I suddenly woke up when I heard knocking on my door. I didn’t even realize that I fell asleep. Did I drink too much? Damn, my head hurts. I got up from my couch and saw that I did drink every alcohol that I bought. Am I getting rusty with drinking to get drunk with so little amount of alcohol? Ah, seriously. I slowly walked to the door while massaging my head. I opened the door and rubbed my eyes.

“Who is it? Why?” I asked with my eyes still closed.

I just heard a chuckle and a cough. I know that chuckle.

I opened my eyes quickly and slammed the door shut.

“Joshua.” I whispered and ran to the mirror to fix my hair and my clothes before rushing to open the door again.

“Hey, sorry about that.” I said casually.

He smiled and nodded.

God knows how much I missed that smile even though it’s only been a day. I noticed the chess board he’s holding.

“Chess?” I asked and he smiled again before handing me a note. Did he prepare answers for everything already?

“Do you want to play chess? I have some free time, ‘don’t misunderstand.’” I tried so hard not to smiled on the last part.

“You’re obviously copying my words but whatever. Yeah, sure, come in, let’s play.”

He smiled and nodded and we went inside my unit.

“You can sit comfortably on the couch.” I told him before going to the kitchen to look if I have some food in the fridge.

I heard a small chuckle so I looked at him and that’s when I realized that I have the empty cans and bottles of alcohol everywhere on the center table. I also have empty snack wrappers. Darn, Jeonghan, seriously. How much more are you planning to embarrass yourself? I ran to pick up the cans and bottles but I couldn’t hold all of them at once so I dropped some. Way to go, Jeonghan! Joshua stood up to pick the ones I left behind. And he’s grinning. Seriously? Okay, I’ll let go of the fact that he’s grinning because I probably look so pathetic with all these empty beer cans but can he please not smile like that? Grin like that? It’s making me so nervous. And not just nervous, I’m also thrilled. I’m happy that he’s in my unit picking up cans of beer. I’m glad he went here just because he wants to play chess. I’m glad he’s smiling. I’m so glad that I want to smile too but instead I rolled my eyes at him. What is wrong with me?

When we finished putting my garbage away, I got some snack and sat in front of him.

“So, who goes first?” I asked.

He looked around and I know exactly why. Pen and paper.

I stood up again to go get a pad and a pen and gave it to him before sitting again. I snorted and rolled my eyes again. Why am I trying to look like a snob?! He just smiled and started writing.

“Rock, paper, scissors. The winner goes first & thank you, for this.” He showed me what he wrote. I looked and nodded.

“Rock, paper, scissors!” I suddenly started and he was startled which ended up with me winning with a paper over him with a rock.

“Oh yeah, I go first!” I threw my arms in the air. He looked at me and covered his mouth but I could still see his smile. He’s smiling again. Does he smile at every single thing?

I glared at him and he just patted my head slowly.

And with just that, I calmed. I was like a crying child pacified with just a pat on the head. How dumb.

I shook my head and started to arrange the chess pieces on the board.

“O yeah o yeah, I’m so going to win.” I grinned and hummed.

He just chuckled quietly. I seriously want him to make so much sounds. I want to hear every noise he makes so badly that I don’t care how much sound he makes and I carefully observe how often he makes them. Can’t he please laugh loudly?

We played chess for, I don’t know, maybe an hour? Or maybe less? And guess who won? OF COURSE IT’S HIM. I mean come on, I’m not a chess person.

He clapped at himself when the game ended and I can’t help but laugh and make excuses.

“Hey, of course you won. You know why? Because it’s so quiet, I couldn’t concentrate. You see, I work well if there’s music around.” I bragged.

He just nodded and started writing.

“Just admit defeat, it’s no big deal.” He showed me and grinned widely.

“Ah whatever. I’ll play some music.” I said and played a music from my phone.

BORNS – Past Lives

Halfway through the song, he writes again.

“This is a good song.”

“Yeah? Well duh? You’re with me, I only know good songs.” I smiled.

Writes.

“12 days is far away, huh?”

“Yeah, well. The invitation is too early? It looked like you were looking for a perfect timing but you decided to just invite me even without the perfect time.” I laughed and he writes.

“I didn’t look for a perfect time. I wanted to ask you as soon as possible.”

I just looked at him and shook my head before looking away, smiling.

“Are you trying to say some cheesy lines now?” I whispered to myself but I can’t stop smiling. I mean, come on! I’ve been crushing on this guy ever since the window incident.

“You didn’t have any envelopes.” He wrote.

OH DID HE REALLY NEED TO BRING THAT UP.

“Yeah, well.”

“I have tons.” He wrote and laughed.

“What is this? 1940’s or something?”

“Just offering.” He wrote. His handwriting looks so beautiful even though he writes so fast. Damn.

“Why not offer a question instead? Like a ‘do you want to stop the letters?’ kind of question or ‘what’s your number?’ or ‘we could chat online, you know.’ I don’t know. Don’t you have a phone, it’s 2017.” I rolled my eyes and looked away. But the truth is I’m trying my very best not to smile and I’m controlling myself because I want to squish his face so much since he’s too cute.

I realized a little bit too late that I actually said those words out loud and there’s no point in denying it anymore so I just bit my lip and quietly waited for his reply. He smiled and shook his head before writing.

“Letters from you are cute, though. But sure, may I ask what’s your number?” He wrote.

“Now it would look like I’m forcing you to get my number.”

He shook his head and started writing again. I’m getting used to waiting for his replies, oh my God.

While waiting for his reply, I received a text from my boss. He passed me an urgent job and he needed it by tomorrow. Ah, now that I did a good job from my last project, my boss is making me work harder. I sighed and just then, Joshua showed his reply.

“I actually want to get your number but I really liked our letters but if you want to text me, here’s my number.”

I laughed because he actually wrote that and his number too. I nodded.

“Hey, I actually want to talk more but I have work to do, so suddenly! My freaking boss suddenly decided to make my life hell, ah seriously. I don’t even know where to find concentration in the middle of the night.” I said and he writes.

“That’s okay, I’ll be in my unit. Go to the balcony, though. I could play guitar for you while you work. That okay?”

I smiled and nodded and I don’t know why but it seemed so casual that if other people were to look at us, they would think that we have been doing this for a long time. That it’s sort of our routine, something normal for us.

He got up and grabbed his chess board before waving and going out of my unit.

And for the first time in my whole life, I was excited to go out to the balcony.

(a/n; I had to include that song! I've been loving BORNS these days. I regret that I only found out about them recently, their songs are so good it makes me hurt so much. Good kind of hurt though! I don't know how to explain how their songs make me feel im adios- :'( Thank you all for reading. Sorry if the chapters seem short! I'll work harder omg. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Some Jihan stuff that I really like dokidoki. hearteu_)