JiYong slammed his battered edition of Wuthering Heights shut. There was no way he could read with all the racket around him. Another clatter of scaffolding past his window, so JiYong opened his thin curtain and peered through to see an old guy and a younger guy, around the same age as himself, trekking past on a plank, carrying a metal pole between them. JiYong groaned again and left his room. His mum was downstairs, cleaning up the kitchen from their previous meal and JiYong grabbed a dish towel before helping with the drying up. “So what's going on next door?” he piped up and his mum sighed.

“The neighbours are getting a roof and kitchen extension” his mum sighed. “They’re making a right racket about it though” JiYong smiled softly and put a dish into the cupboard before settling down on the island in their kitchen.

“Yeah it’s hard to read when there is clattering and banging everywhere” JiYong sighed. He had the whole of the english literature spec to get through this summer and even though he had ages, he didn’t want to be behind on his reading. After pouring himself some orange juice, JiYong stomped back up to his room and grabbed his laptop before settling next to his bed next to the fan. It was baking outside but JiYong was more of an indoors kind of guy. He found himself fanning himself with his work sheets, possibly because it was baking outside and partly because Christian grey really was a spice. JiYong knew that he was meant to be revising and not watching fifty shades of grey but he didn’t really care.

His slammed the lid of his laptop shut as his mum entered the room with a plate of sandwiches and some squeezed orange juice. “There you are honey” she handed him the plate, he took his earphones off and looked up “I’m off to work now, but it’s lunchtime and I know you and how you always forget to eat. There is a lasagna in the fridge for tonight, I should be home around ten.” She pressed a kiss into his hair and gave one last wave before leaving through the back door to go to her shift.

JiYong’s mum was a nurse and his dad was a lawyer, but his dad had taken two weeks off to go help Dami, JiYong’s elder sister move into her flat a few hours across the country. So for the next week and a half, it was just JiYong and his mum. When he heard the car pull out of the driveway, JiYong opened the lid of his laptop again and pressed play on the movie before sinking his teeth into the tuna sandwich. The noise outside the window didn’t stop and JiYong just put the volume louder to block out the sound of banging and crashing.

The next morning, JiYong’s mum had to go away again and JiYong settled in the garden to read Wuthering Heights under the apple tree in his back garden. He was wearing his ugly gym shorts and a loose ‘Donald duck’ t-shirt with socks half way up his calves and then paired with some edgy round glasses, he looked like a right weirdo. The builders hadn’t arrived yet and JiYong enjoyed a brief hour of silence and calm before a van pulled up and loud joville voices filled the air. JiYong groaned and looked over the short fence to his neighbours garden. They had begun taking up the patio and a few rolls of painting carpet were laid out to dry on the grass.

JiYong fell back onto the grass and rolled his eyes, that was his peace and quiet for the day over. He made his way to the kitchen and made a cup of green tea and a bagel before going back outside.

“Yah Daesung don’t you dare” a happy voice screamed and JiYong looked up to see someone diving past the scaffolding and out of sight to the other side of the building. Then another figure shimmied up the ladder and chased the other boy with a bottle of water in one hand. The figure reemerged round the other side of the house and JiYong squinted, trying to see his face. Then the other bloke caught up and drenched him with the water bottle. “Seriously Dae!” the guy shouted before laughing and trying to wring his shirt out. He stepped out of the shadows in the house and JiYong saw a guy a similar age to himself, drenched to the bone in water.

“Boy’s! Behave!” An older guy looked up from the garden and Jiyong grinned.

“Come on Dad!” the guy, presumably named Daesung whined.

“Uncle it was all Daesung” the other boy smiled cheekily before running off.

“I hate you Seungri!” Daesung shouted and JiYong smiled at their weirdness. He heard the doorbell to his own house ring and he vaulted through the house until he reached the front door, it was Mrs Seo, the next door neighbour.

“Hi, JiYong - I’m so sorry to bother you like this but I was wondering if you could possibly watch Jooie for a few hours, my mum got into a minor accident at home and I just need to go over to check