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@Nam Dongju On what was supposed to be a normal Saturday that was welcomed a lot of business for each of the plaza's establishments, the strip was dark once again, and there was a crowd in the plaza center. Christian had learned from the first strike to bring more signage for the tenants who didn't want to explain to each passing potential customer what exactly the were protesting about. On top of that, he made sure to set up more folding chairs for the elderly to sit in throughout their long days. Keith was slated to come to the office today too, which meant that he would have to face his tenants head on. As Christian was setting up cones to the side of the parking lot to direct traffic away from their road, he heard a familiar voice. Whipping around to see Dongju staring up at him pointedly, Christian ran a hand through his curly hair and grinned, "Oh good morning to you too," he greeted the younger. "You miss Lori that much, or is she an excuse to come talk to me?" he teased, going over to a little box that was covered by a towel. Under the towel was Lori, sleeping in her travel kennel. "She came today, going to share with us her fighting spirit," he told Dongju.

@Christian Yu Since Dongju hadn't exactly intended to fit in the strike for this upcoming weekend, he woke earlier to clean up his store and dig out his signs that Christian made for him last time. As nine approached and Dongju wrapped up, he bunched up his black irises that he had been intending to sell today. They would begin to wilt if Dongju left them for one more day, so he brought them with him to the strike. At nine on the dot, there were only a few of the storeowners already on the scene, with the rest slowly trickling in. That Christian wasn't lecturing others when it came to being late, Dongju thought with a huff. He greeted the tenants who were already there, handing them each a flower, and left a flower on each empty lawn chair as well for the rest of the tenants. Christian was already there, messing with something at the front, but there was something crucial missing. Dongju marched up to him, his cardboard sign dangling from his fingertips. "Yah. Where's Lori?"

@Nam Dongju Christian wasn't surprised that Dongju had fallen in love with his sweet Lori, since she was always such a darling to everyone around her. "Mm, if she's up for it," he responded to Dongju's suggestion, finally retrieving Lori after his entire evening of arduous labor. He supposed that bringing Lori to the strike wasn't the worst idea, since that meant he'd get to spend more time with her and let her get more sunlight. "See you tomorrow then," Christian said, returning to his own apartment. For the sake of their strike being successful, Christian had set aside his own prejudice against his neighbor for the time being, though that still didn't excuse Dongju from acting so immaturely as to put rotten meat in his store. He hoped that his act of kindness would've somehow convinced the younger to think thrice before doing something so petty once again. But, that night, as he started to think over and over again about the usefulness of his act of kindness, other thoughts arose. Those thoughts were much darker, and he began to doubt that doing good towards others would bring him the same kind of good treatment. As the thoughts took over, Christian felt himself falling into the shadows.

@Christian Yu Dongju slapped Christian’s hand out of his face when it came a little too close. He hadn’t meant to use so much force, but he had been startled, not expecting Christian to come so close. “I got it, I got it,” he said, tightening his arms around Lori once more as he followed Christian downstairs again, letting Christian take care of everything as Dongju watched. He refused to let go of the sweet puppy until they were back upstairs, standing in front of Christian’s apartment. With extreme reluctance, as if Lori were the biggest diamond unearthed, Dongju set her down at her door. “You should bring Lori to the strike,” Dongju said, casual as he could manage. “She’s going to be bored at home.”

@Nam Dongju Once again, Christian was seeing that humans were innately persuasive. With just a simple push in the direction that he wanted, all while threatening to take away something that Dongju needed, he had gotten a very heartless thanks from the younger. It was better than nothing, he supposed, but it didn't convince right away to finish the other's job. Seeing how defensively Dongju was holding onto his baby girl, Christian raised a brow, "Lori's my dog, you know?" he asked with an amused chuckle. "If you don't remember where it is, you better come with me then," Christian said, reaching for the trash bags that he had moved to the top of the counter when he cleared out the area below the sink earlier. "I'll walk this to the trash for you, but only if you agree to show up to the strike tomorrow. On time." he said, waggling a finger in Dongju's face, "Not a minute late, do you hear?"

@Christian Yu "Ah, wait!" Dongju turned his entire body to shield Lori from being taken, hugging her tightly when Christian tried to take her back. He didn't want to let go of the sweet dog so he could deal with the budget of foul-smelling sludge now sitting in the middle of the kitchen, and as much as he hated Christian, Dongju supposed he could spare a little bit of gratitude, even if he didn't mean it. "Please... can you help me with the trash? And I... don't remmeber where the water is." The second admission was the truth—Dongju couldn't even recall the way to bring himself back to the maintenance room, let alone remember how to turn the water back on. "And thanks... I guess." There was an unspoken 'For doing a half-assed job' in Dongju's mind, but he knew better than to say it now.

@Nam Dongju "Sure you do," Christian agreed noncommittally, as if he were trying to coax a child to build up their confidence. Using the wrench to secure everything back into place, he finished with replacing the parts under the sink and stood up, wiping off the sweat that had formed at his forehead (from the anxiety of having to sniff those possibly toxic fumes) and glanced over at Dongju. "Oh you're welcome," he interjected, getting ever so slightly annoyed that this youngster didn't have any manners at all. He glanced down at the greyish sludge in the bucket, and chuckled, "It's your sink, why aren't you taking it down to the dumpster?" Christian asked, grabbing a paper towel off the counter to wipe his hands with before he reached over to retrieve Lori from Dongju's arms, "As your good neighbor, I've done everything I needed to do to help," he said, "All without a word of please or thanks too, so instead of going through that extra thankless trouble, I'll just be heading home to wash my hands and turn in for the night. Oh by the way, don't forget you don't have running water until you go and turn the water meter back on."

@Christian Yu "I know what's supposed to go down the sink," Dongju muttered under his breath, bouncing Lori in his arm when she was rebuked by her owner. Basically, anything that could fit had to be allowed, otherwise they wouldn't make the whole so big, right? Dongju watched without another comment until Christian finished putting everything back together. "What are you going to do with that?" Dongju asked again after the cupboard door was shut, reiterating through implications that Christian was to take care of the sludge. "Do you want a garbage bag to put it in? Then you can take it down to the dumpster."

@Nam Dongju "And why should I help my neighbor who didn't even want it when I first offered to help?" Christian quipped right back. A part of him wanted to ask Dongju if he realized how unreasonable he had been. Lori seemed to sense their tension, so she strained her neck out, at Christian's wrist as he was working, "No baby girl," he gently shooed her away, "Don't me, this grime is filthy." He shot another disgruntled look at Dongju at the younger's wishful thinking. "Sir, this sink is not a living being. It does not have a stomach or bladder to digest the food that you throw down it. After this, I'm giving you a lesson on what can go down the sink. You have to take this course, no choice." After saying that, Christian finished cleaning out the pipes. "Alright...it should be better now. Let's put the pieces back...here first..." he mumbled to himself.

@Christian Yu "Well, maybe don't spend two hours obsessively cleaning your store, and you'd have time for other things, like helping your neighbours out of the goodness of your heart," Dongju said, finding Christian's OCD a little TMI. Surely, unless someone died in his studio, there was no need to clean for that long. His face darkened when Christian talking like Dongju put those things in the drain /on purpose/. "That was an accident," he said, tiring of holding the flashlight. He switched Lori and the light so that his right arm could get some rest. "I was washing it and it just slipped down the sink. That was a long time ago, though... I thought the sink would've digested it by now."

@Nam Dongju What a character! "What do you mean no?" Christian repeated, dumbfounded to the point of laughing at Dongju's answer. "This is /your/ sink that /you/ used! It's not like you're paying me or even formally asked me to help you, so why am I cleaning up after you?" Christian asked, shaking his head in shock as he turned back to cleaning through the pieces of the pipe. "Besides, I'm already doing all this free labor so late into the night. I have a strike to prepare for and my own shop to run you know, especially since I did spend two whole days deep cleaning it." His nose wrinkled behind the two layers of masks as something solid dropped out of the pipes, "You must really like cooking up whole produce or filets," Christian noted, pointing it out to Dongju, "You see that? That's not supposed to be in the drains. No wonder it was spurting out."

@Christian Yu Dongju was /not/ touching that sludge sitting in his wash basin. "No!" he cried, mortified Christian would even suggest such a thing. "Where's your sense of responsibility? You started this, so you better clean up too." Hooking one of the masks over his face, Dongju pulled the second one over Lori's face. It didn't fit so well, considering her long nose, but her large ears helped to keep it on. Dongju crouched by the sink's cabinet again, aiming his phone's light the best he could with one hand while he bounced Lori with his other arm. "Is this okay? Can you see?"

@Nam Dongju Normally, a regular 3-ply safety mask was good enough for most settings that required some barrier from the outside environment, but that wasn't the case for Christian, who had to get up close with the...muck that was in Dongju's sink. He had to double mask, and he even brought a set back for Dongju, not giving him the excuse to sit out of this situation. "Here," he said, handing over two masks and speaking under his own, "Put these on. Then come back and hold the flashlight." Christian would simply have to clean out the pipes with a brush and run hot water through the pipes to clean it, so he nodded to Dongju, "It's fixable, but you're going to have to find a way to deal with that toxic sludge on your own," he said. Lowering himself back to the pipes under the sink again, he began to take each smaller piece apart, bringing them to the basin and dumping out the contents trapped within as best as he could. This was Dongju's karma, Christian thought to himself, for leaving rotting meat in someone else's workplace.

@Christian Yu "Of course I put my food in the compost!" Dongju argued, though he didn't fight being ushered to his couch, not wanting to face the reality of his sink and drain at the moment. Deep down, he was glad Christian was still willing to work on the sink for him, because if Dongju saw that while he was helping someone, he would simply gather all his things and his dog and leave. It was better not to look a gift horse in the mouth, even if this gift horse was the person Dongju hated the most—the second-most—on this earth, so Dongju kept quiet and waited for Christian to come back, only approaching the kitchen again when Christian returned, still cradling Lori against his chest. "But it /is/ fixable... right?"

@Nam Dongju The smell that attacked Christian's nostrils was putrid, almost equitable to the rotten meat that was left in his shop the other day. This was probably where Dongju got such a heinous idea from! "This is not /normal/," Christian emphasized, fighting down his gag reflex. He had to stand up for a moment and to get his face out of the area, lest he get attacked by toxic fumes at the end of it. "I'm going back to my apartment to grab a mask," he said, shooing both Dongju and Lori out of the kitchen area, "Don't let my dog breathe in these gases - they could kill." He shook his head, "Have you ever heard of dumping your food into the trash or compost bin before? Regular food doesn't go down the sink you know!"

@Christian Yu "Well, even if I didn't know what I was doing, would you know any better?"

Dongju scoffed, but he didn't respond, wanting Christian to concentrate on fixing the sink instead. Now that he was of no help, Dongju played with Lori, pulling her ears this way and that. She was an extremely good sport, letting Dongju handle her however he liked. When he tired, she curled up on his lap so he could pet her, and eventually, her eyes started closing—until Christian startled the both of them. Dongju flinched at the loud noise, frozen like a deer looking into headlights when Christian dared /scold/ him, like they were anything more than strangers-slash-neighbours who hated each other. Although the sludge in the basic was a little alarming, did it really warrant being yelled at? "Normal stuff!" Dongju exclaimed, still a little shocked that Chrstian was really speaking to him this way. "I wash my plates after I eat and cook and the stuff goes down there!"

@Nam Dongju "Of course we are allowed in here," Christian said dismissively. "We're tenants, and this is part of our rent. It's just that most people," he paused and looked back at Dongju, "Wouldn't know the first thing to do if they were put in this room, so it's not talked about when we sign the lease." Once they were back at Dongju's apartment, Christian got under the sink again after giving Lori's head a quick rub, "Well, even if I didn't know what I was doing, would you know any better?" he jibbed at Dongju. Using the wrench to loosen up the screws, he could already smell the pungent odors coming from the pipelines getting even stronger. As soon as he took out the p-trap piece, what seemed like a boatload of black gunk dropped out into the basin that Dongju had given him. In it, Christian could see the glistening dues of unprocessed oils and leftover chunks of food. "Nam Dongju!" he exclaimed in shock, "Look at this! What exactly have you been putting in your sink all this time? I'm surprise it even lasted you this long!"

@Christian Yu Everything Christian said about gauges and valves and sinks went in one ear and out the other for Dongju. He didn't understand it at all, which only made it all the more confusing when Christian led them out of the apartment. It just seemed like an elaborate plan to kill or rob Dongju in a secluded place, and when they entered the cold and dark maintenance room, Dongju held Lori's warm little body tighter. "Are we even allowed to be in here?" he asked, dubious when Christian just started touching everything on the wall. If Keith found out they broke this, the whole plaza was ed before they even had a chance to protest the rent again. He stared back blanket when Christian asked him if he understood, because Dongju did /not/ understand. He couldn't even remember how he got here. Walking back, Dongju resigned himself to sitting on the ground opposite the sink with Lori so he could watch and make sure Christian didn't stuff a firecracker up his pipes. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" he asked, rubbing Lori between her enormous ears.

@Nam Dongju To Dongju's comment, Christian could only chuckle in amusement, "No I haven't been in your apartment before, but the gauge isn't in here. We have to go outside," he said. This youngster was truly a tender leaf, having no experience to boot. Seeing how there was a misunderstanding about what he was saying, Christian explained out of the kindness of his heart, "Just because you turn off the faucet at the sink doesn't mean the water has been shut off. There is still water ready to flow in the pipes. So, if I opened the pipes, all the water that's there will come bursting out. We have to go down to the main water gauge and shut it off until I'm done with cleaning out the pipes." As he said this, he led them back outside and towards the elevator, "Luckily for you, I know this because every unit's water lines are all in the same area. So don't worry, I've never set foot in your apartment before." When they got down to the ground level, Christian went over to the maintenance room where all the electricity box and water gauges were located. There, he showed Dongju how to find the water meter for his apartment, and with a twist, turned off the water. "Got it?" he asked, "Now let's go back to the apartment so I can work on it."

@Christian Yu Wasn't the water turned off already? Dongju glanced up at the faucet. If there wasn't water coming out of the spout, that meant the water was off, right? But then Christian started walking off elsewhere, and Dongju hurried to follow, not wanting him to start trashing his apartment in the name of 'fixing the sink'. Lori struggled in Dongju's arms—he instinctively tightened them to calm the puppy, even lifting her slightly to press a kiss to her head in hopes of calming her. To his delight, she stopped moving about, and he hurried to catch up with Christian. "How do you know where it is? You haven't been in here before." Dongju's eyes narrowed. "Have you?"

@Nam Dongju "Fine, then you hold it," Christian grunted, too apathetic to handle Dongju's silly tantrums at this time of the day. He just wanted to make sure their strike went smoothly, which meant holding back from communicating with their landlord unless absolutely necessary. Though he didn't acknowledge Dongju's question, Christian eventually took the items out from under the sink and placed them on top of the counter while Dongju went off to look for the things that he needed. When he returned, Christian pulled out his wrench to unscrew the sink, but then suddenly stopped midway. "Wait. We have to turn off the water first. Did you do that already?" To think that he had assumed something so obvious would've been done beforehand was a bit of a long stretch when it came to Dongju, who looked like his fingers only knew how to twirl ribbons around a bouquet of flowers. "If you haven't, come with me. I'll show you where to turn it off so you can turn it back on later when I finish."

@Christian Yu "What the hell? I'm not letting you hold my phone." With one arm still cradling Lori against his chest, Dongju held his own phone up, crouching beside Christian beneath the sink to shine a light at the pipe running beneath the sink. "Shouldn't you move all those things out of the way first?" Dongju said, gesturing to his dried good stores and large bottles of cooking oil crowding beneath the sink. "I'll get you a bucket in case anything comes out." Tucking his phone back into his pocket. Dongju carried Lori to his bathroom to collect a small basin he used for washing things. He set it by Christian's side, then resumed his duty of shining his light into the space beneath the sink, eyeing Christian's arsenal of tools at his feet. "Where'd you get all this stuff? Are you a plumber on the side since tattooing doesn't pay the bills?"

@Nam Dongju Originally, Christian had thrown on a hoodie to take a walk with Lori out in the neighborhood because of the cooler weather at night. Since he anticipated working and getting sweaty under Dongju's sink though, he stripped off his hoodie and wore his usual tank top instead. Toolbox in one hand and a bag of treats to keep Lori occupied in the other, he went back to Dongju's apartment. Inside the apartment, the decorations looked rather clean and simple. There were flowers along the counters and the centerpiece of a small dining table and coffee table. Dongju appeared to live alone, but he was a tidy individual. To think that he'd do something as foul as leaving rotting meat in Christian's store though...that seemed more suspicious and intentional now, coming from the younger.

Christian could smell the putrid scent of unbroken down foods all mixed together as he approached the sink. "I'll have to take a look-" Christian admitted honestly to the younger. He shoved Lori's nose away so she wouldn't have to smell the terrible concoction of oils and food waste in the sink. "Let me borrow the flashlight on your phone real quick," Christian said, opening up the doors under the sink counter, "I'm going to see how far down your pipes have been clogged."

@Christian Yu Dongju didn’t need to be told twice, in case Christian changed his mind and Dongju’s sink overflowed in the middle of the night. The sweet puppy walked with him as soon as Dongju picked up its leash, only looking back once before trotting into Dongju’s apartment like it was its own. While Christian collected his things, Dongju hurried to pull the dog’s hind leg up and check its—her— parts to confirm if it was a good boy or a good girl. He let go of the Lori just as Christian appeared at the doorway, scooping her up properly this time so he could bring her along to show Christian the sink. “It just started bubbling for no reason,” Dongju said, trying not to breathe through his nose when the foul smell from the brown sludge dredged up. “I don’t know why. I wasn’t even using it when it started acting up.” Cradling Lori like a newborn infant, Dongju took a few safe steps back, in case the sink shot that trashy water in his face. “Can you fix it?”

@Nam Dongju Just as Christian had suspected, Dongju was trying to allude to the rotting meat that /he/ placed in Christian's shop. What a way to frame someone. For a moment, Christian wanted to take back his offer to help such an black-hearted person, but it seemed he didn't need to, since Dongju wasn't keen on receiving his help anyways. Perhaps this was the universe's way of giving Dongju some of the payback he deserved for stinking up someone else's working place and creating a biohazard. "Lori, let's go," he called to his dog, leading her down the hallway back to the apartment. If Keith decided to use this against them in the future, then Dongju had no one to blame but himself. Taking a quick detour to pick up his mail from the mailboxes, Christian then headed back for his unit, pulling out his keys to unlock the door.

“Wait!”

Christian looked over at Dongju, quirking a brow at him. "What is it?"

“Just come fix the sink and then leave.”

"Oho," Christian chortled, "Not even a please? I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart you know. It wouldn't hurt you to speak a little kinder to your neighbor who's fixing your problem for you." Seeing how Dongju looked so helpless in this situation, Christian sighed, "Let me grab my tools. I'll come over in a bit...you take Lori with you first."

@Christian Yu “Why am I going to /Keith/ for something related to /his/ property? Are you stupid?” Dongju had planned on ignoring Christian, but when he had to run his mouth again, Dongju couldn’t resist putting him in his place. “What else am I paying maintenance for? I’ve been a perfect tenant., and I’m not the one cooking roadkill in my shop, so Keith better get his over here and fix it. I’m not letting you into my apartment, you creep.” With that, he turned back to Sicheng, apologized for the trouble, and handed his phone over so Sicheng could put the number of his plumber in. As soon as he was back in his flat, Dongju checked on the sink. The water level had risen, and more of that gunk was spewing out of his drain. Keith, that unreliable bastard, was never going to get here in time, and neither was Sicheng’s plumber. Reaching down there himself out was of the question, and even if Dongju /was/ brave enough to stick his hand down there, he wouldn’t know what to do, anyway. Running back out into the hallway, Dongju caught Christian unlocking his own apartment door. “Wait!” He chewed on the inside of his cheeks, but speaking to the dog seemed to give him more courage than if he had to speak directly to Christian. “Just come fix the sink and then leave.”

@Nam Dongju Christian knew better than anybody else the importance of respecting personal conversations and not giving unsolicited advice, but when he accidentally overheard their landlord's name being brought up, he had to interject. "Wait, why are you going to Keith for something related to his property?" he asked Dongju, "If it's really a big issue that can't wait, why not let me take a look at it? It's better for fellow tenants to help each other out than to go to Keith. If anything, he might use it against us later, saying that his rent increase is due to the fact that we're not treating his property with the proper care." Looking down at Lori's lolled out tongue, he urged his puppy to convince Dongju, "Tell him babe, it's best to keep this amongst ourselves." To Sicheng, he waved in greeting, "Sorry to interrupt you guys."

@Christian Yu “Ah, hyung, could you please give him a call? It’s an emergency, there’s black coming out of the sink!” Movement out of the corner of Dongju’s eyes caught his attention. At first, he thought his landlord might’ve listened to his panicked voicemail and decided to come to his rescue, but Keith didn’t have a cute little dog like that one Dongju was seeing running up the hallway. He smiled, distracted for a moment, until his gaze followed the leash upward to find the person he wanted to see least night now—no, the person he wanted to see the least at /any/ time. Dongju’s smile melted off his face, and he turned back to Sicheng, even though he /really/ wanted to pet that smiling puppy. When Sicheng could only apologize again, Dongju waved it off. “It’s okay, I’ll go and see if Keith is still awake, unless he wants the apartment flooded by morning.”

@Nam Dongju Christian had one good thing that came with him from Australia, and that was his dog Lori. Though he had been busy with his shop and handling all the new clients coming to see him, he never forgot to make time for his best girl every day after work. Lori was a spunky mini pinscher who knew that she was spoiled rotten, and she lived up to the title of being “Daddy’s girl”. Christian had gotten her about eight years ago from a rescue shelter, and she had been a part of his life ever since.

Part of the reason he got to know his neighborhood better was because he would take Lori out on walks in different parts of it every evening. Sometimes they would go around the plaza, and other times they would go a few blocks away to the residential areas. The weather was nice and people often cooed when they saw Lori. As they were wrapping up their walk that day, Christian and Lori got off the elevator, heading back to their apartment. He tugged on Lori’s leash to slow her down when he heard a very familiar voice.

In response to the very familiar voice, Sicheng, who seemed to have finally been forgiven by Yangyang, responded promptly, “Hm, I don’t know much about plumbing honestly Dongju-ah. How about I give you the number for the plumber we usually call when we have issues? It is getting a bit late though, so he might not be able to come to you until tomorrow.”

@Christian Yu Tch. Sicheng was such a killjoy. Dongju shoved Sicheng’s hand away. “I got it.” He wrapped up the flowers with ribbon and plastic, then bundled the bouquet up once more with a simple brown paper and a pink bow at the bottom to match the roses. He charged Sicheng half what he’d usually charge others, and after catching up on topics not related to his disgusting neighbour, Dongju bid his friends goodbye and closed up shop. The next few days remained the same with the disturbing music, but at least the smell was gone. Christian still showed up once in a while to ruin the aura in the store, but at this point, Dongju didn’t know if he could blame him alone anymore. The plaza seemed to be dying, and if Keith’s solution was to raise the rent prices, then Dongju was going to be out on the streets within three months.

Burdened by these thoughts, Dongju could hardly keep up a cheery exterior anymore. As soon as he closed up each day, he trudged back to his apartment with his shoulders slumped forward, as if he was carrying the physical weight of all his problems on his back. When his parents called, though, which was nearly every night, he told them that everything fine. He didn’t want them to worry, and he didn’t want them to think he couldn’t get through this alone.

It was one night that he was on the phone with his parents that his sink broke him. His mother was sharing something about her day, something about her own neighbour, when Dongju realized the water in his sink was /not going down/. He turned the tap on and then off, and when the water in the sink stilled without draining, he let out a shriek. Dongju was not made for fixing sinks. He didn’t even know where to start.

“Dongju-yah? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he wheezed, wringing his free hand out against the seat of his pants. “I have to go, Mom. Talk soon, bye!” Once his mother was dealt with, Dongju could focus on his sink. He didn’t want to put his hand down there, so he called his landlord. Just his luck, that bastard decided not to answer—and he probably wouldn’t until Dongju agreed to his exorbitant rent prices. Perhaps Dongju could leave it for the night and look up some plumbers the next day, but when his sink seemed to belch and began to bubble up brown sludge, Dongju ran out of his apartment, straight for the door directly across from him, and began to pound on it. “Sicheng! Hyung, help me!” And when Sicheng answered, Dongju pointed wildly behind him, rambling, “My sink is spitting up something foul and I have no idea what to do! Do you know how to plumb? Do you know a plumber? Help me!”