1.
In silence.
Luhan was tired. Not in a bad way, because he obviously knew that nothing was going to be easy and he was more than prepared for that. He wanted to leave and he left. He always knew that there would be difficulties, so he was mentally prepared for it. And the fact, that he was in Seoul right now, that he worked and lived here, made him unbelievably pleased with himself. He was still so freaking excited, that it seemed that he had just bought a one-way ticket to Seoul and not two years ago. Luhan was surprised that after all this time this exact feeling still had not vanished, but only intensified, and he was insanely grateful to himself for it in the first place, because it proved that no matter what, he made the right decision. Nevertheless, hard days and weeks come all the time. Good thing, they come and go, and Luhan was going through a few tough weeks every now and then. He just wanted to stop and yell "TIME OUT", because his head was in desperate need of a little respite. At least a short one, so he could manage to get his thoughts in order. It wasn't that he was constantly sleepy or strained by his current working hours, no; nothing of it was new to him. He knew that he was still somewhat of an intern and in order to become a teacher in the dance school, he needed more experience. He knew that perfectly well and was more than fine with it, so no one ever heard him complaining. It was just that some cogs in his head were working excessively slow for his liking and all information either reached him slowly or quickly, but not exactly with its original meaning.
The car drove up to the house and from the side window the boys could see a truck parked next to the entrance, and a lot of boxes beside it. They saw a girl and two guys standing by it, who seemed to be arguing about something, but when the car stopped, their argument had died down and all three stood still deciding which box to take in first. Luhan was the last one to pass by them, when one of the guys stumbled with the box in hands and crushed into him. The girl turned around and let her eyes run from her friend to Luhan. He silently waved his head, letting them know that everything was fine, and walked into the building. His tired mind registered the thought, that they might need help, but he quickly dismissed it, thinking that two grown-up men could cope with the dozen boxes.
Besides, Luhan was tired. Really tired. And the only thing that actually mattered to him at the moment was sleep.
The next morning Yifan and Luhan stood in front of the elevator discussing upcoming very eventful day, which in fact was not much different from the previous one: Luhan went to dance school and Yifan to his recently opened closing store. It was 7am and for them it was a blissful time. Especially for Yifan, because it meant that baby Tao was still sleeping and couldn’t bug him asking to raise his salary, because “c’mon, lately he’d been staying at the store even past the working hours to clean up”, and the fact he oh-so-very-often bought stuff he liked with the tremendous discount, he refused to acknowledge. So, when elevator doors opened and there stood the girl they saw yesterday, both guys were a little surprised: a very few people in their apartment building come out of their places at 10, let alone at 7 in the morning. At first, she didn’t pay attention that the elevator doors were open and two boys stood frozen on the spot, but when she raised her eyes at them, both quickly went in. They greeted her, but got only a slight nod in return. As they rode to the lobby floor, none of them uttered a single word. Yifan stood with his head thrown back and tried to get rid of the remnants of sleep and Luhan scrutinized the girl who was listening to music so loudly, that he even could hear some words through her headphones.
You know, there's nothing worse than being alone
It’s funny how you never know what you got ‘til it’s gone
She had a backpack and a gym mat slung over her right shoulder, a bit of mascara on eyelashes and a low ponytail of jet-black hair. He thought that she might be an athlete. And, maybe, she wanted to sleep as much as they did. However, when she looked up at him - because to be completely honest, she felt uncomfortable that someone was staring at her so blatantly - he figured, that he should not have been so bold and almost shamefacedly pursing lips turned away. When the elevator stopped and the doors opened, she was the first one to step out and almost immediately fell into a run. Yifan exchanged surprised glances with Luhan: could they really be looking so terribly, that she couldn’t possibly storm out of the elevator more quickly? But all the unnecessary thoughts quickly vanished, when they got into Yifan’s car. It was once again, a long and very hard day and they thought, that they really shouldn’t had decided to watch a movie before going to bed the previous night.
After a week of those little joint trips up and down in the elevator, Luhan began to think that other than being an athlete, she might be a trainee in some agency. That would’ve explained why she always got up so early and returned home at midnight. The fact that the girl had been completely ignoring him stopped bugging him, because he could imagine how hard a life of a trainee was. But they had been riding the same elevator at the same time every day for the past week and there was absolutely no reaction from hew what so ever. Like Luhan wasn’t even there with her. She greeted him only once, when Yifan had taken a pity on him and offered a lift to the studio. Yifan thought that Luhan just needed to sleep it all off and then his idiotic thoughts would fly out of his head. And so he did.
When they met next time, except for them there were also his friends in the elevator, who thought it’d be a terrific idea to throw a party at his apartment last night and later on decided that they were way too stoned to drive home. Luhan went in first and after he almost laughed aloud, watching her expression as the flow of bodies – in their state it was hard to describe them differently – that were decent young men not more than 10 hours ago continued to enter the elevator. At that time, Luhan noticed that they had switched the roles. At that time, she was eyeing him, and he almost buried his nose into the screen of his phone. He felt her eyes and found himself thinking that it really was unpleasant when someone stared at you so boldly. She stood before the door when the number on the screen changed from 3 to 2, when Tao almost gave out his famous ultrasonic squeak behind her. She turned around in shock and everybody froze for a few seconds, but then began to laugh in unison, whereas Tao’s ears turned into a not the most natural shade of red. Luhan smiled at her as if saying “Sorry about that little rascal” and she smiled back at him for the very first time, but as soon as the doors opened, her face turned serious again and, as always, she was the first one to walk out of the crowded elevator.
“Anyone knows her?”
“I haven’t seen her here before.”
“She's pretty.”
“What’s her name?”
“It’s been a while since I saw such a toned…”
“TAO!”
“She moved in here about a week ago,” Yifan decided to answer as much questions as possible, seeing as Luhan wasn’t going to, and with a rather insolent smile glanced at his friend. “She and Luhan have been riding the same elevator together since then. In the morning and evening. Every day.”
With that, he smirked and walked towards his car. In response, Luhan heard his choir-of-friends howl “whooo”, though what else could be expected from them. Ignoring his annoying half-awoken half-drunk friends, Luhan decided that it was about time to know her name since they ride the same elevator twice a day. Every day as Yifan implied.
Luhan met the girl again the same evening waiting for the elevator to come. She stood in from of him in headphones humming some song. He wanted to greet her, but noticed that she had been chatting with someone on the phone. Smiling at his luck, he also took the phone out, opened KakaoTalk and slightly shook the device. He saw only one contact profile named «yi mei» and assuming that it was her, he added her to his friend list. He wanted to write her something, when elevator doors opened and they went inside. After a couple of floors, he realized that she was too immersed in the conversation that she didn’t notice him. Luhan opened dialog window and… froze. What could he write her? How could he start the conversation? “Hi. It’s the guy you’ve been riding the same elevator with twice a day for a while”? She’d think he’s nuts. He knew he would have, if someone wrote him something like that. When they were already approaching his floor, he wrote just one word and waited for the doors to open, and when they did, he clicked on “Send” and walked past her. The girl raised her eyes at him and with a slight smile on her lips waved at him in response to his “Bye” before the doors closed.
yi mei: You've got quite a method of meeting people, I gotta tell ya…
Xiao Lu: Lol yeah
Nice to finally meet you, btw
yi mei: Hi
Xiao Lu? A little deer?
What…
Xiao Lu: I’ve had this nickname since childhood. It kinda stuck to me from back then…
:-)
yi mei: So, your name is?
Xiao Lu: Luhan
Wait, you know what that means? You speak Chinese?
yi mei: Hello, xiao lu
I am Chinese. I don’t look like one?
Xiao Lu: Not really
Mei, right?
yi mei: Yep. Yi Mei
Xiao Lu: Sorry about Tao yelling in the elevator. He’s 20, but he acts like 12 most of the time
yi mei: You’re about that sleepy blond guy?
Ahaha Never mind.
Hey, I need to get up extra early tomorrow, so I’ll go to bed now.
Xiao Lu: Ok. Then I’ll see ya in the elevator tomorrow?
yi mei: Maybe :-) night
yi mei: Congratulate me, I’m running late.
Xiao Lu: So, that means you have no intentions of telling me where you work, right?
yi mei: This is your congratulation?
Xiao Lu: You don’t know how to change topics at all.
yi mei: Thanks, cap.
Xiao Lu: Congrats
Hey
Hello?
yi mei: :/
Xiao Lu: And what does that mean?
yi mei: I’m late because of your friend
Xiao Lu: ????
yi mei: That very tall one. Yifan.
We were going down in the elevator just now and he’d begun to tell me something. He probably thought I was listening to him… It was really rude to just walk off on him like that, so I had to finish listening to whatever he was telling me. And now, I’m terribly late.
Elevator doors opened in front of Luhan and he smiled seeing his acquaintance. Standing opposite each other, they pulled out their phones. That kind of communication actually amused him. They still haven’t shared a verbal greeting or heard each other’s voices. There was something about talking like that, that Luhan couldn’t wrap his mind around, yet he liked it. His friends, being the guys they were, were bugging him from time to time asking how things were going with him and Mei or whether he’d fallen for her already. But the very idea seemed ridiculous to him. Firstly, he was a strong believer that you simply cannot fall for someone who you see for about 30 seconds in the morning and evening, because you can’t get to really know someone like that. And secondly, he didn’t need a relationship right now. Yes, Luhan indeed liked chatting with Mei, but that was it. He already had a couple of numbers he could call when his manly needs were yelling at him to be satisfied, but Mei’s number was not in that list for sure.
yi mei: Will you ever stop changing your hair color?
Not afraid they’d fall out?
Xiao Lu: Nope. I like that.
yi mei: When we just met, you had really short blond hair, now you’re casting pink…
What’s next?
Xiao Lu: Hmmm… Green?
yi mei: OH MY GOD NO
NO NO NO
Xiao Lu: Really? :-L
yi mei: Yes! Really!
You dye your hair green and I’ll start pretending I don’t know you! I mean it.
Xiao Lu: You’re cruel.
yi mei: take it or leave it.
Xiao Lu: The boy in my class broke his leg today.
yi mei: Oh… Sorry.
Xiao Lu: He’s like 13 or something.
Had to absorb all sort of from his parents.
yi mei: Why so?
Xiao Lu: I’m telling you – it’s my class. I’m a replacing teacher now.
yi mei: Got it.
I’m sorry, xiao lu
You’re… I dunno… Keep your chip up. It , of course, but anything can happen.
Xiao Lu: Thank you
Xiao Lu: What song were you listening to, when we saw each other for the first time?
yi mei: What? Luhan, you nuts? It’s 4 in the morning!
Go sleep
Xiao Lu: Boohoo, don’t be so grumpy
yi mei: You better pray to not see me being grumpy
Xiao Lu: The song, Mei. What song?
Mei?
Mei
yi mei: Jeez, you’re don’t give up, do you?
Xiao Lu: Nope.
yi mei: I’ve no idea. It was long time ago
I listen to a frigging-huge amount of music.
Xiao Lu: It was rap. Something like “it's funny how you never know what you got til it's gone...”
yi mei: I’ll try to remember. Happy?
Xiao Lu: Very
yi mei: Terrific, I’m off
yi mei: B.o.b & Ryan Tedder – Never let you go
Xiao Lu: Took you 2 days?
yi mei: Pfff…
Xiao Lu: Slowpoke
yi mei: Install Shazam into yourself
Xiao Lu: :-)
Thanks, Mei
yi mei: Be my guest :)
It was the fifth month of them knowing each other, when Yifan had to blab to his parents about Luhan’s new friend and they began to pester him with questions. The questions. Luhan felt himself begin to boil. Was it really so unusual for a guy to have a friendship with a girl? They were just talking. Yes, of course, his parents wanted grandchildren, but why push it and try to fill his mind with unnecessary doubts?
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