Jeonghan had to stay behind after his usual bartending shift to do Very Important Things for the Wellbeing of his Workplace (read: he had to take out the trash and clean all the toilets, and he will tell anyone who listens, the bathrooms of the nightclub where he works are not a good place to be.) He feels disgusting and he’s exhausted and he really doesn’t have the patience to deal with a neighbour who doesn’t know the meaning of courtesy. Who the hell parks in front of another person’s house? An s, that’s who.

The municipal won’t do a damn thing, doesn’t even bother to reply to his emails or phonecalls. In fact, Jeonghan is pretty sure the employees read his complaints and say with a cackle, ‘Parking Battle Royale, motherer.’

He screams through tightly pressed lips when he pulls into the driveway of his condo and finds his parking spot occupied by the same Toyota that has been terrorizing him ever since he moved in a month ago. There’s a private parking lot a three minute drive away, but that’s a seven minute walk back home and he doesn’t have the energy for that. He cuts the engine in the middle of the street.

“Alright . You asked for this.” Jeonghan roots through his bag for a sharpie. He steps out of his car and slams the door behind him, wincing when the window rattles ominously.

In big bold letters, he writes across the driver’s side of the window: ‘I DREW YOU A PORTRAIT OF YOURSELF. NO NEED TO THANK ME.’ And then he proceeds to cover the window with . All shapes, all sizes, varying degrees of hardness.

He gets real detailed. Every single hair, every wrinkle and vein. He even throws in a little cross-hatching for shadow, because goddammit, this may be the only time his degree in fine arts is actually useful. Take that, Mom

“What are you doing?” comes a voice to his side.

Jeonghan freezes, exhales a quiet ‘’. He plasters on his fakest, most charming smile—the one that gets him the most tips—and turns around. He meets big, confused eyes. The man’s ridiculously attractive, even with a shock of black hair sticking up every which way and wearing rumpled pajamas. It takes a second for Jeonghan to remember how to use words. His face had gone slack while he was staring, and he forces a smile back on. “Hey. Don’t worry about this. It’s my buddy’s car and I’m just getting him back for a prank,” he lies.

The man leans against the front hood, crosses his arms over his chest. Levels Jeonghan with a disbelieving, unimpressed look. “That’s funny. Because I’m pretty sure this is my car. Unless we’ve been friends all along and I had no idea.”

Jeonghan makes a dying noise in the back of his throat, a real ing embarrassing honk that startles even -Neighbour. Of all the people he could have gotten caught by, it had to be the owner of the car. Who also happens to be unfairly hot. And whom Jeonghan will probably never have a chance with now. ‘Way to shoot yourself in the foot, Yoon.’

Since their first meeting can’t get any worse, Jeonghan defends, “Okay, you got me.” He jabs a finger at his condo. “But this is my house and my parking spot, and you’re in it.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s a ‘first come, first serve’ system in this area.”

“That’s stupid!” Jeonghan blurts out. “It makes sense for your parking space to be in front of your condo.”

-Neighbour shrugs. “That’s what happens when people have more than one car. Not enough space. You know, if this really bothered you, you could have left me a note under the windshield wipers.” He sighs when Jeonghan doesn’t respond. He slides his gaze over to the vandalised window. “Let me see what you did.”

Jeonghan shuffles aside.

-Neighbour snorts when he reads the message Jeonghan left. Jeonghan eyes him nervously, searching for signs of anger. What he sees instead is amusement, if the upwards quirk of lips is anything to judge by.

“Wow. These are really good. You draw a lot of ?”

Jeonghan blinks owlishly. “Uh - yeah. Took a lot of anatomy classes. This isn’t how I expected those classes would come in handy, though.”

-Neighbour laughs. “Yeah, I don’t imagine most people study arts so they can draw realistic on car windows.”

“Ugh, look, I’m really sorry,” he says. “I’m just tired and I’ve had a rough day and I wasn’t thinking when I did this. It’s not an excuse, but… I just want you to know I’m not usually this much of an .”

-Neighbour waves off his apology. “It’s not really that big of a deal.”

Jeonghan looks skeptically at the mural of male ia on the window and the other amends, “I mean, you could have keyed into door instead.”

Jeonghan groans, runs a hand over his face. This man is an angel. Jeonghan actually wants the other to get mad, maybe shove him around a little so he doesn’t have to feel so guilty about this. “I’m still sorry. I’ll make it up to you…” he trails off and raises a questioning brow.

“I’m Seungcheol. I live in the condo beside yours.”

“I’m Jeonghan. I’m really sorry about the ty first impression.” He’s pretty sure he’s apologised more in one day than most people do in a year. He says again, “I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

That night, Jeonghan googles ‘How to remove sharpie from car window’. He shows up at Seungcheol’s the next day with nail polish remover and a container of chestnut cookies he spent a disgusting amount of time perfecting. He s the cookies into Seungcheol’s chest and offers to remove the sharpie. Hopes that it’s enough to call things even between them. Instead, Seungcheol beams at him and invites him inside for tea.

Which is totally not okay. Seungcheol is not allowed to out-nice him. At least, that’s his excuse when he invites Seungcheol out for lunch the coming weekend.