Episode: 02
"so it goes"
warning: mention
of
(idk if that is any legit warning or not
but just being safe than sorry!)

The doorbell rings at nearly four in the morning. Haneul has just gone to bed after finishing listing the orders with her other employees over the internet. It is a hectic job. For a month, she has been going to bed at around three or four and she has slept in peace. But peace has packed its own luggage and the other synonyms' and they've moved out of her life ever since Oh Sehun came sliding into the apartment.

She looks through the hole of the door, contemplating what to do with Sehun's drunk . She can leave him out there but she wants to tell him that she can be very creative even when it's four in the morning. If he tries to annoy her intentionally, she'll try to freeze him to death. Intentionally.

Haneul grabs some things and places them in a plastic bag. Markers, scissors, cardboard from the brown boxes she used when she moved in with her stuff and one of Sehun's plastic bowls from the rack that he hasn't washed yet. Opening the door, she clicks her tongue at his overdramatic . Sehun is trying to find a spot to lie down. He finally retreats on the floor near the door mat, his shoes are dirty and he is terribly drunk. Haneul smirks at his state.

"Hey." she uses her feet to nudge his shoulder. It's only been four hours since he had left with his party of unintelligent friends. She is grateful for the silence he has gifted her with through his absence. She pays back by hoisting him up on his feet. Sehun's half-lidded eyes light up in a stupid smile.

"Haneul..." he says, going ahead to rest his forehead on her shoulder. Haneul scrunches her nose at the ugly stench of his breath. The hair on her skin rise as she keeps herself from throwing up. Trust Oh Sehun to ruin your night, day, afternoon, evening, every ing day. She stuffs him back inside the elevator.

"I want...to tell you something," he mumbles, eyes closed now as he falls to the floor of the elevator. Settling quietly in there, he hums. "I...am...going to...I want to kiss you all the ing time, Haneul."

Haneul doesn't pay attention to him. She presses on the buttons, waiting for the doors to close. This apartment complex is so freaking old that the elevator doors are not in sync anymore. Sehun's head creates a thudding noise as he looks up at her.

"I'm not drunk, I swear."

Haneul's shoulders hunch up to her ears in alarm. "You're...not?"

"No...we can...do you want to...I saw a girl that day and I wanted to go on a date with her...inside a washing machine...there was a cockroach but...it was so cute, Haneul..so I didn't tell her..." he goes on. Haneul's brows quirk as she tries to connect dots that will lead her to the conclusion that he isn't drunk but Sehun is uttering all the nonsense she has never heard. Only a drunk person can pull this kind of off.

"What did you have for breakfast today?" She asks for confirmation.

Sehun makes a thinking face, being dramatic about everything. Haneul rolls her eyes as she waits for him to reply. "A ball of...paper...I drew your face in it...and ate it..." he answers, finally, laughing mindlessly at his own words.

Haneul heaves a sigh of relief, smiling along. "Good."

There are times when your back is aching and your pleasant dream of buying a limited edition underwear is fading into the back of your head and you can hear all these ugly noises of cars and passersby as if you are sitting right on a sidewalk. Sehun wants to blame it on the alcohol. The alcohol makes the bed he is lying on a concrete sidewalk. The sun feels extra warm and the surface around him vibrates. He clicks his tongue, bringing his arm to shield his eyes from the deliberate attacks of the sun.

"Excuse me."

He grits his teeth at the voice. It belongs to a woman. It's not Haneul's. So...whose is it? .

Sehun wills his brain to let him open those heavy eyelids of his. What he is met with is a foggy sight of a pretty face...which is not Haneul's.

"I can help you with a job, are you interested?" She asks.

"W-Wha....What?" He arches his brows, squinting his eyes. Weirdly enough, he is actually lying on a sidewalk. Sehun sits up with a jolt. "What the ..." he does remember going home the night before. He does remember Haneul opening it for him. But that's just how much he remembers. Sehun can't recall falling asleep on the dirty sidewalk. He absolutely doesn't.

"We can talk in the car if you want," the lady goes on. Sehun's eyes widen with horror. His back presses to the wall and he looks around, trying to recognize where he is at. But the woman doesn't stop pressing. She is trying to catch his eyes but Sehun's a little too bewildered because of where he has found himself so early in the morning. There's traffic, there are other people walking on the sidewalk, all throwing looks at him, looks of pity.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he mutters, shutting the woman up. "I......" Sehun spots the bowl he had left in the kitchen sink last night in his shared apartment. There are so many coins inside, accompanied with some notes. He flips the cardboard on his side to see that someone has written in big block letters:

Please Help Me, I Need To Feed My Dog.

His brows furrow even more before the expression bursts with anger. "Choi Haneul!" Sehun mutters under his breath, his ears turning red with rage. Before the woman can continue, he barks at her. "Shut up. I have a job. This is all a prank. Please. Go."

She blinks at him. "What?"

Sehun gets up on his feet. Irritated by the lady, he picks up the bowl of money and shoves it into her hand. "Hire someone else. I'm super employed and super annoyed."

He leaves the lady dumbfounded in the middle of the sidewalk, not before kicking the cardboard sign and screaming with frustration that makes the whole area turn their heads at him and wonder if the beggar is alright. Sehun's head pounds with pain, a consequence of drinking just to spite Haneul and the unimaginable situation she had put him through. He can't wait. To. Rip. Her. Head. Off.

Sehun runs, without looking left or right. But then he brakes with a screech, falling into thoughts. He can't do those things. Haneul doesn't let him near her. He can't rip her hair off or cause her any physical discomfort directly.

Sehun groans. This girl. He has to get to work and catch his bus but right here he is, in the middle of a sidewalk, brainstorming ideas to get his housemate in trouble. He wants his brain to come up with something useful, something that won't come back to bite his in the future. Loud music gave him a toothpaste sandwich, a stupid party made him a beggar in the streets for almost six hours.

Time and time, he is being yelled at by his brain to stop trying to mess with her. It's only been a little more than one day, living with her, but she has dragged him to the streets already and made him eat the saddest sandwich ever.

He can't just stop.

Entering a grocery store, Sehun looks around for a while. He proceeds to feel up the pockets of his jeans to make sure she hasn't taken the cash out. Sehun doesn't see her in such a light but one can go to extreme measures to get someone else in some elongated trouble if they are desperate enough. Haneul hasn't touched the money in his pockets. She could have. He would've if he were in her place and she in his. Just to make this punishment more painful.

"Bubble bubble bubble pop..." he mumbles as he grabs a bunch of bubblegum from the shelf and places them in a basket. The gears in his brain turn against each other. He can't think without music. So he sings something in his brain. Weirdly enough, Hyuna's voice always helps him think critically. That is how he has found himself standing before the bubblegum collection in the shelf. What else?

Nothing else, he decides.

Actually, his pockets decide. He doesn't have any more money than for buying these bubblegums. Unfortunately, he is barely surviving in the list of employees of the company he works at. His ideas got stolen twice and that has him hating everybody in the floor. So he has decided to work the intricate details at home and only going to the company building for submission and for gathering other work.

But the team leader is never easy on him. Must be because he is pressed that Sehun is so popular among the ladies. Sehun is basically broke but it doesn't show on his face. Sehun does look like he is a spoiled heir of a some big thing but he is just as in need of money as the tired girl looking for a change in the drawer in front of him, with her assignments sprawled across the counter, clearly trying to make some cash.

"Thank you," he tells her when she gives him back some of the money. "Best of luck with the assignments," Sehun throws in the words and a little smile. Because he likes to do that all the time; throw around his smiles in case any stranger needs it dearly. He jogs to the apartment complex, encountering a lot of the neighbors who greets him with smiles. He wishes they had vacant space for him to move in instead of surviving life with Choi Haneul.

Stuffing the bubblegums into his mouth, he waits for the elevator doors to close. They take awfully long, to the point Sehun contemplates if he should just pull them together manually because he really needs to pee as soon as possible. Chew, chew, chew, rings in his head. All he knows is revenge....and that he needs to pee. The elevators dings to a stop. Sehun gulps, not really ready to face her but there is no other way. Sehun hates to admit this but he is a little scared of her.

As soon as he has a big pink ball inside his mouth, he knocks on the door. Nobody answers. Sehun finds out that the door was never locked. This is odd. He sneaks in, as if this isn't where he lives