ᥴꫝꫀ𝕣𝕣ꪗ ᥴꪮꪶꪖ___ Ｚｈｏｎｇ Ｃｈｅｎｌｅ

Chapter 1| The Vending Machine

"I can't believe you missed another lecture, that's what, the second this week?"

Y/n momentarily lifted her head from the cold metal table, "Third- and I'm not proud," she grumbled letting her head fall back to resting on the table, a small pout on her face. She looked over at her friend Vernon who was shaking his head in disappointment, "Don't do that-" she mumbled sitting up. Vernon and Y/n had known each other since middle school after the two had been given detention for sneaking extra snacks from the lunch bins for almost a month straight; neither of them could figure out why the bucket was going empty so fast but once they both showed up to detention with guilty all over their face it was like a match made in heaven- or hell if you were their parents.The two had caused so much chaos between their parents that had been begged to go to different schools after highschool- they're parents couldn't handle them accidentally burning down a college.

Y/n had found them overdramatic but she and Vernon wanted different careers anyways, so it worked out.

Vernon raised an eyebrow, "Don't do what?" He questioned her as he reached for a fry.

Y/n pointed at him, "That face you always do when I'm being stupid and you wanna call me an idiot without using you mouth" she said already feeling Vernon's sarcastic smile spreading on his face.

"Would you prefer me to use my mouth and call you can idiot? Because I can-"

Y/n glared at him and looked down at her phone as it vibrated against the cool metal, "It's gonna be my mom, watch," she mumbled picking the phone up. Sure enough her mother's number was blaring across her phone and was backed by the chorus of some terrible default ringtone. Vernon glanced at the phone and whistled, "You can't ignore her forever ya know," he said around his French fries

Y/n rolled her eyes, "Well, I've been doing pretty well for the past week," she said turning the phone on vibrate. Y/n hadn't talked to her mouth much after moving out for college, it just made sense for her to move away from her parents overbearing affection and become an adult but it was more then just growing you for Y/n, she couldn't handle another hour about how the family was looking at her to be the shining star and how she needed to set a good example for her younger brother Sunoo.

Vernon shook his head again, "You'll have to talk to her eventually, don't think she won't take the train all the way down here," he said looking at her, "and if she does, she'll definitely learn about you-know-who," he added.

Y/n groaned, "I don't want to talk about this anymore, I'm going home to sleep...and write another apology to my professor," she grumbled leaving the table with her phone in her hand.

Y/n didn't wait for Vernon to give a snarky comment before she walked out of the canteen and out into the chill spring air. She looked at her phone seeing the red missed call from mom coming across her screen and sighed. She loved her mother and had chosen to become a doctor but sometimes the crushing pesure of being the first to succeed was heavy to hold and her mother always made it feel like the world was counting on her to succeed. Not the world but her family and that made it even more terrifying.

She listened to the echo or her shoes hitting the pavement as she walked down to her apartment; her parents had worked extra shifts to save up for the apartment z they had insisted that Y/n had a place to focus on her studies and not be pressured into going to parties or having a boyfriend and so far it had worked for at least one of those things. She could see the rundown building and pulled out her keys slowing down as she saw a large moving van parked outside the front doors, and being the noisy person she was slower down as humanly possible to see if she could catch a glimpse of whoever was moving into her building. There were no movers near the van, and it was already empty and she frowned, "There goes a chance for excitement-" she mumbled walking into the building.

When Y/n had first moved into the building she had looked at the place like it was a palace and a start for new adventure, but after living there for almost a year she'd found that the apartment was far from a palace. The wall paper was peeling and had a yellow tint to them from either smoke or time wearing down on them, and it always smelled like old carpet and cats no matter how many candles Vernon brought to try and mask the smell.

Holding her breath out of habit she walked inside and headed over to the mail lockers opening her own and looking instead. It was still empty and she sighed closing it with a loud thud and headed up the stairs; there was only one elevator in the whole building and she'd learned the hard way the it was best to get in your steps for the day then risk it with the metal death trap.

She groaned as she got to her floor and huffed in a breath of cold wind as she looked down the end of the hall. At the very end sat an apartment that had been left vacant ever since Y/n had moved in, she couldn't blame anyone who overlooked the place, most of the apartments were the same small and broken down box that even she wouldn't have picked had the rent not been so low.

She watched the door as it sat slightly ajar and wondered if the person who had been moving in was on the same floor as her. Y/n slower made her way to her own apartment, keeping her eyes on the door but no one ever came out- not even the movers.

Growing bored with waiting to see who it was she opened her door and walked inside, met the the purring of Alfred, "Hey, Alfred anything interesting happen today?" She asked picking up the grey and white cat who seemed to purr in response to her question, "Yeah, not interesting on this end either-".

Walking over to the couch she sighed and sat down placing Alfred on her lap so he could curl up, "We have a new neighbour,I didn't see anyone but the moving van was huge," she said stroking the small creature who looked up at her, "I wonder if it's someone who goes to school, maybe another student like me?" She continued looking down at Alfred. A bored sigh escaped her lips and for a moment she looked around, "I think we should treat ourselves, what do you think buddy?" She asked.

Alfred purred in response and she nodded and standing up and grabbing her bag. Treating herself looked a lot different compared to what people with money did; for Y/n the vending machine at the end of the hall was a treat and there bucks was all she was actually willing to cough up for a candy bar. She grabbed a few bucks and walked out her door towards the large red and yellow machine, "Don't fuck me over this time," she mumbled as she pressed a button. The machine was notorious for taking money and breaking down right after, still it was something Y/n looked forward to and it at least have her a chance to let out her anger and stress on something that couldn't feel anything.

She crossed her fingers as the machine sucked in her money and heard that heavenly clunk sound as her candy bar fell down, "Thank you," she whispered to the sky as she bent down to fish it out. As she was bent over she caught a glimpse of a black shadow and jumped turning around to face the door of the vacant apartment.

There were voices instead and from the sound of it, neither person sounded too happy. She grabbed her candy bar and hurried back to her apartment, being noisy had it limits, even for Y/n.

She perked out the peep-hole and saw the apartment door slam shut as a man walked out his face covered partially by his lowered baseball cap. He wore a large basketball jacket and looked like he was gone kick the door down but instead he turned around and walked past Y/n's door. She gasped and backed away as if he would be able to see through the door and ask her why she was spying on him. Listening to the mysterious man wall by she let out a relieved sigh and grapped her phone dialing Vernon's number.

As the tone rung she opened the candy bar with her mouth spitting out the small piece of plastic that stuck to her tongue as Vernon's voice came from the other end, "This better be important because I was about to do a face mask," he grumbled the sound of plastic echoing through the phone.

Y/n sat down on her couch, "You'll never guess what I just saw-"