bringing Matthew along to face a barrage of questions would only make things weird.
His friends mean well, they just want him to be able to move on and be happy again. But he’s fresh out of a long-term relationship—the last thing he needs is to rush into another one, no matter how cute his neighbor is.
If he messes things up here, it would just make things awkward every time he passed Matthew in the hallway, and Taerae didn’t need another landmine to avoid in his life.
Matthew isn’t Hanbin.
They couldn’t be more different, in fact, which is part of the reason Taerae felt so drawn to Matthew, despite his tendency to lose his keys and lock himself out. Finding it nice that Matthew was often stranded and in need of a place to hang out, rather than annoying.
“Like I said, we’re really not—” Taerae trails off, when his phone buzzes with a new text from Matthew.
The message is short: Jiwoong is out of town until monday :(((((((
Followed by another shortly after: sorry i bugged you :((( i’ll stay at hanbins for the weekend :((( ill miss you :(((
It’s silly.
It shouldn’t matter.
But the thought of Matthew crashing with someone else for the weekend when Taerae’s apartment is right there sends a strange, almost jealous flutter through his chest.
“Hey, I’ve gotta head home,” he says, standing and pulling on his coat, and ignoring the all too knowing looks from his friends while he shoots Matthew a quick text back reassuring him that he’s on his way home right now.
It’s all worth it for the string of smiling emojis he gets sent a minute later, and the words, my hero!!! i owe you my life kim taerae!!!
5
“I swear I’m not forgetful about the important stuff,” Matthew insists, the next time he is locked out. “Just my keys.”
“And your clothes," Taerae adds, raising an eyebrow at Matthew’s outfit.
Or lack of one, really.
Matthew is standing there in just a pair of boxers and a loosely tied bathrobe, enough that Taerae’s thoughts have veered far past innocent. He can’t quite figure out why Matthew would be out like this—it’s not even that late, and there’s no takeout bag in sight as an excuse for riding the elevator down in his pajamas.
It’s almost as if…. But no, surely not.
"You want to hang out here until Jiwoong gets back," Taerae offers, though by now, it’s hardly an offer.
They both already know the answer.
Matthew doesn’t hesitate at all in letting himself into Taerae’s apartment and making himself at home. “You didn’t watch our drama without me, did you?”
“No, no, I was saving it for you,” Taerae reassures him.
He sends a quick text to Jiwoong, letting him know that Matthew’s with him and he can take his time coming down to unlock the door. Jiwoong’s reply, however, is quick and surprising: He didn’t even tell me he was locked out.
Taerae frowns slightly at his phone.
That’s… weird.
He’s about to mention it, thinking maybe Matthew forgot to text Jiwoong, but the second he looks up, his words vanish.
Matthew’s bathrobe has ridden up, revealing more of his toned thighs, and all Taerae can think about is how Matthew looks, casually draped on his couch wearing hardly anything, smiling at him with that usual carefree charm that always leaves him a little breathless.
“Taerae, dude, you good,” Matthew prompts, a hint of mischief in his eyes.
Taerae’s cheeks heat as he realizes he’s been caught staring.
"Do you… want to borrow some clothes," he offers, trying to recover. “It’s a little cold in here.”
“I’m actually pretty warm,” Matthew replies with a wink.
So there’s that .
Taerae doesn’t know how to respond.
How to unpack the pieces of what’s going on and put them together in the right order.
Matthew’s confidence seems to flicker, though, as Taerae struggles to respond.
“Unless… you’d rather I put on more clothes…” Matthew trails off, his own cheeks reddening now as he tugs his bathrobe closer.
Taerae looks at him again—the way Matthew had been bold a second ago, now hesitating and blushing.
In hindsight, it feels so obvious.
Taerae realizes the answer to his question, even before he asks, “Did you lock yourself out on purpose?”
Matthew jumps up, his face nearly scarlet. “I—shit, sorry, man, I didn’t mean—shit, totally misread this. I’m really sorry.”
He doesn’t exactly answer, but his silence says everything.
He knows now that Matthew had locked himself out on purpose, skipped texting Jiwoong, all so he’d have an excuse to spend time with Taerae—and then on top of it all, chose to wear barely anything at all.
But why?
Before Taerae can fully process it, Matthew moves to leave, brushing past him toward the door, only stopping when Taerae catches his arm, holding him there.
“Matthew-yah,” Taerae starts softly.
But Matthew interrupts, his voice low and apologetic. “Please, just… forget about it. I’m an idiot. Let’s pretend this never happened. Okay?”
Taerae wants to protest, to tell him maybe he didn’t misunderstand, that maybe Taerae just didn’t realize there was something to misunderstand until now.
But he hesitates.
Instead, he does something he already knows he’ll regret.
He lets Matthew go.
+1
It’s not that he’s avoiding Matthew.
Really, he’s not.
He says ‘hello’ sometimes, casually when they pass each other in the hallway or on the elevator up to their floor. But there are no texts anymore asking if Taerae is home. Nobody making themselves at home in Taerae’s space, as easy as breathing.
So, okay, maybe he was avoiding Matthew.
But if anything, Matthew was avoiding him too, mutually assured avoidance or something like that.
Except…
If Taerae is honest, he misses him.
He misses Matthew more than he probably should for someone who’s just a neighbor.
It’s like a physical ache, one that has him glancing longingly at his phone too often, while ignoring the pitying looks of his friends, who assume he’s once again messed up a relationship.
And, well… they wouldn’t be wrong, would they?
Maybe it never technically got that far, but there had been that moment a few weeks ago when something almost happened. When one of them had tried to make it more.
And Taerae… he’d been the one to let Matthew go.
Which is why he decides to do something a little bit risky.
It’s stupid.
So completely stupid that he probably should have thought of a better plan—or at least a backup plan, in case this goes horribly wrong. But if he stops to think this through, he might talk himself out of it.
And he can’t let that happen.
Acting on impulse feels right.
Fitting, even.
Unsurprisingly, like something Matthew would do.
Which is why the second he hears a noise from the apartment next to his, Taerae does the very thing Matthew had done all those days ago (though with more clothes on) and purposely locks himself out of his own apartment.
It feels weird, the shoe on the other foot for the first time, as he knocks on Matthew’s door.
At least he doesn’t have to wait long before Matthew opens it, confusion furrowing his brow—until he realizes it’s Taerae standing there. Then his expression changes to something more closed off, a hint of embarrassment softening the lines of his face. None of the casual, happy smiles Taerae had gotten used to are anywhere to be found.
“Taerae, what are you doing here?”
“I locked myself out,” Taerae says, abruptly.
His answer catches Matthew off guard, he can tell from the surprised look on Matthew’s face, and the way he fumbles a bit for a response, “Oh, uh, do you want to—”
“On purpose,” Taerae adds, unable to lie.
At that, Matthew falls silent, a small frown crossing his face before he finally asks, “Why would you do that?”
Taerae knows he has to get it out now, before he loses his nerve. “Because I didn’t realize how much it would hurt not having you around all the time. And maybe you suddenly learned not to forget your keys, and maybe I’m overthinking everything, but…” He gestures between them. “I missed you.”
“I’m sorry,” Matthew says, echoing the same thing he’d said that night, weeks ago now.
“You don’t have to apologize.”
“No, I do,” Matthew insists, looking a little sheepish. “People always tell me I come on too strong, and I made assumptions, and I was just… embarrassed, I guess. But we can go back to being friends. I—I’ve missed you too.”
“What if I don’t want to go back to being friends?”
Matthew winces, “Yeah, that’s fair.”
“No, Matthew, I mean…” Taerae sighs. Maybe words aren’t enough. Breaking eye contact, he glances down at Matthew’s lips. “I don’t want to be friends because I want to be more than friends.”
“Oh,” Matthew says, his eyes widening just a little as he asks, “Then why didn’t you say anything back when I, you know, was in your apartment?”
“I was just a bit distracted by the half naked man on my couch and forgot how to function,” Taerae admits with a nervous laugh.
Matthew smirks a little.
Clearly pleased with himself, now that he knows the real reason Taerae had hesitated.
“So wait, now you locked yourself out, on purpose, so you’d… what? Have an excuse to kiss me?”
“Well, when you put it like that it sounds a little ridiculous,” Taerae replies, “We could start smaller, a date or—”
“We’ve gone on plenty of dates,” Matthew interrupts. “Might as well skip to the good part, yeah?”
He steps forward, closing the space between them, and finally, finally, does what they’ve both wanted for far longer than Taerae’s been willing to admit.
Kissing Matthew isn’t fireworks or anything dramatic.
It’s a deep, settling feeling, like something has clicked perfectly into place.
A feeling of finally .
Taerae can’t help but laugh softly against Matthew’s lips. Matthew joins him, their laughter mingling until they have to break apart, both of them too breathless to keep kissing.
“You didn’t text Jiwoong-hyung yet to let him know you’re locked out, right?”
Taerae shakes his head, “No.”
“Good, then we’ve got time.”
And with that, Matthew pulls him back in for another kiss.