Cabin Paint
CABIN PAINT;; PG
a soft plot au where jonghyun is a drifter and jessica is lonely
He's got a scraggly beard and patches of roaming hair bristling beneath his nose when they first meet; at her doorstep in the midst of winter, and the plaid shirt on his back wears him more than he's wearing it.
"I'll clear the snow in your driveway if you let me sleep here for the night," he makes a deal and Jessica doesn't refuse like a sane person. Perhaps it's because living alone away from civilization has lead to her endless boredom or because her driveway really is too much for her to handle in the snowstorm, but she gives him the guest bedroom and a new stark white toothbrush for him wrapped in a clean towel.
"There's leftover soup in the kitchen if you're hungry." she doesn't even flinch when the disarrayed stranger smiles and untucks a gun from the top of his boot and places it on the bed.
When Jessica wakes up, she opens her curtains and sees a clear path outside her garage. There's breakfast waiting for her downstairs, eggs benedict and toast with kimchi on the side.
"A token of appreciation before I leave." he takes a seat across from her and Jessica tries hard not to look bewildered.
"Where are you going to exactly? Home?"
"Home," he snorts between bites of toast and Jessica can't help but notice the refined way he holds his fork, very much unlike a drifter, "I don't have one of those."
"Tell you what, how about you stay here for a bit and in return you do some free maintenance around my house? It is a bit old you know, and I do live alone."
"And why do you live here alone?"
"Because I want to," something inside Jessica feels uneasy when he smiles at this, bits of yolk unbecoming in his beard, "and if you stay here, the deal is I'm the only one allowed to ask questions."
"Fine," he shrugs, his sharp eyes still on her, the characteristic of being quiet not really fitting him but him keeping it all the same.
"Great, now finish your breakfast and then go fix the loose boards on my roof please. It's supposed to be below freezing tonight."
They live like this, live together in quiet harmony not really saying much, quietly avoiding each other but living together all the same. They eat three meals together, and Jonghyun says good night to Jessica every night before he reclusively disappears into his bedroom and then wakes up hours before she ever does, already tending to taking the trash out, shoveling the snow, and mending little mishaps before Jessica assigns them to him.
"You've fixed like everything," Jessica tells him one night from the couch and her unhappiness is apparent. Jonghyun never watches television with her, nor keeps her company after he finishes his tasks and he stands there with his toolbox awkwardly waiting for his job for the morning.
"I guess my time here is done, I'll leave in the morning then. Good night."
"Goodnight..." Jessica starts and then her eyes flicker towards him despite her better will, "wait. Come sit with me for a bit."
"Here?" he hesitates and then Jessica points next to her until he actually sits.
"Have you ever seen television before? From where you're from?"
"Yeah," he says slowly, then laughing a bit with some condescension. "Aren't you the foreigner between us though?"
"What do you mean?" Jessica crosses her arms, watching him closely now and she becomes amazed at the way his lashes flutter with each laugh.
"Your accent. It's dripped in strangeness." And he watches her back now, very intense, so intense that Jessica realizes this is the closest they've ever been since he's been here and his warm and frankly toasty breath doesn't sit well in the air between them. "Are you Japanese?"
"I was born in America," Jessica backs away, curling her toes up onto the sofa because she's suddenly cold and frigid again, "but I've practically lived here all my life so I don't know what accent you're talking about."
"Fair enough."
"Now back to the movie, stranger." They both sit back and Jonghyun resumes watching but he doesn't miss the way she says stranger in a biting tone nor the fact that the movie is playing but Jessica's focus hasn't removed an inch from the stem of his eyelashes.
"You're supposed to be watching the television, heartbreaker." he whispers, making sure to blink rapidly in her general direction.
Usually in the mornings Jessica wakes up and follows a routine: opening her curtains widely to check the driveway path, folding her comforter back and propping her stage pillows up, grabbing a towel and heading straight to the shower. The next morning, however was a little different with a new knock on her door followed by a slow and creaky open.
"You never told me to fix the hinges on your door," Jonghyun shields his face to the ground apparently afraid to see Jessica in bed, but she tells him to enter nonetheless.
"I didn't realize it needed to be fixed," she says and then realizes immediately what's different. Jonghyun lifts his face up to see Jessica safely covered by blankets but she sees the new him, shaven and fresh, looking miles different and years younger. There's a weird brightness to him, as if the beard and scruffy mustache hid all of that, and there's a boyish charm to his face when he sheepishly watches her as she climbs out of bed and grabs a silk robe, lamely tossing it over her her nightgown and walks towards him. "Wow," she simply replies, forwardly reaching up and grabbing his chin, unable to resist the smoothness of his reveal. He's gained some muscle since she first met him, and it reflects on the strength of his jaw, firm and unrivaled.
"I figured I'd shave for the road," he says while Jessica is still caught up in the brazen softness of his face.
"The news said the storm is coming tonight, so you're going to stay here." Jessica commands and Jonghyun doesn't say anything back so she figures this to be a yes.
The storm comes indeed and Jonghyun prepares them for it by cutting a few more pieces of wood from the backyard and sheltering all the windows with boards. Jessica sits on the couch after dinner, waiting for him to sit by her and watch television.
"Sit," she says when he hesitates again, and this time she moves closer to him first, being generous with her afghan and sharing it. "This movie is my favorite."
It's Fight Club, and Jonghyun tells her he's never seen it and his face grows pale when the screen goes dark and the electricity cuts off right before the ending.
"Now you'll never know who Tyler Durden really is," Jessica quips shivering as she gets up to grab a candle from the kitchen.
"Fuck."
"What?" Jessica says, quickly coming back to sit down, fumbling with the matches.
"I don't handle the dark well."
Jessica laughs, mostly at the ridiculousness of the statement before she realizes Jonghyun is being serious when she lights the candle and she can see the fear displayed in his face through the shadows.
"Come here," she says and when he doesn't budge she leans in, abruptly kissing him, her fingers remembering what it was like to touch his smooth face and the lack of scruff around his chaste lips. "I wonder what'd it'd have been like to kiss you behind that beard." she says pulling her mouth back, her hands still pressed up against him, her eyes still mesmerized by the endless worry of his shadow.
"Rough. Inhibited," he snickers and Jessica kisses him again without permission, her little knees knocking up into his lap, the afghan falling between their legs and forgotten. Jonghyun kisses back and he kisses good, like a gypsy who's traveled too much and experienced more than one is supposed to and his lips pucker with expertise, less curious than Jessica and more receptive to the idea of feeling something. By the time the kiss is over he's the one in control and he unravels himself from the depths of her mouth only to look past behind her at the candle, the only daunting light in the room. "I could grow it back if you'd like."
"Tell me you'll stay here. With me, for awhile." It's uncharacteristic for Jessica to beg, to want to beg, but Jonghyun has an arm around the back of the couch and his leg is tapping at the floor impatiently, driving something inside her to be different and irrational.
"You know nothing about me. It took you a week to learn my actual name," he reminds her something deep, "you don't even know if I'm a criminal."
"I believe you're capable of anything," the lights flicker back on and the movie resumes to roll the fade to black credits, "but I don't particularly care much about your past."
"Your eyes falter when you lie, you know." he smiles and Jessica reaches out to grab his hand, the calluses of his hard labor feeling distant compared to her gentle fingers.
"Does that mean you'll stay?"
Jonghyun doesn't give her an answer only giving her a solemn look and when the electricity cuts out again, shadows massing against the walls of her house, he leans close and tucks Jessica into his lap, nuzzling the hint of some unshaven bristle on his upper lips on the bareness of her neck. They stay like this for sometime and somehow Jessica thinks she'll never get any direct answer, at least not with him soon as his temporary weeks of drifting turn possibly into undefined months just like she might hope.
"How about I give you an answer in the morning?"
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=)