A little more than two months had passed since Joonhee had moved in.

Two months wasn’t a long time, Daehyun thought about when he’d studied abroad for six months, his roommate then was someone he barely remembered, virtually a stranger that he’d only bothered to acquaint himself with the bare minimum level that’d be considered polite.  Compared to that living with Joonhee for two months was very different, Daehyun thought.  He’d learned a lot more about his junior in those scant two months than he had the entire year he’d known Joonhee.

A little more than two months after Joonhee moved in Daehyun learned that the younger man danced, specifically Joonhee danced when he was frustrated.

Joonhee had seemed off to him earlier at the hospital.  He’d run into him just as Joonhee’s shift had ended, but barely been acknowledged.  He’d been preoccupied, Daehyun wasn’t sure by what and he hadn’t had the chance to ask before Joonhee brushed by briskly.  It was so unlike the Joonhee who was careful and polite even on the busiest days.  Daehyun had watched him walk away with a vague sense of concern before being paged over the speaker system.

He was doing the same now, sort of; watching Joonhee, though the concern was mostly overshadowed by fascination.  He had no idea Joonhee could move like that, motions both fluid and sharp.  Daehyun knew nothing about dance but he didn’t need to know anything to realise that Joonhee was good.  He stood there watching stupidly until Joonhee noticed him there and stopped.  Joonhee hastily lowered his headphones, the music had been playing loudly and Daehyun heard the next song start. 

“I...didn’t realise you were back so early.”  Joonhee pushed back the hair clinging to his forehead, looking at Daehyun with a self-conscious expression.

He really was very distracted, Daehyun’s schedule had been consistent for the past few weeks, it was the kind of thing that Joonhee usually noticed and kept track of.  He was the kind of person that meticulously planned his time, it was something that Daehyun had assumed before but became more noticeable after they started living together.   A lot of things about Joonhee had become more noticeable since he moved in.  He was just watching him more and more in general. 

“I had no idea you could move like that.” 

Joonhee’s lips twitched as if unsure if he should smile or frown, in the end he settled for an uncertain smile.  “Sorry, I didn’t--”

“What are you apologizing for?” Daehyun cut in before Joonhee could finish speaking.  He looked the younger man up and down, as if seeing him in a whole new light.  “That was pretty cool,” he grinned widely.  Joonhee grinned back, the wide slanted grin that he rarely showed at the hospital.

It was really charming, Daehyun was beginning to notice.

They ended up pushing the furniture out of the way to make more space, creating a makeshift stage for Joonhee, trading the headphones for the stereo system.  He was a bit embarrassed at first but it took less than one song before he gave in to the prominent beat of the music.  Daehyun sat out of the way on the couch and watched.  By the time Joonhee stopped (Daehyun had lost track of how many songs had played) he was smiling without hesitation.  Daehyun handed him a glass of water as they settled on the couch together.

Joonhee wasn’t someone who spoke easily, not about his own personal matters anyways, so as much as he wanted to tell the younger man that he could talk to him about whatever it was that had him so obviously frustrated Deahyun didn’t.  He couldn’t even give Joonhee a distraction, didn’t know him well enough to know what would work well.  So if dancing worked then all he could do was let Joonhee know he could dance all he wanted.

“You didn’t mind me watching, did you?  I couldn’t look away,” he told him honestly.

Joonhee laughed, Daehyun could tell Joonhee was gnawing at his lower lip on the side that wasn’t facing him.  It was something he did when embarrassed, something else he’d noticed the same way he had noticed how Joonhee his lips and the way he mouthed the lyrics to each song as he danced. 

He just shook his head in the end, slumping back against the couch, “I don’t mind.”

Joonhee had his eyes closed, his breathing was still calming down from the exertion but he looked relaxed.  He wondered if Joonhee would tense up again if he noticed that Daehyun was still staring at him.  The thought made him look away sharply, until Joonhee spoke again.

“I’ll move the furniture back.”

“Just leave it for now,” he didn’t want Joonhee to move yet, to break away from whatever vague sense of peace he’d managed to find.  Besides that he was finding it harder and harder to look away from Joonhee, so he stayed still as well, watching the younger man with a strange sense of anxiety.

Joonhee had slept surprisingly well, perhaps because he exhausted his body dancing (not that work wasn’t exhausting, it was but in a completely different way).  After moving everything in the living room back to where it belonged he’d taken a shower and gone to bed promptly afterwards, he had an early shift the next day and he needed rest. 

After the phone call he’d gotten from Shiwon he had expected to spend the night tossing uncomfortably in bed, catching maybe two hours of sleep tops.  Yoonjae had texted him as well and even without being there Joonhee could see the smile on his face.  They were both happy, blissfully happy and that made Joonhee sincerely thankful.  He’d watched them stumble around each other for so long, so to finally see the two of them where they should have been years ago, it was something wonderful.

He wished it had happened earlier, wished they’d gotten together in high school and spared all of them the grief.

He’d expected the churning in his gut to keep him up all night.  As happy as he was that two of his closest friends were apparently in heaven he still couldn’t do anything about the way everything inside him twisted violently just knowing how deeply in love they were.  Joonhee hated it; it made him feel like his friendship was impure, tainted by the natural jealousy that came from being in love with someone who would never return his feelings.  Even though he had never hoped for his love to be reciprocated it didn’t dull the other feelings that came with it.

Shiwon had remembered halfway through their conversation, apologized awkwardly and made it all the worse with just that simple word. 

He smiled thinking about it.  Joonhee loved Shiwon, her honesty and the way she absolutely did whatever her heart dictated.  He wished that talking to her wasn’t so painful, but no one could change his feelings for him so he’d told her not to apologize and kept talking to her as if the pain wasn’t there, as if he wasn’t sick of the misplaced guilt and pity.

Being seen as someone pitiful and miserable was exhausting, made it more likely to become a reality.  Joonhee had never complained about his situation because there wasn’t a whole lot to complain about, he’d never felt bitter over how things turned out and there wasn’t a whole lot to resent. It was far from ideal but he considered himself fortunate in the end.  When had he ever wanted anything from either of them other than friendship?  He got what he wanted, so why was it that they had to apologise for something out of their control?

It made Joonhee almost feel like he should have apologized for his feelings and that was something he never wanted to do.   He wanted to move forward, without apologies and without bitterness.  He was getting somewhere, he thought.

Daehyun tried to take care of him but he never looked at Joonhee with pity, it was a relief.  Even if the sudden interest and concern was somewhat unexpected and sometimes awkward Joonhee felt like he could relax a bit more.  For the first time in years he thought maybe he was going somewhere rather than standing still, glued to Yoonjae’s side.

“How’s he doing?” The young man speaking to Joonhee looked nervous and concerned, it was something Joonhee was used to and comfortable dealing with.  If anything, aside from technical skills, this was what he was best at: reassuring and comforting.   It didn’t matter how large or small a procedure was, it was only natural for friends and relatives to be concerned.

“You don’t need to worry, he’s doing really well.  It was a simple surgery and there weren’t any complications.”  He smiled carefully, the gentle and soothing smile he saved for the hospital. 

It had the intended effect, the other man’s pinched expression relaxing at least half way.  “That’s great... oh god, I’m so relieved.  I thought I’d poisoned him!”

“I don’t think food poisoning was involved in this, so you really shouldn’t blame yourself.  It was good that you brought him to the hospital,” Joonhee continued patiently.

The other man laughed a little, rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly.  “I probably sound like I’m freaking out over nothing, thanks for humouring me.”  Joonhee just shook his head in response, he’d seen people freak out over much less after all.  “Um, when’s he going to be able to leave the hospital, sorry I know the other doctor mentioned but I was kind of distracted.”

“As long as nothing else comes up, which I don’t think anything will, he’ll be released the day after tomorrow.”

The other smiled brightly, wider than the kind professional smile Joonhee had, and squinted at Joonhee’s badge to read his name.  “Thanks, um... Doctor Kang.”

“You’re welcome.” 

There were a lot of conversations like that any day Joonhee worked at the hospital.  He liked it, the part of his work that was steady and predictable.  Even on busy days when he couldn’t spend as much time with patients or their guardians he tried not to just rush past them.  It was better for them and for Joonhee as well, even if he could barely recognise faces without a file to remind him.

He glanced back, the man he’d spoken to still smiling at him, warm and wide.

“Hey, Joonhee!”  Daehyun called out to the younger man, speeding up to catch up to Joonhee before he left the hospital.  Their shifts tended to overlap but they didn’t often get off work at the same time, and they’d never left the hospital together.  He wondered if he was being overly concerned about something he probably wouldn’t have noticed at all if he wasn’t living with Joonhee.  It was probably inevitable; living with someone was different from just working with them.  It was a waste of time to worry about worrying too much, so as long as Joonhee didn’t protest the attention he wouldn’t overthink it.  That was the conclusion Daehyun had ended up coming to, it wasn’t entirely satisfying but it made sense. 

Maybe this was what it was like to have a younger sibling, having been an only child Daehyun could only assume it was something like this.

Joonhee had stopped to wait for Daehyun to catch up.  Hopefully that meant his attention wasn’t unwelcomed.

“You’re heading home, right?” Daehyun asked with a smile.  Joonhee was smiling when he turned to face him, Daehyun noticed.

They ended up going to the grocery store together first before returning to the apartment.  It wasn’t the kind of thing Daehyun expected to ever consider enjoyable, grocery shopping, but they had ended up chatting.  It was only about very inconsequential things, food preferences, music, how to split the food bill, and some workplace gossip that Daehyun had honestly thought Joonhee wouldn’t have bothered with. 

“They’re brothers?”  They were both carrying shopping bags, having bought enough food to last them both the week.

“Yeah...they look alike, don’t they?” Joonhee asked as he started to look for his keys.

“I don’t really remember what your friend looks like...but they give a very different impression.”  Joonhee laughed at that, nodding his head in agreement.  No matter how much they shared in their facial features Yoon Taewoong and Yoon Yoonjae felt nothing alike, the older giving a patient and gentle impression while Yoonjae felt sharp and abrasive.

“Me and my friends were all shocked when we found out too.  Can you hold this, sunbae?”  Joonhee handed him one of the bags while he keyed in the passcode for the building’s security.  The door had just clicked open when a woman hollered at them.

“Kang Joonhee!”  A young woman in a purple jacket barrelled up to them, pushing past a few people on the street angrily.  She wasn’t anyone he recognised, definitely not hospital staff.  For some reason Daehyun hadn’t expected Joonhee to know many people outside of work and his socially stunted ex-roommate.  It was probably stupid of him.

Joonhee was wincing openly; he took a step back as the woman stopped in front of the two of them.   He’d never seen Joonhee make that kind of face except when their overly energetic senior used overly descriptive hand gestures to explain a surgery to a patient. 

“You move and you don’t even tell me?  You bastard, what were you thinking!”  She smacked Joonhee on the chest with a dull clap.  Joonhee glanced over at Daehyun and back to the young woman that was preparing her breath to yell at him it looked like.

“Calm down, people are staring.”

“Calm down?  If you want me to calm down then maybe you should have told me when you changed your address!”

Daehyun gave them both a confused look, not sure what to think of the whole thing.  Or maybe trying not to draw any conclusions since he couldn’t believe Joonhee would be the kind of guy that just cut off contact with a girl no matter how crazy and violent she might have been.  Of course, he’d never imagined that Joonhee’s type would be the loud, angry sort.  He would have expected someone more like an innocent doll, but that was probably also a stupid assumption.

She was pretty, even though her face was creased in anger.  "Excuse me, miss," Daehyun tried to interject.

She looked at him suddenly, almost glaring at him before she seemed to catch herself.  When she did her expression became embarrassed and confused instead.  She pointed at him while tugging at Joonhee's sleeve a bit childishlyg, "Who is this?"

Joonhee smacked her hand, to get her to stop pointing, something else that surprised Daehyun. 

"He's my senior at work and my roommate... that's why I was trying to tell you to calm down," the latter part was mostly muttered before Joonhee finally turned to Daehyun with an apologetic smile.

"Um...this is my sister, Jinae."

sklfjsaldkfj I...had a really hard time writing this part.  I'm still not happy with it but I've been staring at it way too long.  So I'm posting this now and...I'll come back and fix it at a later date.  I'll probably do that for the whole thing actually.  BUT YEAH, hi.  Here it is, sorry if anyone was waiting.  I've also started another Reply 1997 story so I'll be hopefully alternating between updating them.  If you want to check it out it's right over here.   Thanks for reading!