Shared Space - DoTae

2

Taeyong looked up at the small apartment building and shuffled about nervously. Hopefully he'd found the right place at last, especially given how long it had taken him to get there. In fact, he had ended up walking around the block quite a few times before he ended up at this point, though whether it was out of poor directional sense or just not wanting to get there was unclear. Having not been to this part of the city in such a long time was really taking its toll on his sense of direction, he thought. He decided to blame it on that instead of thinking too much into it.
As he looked up he noticed how tall the building seemed, like it was really looming over him In actuality it was probably only 4 stories tall at most. Its dull grey brick made him feel cold to look at. Well, it was pretty chilly outside too, given that it was the middle of autumn. He watched a couple people leave the building and made eye contact with them as they walked past and down the street. He quickly cast his gaze away, realising how odd he probably looked, just standing on the side of the road, staring up at their apartment building. Hopefully they didn't think he was a creep or anything, they could end up being his neighbours after all. At this point he began to rethink cancelling and just finding somewhere to stay by himself. The thought of having to befriend a whole new person and get settled in a whole new place freaked him out a little bit. In fact, he had tried to convince Jaehyun to let him stay at his place, before this, seeing as he had roomed with him before at college, but he ended up being shot down immediately.

"No." Jaehyun had replied with a stern expression. "Mark is already sleeping on my couch and that idiot isn't even helping pay any rent." Taeyong knew he didn't have a chance and didn't bother pressing it any further. Jaehyun probably would've taken him in if there was really no other option, but since this opportunity had fallen so perfectly into his lap, Taeyong couldn't really argue that was the case.

Just as he was thinking about his conversation with Jaehyun, Taeyong's phone lit up with a message from him.

"...'Stop pissing about and go in. He's waiting for you y'know'." Taeyong read under his breath. Jaehyun evidently knew him too well. He laughed quietly at himself. It was obvious even to Taeyong himself that he was being an idiot and stalling, but he hadn't seen Doyoung since college. Even then, they weren't close friends, and only really knew eachother through Jaehyun, so it didn't really count for much. What if they couldn't find anything to talk about at all? Thinking about it some more, Taeyong remembered Doyoung being friendly enough, and constantly surrounded by friends, but other than that he couldn't say he knew much about him. He tried thinking a little harder, there must be more memories in there than that after nearly four years of acquaintanceship. The last time they'd seen each other must've been...

"Long time no see!" A voice came out of seemingly nowhere, and Taeyong jumped a little. He looked towards the noise and saw Doyoung's head poking out of the door into the apartment building. Doyoung smiled at Taeyong's surprised expression and stepped outside fully. "It's cold out here, aren't you coming up?"

"Oh, yeah, my bad, I was just a little..." Taeyong trailed off, a little embarrassed at how much he'd been overthinking this.

"Nervous? I get it. Me too, to be honest. I mean, we haven't seen each other since, what? Mark's end-of-year dorm party? That was a whole year ago already huh?" Doyoung chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Plenty to catch up on, at least."

"Ah, yeah I suppose you're right." Taeyong nodded and thought back to it briefly. "That was a real shitshow, huh?" The two locked eyes and let out a small laugh at the shared memory.

"What I remember of it was, for sure." Doyoung commented. Taeyong thought back to seeing Doyoung stumbling around blackout drunk and falling asleep on the floor, in a rather unflattering heap. It hadn't even been that late at that point.