Beyond the walls (Rosekook AU)

6

He returned home and went straight to the glass door, there was a long sticky note stuck today that said,
"Oh my God I am so embarrassed, you could hear all that? It's good that we are doing this in notes and not face to face because I can't face you at all, I am beet red due to embarrassment. But since you can't see me anyway I'll surely be louder in my singing and my skits.

P.S: thanks for the banana milk"

He laughed heartily and started thinking about how she would look when she was beet red blushing. But then he quickly dismissed that thought. He went back home and stored the note with the others. He had snacks just before his shift ended so he wasn't hungry, he was more eager to listen to her voice again. Because he was early, he went into his bedroom and opened his bathroom door to not miss her mini-concert. To his surprise, he seemed way too early because he could hear her brushing with some music playing in the background. She was singing incoherent words with a toothbrush in her mouth, he felt amused at her childlike behavior. He wanted to know her and not through notes.
So he got up from his bed, took a small sticky note wrote his phone number with "Save my number for any emergency" and stuck it on the table. He felt dumb for the weird explanation in the note and did not expect her to text or call but he had to try. He came back to his room just in time, because Roselyn was saying"Justin are you there?" He immediately replied with, "Yes, I am here Roselyn" and she started her mini skit, "So my dear Rosebuds, this is Justin and he is the lucky Rosebud to be selected to perform with me, we will be singing…Justin, what are we singing today?" He quickly reacts and asks, "10000 hours?"

"That is correct, we are singing 10000

hours for you guys today, Justin take it away" She says. He feels giddy the way she cleverly made him agree to a duet and choose a song himself without making it awkward. She is very witty and full of charms he mentally notes. He slowly starts singing and she picks up where he left off, they sing one or two lines each building up to the chorus, and sing the chorus together as if they planned all this before. Their voices sound heavenly. As they end it, no one talks. Roselyn suddenly shouts, "THAT. WAS. AMAZING! Justin, you have a great voice" Justin visibly blushes and thanks the heavens above that she can't see him. He meekly replies, "You have an amazing voice too Roselyn"
She says, "We should do this often... Oh shoot I am late, have a great day Justin" And silence again. He takes a shower lies down on the bed and sighs. Her voice is really addictive and in less than three days he already is a junkie. Just as he sighs again he received a text from an unknown number saying, "Hey this is Roselyn, save my number too. You know, in case of emergencies"
And that is how it began, their friendship. They never saw each other but they did text a lot. Justin learned a lot about Roselyn in a short span. He learned that she was not active on Social media, she was a college student too and was waiting to graduate and become a teacher. Their schedules never seemed to match because she came home around the same time Justin's shift started and on Fridays, she went to visit her parents and came back on Monday eliminating the possibility of meeting on a weekend. It was actually easy if they really wanted to meet. They live just beside each other after all. Justin can wait until she leaves for college to sleep or Roselyn can come back early. But they didn't want to, it was never said but was a silent agreement. Because this felt new, gave them a sense of excitement, being friends with a neighbor you never saw. So they let it be, as long as they were comfortable they didn't need to go beyond the walls. But their morning jam sessions continued, they'd sing every genre they could think of. They'd decide which song to duet the before the day via text and sing to their heart's content the next day. They'd also talk about their day in texts, sometimes calls, or before their duet sessions as Roselyn brushed her teeth.
This went on for many weeks and they grew closer. They were on a nickname basis already, he called her Rosie(because she hated that nickname) and she called him Cookie (because of the one batch of burnt and inedible cookies he made)
Their cozy hangout became cozier. Though they never were there together, they added things to it, she added a fluffy rug under the table and he put two small cushions black for the pink beanbag and pink for the black beanbag. They left snacks some days, notes some others but they informed the other about it via text.

Weeks turned into months, they teased each other, shared gossip from their college and work, learned new songs to duet, they even called each other frequently to talk during their breaks. They became each other’s strengths and best friends. They shared a level of comfort that felt intimate. They could communicate from either side of the wall and understand how the other was feeling. They had no more secrets, first, it started because they
were practically strangers who never saw each other so it was easy to share and before they knew it, they know each other’s insecurities and horrible past experiences. Their bond seemed almost sacred. And they were realizing it too.