#namsooil

[remrse]

—

namsooil

with a grin and a kiss and a promise to call which he didn’t fully intend to keep, sooil opened the door to let siyeon/jiyeon out and jaerim in. feeling like he had to at least somewhat keep up the act until she got on the elevator, though, sooil reached out to pat jaerim on the back. “hey bud, you holding up okay?”

—

the con of being a bachelor living alone: meal times.

jaerim's not quite the chef to begin with—if his kitchen wasn't fireproofed, it might not have survived all his feeble attempts at whipping up a decent meal. it also gets lonely, eating alone in his apartment that feels a little too big for him sometimes. lucky for him, his neighbour next door happens to share the same problem—loneliness (which they both assuage by spending the night in another's bed), not the lack of culinary talent. thank god.

the first time he caught a whiff of his neighbour's cooking was when his parcel got delivered to the wrong unit. when he went over to return the misplaced parcel, he found himself engulfed in an aroma he simply could not ignore. it smelt like what he imagined home to be—not the colossal mansion he grew up in, but the home portrayed in nostalgic feel good movies, the humble abode with a spread of simple home-cooked dishes.

a bite of whatever was cooking in sooil's kitchen that day was all it took to form a connection between them; an alliance of two bachelors who look for love in all the wrong places. in some ways, they're two very different souls that orbit in the same patterns. beneath all their differences, it wasn't difficult for them to understand each other. without even realising it, jaerim finds himself showing up at sooil's door whenever he feels a little empty. sometimes, sooil fixes that by making him a hearty meal. other times, his companionship and some beer does the job.

today, jaerim woke up hungry and hungover—the deadly combination he's realised sooil's simple cooking always makes better. he trudges across the corridor that connects their apartments, ringing the buzzer and waiting, giving his friend some time to get out of bed. he knew sooil well enough to know that he'd be sleeping in on a weekend morning. what he should've known is that his friend would not be waking up alone, which he only comes to realise when the door opens and he comes face to face with two people.

he offers the girl (a notably unfamiliar face) a sheepish smile but refrains from asking if she wanted to stay for brunch—knowing sooil, he was probably glad he had an excuse to send her away (that's where they're different, jaerim's the loser that develops feelings after sleeping with someone and sooil, well, he's quite the opposite). his suspicions were confirmed when sooil throws an unexpected question his way, of which only a true friend could immediately decipher.

jaerim scrunches his face with feigned sorrow, letting out a sigh that was unnaturally loud as he scampers towards sooil's apartment, "i feel like absolute shit. if you answered the door any minute later, i don't know what i would've done." he enunciates the last sentence a little louder as the final nail in the coffin and shuts the door behind them. he turns to sooil with a cheeky grin, "i've got to say, your acting is improving by the second. you sure you've not gotten an offer yet?"