028

@ʚ c. yeonjun ɞ "yes, yes i'm listening." taehyun held his phone pinned to his ear by his shoulder and a little grace of divinity he didn't believe in as he entered the building mid-morning with only a cat nap and a double ristretto to keep him on his feet. "it'll be done before midnight, but another night on that couch and i'm going to be a little too tied up to meet deadline." his keys jangled in his hand as he opened his mailbox, his gaze drawn across the bank of boxes toward the cluttered corkboard. one of his neighbors was still offering a small fortune for the return of a pet that, had he found it, he might briefly consider telling the section editor to himself over. "uh huh. in the clinical sense, seongsaengnim. yes, yes, i'll talk to you later."

the help request on the lobby bulletin board was not the sort of thing taehyun would usually pay any mind to. he wasn't a handyman by trade, and he certainly wasn't a plumber. yet he knew how to do a few things by himself - keeping up an apartment was the sort of thing disgraced sons did to buy themselves privacy. the sort of person who didn't have the ability or the know-how to do so themself? maybe he could chalk it up as a good deed, and he knew he needed a few of those in the basket these days. maybe it would even be enough to clear his conscience for a couple of days. he could pretend at least.

that was rationalization enough after the editor hung up on him to take down the notice with a hand already overburdened by keys and junk mail.

he glanced down at his phone. the message he had meant to send only displayed that it had hung up somewhere between the coffee shop and home. a shame he couldn't update the closest thing to a friend - even if the attention was paid for - that he had on the fact that he was in such dire straits that his preferred caramel macchiato wasn't going to cut it. ironic that he couldn't tell which was the more bitter pill to swallow. he canceled the unsent message and glanced at the paper in hand, typing the phone number in with his thumb in order to start a new text conversation. he would have preferred to have a kakao id, but he supposed not everyone liked having the ability to scrub strangers from their life when it became a necessity.

[ unknown > +82 010 xxxx xxxx ]
- saw you need someone to look at your pipes?
- i just got in and can take a look if you get back to me at your soonest

@ʚ k. taehyun ɞ staring at the computer screen in front of him, yeonjun was distracting himself from the fact there would be someone else in his apartment at some point during the day. he couldn't do much about it when his shower decided to be against him as he was about as handy as a humming bird, but he didn't like other people in his spaces. it wasn't necessarily a cleanliness thing or anything of the sort, he just considered his apartment his space - the only space he never had to share with anyone. there was also always a very miniscule fact he could be murdered but he wasn't actually too much against that idea, at least then he wouldn't have to deal with the burden left behind by his parents. closing down his workspace apps, he decided he should get dressed and not look like he was squatting in the place.

shaking his head, he took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders; it was going to be perfectly fine. sliding his monitor back into place, he got up to leave the bar and shuffled to his room - he glanced around making sure everything was neat on the way, out of habit. he made a mental note to sweep later on. he kept his phone close as he went through his clothes, occasionally glancing at it in hopes of a message. switching from his pajamas into a thin, loose sweater and black jeans, he began roaming his apartment.

yeaonjun was basically useless when he knew he would have company and maybe he was leaning towards ocd more than he thought. he told himself it wasn't a cleanliness thing like he wouldn't end up mopping the moment his building neighbor left. he'd been getting told by his friends for over two years to look into therapy but he was actually debating it, especially as he stared at his keys hanging by the door. they were off, on the wrong hook and the idea of touching them made his skin crawl. so focused on the keys, he'd nearly flinched out of his skin when he got a text, deciding to sink into his couch and occupy himself with answering.