“Han…? Han…?”

Junmyeon shook the box of cat food, the noise usually being enough to wake up his cat and make him run over to him. Some times he wondered if he was some  weird hybrid of a dog and a cat.

“Han Solo, where are you?” He called out, looking under the kitchen table, checking the chairs.

Right when he was about to check the bathroom - he liked to rest in the sink, especially right after Junmyeon had used it, leaving black hairs all over it as they stuck to the wet walls - he heard his doorbell ring.

Oh no.

He his heels, facing the front door of his apartment and as if he were in some type of thriller movie, the hallway seemed to become dark.

Please. Not again, he thought to himself while he approached the door, praying it’d be anyone but him.

“Hello.” He gulped as he opened the door, meeting the hard glare of his neighbour.

It wasn’t just the glare that intimidated him but the fact that he looked so damn handsome doing it. It was probably one of Junmyeon’s favourite expressions on his neighbour’s face (not that he had seen many others to begin with). And the fact that his usually styled dark hair was in a mess and that he was wearing some loose shirt and pants (what he was guessing was his pyjamas - for some reason he had always imagined him sleeping in silk pyjamas) didn’t help in making him any less attractive than the first day he met him.

“Your cat has broken into my apartment, again.” He grumbled, skipping the greeting.

“I’m so sorry.” Junmyeon mumbled quickly, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment as he looked at his cat that was lovingly rubbing his head against Yifan’s broad chest, curling happily into his arms. “It’s like he’s in love with you or something, ha.. haa..” He tried to joke.

Yifan threw him an unamused look, wiping the already feeble smile right of Junmyeon’s lips.

“Even if he was, I would like for him to stop getting into my apartment. I don’t know how he does it but he always manages to open the small window in the laundry room and—“ He interrupted himself with an exasperated sigh as if thinking back to the mess the cat had left everywhere.

“I’m truly sorry. I don’t know why he keeps on doing it and how he keeps doing it but…” Junmyeon started while his hands reached out to take over his intruder of a cat.

“It doesn’t matter.”  Yifan grumbled, giving back the animal, which squirmed into Junmyeon’s hands before jumping onto the floor and scurrying off between his owner’s legs. “I’m just tired of him breaking in and breaking things. You know in some places they eat cats…”

Junmyeon raised his eyebrows. Was that a threat? Would he really eat his cat? He noticed his neighbour’s cheeks turned into a light shade of pink, probably realising the stupidity of his own words. Yifan cleared his throat, straightening up his shoulders.

“Yea.. Yeah, right. I’m sorry, again. I’ll make sure it won’t happen again.” Junmyeon spoke quickly, nodding his head a few times.

“Thank you.” Yifan replied sternly, his face looking as if he were still beating himself up for his previous words.

“Rough night, huh?” the smaller male inquired, not immediately realising how invasive it was towards his reserved neighbour, a rough night being the only explanation possible for Yifan showing up in his pyjamas and accidentally blurting out something stupid. It was cute, though. It made him more human (and definitely debunked Jongdae’s drunk theory of him being some sort of cyborg).

“Huh?”

“Nothing!” It was now his turn to blush. He cleared his throat lightly. “Anyway, speaking of eating…. How about I take you out..? To.. repay for the damages. Since you never let me actually pay for what he breaks, I could.. just. uh..buy a meal.”

Smooth.

Junmyeon kicked at the floor lightly, pretending to inspect some plush on his shirt to make his offer seem more casual - or just more awkward.

“Err… Sure.” Yifan slowly accepted his offer. “Tonight?”

“Really? I mean, yeah! Tonight. I’ll.. pick you up.” He tried to joke again but Yifan didn’t even give a hint of a smile, even though they were living right next to each other and Junmyeon thought it was a pretty damn good joke.

“Alright. Tonight. At 6 pm, if that’s alright with you.”

Junmyeon had asked him out but it seemed to be Yifan who was making the plans.

— —

“Speaking. Of. Eating.” Jongdae repeated after him as Junmyeon told him the early morning encounter, almost wheezing.

Junmyeon send his iPad a glare on which Jongdae was looking at him with a -eating grin.

“I hope you’re not cooking otherwise he would think you’re preparing him your cat.”

“Kim Jongdae!” Junmyeon exclaimed, sending his friend in his loud booming laughter that caught the attention of his roommates at the other side of the screen.

He grumbled as he listened to Jongdae explaining the situation to Chanyeol and Baekhyun, tapping his fingers against his desk.

“Anyway! Help me pick an outfit!” He almost shrieked, his nerves getting to him as it was 5 pm and he was still in the same clothes as this morning despite having taken a few showers already (to be sure he didn’t smell), only making Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s laughter worse.

He cursed to himself, wondering why he hadn’t called Jongin instead but the younger was in the middle of his college exams and probably had his nose lodged into some books and he honestly didn’t want to have Sehun peering over Jongin’s shoulder during the video call, making small sarcastic remarks.

“Okay, okay.” Jongdae laughed, pretending to wipe some tears from the corners of his eyes. “Show me what you got.”

Junmyeon was about to show his first outfit when Jongdae blurted out something that made him wish he could choke his friend through the internet.

“Remember when you were drunk and told us how you wanted to jump his bones?”

“I should have called Kyungsoo, you’re hopeless.”

“You just missed him. He left the house moments ago.”

“Whatever! What do you think of this?” He held the clothes in front of himself.

“Not bad.” Jongdae replied while adding the same breath, not knowing when to stop: “what are you going to do with those Star Wars posters? Might be a little awkward when you two.. you know… “

He could hear Baekhyun chanting “bow-chicka-bow-wow” in the background as he yelled out: “We’re not going to do anything, you bunch of erts!” sending the three heads into another fit of laughter.

— —

Junmyeon felt like dying. He had never thought he would’ve been sitting in front of Yifan at a restaurant. Meeting him in the elevator was already a rare (but lovely - for his eyes at least, as it was always a painfully silent elevator ride) occasion but actually sitting with him and having a conversation was like a dream come true. A dream that Junmyeon didn’t allow himself to have for he thought it was a little weird to fantasise over his neighbour like that. That’s at least what he tried to make himself believe whenever his mind didn’t slip to some imaginary world where Yifan actually tried to establish contact with him.

“So,” He said, feeling as if he had said that word at least 500 times.

“So..?” Yifan repeated as Junmyeon didn’t continue but he didn’t even give him the time to. “What’s your cat’s name? After all this time..”

Junmyeon felt his entire face burn up, almost certain that he was rivalling with the tomato sauce in his plate.

“Ah.. Right uh.. His name is.. Han Solo.” He tried to reply while stuffing his face with some food, hoping Yifan would somehow understand it as something less.. lame.

“What…?” Yifan’s eyebrows raised and he laughed - probably the first genuine laugh Junmyeon ever heard from him and it was like a punch in the gut.

He was 23. Why was he crushing on his neighbour as if he were 15 again?

“Han Solo? Really? Isn’t that that guy from.. Star Wars or something?”

“Yeah, he’s one of the main characters in the three original movies.” He replied almost automatically, immediately regretting his specific answer.

“I’ve never seen them.” Yifan confessed with a shrug of his shoulders.

Junmyeon gave him an incredulous look. “What? But they are classics.”

“I just never got round to it.”

He stared at the older male as if he had just told him he still believed the earth was flat. He couldn’t believe it. This was Chanyeol all over again. But this time he couldn’t force the other to watch them all in one sitting. At least not yet.

“Well, I have them on DVD so if you ever want to borrow them…” He said nonchalantly, acting as if knowing that his crush lacked an important part of science fiction culture didn’t hurt his heart. “I could pass you them later.”

“Sure.” Yifan nodded his head with a smile. “But why would you call your cat..”

“Listen.” Junmyeon grumbled exasperatedly, which apparently seemed to amuse the other. “Some times in life you make decisions that are not necessarily the smartest and some times they don’t turn out that well. Like naming your cat Han Solo.”

“Kind of like me and this dinner. I thought it wouldn’t turn out well but it’s not too bad..”

“Why did you accept to go then? If you thought it could’ve turned out horribly? I wouldn’t have been hurt if you had said no.”

“I honestly didn’t have any food and didn’t feel like going grocery shopping.” He admitted, which made Junmyeon’s mouth almost fall open.

Not only didn’t he sleep in silky pyjamas but he was also too lazy to go grocery shopping. Was this the same Wu Yifan he had seen in fancy suits? Did he have some twin brother who was staying over? Because that was obviously the only logical explanation for this.

It surprised him how different Yifan seemed from their previous encounters, although making a judgement from grumpy conversations where he pushed Junmyeon’s cat back into his arms and silent elevator rides was a bit difficult and unfair. And from judging how the evening had started when Junmyeon had knocked on his door at 6 pm sharp, he was expecting the dinner to feel like a very long and painful elevator ride. But once Yifan had made fun of Junmyeon’s cat’s name, it seemed to be easier to talk to him as if they both let their walls down. Junmyeon’s walls being some flimsy cardboard wall while Yifan were more made out of metal. Only because Jongdae once said he could have been a cyborg.

— —

“You didn’t have to walk me home.” Junmyeon grinned as they reached their apartment doors, once again meeting not even a hint of a smile. “Tough crowd.” He added with a mumble.

Maybe he did have a glass too many.

“I had a good time.” Yifan then said. His hand was already fishing for his keys in his pocket.

“Yeah, me too..” the younger nodded, reluctantly taking out his keys as well. “Oh! I should get you the DVDs.”

“Don’t bother. I’m sure your cat will break in again so you can just give them tomorrow.”

Junmyeon looked at him and laughed. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“See you tomorrow then. Good night, Junmyeon.”

Yifan smiled, pushing his door open before disappearing into his apartment.

“Good night.” Junmyeon echoed.

He had a new favourite facial expression.