Eric came earlier than expected on that evening, so much so that Dongwan was a little flustered at not having prepared fully for a guest’s arrival. Minwoo, on the other hand, sat at the corner of the living room and watched Dongwan scurrying around the house for preparation the entire afternoon. Seeing how busy Dongwan was, he was a bit peeved, and wondered how important this particular guest was.

“How did you manage to find this place so fast?” Dongwan’s mouth was agape as he pulled the door open to reveal the said guest. Wearing a simple shirt and dark blue pants, the man stood at the door with his hands in his pocket. In that particular moment, Dongwan could imagine that there was an entire hoard of girls behind screaming at how cool looking this man was, for he was the definition of what a perfect man would look like.

“GPS.” Eric replied simply and made his own way in, taking a good look at the still empty living room before raising an eyebrow. Dongwan shuffled behind him and smiled sheepishly as he explained, “It’s been so busy, and I haven’t found the time to buy furniture yet. If you don’t mind, I cleaned the floor already.”

Eric turned to look at him, making no comments before settling down on the floor quite comfortably. Dongwan smiled before hurrying into the kitchen to get some water for the both of them. As he carried the tray out to the living room, Minwoo suddenly appeared in front of him at the kitchen door.

“What are you doing?” Dongwan hissed under his breath and shot him an annoyed look. Minwoo blinked at him with wretched innocence and smiled brightly, “Nothing. I just found the scenery at the kitchen very appealing, but apparently, I’m not allowed to step into the kitchen. I’m just admiring the view from afar.”

“Cut out your nonsense. This is not the time.” Dongwan resisted the urge to curse and got past Minwoo to the living room.

“This is not nonsense! You’ve been so busy you don’t even want to talk to me!” Minwoo whined and leaned against the door frame. Seeing that Dongwan ignored him, he felt even more upset and scurried after him into the living room. Taking a good look at the man sitting on the floor, he felt that the man was in no way comparable to him, for it was him who was the centre of the world’s attention.

“I’m sorry, there’s only tea at the moment.” The man didn’t mind though. Giving a faint smile, he reached his hand out towards one of the cup that Dongwan was holding, yet at that exact same moment, Dongwan’s hand seemed to have shaken a little and water spilled out of the cup onto Eric’s hand. Attempting to keep his temper under control and to refrain from screaming at the obvious culprit, he excused himself to get a cloth to clean up the mess.

“You’re still as clumsy as ever.” Eric remarked as Dongwan finally got to sit down, not mentioning the upset ghost that was slumped beside him.

“Some things never change.” Dongwan gave a shrug and a faint smile before gesturing towards Eric, “What brings you here though?”

“To take a look at where you are staying…And to see if you have settled everything.” Eric replied as a matter of fact, and took a good look around before adding, “In which I see that you haven’t.”

“I just didn’t have the time…I was busy…”Dongwan mumbled, trying to defend himself. Raising an eyebrow, Eric questioned, “Busy? From what I know, there hasn’t been any clients recently. You drove all of them away while trying to find a house, remember? Besides, I remember that with your experience, you don’t even take more than a week to complete one project.”

“I was busy…with other things.” Dongwan looked down and the hem of his shirt. He didn’t want to lie to Eric, not when Eric had helped him so much after he left the city. Yet on the other hand, he didn’t know how to explain to Eric, and for the first time since they knew each other, Dongwan felt that he didn’t need to share this with Eric.

“Which requires you going back to the city?” Eric asked bluntly.

“How…did you…?” Dongwan’s head shot up as his eyes widened with surprise. Sipping water from his cup, Eric remained quiet and stared back at Dongwan without replying to his question.

“I…I just needed to know some things.” Dongwan said in the end, trying to explain to no one in particular. He was lost, and very troubled.

Dongwan personally felt that he was not an easy book to read, and it was true, for many people as well. He was pretty good at hiding his emotions, and pretty good at not letting anyone know any of his personal matters. It was true for many people, but Eric was the exception. Eric seemed to read him like it was a children’s book, as if everything was indeed so simple and so outright that anyone would have been blind not to see it. He liked Eric, and he loved being friends with him. Yet because of this, he always felt the subconscious need to protect himself or even to act differently when they were together.

“The furniture will arrive tomorrow.” The sudden change of topic by Eric left Dongwan stunned, yet the next moment he felt relieved. Eric was like that, not prying unless there was a need to, sensing the mood and changing the topic before something awkward arose.

“You don’t have to…”Dongwan started, feeling a little guilty of having to accept help from Eric everytime.

“Are you planning on taking up clients anytime soon?” Eric questioned.

“No. Not at the moment.” Dongwan shook his head. He needed to work for income, but not at the moment. He needed some time off to think about things.

“Then shut up and take it. I’m going to throw all those away if you don’t accept it anyway.” Eric said nonchalantly. A wave of gratitude washed over him as the both of them continued talking. For once, from the moment Dongwan moved in, he forgot about the ghost that was residing in the house, to the extent whereby he didn’t even notice it when the ghost disappeared elsewhere.

It was a pretty normal day, yet for three different people, it meant different things.

I'm back TT....

It took a much longer time than I expected, but I think things are going to be better from now on. I'm sorry if this chapter is a bit boring.... It'll get better from now on!