#philocaly

“Don't you dare just rush through this!” You yelled after her, locking the car and hurrying to catch up to her. “This is really important! It's the first time you have an apartment. You're gonna live there for a while and slacking now would result in an unsatisfied future you.”

“I just need a bed.”

You scoffed: “I am pretty sure you need more than just a bed.”

You entered through the entrance and you could feel the change of atmosphere. The smell of new stuff, the excited whispers of people looking for new furniture, the cool of the air conditioner. The inside of an IKEA was basically a completely different world. And you loved it.

While you took all the sensations in with a huge grin, your friend just kept on moving without sparing another glance at you.

“Hey!” You exclaimed and rushed after her once again. “You can't just wander off. You need to take your time!”

“Whatever you say.”

For a moment discourage spread through your body. Your posture slumped and you could swear your heart sunk to your stomach. But as quickly as this feeling came as quickly it was replaced with determination. This was a once in a lifetime experience and you were determined that your friend would get all out of it. 

You stopped walking, crossed your arms in front of your chest and formed a pout on your lips.

She walked a little further before she noticed your missing presence. Confused, she turned around and saw you standing there, like a little kid, in the middle of the lobby. With a deep sigh she closed her eyes shortly before going back to you.

“Stop that or I leave you at the playground for kids,” she mumbled, annoyed, but you could see her resolve crumbling.

“I will stop, when you open your heart for this wonderful trip.”

Another sigh left your friend's mouth. “Please don't go overboard,” she whispered and looked at you with pleading eyes.

“When have I ever gone overboard?” You gasped in shock.

Your friend just shook her head and made an opening gesture with her hand. “Lead the way,” she mumbled and with a triumphant grin, you followed her invitation.

“Since you wished to keep it low, we will skip the kitchen and bathroom area,” you announced walking up the stairs to the show rooms.

“Thank you.”

“And by skipping I mean I won’t make a long tour with exaggerated explanations. You should still look through it to get some impressions. There is even a slight possibility you notice something you still need.”

You basically felt the drop of her shoulders after your statement but you ignored it and rushed to the first kitchen on display.

The floor was made with dark wood, bright cupboards and a marble surface. It looked really clean but thanks to the wood it still felt welcoming. Amazed, your fingers ran over the marble. Everytime you noticed something new you immediately rushed towards it and touched it.

Your friend followed you slowly, looking around with an unimpressed expression, before watching you again. After a while she slightly started to imitate your habits and carefully touched the surface or opened drawers.

Satisfied, you walked with her through the different showrooms until you reached the living room area. Taking her hand, you pulled her with you on a couch.

“What are we doing here? I don’t need a couch,” she complained but plopped down, exhausted from having to deal with you.

“Watching.”

“What? What are we watching?”

You rolled your eyes and just made a gesture to point to your surroundings.

With a raised eyebrow she followed your hand, taking in whatever she saw. You observed her, noticing immediately her confused stare to something behind you. Following her gaze you saw a guy rearranging a showroom. Silently you watched him, your head cocked to the side in interest.

“Is he? Is he doing what I think he does?” Your friend asked.

“Rearranging the showroom, yeah.”

“Is that even allowed?”

Confused, you turned back to her. “Why wouldn't it be? The staff arranges the show rooms constantly because they get new things.”

With an annoyed eye roll she pointed behind you again. “Would you pay closer attention to the guy and not the stuff he does?”

You followed her instructions and looked once again at the guy. Dark, curly hair, a slight frown on his face, a simple button up and a pair of jeans. Wait! You frantically looked around until you spotted a worker. Noticing the difference you looked back at the guy. He wasn't wearing the typical yellow button-up with the huge IKEA logo on the back.

“He’s a customer?!” You exclaimed in shock.

“Duh.”

“But he's doing a great job! It looks way better now!”

“If you weren't so afraid of the consequences, you would do the same, wouldn't you?”

“Maybe?! I wanna know who he is;” you whispered while your eyes trailed his every movement in fascination. In trance you stood up and walked towards him. The shouts of your friend behind you were unheard.

He currently arranged a few decorations contemplating where to put them. Shuffling around the showroom he hadn't noticed you yet.

“I wouldn't put it there,” you interrupted him.

He jumped a little, startled from your sudden appearance and looked at you with wide eyes. It took him several seconds to realise you had said something. He looked down to the vase in his hands before his gaze wandered up to you again and a sly grin spread on his lips.

You took the vase out of his hand, walked past him and placed it on a shelf. Feeling his stare on your every movement you got a little self-conscious. “It's nice here, don’t you think?”

He rolled his head from one side to the other as if he thought about your choice of placement.

Nervously you pulled your lower lip between your teeth, nibbling on it. With every second he kept silent you grew more antsy. You jumped a little when he finally blew out air in an exaggerating sigh.

“I thought you'd yell at me for rearranging the showroom. You've no idea how hard my heart is beating right now! Leo warned me I’d get yelled at but oh boy I never expected someone would join me in my quest!”

Stunned, you just stared at him, blinking a few times to process his words. “Quest?”

“Yeah! You know, I love interior designs! They are just wonderful and able to influence the mood of someone quite a lot! The only issue here is that a few showrooms feel kinda off. You know, like something's just not right and I got this urge to change that,” he explained, grinning from ear to ear. “That sounds a little stupid, doesn’t it?”

“No, no! I totally get what you mean!” You reassured him, taking a step closer to him. “It's like a feeling deep down in your stomach that just doesn't sit well and because of that you have this tingling in your fingertips, this desire to change it so you could rest in peace.”

“That's totally it!”

Suddenly he grabbed your wrist and pulled you behind him. Overwhelmed, you looked over your shoulder back to your friend, who just shrugged her shoulders and waved you off, relishing in the calm she now finally got.

When he finally stopped you bumped into his back and stumbled a little. If he hadn’t held your wrist, you would probably have fallen on your butt. Curiously you looked around.

He had brought you to another showroom. A bedroom to be specific. He basically rushed past all the other living room examples to bring you to a bedroom. You could feel how the tips of your ears started to heat. “Uhm, why did we skip the other rooms?” You asked meekly, too shy to look straight at him again.

“The living rooms aren't as catastrophic as this here!” He exclaimed, making a wide gesture with his arms - your wrist still in one of his hands. “The problem is I just don't know where to start and what to do. Maybe a new perspective could help me and since I have no idea how long I’ll be able to be with you I thought we should immediately start in the bedroom.”

It took you a lot of self control to not faint on the spot after hearing his words. Normally you would roll with the punches and just joke around whenever you hear something slightly suggestive but with this good looking stranger, who was still holding your wrist (and wow do his hands feel soft and warm), you just turned into a complete mushy mess unable to retort anything.

“Ah, I didn't even introduce myself, did I?” He suddenly asked and turned around facing you again. “Hi! My name is Sam.” A sly grin reappeared on his features when he slid down his hand to shake yours shortly.

You prayed silently that your flustered state wasn’t as obvious as it felt. “Well, I’m Y/N. Nice to meet you?” The last part came out higher than you intended to, making it sound like a question.

Sam chuckled at that, turning back to the room in front of you. “So. What do you think?”

Glad he ignored your little embarrassing misstep (and a little sad you didn't feel his warm hand on you anymore), you turned to take a closer look at the room as well. It wasn’t bad per se but something felt quite off. Even though you stared at it intently you couldn't place a finger on it.

To your left and right there were fake walls, closing off the room while the back and the front were both open. Even though the back was partly open since only half of it seemed to resemble large windows. On the left wall were two big closets placed in the middle, to their sides smaller boards with decorations on it. In the middle of the room was a round and fluff looking carpet, with a big chandelier hanging right over it. Finally at the right wall stood a king size bed with two night stands on either side and a huge painting that was hanging in the middle of the wall. Everything was perfectly combined in style and colour.

“Something is bothering me,” you mumbled and stepped next to Sam, your gaze jumping from one end to the other of the room.

“Right, right! But what is it?”

“I'm not sure.”

You walked further into the room, turning in circles to get a better impression before you dropped yourself on the bed. “Why can't I name this?” You groaned exaggeratingly. “The colours are wonderful! The style is fantastic! The details are amazing! But there is something wrong!”

Sam wandered around the bed and dropped himself on the other side with a deep sigh. “I had hoped you could figure it out.” A sad expression washed over his face before he closed his eyes and you couldn't see it anymore.

Frantically you searched inside your mind for a solution, determined to see his smile again. “Have you ever tried to live in this room?” You questioned him after a while, an idea sparking inside your mind.

He propped himself up on the bed, looking at you in confusion.

“I mean, like, you always look at the rooms from an outside perspective. You said a new perspective could help to figure this out! So let's try to change that. I mean we could pretend to live in this room, you know. Just imagine a morning or an evening and play it out. Maybe somewhere along the line we see what's bothering us!” You said excitedly, your eyes shining with enthusiasm.

“It's worth a try.” He smirked and stood up again, walking around the bed and pulling you up as well. Again he took your hand and pulled you along until both of you stood outside of the room again. “Okay, so we pretend that here is the door and this is our bedroom. It's close to night time and we both just got off from work exhausted, ready to head to bed.”

You nodded along with his explanation. “Alright. So I go into our room. Normally I would search for new clothes I can wear the next day and place them on a chair. Then I would change into pyjamas, walk out again to wash up and come back to basically fall into the bed.” While you explained your routine you walked around the room, simply waving with your arms and hands to imply the actions you said.

Sam carefully watched your steps until you dropped on the bed. He explained his way as well while you observed him. You noticed he ducked down whenever he walked under the chandelier even though it was high enough to not hit his head on it. But other than that nothing weird seemed to strike you.

“Lastly I would drop onto the bed next to you, pull you close for some cuddles and wish you a good night.” 

You nearly fainted on the spot when he actually did what he said. His arm was draped around your middle, your shoulder pressed against his chest and his face only centimetres away from yours. You could feel his breath tickle your cheek.

“Did you notice something?” Sam mumbled, still lying next to you and with his eyes closed.

“Yeah, I actually did! It was amusing and cute to see how you ducked down whenever you walked under the chandelier.” You smiled and turned your face to look at him.

“I did? Huh. Looking from here it seems to be high enough to walk under it.”

“It is,” you assured him.

“Hmm. Then why did I do that? Did you notice anything else?”

You shook your head no. “Maybe we see something after waking up?” You suggested.

“Alright.” Sam stood up again and stretched his arms over his head with a groan. For a moment you could only focus on his stomach that was on display because his shirt was lifted with the stretch.

Swallowing even though your mouth was dry, you forced yourself to look up again. You saw how he stretched his arms to the side and tensed his shoulder and back muscles until you heard a few joints crack. Seeing his outstretched arms you jumped on your knees and crawled over to his side.

“That's it!” You exclaimed loudly, grabbing his shirt to root him in place. “You can't stretch your arms out like this unless you want to break the window.”

Sam looked from his outstretched arm to the ground and back up. Realisation dawning on his features. “It's the bed.”

“It's the bed!” You nodded excitedly. “That explains why this picture in the middle of the wall annoys me from this point of view. It explains why you duck under the chandelier! This explains this feeling of something being not right. The bed does not stand in the middle of the room!”

“Why?”

“Maybe someone thought a bed closer to the window would give a nice view to the outside?”

“As if I can't see it from the middle of the room.” Sam scoffed, shaking his head disapprovingly before his whole demeanour changed rapidly. “Anyway,” he said and knelt back on the bed. His face once again only a few centimetres away from yours, “since we're already living together I thought I should ask my girlfriend now at least on a proper date.” A lopsided smile appeared on his lips and you saw in his eyes hope, curiosity and mischief glowing.

“A strange order of events but I agree.” You smiled.

Sam grinned widely. “May I escort you to the dining area for a romantic meal together?” He stretched out his hand for you to take.

You laughed loudly but took his hand, intertwined your fingers and let him pull you through the maze of IKEA.