Rustling. That was the first thing he heard when he opened his eyes. By the lighting in the room, he could tell it was too early to be awake and he wasn’t a morning person, so when he was woken up, his first instinct was to yell at whoever it was that dared wake him up, but he suddenly remembered two things. One: He lived alone and Two: it was way too early for someone to visit him, so he knew something was up.

 

‘oh ,’ he thought.

 

This was like one of the movies he had seen before. But he was not stupid, he wasn’t going to check out what the sound coming from the kitchen was. He stayed silent for a moment. Maybe he was hearing things and it was all in his head, but that thought quickly went away when he heard a loud crash come from his living room. He jumped from his position on the bed, much to his body’s protest.

 

Going out through the front door was out of the question, so he quietly walked over to the sliding door in his bedroom that lead to the balcony. No way in hell was he was dying tonight, so he went out to the balcony. He quickly slid the glass door shut as he pondered what to do next. His apartment was , so there was no fire escape ladder he could use to get down and get help. He should sue the landlord after this. And would it not have been for the fact that his apartment was on the fifth floor, he would have jumped off. And also his left his phone in his room and he was not about to go back in there, so there was only one thing he could do and that was to rely on his neighbor. He couldn’t just jump into his next door neighbor's balcony because he would most surely die, so he grabbed the nearest thing closest to him, a broom, and he held one end as he knocked it into his neighbor's door. Hopefully he would wake up.

 

---

 

Seungcheol was woken up by a loud lose coming from his balcony. He choose to ignore as he turned around and drifted back asleep, it was bound to stop in a few seconds so he paid no mind to it. After a few seconds, it was evident that the noise was not going to stop on its own. He cursed under his breath as he got up and rubbed his eyes before he walked hazily over to the balcony. He opened the blinds as he looked outside. It was dark and all he could make out was the small amount of light that was reflecting from the moon. He jumped when he saw a stick like figure hit the glass.

 

‘What the ,’ he thought as he slid open the door and stepped out.

 

“Oh, thank god,” he heard a someone say as he turned to the direction of the voice. It might have been dark, but it was bright enough for him to make out who it was. It was his cute next door neighbor, Jihoon.

 

“You do know it’s like five in the morning?” he said as he checked his watch that he forgot to take off when he headed straight to his bed after a long day of work.

 

“Nevermind that,” said Jihoon in an urgent whisper.

 

“I need your help.”
 

“At five in the morning?” said Seungcheol as he yawned, ignoring the urgency in Jihoon’s voice.

 

“Yes, at five in the morning!” said Jihoon as he kept on looking behind his shoulder.

 

Seungcheol sighed. He contemplated whether to go to bed or help him out with whatever it was. He ended up choosing the later(and it wasn’t because he had a crush on the smaller male or anything).

 

“What is it that you need my help for?” he asked as he looked onto the others balcony.

 

“There’s someone in my house,” said Jihoon.

 

“Well, that usually happens when you have someone over,” he said as he yawned.

 

“No, you . Why would I have company over at this time?” he asked.

 

“Sorry, geez. Why don’t you just leave the apartment,” he asked. Jihoon was seriously considering jumping off the balcony. His chances would be better than with Seungcheol.

 

“I am not going to walk into the living room and possibly be murdered. So are you going to help me or not?” he asked.

 

Seungcheol sighed. “Okay, okay come here,” he said as he beckoned him to hop over to his balcony.

 

“You want me to jump over there? Are you for real?! we live on the fifth floor I could slip and die!” Jihoon said incredulously.

 

“I’ll hold you, now come one,” he said as another crash could be heard from the living room. Jihoon rushed over to the iron railing and clutched onto it as he used a chair to stand on top of the railing. He looked down and regretted the action. Looking down from a five story building was  not a very comforting sight.

 

“I can’t do it,” he said as his heart started beating fast. The amount of feet he would be jumping over was about four feet but  he was scared.

 

Seungcheol move closer towards the railing of his balcony and out stretched his arms as much as he could so that he could take a hold of Jihoon who was still on top of the railing.

 

“Do you want to be murdered?” he asked.

 

“What?! no. What kind of question is that?” asked Jihoon.

 

“Then on the count of three you jump. I’m also holding on to you, so it’ll be okay,” he said.

 

“One,” he said as Jihoon prepared to jump.

 

“Tw-” but he didn’t get to finish because there was another loud crash and Jihoon jumped into Seungcheol’s arms, which resulted in Seungcheol falling backwards with a scared Jihoon in his arms.

 

“Ouch,” was all he said as he still held onto the smaller male. He could feel Jihoon’s rapid beating heart on his chest as he Jihoon held onto him for dear life. Seungcheol doesn’t think Jihoon knows they’re on the ground.

 

“Um, Jihoon?” he asks.

 

“Hmm?”

 

“You might be small, but I can’t breath,” he said. Jihoon quickly sprung to his feet, feeling bad for hurting his neighbor.

 

“Sorry,” he said. A few minutes had passed and no more noises could be heard from his apartment.

 

“So uh what now?” asked Seungcheol.

 

“I think they’re gone,” Jihoon said and Seungcheol was able to breath again and slowly stood up.

 

“You’re not going back in there are you?”

 

“I am,” said Jihoon as he opened the door and headed outside to the hall.

 

“Are you crazy? what if they come back again?” he said incredulously.

 

“What? You rather have me stay the night with you?” he asked as Seungcheol began to blush. Thank god it was dark right now.

 

“N-no I  just-”
 

“Plus, I need to know what they took,” said Jihoon as he exited Seungcheol’s room.

 

“Then I’ll go with you.”

“Suit yourself,” said Jihoon. They quietly walked into Jihoon’s apartment and Jihoon noticed that nothing was missing, except that his things were all over the floor.

 

Jihoon began to walk into other parts of the apartment to make sure nothing was taken as Seungcheol just stood there awkwardly. Seungcheol was hoping that he could ask Jihoon out one day, but he wasn’t all too sure that Jihoon would say yes after this encounter. He was about to check up on the smaller male when he heard someone behind him. He whirled around and smacked whoever it was and a loud thud was all that was heard as Jihoon walked back into the living room. They found the intruder.

 

‘Ah ,’ Jihoon thought.

 

“Did you just knock him out?” asked Jihoon.

 

“I didn’t mean to, but we should call the police,” said Seungcheol as he looked at the person on the ground.

 

“That’s not necessary,” said Jihoon.

 

“What?! why not?” asked Seungcheol.

 

“Because I know this person,” he said as he looked down at Soonyoung’s sleeping body.

 

“This is Soonyoung. He lives across from us and he always locks himself out of his house when he gets drunk, so he comes here,” Jihoon says in a nonchalant manner.

 

“Then why didn’t you just go to him in the first place?” asked Seungcheol.

 

“Well, I didn’t know it was him,” Jihoon defended himself.

 

They stayed quiet for a few seconds before Seungcheol spoke again. “I should probably apologize,” he said as he crouched down to wake up Soonyoung, but Jihoon stopped him.

 

“It won’t be necessary,”he said.

 

“I just knocked your friend out and you don’t want me to apologize?”

 

“Well, it serves as a learning experience. Don’t barge into someone's house unannounced.” he said as he dialed someone on his phone.

 

“Who are you calling?” he asked.

 

“His boyfreind,” Jihoon answered as he dialed Seokmin and explained what had happened. After a few minutes, Jihoon ended the call and turned back to Seungcheol.

 

“So what now?” asked Seungcheol. He wasn’t sleepy anymore. Jihoon looked at the clock on the wall.

 

“Well, it’s six in the morning and I know this nice breakfast place,” he said.

 

“I just knocked your friend out and you’re asking me out,” said Seungcheol with an amused smile.

 

“Depends on your answer,” replied Jihoon.

 

“And we’re just going to leave him here?” asked Seungcheol.

 

“Yes, he’ll be fine.”

 

Seungcheol looked at Jihoon in amusement. This guy was devious, but he liked it.

 

“Okay,” he said as the both exited the room leaving a sleeping Soonyoung on the floor.

 

“You know you pretty devious,” said Seungcheol.

 

“I take that as a complement,” said Jihoon as they both laughed.