Between the Walls (5)
Title: Between the Walls (5)
Rating: PG-13/15
Pairing: Yongguk/Himchan, banghim
Summary: Himchan's had a long string of bad luck, and Yongguk's over worked and just looking for a good time. They become fast friends, but each night after work they go home to their apartments and unknowingly wage war against each other. Between the walls of their apartments, all bets are off.
Word-count: 3k+
enjoy~
Himchan raced to make it on time. He didn’t want to flat out run, but his clock was approaching eight and he didn’t want to keep Yongguk waiting for too long. If only his mother hadn’t wanted help cleaning out their storage closet, then he wouldn’t be hurrying down the street. Nor would he have wasted money on taking a taxi. He really needed a new car, but since his car had broke down five months ago and decided to stop being drivable, Himchan was still saving up for a new one. The cost to repair it was ridiculous and borderline thievery.
Thus public transport had become his new friend, and it may have been a reason for some other issues to fall into place over those five months. Himchan was idealistic about the cars he wanted to own. In another couple months, he would have enough money to afford the one he’d been eyeing. It couldn’t come soon enough; he was tired of taking the bus everyday. After a while it became monotonous and Himchan missed driving.
He turned the last corner and saw Yongguk leaning up against the back of the building where the club’s entrance was. Himchan hadn’t been to this particular club before, but he’d walked past it many a time on while shopping on the same street. He patted his hair down and tried to not look too flustered at being a few minutes over their meeting time.
Yongguk’s calm expression showed he didn’t seem to be bothered that Himchan was late when he walked up to him.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” Yongguk answered. He looked good out of his dress clothes for work. Himchan felt like he was stepping back in time for a moment. There was something so familiar about this that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
“I didn’t end up being that late - sorry about that. Family stuff you know.”
Yongguk’s eyes were dark; “You’re late by six minutes. Don’t do it next time.”
Himchan blinked, “Hey I texted you -”
Yongguk’s stance relaxed, “Nah I’m just messing with you. I don’t mind waiting, but we should get inside before the performance starts. I actually have a table saved up top by the bar. It pays off being friends with the performer.”
“You scared me there for a second,” - Himchan pushed Yongguk’s shoulder - “how are we going to get in? There’s a pretty big line here.”
Yongguk waved two fingers and Himchan guessed that meant don’t worry, I’ve got this. He followed Yongguk as he made his way to the front of the line, showed the bouncer a pass, and pointed at Himchan. The bouncer took a quick glance at Himchan and then looked back at Yongguk. Himchan straightened his back. He was every bit party material.
Okay he might look a bit foolish in the pair of newly bought jeans he purchased the other night, and the shirt he had on was a bit oversized. Plus, it probably wasn’t normal for someone his age to be wearing a backwards cap. Himchan knew he was stuck in the past in some aspects, but it was better than him tucking his shirt into his pants.
Yongguk grabbed him by his shoulder and steered him down the steps and into the club. Happily, Himchan let Yongguk pull him down the stairs, looking around at the graffiti artwork on the walls and the flashing lights dancing across the large room. There were two levels to the underground club, and since Yongguk had said he had a table saved up top, Himchan looked up to see a built up second floor.
“We’re going up there?” Himchan said, trying to keep his voice heard above the sound of the speakers playing preshow music.
“Yeah it’s VIP seating.” Yongguk motioned for Himchan to follow him up a second set of steel stairs off to the side of the main floor. The lower level already had a crowd gathering by the bar and around the stage where some workers were setting up equipment.
Himchan was amazed, but now he really was going to have to pay Yongguk back for somehow getting him out of the entrance fee. “Really?” he asked.
“No I’m just friends with some of the club workers.”
“Who are you really? Seriously? What are you going to tell me next that you were almost in a boy band when you were younger?”
“Well actually now that you bring that up I was.”
Himchan stopped on his step, “Seriously?”
Yongguk turned his head back and had one hand on the railing, “No I’m messing with you again.”
“Stop messing with my head Yongguk! I expect to hear your actual real life story now since you keep trying to confuse me,” Himchan said, annoyed that this was the third time Yongguk had been playing around with him. He wasn’t making any leeway into not looking like an idiot. “Tell me your cool secrets.”
They reached the top of the stairs and Yongguk led him to a metal table near the side railing, which had a great view of the stage. Yongguk must have friends in high places.
“It’s really not that exciting as you probably think it is,” said Yongguk as he was sitting down. “We work for the same company that must tell you something about me.”
Himchan wasn’t enthused with Yongguk side stepping away from his question, of all times for Yongguk to shy away. Daehyun had somehow managed to get him to spill some very personal information, and Himchan was determined to get Yongguk to spill that exact same information to him. Then he could act surprised and tell Yongguk that he understood because he also liked guys, and sink his teeth into him. Himchan only hoped that his stare wasn’t too obvious.
“Before you worked for the company. You haven’t told me anything about your life as a nobody rapper.” Oh that came out wrong.
Yongguk raised an eyebrow, “Nobody rapper?”
Drink, Himchan need a drink. “You know…I mean you wouldn’t be working for a music distribution company if you were still doing music. I mean I wouldn’t be, not that my job sucks or anything.”
“I went to college, did music on the side, went into business. Worked at some clubs and that is how I met some of the people I was telling you about last Tuesday. It was just something I enjoyed, and I think I broke quite a few hearts over it.” Yongguk mumbled his last sentence, but Himchan caught every word.
“Broke a few hearts, you must have been pretty popular with the students huh? What did they go for - the bad boy persona or the tortured artist? I myself preferred the tortured artist in my youth.”
“You look more like a bad boy type of guy to me,” Yongguk said, grinning wildly.
Himchan froze. “Am I that obvious?” The smell of cigarette smoke catching in his lungs made his eyes water and heart rate increase.
Yongguk set his hands down on the table, “Nah, It’s just you, everything about you. You have an air of confidence around you in the way you carry yourself and the way you try to…show yourself.” He paused and added, “It’s fun.”
Himchan didn’t know how he should respond. “That’s the most descriptive and poetic thing someone has ever said about me.” He was sure that Yongguk knew he was gay now. All tact he had left was gone. Even though Yongguk hadn’t outright said, “you’re gay,” it was close enough. He wanted to pull the ‘I heard you went out with men in the past how about going out with me’ card, but it was too soon.
“I’m sure it’s not.” Yongguk smiled mysteriously, the corner of his lips turning up just enough to be considered a smile. “The show’s going to start soon, I’ll go get us a couple of beers.” His chair scratched against the metal floor as he stood up and headed over to the bar, leaving Himchan confused and contemplative.
He wrapped his fingers around the condom packet in his pants pocket. Somehow it had gotten to his wallet and Himchan had only noticed this when he took it out to pay the taxi driver. It was one of the condoms he’d gotten from his neighbor, the joke condoms that he’d never fit into even in his wildest dreams. He knew it was stupid, but touching it gave him some strength. If he could deal with his jerk neighbor, then he could get through tonight.
He was Kim Himchan, and although he was out of the dating scene for a few months now, he was a desirable man. He was confident, sexy, funny, and a good talker. Taking a deep breath, Himchan relaxed. By the end of the night, Bang Yongguk would be following him out of this club.
Staring out past the stage, Himchan cleared his throat and wondered just how he was going to get that to happen.
As it turned out, Yongguk’s performing friend was actually really good. Himchan was sold, but then again, it didn’t take much too much to impress him after ingesting alcohol. In addition, he wasn’t sure he heard the music since he spent most of the time with his eyes glued on Yongguk’s face. Subtlety was never his strong point.
The club DJ went back to work after the performance set was finished, and Himchan went back to trying to think up a way to seduce Yongguk.
“Yongguk,” Himchan said, “that was awesome. Like seriously awesome. How do you know all these guys?”
Yongguk set his empty beer on the table, “Old friends. We keep in touch, usually meet up once a month if we’re not busy.”
“You’re friends with people who could be famous damn that’s pretty exciting.”
“Some of them are working now behind the scenes writing music.” Yongguk rubbed his chin, “Yeah, you’re right it’s pretty cool.”
Himchan fidgeted and sloshed the last fourth of beer around in his glass. “Hey, I’ll treat you to that drink now.”
They did have a mutual agreement that they’d each buy each other a drink when they went out. So far Yongguk had bought the first drink, and Himchan decided he needed as much liquid courage as he could get.
Yongguk waved him off with one hand, “You don’t have to.”
“No I want to, I said I would. Plus you already treated me. Let me return the favor because you’re making me look like a bad date,” Himchan teased.
Yongguk slid his glass to the center of the table, “Yes, you’re such a horrible cheap date. I hope you put out.”
“Well, if you’re lucky,” Himchan said, feeling like he was going cross eyed from the good natured flirting that he hadn’t expected to be so easy.
Himchan pulled his wallet out of his pocket and set it on the table. To his extreme mortification, the condom that was also in his pocket had stuck to the leather and came out for the ride. In bright orange packaging, the condom wrapper stared Himchan in the eye and suddenly Himchan learned the meaning behind wanting a hole to open underneath him so he could just die.
Himchan slammed his hand on top of his wallet and hoped that Yongguk didn’t see it, laughing nervously to fill up the empty air. He started to stand up, but Yongguk’s voice jolted him straight out of his seat.
“Do you wear those?” Yongguk asked, and Himchan knew he was talking about the condom, damn.
“No, I wish, got it from my neighbor as a prank. I don’t know how it ended up in my pocket,” Himchan said, cheeks starting to burn.
Yongguk laughed, “I got some of that brand as a gag gift once. Don’t worry I can’t use them either. It’s funny though.”
“What’s funny?” Himchan huffed under his breath, “That we both have small dicks?” He should take back those feelings about Yongguk, anyone who insulted his dick should be held accountable.
“No, I gave mine away to my neighbor as a prank too,” said Yongguk, grinning widely while Himchan removed the condom from where the plastic wrapper had stuck on and crumpled it in his palm.
“Why’d you do that? Was your neighbor being an asshole so you took him down a peg?”
“No, we’re sort of having a feud my neighbor and I. It’s hilarious the poor guy must be so vanilla.”
Himchan’s breath stopped and his heart raced; something was not right here. Was Yongguk also fighting with his neighbor like he was fighting with his?
He sat back down, “What do you mean by feud?” Himchan lowered his brows, facial muscles tensing up in anticipation for whatever Yongguk said next. Everything he was experiencing felt so surreal as if he was missing some part of the bigger picture.
“He’s, well I’m sure it’s a he, left me some weird shit under my door. I mean who even does that? They could have just left me a note or knocked on my door. So I left him some stuff at his as payback.”
Himchan was sure his heart was going to fly out of his chest. He was clenching his hand into a fist so hard under the table that his fingernails were approaching breaking his skin. Clearing his throat, Himchan refrained from shouting or doing something he’d regret. “Did this neighbor, leave you STD prevention papers?”
Yongguk frowned, “Yeah…hey do you know the guy?”
“And did you happen to send a pair of pink handcuffs along with the condoms?” Himchan could feel that his blood pressure must be rising with each word he spoke.
“Yeah…” Yongguk said, drawing out his words. “How do you know this?”
Himchan slammed the condom in his hand down on the table again. “I’m your fucking neighbor.” In a state of blind rage, Himchan felt like he had tensed every muscle in his body to hold back from throttling Yongguk in his chair.
Everything he had ever wanted had come crashing down on him. He wanted a nice car, his broke down. He wanted to go on vacation with his boyfriend; they broke up the next day. He finally meets someone he would like to try and have a relationship; they turn out to be his mortal enemy. Maybe not mortal enemy, but close enough to enemy status.
Of course Yongguk didn’t have anything to add.
“Oh,” Yongguk said slowly, “you’re the one living in apartment 508?” At the very least, his jaw was hanging open.
“Yes I live in 508.” Himchan paused to stop himself from ranting obscenities at the world, “What the actual hell Yongguk, I thought you were a nice guy. I thought we had something here. Something nice. Do you know how much hatred I’ve had inside me since you moved into our building?” Himchan’s face was burning hot and he wasn’t even sure what the hell he was saying he was so beyond controlling himself. He started laughing, “I can’t believe this. I just can’t believe this. You’re an asshole you know that?”
“What did I do?” Yongguk fired back, “I had to put up with just as much from your end. Your lame ass old people music and moving shit around coming through the walls. Do you think I enjoyed listening to that either?”
“That’s better than being kept up until ungodly hours listening to you have sex and all those parties. How do you even do your job?” Himchan was so close to walking away and leaving, but he still had some words to get off his chest. “And that pornography you gave me, you’re sick.”
Yongguk stood up, “You’re immature yourself, think about what you did to me if this is what your problem is.” His facial expression unnerved Himchan, mouth tight and brows drawn down low. “I’m leaving.”
Himchan shook his fist at Yongguk’s retreating figure. He was immature? Yongguk was also immature for running away and fighting back. Not to mention Himchan was still pissed, but it didn’t take much to get him to riled up. His hot temper often got away on him.
He shoved his hands into his pockets, stuffing his wallet and condom into his tight pants and headed out of the club as quick as he could. If anything could calm his bubbling rage, it was fresh air.
When he finally made his way out of the club, he had to dodge around drunken people loitering around the entrance. Himchan was so worked up started walking down the street he realized he lived too far away to walk home. He squeezed his wallet and phone out of his pants to call a taxi.
The condom fell out of his pocket and landed on the street.
“Oh of course,” Himchan said to himself, bending down to pick it up. “I hate you,” he told the condom. “I hate you so damn much.”
Himchan crushed the condom packet in his fist like he imagined crushing Yongguk’s soul. There were so many conflicting feelings clashing in his head that made him mad and confused. He had come to really like Yongguk. Himchan liked his goofy smile, his lean almost stick like appearance, and his knowledge of all things music. However, he was starting to see that besides music they didn’t have much else in common.
Yongguk wasn’t a stranger, but Himchan didn’t know as much about him as he thought he did. Things were difficult when the pedestal you built for someone came crashing down.
The only thing to do was drown his sorrows out in tequila in his apartment right next to Yongguk the asshole.
Yongguk leaned out his apartment’s old cheap windows, staring out at the night sky. There were barely any stars visible - too much city lights and smog - in the sky, but he could see the moon shining bright. He rubbed at his tired eyes and he casted a sideways glance at the apartment to his left. Apartment 508’s lights were still on; it was three in the morning.
Exhaling, Yongguk rocked back, pulling himself away from the window. Himchan was still awake, much like he was right now. Yongguk had tried to sleep, but the restless excitement from earlier had kept his mind racing with thoughts of what he could have said and we he could still do. His common sense was to apologize for provoking Himchan even though he hadn’t known it was he. However, the devil on his shoulder told him to avoid Himchan for the rest of his life. He owned him nothing.
What he didn’t expect was for it to bother him so much. Yongguk had gone through the stage of initial anger, disappointment, and was making his way through denial. He closed his window and locked it. For a brief second, he hesitated as he was pulling the shades shut. Stupid moon, he thought, stop shining so bright.
When he finally found himself drifting off to sleep, the moon had begun to fade away with the emergence of the dawn.
“You’re extra quiet today hyung, but it is Monday” Daehyun said, setting Yongguk’s stapler down on his desk. “Thanks for letting me borrow that.”
His morning was going slow, work was slow, business was slow, Yongguk was feeling slow. Mondays were usually busy with the work to get started or finished from the weekend. They’d somehow completed their huge work order last week, and Yongguk had no big project deadlines glaring at him in the face.
Yongguk nudged the stapler over to the corner of his desk, “No problem.”
“Do you want to come out to lunch with some of us across the street? I think Himchan hyung’s coming if you need a buddy.” Daehyun smiled, oblivious to the awkward situation between Yongguk and Himchan.
“I’m good,” - Yongguk’s leg jiggled - “I brought ramen today.”
“Just ramen? Hyung you should come get lunch with us instead.”
“I don’t really feel like it…”
Daehyun shook his head, “Hyung, if I left you alone every time you said you didn’t feel like it, you’d be working way too much.”
“Someone’s got to get his done.” Yongguk swiveled to the side in his chair, “Did you turn in your summary yet?”
“Yes. And no seriously, I’m going to come and get you for our lunch break,” Daehyun said forcefully, “okay? I’ll be back later.” He pointed at Yongguk as he was walking away.
Yongguk pursed his lips and stared at his computer screen, the words and numbers appeared to swim together into a soup of symbols. He slammed his fingers down on the keyboard and watched the stream of unintelligible gibber sprung forth on the document he was typing up.
If he went with Daehyun to lunch, and if Himchan was there, this had the great potential for going horribly, horribly wrong.
Rating: PG-13/15
Pairing: Yongguk/Himchan, banghim
Summary: Himchan's had a long string of bad luck, and Yongguk's over worked and just looking for a good time. They become fast friends, but each night after work they go home to their apartments and unknowingly wage war against each other. Between the walls of their apartments, all bets are off.
Word-count: 3k+
enjoy~
Himchan raced to make it on time. He didn’t want to flat out run, but his clock was approaching eight and he didn’t want to keep Yongguk waiting for too long. If only his mother hadn’t wanted help cleaning out their storage closet, then he wouldn’t be hurrying down the street. Nor would he have wasted money on taking a taxi. He really needed a new car, but since his car had broke down five months ago and decided to stop being drivable, Himchan was still saving up for a new one. The cost to repair it was ridiculous and borderline thievery.
Thus public transport had become his new friend, and it may have been a reason for some other issues to fall into place over those five months. Himchan was idealistic about the cars he wanted to own. In another couple months, he would have enough money to afford the one he’d been eyeing. It couldn’t come soon enough; he was tired of taking the bus everyday. After a while it became monotonous and Himchan missed driving.
He turned the last corner and saw Yongguk leaning up against the back of the building where the club’s entrance was. Himchan hadn’t been to this particular club before, but he’d walked past it many a time on while shopping on the same street. He patted his hair down and tried to not look too flustered at being a few minutes over their meeting time.
Yongguk’s calm expression showed he didn’t seem to be bothered that Himchan was late when he walked up to him.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” Yongguk answered. He looked good out of his dress clothes for work. Himchan felt like he was stepping back in time for a moment. There was something so familiar about this that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
“I didn’t end up being that late - sorry about that. Family stuff you know.”
Yongguk’s eyes were dark; “You’re late by six minutes. Don’t do it next time.”
Himchan blinked, “Hey I texted you -”
Yongguk’s stance relaxed, “Nah I’m just messing with you. I don’t mind waiting, but we should get inside before the performance starts. I actually have a table saved up top by the bar. It pays off being friends with the performer.”
“You scared me there for a second,” - Himchan pushed Yongguk’s shoulder - “how are we going to get in? There’s a pretty big line here.”
Yongguk waved two fingers and Himchan guessed that meant don’t worry, I’ve got this. He followed Yongguk as he made his way to the front of the line, showed the bouncer a pass, and pointed at Himchan. The bouncer took a quick glance at Himchan and then looked back at Yongguk. Himchan straightened his back. He was every bit party material.
Okay he might look a bit foolish in the pair of newly bought jeans he purchased the other night, and the shirt he had on was a bit oversized. Plus, it probably wasn’t normal for someone his age to be wearing a backwards cap. Himchan knew he was stuck in the past in some aspects, but it was better than him tucking his shirt into his pants.
Yongguk grabbed him by his shoulder and steered him down the steps and into the club. Happily, Himchan let Yongguk pull him down the stairs, looking around at the graffiti artwork on the walls and the flashing lights dancing across the large room. There were two levels to the underground club, and since Yongguk had said he had a table saved up top, Himchan looked up to see a built up second floor.
“We’re going up there?” Himchan said, trying to keep his voice heard above the sound of the speakers playing preshow music.
“Yeah it’s VIP seating.” Yongguk motioned for Himchan to follow him up a second set of steel stairs off to the side of the main floor. The lower level already had a crowd gathering by the bar and around the stage where some workers were setting up equipment.
Himchan was amazed, but now he really was going to have to pay Yongguk back for somehow getting him out of the entrance fee. “Really?” he asked.
“No I’m just friends with some of the club workers.”
“Who are you really? Seriously? What are you going to tell me next that you were almost in a boy band when you were younger?”
“Well actually now that you bring that up I was.”
Himchan stopped on his step, “Seriously?”
Yongguk turned his head back and had one hand on the railing, “No I’m messing with you again.”
“Stop messing with my head Yongguk! I expect to hear your actual real life story now since you keep trying to confuse me,” Himchan said, annoyed that this was the third time Yongguk had been playing around with him. He wasn’t making any leeway into not looking like an idiot. “Tell me your cool secrets.”
They reached the top of the stairs and Yongguk led him to a metal table near the side railing, which had a great view of the stage. Yongguk must have friends in high places.
“It’s really not that exciting as you probably think it is,” said Yongguk as he was sitting down. “We work for the same company that must tell you something about me.”
Himchan wasn’t enthused with Yongguk side stepping away from his question, of all times for Yongguk to shy away. Daehyun had somehow managed to get him to spill some very personal information, and Himchan was determined to get Yongguk to spill that exact same information to him. Then he could act surprised and tell Yongguk that he understood because he also liked guys, and sink his teeth into him. Himchan only hoped that his stare wasn’t too obvious.
“Before you worked for the company. You haven’t told me anything about your life as a nobody rapper.” Oh that came out wrong.
Yongguk raised an eyebrow, “Nobody rapper?”
Drink, Himchan need a drink. “You know…I mean you wouldn’t be working for a music distribution company if you were still doing music. I mean I wouldn’t be, not that my job sucks or anything.”
“I went to college, did music on the side, went into business. Worked at some clubs and that is how I met some of the people I was telling you about last Tuesday. It was just something I enjoyed, and I think I broke quite a few hearts over it.” Yongguk mumbled his last sentence, but Himchan caught every word.
“Broke a few hearts, you must have been pretty popular with the students huh? What did they go for - the bad boy persona or the tortured artist? I myself preferred the tortured artist in my youth.”
“You look more like a bad boy type of guy to me,” Yongguk said, grinning wildly.
Himchan froze. “Am I that obvious?” The smell of cigarette smoke catching in his lungs made his eyes water and heart rate increase.
Yongguk set his hands down on the table, “Nah, It’s just you, everything about you. You have an air of confidence around you in the way you carry yourself and the way you try to…show yourself.” He paused and added, “It’s fun.”
Himchan didn’t know how he should respond. “That’s the most descriptive and poetic thing someone has ever said about me.” He was sure that Yongguk knew he was gay now. All tact he had left was gone. Even though Yongguk hadn’t outright said, “you’re gay,” it was close enough. He wanted to pull the ‘I heard you went out with men in the past how about going out with me’ card, but it was too soon.
“I’m sure it’s not.” Yongguk smiled mysteriously, the corner of his lips turning up just enough to be considered a smile. “The show’s going to start soon, I’ll go get us a couple of beers.” His chair scratched against the metal floor as he stood up and headed over to the bar, leaving Himchan confused and contemplative.
He wrapped his fingers around the condom packet in his pants pocket. Somehow it had gotten to his wallet and Himchan had only noticed this when he took it out to pay the taxi driver. It was one of the condoms he’d gotten from his neighbor, the joke condoms that he’d never fit into even in his wildest dreams. He knew it was stupid, but touching it gave him some strength. If he could deal with his jerk neighbor, then he could get through tonight.
He was Kim Himchan, and although he was out of the dating scene for a few months now, he was a desirable man. He was confident, sexy, funny, and a good talker. Taking a deep breath, Himchan relaxed. By the end of the night, Bang Yongguk would be following him out of this club.
Staring out past the stage, Himchan cleared his throat and wondered just how he was going to get that to happen.
As it turned out, Yongguk’s performing friend was actually really good. Himchan was sold, but then again, it didn’t take much too much to impress him after ingesting alcohol. In addition, he wasn’t sure he heard the music since he spent most of the time with his eyes glued on Yongguk’s face. Subtlety was never his strong point.
The club DJ went back to work after the performance set was finished, and Himchan went back to trying to think up a way to seduce Yongguk.
“Yongguk,” Himchan said, “that was awesome. Like seriously awesome. How do you know all these guys?”
Yongguk set his empty beer on the table, “Old friends. We keep in touch, usually meet up once a month if we’re not busy.”
“You’re friends with people who could be famous damn that’s pretty exciting.”
“Some of them are working now behind the scenes writing music.” Yongguk rubbed his chin, “Yeah, you’re right it’s pretty cool.”
Himchan fidgeted and sloshed the last fourth of beer around in his glass. “Hey, I’ll treat you to that drink now.”
They did have a mutual agreement that they’d each buy each other a drink when they went out. So far Yongguk had bought the first drink, and Himchan decided he needed as much liquid courage as he could get.
Yongguk waved him off with one hand, “You don’t have to.”
“No I want to, I said I would. Plus you already treated me. Let me return the favor because you’re making me look like a bad date,” Himchan teased.
Yongguk slid his glass to the center of the table, “Yes, you’re such a horrible cheap date. I hope you put out.”
“Well, if you’re lucky,” Himchan said, feeling like he was going cross eyed from the good natured flirting that he hadn’t expected to be so easy.
Himchan pulled his wallet out of his pocket and set it on the table. To his extreme mortification, the condom that was also in his pocket had stuck to the leather and came out for the ride. In bright orange packaging, the condom wrapper stared Himchan in the eye and suddenly Himchan learned the meaning behind wanting a hole to open underneath him so he could just die.
Himchan slammed his hand on top of his wallet and hoped that Yongguk didn’t see it, laughing nervously to fill up the empty air. He started to stand up, but Yongguk’s voice jolted him straight out of his seat.
“Do you wear those?” Yongguk asked, and Himchan knew he was talking about the condom, damn.
“No, I wish, got it from my neighbor as a prank. I don’t know how it ended up in my pocket,” Himchan said, cheeks starting to burn.
Yongguk laughed, “I got some of that brand as a gag gift once. Don’t worry I can’t use them either. It’s funny though.”
“What’s funny?” Himchan huffed under his breath, “That we both have small dicks?” He should take back those feelings about Yongguk, anyone who insulted his dick should be held accountable.
“No, I gave mine away to my neighbor as a prank too,” said Yongguk, grinning widely while Himchan removed the condom from where the plastic wrapper had stuck on and crumpled it in his palm.
“Why’d you do that? Was your neighbor being an asshole so you took him down a peg?”
“No, we’re sort of having a feud my neighbor and I. It’s hilarious the poor guy must be so vanilla.”
Himchan’s breath stopped and his heart raced; something was not right here. Was Yongguk also fighting with his neighbor like he was fighting with his?
He sat back down, “What do you mean by feud?” Himchan lowered his brows, facial muscles tensing up in anticipation for whatever Yongguk said next. Everything he was experiencing felt so surreal as if he was missing some part of the bigger picture.
“He’s, well I’m sure it’s a he, left me some weird shit under my door. I mean who even does that? They could have just left me a note or knocked on my door. So I left him some stuff at his as payback.”
Himchan was sure his heart was going to fly out of his chest. He was clenching his hand into a fist so hard under the table that his fingernails were approaching breaking his skin. Clearing his throat, Himchan refrained from shouting or doing something he’d regret. “Did this neighbor, leave you STD prevention papers?”
Yongguk frowned, “Yeah…hey do you know the guy?”
“And did you happen to send a pair of pink handcuffs along with the condoms?” Himchan could feel that his blood pressure must be rising with each word he spoke.
“Yeah…” Yongguk said, drawing out his words. “How do you know this?”
Himchan slammed the condom in his hand down on the table again. “I’m your fucking neighbor.” In a state of blind rage, Himchan felt like he had tensed every muscle in his body to hold back from throttling Yongguk in his chair.
Everything he had ever wanted had come crashing down on him. He wanted a nice car, his broke down. He wanted to go on vacation with his boyfriend; they broke up the next day. He finally meets someone he would like to try and have a relationship; they turn out to be his mortal enemy. Maybe not mortal enemy, but close enough to enemy status.
Of course Yongguk didn’t have anything to add.
“Oh,” Yongguk said slowly, “you’re the one living in apartment 508?” At the very least, his jaw was hanging open.
“Yes I live in 508.” Himchan paused to stop himself from ranting obscenities at the world, “What the actual hell Yongguk, I thought you were a nice guy. I thought we had something here. Something nice. Do you know how much hatred I’ve had inside me since you moved into our building?” Himchan’s face was burning hot and he wasn’t even sure what the hell he was saying he was so beyond controlling himself. He started laughing, “I can’t believe this. I just can’t believe this. You’re an asshole you know that?”
“What did I do?” Yongguk fired back, “I had to put up with just as much from your end. Your lame ass old people music and moving shit around coming through the walls. Do you think I enjoyed listening to that either?”
“That’s better than being kept up until ungodly hours listening to you have sex and all those parties. How do you even do your job?” Himchan was so close to walking away and leaving, but he still had some words to get off his chest. “And that pornography you gave me, you’re sick.”
Yongguk stood up, “You’re immature yourself, think about what you did to me if this is what your problem is.” His facial expression unnerved Himchan, mouth tight and brows drawn down low. “I’m leaving.”
Himchan shook his fist at Yongguk’s retreating figure. He was immature? Yongguk was also immature for running away and fighting back. Not to mention Himchan was still pissed, but it didn’t take much to get him to riled up. His hot temper often got away on him.
He shoved his hands into his pockets, stuffing his wallet and condom into his tight pants and headed out of the club as quick as he could. If anything could calm his bubbling rage, it was fresh air.
When he finally made his way out of the club, he had to dodge around drunken people loitering around the entrance. Himchan was so worked up started walking down the street he realized he lived too far away to walk home. He squeezed his wallet and phone out of his pants to call a taxi.
The condom fell out of his pocket and landed on the street.
“Oh of course,” Himchan said to himself, bending down to pick it up. “I hate you,” he told the condom. “I hate you so damn much.”
Himchan crushed the condom packet in his fist like he imagined crushing Yongguk’s soul. There were so many conflicting feelings clashing in his head that made him mad and confused. He had come to really like Yongguk. Himchan liked his goofy smile, his lean almost stick like appearance, and his knowledge of all things music. However, he was starting to see that besides music they didn’t have much else in common.
Yongguk wasn’t a stranger, but Himchan didn’t know as much about him as he thought he did. Things were difficult when the pedestal you built for someone came crashing down.
The only thing to do was drown his sorrows out in tequila in his apartment right next to Yongguk the asshole.
Yongguk leaned out his apartment’s old cheap windows, staring out at the night sky. There were barely any stars visible - too much city lights and smog - in the sky, but he could see the moon shining bright. He rubbed at his tired eyes and he casted a sideways glance at the apartment to his left. Apartment 508’s lights were still on; it was three in the morning.
Exhaling, Yongguk rocked back, pulling himself away from the window. Himchan was still awake, much like he was right now. Yongguk had tried to sleep, but the restless excitement from earlier had kept his mind racing with thoughts of what he could have said and we he could still do. His common sense was to apologize for provoking Himchan even though he hadn’t known it was he. However, the devil on his shoulder told him to avoid Himchan for the rest of his life. He owned him nothing.
What he didn’t expect was for it to bother him so much. Yongguk had gone through the stage of initial anger, disappointment, and was making his way through denial. He closed his window and locked it. For a brief second, he hesitated as he was pulling the shades shut. Stupid moon, he thought, stop shining so bright.
When he finally found himself drifting off to sleep, the moon had begun to fade away with the emergence of the dawn.
“You’re extra quiet today hyung, but it is Monday” Daehyun said, setting Yongguk’s stapler down on his desk. “Thanks for letting me borrow that.”
His morning was going slow, work was slow, business was slow, Yongguk was feeling slow. Mondays were usually busy with the work to get started or finished from the weekend. They’d somehow completed their huge work order last week, and Yongguk had no big project deadlines glaring at him in the face.
Yongguk nudged the stapler over to the corner of his desk, “No problem.”
“Do you want to come out to lunch with some of us across the street? I think Himchan hyung’s coming if you need a buddy.” Daehyun smiled, oblivious to the awkward situation between Yongguk and Himchan.
“I’m good,” - Yongguk’s leg jiggled - “I brought ramen today.”
“Just ramen? Hyung you should come get lunch with us instead.”
“I don’t really feel like it…”
Daehyun shook his head, “Hyung, if I left you alone every time you said you didn’t feel like it, you’d be working way too much.”
“Someone’s got to get his done.” Yongguk swiveled to the side in his chair, “Did you turn in your summary yet?”
“Yes. And no seriously, I’m going to come and get you for our lunch break,” Daehyun said forcefully, “okay? I’ll be back later.” He pointed at Yongguk as he was walking away.
Yongguk pursed his lips and stared at his computer screen, the words and numbers appeared to swim together into a soup of symbols. He slammed his fingers down on the keyboard and watched the stream of unintelligible gibber sprung forth on the document he was typing up.
If he went with Daehyun to lunch, and if Himchan was there, this had the great potential for going horribly, horribly wrong.