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Her heel tapping was incredibly annoying, the sharp sound beginning to irritate Kyungsoo quickly. He stood in the middle of her large lounge holding a white piece of paper containing lyrics to Juhyun's all–time favorite song. Junmyeon seemed to be late; weirdly, as the guy practically lived with her. It was a Monday afternoon — Kyungsoo was very tired and done with life, yet Juhyun had to get her way.

"You need to be louder!" She projected disapprovingly from the other side of her spacious room. "My parents wouldn't be able to hear your singing, let alone the people at the back."

"This isn't real, Juhyun. It doesn't matter how loud or soft I am, okay? I'll project my voice once the wedding happens."

Juhyun wasn't impressed. Her arms were crossed tightly and eyebrows furrowed. "You're incredibly stubborn. You never listen."

"You know that's not true," Kyungsoo's fists clenched in exasperation at her claims. "I always listen. You just spew nonsense."

The argument was becoming serious as it became clear that what he said was not only about their singing session, but collapsed marriage. They were both lucky Kyungri was sleeping upstairs. It hurt her a lot to see her loving parents fight.

"I spew nonsense? I ask for one thing! One damn thing! How selfish. After all we've been through."

Junmyeon had entered the room holding an iced lemonade and a concerned look. His pressed gray suit was tailored to perfection; so was his gelled hair.

"Is everything alright here?" He interrogated softly. It was blatant that this question wasn't directed to the agitated Kyungsoo but his darling wife who'd been the one being unpleasant.

"Yeah," Juhyun murmured, her eyes narrowed. "Just practicing."

Throughout the three hours Kyungsoo had to endure singing with the two most privileged people he knew. Junmyeon was too high maintenance, and Juhyun was prissy. They were the ideal couple. Note the sarcasm.

Back in the apartment, Ara was studying hard for a surprise test her professor set on them. Her two closest friends, Seungwan and Mira sat lay on her bed lazily whilst snacking on a packet of Skittles, memorizing long scripts. Both were trusted friends of hers; the first she'd met in Seoul. Although she had good friends back in her hometown, Mira and Seungwan were different. They always had her back, and helped her study when she needed it.

"You need to tell us about your little friend," Seungwan drawled with a teasing upward curvature of her lips. She was scrolling through her phone.

Ara scowled, registering who she was talking about. "If you're talking about height, he is little."

"That's not the point!" Mira reached out to slap her head lightly. "Tell us about him."

"How'd you know he exists anyways?"

Seungwan brought out her phone, showing a photo of Ara surrounded by her friends; Kyungsoo and the others. She stood at the front of the group in between Taeyeon and Kyungsoo —two other short people. Taeyeon's arm was around her. They all had fresh smiles on and looked genuinely happy.

"Where did you get that photo from?" She questioned her friend confusedly.

"Oh! I know Sehun from somewhere. He was the one who posted the photo, right?"

It was sad seeing how unpopular Ara was on social media. While the guys had hundreds of followers (Chanyeol and Sehun reaching the thousands), Ara was stuck on sixty–two. Even Kyungsoo reached four hundred and managed to garner couples of hundreds in likes, Ara recieved eleven likes on a selfie of her. Once the guys found her account and gave her a sweet follow, they crash liked all of her seventy pictures and commented stupid things.

Taeyeon was popular on social media for her extremely beautiful face and feed, and once she followed Ara, the latter enjoyed getting some attention on her boring account consisting of food pictures and lively (ugly) selfies. Kyungsoo's photos were of Kyungri and him mostly, which were quite franky adorable from a third person view, and when Ara scrolled down one night, she found a few of him and Juhyun.

One was a photo of the small family in Disneyland Tokyo when Kyungri was one. She was even cuter, if that's humanely possible, and he had his arms around the two. This side of Kyungsoo was new to Ara, and seeing that he was a softy behind the poker face was refreshing.

"Ara!" Mira was waving her hand rapidly in front of her friend's face. When she'd come back to reality, Mira bit her lip. "You kinda blacked out."

"You do know Kyungsoo's a divorcee?" Seungwan inquired. The two gave her a weird look. "What? If you do marry him, wouldn't your mom be against it?"

"I should've thought twice before moving to Seoul. Full of crazy people."

—

At ten, both Mira and Seungwan left Ara's apartment in a mess but their revision successfully finished. She stepped around the complex cleaning up and sighing momentarily at the Oreo crumbs littered on her gray wooden flooring.

"These girls," she tutted before wiping down the floor. It took approximately an hour before the tip was restored back to its shining glory. Not as clean as Taeyeon's obviously, as Ara was lazy and looked at the shortest ways ever rather than most effective, but it was presentable. The door knocked, so the messy girl quickly ran and opened it to reveal Kyungsoo. It seemed he had just awoken from a nap or something — his hair was messy and he wore a baggy t–shirt and pajama pants with bare feet.

"Hi," he grumbled tiredly. "I woke up and craved coffee, but I don't have milk. Can I borrow some?"

The old neighborly routine had returned. Before the two became friends, all they asked for was small borrows such as groceries. Ara opened the door slightly to let him in and rushed to the kitchen fridge. There was a tub of milk awaiting use, and she brought it out.

Kyungsoo was sitting on her sofa. "Why are you still awake? It's like eleven or something. Don't you go university?"

"My friends came over and it was a little hectic," Ara replied and handed over the milk. "Why'd you look like you experienced an earthquake?"

"Oh, earthquake? You mean Juhyun?!"

The sarcasm laced in his voice was hilarious, Ara bursting out in uncontrollable laughter at Kyungsoo's sudden awaken state.

"What did she do this time?"

"Apart from forcing me to practice singing for her wedding alongside her ass of a fiancé, she didn't do anything."

She sat across from him with a smile. "You have so many problems with her, I wonder how bad it was when you were married to the girl!"

"Ugh, I want to have sweet dreams, Ara. Not nightmares. Please refrain from talking about her late at night."

"Since you're already here and now I'm craving a mug of coffee, shall I make some?" She suggested, Kyungsoo nodding his head and beginning to follow her to the kitchen. She brought out the mugs and coffee granules. "Do you miss Kyungri?"

He leaned on the granite countertops sleepily. "Yeah. The house is dead silent without her."

"How come you don't just keep her permanently?" Ara was boiling the water and the sound of the kettle squealing filled the room abruptly.

"We agreed on shared custody at the beginning, sadly. If I could have it my way, I'd have her with me all the time."

The water was now boiled and she poured it into the mugs, watching the clear surface become darker as the coffee granules infused with the water. Adding milk to both of them, it became lighter.

"No sugar for me," he informed, stirring his coffee. "It makes me jittery."

She sniggered, sipping her hot drink. "Doesn't coffee itself do the job?"

"I don't know...caffeine doesn't affect me. Never has. Anyways, how was your day?"

"Mad," she grinned, reminiscising her loud conversation with the two most irritating yet amazing people she knew. "Apart from the fact that I have a surprise test tomorrow and should be sleeping early."

"Coffee's not the greatest idea at midnight, is it?"

"It gets my mind off the impending doom tomorrow. I'm sure you can relate when you were back in university."

Nodding his head, Kyungsoo took a sip and placed his mug down lightly on the counter. "University was great, despite the stacks of excess assignments. Doing a degree in accounting's boring at times, but Jongdae and I had a blast."

Accounting? That definitely wasn't the degree choice she'd expected him to complete. "How come you chose accounting?"

"I've always wanted to get into banking and such. I hated all the essay subjects and enjoyed math."

"Completely opposite to me. Math is disgusting."

"You're a hater," he teased. "Math is fun. When you get a question right, it feels like you've accomplished everything."

Ara pouted. "Maybe that's why I hate math. I never got any questions right."

He laughed audibly hearing that before pushing her gently. "It's almost tomorrow and here I am making fun of you! I should leave."

"Yeah, I need to catch up on sleep anyways. I'll show you to the door," she answered in agreement. The pair headed to her door, Ara opening it for him. "Goodnight!"

"Don't let the bed bugs bite," Kyungsoo responded with a wave. "See you."

He entered the quiet apartment, shuffling his feet and exhaling in exhaustion. Hanging out with Ara lightened his mood significantly in comparison to the disastrous rehearsal back at Juhyun's. What he liked about her was the chill and calm side of her; whenever he had something to say, Ara would automatically listen and sympathize rather than interrupt just like how Juhyun would.

Their contrasts is what made his friends adore her. They were so used to being with Juhyun, who'd been involved in their lives since school. They did like her, but there were flaws that couldn't be ignored. Only Junmyeon and of course Kyungsoo overlooked them. It became apparent once the married couple began arguing profusely that Junmyeon became Juhyun's rock and the only person at the time who'd listened to her. Sad, really.

"I really need to stop thinking about this," he hissed before climbing into his comfy bed. Juhyun always managed to creep into his mind at the most vulnerable times. Such as this restless night. His phone had pinged from the bedside table and Kyungsoo studied it.

I'm extremely sorry for today. I acted like a bitch, and I'm not surprised if you're angry at me. Can we meet up tomorrow after work to talk?

—»

Hey hey hey! Again, another huge thanks for reading! Please vote, comment and whatever, haha. Thank you