The credit card terminal flashed back with a row of bold letters-eight, in fact, and Jongdae’s stomach tumbled.

 DECLINED.

 “Everything alright?” the cashier asked. The little nametag that was pinned to his unsightly uniform read Tao, and he ran a hand through his hair, pushing the blond fringe back.

 “Yeah, it’s just-” Jongdae his dry lips, and mustered a strained smile. “I was really looking for a nice dinner tonight. My semester marks just came out, and I wanted to celebrate.”

 He took a step back from the cashier till, and then another.

 “Sorry man. That .” Tao pushed the credit card terminal towards him. “Do you want to try again?”

 DECLINED.

 “Can you put the wine back?” Jongdae said, scratching the back of his neck.

 A hint of pity flickered over the cashier’s face, and he hesitated a second before pulling his own wallet out of his pocket.

 “What are you doing?”

 “I’m paying the rest.” Tao picked up a handful of bills and coins and slotted them into the cash register casually. He packed the rest of the groceries with care and held out the plastic bag to Jongdae, who took it with his head hung in shame.

 “Please, don’t give me that look. I’m just trying to help.” The cashier gave his friendliest smile.

 “Thank you,” Jongdae squeaked.

 What kind of poor loser gets their card declined twice? He practically tripped over his own feet in his hurry to leave the supermarket.

 💸💸💸

 After eating his fancy-ish dinner, Jongdae poured himself a generous glass of wine and sat in front of his computer with a calculator and a journal. According to his bank statements, if he paid his current amount of rent, coupled with electricity, water, university bills, he would have a whopping twenty-three dollars left to spend on himself.

 As he pecked the figures into his dingy calculator, the numbers that came back were increasingly pathetic, and he sat back in his chair, groaning.

Jongdae twirled his wine glass by the stem, admiring the way the burgundy liquid swirled around. No wonder real adults drank this stuff.

 Real adults. Who am I kidding?

 If he worked overtime at the flower shop; something that he couldn’t do, he could live decently for the rest of November. But what about next month, and the month after that?

 Jongdae slammed the glass down in annoyance, and several drops splashed onto the scuffed tabletop.

 My broke can’t even afford to sip this . Twenty-three dollars? That can’t even buy a sack of bagels. In other words, Kim Jongdae. YOU’RE ED.

 Upon further calculations, if he only showered every three days, forewent breakfast, did his laundry every other week, and converted to minimalism, it would bring the tab to an impressive eighty-three dollars and twenty-five cents. So, he would do it. He would do it, and not suffer the humiliation of having a cashier pay for your food. Besides, he could tell his eomma that he had actually managed to save money this month. It was her firm insistence to make him an independent man in the first place.

 Irene and Yeri got at least two grand from their rich folks per month. Joy managed to top a sweet thousand, and Baekhyun’s mother was the kind of parent who more or less forced their grown children to live in their basement until they got married and had a yard full of kids. It was a miracle that they had even become roommates.

 And roommates! If he actually tried to get one on Kijiji or some other shady internet domain, it would free up five-hundred bucks, that he really needed right now. Five-hundred bucks could buy another set of Taeyeon’s tour tickets, or maybe a used Cooper Mini, if he could actually drive.

 His phone beeped.

 Chanbaek and the Third Wheel

Baekhyun_and_Eggs 🥓🥓🥓 - happy end of first semester

YeollieOllie ʕ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°ʔ - congrats this means we’re halfway through uni

Baekhyun_and_Eggs 🥓🥓🥓 - only halfway?

it feels like ive been dating you for longer than two years

 

Jongdaebak 🔥🌠🔥 - right you two met at uni

Baekhyun_and_Eggs 🥓🥓🥓 - the only good part of school

YeollieOllie ʕ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°ʔ - stop im blushing

good thing youre sitting across from me i can kiss that ing obnoxious smile off your face

Jongdaebak 🔥🌠🔥 - gross

how’d you guys do

 

Baekhyun_and_Eggs 🥓🥓🥓 - 90 

grovel before me peasants

and you

 

YeollieOllie ʕ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°ʔ - its an 88

and you keep calling me dumb

 

Jongdaebak 🔥🌠🔥 - 94

Baekhyun_and_Eggs 🥓🥓🥓 - you

YeollieOllie ʕ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°ʔ - hold up valedictorian

Jongdaebak 🔥🌠🔥 - i hate you guys

 

Jongdaebak 🔥🌠🔥 has left the chat

---

 There was a hole in the wall, and Irene was coming home in five minutes. Mark and Suhyun gathered around her; she had brought them both home for one of their weekly dance parties. Needless to say, it had gotten a bit wild.

 A ing hole, and Yeri had no idea why it happened, and what she was going to do about it. It was punched clean, and a flap of drywall stuck out of it.

 “This is your fault.” Suhyun shoved Mark and clucked her tongue. “Remember that time you threw a chair in English class? One of the legs went straight through the wall!”

 “You literally jumped straight off the sofa! Shut up!”

 “What are we going to do!” Yeri hissed, clearly frantic. Her face had gone all red, then turned white.

 “It’s your fault!” Mark thumped on Suhyun’s back and she jumped slightly. “You were the one trying to do that hammer fist move, not me. And besides, you can’t dance.”

 She gasped. “You can’t sing!”

 “Can we stop assigning blame?!” Yeri reached in and pulled out a section of the wall, the chunk of drywall in her hand. A rain of powder drifted to the floor, and she wiped her hand on her shirt, leaving a white stripe.

 “Somebody find me something to fill the hole with.” She scowled, and Suhyun ran off into the kitchen to search.

 She came back with a bread roll in hand, and Yeri stuffed it into the wall without thinking twice.

 Mark stood to the side, scowling, as Yeri hung a framed photo over the not-so obvious hole anymore, and patted down the bulging chunk of bread.

 “Do you think she’ll notice?”

 She turned towards him, and he narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

 “.....No.”

 🕳🕳🕳

 The odd picture had managed to go unnoticed until dinnertime. It was Joy who had discovered the misplaced frame when she had returned from washing her hands.

 Irene and Yeri were clustered around the table, noisily slurping a takeout order of tteokbokki from some obscure hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Ironic, because there was a literal hole in the wall.

 “Aw. That’s cute. It’s little Irene, and she still looks the same.”

 Irene sprang up, wiping as she rushed into the hall, squinting her eyes.

 “God, it really is me. How did this get here?”

 “It was there when I got home,” Yeri lied, looking down into her bowl.

 “I like it,” Joy said. “The only problem is, it looks a bit crooked.” She reached up to adjust the corner, but nothing changed. It hung slightly off the wall, and the bottom edge jutted out in an unsightly way.

 “There’s something in the wall,” Irene said, elbowing Joy. They threw the frame onto the ground, and inspected the brown lump that jutted from the drywall, like an unsightly tumor.

 “Oh my god. Don’t touch that with your hands! It could be a rat!” Joy chastised. Irene grabbed it without hesitation.

 “What the hell?”

 Yeri paused with her spoon halfway to .

 “Why is there a hole in the wall? And why is there bread in-YERI! COME HERE!”

 Slowly, keeping her head down, Yeri trudged her feet to meet her enraged sister.

 “What did I tell you about your little playdate parties?” She wasn’t loud, and Irene would never yell at Yeri, but the look in her eyes was terrifying enough.

 “Don’t ruin the house. Got it.”

 Suddenly, Irene slapped her knee and broke down into a fit of giggling. Joy jumped away, slightly and widened her eyes as the seemingly most mature girl of the bunch rolled onto the floor, and began cackling while simultaneously pounding her fist into the ground.

 “You’re going to have to scold her for a while. I just-....can’t. This is pretty funny.” Irene wiped tears from her eyes and grinned.

 “It’s really not a big deal,” Joy reassured Yeri, who looked thoroughly freaked out. “I’ll call Junmyeon, and he’ll patch it later.

 They left Irene on the floor, rolling around, as they both went to eat dinner.

 🍲🍲🍲

 Within three days, all luxuries and frivolous goods had completely disappeared from Jongdae’s life. Breakfast was free, and spent at the cafe if he even bothered to get up. And forget the snack he usually brought from the vending machine after class. He needed the three or so bucks it would save. Lunch had become a sad excuse of half a sandwich, and if he was really committed, he would have the other half for dinner. He couldn’t stand the feeling of two day-old grease in his unwashed hair, the taste of discount ramen or going through his wardrobe at twice the normal pace. Jongdae’s only solace was sitting in bed at night and scrolling through Buzzfeed posts of other tragically poor students, shocked at how relatable they were.

🛏🛏🛏

 “Yeri, we need to talk. As much as I know you like your dance parties, I feel like it is getting too wild, and I don’t think I can leave you around with a bunch of teenagers every week.”

 “But they’re good teenagers!”

 “I know, but if you want to fool around and punch holes, maybe you can do that in your own place.”

 “Are you kicking me out?!” “No, I’m not. You can do whatever you want when you move out, but as long as you’re here, it’s my job to make sure you don’t die.”

 “Mark and Suhyun aren’t going to kill me!”

 “I know, but please. Let’s make some rules.”

 “.........Fine.”

 🕳🕳🕳

 “Ready for tonight’s dance marathon?” Mark ran up to her excitedly after school, brandishing the very newest GFriend album. It had a blindingly bright holographic trim, and as excited as Yeri was, she pushed it away.

 “Where’d you get that?” Suhyun demanded, snatching the album away. It was genuine, and she pulled out a photocard of Yuju. “I’ve been looking for these damn things everywhere, and I can never find them!”

 “Hands off.” Mark took it away. “And careful with Yuju. She’s my bias.”

 “Guys-we’re not having anymore dance parties. My sister said no, after the hole incident.”

 “What?” Suhyun looked almost offended, and she nearly dropped her backpack on the ground. It caught on the collar of her houndstooth jacket, and she pulled up the straps onto her shoulders.

 “She says I’ll have to get my own place if I want to do like that.”

 “?!” Mark voice-cracked. “How dare she! What’s going to happen to us? The Three Musketeers!” “We’re the Powerpuff girls. I’m Blossom, you’re Buttercup. Yeri is Bubbles. I told you to stop calling us that.”

 Suhyun growled. “That was the last place we could hang out!” Mark somehow managed to kick a pebble aggressively, and both girls jumped away.

 It was true. Mark’s parents were helicopters, who were hell-bent on setting up their son with one of those darling girls that he was always around. And the first time they had blasted music at Suhyun’s, her dad jumped out of nowhere and screamed at them to turn it off.

 Based on reading Youtube comments alone, Yeri had half-expected him to say that there was a bigger speaker in the basement, but alas….no, there was not. Just a dusty space devoid of any furnishings whatsoever and an angry man who just really hated KPOP.

 “I’ll talk to Irene. I’m sure this won’t be the last of us.”

 She couldn’t believe how melodramatic her friends were being. Mark was running around, windmilling his arms in a frenzy, and Suhyun was swearing in at least four different languages.

 Hopeless. So hopeless.

 🔆🔆🔆

 Jongdae was always the first person Yeri saw after school, and today was no different. She linked their arms together, and they walked into the apartments.

 “You don’t look good today at all.”

 “I don’t?” Jongdae frowned. “Do I smell or something? I haven’t been doing laundry for the past week.”

 Yeri unhooked her elbow and sniffed. “You didn’t need to tell me that!”

 “Sorry.”

 “But it’s true. You don’t look good at all. And you seem….irritable.”

 “It’s my new lifestyle. I’m trying to save money.”

 “How can you have a lifestyle if you look so dead inside?” She stuck her arms out and imitated a zombie shuffle, which earned a chuckle from Jongdae.

 “I only have eighty or so dollars to spend this month. I’m borderline impoverished.”

 “Impoverished. Big words.”

 “I can barely pay my rent and keep the lights on.”

 “So,” Yeri said, “get a roommate.”

 “I’ve been trying for the past month. How am I supposed to find a decent twenty-something year old in this part of the city? Period. They. Don’t. Exist.” Jongdae rubbed his face with the sleeve of his grey hoodie and groaned loudly. They stopped at the end of the hall on the third floor; Irene, Joy, and Yeri’s room. She tried the lock, and shook the door handle. It didn’t budge.

 “Crap.” Yeri patted her pockets. “I think I’m locked out. Crap. Irene already left for her uni classes, and Joy’s at a poetry commission.”

 “Ugh.” Jongdae simply turned around and lead her back down the hall. “Let’s go. You can just wait at my place.”

 🚪🚪🚪

 He unlocked the door and stepped aside to let her in first. She entered hesitantly, like there was a murderer or worse lurking around the corner. Yeri kicked off her shoes: black ankle rainboots with rainbow stripes running down the sides, and ditched her shoulder bag on the entry table. Jongdae followed her, shutting the door behind him, and throwing his backpack into the closet. It landed with a slight squish sound, and they both wrinkled their noses.

 “It smells nice.” She ran to the dining table and sat herself down.

 “Want anything to eat?” Jongdae offered.

 “Is Frosted Flakes all you have?” Yeri joined him, standing on her toes to peek into the sparse pantry. She ran her fingers down the cupboard door; they took off a layer of dust.

 “Frosted Flakes are delicious,” Jongdae asserted, pouring himself a bowl of milk.

 Yeri simply shook her head. “I like Raisin Bran.”

 He wanted to kick her out for simply saying those four words.

 The apartment wasn’t bad; she had only been in here a few times before, and the only thing she noticed was that it was a tad smaller than the space she shared with Joy and Irene. It only had two bedrooms, and one washroom, but was pretty reasonable for the rent. She headed down the hall, checking out the foreign space. One door was shut tight, and looked like it had been for centuries. The other on hovered just above the door frame, letting a sliver of yellow light peek through.

 “You snoop.” Jongdae appeared out of nowhere, noisy slurping his cereal. Yeri spun around quickly and put both of her hands above her head.

 “You can go in. It’s fine.” He pointed his spoon at the closed door. “That’s Baekhyun’s old room. I haven’t been in there in ages.”

 Nodding, Yeri kicked the almost-closed door open. It rattled, and she waved aside a cloud of dust.

 “Why is it so dark in here?” she asked Jongdae. He simply shrugged in response and stood in her path, attempting to give a mini house tour.

 “Here is my closet,” he commented dully. He gestured to a large wardrobe, big enough for Yeri to stand in and stretch out her arms.

 “Then why are all the clothes on the floor?” Yeri said back, snarkily. She kicked aside a pair of black jeans, and they flew into a corner.

 “No comment. Here is my bed.” Jongdae his lips and set his empty bowl on a nightstand, already looking burdened from balancing an alarm clock, a lamp, and a gel air freshener.

 “I appreciate the color coordination,” Yeri complimented the matching grey and yellow sheets, embroidered with tiny flowers that would be considered girly, but she could tell that Jongdae didn’t take gender from anybody.

 “And those are my stuffed bears.”

 He pointed at a trio of Rilakkuma, one blue, one pink, and one yellow. Upon closer inspection, there was actually bear themed stuff everywhere. bear themed plastic-wrapped pencils on his work desk, bear charms hanging from every doorknob, a devoted shelf of just bear plushies. Either Jongdae had a thing for bears, or it was a poorly designed attempt at making a shrine devoted to Seulgi.

 She tried to avoid looking in the conveniently placed wastebasket beside his bed; she didn’t know what she expected to see, but she still didn’t want to see it.

 “Your room isn’t bad. It’s pretty nice,” Yeri concluded.

 They left, and she made her way into Baekhyun’s old bedroom. It was completely sparse; the only thing left was an empty cardboard box that looked like it had been rotting there for years, and a single button pried off a PS4 controller. The ceiling hung lower than it was in Yeri’s own room, but the window was wider, and it was the same size as Jongdae’s bedroom; in itself, it seemed better than her current living conditions.

 You can do whatever you want when you move out, but as long as you’re here, it’s my job to make sure you don’t die.

 I’ve been trying to get a roommate for the past month.

 A light bulb went off in Yeri’s head.

 💡💡💡

 Jongdae picked up the bottle of dish soap. Halfway through his shower, he had completely run out of shampoo, and was now standing in his kitchen; completely , a mound of bubbles on his head and wondering if DAWN dish detergent could be used as a hair rinse in a pinch.

 Classic college student.

 🧼🧼🧼

 On Sunday, she went to the landlord’s office, and Junmyeon let her sign the lease. Her stuff was already packed into neat, purple boxes, save for her bed and remaining furniture. Yeri carried one in her arms downstairs, and rapped on the door abruptly, until a pair of startled black eyes met hers.

 “What the hell?!”

 She leapt back and took in the undignified display. Jongdae, clothed only by a mass of bubbles in the least helpful place possible, stood in the doorway, blinking his eyes. It took a few seconds to register, but his face flushed bubblegum pink, and he awkwardly splayed his palms to cover his crotch area, backing up to awkwardly stick his white in the air.

 “. What are you doing here?”

 Unfazed, Yeri pushed past him and set down the box. She didn’t know if this was a sign to come, or not.

 “This is our place now. What do you mean?”

 “WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!” He grabbed the dishsoap and used the bottle to cover his s as he stood up to his full height.

 “What do I mean? I’m your new roommate.”

 🏠🏠🏠

 Life went on. Now, they had tteokbokki on Fridays, and her annoying teenage friends; one girl, one boy came over at least twice a week to dance to some surprisingly catchy KPOP music.

 It wasn't any different living with Yeri than with Baekhyun. For one, there was a complete lack of privacy. She would burst into his room in the middle of the night, and complain about how squeaky the pipes were in the living room, or how she suspected there were monsters hiding in the kitchen. Privacy wasn’t an option, or even a boundary.

 The only mutual rule they had was that neither of them would bring random people home. The last thing they both needed was waking up to the sounds of loud, wet in the neighbouring room. Yeri thought they ought to make another one; she kept waking up in the middle of the night only to fall through the toilet bowl, because a certain someone was adamant about leaving it up. Other than that, it was fine.

 And hey, maybe it was better than fine. Maybe it was actually GOOD. Jongdae got more money in his pocket, and Yeri got a new biology tutor….somewhat. He was pretty okay at it; it had been his very best subject in high school.

 Her bunk bed was too tall to fit through her room, and she ended up crashing on the sofa for a whole week, even though it gave her horrible neck pains. The complete lack of interior decoration in the apartment also gave her severe eye pains, which was why they were going to IKEA, on a Sunday.

 Irene drove her car to drop them off, and they headed to the restaurant to grab a bite to eat.

 Yeri opened the display case and used the tongs to grab at least twenty vegetable medallions while Jongdae helped himself to a pyramid of swedish meatballs.

 Afterwards, they looped twice around the maze-like structure of the store, before Yeri finally decided on a bed frame; lavender with a tufted headboard. The only problem was, it was huge-so much bigger than they had anticipated, and it took the two of them to lift it from the cart and drag it outside. There was no way they could take the bus home with the monster of a bed, and Yeri begged Jongdae to call one of his friends with an actual car.

 They ended up shoving the gigantic box into the back of a tiny green Volkswagen. It was a tight fit, and Jongdae couldn’t stop mumbling apologies and thanks to Minseok for essentially saving the two of them on such tight notice.

 Yeri called shotgun, and they piled into the car. It smelled refreshingly like lemons. The car ride was silent; any attempt of small talk was forgone because of sheer laziness.

 Sometime through, Jongdae’s phone rang again at an intersection. He picked it up, mumbled a few words, whined inaudibly, and put it away. “What was that?” Minseok asked, slightly uneasy.

 “My stupid boss, Henry. He wants me to pick up some flowers from a flower farm. He usually does it himself, but he’s being a lazy prick this year.”

 “Can you say that about your boss?” Yeri asked. widened into an O.

 “I can’t even drive. Of course he’d do something like this to me.” Jongdae slumped in the backseat.

 The car pulled up to Golden Groves, and Yeri climbed out, running to open the trunk. She heaved the white box by herself up the curb, and dragged it down the sidewalk towards the apartment doors, grunting.

 “Can you drive a pickup truck, and are you free tomorrow?” Jongdae asked Minseok, still sitting in the car.

 “I mean, yeah?” Minseok looked up. “Why?”

 “Meet me here at seven-in-the morning. See you tomorrow.” He winked, gave him a quick side hug, and leapt out of the car door, rushing to help Yeri.

 🌸🌸🌸

 The IKEA bed wasn't that hard to build. Between Seulgi, who was secretly a carpenting genius, and Joy, who never-ever managed to hammer her fingers, it was ready to go in no time. After work, Irene even brought Yeri’s duvet(purple, of course), and expansive collection of plush animals down for her, saving her a trip upstairs.

 The remainder of her night was spent threading tiny beads onto a string to make DIY jewelry, something that Suhyun had really gotten her into.

 Jongdae was already crashing in his room, citing something about “waking up early”, and “never getting seven hours”.

 She knocked on his door, even though it would make no difference. Without waiting for an answer, Yeri barged in anyways.

 He was caught, red-handed with one hand down his pants, and his head thrown back in a contorted, erted squint. Jongdae yelped and pulled the covers over his lower half, but Yeri rolled her eyes and approached the bed without any revulsion.

 “I made you something,” she said. She held up a pink bracelet, dotted with tiny silver charms. In the middle, letter beads spelled out “Roommates Forever”.

 “Great.” Jongdae shifted uncomfortably.

 “It says roommates forever. We’re roommates forever.”

 “Yes, we are. Good night.”

 “I’ll leave this on the nightstand.” Yeri placed it on the dingy table, and clucked her tongue. “Consider getting a lock, if you’re going to keep as a hobby.”

 Jongdae’s cheeks turned red. “Go to bed!”

---

I'm dying.....what did I just write?

Also, HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!