Chapter Text
To any outsider, Hyunwoo had everything that the average man could wish for: a secure position in a multi-national firm, a smart company car and a flashy apartment in the best part of Seoul.
But to him, it meant nothing. He’d gained a job in the firm simply because the president was one of his father’s golfing companions; the car consumed a lot of fuel and attracted too much attention for his liking and despite loving his apartment he dreaded going home in the evening. Home was always dark, cold and empty. On top of that, everything was covered in dust and grime: Hyunwoo worked long hours - six days a week - and had neither the time nor the energy to clean when he returned home in the evening. His only day off was taken up by grocery shopping, laundry, catching up with his mail and whatever paperwork he hadn’t managed to complete during the week. Cleaning his apartment usually ended up being put off until his meagre holiday time came around.
It was only as he perused an abandoned newspaper during his commute to work one morning (he preferred taking the bus to driving) that Hyunwoo saw the advertisement: ‘Too busy to clean? Let us do it for you! Rates negotiable.’
The man took the newspaper with him and by the end of his lunch break he’d organised for a cleaner to go to his apartment three times each week and do his housework for him - the firm would even do laundry, which meant Hyunwoo would have a little extra time on his precious Sundays. All he had to do was pay a visit to the company, sign the contract and hand over a copy of his apartment key - the cleaner would be going to his apartment during the day, whilst he was at work.
Minhyuk was incredibly happy to get another cleaning job. Despite being employed with the company for two years, he’d only been given a total of four apartments and one house to clean in that space of time – two of which had been temporary contracts. Until the new job had come in, he’d been cleaning only one apartment each week. Although he liked to clean, Minhyuk hated that particular apartment. It was inhabited by a total slob, a forty-something divorcee who left food to dry on plates, piles of rubbish in random corners, bad smells in the bathroom and stains on the bed-sheets that Minhyuk really didn’t want to question the nature of. Cleaning it took the entire day, which was Minhyuk’s only comfort--it meant he got paid more.
The apartment in the new contract was in a smart-looking apartment block.
‘The rent for a month in a place like this is probably more than my rent for the entire year,’ Minhyuk thought as he pulled up and parked outside the building. Grabbing his cleaning gear from the trunk, he made his way up to the second floor, counting along to the right apartment.
To his delight, the apartment was in relatively good keep, mostly just dusty. He guessed that the client must be one of the city’s well-paid businessmen - well-paid to have no life, the cleaner always thought.
Setting down his mop and bucket, he got to work.
One of the reasons Minhyuk liked cleaning was that it gave him a chance to see inside other people’s apartments. His client’s belongings always gave him insight into their lives and personalities. This new client, for instance, had several books on food, cooking, and dieting, all organised by category, which suggested to Minhyuk that the client liked food but was conscientious of his weight – he would have thought the apartment’s inhabitant was overweight if he hadn’t already emptied the laundry basket to find clothes no bigger than his own. Minhyuk felt sympathetic towards the man; it wasn’t right for someone evidently slim to think they needed to diet.
.
As he was dusting the bedroom, he noticed the picture frame on by the bed. It held a photograph of an aging couple, arm in arm with a youngish man. They were all smiling, yet it was the young man that Minhyuk found himself drawn to: his face was kind and open, the smile was purely cute, completely unrestrained. Even so, the cleaner didn’t miss the fact that the man’s eyes were filled with longing.
Resuming his work, the cleaner wondered about the man in the photograph. It was obvious from their looks that the two older people were the man’s parents. But who was the man? Was he a cousin or brother of his client? Or was he the client himself?
The question played in his mind even as he packed up his cleaning gear and left the apartment, taking care to leave the lamp in the hall switched on - he hated going home to darkness and guessed that his client would feel the same way.
Hyunwoo was uneasy when he first opened his apartment door to find the lamp switched on. His overactive imagination made him think he had an intruder, until his common sense kicked in and suggested that an intruder wouldn’t turn the lights on, and that the cleaner had probably left it on by mistake. At this thought, Hyunwoo found himself grateful. The house looked and smelled clean, and felt a little more homely than usual. Employing a cleaner had definitely been a good move.
‘Son Hyunwoo’. The name had stuck in Minhyuk’s head since the day he got the cleaning contract. He thought the name sounded nice – somehow it seemed warm and friendly.
For three weeks, Minhyuk had cleaned the apartment--and upon each trip there he snooped a little. He’d become more curious about this man than anybody else, but couldn’t put his finger on the reason why. Everything about the apartment told him that his client was a good, fun-loving person. Why the man would work some office job that kept him so busy he couldn’t even clean his own apartment was a question he had yet to find the answer to.
Midway through the fourth week of the contract, Minhyuk was shopping for cleaning materials when he passed a florist. Flowers were something there was always an absence of in Hyunwoo’s apartment. There had been a vase of dead flowers on a windowsill before but Minhyuk had disposed of them. Since then, he’d never seen any living thing in the apartment (bar the occasional spider).
Acting on impulse, he went into the shop.
It was late when Hyunwoo returned to his apartment. As per usual on the days when the cleaner came in, a light had been left on. He smiled, setting down his briefcase and inhaling the fresh, clean smell exuded by the apartment. Wandering through to the kitchen with the intention of finding a snack, Hyunwoo let out a sound of surprise. In the middle of the little kitchen table was a vase he’d forgotten he owned, and in it was a bunch of creamy white carnations. Beside the vase was a note, which he snatched up and read.
‘Mr. Son, I hope you don’t consider this an invasion of privacy, but I thought you might enjoy these. Hope you don’t have allergies! – Min (cleaner)’
Hyunwoo chuckled, folding the note up and pocketing it. So the cleaner had a name! What’s more, this ‘Min’ seemed more thoughtful than he had originally guessed.
Smiling, he found a piece of paper and wrote a note in reply.
When he went to bed that night, Hyunwoo still had the echoes of a smile upon his face. He was truly touched that the cleaner had gone to the trouble of putting flowers out. He’d just have to ensure he watered them enough.
Minhyuk found the note that Hyunwoo had left when he was halfway through his usual cleaning of the apartment.
‘Min,’ it read, ‘Thanks, my apartment looks much fresher with flowers~! How much do I owe you? - Hyunwoo (grateful apartment guy) P.S. Please call me Hyunwoo!’
The cleaner giggled. His client’s note sounded cheerful. He searched his pockets for a piece of paper to write a reply onto, but found nothing but a rubber band. As a last resort the cleaner turned over the note and scrawled on the back of it: ‘Hyunwoo, you owe nothing, please consider the flowers a gift of gratitude for your patronage. - Min’
Setting the note where his client would see it, the cleaner continued his work.
It hadn’t been the nicest of days for Hyunwoo. His supervisor had reprimanded the entire department for not reaching their (unrealistic) weekly target and when lunch came around he found himself taking a long-winded call from the company’s office in Tokyo. By the time it had finished, all the good food in the cafeteria had been eaten so he was left with a dry piece of bread and some overcooked noodles. He returned to his desk to be chided by a co-worker for not being there to take another call - this time from a client - and when he’d called the client back he was yelled at and berated despite his profuse apologies. Hyunwoo’s self-esteem had taken a beating and when his watch strap decided to break on the way home, it was the last straw.
The businessman, who had been keeping a careful watch on his diet, stopped in at a cake shop on his way home.
By the time he’d reached his apartment building, he already felt guilty. He felt even worse when he unlocked his front door and remembered Min hadn’t been cleaning today. The apartment was dark, reflecting Hyunwoo’s mood.
Flipping on the lights, he set the cake on the kitchen table and stared at it for a long time before cutting it in half. Half the cake wouldn’t be as bad as the whole thing, he tried to convince himself.
Hyunwoo ate every bite of his half-cake with guilt; it didn’t make him feel better as he’d hoped.
He looked longingly at the other half of the cake, then stood up and went to take a shower. Maybe the next day would be better.
Minhyuk found another note waiting for him when he went into Hyunwoo’s apartment to clean. He was already in a good mood - the day before he’d secured another cleaning job, this time for a house which meant double pay, and cleaning Hyunwoo’s place was always a joy more than a job. But finding a note from the client improved his mood even more.
‘Dear Min,’ it read. ‘There is half a cake in the fridge, please take it. I feel guilty eating it alone! - Hyunwoo’
Minhyuk chuckled softly at the note. He was right about Hyunwoo’s weight issues, though it was no laughing matter. The cleaner sympathised with his client. Checking the fridge, he found the half-cake with another note: ‘Here it is! Please, please eat it for me!’
Giggling, Minhyuk removed it from the fridge. He was supposed to be working, but since it was almost lunchtime it wouldn’t hurt if he stopped cleaning for a few minutes to eat.
Before he left that day, Minhyuk left another note.
“Hyunwoo, thank you for sharing your cake,” Hyunwoo read the note aloud, smiling slightly. “It was kind of you to think of me. I hope I helped lessen your guilt, though a man such as yourself should not need to have such a feeling! Hope you had a great day.”
Hyunwoo put the note away with the others he’d received from Min, and wrote a reply.
‘Min, you are welcome. However I am curious to know what you mean when you say “a man such as yourself”... - Hyunwoo’
Reading the note, the cleaner wondered if he had overstepped the mark. It wasn’t his business how Hyunwoo felt about eating cakes. He wrote a carefully thought-out response to his client’s note, apologising.
‘Hyunwoo, I apologise if I offended you, it was not my intention! By “a man such as yourself” I wished to imply that eating a cake every now and then should not be cause for concern’ (here he drew a smiley face) ‘Allow me to clarify: as you know, along with cleaning I undertake laundry duties, and through this I have of course seen your clothes. I can tell you are a slim man. The occasional cake is irrelevant to a healthy diet. ...I am probably making an idiot of myself here. I hope I have made this note clear enough! - Min (your apologetic cleaner)’
As Hyunwoo read the note, he began to understand the kind intention behind Min’s words and it warmed him: the cleaner was trying to make him feel good about himself.
Before the cleaner’s next visit, Hyunwoo wrote him a short note to explain that he hadn’t been offended, merely curious, and he hoped the cleaner felt no discomfort through thinking he’d been angry. The note was met with a cheerful reply, apparently typical of Min.
From that day, their conversation through notes continued--enough so that Hyunwoo set out a notebook and pen on the kitchen table for the purpose of communicating with the cleaner. Besides work colleagues, clients, and grocery store employees, Min was the only person the businessman talked to (besides the occasional call to his parents). He felt indebted to the cleaner for this, even more-so whenever he looked at the flowers. The carnations had started to die off, but before he had the opportunity to do something about them, they’d been replaced with a bunch of rich purple-and-yellow irises and another cheerful note wishing him a good day at the office. Hyunwoo thought it was like having an invisible housewife.
He’d started to wonder what this ‘Min’ was like in real life. The cleaner’s words always seemed well thought-out, almost delicate, which caused Hyunwoo to imagine a petite, pleasant woman with a smiling face. Judging from their paper-conversation, Min had the type of character that the businessman was attracted to.
It was a pity, he thought, that he didn’t like women. But perhaps Min could become a good friend.
Unlike Hyunwoo’s (somewhat inaccurate) thoughts of what Minhyuk looked like, the cleaner was building a firm idea of his client’s looks and interests. He’d guessed that if the kind, handsome man in the photograph in Hyunwoo’s bedroom wasn’t the businessman, then it must be his client’s brother--in which case Hyunwoo would bear a resemblance to the man in the picture. The cookery and dieting books were a huge clue that his client was insecure about his weight but enjoyed food, and the photographs dotted around the apartment walls told him that Hyunwoo cared about his family and friends. Minhyuk guessed that his client must miss them; the fact he’d needed to employ a cleaner in the first place told him that Hyunwoo had little spare time outside of his job which would make it hard for him to spend quality time with people.
The season was changing and whilst Minhyuk was searching for where Hyunwoo kept bedclothes more suited to winter, he discovered other clues to his client’s personality.
Sitting on a shelf in a cupboard, the cleaner found old jazz records, a music box, and a rather dusty stack of games. The dust indicated that they’d not been moved for a while and none of these things looked new--Minhyuk smiled as he added ‘fine musical taste’ and ‘gamer’ to his mental description of Hyunwoo.
As he arranged a bouquet of lilies to replace the wilting irises, Minhyuk realised he was wandering into dangerous territory. The more he surmised about Hyunwoo, he saw the businessman as having more attributes of - cheesy as it seemed - the man of his dreams. He’d never imagined that such a person could exist, and Minhyuk wanted more and more desperately to meet this man for real.