@genesis304 said: a laundry room humming with fluorescent lights. 🦷 random setting prompts
THIS COULD BE ONE OF THE CLEANEST SMELLING PLACES IN THIS RESIDENCE, but the pungent smell of mildew wafts from the pipes. not even the chemical smell of fake floral laundry detergent can save this room from its off putting aroma. jongwoo tries to keep his time here brief. the smell will linger in his clothes if he stays in here too long. it will give him a headache too, no doubt, worse than the one his senior at work has already given him.
it’s already been a long day, he doesn’t want to spend any more time here than he absolutely has to. clean his laundry and go, maybe even get some writing done before he has to lay down to sleep — only to start bright and early again in the morning. he’s not paid enough for how early he has to get up, for how many buses he has to take to get in on time. he sighs with his whole body, balls up his soiled shirts, tossing them into the washer bowl one by one. each and every one of them miss their target, instead landing on the mysteriously stained floor. another sigh, more dramatic than the last. he screws his eyes shut for a breath before bending down to pick the garments up, this time taking care to place them in the washer properly this time.
the icing on the cake, the absolute cherry on the top, comes when he retrieves the bottle of cheap laundry detergent that lives next to the washer, only to find it completely empty. not a drop — almost like it was already washed out and left to dry, prepped to be thrown away with the rest of the recycling. his grip tightens on the handle. his knuckles turn red. his nose crinkles, teeth bared.
the empty plastic makes a satisfying thud as it ricochets off the far wall. these people… they are doing it on purpose, aren’t they? don’t they know he is trying to live a normal life? nothing about this place is normal! he turns, ready to grab the dish soap from the kitchen sink — it will smell awful but it’s something, at least. anything to wash whatever his clothes just picked up from the floor.
a figure darkens the doorway and jongwoo recognizes him instantly. the guy from room 304, silent, head tilted, eyes looking… why do his eyes always look like that? a jolt of something unexplainable washes over jongwoo, enough to make his shoulders tense. he opens his mouth once, and then twice — both times, words fail to come to him.
finally, sheepishly, he mutters, “ …did you see that…? ”