Warning: Implied violence, mentions of blood. No actual scenes showing violence though. Not proofread.

“Okay, we are going to have to set some rules.”

“What for?”

Hyukjae narrows his eyes. “Obviously, if we’re going to be sharing this apartment, we have to go over the things that should and should not be done around here. And also, the cleaning schedule for the shared spaces. You take care of your own room whenever the hell you want, and I take care of mine. But the living room, kitchen, dining, and the bathroom are going to be used by the both of us, so it’s only fair that we share the household chores.”

“Oh,” Donghae nods in understanding and smiles. “Okay. Well, I have four part-time jobs, so I can’t do much on afternoons and evenings, but I’m free everyday on mornings, and every Sunday so—”

“Wait, what the ?” Hyukjae gapes at him. “You work four part-time jobs?”

“Yes?” the brunet tilts his head.

“The are you,” Hyukjae huffs. “How the hell do you even study at that rate?”

Donghae’s smile dims a little as he turns his gaze downwards, suddenly finding an empty space on the dining table interesting. “Well… about that. I – uh, I dropped out of university.”

“Oh,” Hyukjae utters, unsure what he’s supposed to say. He’s pretty sure it isn’t any of his business, but Donghae seems to have nothing to say about it either, so Hyukjae finds himself asking, “Why?”

“Um,” the brunet bites his lower lip before answering. “It’s quite a long story. But to sum it up, I simply can’t afford it. Not at the moment at least. I’m saving up though, so I can continue studying again in the future. Hopefully,” he shrugs.

Ignoring the dissatisfaction brewing inside as he didn’t get full answers, Hyukjae hums and nods in understanding. “Alright. Anyway, I’m at university from Mondays to Fridays. On weekends, I’m free. Though my classes normally start at—”

“What do you study?” Donghae asks, his thin lips pulling to a smile as curiosity glitters in his eyes.

Hyukjae feels his lips twitch into a snarl. “I wasn’t done talking. Don’t interrupt me.”

“You interrupted me earlier,” Donghae pouts. “Anyway, how old are you? We seem to be around the same age.”

“We’re supposed to be discussing the rules here,” Hyukjae says through gritted teeth. “On Mondays—”

“Rules are boring.”

“I told you not to interrupt me!”

“It’s simple,” Donghae shrugs. “Basic rule of having roommates, we stay out of each other’s rooms unless there is an emergency—”

“We stay out of each other’s rooms at all times—”

“And I can clean and do the chores on mornings and if I end up not doing it, then you do it on your own free time,” Donghae hums in thought. “That’s about it, isn’t it?”

Hyukjae is now seriously considering if he should just kick Donghae out or strangle him. The latter sounds more appealing. “That’s not enough, we need to ing set the actual cleaning schedule—”

“So tell me about yourself,” the brunet chirps, oblivious to the imminent doom that Hyukjae is plotting at the moment. “I think if we’re going to live here together, it’d be good to get to know each other first, so that, you know, we won’t be strangers anymore.”

“Would you listen to me at least once?!”

“Only if you’d listen to me as well.”

They stare at each other, Donghae with his usual bright smile, and Hyukjae being…Hyukjae. Angry, as always. But the brunet does not flinch and continues smiling until the hotheaded male groans and leans back against his chair in defeat.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Hyukjae mutters profanities with all the colors of the rainbow before counting to ten.

This is going to take a while.

♦

In the end, they manage to set up the basic rules.

Because Hyukjae is a neat freak, he requires the both of them to clean up every day—him on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and Donghae for the remaining days. Sunday is the exception, one that Hyukjae is forced to accept because it’s Donghae’s only rest day. The latter tells him that he doesn’t even need to clean every day so they can use the opportunity to do anything they want on Sundays, but Hyukjae knows himself well. He’s certain that if he sees anything dirty, messy, or out of order, he’s going to take care of it. So it’s basically four days for himself and three days for Donghae. To be fair, the latter offers to cook breakfast, the only meal they could actually share because most of the time, they won’t be home for lunch or dinner. It leads the brunet to talk about how he wants to start eating during the mornings again, and eat less for dinner because he’s losing the abs he worked so hard for and is getting fat layers instead. Hyukjae wants to laugh at his misfortune—because unlike the brunet, he still has abs, yes—but he doesn’t, because it would make it seem like he’s being too comfortable.

He’s got trust issues like that.

They go back to discussing rules. Most of the time they argue about it, because Donghae would never ing agree about anything (“You are not to enter my room at any time.” “But Hyukjae-ssi, what if the kitchen is on fire?” “If you ing set the kitchen on fire then you may as well ing leave and find a new place.” “But I can’t leave you here to burn to death! At least let me enter your room to warn you so that you can also safely evacuate!”). After thorough explanations and compromising, they eventually agree that yes, they may enter each other’s rooms, but only in dire circumstances such as the fire example Donghae had provided. They also agree that visitors are allowed as long as they inform each other beforehand (no surprise visits allowed, even though Donghae says there’s no such thing for him because no one would visit him anyway. Hyukjae doesn’t know how to comment on that, and so he doesn’t).

Although he isn’t keen on talking about it, Hyukjae knows it’s necessary to talk about…well, nightly activities. He’s had enough from Siwon and Kyuhyun’s surprise rendezvous every other night or so, and has to make sure his new roommate would not pull the same as his previous one did.

“So, uh,” Hyukjae utters awkwardly. “You’re not seeing anyone, are you?”

Donghae surprisingly blushes at that before cupping his cheeks and avoiding Hyukjae’s gaze. “Oh dear. Hyukjae-ssi, I didn’t think you’d see me that way.”

He chokes on air, pretty much.

After cursing and yelling and explaining what he meant, only to fail in saving his dignity as his face is tomato red the whole time, Hyukjae could only thump his forehead against the table, beyond exasperated at the turn of events.

But Donghae only giggles at him and seriously tells him that, “No, I’m not seeing anyone and even if I were, I would be considerate to you. I’d try to keep it down.”

As if that was enough reassurance.

“Though there is one important thing you might want to know,” Donghae utters after five seconds of Hyukjae being unresponsive, forehead still attached to the table in his pathetic misery. “I don’t know if Siwon told you, but I’m gay.”

Hyukjae finally brings his head up and stares at Donghae with an unreadable look on his face.

“Does that bother you?” Donghae bites his lip.

“Siwon’s gay too, isn’t he?” Hyukjae shrugs.

“He’s taken though. I’m not.”

“Why? Are you planning on seducing me?” Hyukjae deadpans.

“I don’t really do that,” Donghae reassures with a smile. “Even if I did, I don’t know if it would work on you.”

Hyukjae raises a brow. “You think I’m straight?”

“Are you not?”

He pauses for a moment, knowing that it’s something that his roommate should probably know, and yet feeling uncomfortable because he’s revealing his uality to someone he just met. Then again, Donghae is gay too, so he supposes it should be safe to tell. “Yeah. I’m not.”

“Well, you’re not planning to seduce me now are you?” Donghae grins.

Hyukjae gives him a scowl. “You wish.”

Or so he says. Because after learning that Donghae is a single gay person, just like him, his mind automatically takes off the ‘off-limits’ label he has mentally slapped on the brunet’s forehead. He finally allows himself to really look at Donghae, and not just the space above the latter’s head or below his earlobe. And , it’s been on the back of his mind since the short brunet arrived but Hyukjae can finally admit it without feeling like a creep.

Donghae is ing gorgeous.

And he has to try very hard not to make that thought obvious on his face.

“Well, now that that’s been established,” Donghae claps his hands. “If there are no more rules, I’d like us to proceed to the getting-to-know-each-other section please.”

“Is this necessary?” Hyukjae mutters.

“Of course,” the brunet says with conviction. “We just revealed to each other that we’re both single gay men and that we have zero plans of seducing each other. That was necessary, wasn’t it? It’s vital information about the both of us that allows us to live comfortably together without worrying about…things. And so, we need to learn more about each other so that we can co-exist in peace,” he beams.

“Fine,” Hyukjae rolls his eyes. “What do you want to know?”

“Age? I’m twenty-two. Should I call you hyung? Or do you prefer me calling you Hyukjae-ssi? Are nicknames okay? Can we speak informally? Wait, you already speak informally, even if you don’t know if I’m older or younger than you,” Donghae narrows his eyes. “Rude.”

“We’re the same age so shut the up,” Hyukjae snarls. “I was born in April.”

“Oh. My birthday’s on October,” Donghae pouts. “You’re a few months older than me then. Boo.”

“Then I can speak as informally as I want, thank you very much.”

“Fine,” the brunet wrinkles his nose. “But I can speak infor