#gunheerk

⇢ request received: @gunheerk !

Sceptical eyes followed the male as he entered the cafe. Her hands working on auto-pilot she kept her gaze stoic, calculating eyes following his figure above the coffee machine. Their first encounter had already left Yuna with a bad gut feeling. Either way it wasn’t her business to pry into another person’s affairs.

Even so...

Fingers lingered around his finished offer even as he’d reached for it, creating an awkward moment of silence between them. Nudging her glasses up her nose she points to her own eye bags while eyeing him once more from up close.

{ Contact; Gunhee }

It had been literally 4 years since she had last seen him. 4 years since she had heard those words that broke her. 4 years! So why the hell was she missing him like she was now? Why was she even thinking of him after so long?

With a heavy sigh, Bora rolls over in her bed onto her side, having just gotten home from the hospital and the light from the sun was slightly shining in through her curtains in her condo. She knew it was probably still too early in the morning for him to be awake which is why she decided to send the text now instead of later.

She picks up her phone and uses her fingerprint to unlock it, opening up her messages and creating a new one, selecting Gunhee’s name before she begins typing. It takes a few tries and a few deletes before she finally types something out and just sends it before she can back out.

“I miss you. What have you been up to?”

She hits the send button and sighs heavily as she stares at the screen, though there’s no reply. Nothing. Had he changed his number? Was he just ignoring her? Maybe he had really moved on and didn’t care for her anymore, besides it had been a while since the two had last seen one another, though she did have a slight bit of hope and after a few moments of not getting a reply she realized that maybe she just made a fool of herself.

Bora let’s out yet another sigh before rolling over onto her back, her arms sprawled out to each side of her and her phone laying loosely in her hand as she stares up at the ceiling. She was maybe hanging onto something that just didn’t exist anymore.

It had been a few weeks since Gunhee moved in to MK’s apartment to be his roommate. He’d warned MK when he’d toured the place that he was a night owl, but it was still a bit of a shock sometimes when MK woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of someone crooning a ballad down the hall… in English.

He didn’t really mind. It wasn’t like Gunhee was loud, exactly. And he had turned out to be a tidy roommate who kept mostly to himself. But MK found that he wanted to get to know the… interesting young man who was working himself past normal human sleeping hours to practice music. Unfortunately there seemed to be a bit of an unspoken rule not to ask each other about their creative pursuits, even though MK would gladly have shared insights about his artwork if asked.

{flashback: september 15, 2018}

It was roughly eight in the morning when MK finished putting the last touches on his hand-painted banner for the living room. Welcome Home! It read. The paint was still drying when he hung it up, but he wanted to make sure everything was perfect for when his new roommate arrive at nine.

In the kitchen, coffee was prepared for brewing. Of course, he wouldn’t start that until just before nine, but it was good to be ready. All of the preparation in the world couldn’t help MK relax though, and he went and gave Gunhee’s room-to-be another once-over. Furniture was on the way, it had to be tidy.

What else could he do? MK came back and took a seat in the living room, only to stare at the banner drying on the wall. Was Gunhee really as friendly as he seemed? Would he pay the rent on time? Was he secretly less put-together than MK? It was only the sound of his phone vibrating that brought him back to reality at quarter after nine.

“Hello? Oh my gosh, it’s nine already. Let me help you with your things. I’ll be right down!”

{September 5, 2018}

MK had been worried at first. The guy who had introduced himself as Gunhee seemed a little… unapproachable. Although that could have been because of his abrupt comment about his coffee and the fact that he looked absolutely exhausted. But after Gunhee took a few sips of his drink he suddenly became talkative.

In fact, he began to ramble to the point that MK forgot he was supposed to be evaluating whether to invite the guy over for a tour. Eventually, he remembered, and cut the conversation short.

“So d’you wanna see the place?”

After the tour, MK knew immediately he had found the right guy. He didn’t want to scare his best prospect off, but the sooner he got someone to move in, the sooner he could lift some of the burden of rent from his parents. So he pulled up his laptop and sent a message to Gunhee.

Hey – Just wanted to let you know say tell you that I’ve thought about considered your application to be my roommate, and I don’t want to sound to hasty, but I accept, provided you’re still okay with my terms. ₩500,000 per month, no pets, no smoking.

As he wrote, he realized he was neglecting to tell the other man something very important about himself, but MK pushed those thoughts aside. It’s not like I’ll have time for a boyfriend with all the work I’ve got going on for school. If it comes up later, well… he shook his head. He didn’t have time for negativity right now. Back to the email.

Can you move in by the 15th? Then you’ll only have to be able to pay half for the first month, how does that sound? Let me know ASAP Please let me know. – MK

Without thinking about it any further, MK crossed his fingers and clicked ‘Send.’

{September 5, 2018}

MK was nervous. Very nervous, in fact, which was a little unlike his usual bubbly and outgoing self. He had posted online seeking a roommate a month ago and had several responses (probably because he was only asking ₩500,000 per month to share his two bedroom condo in Gangnam). He usually met prospectives in the café beside his building to get a feel for their personality before inviting them on a tour, but it often didn’t make it that far. The artist was having terrible luck scouting potential roommates.

The last guy who had replied showed up with two dogs because MK had failed to specify he did not want the responsibility of pets. The guy before him had smelled too strongly of cologne and had insisted he would only be bringing a female guest with him “on occasion.” How hard could it be to find a roommate who was relatively quiet and didn’t come with add-ons?

So when a tired-looking young man in a black hoodie and jeans walked into the café alone, MK paid little attention to him. Clearly the next roommate applicant was going to be someone who wanted to set up a greenhouse in the living room or something, not someone that normal. It wasn’t until the guy turned around and pulled off his hood that MK noticed he was actually very good-looking. Right, well, MK’s luck was not that good. So it definitely couldn’t be –

The man started walking toward MK’s table. Oh god, oh god, he noticed me staring at him. There’s no other reason for a guy like him to be coming over here. But even as MK’s thoughts scattered, the man kept walking until he made it to MK’s table.

“You… aren’t here… for the roommate application, by any chance, are you?” MK asked, flinching a little as he did so.