Housekeeper/Cleaner!AU (Fluff)
Moving to Seoul to become a cleaner was never a goal of yours, nor was it really in your game plan; but it had become a blissful escape. However, the new life you had begun was about change when you had a run in with 7 V.I.P. residents at your new job.
It seemed like just yesterday when you had left your hometown. You and your high school sweet heart had had plans to get married soon but that changed when you found your workmate in your apartment, in your bedroom with him. All your friends were his friends so you felt like you needed an out. You had always wanted to travel but always felt like it was an unnecessary luxury. You finally decided you had had enough of people giving you pitiful looks, dodging awkward questions and enduring small talk. You quit your job and put your apartment up for lease. After making the necessary arrangements, you packed minimal supplies and clothes into a suitcase and headed to the airport with no destination in mind, simply a will to be free.
After doing a few short stints in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, you decided to travel to South Korea, as you had originally planned to go for your future honey moon as a dream destination. You didn't want your failed relationship to hold you back from visiting the country you had always been so eager to explore. After having seen your Instagram post from your Incheon airport arrival, your best friend from your uni days messaged you, wanting to reconnect. With no plan in mind you went to go see her, luggage still in hand. When you arrived at the cafe where you had arranged to meet her, you and Jisoon reconnected like she had never left. You caught up about the things you had missed over the past couple of years and she raved about her new life, living in Seoul. When she asked what your plans were, you honestly told her you had none and like it was nothing she invited you to stay at her house, rather than going to find a cheap youth hostel like you had originally planned. What you liked best was she didn't push or ask questions about your ex-boyfrjend, and you breathed a small sign of relief. For the first time in a while you felt a bit more comfortable.
You had been staying in your friend's home for the last 10 days, and you started to feel a bit guilty. You had managed to do some of the touristy things in Seoul, but still weren't sure what your next move was. You felt you should pay rent if this was going to be the living situation for a while. Jisoon told you about the short term working-tourist visa, which allowed you to work casually in Korea for up to 12 months whilst still maintaining a 'tourist' status. You decided why the hell not, and was approved by the end of the following week. You were excited by this new development and opportunity even though you had no idea how to find a job in Seoul, especially since you couldn't speak any Korean, just a few words and phrases here and there you had picked up from watching K-dramas.
Jisoon's aunty, Imo, owned a cleaning business which catered to a compound of serviced apartments in Hannam-dong. Jisoon, being the angel she was, introduced you to Imo. With your friend acting as a translator, you were able to agree to work as a cleaner for Imo. Not exactly an exciting job but it was something and you were grateful for everything Jisoon had already done for you. You came to discover your definition of 'apartments' wasn't really the same as the kind of apartments that this compound had. The apartments here looked more like presidential suites in a five-star hotel and the complex was basically a collection of mansions stacked together, it was like nothing you had ever seen before.
By the end of your first week, you realised that you actually quite enjoyed this job. You were mainly left on your own after Imo showed you the ropes - you were to clean and maintain the main living areas such as the kitchen and bathrooms, do whatever laundry the residents had left fo you, but don't interfere with any private areas such as bedrooms. You were assigned to clean houses in the north eastern block of the complex, which consisted of the lobby, three floors with two apartments on each floor, plus the top floor apartment and rooftop. Usually the residents weren't home while you were cleaning, and if they were they acted as if you were invisible only acknowledging your presence with a simple nod when you entered and left. While cleaning, and to pass the time, you listened to music or Korean language podcasts in an attempt to learn some Korean.
Jisoon was busy with her own job so you only really saw her at night and on the weekends. Imo had told you that most of the residents who lived in this complex were rich, famous or politicians (explained the mansion like luxury of the homes). Imo only had three rules, don't destroy anything, don't snoop and don't converse with the residents - the security detail of the gated complex had strict rules on privacy and confidentiality. Before you had been given a swipe pass to enter the complex and the homes to clean, you had to sign a contract to ensure you wouldn't make comments to the media or post on any social networking sites about who lived in which apartments not that you could speak Korean or knew any rich Korean politicians to blab about anyway. You wouldn't really want anyone knowing about your own personal life if the roles were reversed, not that your life was particularly interesting, so it seemed fair.
So far you hadn't met anyone you had recognised and most of the apartments looked more or less the same except for a touch of personal decor here and there. But things became a bit complicated when you were assigned to clean the top floor apartment, and the residents here, you did recognise.
You’d been living and working in Seoul for 2 months at this point. You were used to your usual work routine during the week and spending the weekend continuing to explore Seoul and some other parts of Korea. Usually another cleaner ahjussi helped you service the north eastern block of apartments, and was in charge of cleaning the top two floors of the block whilst you cleaned the other four apartments on the two lower floors and the lobby. But Imo had called you in the morning to tell you he had broken his ankle yesterday after falling down some stairs and wouldn't be working for a while. She had also sounded a bit nervous and warned you to keep extra careful not to intrude on the residents of the top floor apartment, to maintain their privacy as if your life depended on it. You didn't really think much of it as usually the residents weren't home during the day whilst you were cleaning, but continued on with your usual work routine. It wasn't until you entered the rooftop apartment that things began to feel a bit odd.
Nobody seemed to be at home when you entered but you quickly noticed a few differences about this apartment. The structure of the apartment was more or less the same as all the other ones, however this one seemed bigger than the rest, it had 10 rooms rather than the usual 4-5 in the other apartments. It had it's own rooftop patio (and one of the best views over Seoul in your opinion). You couldn't quite put your finger on it but you felt like the place seemed oddly familiar, like you had seen it somewhere before on TV or something. You put it down to most of the apartments looking similar but still something felt off. You entered the laundry to grab the cleaning supplies and were surprised to hear what sounded like barking, from behind the door. In the laundry there was a little dog pen set up, and inside there was a small brown and golden Pomeranian puppy. He looked sort of like a miniature lion and seemed rather excited when you entered. No other residents had pets that you knew of, yet somehow you felt like you had met this puppy before. You knew you probably shouldn't be playing with other people's pets but you couldn't resist and decided to give him a little stroke. He got even more excited and kept yapping as you patted him. That's when you realised his water bowl was empty and the dog had been panting away. You picked up the bowl walked to the sink and filled it before returning it to the pen As you placed it down the dog dashed towards the bowl and began lapping furiously. You gave the puppy one last pat and then continued with your work around the apartment.
You were just about done and returned to the laundry to put away the cleaning supplies. You gave the little puppy one final pet goodbye when you were startled by a loud slam from the front door opening and a bunch of foot steps. You quickly gathered yourself and turned to exit the laundry
"TAN-AH! TAN-AH! Damn! I forgot to leave water for him! TANNIE I'M COMING!!!"
someone exclaimed as you heard him running towards the laundry.
Due to the speed he had been running at he hadn't seen you and instead knocked you clean off your feet as he rushed through the doorway. You fell backwards whilst managing to hit your head on the edge of the sink. The boy seemed shock and quickly leaned over to help you up
"Shit, are you okay?" a voice asked, you looked up and stared in disbelief.
Kim Taehyung, vocalist of BTS, had just nearly knocked you out. Was it possible you were in BTS's apartment? You had known about BTS since high school and used to follow their activities very closely, but in the past couple years hadn't really followed them as your ex-boyfriend had often disapproved of K-pop and thought you ‘fangirling’ over 7 boys was like cheating on him (how ironic). You continued to stare at him, wide eyed and slack jawed; a frikkin butterfly could've entered your mouth and you wouldn't have noticed. You heard more footsteps coming towards the laundry and blinked your eyes several times again. Were you dreaming? Maybe you’d given yourself a mild concussion and were imagining things, but when you opened your eyes again, Park Jimin and Jeon Jungkook were now standing in the doorway, looking at you and Taehyung on the ground, with confused expressions. After a silent pause, they helped you and Taehyung up off the floor and began speaking to you in rapid fire Korean. It was too much for your brain to handle as your Korean skills was still very poor;
"Sor-ry?" you said with a shaky voice in your terribly basic Korean and bowed as low as you possibly could without falling over.
The 3 boys paused and looked at each other in confusion. You weren't really sure if you had said that right and judging by the looks on their faces you probably hadn't. You stared back at them, still in disbelief before you finally snapped back to reality. With wide eyes you bowed and apologised again before squeezing your way through them and out the laundry doorway You thought about Imo's rule, 'don't converse with the residents' and began muttering curses under your breath. You thought better to leave the apartment now before you made an even bigger fool of yourself but in your embarrassment, with your eyes firmly fixated on your feet, you had managed to walk straight into someone else who happened to be holding a beverage. The juice spilled everywhere, including on you and the person you bumped into. In horror you looked up and saw you had just walked straight into one very annoyed looking Min Yoongi who was wearing a now orange-stained shirt.
"Hey! Watch where you're going! Who the hell are you?"
You were mortified, if looks could kill, the way Yoongi wad staring at you had put you in a graveyard, 50 feet under. You panicked.
"SOR-RY" you stuttered again and made for the exit, but not before he had grabbed you by the wrist and asked you again.
Taehyung, Jimin and Jungkook, had followed you out of the laundry and were now standing behind looking at this new situation, with still confused looks on their faces. Namjoon walked in from the entrance and looked up from his phone at the strange sight only after having walked straight into Yoongi's orange juice puddle on the floor
"Hyung! I think she's a foreigner." Taehyung exclaimed whilst pointing at you.
"What? What do you mean she's a foreigner, who is she?"
"Well I went to check on Yeontan cause I forgot to give him water before we left this morning but I ran into her and she fell over and I helped her up. I apologised and asked if she was ok but she just said sorry and ran out. Then she bumped into Yoongi hyung and spilled his juice" Taehyung explained hastily.
Namjoon turned to you, "Can you speak Korean?" he asked calmly in English.
"Umm yeh sort of, no? Not really. Look I'm really sorry I didn't mean to bump into anyone or spill your drink I just, I'm sorry" you were flustered and turning bright red, you were breaking all of Imo's rules!
"What is going on?! Seriously can somebody just tell me who she is and why the hell she’s in our house?!" Yoongi spat out, clearly irritated at his ruined outfit. He still had your wrist firmly in his grasp.
"Sorry, I just want to clarify, who are you and why are you in our house?" Namjoon asked in a calmly again.
"Oh right, sorry. My name is Y/N and I'm one of the cleaners here," you said pointing at the small logo printed on the plain brown t-shirt that was your uniform.
"I was just finishing up the laundry and about to leave when I bumped into him by accident. Sorry I didn't mean to spill your drink or ruin your clothes. I'll pay for it. I'm really sorry."
"Hyung, let go of her, she's the cleaner" Namjoon explained to Yoongi. He begrudgingly released your hand .
You didn't want to seem rude but you were still feeling extremely awkward. You didn't know how to express yourself so you decided to better speak in English, in hopes that Namjoon would understand.
"Let me clean up this mess and I'll be out of your way. Sorry again." Namjoon nodded so you moved to grab the mop from the laundry to clean up the mess.
You heard the boys discussing something as you walked away, not that you could really understand anyway.
"Hyung, does she not speak Korean? Why is she working here? What happened to the cleaner ahjussi, the one who sings TWICE songs when he thinks we can't hear him" Jimin asked ending in giggles.
"No I don't think she does and I don't know Jimin. She's just the cleaner."
"Well she's a lot younger than all the other cleaners." Yoongi huffed, "Probably inexperienced as well"
"But she's a lot prettier than the other cleaners," Taehyung smirked as he wiggled an eyebrow suggestively towards Jimin.
"Not that it matters, look what she did to my new shirt!"
"Hyung, it was an accident give her a break will you?" Namjoon reasoned.
You came back with mop in hand, and everyone still standing around awkwardly. You could feel the tension in the air as everyone's eyes were fixed on you, but to avoid attention you concentrated on the task at hand. The faster you cleaned up the faster you could leave. This wasn't exactly they way you had imagined you would ever meet BTS. Soon enough, the boys dispersed, except for Yoongi who had moved to refill his glass and was now watching you with eagle eyes from the kitchen bench. You finished cleaning up and put the mop back in the laundry storage cupboard and walked straight to the door, never had you want to get off work quicker than right now.
"Wait, my shirt... dirty. You clean shirt." Yoongi declared in English.
You had always thought his English was so cute but right now the only thing on your mind was that the look on his face did not look anything remotely close to cute. You definitely couldn't afford to buy him a replacement shirt. You turned to face Yoongi, unsure how to respond. The shirt would need to be soaked overnight to get rid of the stain and you wouldn't be back at work until after the weekend.
"Um, I have to soak the shirt overnight to clean it. Put it in a bucket of water and I'll clean it properly when I come back on Monday."
Yoongi furrowed his brows in confusion.
"Hyung, she said it will take a while to clean and to soak it in water. She'll wash it properly, when she comes back after the weekend." Jungkook translated to him in Korean.
You hadn't notice the maknae standing quietly by the hallway. Yoongi seemed to be annoyed but gave a gruff nod and walked away towards what you assumed was his bedroom. You bowed politely to Jungkook and said thank you before slipping on your shoes as you pushed opened the door to leave.
"Wait! WAIT!" Taehyung called out as he jogged toward you.
You winced, so close yet so far from escape, you had had more than enough embarrassment for one day and needed sometime to process what had just happened in the past 30 minutes.
"Thank you for giving Tannie water. I forgot this morning since we left so early for our schedule." Taehyung grinned as he held the little fluffball in his arms.
You weren't quite sure what he had said but you assumed it was about his puppy as the only word you had understood was 'Tannie' and 'water'. You smiled politely, nodded and bowed and again turned to leave. You rubbed your head where you had hit the sink as you began to feel the growing throb but instead your hand felt slightly sticky and your hair was matted. You looked at your hand and there was dried blood. You must've hit your head harder than you thought, caught up in the shock of literally bumping into BTS. You panicked slightly as you didn't want to embarrass yourself anymore in front of the idols and instead quickly rushed out and shut the door firmly behind you but not before making eye contact with Jungkook who seemed to have noticed, as he looked back at you with those adorable big round bunny eyes.
You continued to walk down the hallway towards the lifts and pressed the button to go down whilst rubbing the bump that was beginning to grow on your head. How embarrassing! You had managed to destroy Yoongi's shirt and cut your head open in BTS's apartment during your first encounter with them. How would you go back next week to clean their apartment again? You began to understand Imo's warning, with BTS's increasing popularity, they must need the utmost privacy and Imo may or may not have noticed that your ringtone was SPRING DAY, and that you were a fan of the boys.
Lost in thought, you were startled by a tap on the shoulder and spun around to see Jungkook standing in front of you. He seemed like he wanted to say something but wasn't quite sure how. You waited for him to speak first and grew increasingly awkward as he continued to look at you, searching his mind for the words to say.
"This for your head," he announced as he handed you some ice wrapped in a tea towel.
A/N: I hope you liked it? This is my first time writing a fic so please go easy on me. If you liked it let me know, I may consider continuing this as a series... maybe.
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