hapter 2:

"And then he slammed the door in my face," Seulgi ranted, waving her arms and almost knocking the cups next to her. "Very rudely!"

Irene leaned against the counter, looking amused. Seulgi had come to work this morning sore and exhausted from only the couple of hours of sleep she was able to get on the couch. She served her customers steaming cups of coffee and croissants from their selection of baked goods with a scowl on her face and Irene had come up to her during their lunch break to ask what was wrong.

Seulgi had told Irene what was wrong not excluding any details, hoping that her new friend would give her some insight as to why her neighbor was being such an .

"So, you thought it was a good idea to go over to a strange man's door that you've never met before in the middle of the night to ask him to turn his music off?" Irene asked.

"Well.... I didn't really think of it like that,"

"And," Irene continued, taking a bite of her lunch before continuing, "After he slammed the door in your face, what did you do?"

Seulgi grimaced, "I yelled at him and called him an ,"

Irene groaned, putting her container of noodles down to give her friend a look, "Seulgi you need to be careful. You don't know who this dude is or what he's capable of."

"I can take care of myself," Seulgi retorted, "I've taken plenty of self-defense classes. I kind of have to with all of the traveling around I do."

Irene didn't look impressed. "Well, this neighbor of your sounds like a jerk. Just try to stay away from him and if he gives you any trouble call your brother."

Seulgi gave her friend a grateful look. She had been such a great friend already. She showed Seulgi how to settings on the coffee machine, and was so genuinely kind. She was like a mother to Seulgi and she was happy to have her as a friend.

"Thanks," Seulgi said, and Irene patted her arm.

"None of that. Looks like our break is over, time to get back to work," Irene said, tossing her lunch in the trash can before slapping Seulgi playfully with her napkin.

Seulgi stuck out her tongue, throwing away her chicken and rice in the trashcan before following her friend back into the café.

...

"Se you later," Seulgi called to Irene, struggling to wave around the stack of treats in her arms as Irene got into the taxi. Their boss always gave the girls extra treats after their shift, and Seulgi was always brining home boxes of cookies and muffins.

Work had been a great distraction from the night before, and she started walking home, feeling rejuvenated and just a little bit happier. She loved her job; loved the cozy little café with its espresso machine and brightly decorated interior. Loved the customers who always tipped well.

Her apartment was only a couple of blocks away, and she stopped at the store to get her pictures developed that she had taken earlier in the morning before heading her way home. She made it to her door, shifting the boxes to one arm and holding the precarious stack with her chin as she dug around in her purse for her keys. They had sunk to the bottom, managing to wiggle underneath her camera as usual.

A loud ding sounded as the elevator opened and heavy footsteps sounded behind her as she managed to unfree her keys. The back of her neck prickled.

Please no, please, please. She glanced over her shoulder quickly and caught a flash of brown hair and a black denim shirt. Of course, of course, this was happening right now. She could feel his eyes on the back of her head as she tried to get her key through her lock and wiggle it open.

Her keys, of course, would not cooperate and find their way into the lock of the door. She leaned sideways, her shoulder wedged on the wall, trying to see if the new position would help her slide the key into the lock while trying to balance her boxes of food which were starting to tip dangerously.

"Stupid piece of lock," she muttered, and she was so focused on her key and on the lock that when the weight of her boxes disappeared from her arm, she nearly lunged, thinking that they were falling.

It was a good thing that she didn't or she would have plowed backwards, straight into her neighbor. She turned around to stare at him dumbly, her boxes of food in his arms. It took her brain a second to put two and two together.

"Oh...uh, thanks?" she said, wincing at the apparent confusion in her own voice. She knew that she shouldn't judge him from just their first encounter, but she totally was. Why was he now being nice? Was this his way of apologizing for last night?

He just looked at her expectantly, and Seulgi realized that he was waiting on her to open her door. "Sorry, she muttered, turning back, "This stupid lock is really hard to open, it must be broken or something because it is impossible to unlock,"

"I'm sure the landlord would be able to fix it if you asked." He said. He sounded uncomfortable but Seulgi wasn't sure if it was because he was bringing up the landlord after his snide comment the night before or if he just wasn't good at talking."

"I mentioned it when I first moved in," Seulgi shrugged. "I think he forgot and I don't want to be marked as the annoying tenant if I ask about it again."

She smiled triumphantly as the lock finally turned and she swung her door open. "There we go,"

He was staring at her with a strange look in his eyes, "I don't think he will be annoyed with you if you ask again. I'm pretty sure it's a safety issue."

Seulgi let out a small laugh. He was actually talking to her about safety after she knocked on his door at one in the morning. "I could probably call my brother, have him come down and fix it. He's just really busy right now at his company. It's no big deal, it'll happen eventually,"

"But what if there are neighbors knocking at your door at night wanting you to turn the music down and they can just come right into your apartment?" he said, his lips curling in the corner. Was he making a reference to her knocking on his door the previous night?

She briefly wanted to make a snarky remark about how she would be sure to turn her music down. But she bit her tongue, not wanting to ruin the moment, when he was obviously trying to actually make a conversation.

"Then I guess the landlord is going to feel really bad about not fixing my lock," she joked.

He frowned at her but didn't say anything.

She looked at boxes and realized that he was still holding them, "Oh god, sorry, let me take those." His hand brushed hers as she took them and she involuntarily felt a shiver roll down her spine.

He glanced at the logo on the boxes as he passed them over. "You must really like their cookies."

She laughed, "They are amazing, but no, I work there. My boss doesn't like leftovers so he always gives the leftover treats to us at the end of our shift."

"Well anyways, thanks again for helping." She took a step towards her door, smiling at her neighbor. It looked like they weren't going to talk about last night, but that was okay. She had the impression that he felt bad about it, and him helping her with her boxes was him trying to make up for it. She had probably just caught him at a bad time the night before, and felt guilty for judging him so harshly.

"Hanbin," he said suddenly.

"What?"

"Uh...My name. It's Hanbin." He was staring at her again, and the way he looked at her made go dry.

"Thanks again Hanbin. I'm Seulgi." She offered him one last smile before going into her apartment and closing the door, throwing her food on the counter.

She started making dinner trying to keep her hands and her mind busy, but even an hour later, she couldn't keep the smile off her face.

In the morning, she was woken up by a knock on her door. It was the landlord, there to fix her lock. 

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Authors Note: Really short chapter but I promise the next one will be longer! :D