the car ride to park joy's new residence is anything but peaceful.

"your precious daughter has to live in a cramped, little apartment thanks to you." joy's mother huffs from her right.

"for your information, i offered our daughter a perfectly spacious penthouse in the upper east side." came joy's father from her left. "you think i agreed to this arrangement? i was going to put my foot down this time, but if i recall correctly, you were the one who insisted i let her get her way."

"like you don't already let her get her way anyways." her mother retorts, scrolling through pictures of the apartment's interior on her phone with french-manicured nails that clacked every time they hit the screen. "i can't help it that our daughter is so convincing."

"being convincing will come in handy in the future." her father exclaims childishly, "stop acting like it's a bad thing, woman."

before her mother can respond, joy sets down the fashion magazine she is reading with a dramatic glare towards either side.

"parents, please." the girl, no more than twenty-three, drawls in her best patronizing manner. "can we, like, not? i'm not five years old anymore, and, just for emphasis, dad, i'm living here whether you like it or whether you don't."

joy's mother quickly chimes in, leaving her father exasperated with the two women. "exactly, dear, listen to our daughter." she sing-songs.

"i'm only looking out for my little girl." joy's father mutters as they arrive in the parking garage of the apartment complex.

as the chauffeur parks the car, joy ignores her father's grumblings as the men hired by the family take her luggage and follow in step behind her.

"look at the brands of these cars! beggars can practically live here!" her father's voice echoes in the air as they reach the modern-style lobby.

"even the elevator is this small!" her father scoffs again as the elevator door opens. "only this many people and it's already cramped like this." he adds when two girls about joy's age enter the elevator with them.

"actually, now that i consider it, your father has a point, sooyoung. are you sure you don't want the penthouse?" her mother holds a hand to her nose as if to guard herself from the scent of the less fortunate.

joy only snaps the bubble of her pink bubblegum in between her teeth in reply, staring up at the numbers displayed above the elevator buttons as they ascend higher and higher. she's quite used to ignoring her parents anyways.

at the same time, she doesn't quite notice the two girls behind her, one staring in awe at the louis vuitton suitcase at her side and the other visibly annoyed by her parent's remarks.

20, the red dots flash.

21.

22.

23.

when the elevator button dings, signaling its arrival at level 23, kang seulgi and kim yerim rush out and unlock the door to their shared apartment hastily. the two file in and close the door behind them just as park joy and her crew move past them, heading straight for apartment 2303.

"god, seulgi, can you believe them?" yerim huffs once they're safe behind (hopefully) soundproof walls. the blonde shifts her hands on her hips, irritated. "rich people really do think they're on another level."

seulgi nods furiously in agreement. "did you see her outfit? i swear if there's anything that's not designer on it, it would still be worth more than my entire savings account." seulgi exclaims as she falls onto the sofa in a motion mimicking a humpback whale. "and here i was, thinking that we were lucky to rent out such a nice apartment. heck, we've been saving for the down payment to buy the place for two years, rim."

"exactly, seul." yerim responds, plopping down on the grey sofa herself (in a far more lady-like manner, of course.) "sometimes i wonder if it was the right decision to stay here. i have jungkook, jongin, and sehun here, but i feel like things would be easier moving to a place where the job competition isn't so tough and the living expenses are so high."

at the mention of her friends, kim yerim turns a bit wistful. she's only had two female friends in her entire life, which were the ones she lived with now. the rest were mostly older guys who looked after her in college—guys who didn't judge her for being a holed-up x-box addict who was practically married to her computer. but now that they've gone and dispersed their own ways, she can't help but feel a bit lonely.

heck, even jungkook had been texting her less and less these days as he began to get busier with his own life. at times, yerim felt like it was too quiet without jeon jungkook around to call her princess peach when she clearly liked playing yoshi better.

seulgi's down-casted voice interrupts the younger girl's thoughts.

"yerim, what if the city life isn't for me?" seulgi sighs, resting her chin upon her hands. "every time i talk about going back home, my dad starts acting all weird. like today, he sent me one million won just because i asked him if my high school friends were doing well in a small town. he even said kids who go from big cities back to small towns don't have any future." the brunette's lips wane into a troubled frown.

"don't worry about it, seul." yerim reassures the older girl with a pat on the hand. "i mean, look at me. i've had to work twice as hard as my coworkers to get the internship i have right now. the stereotypes about girls in the industry are hard to break, y'know? and it's only a ing internship. i still have to work part-time at the bar to keep my head afloat."

a bitter tone is evident in yerim's voice when the word stereotype surfaces, because she's a girl who can make boys cry after seeing her play overwatch, and that alone is already out of the ordinary. being the one female in a workforce where the male to female ratio is nine to one hadn't been an easy journey for yerim, and the young girl knows it will continue to be that way. it's a very good thing that kim yerim is stubborn, or she would have given up a long time ago.

seulgi shakes her head. "it's different for you. you're practically a living reincarnation of tesla, einstein, and bill nye the science guy combined." she protests before adding, "and you've got a hot guy chasing after you."

at this, yerim sputters unintelligibly, "bill nye? wow, seul, that's gr-wait, hot guy? what hot guy?" she demands.

seulgi groans. yerim has enough brains to graduate salutatorian in high school and with honors in college, but when it comes to jeon jungkook, she's more clueless than a fish in a bowl.

the older girl is about to answer yerim's question when a knock sounds at the door.

"i'll go see who it is," seulgi offers automatically as she hoists herself up from the sofa grudgingly. the door opens to reveal none other than the girl from the elevator, decked out in her red dress and various bracelets on both wrists.

"hi, i'm park sooyoung, but you can call me joy." the girl introduces before seulgi can say anything. the charms on her bracelets jingle as she casually flips her perfect raven black hair over her shoulder. "i'm your new neighbor over at 2303."

seulgi hears yerim approaching the door, and the latter pauses her steps to stand beside her roommate.

"hi, joy." yerim replies warily, facing joy with a questioning gaze that that she doesn't bother to conceal. seulgi has always admired yerim in that the young girl has never given much care to how people thought of her, as intimidating and filthy rich those people might be. "how can we, uh, help you?"

joy's lips curve into an absolutely dazzling smile as she extends a hand to each of the two girls, who both shake said hand awkwardly. seulgi almost gasps out loud at just how soft joy's hand is.

"no need for help, i'm just here to say hello." joy giggles, before reaching beside her into her tote bag to rummage for something. "ah," the girl says just as she fishes out a box of godiva chocolates. "here, this is for you. i brought it from the states."

seulgi's face immediately lights up at the sight of candy, but her face falls when she sees the price tag that joy hasn't even bothered to take off the box.

78 dollars.

"thanks." yerim says, blatant surprise at the girl's unexpected generosity scrawled all over her face. "if you need anything in the future, just let us know." she adds as cheerfully as she can muster, feeling guilty for questioning joy's motives in the first place. a rich girl like her being nice to comparably low-lives like her and seulgi definitely wasn't what yerim had expected.

"no problem, and thanks." joy responds, that bright, dental-commercial smile still plastered on her red lips. "i've still got some jet lag, so i won't be bothering you girls any longer. 'night." she bids airily with a wave of her hand.

"see you around." yerim returns politely.

"goodnight!" seulgi, too, calls down the hallway just in time before the door to apartment 2303 closes.

as yerim closes their own door, the blonde hears the faint whir and click of a camera lens. when the blonde finds the source of the sound, spying an oblong hunk of metal installed in the corner above apartment 2301.

yerim narrows her eyes as she observes the direction in which the wires are lined. "interesting." she mutters to herself under her breath, before heading back to the living room, where seulgi is staring at the chocolate box in awe like she is about to inhale it.

"look, yerim," seulgi says to the blonde, holding up the chocolate box for the other girl to see. "seventy-eight dollars is about eighty-thousand won. and it's literally just chocolate."

yerim blinks, unsurprised. "well, when you think about it, people like her can buy twenty convertibles and barely make a dent in the bank, much less a box of chocolate." the younger girl speculates as she seats herself beside seulgi.

if only she wasn't broke and running a full-time internship plus a part time job on the side, yerim thinks to herself. if only she hadn't turned down jeon jungkook's offer to give her a position at his start up company. if only yerim hadn't insisted it would be too weird if her best friend also happened to be her boss.

"these bring my donuts to shame." seulgi scrunches her nose as she tosses her once-treasured paper bag of donut holes on the other side of the sofa. "do you think we should eat it now, or later?"

"eat what?" a familiar voice calls as the apartment door opens to reveal a worn-out son seungwan. the scarlet-haired beauty eyes the fanciful box on the coffee table. "that looks expensive, seulgi." she comments with a good-natured smirk. "and here i was thinking you were the cheapest customer in korea, always bargaining for things at the market like a stingy ahjumma."

"excuse me for shaving dollars off my credit card bill so i don't faint when i have to pay it every month." seulgi retorts. "besides, i didn't buy it. it's a gift from our new neighbor."

seungwan frowns. "you mean the one that installed a security camera outside their door?" she asks with a grimace, "wow, i didn't expect a person like that to be this friendly."

"security camera?" the two girls respond simultaneously, and seungwan simply nods.

"it was there when i left this morning. someone must've installed it sometime after we slept." seungwan deduces matter-of-factly.

"no , sherlock." yerim rolls her eyes before adding, "i saw it too, when we were talking to our new neighbor at the door. she lives in 2303, by the way, so she's not who you're talking about."

"who is she, then?" seungwan questions with a raise of her brow.

"her name's joy, and i think she's just coming back from living in america, because her korean is fine." yerim answers. "she's also really pretty."

"interesting." seungwan clucked her tongue. "i'd ask more, but i've had a long day." the red-haired girl mutters mid-yawn, standing up and heading towards her bedroom with a barely audible "goodnight, ladies."

"night, seungwan," seulgi replies as seungwan closes the door.

at that, the two return to their conversation, opening the box of chocolates and divulging their appetites in the process.

"you know, i was pretty ticked off at what joy's parents were saying," yerim begins as she pops a dark chocolate mousse truffle in . "but seeing how she came out to greet us herself, i'm not that bothered anymore."

"yeah, joy is such a nice person. she gave us this chocolate, after all." seulgi says through a mouthful of lemon sorbet white chocolate truffle. "she looks our age. maybe we'll get along really well."

yerim nods her head in agreement, savoring the flavor of chocolate heaven in the form of a strawberry creme tart truffle.

oh, how utterly wrong they were.