Chapter Text
monday (0)
it starts with a knock.
later, when jeon wonwoo is standing in front of him yelling about shitty music tastes, junhui will learn that he’d been knocking on the wall they shared for half an hour before junhui opened his door.
but as it stands, someone is knocking very aggressively on his door and junhui is yelling “in a minute! in a minute!” to the person on the other side, desperate to finish highlighting the last sentence of -.
his highlighter dies right at the period but it's nothing compared to how junhui’s own smile dies at seeing his guest.
his highlighter died with grace, holding out until the very end. his smile falls off his face the same way a balloon loses air, fast to slow, dying with the sad noises of deflation.
it's not his fault- some dude just yelled “shy! shy! shy!” in his face and left.
junhui looks back inside, and from under the bed his cat jisoo meows at him.
it's a very solid sound, reminding junhui he has three more packages to go through and only one more highlighter.
“just a weird guy,” he tells his cat with a shrug, going back to his desk to work on notes.
monday (1)
“how was i supposed to know you wanted me to turn it off?” junhui asks him, trying to read what wonwoo’s writing on the complaint sheet.
wonwoo is nineteen, in engineering, an avid hater of “shitty pop music”, and is junhui’s new neighbor. this was not how he imagined meeting the guy.
“dude, i banged on your wall for like, half an hour straight. then i actually knocked on your door and screamed at you. i think that sends a message, loud and clear.” wonwoo says, growling at junhui.
he looks ready to bite off junhui’s head, this was really not how much imagined meeting his new neighbor.
“it doesn't! or didn't! i just thought you were weird!” junhui exclaims, trying to wrestle the complaint form out of wonwoo’s hands. he’s panicking. “you didn't ask me to stop before you came down! it's not a valid complaint! it only violates tenant policy if i refused to listen to your demands numerous times!”
“weird? you're the one who wouldn't stop playing that dumb song for three fucking hours! not violating tenant policy, my ass,” wonwoo scowls, pulling the clipboard towards him, super vicious.
(junhui kind of wants to marry him, wonwoo snarls when he's insulting junhui’s music taste. that's passion right there.)
“it was two hours!” junhui i is winning their tug of war, almost. he nearly has the clipboard up to his chest.
wonwoo grunts, shoving him and letting junhui fall back with the clipboard.
“asshole.” wonwoo says, frowning at him.
junhui is on the floor of their lobby, one hand on the clipboard, holding it to his lap, and one hand on something that might be gum stuck on the carpet. it doesn't matter, no one is filing a complaint on him today.
“you're the one who introduced yourself to your neighbor by yelling song lyrics in their face,” junhui says.
“what kind of housewarming includes playing the world's most overhyped song, for two fucking hours?” wonwoo points his finger at junhui. “you're the bad neighbor here.”
monday (2)
the lobby is kind of silent, which is expected because it's half-past noon and everyone is at lunch. no one hangs out in their apartment building lobbies during lunch.
which makes wonwoo wish he wasn't doing it. but his annoying (-ly hot) neighbor won't let him have the goddamn clipboard and wonwoo is past trying to explain to him that he needs it for actual rent stuff. the guy just says he's lying and hugs it to his chest.
the complaint filing thing was a bluff, but maybe he kinda went too far with it. it's not like wonwoo expected the guy to chase him down and steal his forms. who the fuck is this passionate about not getting complaints filed against them anyways?
“are you trying to get best neighbor of the month or something?” wonwoo asks the dude. they're sitting across from each other on the carpet in front of the elevators (probably the dirtiest part of the entire lobby, but it's the most comfortable seating area anyways).
“maybe?” the guy says. “i’m just trying uphold my model citizen status yanno? can't have a single complaint about me anywhere.”
the worst part about this, is that wonwoo can't tell if the guy is bullshitting or not. no, actually the worst about this is that wonwoo's stuck here until his neighbor decides to move, which sucks because this guy seems like type of person who enjoys sitting on a carpet that feels like it's more half chewed up gum than actual wool fiber. gross.
nope- worst of all, wonwoo decides five minutes of silence later, is that he's basically enjoying this. the lobby’s quiet. there's no annoying hit pop song blasting through someone else's wall and there's no stress of unopened boxes and unorganized things to kill his mood. it's peaceful and wonwoo actually likes it.
he can't have that. that's like he's basically been blessed to some state of nirvana and what's worse- is that the sun’s bouncing off the plexiglass doorway and hitting the dude sitting in front of him like he is some god. oh hell no . wonwoo is not doing this shit, this guy basically tortured him for the better half of two hours, wonwoo is not gonna think of him as a saviour.
“yo-” wonwoo's about to say when he gets cut off by the elevator dinging! junhui looks away from him for whoever’s about to exit.
monday (3)
the elevator doors open and jisu sees-
junhui sitting across from wonwoo on the floor in front of her.
“hey you,” she says to junhui, nudging his knee with her foot. wonwoo gets a small wave, he wipes his hand on his thigh before waving back.
junhui smiles up at her, “what's up?”
“i feel like i should be asking you that?” she tries.
he shrugs, holds a hand out towards wonwoo. “this is jeon wonwoo, he's our new neighbor. wonwoo, this is jisu, she also lives our floor.”
wonwoo nods.
it's silent for a couple minutes, then junhui coughs and jisu realizes she's in a skirt and he’s on the ground right beside her and-
she sits down, in the space between them, closer to junhui than wonwoo.
“so how do you two know each other?”
“oh uh, we just met,” wonwoo offers.
junhui nods brightly. “yup! he knocked on my door and screamed his name and told me to shut off my music.”
wonwoo looks torn between wanting to melt into the floor and just. die. jisu laughs, half a snort comes out and wonwoo looks up at her. she holds out her fist for a bump. “i do that to him a couple times a week too.”
he smiles at her, right side of his mouth crooking up. she mirrors with the left side of her mouth.
junhui makes a noise from the back of his throat. they look over at him. “you guys just don't appreciate music.”
“what? you want us to listen to mediocre shit and pretend it's the same as the actual good shit? that's like a teacher giving a seventies student nineties just cuz.”
jisu nods along to wonwoo's words just as one of the main lobby guards walk in.
monday (4)
they stand in the elevator in a perfect row, from five foot eleven to five foot six to five foot eleven.
jisu discreetly plays with her skirt, junhui discreetly looks at wonwoo, wonwoo discreetly looks at jisu.
none of the are being particularly discreet. rather they're so busy staring at their own subjects, they don't realize what the others are doing. as goes life.
“you know, i actually forgot i had music playing,” junhui says turning to the other two. jisoo only looks at him before stepping out. wonwoo doesn't bother with anything.
the elevator doors close before junhui realizes it's on the fifth floor.
tuesday (1)
jisu waves hi at him when she sees wonwoo. they meet in the elevator and wonwoo waits the awkward minute it takes the elevator to close before she says anything.
“it's kinda slow isn't it?” she asks, offering him a sunny kind of smile.
he nods at her, “i didn't expect the elevator to be this old. or noisy.”
“yup,” she says nodding, more to herself than anything. “it's pretty clunky.”
there's a two space distance and an air of awkward between them, which isn't helped by the elevator stopping on the third floor and a large man (horizontally, of course) holding an equally large paper bag (proportionally, of course) coming in.
he takes the space right between them, the ends of his coat brushing the sides of jisu’s knees and his shoulders brushing the sides of wonwoo’s chest. he's a couple inches shorter than jisu, and wonwoo can't help but look over his head and catch her eye.
he smiles at her. she looks forward, keeps her lips pressed together in a firm line. she's trying not to smile, but even he has to stifle a laugh when the man starts rummaging through his bag, muttering to wonwoo about the ‘real big cheeses’.
the man turns a couple time, then looks down, peering into the spaces between the three of them. then when he looks up again, satisfied, the elevator starts to move down.
it's fucking weird.
“the mice are always trying to steal the cheese, not good,” the man mutters to wonwoo, shaking his head. “not good.”
wonwoo nods. the man continues, pointing at jisu who’s looking up at her corner of the elevator. “cats are good for keeping them out. cats kill them.”
the elevator stops, and the man gets off. jisu lets out a huff when the doors finally close, wonwoo raises his eyebrows at her. she meets his eyes.
“he always compares me to a cat, i don't get it.”
“you don't like it?” he asks, looking at the panel beside him. wonwoo swears something just crumbled behind it.
the elevator creaks again, starting to move down at an agonizingly slow pace.
jisu nods. “i don't like cats.”
“doesn't junhui own a cat?” wonwoo asks. there are other ways the conversation could've continued, he doesn't know why he chose this one. the elevator continues creaking.
“he does. i don't like it and it doesn't like me.”
it groans.
wonwoo looks up. “i thought the tenant police said no pets.”
“it does,” jisu says, shrugging. “i don't know why no one listens to it.”
tuesday (2)
wen junhui, his next door neighbor, is playing music again .
this time it's rihanna’s ‘don't stop the music’ and wonwoo doesn't know if junhui is actually testing him or if it's just irony. what he does know, however, is that this is the tenth time he's heard it on repeat. fuck, the snsd was better than this.
he stands up from his desk, grabs a pair of headphones from under his pillow and leaves his apartment.
he knocks on the next door. wen junhui opens it and raises an eyebrow when he sees wonwoo.
wonwoo may-or-may-not forget he was here for something because he's kind-of not straight and junhui has kind-of really fucking adorable and hot bedhead.
junhui nods at him and wonwoo knows that's not an answer for the please fucking date me going through his head right now but- whatever, a man can dream. in his head wen junhui just accepted his marriage proposal and they've been together for six years and counting.
junhui nods at him again, but wonwoo has no fucking idea what the guy wants him to do. they're already engaged what else is there left for him to say yes to?
finally junhui speaks. “please don't stop the music? aren't you here to yell song lyrics in my face again?”
“no,” wonwoo says. junhui nods at him.
there's a minute of silence because wonwoo spends it staring into junhui’s eyes before realizing that he's supposed to say something and they're not having a moment .
“right,” wonwoo says, holding out his hand. junhui holds out his palm and wonwoo drops his headphones on it. “please stop torturing tenants with your greatest hits of 2010 cd."
junhui picks an earbud up, dangling the set in between them. “are these used?”
“they're mine yeah,” wonwoo says, watching junhui twirl the wire around. red suits him.
junhui looks at him. “that's weird. no one just gives strangers headphones for free.”
wonwoo shrugs, junhui smiles at him.
“cool,” is all he says before quietly shutting his door.
wonwoo lets out a breath.
tuesday (3)
“it wasn't my fault,” junhui says, opening his door. wonwoo stands in front of him, looking not really that different from usual. resting bitch face is a tragic syndrome, and junhui can't tell if he's mad or not.
f(x)’s ‘nu abo’ is playing faintly in the background and the first thing wonwoo does is sigh. “what's the point of turning it down if i come over?”
“um. i can hear you better?” junhui offers. he's shrugging a little dramatically, head tilted to the right, shoulders coming up to his neck but wonwoo isn't impressed with his hunchback.
“i gave you a pair of headphones like five hours ago! like legit gave!”
“i know.”
“please use them,” wonwoo says.
junhui grabs something from his back pocket and shoves it into wonwoo's hand. there, in his kinda sweaty palm, lies a very mangled pair of red headphones. wonwoo looks up at junhui.
junhui points to under his bed. “jisoo did it.”
“jisu’s hiding under your bed?” wonwoo asks, leaning into junhui’s apartment looking for their lady companion.
“no, my cat's name is jisoo,” junhui explains.
wonwoo looks at him. “jisu doesn't like cats though.”
“who says i named it after her?”
“they have the same name,” wonwoo points out.
“yes but jisu’s has a ‘u’ sound. jisoo’s has a double ‘o’ sound. they're spelt different,” wonwoo doesn't look convinced. junhui tries again. “it's the little things that matter . you always have to pay attention to the details.”
wonwoo still doesn't look convinced. he nods at junhui though, before giving him back the broken headphones and putting his hands into his pockets. “so you're definitely gonna get me the exact same pair of headphones to replace these?”
junhui folds. “yes. are you free tomorrow?”
“um- after three yeah,” wonwoo says. his voice is suspiciously higher than before.
“great!”
tuesday (1)
“hello?” soonyoung says, fumbling with his phone until it's pressed up against his cheek, on his pillow.
“dude, bro, man,” wonwoo says.
soonyoung groans. “what the fuck do you want, its-”
he lifts his phone up to squint at the screen and
“-three thirteen a.m. wonwoo, what the fuck .”
“it's important man!” wonwoo says, basically shrieking.
soonyoung hates wonwoo. soonyoung hates wonwoo. he has the most useless piece of shit best friend ever and that piece of shit is called jeon wonwoo and jeon wonwoo sucks ass, he sucks dick, he sucks-
“yeah yeah yeah, listen. my hot neighbor just asked me out.”
soonyoung shrieks.
“oh my god! did u finally get some? is he blind? is he deaf- i mean like that deep voice is kinda sexy but also your so fucking monotone man, that's not sexy. but seriously, is he about to die or something?”
“shut the fuck up,” a pause, then. “yeah ok, he has a really shit music taste.
“that's all?”
“he's kind of weird but that might just be the complex.”
“ahhh, i see i see. so this call is to make sure if you get murdered tomorrow then i can be a witness and say that it was your weird hot neighbor? no offense dude but you could've just texted me. or done this early tomorrow.”
“no. listen. dude. what am i supposed to do. how the fuck do you date people. what is a date. what is life.”
“those are statements man. i can't answer unless it's a question,” soonyoung trills. he has an eight a.m thing in the morning. it doesn't matter. what is life, anyways.
wonwoo asks, “how do you go on a date?”
“do you realize both of us have never ever gotten dates because everyone thought we were that pair of best bros that secretly were fucking?”
“not that we don't look like it, just that i can't believe people think i have such low standards. i've seen you rip your sleeve while trying to open a bag of chips.”
“we were sixteen,” soonyoung says, pausing because doesn't know what else to add.
wonwoo fills in for him. “and it was the stupidest thing I ever witnessed in my life.”
“interesting, considering you live with that brain inside your head.”
“shut up. anyways help me with my date.”
“you shut up, you didn't call for date advice.”
“so what?”
tuesday (2)
wonwoo toes the lobby carpet(old, gross and grey), and waits for junhui to come down.
he takes ten minutes longer than he should, but:
- their building's elevator is shit.
- the stairs are closed for maintenance.
- he forgot his wallet and those things are hard to find. wonwoo knows.
or, he hates wonwoo. but the security guard comes over to talk to him before wonwoo can think too hard about it.
“you the new tenant on four?” she asks, tapping her belt. her nails are still the bright red they were on sunday, only more chipped. wonwoo likes them.
he nods. she copies the movement before saying. “if any of your neighbors bother you, just tell me. i can put in a complaint for you.”
“oh- yeah ok,” wonwoo says. “they're fine."
“you sure? that floor's known for being the nosiest, i have complaints from the seventh about some girl singing at midnight.”
there's three streaks of blonde hair in her hair, he catches a glimpse of her name tag when she pushes one back- choa.
“huh? i haven't heard any. one of my neighbors just plays music a little loudly sometimes,” lie. it's all the time, wonwoo had to fall asleep last night listening to chitty chitty bang bang.
“you should report that,” choa says,walking towards the lobby desk. “come with me.”
he follows, watching her push away the chair to get to the computer, nails clacking loudly against the keyboard to log in and once she has the right windows open, she turns back to him. “do you this neighbor's apartment number?"
“um, no?” he's in 404, junhui’s the next unit right, 402. “he's just my next door neighbor.”
“did he clearly break rules listed in the tenant policy?”
“uh yeah, i asked him to stop playing his music-” nope.”-and he wouldn't.”
“are you sure? because tenants can only file complaints if tenant policy was broken, other than that it's up to the landlord,” she says carefully, watching his face. wonwoo nods. “alright,” she says, going back to the screen, typing it down.
“do you know his name?” she asks once she's finished.
wonwoo stares at her. “um- no. he has blonde hair though? i think he’s chinese.”
“wonwoo!” junhui calls, wonwoo turns and there he stands, looking like a god in front of the elevator, holding up his wallet.
“sorry, gotta go,” wonwoo says to choa, walking off with a little wave.
junhui drags him out of the building with one hand on his elbow, not bothering to ask about what wonwoo was doing.
“there's a record shop a couple blocks down, they'll have your headphones there won't they?” he asks.
wonwoo tries to focus on the important things- the sidewalk, the nice weather, walking right, not junhui’s hand touching his arm. maybe it kind of works, wonwoo doesn't know- his mind’s busy trying to process the arm touching.
“i guess?” wonwoo offers, shrugging his elbow out of junhui’s hold. “honestly, it doesn't really have to be the same pair.”
“yeah but then that's no fun,” junhui says, looking around at the street. it's mid may and the weather's showing it. it's warm and sunny, a combination wonwoo's always associated with soonyoung.
that might change today.
“it's less hassle,” wonwoo says, the wind carrying his words slightly. “besides, nothing sucks worse than your music taste.”
“fight me,” junhui says. “i have great taste.”
“yes, starting the morning of by playing hyuna’s bubble pop for the entirety of your shower time, is great taste.”
“see the fact that you knew i was in the shower would be creepy, except-” junhui stops here, to press the crosswalk button. wonwoo watches the movement, it's a careless kind of grace. “-everyone's walls are really fucking thin. i can hear jisu tuning her piano at three a.m.”
“and that's why you play crap music at all hours? so you won't have to listen to whoever's upstairs having sex?” wonwoo asks, eyes moving from the signal to junhui.
junhui starts walking, head turned right- looking at wonwoo. “nah, i’m a voyeur.”
wonwoo keeps his eyes straight ahead, blue skies and buildings in front of him.
junhui’s snicker in the background kind-of ruin it.
“i’m not kidding, you know,” junhui says.
wonwoo walks faster.
“no, no! come back!” the laugh in junhui’s voice is clear and wonwoo is 60% percent sure he's going the wrong- “we have to take this right!”
he is. it's shameful to walk back towards junhui, but when junhui swings an arm around his shoulder, wonwoo doesn't give a shit about his lack of poker face.
beside him, junhui keeps chattering. wonwoo interrupts his tangent about “the lady upstairs really likes stimulation, she does a lot of ice-” with his own “you're so weird. who tells their next door neighbor their kinks without even knowing them properly?”
“practice what you preach,” junhui says, looking from wonwoo to the clouds. “i heard some of your conversation last night. biting?”
wonwoo hates soonyoung. he regrets every decision in his life that led to soonyoung being his best friend. he's gonna disown soonyoung as a best friend.
“speakerphone can't be that loud,” is what he comes up.
junhui smiles at him. “ah, but it is,” he says, pushing the door to one of the stores open. wonwoo looks up, it's called ‘put your records on’.
the first thing he notices is the smell- it's old and musty and most of the records on display, are yellow and cracked. or their covers are at least.
“it's a second hand records shop,” junhui says to wonwoo. “now come here and tell me which headphones are yours.”
wonwoo follows to the headphone display in the corner, hand softly curling around the fingers junhui has holding his. it's a little close for comfort.
neither of them move.
tuesday (3)
“why do you look like that?” jisu asks him, when he bumps into her getting off the elevator.
“what do you mean?” wonwoo asks, hoping the security guard isn't around.
she frown for a second, lips pursing together then- “pondering. you look like you're thinking.”
“uh well,” he doesn't know why he's telling this to a girl he just met two days ago. “me and junhui held hands?”
“oh,” she says, frowning in a different way. “but he's touchy with everyone.”
wonwoo shrugs, ignoring his heart being stabbed. “it was soft. he didn't make it obvious.”
“ah,” she says, mouth an ‘o’, almost an open mouthed smile. then she points a finger at him “flirting!”
he shrugs in response.
“you know what that sounds like?” soonyoung says, once wonwoo's done recapping.
“what?” wonwoo replies.
“flirting.”
“ok cool, but you might just be a fool. don't look for what's not there if you don't fucking care.”
soonyoung hangs up on him. then calls back and says. “what kind of best friend for life would i be if i didn't care about my best bro’s wildly compelling love life? i cannot believe you just accused me of not-caring about your life. when have i not cared about your life? don't you remember grade two when you got a stuffed dinosaur from the teacher and i spent two weeks trying to find the exact species so we could name it right?”
“i am but a fool for love,” wonwoo says.
soonyoung makes a noise from his throat. “jeon wonwoo, shut the fuck up.”
“seriously! i have been blinded by love! this guy's been playing ‘payphone’ for the past hour and i’m enjoying it!”
“no, dumbo,” soonyoung says. “you had that weird thing for adam levine during your emo phase. that's why you're enjoying it.”
“i feel like that's a reason for me not to enjoy it.”
“it is what it is. let sleeping dragons lie and stop questioning about whether you're a masochist or not because you really are.”
“i do not enjoy pain and suffering,” wonwoo says, last ditch attempt.
soonyoung tchs’. “if you didn't, we wouldn't be on phone while you're in your apartment and hot next door neighbor can hear you.”
“i feel like that's more of a basis for humiliation. besides, he's over at our other neighbor’s place. i don't know why he left his music on.”
“i see, i see,” soonyoung says, wonwoo knows he's nodding and that has nothing to do with the rustling noise. “but you should still consider what i said.”
“what?"
“flirting.”
wednesday (1)
jisu knocks on his door, around nine a.m holding a platter of- oranges?
“uh?” is all wonwoo manages to get out. junhui leans over her shoulder to pop one into wonwoo’s mouth.
clementines? first thing in the morning aren't the worst thing to eat. everything still tastes kinda gross with an unwashed mouth though.
“it's a housewarming gift,” jisu says, offering him a smile. wonwoo nods, taking the platter from her hands. “it's not too late is it?”
he shakes his head, one hands rubbing crumbs away from his eyes. “nah, i wasn't even expecting this.”
there's a moment when wonwoo's still trying to get rid of the last dredges of sleep, where jisu steals two pieces off of the plate and feeds one to junhui while popping the other in her own mouth. it's here that wonwoo realizes-
“d’you wanna come in? i can't finish all of these by myself.”
they enter like bandits to silver, jisu makes a beeline for the bed and plops down on it while junhui walks past wonwoo, stealing three more slices.
wonwoo closes the door and follows them towards his bed. junhui takes his desk chair and wonwoo grabs a box as a makeshift table to set the oranges down on.
jisu leans over and grabs another piece. “you know, you’re very unpacked for someone who's been here four days.”
“it's just the start the fourth,” wonwoo grumbles, taking a small slice.
“but it is the fourth,” junhui says. wonwoo looks at him, slight crease between his brows. junhui raises his eyebrows in return.
jisu watches them, neither notice.
“why are you here even?” wonwoo asks, leaning back on his hands.
junhui leans forward, plucking out a slice of- manadrin? “jisu needed help peeling all of these. what's your excuse for being so messy?”
“my friend said he'd come over to help me unpack,” wonwoo answers. “he hasn't yet.”
“untrustworthy friend or busy friend?” jisu says, they break eye contact to look at her. she only raises her eyebrows in return.
wonwoo grabs a slice of clementine. “neither. he just hasn't come.”
“there's a rule in the tenant policy that you can't get outside help for moving in,” junhui says, between bites. “it has to be from an approved company.”
jisu shakes her head, hair flying everywhere while wonwoo frowns.
“seriously. but it's not that hard to get a company approved. you just need to put a request in the suggestion box and the name will appear on the list.”
“how do you know this?” jisu asks him.
junhui smiles at her, there's a bit of orange stuck between his front teeth. wonwoo picks at his own, finding nothing. “i ran into choa printing the sheet off once, she told me about it.”
“oh man,” jisu says, sounding dreamy all of a sudden. “choa. she's a goddess you know?” she's looking at wonwoo, wonwoo nods. “man, i want her so bad.”
“you want her?” junhui asks raising an eyebrow.
jisu shrugs, then scrunches her nose. “maybe not, she's a certain kind of person. but that's not bad! i think it's why i wanna be her, she's so sure of herself you know?”
“yeah,” jisu days, nodding.
wonwoo's kind of enthralled. it's the most words she's ever said to him(them, but it's the most he's ever heard from her), and now she's hugging on of his pillows and burrowing her head into it and it's kinda really cute. wonwoo loves cute things.
he asks. “are you not sure of yourself?”
“no!” she wails into the pillow. “just look at that plate! it was supposed to be only oranges but then junhui saw me bringing a pack home yesterday and then came over today with mandarins and clementines. he just did it without even telling me or seeing if i was okay with it. i don't even like clementines!”
she’s red with strands of hair sticking onto her nose and up everywhere. wonwoo moves over to pat her shoulder. “it's okay, i like clementines.”
“were you not okay with it?” junhui asks, eating another mandarin before leaning over to pop an orange slice into her mouth.
“no,” she says, words stifled by her chewing. “we're breaking tenant rules!”
it takes wonwoo a moment, then. “oh,” he says. “under section six right?”
“mhm,” jisu nods. junhui leans back on his chair, running a hand through his hair watching them talk.
“you can’t give another tenant mandarins, oranges and clementines at once, or give them any combinations between them. but only for their first week or housewarming, right?” wonwoo asks.
jisu nods. “yeah but you have to give them one of those,” she frowns again, then. “god, tenant policy is so stupid.”
“then why do you follow it?” junhui asks.
“because i don't want to get evicted!”
junhui gives her a shrug. “i haven't gotten evicted.”
“what?” wonwoo says, because it's all he has to offer to the table. which is a box sitting in front of them, filled with toiletries, he hopes no one's noticed.
“he's breaking three tenant policy rules right now,” jisu says, frowning at junhui.
junhui offers her a bright smile in return. wonwoo looks away cause you're not supposed to. you know. stare directly at the fucking sun.
“how?” wonwoo asks her, he's kind of incapable of anything more than a single syllable. junhui’s hand just knocked against his, wonwoo ends up with an orange slice instead of a clementine. he offers it to jisu.
junhui doesn't answer, only leaning back in his chair again, eyes closed, smile still on his face. he misses jisu accepting wonwoo's orange.
however, he does open his eyes in time to catch wonwoo staring at him
wednesday (2)
wonwoo texts soonyoung to come over as choa’s posting the new approved companies for moving list. she pins it down on the notice board with two red pushpins, one on the bottom one on top, exactly parallel to each other. wonwoo finds her so cool.
soonyoung smiles when he sees his name printed out on the bottom and spends seven minutes(wonwoo is counting) bragging on twitter/snapchat/facebook and is midway through penning a deep instagram caption when wonwoo drags him to the elevator.
unfortunately, his plan to avoid the old lady eyeing them fails because she gets in the elevator with them. soonyoung starts talking to her.
wonwoo doesn't know if the worst part is this: she starts talking back, trying to snuff them with every answer, continuously curling her top lip with disgust and never meeting soonyoung’s smile. she frowns at them the entire elevator ride and for once the elevator doesn't creak.
or, if the worst part is this: soonyoung knowing he's uncomfortable, especially when she starts with comments about them being the wrong sort of people, unnatural really, fags . soonyoung reaching out to grab his wrist a couple times, a reminder not to clench his fist, but soonyoung never stopping the conversation with her. soonyoung meeting each of her jabs with remarks of her own because he has to prove himself, has to prove his point, has to protect him.
wonwoo stays silent the entire ride up, forgiving soonyoung because he’s not angry at him.
on the fifth floor, when they're getting off the elevator, high school musical three’s soundtrack is playing in apartment 402.
jisu's lying on the floor, teasing her namesake with a toy while junhui’s at his desk, writing out the last of his notes.
“you know,” she says when there's a pause between songs and junhui’s stretching, head turned upside down looking at her. “wonwoo kept looking at you and you caught him staring but he never caught you staring.”
“hm?” junhui says, watching jisoo jump around trying to catch the feather.
“for two people who look at each other so much, it's odd you never met at the same time.”
junhui stills. head hanging off the back of his chair, arms at his sides and jisu looking intently up at him. she offers him one of those smiles, everything feels kinda right.
“he's nice looking,” junhui says, just as a new song starts playing. jisu laughs at the cat and nothing in this moment changes.
“so,” jisu says, tone more playful. “are you gonna ask him out?”
she sounds downright gleeful. he looks over at her, scowls to match her smile. “ew no. who dates their neighbors?
“thirsty desperate college boys in need of a fuck?”
“that is crude language. and i go to university.”
“didn't deny anything else,” she says, scratching jisoo under the chin. junhui watches them, eventually swirling his chair around and forgetting about notes.
he thinks about a couple things. a handsome new neighbor, a hoarded cat, a girl who sings in the morning.
if he turns the music down just a bit, focuses on listening, he can hear shifting from the next apartment over. it's the sound of unpacking, boxes being moved from side to side and occasionally- voices. there's no serious tones, it's all teasing with undercurrents of something else.
the cat is quiet, not the smallest, not the biggest. it's got a brown coat and brown eyes, likes hiding underneath his bed or scratching at his socks. he'd found it by the building, underneath a wet box and covered in mud. jisu said it'd have rabies, junhui thinks he's a lost cat, already domesticated just no home. there's a post on the community website asking for owners but he's gotten zero comments for it. it's alright, jisoo’s a nice cat.
jisu sings, when it's too early in the morning for the birds to even be out. she has sings when she's in the shower and she sings when no one is listening. junhui’s been leaving out posters everywhere, coffee shops with music night, bars looking for singers, a piece of paper on the noticeboard asking for a tenant's talent show. she shakes her head each time, but he doesn't let.
junhui can hear wonwoo say something about a hot neighbor.
he turns the volume up a little higher and throws a ball for jisoo to catch.
“he's not a dog you know,” jisu says.
“screw stereotypes.”
wednesday (3)
they spend four hours taking shit out of boxes and rearranging what furniture wonwoo has to make his apartment look nice. it's painstaking and soonyoung insists they have to shelve his books and albums by colour. wonwoo disagrees but soonyoung’s already filled up two shelves and it looks kinda sick.
“told ya,” soonyoung says, but wonwoo doesn't reply until the shelf he's working on looks like a misorganized case of colour pencils. “ta-da!”
“dude,” soonyoung says, sitting in the middle of his apartment, looking around. “i think we're done.”
wonwoo collapses beside him. “holy shit.”
“yeah man,” soonyoung says holding his hand out for a hi five, wonwoo slaps it weakly. “for such a small space this took so long. why do you have this much stuff.”
“the dead memories of my past dreams and ambitions keep me striving towards a better future,” wonwoo starts, head on soonyoung’s leg. “someday a kid won't have to look back on his past and realize all his dreams died and left him a useless husk of what should've been man.”
soonyoung nods. “deep,” then, “you know what keeps me going? the inspirational music the dude next door is playing.”
wonwoo rolls over on his knee, and groans. “just for how long have we been listening to dbsk’s rising sun?”
“well never say never came on a couple times, so maybe a good twenty minutes?”
“i hate that guy.”
“no,” soonyoung says, running a hand through wonwoo’s hair. “you think he's hot.”
“you can't hate hot people?”
“ no, i didn't say that. you just can't hate hot people you have a crush on.”
“um, katy perry's ‘hot n’ cold’ clearly disproved that.”
“if you say so,” soonyoung starts, hand on wonwoo’s head stilling. “uh, i think i have to go.”
wonwoo sits up. “what time is it?”
“like, almost nine bro,” soonyoung says, looking at the clock they put up. “my roommate leaves at ten and we only have one paid of keys between us.”
“you're really stupid,” wonwoo says. “come on, i'll walk you out.”
it takes a minute for soonyoung to find his phone and grab the two albums he wanted to borrow, and when they step out into the hallway- they're met with a barefooted jisu.
“why are you barefoot?” wonwoo.
“i live in this hall?” jisu.
“i’m soonyoung.” soonyoung.
it's kind of a bad moment. the three of them are staring at each other and soonyoung’s shaking his left leg, jisu’s stepping over her toes and wonwoo’s considering her blush.
then, the door to apartment 402 opens and someone chrips. “nice to meet you!”