Wonshik slid down his freshly-slammed apartment door, cold eyes and pretty, angry features flashing through his mind as he dropped to the floor with a resounding thud. His dark-haired neighbour had been livid beyond belief, and honestly, he couldn't blame him. The blond smacked the back of his head against the door, his stomach simultaneously doing a flip-flop of shame as he considered what had just occured.

Stupid, stupid, stupid the boy berated himself, pounding his head against the door. Truthfully, he hadn't meant to pilfer any part of his neighbour's odd grocery delivery. He wasn't that great with money, though, which had lead to this week's woeful trade off between obligatory art supplies for class or groceries. Mostly, he had gotten by on his limited supplies and scrouging from Hakyeon at lunch, but tonight he had sadly been unable to resist the temptation of the grocery box sat on the threshold of apartment 502. Wonshik was sure that Jung Taekwoon, whoever he was, would not notice him snatching just one ramyeon noodle cup. Clearly, he had been thinking with his stomach and not his brain.

Despite his idiocy, at least Wonshik had now knew exact identity of the tall, dark-haired stranger, Jung Taekwoon. Not only was he Wonshik's reclusive neighbour: orderer of strange packages noodle-cup filled parcels, but he was also his withdrawn, yet undeniably talented, composition classmate. Two birds and one pretty intreging stone, it seemed. Two f**k-ups with one guy, too, thought Wonshik with another pang of guilt over the, not one, but two encounters with the mysterious fellow he had messed up in just this one day. 

So wrapped up in these thoughts was Wonshik, he failed to hear the faint tapping resonating from the door behind his head until the fifth or sixth, considerably louder, round of knocking. With the sharp rapping finally shattering through his train of thought, the blond scrambled to his feet and opened the door. There on his threshold, shoulders hunched and face coldly expressionless, stood Jung Taekwoon himself, a ramyeon cup clenched in one slender hand. Sh*t.

"What the hell is your problem?" seethed Taekwoon immediately, his sweet, breathy voice delivering the words in an unexpectedly venomous tone that could not possibly have been more terrifying. 

Wonshik reeled as the question hit him like a high-decibel shriek, shinking under the other boy's glare. "I-I... uh..." he sputtered stupidly for the second time that day.

"Are you stupid or something?" spat Taekwoon a little louder, as he shook from wave after wave of anger. He felt as if a floodgate was about to open, and he'd be damned if it about to unleash a deluge of pent up hurt, frustration and annoyance on this blond idiot as he stood, dumbfounded, in the doorway of his own appartment.

"I'm minding my own business in class, trying to go to finish my work and actually graduate college," the dark-haired boy continued, the volume of his high voice continuing to rise as he stepped towards Wonshik and enunciated each word with the most utter fury imaginable, "and instead I have to deal with you coming up to blubber at me for absolutely no f**king reason. And then..." Taekwoon took another step foward as the other began to lose his balance, "....and then, I come home to my apartment to find you... stealing my f**king ramyeon." 

"I'm s-sorry," cried Wonshik, throwing his hands up in surrender, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to upset you, I swear. Just please don't eat me!" 

By this time, Taekwoon was towering over the blond, who had dropped to his knees and was quivering pathetically on the doormat, arms flung above his head as he begged for mercy from his enraged neighbour. To any other onlooker, this situation might have seemed hilarious, but Taekwoon was far too pissed-off to care. "So, what the hell is your problem?" he repeated, glaring expectantly towards the boy at his feet.

“Look, I'm really with money sometimes, okay?" began Wonshik nervously, still crouched on the floor. "I ran short this week and I... I guess I just didn't think that you'd miss one or two... I mean you didn't notice the last package had been sliced open when it was accidentally delivered to my apartment a couple weeks back and... I'm sorry... I just...." he trailed off. He bit his lip and looked down at the ground as he felt the other boy's harsh stare boring into him. "And I did have a reason. For talking to you I mean. I wanted to get to know you, really, but then you were kind of attra- I got more nervous than I anticipated," he finished quickly, lifting his head once again to find himself caught in the scrutinous stare of Taekwoon's of deep, chocolate eyes.

“You'd better!” muttered the ebony-haired boy, gazing back at the younger for a moment before looking away. He blinked down in surprise at the ramyeon cup still clutched between his slim fingers, and Wonshik thought he caught an odd expression flick across his delicate features. He sighed, holding the noodles out to the blond and still not looking up from the floor. 

“You can...” Taekwoon began quietly, suddenly transforming back into that withdrawn, quiet guy Wonshik had admired during class. "You can keep this one."

Wonshik jerked in surprise. “S-seriously?” he stammered, “I... T-thank you. Really. I swear I'll make it up to you.”

“Don't mention it,” the other mumbled into his hoodie, turning to shuffle back to his own apartment, “just make it up to me when you can, I guess.”

“Hey, wait!” the blond practically shouted, only to recoil again as the man froze in shock, dark eyes wide and one hand outstretched to the doorhandle. Wonshik could feel his cheeks grow warm as he fidgeted under yet another of his neighbour's well-cultivated accusatory glares, “Oh, I- sorry. But um... I know I introduced myself before but, your name is....”

"Taekwoon. Yeah,” came the soft confirmation.

“Oh," Wonshik breathed. He felt a little dazed as he gazed after the other, still in too much shock to think of anything else to say.

Taekwoon shifted uncomfortably under his stare. “Um... well... I like... coffee,” he murmured. His eyes flicked away, and a delicate shade of pink dusted unexpectedly across his cheeks.

Gosh, was that cute.

“Oh, right! Coffee.” Wonshik shook himself, “Would it be ok if... I mean, are you free Saturday morning?”

Taekwoon nodded.

“Great! I'll... I'll meet you here then, at that place just around the corner? Ten o'clock?”

Another nod.

“Ok, cool. See you then,” Wonshik smiled, as he watched Taekwoon slip back through his front door. He stood there for a few more moments, still a little stunned, before turning to step back into his own apartment.

Maybe, he thought, as he set about boiling water for his noodles, things won't be so crappy after all.

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The next morning flew by, with college classes doing nothing to dampen Wonshik's high spirits since the previous night's neighbourly encounter. He spotted Taekwoon on the way to his second-year composition instruction, but the elder had simply blushed and hurried away. He didn't mind, though, since he now knew his ebony-haired classmate was not at all the open, friendly type.

At lunch, however, his joy was dampened when he was met with Hongbin's broad, gloating smile. "Well, well, well! Aren't you just glowing," grinned the russet-haired boy. "You know, I was running some errands in the main block yesterday evening and I heard quite the kerfuffle coming from your floor."

Jaehwan and Hakyeon paused their gossiping for a moment to look, too, leaving Wonshik blinking in confusion under the stare of his three friends.

"So... who's the lucky gal?" teased Hongbin, "or you know, guy, if that's-"

"No, no, it was nothing like that!" Wonshik interjected as he watched Hakyeon's handsome face tighten, "I just had a bit of a... misunderstanding with my neighbour."

Hakyeon laughed humourlessly. "C'mon Wonshikkie, don't be shy now. Tell us," he cooed unconvincingly.

"Yeah," agreed Hongbin, clearly not catching Hakyeon's suddenly cold tone as Jaehwan began to giggle, "Jung Taekwoon's your neighbour, right? It sure sounded as though you guys were having a real misunderstanding alright."

"I'm a little jealous," added Jaehwan, "The guy hardly ever warms up to anyone, and I bet he's quite a tiger in the sack." The two broke into childish laughter, while Hakyeon simply stared at Wonshik, looking completely put out.

"Look," began Wonshik, "That's not what happened at all. I just-"

"It's fine," interrupted Hakyeon, shaking his head as he looked away. "I'm sure you had fun. Just maybe keep it down next time, for Hongbin's sake." With that, the older boy stood up, collecting his lunch and books as he made to leave. 

"Where are you going?" asked Wonshik, a little helplessly.

"I just remembered I have to be at afternoon rehearsal early today," Hakyeon explained curtly, looking anywhere except at the blond, "I'll see you guys tomorrow. Bye."

"See you," the younger boys chorused after him as he headed towards the performance hall.

"So, onto more important things," said Jaehwan, clapping his hands, "If I were a foreigner, what would my name be? You know, for when I go on exchange to America next year? I was thinking maybe Tom.... or John?"

"No way," laughed Hongbin, "They don't suit you at all."

"Damnit," Jaehwan sighed, "What do you think, Wonshikkie?"

Wonshik hardly heard their inane chatter as he stared after the retreating figure of his best friend - the one person he had always loved so much more than anyone else. He had been so happy earlier, to think he might actually have a chance with someone else; to think he was ready to heal and move on. So, why? Why did his heart still hurt so much now?

"Yah!" screeched Jaehwan obnoxiously. "Are you even listening?"

The blond shook his head as he snapped back to reality. "What about, uh.... Ken?" he offered.

"Ken?"

"Yeah, you know. Like that loud, egotistical dude from the Street Fighter games."

"You little-"

"No, hyung," chortled Hongbin, "it really suits you! You should keep it."

"Hmm," hummed Jaehwan, squinting at the other two. "Well, I guess he was the main character. Not to mention totally handsome and great, just like me. I'll think about it."

"Greeeat." Wonshik rolled his eyes, pushing aside his continued, Hakyeon-related misery. Maybe neither of them were over each other yet, but there was nothing he could do but look forward. Wonshik would find someone else like Hakyeon had or perhaps something else, and be happy.  It would be okay.

Even so, Saturday could not come soon enough.

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Author's Note:

So the writer is totally not procrastinating on her study by writing this, and she completely doesn't have study block due to wanting to write this story.

At any rate, this particular chapter was the first written, and one of the main focal points of this story, although the writer notes that the events occured slightly differently. From here on, it's new ground for the author (although she does know the character arch), and she hopes you enjoy the continued progression of the characters.

For the Navi fans out there, she will be dedicating a prequal (either a few chapters or a oneshot, working title Tteokbokki) to the Hakyeon/Wonshik pairing, and hopes that all subscribers keep updated to read it as, although not completely necessary to enjoy the story, will fill in some otherwise implied depth to these characters. The writer does not usually believe in filling gaps in lieu of subtlety, but she feels this will be an interesting piece.

Thank you kindly to all subscribers and readers who have been viewing, commenting, and upvoting this story so far, it really helps the author out. I am eternally grateful for and overwhelmed by all your support. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Please stay tuned but be patient for updates as the author finishes off her study.

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