Chapter Text
Jinhwan loves the early morning. So much so that he doesn’t even mind the alarm clock on his bedside table ringing almost daily at 4:45am. So much so, that on days when he does sleep in, he wakes up feeling he’s already wasted a huge chunk of his day.
He loves how peaceful and still everything is at this time. He loves how there’s a certain crisp quality to the air this early in the morning, this feeling of having the world all to himself for a little bit. Well – the occasional snores (snores, more like roars) from his flat mate in the room to his left are a reminder that he doesn’t have the world completely to himself, but he’ll settle with what peace he can get only at a time like this.
He didn’t always love mornings this much, perhaps because he’d never been accustomed to rising at this time until a few months ago. He’d never known the calming effect it could have until he’d been forced through it. He wakes in a floaty state, lying tranquil for what feels like hours, then checks his alarm clock – before he knows it it’s 5:30am and he can hear a car pass by every so often as he frantically tries to get dressed without being seen or heard. He feels, despite the fact he’s getting dolled up in frills and lace, like he’s the lead role in some sort of cool spy show. He expects the Mission Impossible theme song to start blasting out as he tiptoes to the kitchen – he’s then rather glad that indeed nothing is making any level of noise, for that would defeat the objective of his own ‘mission.’ Maybe, thinks Jinhwan as he munches as silently as one can on a cereal bar, this was more like a live-action film version of the board game ‘Sshh! Don’t Wake Dad!’ with the way he was taking every measurement possible so as not to wake his sleeping flat mate. Well, whatever this was, Jinhwan knew it required skill and precision, and thankfully he seemed to have honed both.
Buttoning up his coat and shivering as the tiny part of his thighs that are not covered up by stockings are hit with the cold from the draft through the door, Jinhwan looks back into the silent living room of the flat and allows himself a small victory grin. Another mission complete, another successful morning. Easy. He slowly opens the door and creeps all the way down the hallway and stairs, breathing a sigh of relief as he reaches the outdoors. He could get to work as normal now; any tension built up around his early morning task gone. Almost every morning, around 6:15am, Kim Jinhwan feels he strongly deserves a medal for his efforts.
Almost every morning, around 8:15am, Goo Junhoe wakes to the sound of his own alarm clock, unaware of just how much work his little flat mate had put into making sure he slept soundly through the night and especially through the very early morning.