I

Hallway Meeting

            The raindrops made for steady drumbeats that afternoon. Aside from the guitar music playing from the laptop, the natural weather added for a soothing ambiance. Wheein sighed gently. Her meteoric nature was playing quite the huge part again in how her mood was for the day, and that was only adding up to the stress building up in her. She placed the laptop on the table and stood up to get more coffee. It was only right. Spring just arrived and it was met with rain quite immediately, thus the cold was going to linger for a little while more. How many mugs has she had for the day, by the way? She wasn’t sure anymore. Two, probably, and now this is the third. If her roommate, Hyejin, was currently at home, Wheein would have gotten a gentle reprimand for consuming too much caffeine.

            But she’s not here and I haven’t drank too much… yet. Wheein finalized her coffee mix with sugar and stirred the contents of her overused mug. The little cat design on it had faded slightly but buying a new one wasn’t too practical since she had other mugs in stock which were mostly gifts from acquaintances. Mugs are easy gifts after all and she’d be lying herself if she said she never gifted others with the same item.

            Too many thoughts, Wheein, and not enough work. That paper isn’t going to write itself.

            Wheein walked back to the living room and placed her mug on the coffee table beside the laptop. She had a few more pages to go with her report and the submission was due in a week. There was ample time to finish it, but there were other homework and studies to tend to so it was best to finish this as early as possible. However, not everything came easy and her mind was drawing a blank. It didn’t help that all her days had been spent on schoolwork, either, but that college degree wasn’t going to come to her free of charge. Still, a little change of pace or excitement would have been welcome. Wheein reached out for her coffee and she gulped down a quarter of its contents in one go. If she could at least finish one more part, she could take a rest as a treat to herself. That is, if she gets to write more.

            Taehyung’s arms were full.

          Two large brown paper bags set themselves on his arms and the young man could barely see where he was walking on but he had been in Jungkook and Jimin’s new apartment a couple of times already since they moved so he had certainty with his directions, even though he almost slipped once on the wet floor. He was thankful no one was around to hear him curse, too.

          He finally arrived at the fourth floor of the apartment complex and made his way down the hall. Had he not bought too much snacks then maybe his vision wouldn’t have been slightly hindered by the chip wrappers and bottles of soda. But Taehyung knew this night was video game night, the one day him and his friends had always reserved as best as they can every month. Due to their busy schedules at their respective universities, it was hard to find time to hang out but they managed to work it out somehow. It was Taehyung’s turn to bring the snacks, too, as they rotated monthly. He grinned inwardly; he was sure the snacks he brought this time around were good enough. The last time was Jimin’s turn and he got lazy and ordered pizza instead. Not that Taehyung minded—heck, Jimin got the good brand!—but it didn’t last throughout the night and cold pizza past midnight wasn’t the best. Chips could manage.

            Taehyung stopped in front of one of the doors and managed to bring his hand up to ring the doorbell and then knock loudly.

            “Jimin! Jungkook!” He called out. “Open up!”

            There wasn’t a response yet, and Taehyung knocked again, laughing as he squeezed in a light kick of the door. He needed them to open the door soon since he had to dry himself as well after getting slightly caught in the rain earlier.

            “Ya, these snacks are heavy. Jimin!”

           Wheein had been able to write a bit more on her report. It seemed lacking but it was best to let the words flow and edit the next day. Changing to lo-fi beats helped her focus more, too, but only up until she heard noises from outside her apartment. At first she thought it was nothing, but pulling out her earphones told her otherwise. Apparently someone had been ringing the doorbell and even knocking and—

            Are they kicking my door?

            If these were the jerk neighbors she had from further down the hall, Wheein was willing to give them an earful now. Hyejin had already done it before but to no avail. Maybe doing it again might help.

            She stood up and walked over to the door, ready to lash out if it was necessary.

            The door’s lock sounded and the knob turned to the side.

            “What the hell took you so long?”

            “What the heck are you doing?”

           Both Wheein and Taehyung were taken aback, the former for not recognizing the person before her whose face was covered in large paper bags, and the latter for hearing a female voice that was much higher in pitch than Jimin’s.

            Taehyung brought his arms down a little and he looked in front to see a girl in front of him, eyeing him confusedly.

            “… Ya. Who are you?”

            Wheein raised her brow. “I should be asking you that. You were kicking my door.”

            “Hyung!”

            Taehyung looked to his left and found Jungkook and Jimin watching. He passed their place by one door.

            “Hyung,” Jungkook called. “This is our apartment.”

          Wheein took a peek at her neighbors. She realized they were the new ones from a couple of weeks ago. The taller one was grinning quite a lot while the smaller one was stifling little laughs. She turned back to the one in front of her.

            Taehyung’s eyes widened and he looked back at the girl.

        “Oh—well, hey!” He greeted, smiling to at least ease the tension. Of course the embarrassment got to him fast and he bowed his head apologetically, unfortunately spilling a few small bags of chips and biscuits on the hallway floor. “I’m sorry for kick—ah, .”

            Whatever annoyance she had felt earlier quickly dispersed at the sight happening before her eyes and she let out a chuckle. Taehyung noticed this and felt a little lighter. He knelt down to try and grab the mess he made but found it hard to do so as he fumbled with his items. Wheein ended up helping him and placed the food stuff back in his bags.

            “There. I think that’s all of it.” She told him.

            He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess so. Sorry again for kicking your door but I made you laugh so I guess we’re cool now, right?”

            “What?” She asked him, surprised at how he managed to overturn the tense atmosphere from earlier.

            “Right?” He repeated in a funny voice and Wheein rolled her eyes, failing to hide the small smirk that grew on her lips.

            “Fine, fine. We’re good.” She told him.

            Taehyung gave her another smile, this time his signature box-smile, and soon jogged away towards next door where Jungkook was still waiting. He could hear Jimin laughing inside, though. Taehyung shoved the paper bags towards the youngest and ran inside the apartment, covering his face at what happened. Jungkook followed suit to start teasing Taehyung, forgetting about the girl as he closed the door of their apartment.

            Wheein watched the guy leave her sight fast and she just shook her head at what had just transpired. She had been distracted from her work, but if anything, it wasn’t all that bad. Aside from the door-kicking, everything else was rather funny and a little bit interesting.

            She wondered who he was.