Pretty neighbor

The sun rays were beaming onto Seoul through the white clouds. Everything they came in contact with was bright except the human beings, who kept on frowning, because the light was hitting their faces. The sound of rustling leaves accompanied the soft wind.

Kim Taehyung was heading back to his apartment from his friend's place after they had spent almost all night playing games, hiding under the blankets.

He finally entered the apartment building and bent down lazily to take his skateboard into hand. A few seconds later he registred a slim female standing by the elevator. When he saw the two large suitcases next to her, a chain of thoughts swished through his mind. The opposite door, his previous neighbour moving out, empty apartment. Could she possibly be his new neighbor?

Taehyung walked over to the elevator, halting more than a meter behind the female. His eyes shifted their focus from her dark, shiny hair to the metal doors in front of the two. His heart skipped a beat. Her face was so small – how could those deer eyes, the nose and the lips fit possibly in? She smelled of an earthy sandalwood and sweet vanilla. 

The doors slid open. He expected her to get in first, but instead she faced him and gestured him to go first. Avoiding any unnecessary arguing, Taehyung went in first. But then he put his skateboard in the corner of the elevator. 

“Let me help you,” he said, pulling the corners of his lips up. 

“Ah, thank you,” the girl responded. Taehyung looked up to see her wide smile spreading on her face. ‘Man, she’s glowing,’ he thought. She then pressed the 6^th floor button. So she was indeed his new neighbour. He scooted closer to the girl so that he could press the "close" button. The doors closed.

“So I guess I’m going to live on the same floor as you,” the female said, when the elevator started moving up.

“Seems like that,” Taehyung chuckled rather to himself. “I’m Taehyung. And your name is?”

“Yoona. Nice to meet you, Taehyung.”

“Same here, Yoona.”

One of them reached out a hand for a handshake, but it was hard to tell, who initiated it, because the other one returned the action straight away. Her fingers were so cold. When the elevator reached their floor, Taehyung offered Yoona to take her luggage again. The girl could do nothing, but appreaciate his help. 

“Thank you very much again,” Yoona said, now standing in front of her new apartment.

“You're welcome,” Taehyung responsed.

There was a brief pause before Taehyung cleared his dry throat. “Well, I should return to my apartment now. See you around!” 

“Sure. See you next time, Taehyung.” Yoona replied. She was already holding the door knob, but her eyes weren’t able to leave the boy yet. Why was he wearing such a smug look? 

Taehyung made three baby steps backwards, his hand holding the keys inside the pocket of his jeans and then turned around. Knowing that she was still staring at him, Taehyung couldn't help himself but look over his shoulder to see her reaction. He bursted out into laughter, not able to hold himself back anymore, when he saw that puzzled expression of hers. But it didn’t take her long to come back to her senses and she eventually joined him in laughing. God knew what was so hilarious about that situation, but boy, his laugh was so infectious.

Three days after their first meeting, Yoona and Taehyung had crossed into each other’s paths again. Or more specifically, Yoona needed a favor from him. It was a matter of fact that she would ask her neighbours for a little help from time to time now that she had moved in and this boy just happened to be the first and only person she knew so far. But she sure was also aware not to become a bother to them. She didn’t need to become dependent on others.

It was a late Friday night and Yoona had just come home from the company after a long practice. She was in the middle of preparing dinner, when she found out she was missing soy sauce.

“I’m sure I bought it yesterday,” her furrowed eyes cautiously examined the content of a fridge one more time. Still, it was nowhere to be found. Yoona sighed as she took off the plastic gloves and left her apartment for a moment. 

At the meantime, Taehyung in the opposite room had also decided to stay in his apartment – the wind was raging outside and the streets were nothing but the swirling dust. He was lying casually on the sofa, catching up with latest episodes of One Piece when he suddenly heard a knocking sound on his door.

“Who’s that?” he shouted as he stopped the player on his laptop, assuming it was his bandmates as usual. But when a sound of the howling wind slammed the window behind him, he started doubting whether they wouldn’t rather stay at their places. His thoughts were interrupted, when he heard a female voice exclaiming outside the corridor.

“It’s Yoona, the new neighbour!”

A surprised “Oh,” came out from the boy as he immediately got up from the sofa and rushed towards the door. his lips, he shook his head to the side, casually fixing his hair. Taehyung then looked down on his body. There was obviously no point in changing his clothes, but his red and more importantly really short shorts caused him hesitate for a moment. “She might think I’m only wearing boxers…” he mubled under his breath.

But being a carefree and reckless person he was, Taehyung just swiftly shrugged it off. He pushed the door handle down and then, as in reflex to her own, Taehyung’s smile lit up. His eyes glanced over the female from head to toe, scanning her in the less than a second. Her hair was tied into a loose ponytail and she was wearing a black V-neck shirt along with grey shorts. With that skinny figure of hers, he could compare her to a vase, that was just how fragile she seemed to him in his eyes.

“Hello, Taehyung-sshi,” Yoona greeted.

“Hello, what do you need?” Taehyung stuffed his hands in his hood pockets.

“I wanted to ask you if you would mind me using your bottle of soy sauce,” Yoona said, her body swaying on her tiptoes without her realizing. She was quite in a hurry. She noticed how the boy’s eyes blinked open before he spoke, “I have run out of it this morning unfortunately… Sorry,” Taehyung scratched his hair.

“Ah, it's fine then. Sorry for bothering you!”

“If only I had my car here,” Yoona muttered as she looked out the window. No, she didn’t really intend to go out in such a windstorm just to buy a bottle of soy sauce. Instead, she took out her phone and dialed a number for a local chicken delivery service. It would have been a lie, if Yoona had said that she wasn’t embarrassed at all for ordering such a cheap (yet tasty) food, when her boyfriend was supposed to come by her place today to have a lunch with her. Until now, he had always brought her to fancy restaurants whether it was for breakfast, lunch or dinners. He hated junk food.

The box of a fried chicken arrived in less than thirty minutes and the last thing Yoona was waiting for now, was her boyfriend. In the meantime, instead of being stuck in boredom, Yoona dropped herself on the sofa and the TV screen in front of her to find a new romantic comedy airing on KBS2. A storyline of the drama wasn’t anything special as she found out later on, but that didn’t matter. Rather than enjoying it as a normal viewer, Yoona studied the actors’ facial expressions and their voice tones carefully. Her eyes were glued to the screen and her ears were strained tightly. Anyone from afar would have said that she was totally immersed into the drama, but no, that girl was actually learning about acting.  

Yoona’s worries about her boyfriend had arised, when it was already ten minutes past their agreed time. He was supposed to be here by now. What troubled her though the most, was that he had always been on time. He would have told her, if he couldn’t make it, wouldn’t he? Just when some thoughts started lingering inside her head, her phone made a beep sound. Immediately, Yoona checked her message inbox.

From: Love <3

The weather has gotten worse here so I have to stay on the set til midnight … Sorry for ruining your plans. I’ll definitely try your food next time. - Hyuk.

Yoona sighed, mostly in disappointment. After texting back to her boyfriend along the lines, “Don’t worry about me, more importantly, don’t you dare make me angry by catching a cold!” Yoona’s attention shifted to a box of thirty pieces of fried chicken wings. Sure, she was a glutton, but eating all of that would not make her happy either.

Turning the TV off, Yoona headed out of her apartment again.

“Taehyung-sshi?” Yoona knocks on the door. No response. She brings her face closer to see if she could perhaps hear the approaching steps. Only now did Yoona realize there could be nothing heard but a silence in the entire building. It wasn’t until a familiar, bright sound echoed all over the corridor. Turning to the side, Yoona saw the elevator doors opening.

Her jaw gaped open the moment she recognized a person that was making his way out of the elevator. It was Taehyung – Taehyung soaked from head to toe. His tousled, damp hair was covering his brown eyes, raindrops dripping down on his face from the hair ends.

“Oh my god, Taehyung-sshi!”

Yoona’s feet started impulsively walking toward his direction, but stopped on the way once she assumed he would rather return to his apartment quickly. His body was shivering from cold, wordlessly begging for dry clothes and a cup of warm tea.

Author's note: So here's the first chapter! I was hesitating to post this, since it's so short, but oh well, I guess I got too excited lol. I promise that the next chapter will be longer. Also, I hope I will get my poster soon so I can post it here :) Tell me what you think so far, guys!