Chapter Text
Yuha loved weekends more than she probably should have admitted out loud.
No, she wasn't lazy. She told herself that every single time she closed her apartment door in the evening and leaned her back against it with a soft sigh. It was just that modeling wasn't what it seemed from the outside. People saw beautiful photographs, an easy smile, perfectly adjusted lighting, and they thought it was effortless. Yuha didn't hold a grudge. She had once thought the exact same thing herself.
But the reality was a bit different. Reality meant 5:00 AM wake-up calls for makeup, three shoots in different parts of the city on the same day, and a photographer saying, "One more time, a little to the left, no, not like that, head higher, no, too high," for forty minutes straight until your eye started twitching. It meant a constant readiness to look good even when you hadn’t slept enough, hadn’t eaten properly, and just wanted to go home.
Yuha loved her job. She truly did. But oh god, how she loved the days when she didn't have to leave her apartment.
Her usual non-shooting days looked something like this: wake up without an alarm, lounge around for about twenty minutes just staring at the ceiling, then slowly, with absolute pleasure, cook something proper, not a quick bite on the run, but real food. Then wrap herself in a blanket, turn on a TV show, and not move for about three hours. No makeup. No schedule.
Sometimes, this plan was disrupted by Stella.
Stella was from the agency, bright, loud, the kind of person who bursts into your life, and somehow you just find yourself unable to kick them out. Yuha had met her back at the very beginning when she was just starting out, and since then, they had somehow imperceptibly become friends. The problem was that six months ago, Yuha had made a strategic mistake: she introduced Stella to Jiwoo, her college classmate. Just like that, by chance, all three of them ended up in the same place.
Since then, Stella had been inviting them out to hang out much more often.
Yuha watched this with growing suspicion. Every single time, Stella would come up with some excuse, a new place had opened, there were discounts, or it was just interesting, but for some reason, she always made sure to double-check if Jiwoo was coming. When Yuha directly asked her one day if she liked Jiwoo, Stella got so indignant and started denying it so convincingly that Yuha decided to drop it for now.
For now.
But this week Stella hadn't called, neither had Jiwoo, and Yuha was looking forward to a quiet, well-deserved weekend.
But Friday didn't start as planned.
Yuha was sleeping, sleeping well, deeply, in that stage of sleep where you no longer hear anything and you dream of something meaningless yet pleasant, when something crashed behind the wall.
She didn't realize what happened right away. She just opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling, trying to process it. It was just past seven in the morning. Then something crashed again, followed by a voice, female, resonant, clearly not frightened but rather indignant:
"Ian, I said be careful!"
"I am being careful!" another voice shot back, slightly lower, with the intonation of a person facing baseless accusations. "The box fell by itself!"
"Boxes don't fall by themselves!"
"This one did!"
Yuha lay there for a second. Then she pulled the pillow over her head.
It didn't help. The voices continued, fading at times, then rising again, and between them, something was constantly being moved, put down, and judging by the sounds, something heavy was being dragged across the floor. The neighboring apartment, which had stood empty and quiet for months before this, had suddenly come alive and clearly had no intention of doing so quietly.
Yuha honestly tried to fall back asleep for another fifteen minutes. Then she gave up.
She got up, washed her face, looked at herself in the mirror with the expression of a person betrayed by life, and went to the kitchen to make coffee. Since she couldn't sleep anyway, she might as well get ready and head to the shoot early. It was scheduled for noon anyway.
The shoot that day wasn't bad, a commercial project, two hours, the photographer was decent, barely nitpicked. Yuha returned home by evening in a relatively good mood, thinking that she would have dinner now and go to bed early.
Something dropped behind the wall.
"Ian!!"
"It wasn't me!"
Yuha stopped in the hallway with her keys in hand. She stayed silent for a moment. Then she went to the kitchen.
Saturday was worse.
It wasn't that they made noise all the time, no, there were pauses. But every time Yuha began to relax and thought, finally, silence, I can finally watch an episode normally, a voice would ring out again from somewhere:
"Ana, where is the remote?"
"How should I know!"
"You were the last one holding it!"
"I put it back in its place!"
"That's not its place, that's the windowsill!"
"The windowsill is a place too!"
By lunchtime, Yuha already knew that one of them was named Ian and the other was Ana, and she could clearly tell them apart by their voices.
The one named Ana had a lower voice, but she shouted loud enough to make one's ears ring. She was clearly quite a thorn in the side, constantly teasing her friend, laughing loudly at her own jokes, and, judging by the thudding sounds and subsequent squeals, occasionally beating Ian with pillows or something heavier as a joke.
The second one, Ian, was a literal noise generator. She possessed a slightly higher, more emotional voice. Ian was always running away from someone, stomping her heels loudly on the floor, promising terrible vengeance for stolen yogurts, and constantly throwing fits of indignation.
Talk about getting to know the neighbors. And she hadn’t even met them properly yet.
By mid-day, she tried to switch her focus to her studies, after all, it was autumn, her third year, classes had already started, and a few assignments had been hanging untouched since last week. But reading lecture notes to the accompaniment of "Ian, don't touch that!" and "Ana, that's not fair!" was utterly impossible.
Yuha put away her laptop. She rubbed her temple. Outside the window, it was already dark early in an autumnal way, the sky was gray, and her overall mood was such that she just wanted silence, hot tea, and for no one to yell.
She sat for a little longer. Then she walked up to the mirror, quickly fixed her long hair, swapped her home sweatpants for a pair of more or less presentable but comfortable wide-leg trousers, and threw a cozy oversized cardigan on top.
Yuha understood that going over to complain empty-handed was somewhat unneighborly, and her upbringing wouldn't allow her to just cause a scene right from the doorstep. She bought the pie at a small bakery on the ground floor of the neighboring building, there was always something good there, and Yuha sometimes dropped by just because, for no reason. Today, there was a reason. A chocolate-banana pie wrapped in paper, still warm.
She walked back, thinking that it was actually a normal thing to do, to come over and introduce herself to the neighbors. Politely. Without a scandal. Bring something, smile, say, hi, I'm Yu Haram, I live next door, nice to meet you, by the way, could you please be a bit quieter. Civilized.
It was a good plan.
She went up to her floor, stopped in front of the door, a new one, meaning the old one but with a new rug at the doorstep, a bright yellow one that looked a bit unexpected, and rang the bell.
Something immediately crashed behind the door.
"You go open it!"
"Why me?"
"Because I'm carrying things!"
"What are you carrying?"
"Ian!!"
Then came footsteps, fast, almost running, and the door flew open.
Yuha had managed to prepare herself for anything. For a noisy company. For a mess since the move wasn't finished yet. Even for them looking at her with annoyance, it happens, people don't like it when uninvited guests show up.
She was not prepared for the door to be opened by a girl with half her hair gathered into a crooked ponytail, wearing a huge sweatshirt with lettering Yuha didn't have time to read, and displaying a genuinely joyful expression, as if Yuha were her close friend whom she hadn't seen in a hundred years.
"Oh, hi!" Ian exclaimed, letting out a loud breath.
"Hi," Yuha bowed her head politely, trying to maintain her composure despite the fact that her personal boundaries had just been unceremoniously hit by a wave of someone else's energy. "I'm your neighbor from the apartment across the hall. I brought..."
"Ana, it's the neighbor!" Ian didn't even listen to the end, turning back and shouting this with such force that Yuha's ear slightly rang. "Come here quickly!"
"Yeah, I'm coming, I'm coming!" a voice echoed from the depths.
A second later, the other girl burst into the hallway. In her hands were two heavy paper bags with wallpaper rolls and some boxes sticking out of them, and a single dark strand of hair was stuck firmly to her forehead. She jerked her chin in an amusing way, trying to brush the hair off her face, and... froze.
At that moment, it was as if the sound in the hallway had been turned off.
Yuha, who had already prepared to offer her standard practiced smile, caught the gaze of the frozen Ana. The bags in Ana's hands trembled ever so slightly. She didn't move, didn't brush her hair away, and even seemed to forget how to breathe. Her eyes, which turned out to be unexpectedly large and deep, widened, pinning all her attention on Yuha. Her face reflected such pure, childlike amazement, as if a fairytale creature had just materialized right in front of her in the middle of a dusty hallway.
Yuha felt uncomfortable under this intense, unblinking stare. She adjusted the edge of her oversized cardigan, feeling silly holding the pie in her hands.
"Come on in!" Ian broke the silence, unceremoniously grabbing Yuha by the elbow and pulling her into the apartment. The gesture was so natural that Yuha didn't even have time to react.
"Oh, wait, I didn't want to disturb you, I just..." Yuha tried to take a step back, but she had already been dragged into the entryway.
"You're not disturbing us at all!" Ian waved her hand, taking one of the bags from Ana. "We're actually almost done. Come in, it's not as scary here as it looks."
Ana was still silent. She slowly shifted her gaze to her hands, looking surprised that one bag had vanished, and then looked back at Yuha. A wild, ecstatic chaos could be read in her eyes, but her lips remained tightly pressed together, as if she were afraid to make a single sound and ruin the moment. She merely offered a polite and very abrupt bow, nearly hitting a box on the floor with her nose.
Having ended up inside against her will, Yuha looked around and noted that it was... cozy. Despite the scattered boxes and a nightstand that for some reason proudly towered right in the middle of the living room, the apartment didn't look abandoned. A soft blanket lay neatly on the sofa with decorative pillows nestled nearby, and a tiny cactus in a bright pot sat on the windowsill. These girls clearly loved comfort, they just expressed it a bit too loudly.
"I'm Ian," the one who opened the door introduced herself, casually sitting right on top of one of the sealed boxes. "And this is Ana. We've been moving in since yesterday and just can't seem to unpack everything."
"I noticed. Or rather, I heard," Yuha said softly. Her voice sounded gentle, yet a bit drier than she intended. She wanted them to catch the hint.
Ian immediately shrunk back guiltily, comically pulling her head into her shoulders.
"Oh. Were we that loud?"
"A little," Yuha said diplomatically.
Ana finally carried the remaining bag to the kitchen and returned to the hallway. She vigorously wiped her palms against her pants, never taking her shining eyes off Yuha. Yuha turned to her, expecting her to join the conversation, but Ana just mesmerizingly examined her perfect hair, slender wrists, and how elegantly even the simplest wide home trousers sat on Yuha. A real princess. Ana swallowed.
"What... what is your name?" Ana asked quietly, almost in a whisper. Where had that booming voice gone that was yelling behind the wall five minutes ago?
"Yu Haram, but you can just call me Yuha," she replied, slightly surprised by such a sharp change in tone from the chief thorn in the side.
"Yuha..." Ana repeated the name as if tasting it. A barely noticeable blush crept onto her cheeks. "And I'm Roh Yuna, but you can just call me Ana. Have you... been living here long?"
"Two years."
"Wow," Ian whistled from her box. "Alone?"
"Alone," Yuha nodded.
"And you don't get lonely?" Ana took half a step forward, her hands clenching into small fists from some internal overflow of emotion.
Yuha looked at her, pausing to think for a second. In those two years within these walls, she had seen different things: returning frozen and drained after hours of shooting, drinking tea in silence, enjoying her solitude. But lonely? She had never been lonely, because silence was her main restorative resource.
"No. I like the peace."
"We definitely wouldn't be able to do that," Ian laughed, jumping down from the box and moving to the sofa, where she immediately tucked her legs under herself. "Ana and I have been together since the fifth grade. We even got into the same university."
"On purpose?" Yuha shifted her gaze from one laughing girl to the other, quiet one.
"It just matched up," Ana finally smiled softly, and this smile struck Yuha as surprisingly kind and warm. "Though I'm incredibly glad it turned out that way."
"You better be glad! You'd be lost without me," Ian snorted.
"Which one of us would be lost?" Ana instantly snapped out of her trance, turning to her friend, and those exact playful notes returned to her voice. "Ian, need I remind you who mixed up the campus buildings last semester and cried into the phone for an hour and a half because she couldn't find the classroom?"
"That was one time! And I wasn't crying!"
"You were screaming that you'd been abducted by aliens!"
"Because there was no signal there!"
"You were standing ten meters away from the main entrance!"
Yuha stood in the middle of this suddenly resumed noise, pressing the pie to her chest, two conflicting feelings battling inside her. On one hand, this commotion exhausted her. On the other, there was so much sincere, genuine affection in their bickering, they caught each other's wave so easily, that Yuha caught herself feeling a fleeting pang of innocent envy. It was... sweet. They seemed so carefree, chaotic, yet absolutely happy. Real cuties that were simply impossible to stay mad at for long.
"I actually brought a pie," she interrupted their dispute, holding out the paper package. "Chocolate banana. To celebrate meeting the neighbors."
Both extroverts silenced immediately and stared at the package with such reverence, as if Yuha were holding a crown at the very least.
"Oh..." Ana breathed out, her eyes shining with renewed strength.
"Oh my god, thank you! We are literally starving!" Ian jumped up and carefully, trying not to brush Yuha's fingers, took the pie. Her gratitude was so burstingly sincere that Yuha completely softened.
"Anyway," Yuha took a step back toward the exit, reclaiming her persona of a strict neighbor. "It was nice meeting you. Truly. But I have one big request... If possible, please be a bit quieter in the mornings. Especially on weekends. My work and studies require a lot of energy, and I usually sleep in."
"Oh," Ian puckered her nose guiltily. "We woke you up today, didn't we?"
"And yesterday," Yuha specified in a flat, expressive tone.
"Please forgive us," Ana took a step toward Yuha, and there was so much genuine, deep remorse in her voice, her eyes, and her entire posture that Yuha realized her defensive fortress had cracked. "We really didn't mean to. It's just that when the two of us are together... we somehow lose control over the volume. We don't mean any harm."
"I believe you," Yuha smiled barely noticeably with the corners of her lips. "But I still noticed."
Ian snickered into her fist, earning an immediate warning glare from Ana.
"We will try very hard, I promise," Ana said firmly, looking straight into Yuha's eyes.
"Great then," Yuha pulled the handle of the front door toward her. "Have a good evening. It was nice meeting you."
She had already stepped over the threshold when a soft voice caught up to her:
"Yuha."
She turned around. Ana stood in the doorway, leaning forward slightly. Her disheveled look, the oversized sweatshirt, and that open, incredibly attentive gaze created a strange contrast. Yuha suddenly caught herself thinking that this silly girl had remarkably beautiful, expressive eyes, beaming with some kind of internal light. Yuha mentally shook her head, dismissing the inappropriate observation.
"Come visit us again. You must," Ana said simply, smiling as if they had known each other for an eternity.
"We'll see," Yuha replied with her signature half-smile and walked out into the corridor.
The door softly clicked shut behind her.
Ian endured a theatrical pause of exactly three seconds and loudly delivered:
"Well?"
"What well?" Ana continued to stand there, frozen and staring at the closed door.
"Ana."
"What?"
"You're about to burn a hole through the wood."
"I'm just following her with my eyes through space," Ana muttered, not moving.
"You're looking at the door with a face like a deity just appeared to you," Ian laughed, crossing her arms over her chest. It was obvious she intended to squeeze the maximum amount of fun out of this situation. "Spill."
Ana finally turned around slowly. Her friend was sitting on the sofa, glowing with anticipation.
"She... she is so beautiful, Ian," Ana breathed out, pressing her palms to her flushed cheeks.
"Yes," Ian agreed. "And?"
Ana stayed silent, catching her breath, and then she spoke so solemnly and seriously, as if taking an oath:
"I think I'm in love."
Ian blinked in surprise for a few seconds, and then her face stretched into a massive smirk.
"Seriously? You fell for the neighbor in five minutes?"
"Don't laugh! I'm not joking, my heart is beating so hard it feels like it's going to break my ribs!"
"I'm not even laughing," Ian rose sharply from the couch, her eyes gleaming with excitement. She walked up to her friend and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Ana. Listen to me."
"What?.."
"Go," Ian spun her around to face the exit. "And tell her that."
Ana stared at her with wide eyes, twirling a finger near her temple:
"Are you out of your mind?! Right now?"
"Well, yeah! She just left, she's probably still in the hallway. Go and blurt it out!"
"Ian, we met five minutes ago! She'll think I'm a lunatic who escaped a mental asylum and moved in next door!"
"So what?" Ian shrugged carelessly with the air of a person for whom this was not an argument. "There won't be a better moment, it will catch her attention at the very least. Go on, get moving!"
"This is absolute, pure madness!"
"No, my dear, this is called romance!"
"It's the exact same thing!"
"Ana!" Ian shook her slightly by the shoulders, her voice turning insistent. "You're going to miss the moment right now, and then you'll whine in my ear for a month that you should have but didn't dare. I know you. Go."
Ana shifted her gaze to the door handle. Her heart did a frantic flip. Only one thought pounded in her head: She would leave, and I'd just be the noisy neighbor.
"Fine," Ana exhaled, resolutely clenching her fists. "Here goes nothing."
Ana yanked the door handle toward herself so hard it almost hit the wall. Rushing out into the corridor, she froze.
Yuha indeed hadn't managed to leave yet. She was standing by her door, leisurely rummaging through her purse in search of her keys. At the sound of the opening door, she turned around slowly, with a light, barely noticeable surprise on her beautiful face.
"Go out with me!" Ana blurted out.
The words flew out of her in a single, unbroken lump before her brain could switch on. She stood in the middle of the hallway disheveled, in her oversized sweatshirt, breathing heavily as if she had run a marathon, and looked at Yuha with absolutely round, shining eyes.
The silence in the corridor became palpable.
Yuha froze with her key suspended a centimeter away from the keyhole. She blinked. Once. Twice. Her brain, accustomed to any unexpected events, was now frankly lagging, trying to process the information.
"What?" Yuha asked back quietly, deciding she must have misheard due to the recent noise behind the wall.
"Let's go on a date," Ana repeated, a bit quieter now, but with the same ironclad, desperate resolve. Her cheeks were burning a crimson color, but she didn't look away. "I really, really like you. Like, a lot. I know we've known each other for about seven minutes and I look like a crazy person, but... if I don't say this right now, Ian will lock me on the balcony, and I just... really want to go on a date with you."
Yuha slowly lowered her hand with the keys. The shock was gradually replaced by an understanding of the situation. Standing before her was a girl who had just moved in, caused a colossal racket behind the wall, and now, without even putting on shoes, was asking her out on a date.
A wave of surprise rose inside Yuha, mixed with a light prickle of amusement. It was so... straightforward. But Yuha was Yuha. She required peace. And the girl in front of her was the embodiment of the word hurricane. What kind of date could there be?
Yuha smiled gently and understandingly, attempting to establish a clear distance.
"Ana," she began softly, taking half a step forward. "This is... very unexpected. And, honestly, flattering. But I have to decline."
Ana wilted barely noticeably, her shoulders dropping a bit, but she continued to listen attentively.
"I am not looking for a relationship at all right now," Yuha continued, shrugging her shoulder. "My schedule is packed to the brim with modeling shoots and studies. The only thing I want when I come home is peace and quiet. So... I'm sorry."
Yuha mentally added: And you are the last entity associated with the word peace. But aloud, of course, she didn't say that, so as not to offend her neighbor.
Ana stood for a second, processing the rejection. Anyone else in her place would have burned with shame and run away, but Ana was cut from a different cloth. She suddenly sniffed, raised her head, and her eyes flashed with excitement again. A stubborn, insanely cute smile spread across her lips.
"Okay!" Ana delivered brightly.
"Okay?" Yuha asked back, having already prepared for an awkward goodbye.
"Yep. I accept the rejection. For now," Ana winked playfully. "But I'm still going to win you over, Yu Haram. Schedules can be shifted, and you'll get used to my noise. I'll make it so that you'll want to ask me out yourself!"
Yuha couldn't hold it in. This level of persistence, wrapped in absolute charm and childlike spontaneity, was beyond her strength. She covered her mouth with her palm and let out a quiet, genuine laugh.
"Well, good luck to you in this difficult endeavor," Yuha said after she stopped laughing and turned the key in the lock. "Good night, Ana."
"Good night, princess!" Ana shouted cheerfully after her.
Yuha went into her apartment and closed the door. For some reason, her heart was beating a bit faster than usual. Already in the entryway, she realized she was still smiling.
Strange girl, she thought.
And behind the door, Ana threw her fist up in victory and silently, keeping her promise of quiet, screamed "Yeeeees!", after which she went skipping back inside, where Ian was already waiting for her with a piece of chocolate pie in her mouth and a silent question in her eyes.