Jong Kook wakes early the next morning, about 20 minutes before his alarm was set to sound. He blinks in the darkness, the sun not yet up, and tries to orient himself and figure out what woke him. The sound of the apartment door banging closed clues him in, and he glances at the clock as he listens to heavy feet stumble up the stairs opposite his room. 

4:10am. He shakes his head, not feeling especially charitable toward the brash woman after her display last night left him feeling weak and at her mercy. He'd eventually stormed back into the apartment and into "his" room, pacing the floor to calm himself, to restrain himself from chasing after her and giving her a piece of his mind. After fifteen minutes or so, Kwang Soo had been able to coax him back out to finish watching the show together, but he remained tight lipped until they both went to bed, refusing to discuss what had happened in the hallway. He'd missed most of the plot of the episode they finished up, as he'd directed his attention to mentally rewriting the hallway scene in a way that involved blasting Charity with a blistering set down that had her begging his forgiveness and apologizing for every rude thing she'd ever said to him.

He runs his hands over his face as he sits up on the side of the bed, trying to fight back the heat in his cheeks that still insists on appearing when the feel of Charity's soft body pressed against his plays through his mind on uncontrollable repeat. How dare she, he thinks. How dare she. Like I would ever. She's not even my type. She smells so good. I don't even like her. So forward and reckless. No, thank you. He scowls, wishing he told her off when he had the chance, no longer feeling the least bit guilty over his previous conversational missteps with the women. We're even.

Awake now, he gathers his things to head to the shower before Kwang Soo starts stirring, jumping on the chance to be able to grab more than five minutes for his own admittedly elaborate grooming routines. He's out of his room and halfway across the dark apartment when Charity's door opens and her form appears silhouetted in the frame. Her arms cradle a pile of objects he can't make out as she shuffles toward the stairs. Nearly at the bottom, she slips, thudding down the last couple of steps on her , bottles and jars rolling away around the foyer.

"Whoops!," she says laughingly from a heap on the floor, and begins crawling around to regather her items. 

Jong Kook is instantly at her side, animosity briefly forgotten. "Are you okay?," he says, grasping her by the upper arm. The smell of alcohol mixed with a spicy, musky perfume hits him, at once alluring and repulsive. He doesn't fight back the sour look of disapproval on his face and he eyes her up and down for any signs of blood or obvious injury.

"Just fine!" She sits down hard on her bottom and leans to feel under the stairs, triumphantly pulling out a plastic bottle of green liquid after just a moment, adding it to the somewhat impressive heap piled between her legs now. "How are you?" She looks up at him and smiles widely, looking genuinely friendly. "It's nice to see you!" She flings an arm around his shoulder sloppily, dropping her head against his chest briefly before pulling back and patting it with her hand. She looks up at him and raises her brows, nodding approvingly. His lips twitch in a small smile despite himself. Charity seems so much more bearable when she's clearly plastered.

She attempts to stand with all her bottles and jars in her arms but only succeeds in overbalancing herself back to the floor. She lies there in her striped nightshirt, everything clutched tightly to her chest, grinning up at the ceiling. Jong Kook looms over her and reflexively grins back as he starts to unload her arms into his own. 

"Let me help you."

"Thank you!," she exclaims, sitting up. "You're a nice man, you know that?"

"I do know that. Do you?" He sets the bottles on a low stair and stands, extending a hand to Charity and hauling her up. She stumbles off balance and falls against him before righting himself. He fights back the instant flashback from the previous evening. She holds out her hands for her things. 

"Of course I know that. Every time you've forgotten you met me, everyone assures me of what a nice man you are, really, underneath all that behaving like a thoughtless ." She smiles warmly, clearly joking. She looks completely different, relaxed, though her eyes are visibly hazed by alcohol.

Jong Kook shakes his head, no defense readily coming to his lips. "Where are you taking all these?"

"To the bathroom," Charity gestures widely with her arm, almost throwing herself off balance again. "My sink isn't working again and I've got to wash off my makeup before bed."

Jong Kook leads the way to the bathroom and she trails behind. "Bed?," he asks. "It's just past 4am. Don't you have to work soon?" He tumbles his armload onto the countertop and steps back as Charity begins to rummage through the assortment.

"I am amazing on an hour of sleep," she informs him, nodding sagely over her shoulder. "I could show you sometime." She winks cheekily and then snort-laughs at herself. "No, I'm kidding. I won't do that again, I promise." She turns and stands too close, resting a palm on his chest and looking up at him. He fights the urge to step away. "I'm sorry. I'm very sorry. I won't lie, throwing you off balance - hic - was fun, but by the time I got downstairs, I felt awful. I wanted to come back and apologize, but..." She trails off. She grimaces and pales. "Ugh, I don't feel so good." Turning back to the counter, she slides a ponytail holder off her wrist and pulls her waist length hair up in a messy knob on top of her head, nearly whacking Jong Kook with the ends as she efficiently whips it around. "Were you about to shower? I'll just be a minute." She rummages through the containers like she's wearing boxing gloves, knocking a couple to the floor. "Where is the... " She leans down close to the countertop, trying to read the labels on the bottles. "Oh, man." 

Jong Kook slides his phone from his pocket to look at the time, realizing Kwang Soo will be up any moment. "Let me help," he says. "What are you looking for?" He nudges her aside and looks down at the containers in front of him.

"Ummm a tall purple bottle with a silver lid."

Jong Kook quickly locates the item sought and hands it to her before he bends to collect the bottles from the floor. When he stands, she's gently sweeping a cotton ball over her eyes, clearing away the dark, smudged circles ringing them. She leans toward the mirror to check her work, stretching up to her toes to get close for examination. Unsatisfied, she soaks another cotton ball and makes another couple of passes over each eye. 

Jong Kook shifts from foot to foot impatiently, but Charity doesn't seem as though she'll be hurried. After a long couple of moments, she tosses the used cotton balls toward the trash can, not noticing as they land in the toilet instead.

"Now what?," Jong Kook says, his tone urging her along.

"Short purple jar with a silver lid."

He locates it immediately and hands it to her, watching in growing annoyance as she deliberately scoops some white material from the jar and rubs it over her entire face. Bright pale skin emerges from beneath a thick layer of makeup, rapidly turning pink from all the rubbing.

After coating every little millimeter of skin, she leans over the sink to rinse, tossing water every which way as she does so. After patting her face dry, she performs another examination close to the mirror. Jong Kook can see her eyes crossing as she tries to focus them. 

"Done?," he asks, taking her by the elbow and preparing to lead her out of the room.

"No!," she says, too loudly. "Now I need to wash my face."

"Yah, what did you just do?," he yells, finally exploding.

She blinks at him through the mirror, unfazed. "I took my makeup off, and now I need to wash my face. I need the bottle with the orange stuff." She holds out her hand and he grinds his teeth as he passes her the bottle. She grins at him. "Ah, cute. So angry!" She makes claws with her hands and swipes one at him. "Are you going to bite me?" She bats her lashes at him.

"Charity...," he says, warningly.

She unclaws her hands and holds them both up in compliance. "Sorry, sorry, sorry." She washes her face quickly and pats it dry again. "Green stuff." She holds out her hand and he hands her a bottle of toner, working like a surgical team. "Silver tube!" She rubs a milky gel over her face and rinses again. "Thing with the squeezy lid!"

He watches her spread a serum over her face and neck.

"Are you almost finished?"

"Uh huh. Pink stuff!"

He hands her a small tub of lotion. "There's no way you possible need to do all of this stuff until you're in your 30s, Charity."

She screws the lid back on the tub. "Well, I'm 35, so."

Jong Kook's eyes widen in shock. "Oh. Well. Carry on, then."

"All finished," she declares, giving herself a final look in the mirror, skin pink and pale, messy bun sliding off her head. "Are you going to take a shower now?" She looks him up and down, biting her tongue between her teeth as her eyes drag over every inch of his body.

He sighs. "Don't you need to get going to that hour of sleep?" He rolls his eyes at her, but still self-consciously moves to hold his towel in front of his body.

She nods. "You're right. You're right! I'm going to go to bed for an hour and then I'll show you, I am amazing on next to no sleep." She moves to skip out of the bathroom, stumbling to a halt just as she's passing and flinging her arms around his waist. "Let's not hate each other, okay?," she mumbles into his chest. "I don't like not liking people."

Jong Kook is momentarily lost for words as six thousand responses speed through his mind. She started it by being so rude. And molesting him in the hallway! He might not hate her, but he's certainly not going to like her. But then, he also forgot he met her. More than once. And kind of called her fat. And poked fun at her dead husband in anger. He grits his teeth as he sets her body away from his. 

"I haven't been kind to you, but you haven't been kind to me," he starts. 

She nods vigorously in agreement, paling slightly with the movement.

"But you let me stay here," he concedes.

"And you fixed my shoulder," she says, spinning around and tugging her shirt up to show her back. His lips pull back from his teeth in a grimace as he looks over the scabbed, deeply bruised wound. She spins back around. "So let's just... " 

"Start over?," he suggests.

"Yes. Yes, let's. We're making poor Kwang Soo constipated by disliking each other, anyway."

"All right." He nods firmly, telling himself to set his legitimate gripes out of mind. For Kwang Soo, who seems so attached to Charity and the apartment. For himself, and his convenient crash pad with his friend near by. For sticking it to all the other members, who apparently rely on the same crash pad from time to time. 

"Excellent!" Charity claps her hands together and hiccups, spins on her heel, and leaves the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

Jong Kook looks down at his phone and his eyes bulge out in surprise. He quic