That morning after the night he took me to his apartment, Hanbin surprised me in my wake as he offered me breakfast that he has prepared – ordered, should I say. I was completely puzzled at this side of his personality that I never knew – that he could be civil and considerate. And then, just as I was about to dig in, he stopped me saying he’ll give me a list of house rules first – verbally. Sighing at the thought of it, I just hope I could remember everything he told me.

Here’s what he told me specifically in his long speech of rules:

Listen and don’t interrupt, alright. I’m going to let you talk after this.

I’m going to let you stay here for the mean time while we’re waiting for Jinhwan hyung’s arrangement for your own apartment. It’s going be in this same building, just to satisfy Uncle Suro’s requests.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a guest room to offer you, so I hope you’ll be okay with the couch. The only other room besides my bedroom is my office. I usually stay there after work, and I don’t want you to disturb me there unless it’s very important.

Now with the house rules, let me start with the kitchen and dining room.

You can do anything there, period. I don’t care if you use the stove, stuffs in the fridge, or any other utensils you find. You can even eat and cook whatever food I have in the cabinets. I, myself, haven’t had the time to look at what groceries Jinhwan hyung bought for me. You’re free to buy your own too. Just keep the place clean. I don’t want it getting dirty unless I was the cause of it.

Second is the living room. Apparently, you’re going to stay and sleep here, so you can do anything you want here as well. I usually catch myself sleeping in the couch every once in a while but while you’re here, I’m just going to stay in my office most of the time. You can watch tv, play games, listen to music, anything you want, just make sure it’s not loud enough to be quite disturbing. If you also need the net, the pass for the wifi is pasted on the note at the coffee table.

Third is…..

Oh right, the bathroom. We only have one common bathroom, right beside my bedroom, easy access from the living room too, just sayin’. Just have your own separate stuff and we’ll be fine. Also, I don’t want to see any dirty woman stuff in there. Please.

Last room is my bedroom. I’m not restricting you at all or anything from entering my bedroom, but we know you don’t have any reason to go inside and hang out there, so I don’t think I need to place some rules for it.

Now that we’re done with the areas, let me talk about guests. I’m okay if you bring anyone, just tell me beforehand if you’re going to have any, and please remember that I don’t want to be disturbed if you ever plan on being noisy with your visitor…s. Also, if you’re bringing any boyfriend of yours, if you have one, just to cuddle and play in my couch, I’m warning you against it, because I’m not in a good mood all the time. So, I am advising you against having any party or some sort in my apartment. On the other hand, I’m free to have my visitors anytime since this is my apartment, but I’ll inform you about it, since your place here in the living room is literally in front of the apartment door. I still respect your privacy.

I just want to remind you that this situation that we’re living together should be kept secret at work. I don’t want anyone at the office to make issues about it.      

Other than that, I think I’ve said everything already. I’m pretty nice with the rules, right? It’s practically no rules at all. I have just informed you that you can actually do anything you want here with the exception of the few tiny warnings I told you about disturbing me. So do you have anything to say about it?

After that long speech of his, the only thing I could do was nod in response. I believe that I was awestruck after hearing him, and he’s been pretty kind with his rules actually, so no complaints came from me.

That day too, I talked to my uncle and pretended that I didn’t know about the request he had asked Hanbin, saying lies that I accepted the additional work that was asked of me. On the other hand, I told Irene unni everything, because I know that she’ll see through my lies if I ever attempted to pretend like I knew nothing. She promised not to tell on Uncle Suro for the mean time, warning me that if the situation requires her to confide in Uncle, then she’ll not hesitate on it.

Meanwhile, I have finished the arrangements with Irene unni’s cousin, named Wendy, and Seungkwan regarding my schedule every Friday. Wendy, who is totally an angel in disguise, offered to sing for the band anytime, saying she’s always free for it. Irene unni told me her cousin doesn’t want to be paid too. Apparently, Wendy said that if we really wanted to pay her then she’ll just tell us if she needs some kind of help in the future. How could a person like her even exist in this opportunistic and selfish world?

To sum up the days that followed the day I started living with Kim Hanbin, everything has been unexpectedly normal – except for the fact that Hanbin ordered me to update him from time to time about what I’m doing every day, for Uncle Suro he said. To make things easier for me, I made an almost consistent routine every day, starting from going to the office in the morning, visiting the site afterwards, back to the office again and then going back home.

Throughout the whole week that passed, Hanbin and I have always went home together –apart from that one day when he had to go over time for an emergency meeting– which is kind of ironic since  we are supposed to be hiding our living situation at work. Hanbin was still the cold guy that he is, but we never really had any issues at home. It’s like he’s deliberately being kind by avoiding me which just means that we rarely see each other at home. It’s for the better, I guess.

☼

Today is Friday again, marking the start of my second week here in Busan. I have just returned to the office from my visit at the site and headed straight to Hanbin’s office to remind him that Irene unni’s going to come today.

I announced my presence as I knocked on his office door, “Sir, it’s Joy.”

“Come in.”

As I opened the door and entered his office, I saw the high stacks of envelope on Hanbin’s desk. He was too focused on scanning a set of unfamiliar plans that he didn’t even bother looking up to spare a glance at me.

“Good thing you came, I have some news to tell you.” He told me as I moved towards his desk and sat in front of him.

“Good news?” I asked him, putting aside my reminder about Irene unni’s visit for later.

Finally raising his head to look at me in the eye, “We have two new projects given to us. I was just about to announce a meeting for this.” he said.

“Is that supposed to be good?”

“It means more money, so it’s good. But with this, we’d have to stay here much longer than just two months in Busan. And we need more people.”

“Okay then, I’m fine with it, everything’s pretty much the same with me here as it is in Seoul. Do you have any other thing to say?”

Hanbin raised his eyebrow as he ran his hands thro