no idea why everything is bold

just roll with it

edit: i think i fixed it

did you read fated before you decided to start this story?

good, now you may continue reading

bonus points to anyone who recognises what song inspired part of this chapter

          “What’s up little pup?” Chanyeol asked when he answered the door for his friend, Joonmyun. The man looked like he just watched a puppy being punted through a puddle of mud.

           “I have had one hell of a weird day.” He said as he came in.

           “What happened?” His best friend, who he'd known his entire life showed a rare moment of genuine concern for him.

           “I was waiting for the train this morning and I saved an old gypsy looking lady from accidentally falling onto the tracks. ing crowded today for some reason. Then she waved her boney old fingers and said something like ‘I can’t change your fate but I can make what’s left of this life better for you,’ He said in a lousy approximation of her voice.

           “You’re a hero! Yay!” Chanyeol patted his shorter friend on the shoulder. “Creepy though”

           “Yeah… but since then all sorts of weird has been happening to me… Not bad weird, just weird.”

           “Like what?”

           “I clocked in at work and that grumpy secretary was smiling at me.”

           “The scary one with the…” Chanyeol pointed at his cheek “Mole?”

            “Yeah” he said with a thousand foot stare, obviously preoccupied in thought about the terrifying woman.

           “Maybe she was having a good day, what else?” He shuddered visibly.

           “Not only was my inbox close to empty, but I might be getting a promotion.” His eyes were wide.

           “That’s awesome!” Chanyeol grinned.

           “That guy who got promoted over me got caught embezzling money from the company account.”

           “The who used to rub your nose in the fact that you didn’t get the job?” The taller man asked, recalling the dozen or so times Joonmyun had complained about him.

           “And then at lunch, none of the winos pestered me for change and the pigeons dive-bombed someone else’s lunch instead.”

           “So… what’s the problem with your day?”

           “So many good things are happening to me that I’m scared something horrible is going to happen. Especially after what that old gypsy said. Also I’m too scared to open this letter I got in the mail.” Joonmyun frowned as he pulled a black envelope from his pocket. It had at least three forwarding addresses on it.

           “You want me to open it?”

           “Yeah.”

           “I don’t have the lucky touch today though.”

            “Just open it” He grumbled. Chanyeol opened the letter and a key fell out.

           “It says: To my dear friend, Suho, I haven't forgotten all you have done for me so long ago. In fact, I hope this finds you in time. You tend to move around a lot. I don't have an heir, so I want you to take my house on… blabbity bla. Enclosed is the key.” He mumbled. “You just inherited a house.”

           “I… just- Did it say who I inherited the house from?” He sat heavily on a kitchen chair.

           He read a little more, “Some professor, and he goes on to say that in order to avoid having to pay fees and taxes and stuff on it, you have to move in and take care of the upkeep.”

           “Should we go check it out?” Joonmyun shrugged, making a strange face.

           “And then I think we should go to that new nightclub. Maybe your luck will rub off on me and perhaps I can snag someone to bring home.” He grinned.

           “Why not” Joonmyun shrugged. “Worth a try. If anyone can get you laid, it’d be me.” Joonmyun teased.

           Chanyeol pouted at him.

           They got to the house at the end of a little cul de sac. The yard was overgrown with weeds and the paint was peeling. Behind the house (what they could see from the street out front) was a what looked like part of a large forest.

With a little difficulty, they opened the front door. The previous owner seemed to be a packrat. The house was covered in layers and layers of dust and garbage.

           “You don’t think they died in the house do you?” Chanyeol sounded worried.

           “Why?”Joonmyun side eyed his tall friend. “You think maybe they lost the body and we’ll find it when we’re cleaning?”  

           “Ugh, I was thinking more like ghosts.”

           Joonmyun looked around and shrugged. “It’s a big house. We can share.”

           “Who’s this we?” Chanyeol stopped walking behind his friend.

           “You and me… and whatever else is in here. It’s too big for me to live in on my own and I need your help fixing and cleaning the place.”

           Chanyeol looked trapped. “But…”

           “It will save on rent money.” Joonmyun sang.

           “Fine… but if I get killed by a poltergeist, I’m haunting your .”

           “No problem.” Joonmyun said absent as he looked around, “Let’s split up so we can look over the place a little faster.”

“Split up?” Chanyeol gulped audibly. “What would that accomplish?”

           “I would get endless amusement hearing your girly shrieks through the house. Now get going.” Joonmyun pushed his friend in one direction before he walked up the stairs the other way. He decided to start as high up as he could and work his way down to meet with his friend. He found a pull cord that led to a ladder to the attic. “Start from the top.” He mumbled to himself.

           He climbed the ladder and there was another door leading into the attic, possibly to keep the house better insulated he reasoned.

           The brown haired man made a mental note to vacuum the hell out of the attic once everything was out of it. Maybe he could rent it out as a bedroom.

           Every step he took was like walking through freshly fallen snow. His shoes left perfect imprints in the dust.

           A glint of light reflected off of something by the window and he got closer to see. There was a brass lamp. Like one he saw in Aladdin as a kid. He chuckled as he picked it up and looked inside.

           There was no dust in it, which Joonmyun thought was a bit odd. He dropped his arm to his side and looked around the room. The lamp made an unusual noise when it rubbed against his pant leg. He was about to put it back on the shelf by the window when a huge gust of wind blew the window open, throwing dust and lighter objects everywhere.

           Just suddenly as it began, it had stopped. The window was closed as if nothing had happened and nothing had moved. Except for the dust that seemed to have reset itself from when he walked in.

           Joonmyun quickly left the room to go find Chanyeol.

           “Yeol?” He said a little louder than he normally would.

           “Joonmyun… a little help please?” A muffled shout replied.

           “Where are you?”

           “In the kitchen.” Chanyeol responded.

           When Joonmyun got to the kitchen, he was met with chaos. The floor was covered in old newspapers.

           “Where are you, Yeol?”

           “You’re standing on me if the slight pressure change is anything to go by.” Came a whine from below him. Joonmyun looked down and saw Chanyeol’s feet sticking out from under the pile. He jumped off and started pulling apart the mound of old newspapers.

           “Are you ok?” He asked as he unearthed his friend.

           “I’ll have to see when I’m unburied.” Chanyeol crawled out and patted himself down. “Nothing broken.”

           “This place is a death trap. We’re spending all weekend clearing this place out… I don't want to be buried under back issues of… our old high school newspapers…” He looked at the front page of the school paper, The Guardian, that Joonmyun had been the editor of. This one had Chanyeol on the front page shooting a winning basket, “That's weird, if not a little creepy. I guess I’ll call for a dumpster?”

           “We should go back to our apartments and get dressed for tonight after you do that. Meet you at mine?” Chanyeol nodded, trying to convince Joonmyun. He seemed to be in a hurry to get out of the house. Joonmyun grabbed his arm, preventing him from going anywhere.

           “What’s the rush?” Joonmyun asked.

           “Something feels like we’re being watched.” The tall man replied in an almost whisper.

           “But we still have a few hours. We can start taking these newspapers outside or something. I saw a garbage can on the way in.”

           “Ain't gonna hold all of this” Chanyeol sighed, knowing that his friend wouldn’t let him leave.

           After fifteen minutes or so of arguing over the best way to take care of the garbage until the dumpster got there the next day, they settled on buying garbage bags from the shop down the street and piling everything up in the front room.

           The two men kept looking over their shoulders every time it felt like they were being watched. Every time, they saw nothing.

           It started to get dark so they called it a day and went to get changed to go out. Joonmyun showed up at Chanyeol’s door in black jeans and a t-shirt with a matching blazer on top. He still had that niggling feeling that someone was watching him.

           “Lookin’ good” Chanyeol said. “If I didn’t know from past experience that trying to sleep with you was disastrous, I’d totally hit on you.”

           “We’re never getting back together as a couple.” That was a disastrous three weeks, they thought. Joonmyun replied matter of factly. “We’re way more functional as friends than we ever were as lovers. You ready to go?”

           “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

           As Chanyeol predicted, Joonmyun’s luck was rubbing off on him. Within minutes he was out on the dance floor grinding against one pretty little thing and then another. Joonmyun snickered into his drink as he watched his friend go back and forth like a kid in a candy shop.

           That feeling of being watched returned full force and he turned very slowly this time. He came face to face with a man about Chanyeol’s height. He had dirty blond hair and was wearing an interesting pair of matching bracelets and choker.

           “What are you drinking?” He asked in a voice that sounded younger than he thought it should have. It also sounded like he wasn’t used to speaking Korean.

           “Watermelon soju” He raised his glass to show him.

           A moment later, the blond had one in his hand too. He took a sip and cringed before coughing.

           “It’s strong, but that means you only need a few to get tipsy.” Joonmyun shouted over the music.

           The man got over the initial surprise and continued drinking the pinkish cocktail. He was bobbing his head to the music and occasionally glancing over at Joonmyun.

           “Do you want to dance?” Joonmyun asked him.

           He put his drink down and let Joonmyun lead him to the dance floor. They shyly swayed back and forth to the beat until the blond grabbed Joonmyun’s hips and stopped moving.

           “You’re spending a lot of time looking at that tall guy over there, are you trying not to get caught or something?”

           “Nah, it’s not that. I can’t dance. I was watching Yeol to see if I could pick up anything from him. All he seems to be doing is gyrating wildly. I wonder which one he’s going to take home.”

           “The little guy with the pink hair and angry looking eyes.” He said.

           “How do you know that? They’re hardly touching.”

           “Call it gut feeling… though that tall man with the frown looks like he’s going to try really hard to sleep with your friend. But all he wants is no strings attached. Your friend doesn’t look like he wants that as much.” He stared at the three men dancing. “He’s going to go for the smaller one with emotional baggage. Neither one are good choices.”

           “How do you know he’s got baggage?”

           “He’s staring wistfully at the guy dancing across the floor.”

           “Maybe it’s a crush. Like Yeol seems to have.” He smirked.

           “He still has feelings for you.” The blond said all of a sudden and was met with a questioning look. “He’s been looking over here every five minutes. Like he’s too far away from you or something.”

           “We’ve known each other our entire lives and he’s always been protective of me.”

           “Protect you from what?” He asked incredulously as he cocked a dark eyebrow at Joonmyun.

           “Who says you’re not going to eat me or something?” Joonmyun smirked.

           “People are so paranoid nowadays.” The blond tutted.

           They moved off of the dance floor and continued to talk until the bar closed, the blond asking more questions than he was answering.

           “Well, I gotta get this home.” He pointed to Chanyeol who pretty much floated away from the pink haired man that the blond had said would end up with.

           “See you around.” He waved as he dragged a drunken Chanyeol to the new house.

           “Why are we staying here?” He slurred.

           “It’s closer than your apartment and I’m tired.”

           He dragged the larger man to a bedroom on the first floor that smelled of mothballs.

           “That looks like a bathroom. Puke in there. Good luck.” Joonmyun slogged up the stairs to find himself a bedroom and snuggled under the comforter.