Work Text:
When Minho had decided to move out of his parent’s place to get his own apartment, his needs list had been a bit ambitious. He needed big windows with a good view for himself and Soonie, lots of natural lighting, in-unit laundry machines, a bathtub with a detachable showerhead, a big kitchen to keep up with his cooking hobby, needed the walls to be anything other than the sterile white his friends always complained about with their own places, an end unit so he wasn’t sandwiched by noisy neighbors.
He realized very quickly that those things would be quite hard to accomplish on his limited budget. So when he’d walked into his 24th apartment tour a month and a half after starting his search and seen the big living room windows overlooking a quiet park, he’d asked how soon he could sign a lease.
Moving in the following week goes well enough. He finishes bringing in his few boxes of things by noon and has mostly unpacked and has Soonie exploring around a few hours after that.
The first time he hears the singing, he’s in his kitchen making a grocery list so he can go out and stock up for his new space. The voice is muffled where it comes through the adjoining wall, but loud enough for Minho to hear the words and recognize the song. It’s his first time hearing anything through the walls, and he supposes that he’s glad the first thing is singing and not loud sex or worse.
He pauses to listen for just a moment, appreciating the clear yet smooth tone of his neighbor’s singing. His voice wraps around each word so confidently, like he’s sung the song many times before. It’s an older song, he thinks it’s the theme song from some sitcom his grandparents used to have on when he’d visit, but he can’t quite place the name. Minho notices Soonie perking up his ears almost like he’s listening.
The singing continues until Minho leaves to go shopping and is still going when he returns home, still going through him making dinner, and still going when he sits down on his couch to eat. He doesn’t recognize all the songs, but for the most part they stay in the older era, certainly nothing he would listen to given a choice. He glances at the time, just a few minutes away from 7pm by then, and is considering going to knock on his neighbor’s door to ask him to quiet down when the singing finally comes to a stop. Minho wonders if he stopped singing by choice or if his voice gave out considering it’d been nearly two full hours by Minho’s estimate.
Minho flicks on the TV and navigates to his usual show, pausing before he clicks play. He opens the internet on his phone and searches popular sitcoms from ten to fifteen years ago. He huffs out a pleased laugh when he finds the one he’s looking for and is happy to find it’s available for streaming.
He binges the whole first season before heading to bed that night.
Minho spends the next day finalizing where he’d like all his things organized into his new space and has just flopped onto the couch in the late afternoon when he hears it again. It’s his neighbor, singing that sitcom theme song again. The clock reads 5pm when Minho glances at it. His stomach growls in complaint and Minho remembers then that he forgot to eat lunch.
The singing continues as it did the day before while Minho goes about showering, cooking, and sitting down to eat. Minho again notes Soonie perking up to listen.
Once again, 7pm rolls around and the singing comes to a stop. Minho hopes it’s just a weekend activity, hopes maybe his neighbor is in a choir and has an upcoming concert to practice for. Minho pulls up the second season of the show and hopes this isn’t a daily occurrence.
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Minho is wrong. The singing continues day after day. Then days turn to weeks turn to months and it becomes an enjoyable part of Minho’s daily routine, much to his surprise. When the singing starts at 5pm, he gets up to feed Soonie and make himself dinner, finishing by the fourth or fifth song. When he’s done eating, the singing is drowned out by his doing the dishes, but afterwards, he sits on the couch and closes his eyes and listens until 7pm.
Kim Seungmin is the singer’s name, according to his nosy, elderly grandma neighbor on his other side, and is a single man, slightly younger than Minho himself. No one knows why he sings, they just know it started a few months ago, but no one minds much since he’s so good.
Minho sees him once when they come home at the same time. Seungmin keeps to himself, not looking up as Minho passes behind him to get to his own door, and slips inside before Minho can muster up the courage to say hello.
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The singing stops on a Tuesday.
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Minho hasn’t heard his neighbor singing for a week.
He’s trying not to worry, Seungmin has rights to how he wants to spend his own time after all, but after months of the same routine, Minho finds it hard to believe his neighbor would just stop singing unless something is wrong.
At first, Minho had thought Seungmin was out of town, but that theory is proven wrong when he hears the loud clattering of dishes through the wall. Maybe he’s sick, but Minho hasn’t heard any coughing or nose blowing that would suggest that to be the case. Maybe he’s been diagnosed with vocal cord cancer, maybe he’s permanently lost his voice, maybe he’s Ariel and Ursula stole his song-
Needless to say, Minho is going a bit insane trying to imagine why Seungmin has stopped singing. He doesn’t have to wait much longer to find out.
Walking back into his apartment complex from a short afternoon walk, he rounds the corner to his hall and pauses when he sees Seungmin down the hall. He’s standing in front of his own door donned in a full suit and flipping through his keys. The keyring slips from his fingers and clatters to the floor. Instead of reaching down to pick them up, Seungmin leans his forehead against his door and stares down at them.
Minho feels a bit like he’s intruding on a sensitive moment, but he does need to walk directly by Seungmin to get to his own door and figures it would be more weird to not say something. “You okay?” Seungmin jumps away from the door, a hand flying up to his chest, clearly startled by Minho’s appearance there. His eyes are rimmed red and he looks exhausted. Minho’s heart squeezes a bit in his chest. “Sorry, I uh- I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Seungmin clears his throat, hand rubbing a bit at his chest before dropping back down to his side. “Don’t worry about it.” He bends and snags his keys off the ground but makes no move to open his door. His shoulders sag. Minho notices again how tired Seungmin looks.
“You okay?” He repeats himself, taking a few slow steps closer. To Minho’s horror, tears well up into Seungmin’s eyes. He clears his throat again and blinks, looking up to the ceiling as if he can suck the tears back where they came from by sheer will alone. Minho is definitely intruding now and he stammers to excuse himself. “Sorry- I’ll just-”
“My grandma died.”
That stops Minho dead in his tracks, so close to Seungmin he could reach out and touch him if he wanted. Seungmin is clenching and unclenching his fists at his sides. Minho is lucky enough to still have all four of his grandparents and has never had a close friend lose a grandparent either. Now his neighbor, one that he’s never spoken a single word to, is spilling this to him. He’s in uncharted territory.
And maybe that, combined with Seungmin looking like a lost puppy, is what pushes him to say what he does, words completely flying past his usual filter. “Do you want to come over for dinner?”
Seungmin meets his eyes for a beat, sighing like a deflating balloon. “I must look really pathetic, huh?”
“Yeah, I mean, no offense, but you look like you could use some good food and company.” Minho’s ears are on fire. He’s glad when Seungmin’s mouth quirks up into the smallest smile, though his eyes remain a bit glassy. “Plus my cat would eat up some extra attention while I’m cooking. Wait- you’re not allergic to cats right?”
Seungmin shakes his head. “Cats are great.”
“Great! His name is Soonie, you’ll love him.”
Seungmin gives a polite smile. “Great.”
“Great!” Minho echoes, louder than their close quarters calls for, the reality of him inviting his strange neighbor over for dinner on a whim beginning to set in. Seungmin theoretically doesn’t even know his name, and the only things Minho knows about Seungmin is that, until a week ago, he sang every single day from 5pm to 7pm and his grandma is dead. Feeling the silence stretching on just a bit too long, Minho hastily bows at the waist. “I’m Lee Minho by the way. You can just call me Minho.”
“Kim Seungmin.” Seungmin returns the bow. “What time is dinner?”
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Dinner goes much better than Minho thought it might. Soonie curls up in Seungmin’s lap the moment he arrives after changing into comfortable clothes in his own apartment. Minho cooks them a mild brothy soup that he always enjoys on days where he needs his food to warm his body and brain.
They haven’t spoken to each other since Seungmin came over, so Minho breaks the silence as they sit down at the table. “So what do you do for work?”
Seungmin swallows his spoonful of soup. “I do accounting work for a food pantry.”
“That sounds both boring and intriguing.” Minho actually thinks it doesn’t sound intriguing at all, but he wants to be polite.
Seungmin lets out a chuckle. “It can be monotonous for sure, but I like that about it. I’ve been working remotely since the pandemic, but I like to take my laptop, pick a coffee shop for the day, and work there instead of being cooped up at home. It gives me some good people watching time, and a few of them I go to allow dogs.”
Minho hums in acknowledgement. There’s a few beats of silence as they both take a few sips of soup. When Seungmin doesn’t offer up conversation, Minho breaks the silence again. “So what do you do when you’re not working?”
Seungmin throws a thumb over his shoulder, gesturing toward the patio door. “I go on walks in the park out back. Have you been yet?”
Minho nods. “Yeah, we must be missing each other since I haven’t seen you out there, but I go a few times a week. It’s nice.”
“Yeah, it’s so quiet out there. I’ll leave my phone when I go, helps make my brain quiet for a bit too. There’s too much stimulation in the world nowadays.”
Minho notes that he hasn’t seen Seungmin with his phone out once while he’s been over. He appreciates that Seungmin seems like someone who likes to be fully present. “Yeah, it’s nice to unplug sometimes. The world seems to always be demanding our attention, so I like to just sit with only my thoughts every once in a while.”
Seungmin nods in agreement. It’s quiet again for a bit, aside from the sound of Soonie playing with a toy in the living room.
Minho watches Seungmin watching him play and can’t help the small smile that forms on his face. Minho is once again the one to break the silence. “So what’s with the singing?”
He can tell it was the wrong thing to say immediately. Seungmin looks away from Soonie and stares into his soup, shoulders hunching in a way that makes Seungmin look like he’s trying to be as small as possible. There’s an apology forming on Minho’s lips, but Seungmin speaks first. “I did it for my grandma.” It comes out short and clipped and Minho feels awful for having asked. He’s again about to apologize when Seungmin cuts him off. “Enough about me, what do you do for work and fun?” He lifts his bowl and drains the last of his soup, then turns his head to watch Soonie again.
Minho jumps on the change of subject. “I work at a super small vet clinic. It’s mostly a volunteer-run clinic, it’s just me and one other paid staff.”
Seungmin seems only half interested in the conversation when he speaks, shoulders still a bit hunched in and still not looking at Minho. “See some interesting animals there?”
“Not really,” Minho says. “We mostly handle the run of the mill cat and dog. I think the most interesting pet I’ve examined is a rabbit.”
“And when you’re not working?”
“Well, I enjoy cooking a lot, especially trying out new recipes. I like fishing too. I’ve got a friend that lives on a small lake not too far from here and I try to get there to go fishing with him at least once a month.”
Seungmin finally looks at him again. “I don’t think I have the patience for fishing.”
Minho chuckles. “Neither does my friend, so he just brings a book to read while I fish.” Minho lifts his own bowl to finish off his soup, then reaches out to take Seungmin’s dishes.
“Let me help clean up,” Seungmin says, refusing to hand over his bowl.
Minho can tell that Seungmin isn’t going to take no for an answer, so they stand in surprisingly comfortable silence while Minho washes and Seungmin dries.
When they’re done, Minho walks Seungmin to the door to see him out. “Give me your phone,” he says, sticking his hand out expectantly.
“Why?” Seungmin asks, but hands it over anyway.
“It’s clear from the way you scarfed down that soup that you’re not used to good cooking,” Minho adds his contact to Seungmin’s phone and hands it back. “If you ever need another meal like that, just shoot me a text.”
“Alright,” Seungmin accepts his phone back. “Thank you, Minho, for the meal. And for giving me a distraction. You’re very kind.”
Minho feels the tips of his ears go red. “It’s no trouble at all. Really. And text me, I mean it. I enjoy cooking for other people too, so it’s no extra burden on me.”
“Okay,” Seungmin agrees, letting himself out through the door. “Bye, Minho.”
Minho gets a text not even a minute later. It’s just a simple hi this is seungmin. His phone buzzes again, this time with a picture of Soonie curled up on Seungmin’s lap.
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Days turn to weeks and Seungmin and Minho spend nearly every other day together. At first, it’s just Seungmin coming to Minho’s, but two weeks in, Seungmin insists on returning the favor, even if his cooking doesn’t come close to comparing.
One month after they’d first shared a meal together, Minho gets a text from Seungmin a few minutes after he gets home from work on a day they’d planned to meet up at Seungmin’s for dinner. I’m out on the patio for some fresh air. Meet me out there when you come over.
Minho finishes changing into some sweats and texts back. Just gotta feed Soonie then I’ll be there.
Minho feeds Soonie, then makes his way over to Seungmin’s, navigating through his apartment with ease, and heads out onto the patio. Seungmin is sitting on the outdoor couch that Minho had made fun of once he’d seen it since it takes up nearly the whole patio. Seungmin had argued he wasn’t looking for aesthetics, just comfort. Minho lifts the edge of the blanket Seungmin has draped across his lap and slides in next to him, rearranging the blanket so both their laps are covered. “Hey, Seungmo.”
Seungmin skips over a greeting. His voice is a bit shaky when he talks. “Watch the sunset with me?”
“Sure,” Minho agrees easily, worry becoming a pit in his stomach. “You alright?”
Seungmin keeps his eyes trained forward, his next words come out in a whisper. “I miss her so much.”
Minho has been waiting for something like this. He’d kept away from the topic, not wanting to push Seungmin into talking about something he wasn’t ready to talk about, let alone with someone he’s known for only a month. Now that Seungmin’s brought it up on his own though, opening the door for Minho, even if it’s just a crack, Minho feels better broaching the subject. “Would you like to tell me about her?” Minho nudges his shoulder gently against Seungmin’s, turns his head away from the sunset to watch Seungmin’s profile.
Seungmin hums his acknowledgement, takes in a deep breath. He hugs his legs to his chest as his lower lip begins to wobble, swipes away the first tear that falls, but lets the rest fall freely as he starts talking. “She loved sunsets.” His eyes dart over the sky in front of him like he’s trying to memorize every detail of it. Minho thinks he probably is. “She didn’t live far from here, so whenever she had a particularly good sunset it meant that I could see it too. She’d call and when I answered she’d only say ‘see sky’ then hang up. I’d come and sit right here and watch the sunset knowing we were looking at the same sky. This is the first one I’ve been able to look at since she died.”
Minho looks away from Seungmin to watch the sky too. He hasn’t stopped to appreciate a sunset in years, but this is maybe one of the best he’s ever seen. There’s deep orange at the horizon where the sun has just dipped from view that gives way to pinks and purples painting the underside of the clouds. The bits of sky seen between the clouds is a deep navy in contrast.
Minho keeps his eyes trained on the sky, seeing for the first time in his life how quickly the colors and clouds change as the sun sets. “That sounds really lovely.”
“She didn’t do it with every sunset. It always happened on days where I needed it, like she knew somehow.” Seungmin takes another deep breath, this one shakier than the last. “She was funny, too. Always had quick remarks about things that could make the whole room laugh. And if you ever got her laughing, it was hard to get her to stop. We took a family vacation nearly once a year, just her, my mom, my sister, and I, to Jeju. I have this memory of her in her nightgown on the hotel bed, laughing so hard tears are rolling down her face. I don’t even remember about what, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget the sound of her laugh.”
Minho pulls Seungmin under his arm then, letting Seungmin rest his head against his shoulder as he keeps talking. “She cared so much about our family, kept us all connected as we got older and some of the cousins started their own families. We all came together every year for Christmas, even when she got older and more frail.”
They sit in the quiet together after that, watching the sky. Minho has never noticed how fast sunsets are over. You could miss the whole thing if you weren’t watching for it. Minho keeps his voice as quiet as he can, feels like anything louder would be disrespectful. “What about the singing?”
Seungmin lets the question hang in the air for a while. Minho keeps his eyes trained on the sky while he waits. The orange has left the sky completely, the only sign of the lingering sunset the deep purple staining the clouds by the time Seungmin speaks. “She got more confused during the last year. It started with trouble remembering where her things were, then she forgot the dog’s name, her friends’ names, our names. She never did forget the lyrics to her favorite songs though. She’d sing them under her breath whenever she got anxious realizing she was forgetting something but not what that thing was. Singing to her felt like the only way I could help, so that’s what I did. I’d call every day, sometimes she wouldn’t know who I was, but she never said no when I asked to sing for her.”
“That’s really beautiful,” Minho leans his head on top of Seungmin’s. “She was very lucky to have you.”
Seungmin is quiet for long enough Minho thinks it’s the end of the conversation. When Seungmin speaks next he whispers the words so quietly that Minho almost misses them. “Sometimes I worry it wasn’t enough.”
“It was enough,” Minho answers him firmly, leaving no room for argument. “There wasn’t a single day that she was alone thanks to you.”
Seungmin is quiet for a moment, but when he finally speaks he sounds small. “Okay.”
The sunset is over now, the sky dark with some stars becoming visible behind the scattered clouds.
“Can I cook some dinner for us?” Minho asks, giving Seungmin’s shoulder a squeeze.
Seungmin just nods in response. Lets Minho unbundle them from the blanket and lead them inside, tangling his fingers with Minho’s as they go.
─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───
Days turn to weeks turn to months, and Seungmin and Minho spend more of their free time together than apart. They leave their phones in their apartments and go on long walks through the park, sometimes bringing along Soonie in a cat backpack Seungmin had gifted Minho. They haven’t put a label on their relationship, but Minho is well aware that they are a couple in everything except name by now.
At some point in his brain, Minho started counting the sunsets he’d spent with Seungmin. Today will be their 28th.
Minho lifts his hand and knocks on the door, turning the knob and walking in when Seungmin shouts from inside. “Hi baby!” he calls into the apartment, following the grainy sound of Seungmin’s bluetooth speaker playing the sitcom theme song. He finds Seungmin in the kitchen finishing up dinner. “See sky.”
Seungmin glances across the apartment to look out the patio door, his face breaking into a smile. Minho thinks he’s more radiant than any sunset they’ve watched together.