apartment block 17

[ 033 ]

apartment #811
lee jihoon, kwon soonyoung

seungcheol rubbed his temples in frustration as he stared at the disaster of a kitchen in front of him. he took a deep breath and turned to soonyoung and jihoon, who were standing sheepishly in the corner.

"tell me again... how did you manage to break the pipes?" he asked through gritted teeth. the whole kitchen was flooded, water pooling across all the bench-tops and pouring into the cupboards, soaking everything inside. the tap seemed to have been ripped off the sink, which was where water was spurting out haphazardly.

soonyoung laughed nervously. "i wonder..."

"i'll have to call my dad or something. you realise the repair costs will probably add to your rent?" seungcheol sighed.

"oh lord, no. i didn't sign up for this! please, just let us off this one time, cheol," jihoon pleaded.

seungcheol ran his hand through his hair and took a closer look at the situation. "it's pretty serious. how the heck did something like this happen? it looks like a dog attacked the sink."

"uh, who knows, hey? nature is weird," soonyoung shrugged.

"um, i'll need to go back to my place and ring up my dad," seungcheol said, turning to leave.

"wait! can't you just call him here? i mean, you could video call him and show him the situation," soonyoung said hurriedly, barring the door with his body in order to stop seungcheol from exiting.

"uh, alright," seungcheol said suspiciously, but obeying anyway. as seungcheol was calling his father, jihoon texted seungkwan.

• • •

jihoon's phone

seungkwan. >
Today 11:43 AM

me
> alright, seungcheol's buying it
> he said we're going to have to pay for the broken tap?!?!?!
> this better be worth it

seungkwan.
> yeh it will we all love cheol<3
> we're pretty much ready
> all the guests (so far) have arrived
> we're barely fitting in here and its already at a point where random strangers are wandering into cheol's bedroom
> so yeh, u can send him up anytime

• • •

jihoon gave soonyoung an 'ok' sign. seungcheol put his phone away in frustration, saying that he wasn't able to get a hold of his busy father.

"oh well. guess it's back to your apartment!" soonyoung said, jittering slightly. jihoon face-palmed internally. man, he's a terrible liar.

seungcheol furrowed his eyebrows but nevertheless led the way out of the place and down a floor to his apartment. as he unlocked the door, he was greeted with a face full of confetti, flour and screams from more than thirty people crammed into the small room.

"happy birthday, seungcheol!" they all screamed in slightly off unison.

jihoon had doubted seungkwan and hansol's promise to be ready in under 10 minutes but it seemed that they had managed to pull it off. there were banners hung all over the room, food strewn across every available surface and presents stacked in a disorganised pile in the far corner. typical 12-year-old party set up.

"what?" was seungcheol's appropriate response. he looked thoroughly confused. at least try to look happy, you idiot. we broke our tap for you.