- 003; be a body (part II)
title; be a body
author; yoghurts
character / pairing; joonmyun / none
size; drabble/691 words
there's only two sure things about life: the cacophony of any kind of public transportation and the constant monotony of advertisement bent on absorbing as much money as it can from the poorest of the poor. joonmyun tries to block it out but the jingle is cheap and gets stuck in his head. on the train, he's stuck between an old man that smells like a mix of stale tobacco, soured milk, and inexpensive leather, and a wall covered in flyers that all bear the same slogan: 'don't worry, be happy'. a hand-drawn happy little boy smiles up at him and the lines waver as he tries to steady himself every time the ride hits a bump. it's the same every morning, as predictable as his routine and joonmyun wonders if you can die from monotony. he wonders a lot about how you can die, and what would be his last words. he never does, though, and so he keeps practicing a set of rehearsed lines - you never know when death will take you, after all.
joonmyun is late for work, or at least that's what his watch tells him every time he remembers to look at it. it's not like he's never been late, but his boss had warned him of three strikes or he was out. joonmyun wasn't sure which strike this was. 'don't worry, be happy', the little boy continues to smile at him but joonmyun doesn't feel any more reassured by the smile nor the phrase.
the train begins to slow down and his stomach churns, its pressurized system designed to ease the braking for a better comfortable experience feeling more as if the contents of his stomach were being shifted around in counter-clockwise perfection, just itching to escape from their pocket of human flesh. he swallows and takes in the fresh air flowing around him as he escapes from the metal monster into the outside world. he chokes on his saliva and a kindly stranger thumps him on his back as he tries not to hope for death to come so early in the morning. 'don't worry, be happy', he remembers.
joonmyun is still late for work and he rushes down the sidewalk, hurrying among the throngs of people before he arrives at his office building. it's a nondescript skyscraper that blends in with its surroundings, just like the employees filtering in and out of the entrance don't look any less distinguishable from one another. he's employed as a general janitor for the third and fourth floors, a man that keeps to the shadows and corners, next to the wastebasket and the wall. and he's complacent in that position - there's nothing complicated nor meaningful about the job. it's a mantra of 'don't worry, be happy'. empty spaces mean something. don't worry, be happy, because you can't die from monotony.
and even though he doesn't know it yet, someone is waiting for joonmyun when he steps into the back alley around midday, looking for an escape and a breath of fresh air tinged with the acrid smell of last night's garbage that has yet to be picked up. he'd gotten his last warning about showing up late earlier when he'd been almost caught stealing toilet paper from the storage area in the basement. the ground crunches underneath him as he steps on the remnants of a kind of broken glass that could've been used as a spur of the moment weapon not so long ago.
he spots movement at the end of the alley and strains to listen as hushed voices agree on something and then fade away. joonmyun scuffs his shoe on the ground before he walks slowly towards the sounds he'd heard earlier. he doesn't expect anyone to still be there, and is surprised when a set of widened dark brown eyes turn towards him, what seemed to be curiosity and a bit of scandal written on the other's face.
joonmyun narrows his eyes, and lets out a dry cough. and this meeting could be called random happenstance, but it couldn't be called coincidence. because there’s no room for coincidences in empty spaces.