all jung wooyoung ever wanted was to go about life like he always did, and that worked for him; until the top-tier celebrity choi san was in the picture, that is.
but there was a catch; wooyoung was his anti-fan.
start: august 9, 2023
end: septembe...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"choi san and yoon semi, lead cast of the currently airing drama 'you & i', find themselves entangled in a web of dating rumors, as per an anonymous tip from staff...."
wooyoung's eyes were barely open and the first thing he had to see just so happened to have something to do with choi san. that was a tell-tale that this day in particular was going to suck, and it was going to suck balls.
he scratched his head, grimacing as soon as choi san's face was on the screen before switching the tv off.
"yo, i was watching that!" yeosang snapped, clicking his tongue. he reached for the remote once more.
"do i look like i care? go get a job instead of mooching around my apartment all the time." wooyoung retorted in his morning voice, not even giving yeosang's offended face any recognition. he stretched his arms out wide and let out an unholy yawn. "or you can join me on my way to the convenience store and actually do something useful with your time for once."
"you act like your life isn't just jumping between going to the studio and staying at home just to sleep in all day."
"you say it like it's a bad thing." wooyoung responded, truly seeing nothing wrong with his ways of life.
"there's actually a lot that's wrong with that," yeosang stated, looking at wooyoung like he was stupid. he stood up and headed for the door. "but who am i to question your miserable life, right?"
"trust me, if you were living my life you'd never wanna go back." wooyoung answered with a proud grin on his face and yeosang just gave him one last dirty look before fixing the boy's messy hair.
on their way down the stairs, the pair ran into wooyoung's landlady. "oh good, you're here, i wanted to talk to you any way—" she started, rushing her words like she'd run a marathon.
"woah, ms. kim," wooyoung held his hands up defensively, stopping in his path. "deep breaths. deep breaths." he said, not knowing that if the lady were to die of asphyxiation, it would all be wooyoung's fault, thanks to him and his stupid habit of cutting people off mid-sentence.
she took a deep breath, almost too deep like she was going to choke her lungs out, before rapping, "you're going to have to move your things out of that roo-"
"woah, woah." wooyoung stopped her again, "slow down, like this, you see?" he demonstrated, talking like a turtle with a voice. "didn't catch a word you said." he shrugged and his arms dropped to his side.
"and you'll have to return the ke-"
"woah, woah, woah." he stopped her for the third time. the lady stared back at him, literally out of breath, eyes wide like saucers as if she were ready to pounce on a certain someone and rip the baby smooth skin off their face. "look ms. kim, i'm just gonna run to the store like, real quick and i'll be here by the time you manage to catch your breath. okay? okay." he winked at her and gave her a quick thumbs up before running off, not even giving the lady a chance to speak. yeosang ran after him, leaving the poor lady there, hands on her knees as she panted for dear life. if law weren't a thing, she would be more than ready to kick wooyoung out and maybe even use her rusty judo skills on him.
---
wooyoung let out a little white lie when he said something about going to the store and coming back just as fast. instead, he spent the entire afternoon and evening shopping for new clothes he could wear to the studio, and eating whenever and whatever he felt like. to say yeosang was exhausted was an understatement. for 30 minutes, he'd used his remaining energy to convince wooyoung that it was enough, that they should head home now.
"didn't your landlady have something to say? we should gooooo." yeosang cried and whined, having to drag his feet along because they were fast asleep. it was dark outside, not to mention it was freezing cold and he was in no attire that could withstand weather like this.
"nah," wooyoung replied, completely energized as if he'd sucked out all the energy from the dozens of faces he'd walked past that day. "she's probably going to scold me over something trivial and threaten to kick me out like she's been doing for the last 2 years. that lady is in love with me, you know." yeosang scoffed at that.
"and quit whining," wooyoung proceeded. "we're here, at my apartment. dumbass, are you even aware of your surroundings? you must be exhausted. poor baby." he spoke as if he gave two shits, when he really didn't. tiring people out, making them angry, happy, yada-yada. not his problem. as long as he was content, that's all that matters.
yeosang let out a breath of relief. "oh, thank god. hey, i'm crashing at your place today as revenge for what you put me through. you total drainer," he said before using whatever energy he had to run up the building's stairs. wooyoung huffed.
guess that meant no beauty sleep for him. not like he had any when he was on his own, either. he would usually watch thriller films and fall asleep somewhere in the middle.
wooyoung had a bad, on and off relationship with sleep, and sleeping patterns. no matter how sleepy he was, he often couldn't get himself to sleep. when he could actually sleep, it was for a good undisturbed 2 or 3 hours— seldom longer than that. when he couldn't sleep, he would try the good old counting sheep trick, only to realise halfway through that his imaginary farm had been infiltrated by an unholy amount of twenty hundred sheeps and that he was a really horrible shepherd. next, he'd try to close his eyes and think of nothing at all, hoping it would be of any help. that never worked. if plans a-z failed, he'd just surrender himself and get up, do something to pass the time until morning came. most times he would take a stroll around the vicinity. something about the roads being moderately busy after midnight comforted him. he wasn't the only one awake. he didn't feel alone.
maybe that explained why he wasn't fast asleep at the moment. all the energy he'd absorbed that day had dissipated; but he wasn't back in bed, just back to his usual, groggy, indifferent and monotone, boring self. obviously, ms. kim wouldn't be around at this time of day. he sniffed in accordance with the cold weather, deciding to call it a day and moved up the stairs with his bags in hand.
once he was on his floor, he looked at his apartment for a moment before turning to face the one in front of him. room 102, a.k.a wooyoung's little secret.
wooyoung just so happened to be a neat freak who was also quite lazy and tired most of the time, probably a result of his recurring insomnia. and for that, ms. kim, the cold lady that was somewhat caring behind the scenes, gave him access to that very room with understandable hesitance. that was where he kept his clothing, and other miscellaneous things he didn't have time to arrange in his own apartment. without the landlady knowing, yeosang would also crash there on certain occasions when he was too drunk to walk in a straight line.
wooyoung jammed the key into the doorlock, twisting the door knob, attempting to push open the door, to no avail.
strange.
he turned the key in the doorlock once more and reached for the door knob. this time, he was successful. he smiled a stupid smile to himself before pushing the door open. maybe he'd forgotten to lock the door after his weekend at the bar— to be fair, he was too drunk to think at the time. his relief was shortlived as he stepped in the apartment, only to find the lights on. that was even more strange. he could even hear the water running, despite knowing sober yeosang most likely headed to his apartment and was knocked out on his bed like he said he would be. mega strange.
his eyebrows furrowed, perplexed. he wasn't even shaken thinking of the possibility of there being a burglar, or something. that was how little he valued what he'd owned. sometimes, wooyoung found himself speaking like he had all the money in the world, despite being on the brink of going broke. he laughed to himself in a self deprecating manner.
before he could fall into a trap of never ending self-hatred, the sound of footsteps a few feet ahead of him managed to divert his attention. he blinked at the ground once, twice, before looking up to the source of sound.
and there stood a familiar stranger, adorned in nothing but a towel, dripping water from head to toe—wearing the same look of confusion that wooyoung had on his face.
