“Your surname is Choi, right?” asked Jaejin, standing still next to Jonghun who was busy putting a lot of chicken s to their cart.

“Yeah. Why?”

“Are you by any chance related to Choi Minhwan?” Jaejin asked again.

He knew that there was no way Jonghun and Minhwan were related, especially because Minhwan had seen the older guy from Jaejin’s veranda so many times before and as far as Jaejin could remember, Minhwan didn’t seem to recognize Jonghun. The surname was pretty common anyway. But the amount of chicken that the other guy was buying was just…

“Who’s that?” Jonghun looked up, pressing his palms against the steel frame of their cart.

“Of course you don’t know Minhwan,” Jaejin mumbled more towards himself. “And he’s just a junior of mine,” he quickly added.

“What about him?”

“Well, you guys just happen to have the same surname. I didn’t expect you guys to be related or anything. It’s just that… that kid loves chicken so much. So I thought you guys might have been related, judging from the amount of chicken you’re planning on buying,” Jaejin explained.

Jonghun stared at Jaejin for about a whole minute, causing Jaejin to drag his eyes somewhere else. He didn’t really mind groceries shopping with Jonghun. The other guy wasn’t the type that talked much, but he was also the type that kept small conversations flowing to avoid any awkward silence – which was good because even when Jaejin was the friendly type, he tended to become unapproachable at some point. It was just the fact that Jonghun had such a strong feature that sometimes it scared Jaejin a little to look at him directly.

"There’s nothing wrong with chicken, especially chicken . It has almost zero fat and it’s good for your muscles too,” Jonghun pointed out.

This time Jaejin was the one that stared. Now that Jonghun had mentioned it, Jaejin finally noticed how much more muscular Jonghun was compared to him (the fact that Jaejin was as skinny as he could be didn’t really help the comparison). Jonghun couldn’t be that much taller than him, Jaejin thought. Taller, but not by that much. Yet after actually walking around the super market for the past twenty minutes, only now he realised that Jonghun was that much bigger than him.

Jonghun’s groceries were different too. When Jaejin had only been putting almost everything instant (other than the apples), Jonghun’s groceries showed him that the older guy actually cooked. Everything on Jonghun’s side of the cart was raw food and they were considered healthy – aside from the ramyun and beer, of course. Now that made Jaejin feel slightly intimidated.

“You’re definitely not related to Minhwan then. He’ll eat anything-chicken, really. He wouldn’t care how much fat it has,” Jaejin shrugged, pushing aside his thoughts.

And there was the stare again.

“Stop staring. It’s freaky,” Jaejin protested at the end.

Jonghun just laughed. “Can’t help it. You look harmless but sometimes you sound so sarcastic that it’s funny.”

---

Unlike most nights, he found himself at his veranda, doing nothing but just staring into space. Hongki had been talking about how Heechul picked him up from the bar the other night because he was so wasted, but the rest of the details remained unheard to Jonghun. Hongki’s cigarette usually bothers him, but not that night – no matter how much Hongki had been blowing it literally to his face, trying to gain his producer turned best friend’s attention.

“Choi Jonghun! Are you listening to me?!“ Hongki retorted at the end.

Jonghun snapped back to reality, nodding to Hongki and repeating everything that he could recall from Hongki’s blabbering earlier on. It was the same story every time anyway. The details might change, but it was always about how much Heechul had convinced Hongki that he just had to keep going and pursue his career. So that was what Jonghun repeated – plus the drunk part – and Hongki looked satisfied, continuing where he left off almost right away, being Hongki and all of course.

As he tried to pick a random spot to stare at this time, his eyes landed at the apartment across his building. He pierced his eyes to get a better look at it, leaning forward while resting his arms over the fence. The light was on, and unlike any other nights, the curtain was open. That night seemed to be the night of the odds, Jonghun quickly noticed.

Jaejin’s figure wasn’t all that hard to miss. His neighbour was wearing his glasses and his bangs were tied into knot on top of his head, revealing his forehead, while sitting on his coach and watching some random show on TV. The t-shirt he was wearing seemed to be oversized but it somehow still suited him. There was no one else in the apartment, which was funny because Jonghun remembered how it was always one of Jaejin’s two friends that opened the curtain (yes he had noticed how those two kept on spying on him openly, and he had known that one of them was called Choi Minhwan – thanks to Jaejin himself).

He could hear Hongki talking, but he was hardly able to concentrate, suddenly finding his neighbour as a new source of entertainment. It made him wonder what kind of person Jaejin was. What was his major, what kind of music he liked, or whether he knew about Hongki being a singer and him being the producer? Did he play any instrument? Or just as simple as where Jaejin was from.

Maybe he just needed a friend other than Hongki… and his Heechul’s gang. He could have friends that were not Hongki’s friends, right?

---

Jaejin didn’t understand why he had to forget about his hat again and walk under the hot sun for two days in a row. He also didn’t understand why the same car had to be there before his very own eyes as he stepped out of his university’s front gate. The situation was slightly different though. Instead of following Jaejin’s pace that was walking just about a block away from his apartment building like the other day, this time, the car was nicely parked across the road of the gate - with its owner leaning against the side of the driver’s door.

“Yo!” Jonghun greeted him.

“Hi,” Jaejin answered with a short reply, wasn’t sure how to feel about this random meeting.

“Are you free?”

“Well, I just got out from class. I’m going to meet my friends though,” he answered again.

He wasn’t lying. Key had been nagging him almost all week. Ever since they graduated and went to different universities, they hardly met each other. Once a month, or more if they were lucky. Among his circle of friends, Jaejin was actually the only one that went to a different university, so getting nagged at by Key or Mir (Dongwoon and Jinwoon weren’t all that naggy about not meeting often) on the phone wasn’t so much out of the norm for him.

“I can send you there,” Jonghun offered.

“…and why would you exactly? Your ‘debt’ is cleared, isn’t it?”

And there was the stare again. Oh ugh, Jaejin hated the stare. It wasn’t only that Jonghun had such a sharp feature, his stare looked dreamy yet creepy in the same time. Almost like when Mir stopped being such a hyper-active kid and just sat there staring into spaces (the stare was different, but the creepiness was a little bit similar).

“I’ve waited all afternoon,” Jonghun answered. “Not gonna go home empty handed.”

“Why would you even wait--…”

Before Jaejin managed to finish his sentence, his phone rang. A message. Sighing, he unlocked his phone and read through it. It was from Key… and wasn’t Jonghun such a lucky bastard?  ‘Jaejinnie~, Dongwoon suddenly has to attend student body meeting. Jinwoon finally got a date with that Noona we were telling you. And Mir, I can’t find him. So we have to cancel the gathering it seems. Love Key <3.’

“Okay, now I’m free. Friends need to attend sudden student body meeting or whatever,” he sighed. Now who was the one that didn’t have the time to meet? Next time they asked Jaejin to hang out, he was going to play hard to get.

Jonghun grinned, unlocking his car right away.

---

He decided that he liked Jaejin’s apartment. It wasn’t neat but it wasn’t messy either. It lacked of colour but compared to Hongki’s apartment, he would prefer this than massive rainbow painted wall or striking pink sofa that Hongki had. The place was exactly the same as his own apartment, but the way Jaejin arranged his furniture was slightly different.

“The two stalkers aren’t coming later tonight?” Jonghun asked randomly, checking his own apartment from Jaejin’s sliding door.

“Two stalkers?”

“You know that two dudes that always come around. I can see them staring at my apartment, you know.”

Jaejin’s face went sour, seemingly not expecting Jonghun to be very forward about it. Well, those two were pretty obvious and Jaejin didn’t look that shocked that Jonghun noticed them staring. “I don’t think so. They didn’t say anything about coming over.”

“Ah, too bad. I thought I’d finally get to know this Choi Minhwan guy.”

They spent the rest of the afternoon playing Xbox, ordering some pizza when the day turned darker for dinner. Somewhere along the line, Jaejin seemed to get less withdrawn and started to just enjoy their game, laughing out loud like a maniac when he managed to win against Jonghun on their Mario Cart race. “Hah! Hyung, you lost! You owe me chestnut!” Jaejin declared proudly.

This felt rather different. Hongki was a great friend and he played games too, but Jonghun wasn’t so much into online games like Hongki so at times he found himself watching TV alone while Hongki went crazy over some battle on his laptop screen. This also felt rather different than when he was hanging out with Hongki’s friends. They were all so loud and typical AB-type people that Jonghun often found himself sitting at the corner mixing drinks for everyone instead of joining the noise parade. Jaejin was a little bit like himself, in a different way but similar nonetheless.

“It’s just chestnut. Not a big deal. I could buy you a ton if needed.”

“Heh~. Someone is loaded it seems,” Jaejin commented, standing up from the couch to grab more beer from the kitchen.

Jonghun took the beer that Jaejin brought back with him, mumbling a ‘thank you’ while opening the can. “I see you have a guitar there,” Jonghun commented.

“Who doesn’t?” Jaejin laughed.

“Can I?” Jonghun asked.

“Sure.”

After taking a sip, Jonghun put the can onto the coffee table. He took the guitar from the stand and rushed back to the couch where Jaejin was lazily sinking his body on. To his surprise, the guitar was perfectly tuned, giving him the impression that Jaejin could actually really play the instrument. He picked on a string, and then another one, and every single one of them sounded just right.

“You play classical guitar?” Jaejin suddenly asked as he listened to Jonghun playing some random song.

“I do. You can tell?”

“You didn’t ask for guitar pick. And just they way you use your nails to pick the strings. Just a wild guess though,” Jaejin shrugged.

“You seem to know a lot about guitar, don’t you?”

Instead of commenting on Jonghun’s question, Jaejin stood up. “I don’t play classical guitar. Tried it once before, but I got hooked at this instead,” said Jaejin, disappearing into his room before coming back with something on his hand.

“Guitar bass?” Jonghun blinked. “That would be that last thing I thought you’d play.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Jaejin frowned. Jonghun just grinned. Jaejin had this whole country boy look on him and he didn’t seem like the type that actually played any instrument professionally.

But Jaejin was good. Jonghun didn’t have that many musician friends even though he worked in the industry and this suddenly felt all way too amazing. Just sitting there with his new friend, jamming. It was like high school all over again to him. He liked how Jaejin’s long fingers just danced around the neck of the bass, matching Jonghun’s random play. Jaejin picked up the chords pretty fast too, as if he could guess the progression that Jonghun was going for – almost as if Jaejin could read his mind.

Before he knew it, Jonghun found himself staring at Jaejin more than necessary. It looked like Hongki’s music video filming that he had attended from the beginning till the end. Just Jaejin and his bass, looking like a part of a scene. Then Jonghun stopped playing and leaned forward; pressing his lips onto Jaejin’s thin ones.

There was an awkward silence when their lips touched, a little spark exploding in Jonghun’s stomach. It was quite a long silence before Jaejin finally pushed him away.

…and he could feel a punch landed on his face right after.

------

Took longer than I had expected because I actually lost the file. But I made it longer than the previous chapters. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do :Dv