Elevator Meetings (Lee Seokmin x Reader)

Chapter Two (Seokmin)

SEOKMIN

Seokmin puts his phone down on the table as the rest of his friends order food. Everyone was there, except for Lee Jihoon who was currently working on making a new song, and Wen Junhui who had gone to China for some business schedules.

Jeonghan looks over Seokmin's shoulder, ready to tease him as he always does. "Who are you texting with such a wide smile on your face?"

"No one, just a neighbor." He replies, quickly picking up his chopsticks to divert Jeonghan's attention to the food.

"When I text my neighbors, I don't smile like that." He says, crossing his arms over his chest. "Well, I barely even text my neighbors, to begin with. Come on, there's really no need to be shy about it. We're way past the age to be shy over our feelings."

"Ah, is this the reason why you kept looking at us back at the theatre while you were on stage?" Mingyu says as he turns over a piece of meat on the grill.

"No, no, that's not it," Seokmin says defensively. "I swear, she's just a neighbor. I helped her out when she was having a problem with moving her stuff and simply asked her to come to the play, that's all."

Yoon Jeonghan shakes his head, but smiles. He knows that this wasn't the first time Seokmin had small unconscious crushes on people. In fact, it happens quite often, but it rarely turns into anything serious with all the hectic schedules that Seokmin has as a musical actor. Even when the other guys try to ask him about it, he always innocently says that they were nothing more than just a friend, even when everyone else sees otherwise.

"Alright, alright, whatever helps you sleep at night." Says Boo Seungkwan, who sits right across Seokmin. They immediately move on to another topic and the rest of the story remains unmentioned for the rest of the night.

Seokmin, on the other hand, can't help but think about it.

When they get back home to their apartment, he stares at his phone for several minutes. He looks at your contact page over and over, enjoying the sound of your name as it plays over and over in his head.

"Do I really?" He says to himself as he rolls over to his side. He tries to think it over once again. "It's too early, right?"

"Who are you talking to?" Minghao asks, who happens to be sitting right next to him on the other couch.

Seokmin rolls over to face his friend. "Minghao, do I really?"

"Do you really what?"

"Do I really, you know?" Seokmin put his hands up, trying to express his thoughts in words. Minghao looks up at him, raising his eyebrows. "You get what I mean, right?"

"No, I absolutely don't."

Seokmin gets up, deciding that it would be better to sleep this off instead. He thought that perhaps he was just a bit tired; maybe his racing thoughts would be over the moment he wakes up the next morning.

And yet, when the sun rose, the thought had not left him. That's when he started to go out at the same time of 7 AM each day, even when there wasn't any work to do at that time to perhaps get the chance to somehow run into you again along the apartment elevators. Each day, Seokmin would return to his apartment, visibly discouraged in the eyes of his members, but not to himself. Around the next week, he tried to look for your social media accounts but found only a single account filled with pictures of plants. He wasn't so sure if it was you, or if it was just someone who shared the same name.

Seokmin is in the living room, unconsciously shaking his leg as he waits for you to accept his friend request. Mingyu steps out of the bathroom with a towel over his wet hair. Grabbing a drink from the fridge, he leans over Seokmin.