It was a clear, starry night. The moon was almost full, shining into the room where a boy was sleeping peacefully, mind completely out of the waking world. The clock was already a good couple of hours past midnight, most of the city asleep, and then the sound started. A mix between a growl and a hiss sounded through the night and shattered the silence, and, in the process, it shattered Wonsik’s world of dreams also when the loud meowing continued. Why did the cat that never made a single sound, unless Nuisance or food were involved, suddenly feel like singing a capella karaoke so horribly out of tune?

“Shut up, Leo.” The cat just turned around and glared, like he usually did when addressed. After he was sure Wonsik understood that no one told him to shut up, he turned his attention back to staring at something down in the apartment complex’s courtyard. The meowing became low hissing, and Wonsik tuned it out and fell back asleep.

This is my territory now. The pest needs to leave. Leo plotted a way to get rid of the enemy that was sleeping in his courtyard.

—

“Dinner time!” Wonsik called to his pets as he made his way from the kitchen, food in hand and ready to feed his animal friends. Well, he hoped they considered him a friend and not just a slave. A week of living together made the three fall into a routine when it came to meal times, and every night, at nine, they would watch TV together. It was the only time Wonsik’s turtle and cat seemed to get along.

Walking to N’s tank, he noticed that it was empty, which was starting to become a normal occurrence. He had no idea how the turtle managed to get out, but somehow he did. At least, he hadn’t accidentally gone through a round of laundry yet, which was good considering he would probably die of soap poisoning; also, Wonsik was convinced the washing machine in the basement was a monster. He could hear the rumbling all the way to his apartment when it was on, and he couldn’t even count all the socks that it had eaten on both hands, so he could only imagine what would happen to his dear N. Wonsik was getting attached to the little guy.

The mission at hand was to find his pets. Leo would usually come strutting from wherever he was once his food bowl was set down on the floor, but this time he didn’t. Thinking of where his pets could possibly be, since they weren’t in front of the TV or anywhere else in his living room, he realized that they might be where Leo had been sitting all day (and night), in the sill of Wonsik’s bedroom window.

Wonsik was right: side by side, staring down into the courtyard were Leo and N, on one of Wonsik’s less expensive sweaters, luckily. Earlier, he hadn’t really cared about the cat’s weird behaviour, since he was already a pretty strange animal, but now he was curious.

Peering through the glass and down a couple of stories, his eyes fell on something running around on only a small area of the open space, as it seemed to be tied to one of the light poles down there. It was a dog, and Wonsik understood that Leo had, all this time, been glaring daggers down at the arch enemy of his species, according to cartoons, and wasn’t just sitting there staring out the window like a teenager who’d hit its emo phase. 

While picking up N to bring him back to his tank, Wonsik lightly petted Leo’s head, muttering that dinner was ready before heading out of his room. He wasn’t surprised when the feline didn’t follow, knowing he would eat sooner or later once the hunger became too strong to ignore. He gave the turtle its food once he was back in his habitat, praying that once nightfall hit his cat would sleep instead of meow at the dog, and that the dog would stay quiet as well.

—

“I JUST HAD TO ING JINX IT!”

The duet of meowing, hissing, barking and howling continued throughout the night, and Wonsik barely slept at all.

—

Mid-morning routine, there was a knock on the door of Wonsik’s apartment. Toothbrush in his mouth, turtle in one hand (he had been taking a shower in the bathroom sink), clad only in boxers and the shirt he had worn while spending the night rolling in bed, Wonsik opened his door, ready to kill Jaehwan. He would have, too, if it weren’t for the fact that on the other side of the door was no Jaehwan, but a stranger. A handsome one at that, and it took him the better half of a minute just staring, processing, and thinking of what he had been doing before opening the door, before he realized the state of dress he was in, and  there goes a good first impression.

“…Hi.” He could hear Jaehwan’s judging voice all the way from the future. Once his best friend pried the details of this encounter out of him, about the hot guy who just appeared out of nowhere and landed on his doorstep, Wonsik’s lame greeting would surely be made fun of. The stranger scanned Wonsik’s entire frame like a cyborg would to identify an object, and Wonsik could only stand still and let himself be eyed because there was no way in hell he would slam the door in that good-looking face.

“Good morning, I’m sorry I didn’t know you were… busy.” The stranger gave a smile, and the grudge of being interrupted during his morning routine that he would hold against anyone else disappeared completely.

He has dimples asdfghjkl—

N made an odd little noise, thankfully shaking Wonsik out of his thoughts.  

“Wouldn’t call myself busy, I’m still on summer break.” Somehow, he managed to talk around his toothbrush, but he still ended up sounding stupid, because he was pretty sure that by “busy” the stranger didn’t mean average-weekday sort of busy.

“Nice, me too! I still have to work but at least I don’t have to study as well.” The other male seemed to want to keep the conversation going. Not that Wonsik minded, but the minty toothpaste was kind of starting to burn in his mouth. “Oh, how rude of me, my name’s Hongbin. I moved here just a couple of days ago, and I thought I’d go greet my neighbors.”

“I just moved here myself a couple of weeks ago, and I still haven’t gotten around to doing that.” The comment made Hongbin give a small laugh, and dear mother of God, Wonsik wanted to hear that wonderful melody over and over again. Well , I’ve been under a dry spell for too long. “I’m Wonsik, by the way.”

“Well, it was nice meeting you! I thought there would only be old people and loners living here, but I see you’re closer to my age—and you’ve got a little friend.” Hongbin smiled down at N, who clicked at him in response. “I’ll see you around, Wonsik!”

“Bye.” Future Jaehwan judged Wonsik hard again, and present Wonsik judged himself. Why was he so lame? It sounded like even the turtle was laughing at him, with that condescending noise he kept making. Once Hongbin was out of the doorway, Wonsik shut the door and breathed a sigh of relief, put Nuisance down on the floor, and ran to the bathroom because the toothpaste was really starting to burn.

—

Wonsik couldn’t believe himself. He had unlocked a new level of stupidity, and it would take centuries before anyone reached the next level up. He knew humanity could do it, as more and more people seemed to fall into the IQ-less abyss of life, but right here and now he held the record.

After the rather embarrassing (for Wonsik’s part) meeting that one morning, Wonsik kept bumping into Hongbin literally everywhere. Not that Wonsik was very much against this (he quite enjoyed being in the presence of someone as ethereal as his neighbor), but the other male was just so jaw-droppingly handsome, which contributed to why Wonsik became nervous around him and stumbled over his words. In fact, it was so bad that he ended up saying the other’s name wrong every single time they met.

The first time he saw him again was when he had to get groceries:

“Hey, Wonsik!”

“What’s up, Bonghin?”

“…my name’s Hongbin.”

“Ice cream is melting, got to run back home, bye!”

Another time was when he was doing laundry:

“Oh hey Mowgli, you got laundry too?”

“It’s Hongbin, remember?”

“Oh god I just watched the Jungle Book I’m sorry thE WASHING MACHINE IS SO LOUD I’LL WAIT FOR MY LAUNDRY UPSTAIRS, SEE YA!”

Thinking back to the various situations where he thought he had had smooth comebacks for his name slipup, he was starting to realize he had been very wrong.

Also, Hongbin would talk an awful lot about this Ken guy. Wonsik denied he was jealous when he talked about it to Leo and N, but the animals just gave him a look, which would shut their owner up instead of giving him a green light to continue his ‘I do not have a crush on Lee Hongbin and I do not feel jealousy towards UFO’ (“It means unidentified, foreign object, guys,” he explained, but he wasn’t sure if the pets cared) speech.

Wonsik had a feeling N and Leo was starting to form an alliance against him, and he was slightly worried that this apartment might not be in his control any longer. Most of his worries were washed away when he saw the cat push the turtle over onto its back, and knew they weren’t on the same team, but he still hoped Leo wouldn’t kill Wonsik in his sleep and become the ultimate master of their currently shared home.

—

Even though he’d rather be sleeping, Wonsik sat in his living room, looking down the entryway to the apartment building. He had hopes that if Hongbin really had a boyfriend named Ken, he would catch a glimpse of the UFO doing the walk of shame at some point. He heard Leo hissing down at the dog in the courtyard from the neighboring room, and Wonsik took a peek behind himself to see Nuisance still sleeping peacefully in his tank.

Wonsik and Leo bonded that night, in a strange way.

—

During his morning jog, Wonsik would clear out his thoughts. The time he spent running was the only time he could just shut out everything. Most people would do it in the shower or before going to sleep, but Wonsik had to focus on not getting shampoo in his eye and he would always fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

This morning was different though, and he didn’t have much time to fight his brain over the topic Lee Hongbin, because the subject of the mental conversation suddenly popped up next to Wonsik. He was also jogging, and instead of looking sweaty and gross, he looked sweaty and yummy. Ok, now Wonsik was being gross.

Anyways, Wonsik almost tripped and fell face first onto the pavement, but he managed to save himself and regain his balance rather quickly. He and N had been practicing on being more graceful, and it looked like all the hard work was paying off. Plus points to Wonsik for not looking like a complete fool in front of the main star of his wet dreams.

“Good morning, Wonsik!” that oh so beautiful voice sang the loveliest tune Wonsik had ever heard, and he really needed to stop being such a sap.

“Mornin’, Mango.” , he did it again.

“My name’s Hongbin.” He expected Hongbin to be mad, but he looked kind of humored.

“Yeah I know I was just thinking of the mango smoothie I have in my fridge, and it’s time for my intervals so I’m gonna run ahead!”

Off to the sunrise disappeared a very red Wonsik, but he didn’t run too far before his feet got tangled in something, and he tripped over that something, and actually face planted, albeit gracefully, onto the concrete. Cursing everything he’d ever known, and his whole existence as well, because he was pretty sure the bad first impression he had given Hongbin was now set in stone with no way to be altered. Wonsik thought it couldn’t get any worse, so when he rolled over onto his back to meet his fate (a laughing Hongbin, most likely), he was far from pleasantly surprised when his face suddenly was attacked by something wet and slobbery.

“Oh my God, I am so sorry!” Wait, that was Hongbin’s voice—why wasn’t he laughing? Why was he apologizing? “Ken, get off!”

Suddenly, the wetness stopped being smeared all over Wonsik’s face, and he opened his eyes only to be met by the sight of a nose, that belonged to what seemed to be a very excited dog. He felt hands on him, and noticed it was Hongbin who was trying to help him up, and his body easily complied. First, he was sitting up, then he was standing, then he was walking, and then he was sitting down again, but this time on a bench.

“Wonsik, you’re bleeding, I’m so sorry!” Hongbin dragged out a tissue from his pocket, handing it to the bleeding male (It’s my heart that’s bleeding, Hongbin) who gratefully took it and started dabbing away at his lip, where Hongbin pointed out he had a cut. Hopefully it looks badass so I can tell people I got punched by a person, and not the asphalt. His thoughts flew to Jaehwan. “Ken cleaned up most of it, but still…”

“Ken?” Wonsik’s eyes scanned the entire area, like Hongbin had scanned him during their first encounter, but there was no tall, handsome foreigner anywhere near them, except for on the billboard in the distance with some random model on it, but that still wasn’t a Ken. There was something that caught Wonsik’s eyes though, and it was the thing he had seen those nights down in the courtyard. The thing that had kept him awake when he just wanted to sleep. The thing that had kept Leo on edge the last few days. It was a-

“He’s my dog.”

“Oh.”

Well, that’s quite the plot twist.

—

“So you nailed a date with H.H.H. (Hella Handsome Hongbin) after this Ken guy punched you in the face?” Jaehwan asked through the phone, sounding a little wary of Wonsik’s claim.

“Yeah, and he said I should drop by during his break so we could eat lunch together, as an apology for Ken being an .” That was partly true.

“Riiiight.” Jaehwan did not believe him. “You better invite me over soon, so I can meet Hongbin, and also you need to introduce me to your babies!” Wonsik choked on air.

“Jaehwan, are you really that stupid!? We’re both boys we can’t have babies—”A loud bark of laughter halted Wonsik mid-sentence.

“I was talking about your pets, you moron.”

“Oh.” He really needs to stop saying oh all the time.

“Yeah you really need to get rid of that dry spell-“

Wonsik hung up on his friend again, and went to fix dinner for Leo and N. The turtle gladly munched away on the pellets that were drizzled into his water, but once there was time to feed the cat, he ran away. He walked up to the bowl, was about to take a bite, but sniffed the air and loudly hissed at Wonsik before taking off. Aww man, Wonsik thought. I must still smell like dog.

Once TV time came around, Leo came out of hiding, jumped onto Wonsik’s lap (knocking N, who had been seated there previously, down onto the floor in the process), head-butted Wonsik’s cut lip, and ran off again, leaving a near to tears Wonsik behind. That’s what the stupid human would get for associating with the enemy.

Leo was starting to show who was really in power. 

—

So Hongbin showed up! I hope you guys like where I'm going with this, because I really enjoy writing it.

Aaaaand sorry chapter 3 might be updated in a few weeks (or maybe earlier) depending if I have time, but hopefully it won’t be too long because I've already started writing on it :-) my birthdays june 4th so its busy busy week for me cause i have a bunch of plans.

(thanks to my sis for proof reading this <333)