What to do when you get involved into a crying stranger's business

The following day, Minwoo woke up early, rested and unstressed. He couldn’t believe how much just a few hours of silence could change one’s routine. He brushed his teeth, chose the clothes he’d wear that day, and had a shower, all without rushing.

He even took his time while having breakfast, a nice cup of coffee, mixed in some milk and a few scoops of cacao powder (the employee from Starbucks probably wondered what happened to him). He got to class in time (not that he ever got there late), and sat down on his usual spot.

Classes, as it often happens, went on a blur. But he was so satisfied! He was able to focus well all the morning, and take more than decent notes. Hell, he had even been able to avoid that spiked haired weird kid in his Economic classes!

 Sooner than he thought, it was five in the afternoon, and he was coming back home with another Starbucks cup, this time some Chai tea had been his drink of choice. As soon as he got inside his place, he took off his shoes and socks and began with his usual routine. Leaving his stuff on his desk, cleaning hands and feet and getting fresh socks, deciding between putting on his pajamas or not.

While he was finishing his Starbucks, he was deciding what to do on that afternoon. He still had… 26 chapters to finish. If he could read at least four he’d be good to finish studying by the following week’s Thursday.

“Okay”, he said out loud to himself, “Let’s get this started!”

Almost three and half hours later, he had already read and written notes for almost eleven chapters, and a familiar headache was starting to form inside his forehead.

So… today, again, no music? Weird…

But, hey, if that was useful for him, he guessed it was fine. His neighbor was probably still sleeping over at someone’s. Yeah. Or maybe they were sick? When you are sick you need to rest a lot, right? You can’t break everyone’s and your eardrums while you need to rest.

Yeah. They were probably in bed.

Anyway…

That day Minwoo also went to sleep comfortably at a reasonable hour.

Well.

It had been five days.

It had been five days since Tuesday, six without that damn music.

Minwoo had already read and resumed everything he needed, including the power points. He had cleaned his apartment twice (on Friday and the other on Sunday). He had already reorganized his clothes. He had fixed the kitchen’s tap that had had a small leak since he moved, but he had never gotten around to do it yet. He had even cooked his dinners up until Thursday.

Everything was going well. Too well. Too quiet, and too well.

It was seven in the afternoon, and he was already in his pajamas. He had already showered and dried and flattened his hair, and had already posted a cute picture on Instagram (his followers, which weren’t exactly a small amount, had been wondering in the comments why had he been posting so much these days). 

Too quiet.

He was in his bed, legs stretched and crossed, looking at the ceiling, wondering what to do with all that time. Should he enroll in dance classes again? Should he start hitting up the gym? Maybe buy a new book?

He was wondering whether to buy a TV or not, when he suddenly heard a loud thump coming from upstairs.

Huh?

He sat up. A few days ago he had decided that the person living upstairs was sick. Probably cozy, inside their own bed, with a somewhat high fever and pills and water bottles all around them, sleeping lots and missing classes. That was the only explanation, because they definitely were home, Minwoo had heard footsteps on Sunday. And before now, not even one day had he been free of the loud mess his neighbor used to make. Not even on Saturdays, where their music and the music from the parties collided, and made him reconsider his life choices. So, to him, that was enough evidence to say that they couldn’t be the ones to change their lifestyle from one day to the other.

But then… what had been that noise?

A million scenarios went through Minwoo’s mind. He couldn’t help it, his mom had always told him he worried too much.

What if they had fainted? What if they had fractured a leg and had lost their balance due to their cast? What if…?

What if someone had taken advantage of their sicken state and had barged in?!

Okay, he was definitely worried now.

He forced himself to lay back down, and turned to his side, facing the wall. He had to calm down.

Unconsciously, one of his hands found the other, cracking every bone on his fingers.

“Okay but what if something ha  really happened?”

“Come on, don’t be stupid…”

His teeth began gnawing at his lower lip, as pieces of scenes from those crime shows he used to watch in National Geographic suddenly invaded his thoughts. Scenes where the poor victim was alone and unmoving, all bleeding on the floor (maybe because of a shot, maybe because of a strong hit) BUT could have been saved if only someone had seen them on time! If only they hadn’t been on their own…! If only they had had a friend, or at least a neighbor to come check on them..! If only..!

Before he knew what he was doing, the boy was nearly running up the stairs.

As soon as he got to the floor, he began walking down the corridor, trying to figure out which door should belong to them. Minwoo lived in the 306, so the person had to live in the 406.

Knock, knock, knock.

He knocked, and waited. And waited. And waited. He couldn’t help but to jump a little on his toes, he was getting anxious. The person inside was taking too long to answer.

Knock, knock, knock!

This time he did it louder, his knuckles hurting a bit right after.  And he waited, cracking his fingers again. What was wrong with this person? Why were they taking so long?! Had something actually happened to them?

He was about to knock again, his fist raised, when the door finally opened.

“…”

“Um…”

“Yeah…?”, the stranger’s voice came out lazily, as an eyebrow raised. In front of Minwoo, a short mess was staring at him with tired eyes.  “Where’s my jjangjjangmyun?”

The first thing Minwoo noticed about him is the flash of soft pink that was his hair, like a colour between cotton candy and salmon. It was kind of long, and it was carelessly thrown to a side, making it look like a sloppy Mohawk. His eyes looked slightly red and tired, the bags under his eyes easily recognizable even over the light olive tone of his skin. He also noticed the redness on his nose, and the slight swollenness of his eyes.  He was wearing a light blue robe that had been carelessly tied in a lazy knot over his pajamas, half falling from one of his shoulders.

“Um… I’m your downstairs neighbor, my name is Minwoo…”, he let out, feeling more than a little awkward. The guy’s dark eyes stared back emptily, as he tried to look for words to say.

How could he explain the reason why he was on this guy’s door? What even was his reason? ‘Oh, hey, sorry, I thought you were being murdered? Bu t I see you’re not so all is fine, see you around.’ ‘I though you were on your death bed as your annoying music wasn’t bothering me anymore.’ All of those already sounded stupid in his mind.

Luckily for him, he heard some footsteps and a female voice behind him announced herself as the delivery person from a restaurant name Minwoo had never heard of. The guy –that he had just realized, was quite shorter than him –was quick to pull out a leather wallet from the pocket of the robe, take out some wons, and give them to the girl, as he received a big package and muttered a ‘thank you’.

The girl was quick to leave. His neighbour’s eyes went back to him, then to the package, then to him again, and he finally sighed.

“Come in”, it sounded almost like an order.

“Huh? No… I just wanted to –“

“Aish, come on in, already”, the annoyed male said, as he began walking inside, leaving Minwoo at the door. After a few seconds, he finally walked inside and closed the door behind him.

He followed the shorter one until they reached the kitchen. The place was spacious, with an island in the middle, surrounded by a few tall chairs. He placed the package there, and stretched lazily, letting his hands go up ane down from his collarbone to his chest, pressing the clothes against himself, while he took a deep breath. Minwoo saw the action, and felt like the guy had forgotten he was there. After a few seconds, he finally released the air in a groan.

“I’ll be right back,” he suddenly announced,  “you can start opening the package.”

And just like that, he walked away.

Minwoo was left a mixture between surprised and confused for many reasons.

First, who the hell leaves a total stranger alone in their own house? What kind of carelessness was that…? What if he had lied and was actually a robber?

Secondly, just… what was he supposed to do? Should he just… open it? He didn't feel comfortable doing that, he was, after all, a stranger in that house. He couldn't just do what he please, even if it was something the owner said him to do.

(Well, at least he knew it really was food and not, say, some kind of sleazy drug, because he could already feel the strong bittersweet smell spreading around.)

And last of all: how could someone live in such an expensive looking place, and let it look like a massive chaos just like that?!

Because, by god, the place looked expensive as hell.

Not in a showy kind of way though, not at all. The kitchen was directly connected to the living room, and then, there were a few doors here and there. But the first thing that caught your eyes was the huge flat screen that hung from the middle of the greyish wall, and the mega huge, black leather couch that went with it. It looked really comfortable, like the kind of places one could lay on and fall asleep right away, even if you had just woken up from a 12-hour sleep. Aside from that, there wasn’t much furniture around, but what there was, was sharp and elegant. There was a glass coffee table in the middle of the room, and a pair of twin plants on each side of the TV, whose green was so bright that lighted up the place and gave it just the exactly amount of color it needed.

 The intention of the minimalist decoration ended up sophisticated, and it would have worked really well in that space…

Well, if it wasn’t for the disaster of things that was all over everything. On the expensive sofa, there was a baby blue blanket, all wrinkled and carelessly thrown on the side. Around it, a lot of pillows that clearly weren’t part of that decoration were scattered too.  From where he was standing, he could see packages of junk food and delivery roughened on the floor and the glass table, that was actually all dirty with greasy fingerprints. There even were some cans of both beer and soju, and a big, half-drunk bottle of Coke.

The brunette had to turn around to stop seeing all that mess before his OCD attacked. He literally was seconds away from going there and start picking the trash himself.

“This is not your house, this is not your house…” , he chanted in his mind, reminding himself that it would have been actually rude to act up on his needs. Needs of tidiness.

He was in the middle of that, when the owner of the dirty place came back, looking fresher and more awake. He had changed; now wearing a pair of skinny pants with the knee open and an oversized, thick white shirt with a necklace hanging from his neck. His hair was different as well, his messy Mohawk now was a messy-looking mohawk, and Minwoo noticed for the first time he had longish roots of reddish brown, and a pierced ear.

With these changes, Minwoo could for the first time really appreciate his neighbor. But, you know, really appreciate him.

He had a small nose, and high cheekbones to go with it. His eyes were small, but somehow worked really well with the rest of his features, giving him a mysterious and high feeling, a bit like the vibe that someone from a royal family would give you.

However, his attention was soon undivided as soon as he noticed the pretty pair of lips that the male had, full and naturally shaped, pinkish brown and slightly wet (they gave away the fact that he had cleaned his face before coming back). They were so soft looking that almost looked femenine, and for a brief mili-second, he wondered what it would be like to...

No. Stop right there.

Minwoo forced himself to look away, because he was sure he was being creepy.

“Aish…”, those lips complained, “Why didn’t you set the things?”, and those strong eyebrows curled a little in annoyance, once again.

“I-…”

“I’m Jeongmin, by the way.”, his short frame had started moving around the kitchen, quickly gathering two plates and glasses. He set them on the table, and opened the package.

“They always send two…”, he heard him mumbling, slightly annoyed, as he took one pair of wooden chopsticks and put half of the contents on each plate, “They know I live alone but they always send two…”

Minwoo eyed him as he did that, not quite knowing what to do. He felt inadequate, as if he shouldn’t even be there, even though he had been invited in. He felt like Jeongmin would much rather be alone… Like he seemed he had been until he came.

He was not going to lie, he was curious now. Of course, he was glad that the guy was actually okay- well, if you could call looking as if he hadn’t had a shower for days and living between trash ‘being okay’.

Hey, at least he wasn’t being murdered or dying, right?

But… what had put him in that state though? He briefly wondered if maybe he actually was like that, all messy and unkempt, but quickly discarded the idea; for some reason, he couldn’t see this guy like someone that was regularily this trashy.

And besides that, what about the music, where did it go?

His thoughts were cut when he heard a big slurp, and realized he had a bowl of jjangjjangmyun and a pair of chopsticks waiting to be eaten; and his company, in front of him, already swallowing mouthfuls of the dark noodles.

For some reason he felt like he was walking on eggshells. Like, he knew there was something delicate or complicated going on in his neighbor’s mind, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know.

He slowly began eating as well, realizing he was actually hungry (Had he even eaten dinner? He couldn’t remember), while keeping an eye on the other guy (and on his lips, and how he them every time they got dirtied with the bittersweet sauce).

Maybe it was the silence that was too thick, maybe the sounds of eating that were making weird echoes in the huge place made him feel uncomfortable. Maybe it was because it was the first time he was at someone’s home that wasn’t his family... But he felt like something was about to happen any sec-

“So why are you here?”, Jeongmin suddenly asked, leaving his chopsticks aside as he filled his and Minwoo’s glass with Coke- a new bottle of Coke-, and he looked at him with a neutral (bored? Tired?) expression.

“I… Uh…”,  Minwoo swallowed what he had in his mouth, as he frantically tried to look for a good excuse.  Maybe he could lie, saying there was a leak? No, he would go check that to his house. What about saying he just wanted to meet his new neighbors? No, he had been living there for too long for that to be a good excuse. “Um…” Arrgh! What could he do?

He wished he had thought twice before going up those freaking stairs!

“...?”

“Arrgh! Okay!” he suddenly stood up, the chair making a horrible noise. “ Your damn annoying music! I was wondering why wasn’t it ing up my school schedule anymore and I got worried, okay?!”, his hand ,”And I heard a weird noise and I was afraid you were being killed!”

“…”, his eyebrows rised “Huh?”

“So you better be thankfu!”, he ranted, “I could have let you die up in here!”

“Uhm… thanks?”, it wasn’t until Minwoo saw a small smile tugging in the corner of the other’s lips, threatening to grow, and his surprised expression that he realized his outburst, and a reddish pink began painting his cheeks. Oh god, he didn’t just actually say it, did he?

He slowly sat down again, and felt like hiding his face in his hands, but he knew he’d look even more stupid than he had just made himself look. Oh god. How could he burst out like that in front of an stranger… in the house of that stranger?!

“Hey, I’m really thankful, okay?”, for the first time, he heard the hint of a laugh in the reassuring tone of the shorter. “I really am”

“Shut up”, he mumbled, as he took his chopsticks again, and began swallowing the food like his life depended on it. He wanted to leave right now.

“I’m serious.”

“…”, Minwoo limited himself to throw a brief glare at the other one, and just kept eating.

For a few minutes, the only sound that was heard was again, the slurping, chewing and swallowing of both males.  Then, he spoke again.

“It’s because of my ex.”, his voice had sobered once again. Minwoo looked up, and found him sitting back, looking at his hands on his lap. One of them was playing with the other, but from his position, the taller couldn’t quite distinguish it well.

“Hmm?”, he just asked, looking at his interlocutor intently.

“I found t that my ex had been cheating on me for five months”, he sighed, and bit the inside of his cheek. “We’d been together for three years…”

“Oh…”

“I though our love… It’s stupid, no, I’m stupid, sorry. But I felt like we were special, you know? I thought we were going to be like those old couples you see on the news… ‘Couple has been together for fourty years!’ and such…”, his voice was quiet, and Minwoo could see how his nose had begun reddening again, and his eyes began looking more shiny, “I was planning to propose on Christmas.”

“Oh… Um…”, it was one of the few times in his life that Minwoo didn’t quite know what to say. What should he do? He had never in his life had to comfort anyone.

“And I even kept our ring, ugh. I’m just so ing dumb!”, his voice took an angry turn, and Minwoo could finally see what he had been playing with. A circular frame bounced on the table twice before settling, and he got a good view of it. It was a simple, thick silver ring. It had a carved line in the middle, that at some point stopped In a small heart.

“Well…”, Minwoo took it, wanting to have a closer look. To him, it looked too tacky. Like the person who bought it was either a hopeless romantic or just bought the first thing they saw. “At least you don’t have to wear this ugly thing anymore.”

“…What?”, Jeongmin looked up from his hands where he had buried himself.

Damn, did he say that outloud? Ugh, clearly, today was not a good day for him.

“I mean… Just look at it.”, he extended his arm, showing it to him as if he hadn’t been the one wearing it, “ I’ve probably seen this same ring a thousand times. And that small heart… Isn’t it too boring? And kind of tacky. ”, the words were quick to leave his mouth.

Jeongmin opened his eyes a bit more, taking it and examining it between his fingers, as if it was the first time he was seeing the jewelry. A shy smirk spread on his lips, “It is a bit ugly, isn’t it?”

“Totally.”, Minwoo nodded, and for some reason he felt lighter, like he was making some sor of progress he was not really sure of. “My mom used to say that she dated my dad because he had a good style, and that I shouldn’t date anyone who doesn’t have a good style.”, he felt like sharing that. “You shouldn’t, either.”

Jeongmin looked up at him, his smile was now wider, “Yeah, you are right. I’m better of alone, right?”

“Yeah!”, Minwoo nodded eagerly, and took his chopsticks again while Jeongmin did the same (but now, his face was illuminated with a smile), only to find that his plate was nearly empty. So he awkwardly took whatever was left and put it in his mouth.

As he waited for the other one to finish (and looked for an excuse to leave, because, god, he had had enough awkwardness for a life time), he reluctantly drank a few sips of Coke (to be honest, he wasn’t used to drinking any kind of sodas).

“Ah, it was good.”, Jeongmin said, standing up and patting his stomach, as he took his plate and left it on the sink. “Oh, you finished too.”

“Yeah, actually it’s pretty late…”

“Wanna watch a movie?”

“In that mess of a couch? No thanks”, Minwoo thought, a bit disgusted. He didn’t even want to think about how old that trash must have been, and how smelly it’d be. But instead, he said:

“Oh, sorry, but I’ve got class in the morning…”, his voice was affable, a tone he was used to put whenever visits (aka, his mother’s annoying friends) came over to his house. Minwoo began slowly walking back to the door, “But thank you for the meal, Jeongmin-sshi.”

“Right, you must be an earlie.”, the pink haired commented, as he walked with him. Once they reached the door, Minwoo walked out. “Oh, and thank you, too.”

“…?”,Minwoo just looked at him with confusion. “What for?”

“For checking out I wasn’t being murdered.”, the little answered, and broke into a huge laugh, as he closed the door. “Good night!”

Blam!

And just like that, for the nth time that night, Minwoo was left super confused.

What a weird night.

Author's note time!

A few notes on this: 

1- That chopstick thing actually happens to me a lot :'( whenever i ask sushi I CLEARLY ASK FOR A TABLE FOR ONE BUT THEY KEEP SENDING TWO PAIR OF CHOPSTICKS. (whatchu tryna tell me, sushi delivery man?)

2- ACTUALLY ive never eaten jjangjjangmyun but it's the first thing im doing as soon as i get to korea, if i ever get to korea hahaha!

3- I KNOWWW they seem a little ooc, but they are about to go through some changes, i swear.

4- sorry for being so late in updating, but while i was writing this chapter i got into a bit of a crisis bc i realized i didnt really know where tf i wanted this to go. but not anymore!! now i got a semi-clear image of what is this going to be about. want a hint? ok ill give it to you:

5- and last author's note for today: ill probably edit this later, have a nice new year, and thank you for reading!! id love it if you left a comment, as well. See you all in the next update!