Silence, warmth and comfort. The only place he can relax in – that’s how Xiumin would describe his flat. Everything in here he chose carefully and with a lot of thought. It is supposed to be his and only his, it is supposed to give him a shelter he needs from everyday life and mostly from himself. Here he can forget, because he knows every little corner and every little object. It’s his own comfort zone he doesn’t let anyone into. He doesn’t give his address to his acquaintances, he doesn’t invite anyone. What for? It would only be a bother to him.

                But it’s not like he hates people. No, he enjoys their company, but what comes after is what scares him. He’s left alone with his comfort zone that isn’t so comfortable anymore. It’s touched by people other than himself. He doesn’t know it anymore, because he doesn’t know what his guests  were doing before they came over. He needs to clean up. And he does so while hating himself. No, he doesn’t need anyone here. It’s the best this way.

                Do you know what kind of war is the worst? The one that’s going on inside your head. The one in which your mind is your enemy. And you know what sends you even deeper into the dead end? The fact that you realize what is wrong. The fact that you know exactly how stupid and how pointless your thoughts are. At one point you just get it that whatever you want to think won’t win against what your brain is telling you, it’s like you’re sending conflicting commands. How can that happen? How can one organ want two things at the same time? How can you not go crazy?

                That’s the everyday kind of thinking that goes on inside Xiumin’s head. But to everyone he’s just himself, a quiet guy that everyone likes that also happens to be a little clean freak. But nobody knows just how serious that is. And nobody will understand. He tried. He really did, all he heard was that he was overreacting or that he should it up and not be a . With time he stopped talking about it, seeing how nobody cared or how they were looking at him after. According to his friends, it’s not a problem. Well, they don’t live his life, they don’t hear his thoughts. And they should. Maybe then they would…

                What would they do? Who is he kidding? Does he even want them to react? Oh no, he does not need pity. He has his pride and he’s found out the harsh way just how exactly people are. Focusing on themselves, not giving a single when it comes to something they aren’t able to see themselves in. It’s not worth the try.

                Lying in his bathtub, he thinks about everything and nothing. The hot water relaxes him and makes him forget for a while. He listens to a cd playing in the background quietly, the songs he treasures calming him. It would be a beautiful romantic picture if not for a sudden black out. Everything stopped and Xiumin was left sitting in the hot water in complete darkness. He sighs and gets up.

                The thing about his flat is that it’s old. And so the electricity and pipes like to take a break from time to time in the moment Xiumin least expects it. This happens to be one of them. He ties a towel around his hips and walks carefully towards the door, touching the walls. He curses quietly when he hits something with his toe.

                He lives here two years already, but he can still bump into things even without the lights going out. He shuffles slowly through the living room to the kitchen. Somewhere in the drawers there should be candles or a flashlight. He remembers buying them not too long ago.

 Just when he lit one of the candles he heard a loud bang and a cry of pain coming from behind the wall. There’s always something happening over there. Xiumin doesn’t know who lives there but sometimes that someone gets on his nerves really badly. Dishes crashing, noises, random music. He furrowed his eyebrows and headed to the bedroom to put something on. He’s going to have to go out to maybe fix this or call the janitor and he’s not gonna do this . He leaves the hair wet. The hair dryer isn’t working anyway.

With the flash light in his hand he makes his way to the fuses box in the corridor. Everything’s drowning in darkness. Good thing there aren’t any furnitures to bump in here.  He tries to put fuses back in place but even that doesn’t work. Xiumin scratches his head really confused. “Why isn’t this working? It always did… What’s wrong with this thing?”

He decided that he’s not able to fix it and turned around, intending to go back to his flat when the light of his flashlight met something really close to him, nearly giving him a heart attack. Xiumin isn’t a scaredy cat, he never was, but seeing someone much taller than him with THAT look is really beyond him.

The man that stood before him had really big eyes, they were stretched to impossible sizes. He was probably opening them wide to see anything in this place but the effect was incredible. There was a big red trace on his forehead, as if it was screaming: I’M HERE! I’M HERE! Besides the maniacal smile that Xiumin saw the first, there were also black smudges on his cheeks. Nevermind the hair that looked like he had a fight with a hairdresser.

Summing all that up and adding the surroundings, Xiumin screamed at the top of his lungs and tripped over his own feet, falling down on this with a thud. The giant gasped and leaned down to help him up but Xiumin just crawled away.

- No! Don’t touch me! Oh my god, what is this, Halloween?! Ugh… - he got up and started to clean his trousers from the dirt. He looked at the guy with anger in his eyes and the man flinched a little.

- I’m sorry I scared you, it’s just…. I think it’s all my fault the…the black out. I tried to make toasts you see…and I’m not very good with cooking…and my toaster… kinda blew up. – He smiled shyly.

- Why are you telling me this? You broke it, you fix it, I don’t care. Go to the janitor. – Xiumin ran his fingers through his wet hair, thinking he’ll need another bath after this.

- O-okay. I’m Chanyeol by the way. I’m from 3. – The man smiled again, looking at Xiumin for some kind of reaction.

- Oh, so you’re the… uh… - He stopped, thinking he doesn’t need a fight right now and telling Chanyeol that he’s the annoying neighbor certainly is going to cause SOMETHING. – Uh…I’m from 2.

- I know. – There he goes again. That smile. Why is he smiling all the time? His face is going to crack.

- Go to the janitor, Chanyeol. I need to finish some work today and I need electricity for that. Good bye. -  He turns on his heel and grabs the doorknob.

- Okay! Nice to meet you… er…whatever your name is…

- Yeah, yeah… - Xiumin says shutting the door behind him.

                                                                                                                                 ***

               Ok, here it is as I promised. It's not very thrilling, but I hope you guys like it. :)