Sorry for the slight delay, I was on small holiday...

~~

Unfortunately luck wasn’t on Kyuhyun's side. He couldn’t come the next day after the encounter with his boss because of a sudden test his professor announced but when he entered the flat with bags full of washing powders and material softeners the first sight that welcomed him was Sungmin standing with confused look on the edge of his living room. The man looked only slightly better than the previous time. At least his eyes were in a better condition, not looking like from some horror movie.

Sighing deep Kyuhyun braced himself before going farther into the room.

‘Good morning Sungmin-ssi.’ He greeted politely.

The said man seemed startled when he quickly tuned to look at him. His eyes were huge, something not that common but with all of the stubble and dark circles he was looking only even creepier.

‘Oh.’ Was Sungmin’s greetings as he looked at Kyuhyun walking past him and setting his bags on the table that was surprisingly empty this time. Normally there were already boxes with take out and clothes on it. While Kyuhyun was unpacking everything he brought with him the other male tilted his head. ‘Um…’ A strange sound came from his throat and Kyuhyun raised his head and after looking at the man crooked his eyebrow. ‘What day is today?’

So he didn’t expect that question. ‘Date or day of the week?’

‘Day of the week.’ Sungmin was back to looking at the room with absent expression. He looked really lost at that moment.

‘Oh, it’s Saturday.’ Kyuhyun shrugged his shoulders and finished unpacking. He hoped Stinky would just hole himself in his cave soon.

The other hummed for a moment before speaking again. ‘Where are my clothes?’

Kyuhyun wasn’t sure if the question was directed to him or if it was a general wondering because from what he saw the man didn’t have any proper clothes at the apartment. But he decided to answer nonetheless.

‘Dirty in the bathroom. I was thinking about washing them today… or throwing out…’ He added the last words quietly.

‘But I have nothing to wear…’

‘You changed into what you’re wearing three days ago, I would say you can stay in it until tomorrow or tonight after some things dry.’ Kyuhyun didn’t manage to shut his mouth and he knew he said too much but then he looked at the other male who grabbed the hem of his blue t-shirt before shrugging his shoulders and nodding.

‘I’m going to work.’ Finally Sungmin turned and retreated to his room closing the door behind himself. But then he opened them again. ‘Italian. Not pizza.’ And closed them again.

Kyuhyun shook his head and donned his pink frilly apron and pink rubber gloves. Of course there wasn’t any other color available at the shop.

***

Opening the door to the bathroom he peeked cautiously inside and scanned the floor in search for anything that could make him run shrilling like a little girl. Thankfully there were only ants marching in the corner. Slowly he walked into the place and from a few meters he looked into the tub where a few days earlier he incinerated a nasty centipede. There was still an ugly dark splotch on the enamel but nothing he couldn’t clean according to that smiley lady from the Perfect Housewife show. But there were no monsters with uncountable number of limbs and purpose of making Kyuhyun despise himself.

Working fast he opened the sliding door leading to the laundry room, already cleaned and pristine in comparison to the rest of the apartment, and started the washing up. After dumping everything that resembled white into the machine and setting it he decided to take care of the bathroom since he was still brave enough to move around it.

It really didn’t take that much work to polish the walls and the floor, he just poured insane amounts of some bleach onto the floor and waited for it to bite into the dirt. When two hours later the washing was done he was almost finished with the cleaning and with satisfied smile and basket full of things that finally started to resemble clothes walked out onto the balcony where he set up driers before and spread them there. The day was sunny and nice and he hoped everything would dry until he had to go home. Surprisingly there was no drier in the apartment.

With soft humming on his lips he was about to get back into the apartment. He turned and screamed.

Sungmin was peeking from behind the frame, his eyes set directly on him. They were staring at each other for a moment before Kyuhyun’s employer spoke in a distant voice.

‘You’re humming.’ He stated, eyes still fixated on the boy.

Kyuhyun blinked a few times and took a tentative step back. Just in case. And then he nodded. ‘Does it bother you?’

Sungmin looked like a statue, frozen for a moment before he slowly disappeared behind the frame but not before answering. ‘No.’

Kyuhyun stuck his head into the apartment and his eyes followed his employer’s back as the male walked into his room humming the same melody he was just a moment ago.

Scrunching his nose Kyuhyun quickly went back to the bathroom to finish the laundry. He decided he would never stay in that place after it got dark. That was how horror movies always started.

***

He still wasn’t satisfied with how living room and hallway looked but he managed to get rid of the garbage, now he was left with all the polishing and scrubbing which could wait a few more days after he got rid of all the trash that was clattering the remaining part of the apartment. At least the bathroom looked sanitary enough for him to pee there. Only pee because there was no way his unblemished and fluffy was going anywhere near that toilet seat. Yes, he liked his . He had a great , thank you very much.

Today was the day of cleaning the storage room finally. No matter what would fall/crawl out of it he was going to set it in order, it was like a challenge in one of his games, he refused to get defeated by heaps of crap.

With a helmet borrowed from one of his friends from university he stood in front of the storage room door. Taking a deep breath (he finally could because the apartment lost its stench) he placed the helmet on his head. He gently put his hand on the handle and pressed it but didn’t open the door. He already thought about his strategy. Stepping to the side and plastering himself against the wall he pulled the door to himself opening it.

There was some crashing, bumping, clattering and in overall a lot of noise for a moment before it all stopped and he finally looked around the door to check what was there. It was ridiculous to still be wearing that helmet considering everything fell out of the storage already but after the ice-peak incident he preferred to be cautious, he wanted to get money out of this job, not concussion.

There were loads of trash, in Kyuhyun's opinion, lying on the floor, pouring out of the opened storage. He couldn’t tell what most of that stuff was, some appliances that he had never seen before, hangers, boxes, buckets, pipes, folding chairs, vases, cushions, bags, golf cubs. Those were the ones he could recognize among many other things. Thankfully after a little closer inspection there were no centipedes. Kyuhyun knew that the trauma won’t ever leave him again.

There was no point postponing it and so he began arranging everything.

***

Two weeks after he started his job the apartment was clean. Kyuhyun managed to get rid of the garbage after the first week and it took him another one to clean the spaces. Everything was so amazingly dirty he had to polish furniture for long hours before is started to go back to it’s original state, but after watching some more Perfect Housewife episodes he learned to create his own cleaning mixture from some detergents and a few fruit juices which worked perfectly. He had spent one whole day scrubbing the rug in the living room and it turned out to be plain light gray after it dried on the balcony. And he thought that it was patterned, the dirt already created its own artistic shapes all over it.

Wooden floor in the living room was waxed and there were no more black smudges all over it. The glass table was shining and the vase which Kyuhyun found in the storage room and decided looked nice was nicely presented on the small wooden table under the window. The alcohol trolley still had small condensation circles on it but he already ordered special polish to take care of them. He washed and ironed the grey curtains which were now cascading nicely around the enormous window wall through which he could finally look at the panorama of the city earlier not exactly visible through the smudges on the glass. All in all the living room looked amazing and Kyuhyun felt tears almost swelling in him that he managed to fulfill a miracle.

Bathroom was also spotless. He went as far as buying and installing new shower stall since it was impossible to clean the old one. Of course after asking his employer about it.

Sungmin was suddenly looming around the apartment and appearing in different places suddenly scaring the out of Kyuhyun each time. He was just standing there in one spot for some time before turning around without a word and going back to his room. And Kyuhyun peeked once inside his bedroom and saw that it was still clean. So Stinky was able to live like a normal human being.

All in all Kyuhyun was very proud of himself. He never though he would be able to clean it all by himself and he could just explode if not for one more thing. The kitchen. He hadn’t even walked in there yet and that was the only place that made him think he will fail and run away screaming. The smell that was still lingering around the apartment was coming from that one place and he really REALLY wanted to get rid of it but his fear to encounter some until now unknown life form that could threaten his existence was greater. But he had to get to it because just the previous day Sungmin left him a note, like most of the days, with information what to order for dinner but there was an additional note on it. Sungmin was asking if he could cook something.

That new task would require walking into the kitchen and using it. And it was quite impossible with the way it was then.

Bracing himself Kyuhyun stopped in front of the room and sighed. With hesitant hand he opened the door simultaneously holding his breath. It was just as the last time he saw it. Dirty dishes were clattering every flat surface, the mountain of plates and mugs in the sink was threatening to fall already. Cupboards were opened and he could see that they were mostly empty aside from a few cereal boxes, coffee and rice. On each of those products molds of different colors and textured started growing already. Coffee machine looked as if its contents spilled at some point all over it and onto the space around it and the whitish mold already covering it looked like some sea creature devouring it. Microwave stood opened and there were bits and pieces of something stuck all over the insides while cooker couldn’t be seen properly from under all the dirty pots but it was obvious the silver surface of it was covered with dried foams from when something boiled over. Those were only the things Kyuhyun could immediately see without walking into the place. Also there was no way he was going there into anything other than thick gumboots – who knew what was residing under the pile of garbage that scattered all over the floor. It looked like all of the dirt he already cleaned from the whole apartment accumulated in that one room and was waiting for the revenge on him.

Courageously Kyuhyun reached with his hand towards the rice cooker and touched the slime that appeared to have crawled out of the appliance. It had a greenish mold on the surface and Kyuhyun was sure if anyone took a picture of him at that particular moment he would win the award for the most disgusted face ever.

With a shudder he took off the rubber glove he touched the slime with and threw it onto the garbage pile – he wouldn’t use it anymore anyway. Quickly closing the door to the kitchen he decided to come back the next with proper mental and supply preparation. Instead he put on his pink apron, which he got so used to already he didn’t flinch at touching anymore, and took out the vacuum. After cleaning the guest room some of the dust spread back onto the apartment. It wasn’t even that surprising considering the layer that was covering all the furniture in that particular room. Besides he had to carry all the curtains and duvets to the balcony to beat them before washing them.

With a hum he the vacuum and started with the hallway. Not even one minute passed when suddenly the doorbell rung. No one beside the take out guys was ever coming there and it was still too early for that.

Not really happy with being disturbed Kyuhyun opened the door.

On the other side there was a tall, bulky man. He was standing straight while holding a plastic food container in his hands while his face was expressing utter surprise. Eyebrows raised high in the hairline and mouth slightly agape. Kyuhyun scrutinized him from head to toe, the white tight t-shirt stretched over huge muscles, even tighter grey pants and colorful flip-flops, and leaned on the door with bored expression.

‘Yeah?’ He asked in the most arrogant voice he could muster. It wasn’t even hard since it was his normal voice.

‘You’re not Sungmin.’ The man said simply, his expression not changed one bit.

‘Obviously.’ Thank God. Kyuhyun added in his head.

‘Where’s Sungmin?’ Again the man asked, his eyes not leaving Kyuhyun's face.

‘Working.’ This was getting annoying. He wanted to get over with his work and go to arcade already.

‘And what you’re doing here?’ More questions. Kyuhyun was considering using the slime from the kitchen to repel the guy.

‘Working.’ He answered with irritation. It was a really good thing he found that job because he wasn’t good with interacting with people – here he didn’t even see his employer for most of the time.

The both men were staring at each other for a longer moment while the bulky guy roamed his eyes over Kyuhyun's pink apron before his eyes landed back on the boy’s face.

‘I’m Siwon and I live opposite. I brought Sungmin food I cooked because he…’

‘Doesn’t cook himself and eats only take outs. I know, I’ve been ordering them for the last two week.’ Kyuhyun grabbed the box from the outstretched hands. ‘I’ll be sure to put them out for him. Anything else?’

Siwon blinked a few times completely confused. He must have thought that the man in front of him was feeling very comfortable in the flat if he was acting like that. He decided to pry a little more.

‘You’re… working here?’ He asked to make sure and Kyuhyun nodded and raised his brow with annoyance. ‘As…’

‘Cleaning.’ Was the short answer.

Siwon nodded before smiling with apprehension. ‘Well, we will probably see each other more often now since I came back from the job abroad and maybe we could get to know each other. I’m a mo~’

‘Goodbye.’

Kyuhyun slammed the door before the man outside them could get more into the monologue. He was already annoyed and had to think about the kitchen, he didn’t need nosy neighbours on his head too. But he had a feeling this particular man will be a particularly painful pain in the .

***

‘C’mon, help me a little~!’ Kyuhyun whined while lying on the couch. Donghae was back from his work and slurping on his instant noodles while his eyes were glued to the TV.

‘What?’ The elder of the two asked with confusion because he didn’t remember Kyuhyun asking him for anything before and the demand sounded as if he did. But that was just Kyuhyun.

‘With the kitchen, I need to clean fast because he wants me to cook something there!’ Kyuhyun flopped from his back onto his stomach and buried his face in the cushion. Then he raised his head and scrunched his nose at the smell. ‘When was the last time we washed the covers for the cushions?’ He asked quickly.

Donghae tore his eyes away from the TV and looked at his flatmate with bewilderment. ‘Never, why?’

Kyuhyun suddenly sighed and got off his , took the cushions from the couch and stripped them from the covers. Then he looked around their small common room. He got up and gathered a blanket, sheet that they were using as the cover for the armchair and grabbing the covers for cushions on the way went to their bathroom.

Donghae curiously followed the other still slurping on the noodles. He looked as younger threw everything into the washing machine, added laundry detergent and softener – where did those come from in their apartment? – and set the machine.

Donghae blinked stupidly at his friend’s actions and followed him as he walked to their bedroom and launched another one of the Perfect Housewife episodes on his computer. It wasn’t the same British version Kyuhyun was watching a few days before, this one must have been American judging from the accent.

‘Still watching this?’ Elder asked slowly.

Kyuhyun nodded and took out his notebook and pen and started to scribble something that was being explained in the show. ‘There is the slime and I want to get rid of the condensation circles. Where is the cookbook you got from your last girlfriend?’

Donghae raised his brows. ‘In the garbage.’ He answered honestly because where else such a thing could be considering it was their apartment.

‘Eh, waste.’ Younger snarled and went back to scribbling in his notebook.

Upon exiting the room Donghae pulled out his phone and quickly found the number in his list. He pressed the call button and waited for the signal. When the other side picked up he spoke in a hushed voice.

‘Hello, good morning, I would like to make an appointment with psychiatrist.’ He listened to the woman speaking. ‘I know you don’t have doctors with that specialization in your clinic but my friend is very ill. Mentally.’ There was a question of the nature of the illness. He said the only thing that came to his mind. ‘He cleans.’