First thing Yunho does is look at himself in the mirror for a long time. The man looking back at him seems to be the same he’s known for years.

It’s still him and nothing has changed.

Yunho smooths down a strand of dark hair, smirking and letting out a self-approving chuckle right before he goes out of his apartment with confident steps. He freezes when he sees Jaejoong going out at the same time, dressed nicely in his business suit. Their eyes meet and Yunho finds himself rushing back inside, slamming the door shut like he’s just escaped the zombie apocalypse.

---

He’s surfing the net looking for a new apartment. It needs to be approximately as big as his old one, with three rooms, one of which can later be later remodeled into a nursery. When the time comes Yunho wants to have a family.

He smiles at his secretary when he goes to work and, when he drinks out with his friends, he asks if Yoochun can introduce him to somebody,

With dark, raven-like hair and soft lips and deep lustful eyes and a tiny mole just beneath the left eye, Yunho specifies, and his colleague looks at him like he’s crazy.

---

Yunho loves watching sports and therefore he’s barricaded himself in his apartment for the following six days. He has a one-week vacation and there isn’t a better way how to spend it than watching men playing with balls.

Not like he’s interested in men or the way their shorts ride up when they run all sweaty and out of breath. No, Yunho’s a man who enjoys watching sports for the excitement and the rush that he’s missing in his own life.

He didn’t bother returning the two airplane tickets to Paris he booked months ago because he’s got nobody to go to Paris with anymore.

When he thinks about it, really thinks about it, he realizes that the girl next door never wore skirts or dresses or anything remotely girly and her smile was full of confidence instead of shyness and her hair was a little too short for a female cut and there were defined muscles underneath the shirts she wore and her hands were large, strong and manly.

Yunho grabs his beer and drinks himself unconscious.

---

He catches a glimpse of his neighbor as he’s talking to a tall stupid-looking man and cannot look away. A familiar feeling washes over him and he realizes it’s the same man with the Porsche years ago. They are joking around and laughing on the doorstep and Yunho wants to go there and punch him. And maybe throw some sand in Jaejoong’s face.

‘Man, are you still listening to me? I need this done!’ Junsu’s voice screeches in the receiver and Yunho tears it away to avoid going deaf in one ear.

He never takes his eyes off the two, all while he tries explaining the formula needed to calculate the approximate expenses of the company for a year.

Junsu should never have become an accountant, he decides, when he lets the curtain fall and cover his window, restricting his of the two men outside. 

---

Yunho’s tired from the sleepless nights.

He met this great girl a few days ago and they really hit it off. She knew a lot about fashion and literature, and worked at the same company only from a different department.

Her hair was pitch-black, her lips were pink, her eyes were brown and hands soft. Her skin was white but not porcelain, the mole on her cheek was on the wrong side and she didn’t cover when she smiled to reveal a row of perfectly white teeth.

She was arrogant and loud and when she laughed she guffawed like a hyena and the way she held herself with confidence made Yunho insecure. Her eyes pierced through him, making him feel self-conscious and stupid and, once he thought about it hard enough, she wasn’t nice at all.

Yunho’s tried inviting her over a couple of times but, whenever he walks up the stairs and notices the lights on in the apartment next door, his heart drops and he’s already making excuses.

He looks at the inviting warm light from the window within his reach and every single time a soft sight escapes him. He thinks of the fine raven-black hair sprawled across the blinding white of a pillow and plump, slightly-parted bruised lips and intense eyes capturing his heart and soul and his whole existence and Yunho’s unable to sleep.

---

He moves out soon after, leaving his childhood behind. He moves out to his new apartment a few blocks away.

His new apartment is bigger and the view is nicer and Yunho grins when he smells the freshness of the yet unfamiliar territory.

There’s so much to discover, so much to see and hear and, when he opens his door, he notices the neighbor from the apartment next to his own going out at the same time.

She, and he is sure that it’s a ‘she’ this time, is breathtakingly beautiful. She has soft features and a tight body, and a sweet smile when she looks over at him and laughs shyly. She is everything he ever wanted and imagined in his dreams; she is the girl next door he always wanted to fall in love with. She is the one he wanted to marry and have children with and live happily ever after. She’s the one.

Yunho stands there dumbfounded when she introduces herself with sparkling eyes and cherry lips. The life he’s always dreamed of having is only a step away now. He just needs to bow in return, smile back and he’s going to have everything he ever wanted to.

He stands there while his world comes crashing down and he realizes that she is the most amazing girl next door, yet she is not his girl next door.

He apologizes hastily and then he runs. He runs down the stairs and across the street and he doesn’t care that people look at him like he's lost his mind because he has. He runs like he’s never run before, like the guys run on the football field, like he’s going to be too late if he doesn’t run fast enough.

He breaths heavily and his heart races like mad and at one point he thinks he will drop dead from exhaustion because he’s an office worker, not an athlete, yet he never stops.

He turns a familiar corner, passes the café he met up with Junsu to explain those countless math problems while watching her smile and drink the same coffee as hers. He rushes past the sandbox she played in and made him want to kick the stupid-looking boy playing with her. He rushes up the stairs to her apartment but when he stops on the doorstep, panting like a dog in heat, he knocks on his door.

Jaejoong opens it with a look of confusion written all over his face and Yunho shakes his head.

‘I still love you. I always have and I always will. Marry me?’

‘Oh, and I’m Yunho’ he adds for good measure just in case his neighbor has already forgotten.

The other stares at him in disbelief but his eyes turn into crescents as he laughs and puts a hand on Yunho's shoulder. The simple touch sends sparks and electricity through his entire body.

‘I’m glad it didn’t take you another twenty five years to realize that’ Jaejoong says, pulling him close.

Yunho’s world explodes and makes perfect sense at the same time.

This is not the girl next door he always wanted to fall in love with; this is the boy next door he is completely crazy about, and it's good like that.

tbc