“I can’t believe you’re still bringing me to another blind date. How many times are you gonna force me to do this? I said I don’t got any interest in relationships right now. Come on sis, you gotta understand me.” Gahyeon complained on the phone to her older sister, Siyeon.

 

“Yeah yeah… I already bought groceries and some important stuff. I missed you so much sis. I’m totally fine! I’m on my way back to the apartment by the way. Yeah sure, talk to ya later. Please take care of yourself over there... Bye.” Gahyeon hung up and relaxed in the back seat of the taxi.

 

-

 

Several minutes later, she finally arrived in front of her apartment door and checked her pockets for the keys. She slowly got irritated as she continued searching for the said object. “Ahh ! I must have left the keys in the living room.” Gahyeon realized, looking through the peephole of her door. She facepalmed, infuriated at herself for being forgetful.

 

“The heck am I supposed to do- Yeah right I almost forgot… I need to call Ms. Kim… She always has the duplicates of all the room keys. I better hope that I don’t get killed by her loud voice booming throughout the whole building.” She felt utterly deflated. She sighed, thinking she had no choice but to call for Bora’s help.

 

“Damn it! Phone’s dead.” Gahyeon hissed at her phone and pocketed it. The only thing she could do at the moment was to set her bags aside and sit by a wall beside her doorway. Rethinking and contemplating thoughts clouded her mind, causing her to not notice a blonde haired girl staring at her in worry. The stranger gently approached the hopeless girl.

 

“Hey, you seemed upset right there. Are you alright?” The blonde stranger sincerely asked to Gahyeon, who was on the verge of losing her . The latter sighed. “I forgot my keys inside my apartment. I’m basically locked out right now.” Gahyeon took a deep breath before glancing at the stranger.

 

“Do you got a phone with you? I was thinking of calling the general manager since as far as I know, she got duplicates of the room keys.” Gahyeon’s guts almost burned from nervousness. “Yeah sure! You looked like you were going to barge your door when I walked out of mine.” The blonde stranger answered much to Gahyeon’s relief.

 

They grabbed their phone from the jacket pockets. The blonde did a few things to their phone, then handed it to her. Gahyeon took the stranger’s phone, and found the manager’s number in the contacts list. She dialed the manager, literally praying for a miracle to happen (which was answering the phone).

 

After several rings, the manager finally answered. “Hello Ms. Kim? It’s Lee Gahyeon, Room 127 on the 7th Floor. Y-yeah I got a problem… I-I left my keys in my living room. I’m locked out. My apologies for that. I-I promise I won’t forget about the uhm, keys next time. No problem at all… It’s really fine with me. Alright then, I’ll wait for you. Thank you, really.” 

 

The call went well and Gahyeon felt the weight come off her body. She wasn’t tense anymore. She knew better than to be some idiot causing trouble and chaos. “Thank you so much.” Gahyeon profusely thanked the stranger for saving her from a possible mental breakdown. The stranger found the girl really adorable.

 

Both of them had huge smiles on their faces and it stayed like that ‘til the blonde realized she needed help out Gahyeon with her bags. “You should really come to my apartment for now. You’ll be waiting for a while before Ms. Kim arrives at this floor.” The blonde offered, and Gahyeon didn’t hesitate to deny her.

 

The blonde noticed Gahyeon spacing out, deep in her thoughts. “I don’t need you to do anything in return, don’t worry. I wouldn’t want to see someone breaking their door with an axe or a gun.” The blonde reassured then lightly joked. That woke up Gahyeon from her trance and cackled at the blonde’s sentence.

 

-

 

“How come I’ve never seen or met you when we’re literally neighbors?” Gahyeon asked out of pure confusion. She knew she had encountered with everyone living on the 7th floor except for the blonde girl who she just talked with for the first time. The fact that the stranger lived next door from her apartment sparked too many questions in her head.

 

“I guess I could say the same thing. But I think that’s because I work from home most of the time and rarely get out of this apartment unless I have to buy something or I hang out with my friends. I’m a really busy woman. You could say that my brain is wired for work and the other I usually do gets thrown out of the window.” The blonde explained in detail.

 

‘Woah. You’re a workaholic then.’ Gahyeon thought, thanking for not admitting that out loud. She didn’t want to be the main cause of sudden awkward tension between her and the girl. It made sense now that she found out why she never saw the left door next to her apartment open. Gahyeon found it amusing for odd reasons.

 

“How about you? What are you currently doing?” The blonde questioned, and Gahyeon felt embarrassment creeping up her body. Sure, she had a job, but she never revealed much about it because she knew dozens of people who’d likely judge her for being a bartender in such a club. There were too many close-minded people in the damn world.

 

“I’m a bartender at a you already know where. I obviously work at night ‘til early in the morning but other than that… I got nothing else to do in life… Maybe get forced by my sister to go on a blind date with people that I’m mostly grossed out at? But yeah…” The mundane tone of her voice and the dejected look on her face had the blonde really worried again for her.

 

The blonde noticed Gahyeon looking down on the floor, probably rethinking of her life decisions. “Hey, you don’t have to dwell on what you’re thinking right now. My bad if I somehow made you uncomfortable with my question.” The blonde put her hand on Gahyeon’s back and rubbed it.

 

“You’re exhausted. You definitely need some rest…” The stranger pointed out, and Gahyeon thought if her neighbor could read minds because that was what she was about to say. Gahyeon lazily nodded, covering as she yawned and stretched out her limbs. The blonde giggled at her and stood up from the couch they were sitting on.

 

“I’ll just wake you up when Ms. Kim finally arrives.” The stranger said. Gahyeon felt her body relax on the couch ‘til what she last saw turned black. The comforting atmosphere kept her at peace. Minutes later, the blonde took a good look at the peacefully sleeping Gahyeon and lightly smiled. She definitely needed a new friend to (jokingly) replace her Yubin and Dongie.

 

-

 

“Wake up Gahyeon…” Gahyeon heard someone’s voice and felt a hand on her arm, lightly shaking her. Huh, she knew that voice too well, and how did her neighbor find out her name. She slowly opened her eyes, seeing the blonde girl up close. She tried her hardest to not panic (because she simps over pretty girls like the one in front of her) and slowly grinned at the blonde stranger.

 

“Man… How long did I pass out for?” Gahyeon yawned, her voice sounding too groggy while having amnesia of whatever happened to her earlier (specifically her call with Siyeon, and she was glad for that). “I’d say about a full hour. But hey, Ms. Kim is outside the door waiting for you. You can finally get in your apartment.”

 

Gahyeon almost jumped and yelled in happiness but the stabbing pain in her head made its presence known and her vision got blurry when she attempted to rise from her laid position. The blonde was about to scold the younger when a certain Ms. Kim opened (broke the door knob) the blonde neighbor's door.

 

Gahyeon successfully sat up, still feeling the world around her spin. Her half-awake state stumbled towards the doorway. The consequences of standing way too early got to her. Before she could maintain her balance, she flew down, face planting the hard floor of her neighbor's apartment, or she thought so. 

 

A pair of arms hung around her stomach and stopped her from falling to her doom. That seemed to have woken up Gahyeon even if she felt the need to choke out, her senses finally returning to her. She muttered an apology and to the blonde. She made her way to a slightly frustrated Ms. Kim and prayed that her ears didn't bleed from what the latter was saying.

 

-

 

“Hey?” Gahyeon called out to the blonde. The former walked to the girl. “You know what I totally forgot to ask about? I haven’t gotten your name.” The former scratched back of her neck. “Ohh right! I thought you were never going to say that as if we maybe won’t see each other at another time.” The blonde chuckled and turned to fully face Gahyeon.

 

“Kim Yoohyeon.” The girl introduced, opening her arms for a hug.

"Lee Gahyeon." She completed the embrace.

 

And that was how Lee Gahyeon cheated Lee Siyeon's system.