┆ apt ♯20.

The apartment has felt relatively empty for a while—Nari was not sure if it was because she was usually home while her roommates were at work, or if because she was too busy to fully occupy the space as she used to, constantly holed up in her own bedroom when she wasn't in class. The feeling became worse when she fell ill, riddling her unable to do anything besides stay in bed and get up occasionally to force herself to eat or feed her cat. It has been miserable, to say the least. Although, she would never admit that out loud.

Today has been the first day she felt better. Her cough was still troubling her and her nose was stuffed, but at the very least she was able to get some work done for classes she had missed. She had been quietly reviewing her notes when she heard the door right outside her own shut.

Puzzled, she straightened up, looking towards the door with a tilted head before turning to her cat, whose head was also perked up from where she loafed at the foot of her bed. "Who could that be, Daisy?" she asked, to which the latter replied with a soft, quizzical, "mrreow?" Curious, Nari stood up and peeked her head out of her door. "Dongwon?"

After weeks of being chained to his never-ending work, Siwoo finally snagged a break and stumbled back home, almost expecting a "Welcome Back" banner to unfurl. As he stepped inside, he was hit with a wave of nostalgia, wondering if the house had always looked so familiar yet foreign—perhaps his couch should wear a name tag. He pondered the passage of time since his last visit: was it days, weeks, or millennia? Nearly every day, he toyed with the idea of ditching the grind to become Yumi’s pampered pet. After all, who wouldn’t want naps, snacks, and belly rubs on demand? He hadn’t dismissed the notion completely, just filed it away for future fantasy fulfillment. Channeling his inner squirrel, he scurried to his room with the speed and grace of someone whose only motivation is a soft landing. Finally, he flopped onto his bed with the elegance of a sack of potatoes, savoring the blissful embrace of his fluffy sanctuary.

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Haebin doesn't wait for Nari to respond before he walks to the trash to toss the apple core away. And he has a mind to try to make nice with Daisy, but her hissing averts him away. "Anyways, I gotta head out now. I got this odd job down at the chicken place. They need help moving some crates, but I'll meet you guys at the coffee house later?"

He followed Haebin across the room to the couch Nari had settled on, sitting down beside her but facing in Daisy's direction instead as he made cute noises at the kitty - letting out a soft laugh when he heard Haebins tone, "its so late, Nari~"

"Thanks, man" Haebin smiles and gives Dongwon a pat on his shoulder before he makes a miffed face at Nari's comment about them being too loud. Then he makes his way over to lean against the back of the couch she's sitting on. "Well, that's because you slept into the afternoon, sweetums!" he speaks in a phony motherly way and gives the top of her head a gentle tap. "How late did you stay up last night?"

"Too loud," she grumbled, walking over to the couch before plopping down, a sigh leaving her. "That nap was too long. Also, you two at answering questions." She groaned again and fell to her side, lifting her knees to tuck them close to her while Daisy walked away to perch on her cat tree by the couch.

He perked up as he listened to Haebin talking about his plans for the day, his eyes widening in quiet interest, "ooh my fingers and toes are crossed for you then! Make sure you tell me how you go!" He lifted a hand with fingers crossed as well, "oh me not much I just--" he cut off when he heard Nari's voice, looking across at his room mate with a bright smile, "aha there's miss sleepy head finally~"

His gaze moves from Dongwon to Nari's head, poking out from behind her bedroom door. "Rise and shine, sleeping beauty!"

Nari peeks out from behind her door, eyes squinted and hair messy. She pauses for a moment then fully emerges from her room with her cat in her arms, a soft groan leaving her. "What time is it?"

"I think they're good," he says before taking another bite of the apple. Following him, Haebin gets up from the chair and walks across the room to lean against the counter while Dongwon's washing his face and hands. "So far, so good. I have an audition later today to be in some AD about medical . . . something. It's supposed to pay really good, so . . ." Haebin crosses his fingers for good luck. "How's your day? Got anything planned later?"

"Oh.. yeah just scribblings that's all I just wanted to see if they sort of... invoked anything," he shrugged his shoulders once and carefully put them back into his pile before heading across the room to the sink to wash his hands and then his face, chuckling as he turned back to his friend, "soooo how was your day?"

At the nod of Dongwon's head, Haebin nods too, feeling confident that he had said the right thing. The new art piece makes him nods even more, his lips pursed in approval. "Eerie-looking.. Are these sketches or —" Haebin looks up to see that the charcoal had smeared across the entirety of Dongwon's bottom lip. "Ehm.. it's still there, bro."

"Scared..." he repeated the word back softly with a simple nod of his head, moving through the remaining papers before sliding another one across, "and this one? Oh-" he lifted his hand to wipe at his lip with the back of his hand, "did I get it off?"

He's completely dense but doesn't want to disappoint Dongwon, so he takes a bite of his apple then speaks slowly. "It makes me feel . . . kind of scared..?" his brows raise, and he watches his friend to catch his reaction before directing his gaze back down to the paper and sliding it closer to him. "By the way, you got charcoal on your lip."

The question had him dropping his gaze down to the paper again, head tilting at he tapped his pouty lower lip with a black fingertip, "you tell me.. it's abstract or something right? How does it make you feel?"

Haebin laughs and makes a mental note to himself to buy some apples whenever he's at the supermarket again. He watches Dongwon come over to the dining table then he looks over the paper that is slid over to him with furrowed brows. "What am I looking at exactly..?"

He released a soft laugh as he shook his head and waved a charcoal covered hand in Haebins direction, "no no you finish it - I'll just fade away into nothing." He teased playfully before getting up from his seat and walking over to the table to sit opposite the other male, dropping his papers and charcoals down messily, "what do you see?" He questioned, sliding a paper across to him that really didn't have anything decipherable on it - just a mess of patterns.

"Oh, hey!" he greets with a grin when he notices Dongwon on the couch. He's already half-way into the apple when he stops with a sheepish smile. "I could cut the uneaten half of this apple and put it back in the fridge..?"

Dongwon was on the couch with one of his many projects when Haebin let himself in, his eyes curious as he watched his friend move about the apartment as if it was his own (which it practically was) before settling himself at the dining table. He released a soft snort through his nose before his eyes dipped back to what was on his lap, "if that was the last apple you owe me new ones~"

It's mid-day when Haebin walks in, casually beelining to the fridge as he has done a thousand times before. After opening the fridge door and taking a quick scan, he finally steals an apple and bites into it while he seats himself at the dining table.