Chapter Text
taehyun tried. he tried to keep calm. but everytime that damn alarm went off in the apartment next to his, he wanted to drive a wrecking ball through his neighbor’s house.
he groaned in misery, stuffing his ears with his pillow as he buried his face deep into his sheets. not only were his walls not soundproof, but his neighbor refused to turn off the alarm till it had blasted long enough that even taehyun had memorized the melody.
it would be less of a problem if the alarm went off at a normal time, sometime during daytime. but rather, the asshole who lived adjacent to him chose to set it for three in the morning. he was unbelievable, really. more than that, he was infuriating. and even now, as taehyun tried to ignore the alarm, it registered with him that the alarm had been blaring for much too long. his neighbor took awhile, usually, to turn it off, but it had been over five minutes and he hadn’t turned it off.
and this was it. this was taehyun’s snapping point. he had a test the next morning and he could not afford to jeopardize his health over some inconsiderate neighbor. he got up, and before he could think his decision through, he went out his door, turned to the left, and slammed his fist on the door in front of him. when no one responded, he yelled, “yah, open up!” he would have been worried about waking up someone else, but it was only them and an eldery woman who was hard of hearing. even if there would have been someone else on the floor, taehyun’s mind was too full of anger to be considerate.
he waited awhile, then raised his fist, ready to knock again, when the door opened. opened, to reveal quite literally the prettiest boy he had ever seen. he would never admit it, especially not at a time like this. he did stare though, taehyun thought the boy in front of him was straight out of an anime. the boy was gorgeous, it was undeniable. but, he also looked drowsy, or drunk? taehyun wasn’t sure, but his hair was all messy and his clothes were disheveled.
taehyun shook himself before he could get lost looking at the boy, and realized the alarm was still blaring in the background. “could you turn off your alarm? it’s been blaring since forever, and i need to sleep.” taehyun yelled out to the boy, just as harsh as intended. the boy flinched a little in return, and taehyun felt just a twinge of guilt- but it went as fast as it had come, because he remembered how the boy’s alarm had stolen his sleep for weeks now. the boy slowly rubbed his eyes and nodded. when the boy showed no signs of moving, taehyun sighed, exasperatedly, “well? what are you waiting for?”
that seemed to wake the boy up, enough at least for him to respond, “uh, yeah, i- yea.” his voice was raspy, and much deeper than what taehyun had expected.
the boy, finally, turned around and walked in back inside. while the boy shuffled, looking for his phone, taehyun had a chance to look inside his apartment. and the sight frightened him, just a bit. it was messy as hell, worse even. there were clothes everywhere, empty cups of ramen and chip bags, and taehyun scrunched his nose at the sight, wondering how anyone could live like that.
he shook himself then, and focused on the back of the boy. the boy had found his phone and was fumbling with it, trying to turn off the noise. his eyes were barely open, so it made sense that he couldn’t figure out just how to work his phone. taehyun was getting impatient, ready to walk inside and turn it off himself (or maybe he would throw the phone at the wall in hopes that he would never have to hear it’s ringing again). but before he could do anything, the boy managed to turn it off. taehyun didn’t wait to see if the boy closed the door, he fumed back to his apartment before the boy could come back.
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beomgyu was confused to say the least. he woke up disoriented, tired- as always, but something was definitely off. as he got out of bed, his eyes landed on the door of his apartment- the door that had been left open. everything came rushing back, and beomgyu stumbled over his messy room to close his door. had he really left the door open through the night? he groaned as leaned against the door and slid down.
for a while, he sat there, trying to remember more about his neighbor who had yelled at him in the middle of night. once he remembered that he had a test though, he cursed and all thoughts left his mind. he’d think about last nights events later. right now, he was scheduled to fail his test.
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taehyun’s test went fine. and no one was surprised. it was taehyun after all, taehyun was smart beyond comprehension. but that didn’t help his pounding headache. he wasn’t entirely sure where the headache came from, but out of spite, he blamed it on his neighbor. the neighbor that would wake him up every moring at three. the neighbor whose room was the messiest he had ever seen. the neighbor whose face was now ingrained in his mind. the last part though, was the most irritating. he wanted nothing to do with his neighbor. and there he was, sulking on a cafe table thinking about the boy’s handsome face. his train of thoughts (mostly just compliments for his neighbor’s face, and then curses for himself) were interrupted by someone running up to him from behind. as soon as they hugged taehyun from behind, putting their arms around his shoulders (closer to his neck), taehyun knew it was kai. “kai-ah, one of these days, you’re going to choke me.”
“don’t be silly, hyunnie. if i didn’t hug you how would you know that i love you so much? you are the light of my life, the love of my life, the-”
before kai could say anymore, taehyun turned around and looked at him through squinted eyes. “what do you want?”
“hyunnie,” kai whined, “what do you mean, ‘what do i want,’ can’t a good friend like me ever express his undying love to his best friend?” he asked with innocent eyes.
but taehyun knew better. kai was innocent, but not this innocent. “hm okay, i guess. well i have to leave now. see you later.”
taehyun started to get up, but as soon as kai realized, he pushed taehyun’s shoulders back down and taehyun into his seat. “ahh, hyunnie why so soon? i actually have news for you.” kai said as he pulled out a chair across from taehyun and sat down. here he goes, taehyun rolled his, readying himself for whatever absurd thing kai would ask him for. “so...there’s this fundraiser the music department is holding, do you want to tag along?... free food?” he asked hopefully.
“kai...you know i hate social events, can’t you ask yeonjun hyung? i really would rather just give up caffeine than go to one of those.” taehyun said, exaggerating just a bit.
“you're such a liar hyun, you would never give up caffeine.” kai was right at that, and an idea came to his mind. kai’s face glowed, almost, “what if i payed for your coffee for an entire week?”
taehyun looked up at that, his eyes going wide, “w-well, i, ah, really kai-ah? you know i can’t say no to this.” he was a broke college student. of course he couldn't say no. “so when is it?” he said, cutting to the chase.
“ah...today.”
“what? heuning what do you mean today? you could've given me time to mentally prepare at least,” taehyun whined.
kai laughed lightly at that, “oh come on hyun, you can mentally prepare while we walk.”
“walk? as in right now?”
“oh, yeah...c’mon we should leave, or we’ll be late.” kai said, getting up from his chair.
“so not only do you not give me a day to prepare but you don’t even give me like an hour?? kai-ah why would you do this to me?” taehyun said dramatically.
kai smiled at his antics, “i’ll buy you a coffee right now, ok?”
“i can’t believe i’m letting you bribe me with me coffee.”
“i can, now, let’s go hyun.” and with that, kai took taehyun’s arm and dragged him while he sulked.
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“god, hyunnie, can you get off your phone? for once in your life, maybe go socialize?” kai groaned. taehyun had been on his phone ever since they had arrived at the fundraiser. with a hood over his head, a coffee in one hand and his phone in the other- taehyun looked anything but social.
“no. this is my coping mechanism. and i don’t want to socialize,” taehyun grumbled out.
kai sighed, “you could make some new friends you know-” before he could finish his thought though, disaster struck.
someone bumped into taehyun while walking backwards, spilling the coffee on his body and staining his hoodie. as if that wasn’t enough, the stranger turned around and taehyun recognized the face to be the one of his annoying neighbor.
“you!” they both said at the same time.
“i can’t believe you-”
“it’s you isn’t it? you’re my neighbor?” beomgyu asked, eyes wide.
“that’s what you care about right now? you literally just wasted all my coffee and ruined my sweatshirt-” taehyun said, in disbelief.
“oh, yeah, uh sorry about that, so is it you?”
taehyun could only gape at him, he had never been left speechless before, but his tongue was tied. beomgyu waited, and when taehyun didn’t say anything, he continued “um, i can buy you another coffee? the cafe on campus isn't that far from here, is it?”
when taehyun still didn’t respond, kai responded for him, “yeah it’s not. you guys can go...and uh talk things out. i’ll see you later, hyunnie?” kai figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to let the two talk (about more than just the coffee spill), and maybe this way taehyun would stop hating the poor guy’s guts. although right now, it seemed to be the very opposite of that. taehyun looked like he wanted to scream at the both of them, but all he could do was slightly nod.
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