balconies • seventeen

Prologue

When the last piece of furniture was finally set in the corner of your small space, you slide down on your beanbag and heave a loud sigh. It's been a truly tiring day, and all you wanted to do was change into your most comfortable t-shirt and pyjama pants and drift off to sleep.

Of course, there was no time for that now.

Whipping out your laptop you started typing away your essay. The sentences were filled with typos, unnecessary comas and lots of exclamation marks for some reason, but you didn't really care because your head was a mess and all you needed was sleep.

Thanks to your mother wanting to live away from you, saying that it was better being an independent woman and all that bullcrap she muttered to you, you had to find a decent apartment to live in, one that you can at the very least, afford. Everybody knows that your mother just wanted to get new boyfriends, so she didn't want to let you lecture her about being a better fucking adult and parent, so that was why she sent you away.

Well, it's not like you disagreed with her suggestion. Your mother never seemed to get better boyfriends, and you kinda got used to those rowdy, buff people she dated. Weird, but mom is still mom.

So yes, despite all that, now here you are in the middle of a cramped, one room apartment where you cook, sleep and do everything in one small space. You don't complain though; the apartment's got great shops nearby and at least you can take the subway to get to college. And it's affordable.

You slammed your laptop shut and started to stretch. Walking towards your dining table for two, you grabbed a plastic bag with a few plastic containers inside that were filled with rice cakes.

Those were from your mother. She kept telling you to be in good terms with the neighbours, so she forced you to give out rice cakes to everyone on your row.

You never actually had the time to imagine how your neighbours were like, but you hoped they were decent.

Sadly, when you knocked on the two doors that were beside your room, none of them answered.

You walked back inside with two remaining containers of rice cakes, pulling the sliding door open. Your balcony was really close to the neighbours next to you, it felt like you could climb onto theirs and hand the rice cakes from there.

Second thoughts on that one, though. Who knows if there's anyone who might be doing the do here. Majority of the residents who live here are college students, anyway.

Surprisingly, the neighbour to your right had his sliding door wide open, emitting an extremely delicious smell from his small room. They actually smelled like something sweet; like cookies or muffins or something, and you wondered how the person could bake in such a small place.

"Excuse me!" You called, trying your best to use your loudest voice "is anyone there?"

The smell apparently got even closer, and you recognized the smell. Chocolate, to be specific.

It didn't take long for your neighbour to appear; wearing a pink apron and matching plaid pink mittens, flour smeared onto some parts of his face and his apron.

"Sorry to bother you, you didn't answer the door so I thought it was fine to talk here," You tell him, fidgeting with the plastic bag "I just moved in, so here's some rice cakes I brought from home."

Your neighbour immediately smiled at the sight of the rice cakes, "Amazing! I was just craving for them, thank you! I didn't really expect our new neighbour to be a girl though. Most of the residents here are guys from the nearest college."

"Oh," you shudder at his statement. Guys? Hell, what if there's a ruckus every night, or someone just crashes into your place without permission. That would be a nightmare. You made a mental note to lock your doors before going to sleep every night.

"Ah well, don't worry, the rowdy guys live on the opposite block. Besides, there's not much ruckus that's happened lately, so rest assured," he tells you, flashing his whitest-teeth award smile "besides, it's nice to have a girl around here."

"I guess that's fine then." I reply, returning his smile.

The boy stuck out his hand for you to shake on, wiping the flour off on his apron before he did, "I'm Seokmin, by the way! Nice to meet you. Wait here, I'll give you some muffins in return." He disappeared behind the curtains and came back a few minutes later, a box of warm muffins in hand.

"Amazing!" you exclaim, looking at the freshly baked muffins "these really look great."

"As expected of me," Seokmin puts on a smug face, and you try not to roll your eyes at your neighbour "well, enjoy those!"

"Thanks!" You say happily "I'm Areum, by the way. By the way, who lives on my left?"

"You haven't met Jisoo yet?" Seokmin asks as you nod, assuming that the next door neighbour was Jisoo.

"You should, the dude's an absolute genius. You're a student right? You can ask him with anything you don't understand. He probably didn't answer the door because he was taking his usual 'exactly thirty minutes' nap, like he calls it."

"He times his nap times?"

You had a confused look on your face, but Seokmin just laughs.

"You'll understand what I mean once you meet him," Seokmin bows and backs away to return back to baking "well, goodnight!"

Once Seokmin disappears, you look at the building in front of you. It was the same building as yours, located opposite. The balconies were facing each other's, and you weren't sure if it was a good or a bad thing. The two balconies aren't that far apart anyway. The balcony opposite of yours was at least a meter away.

Jisoo's balcony had a small table and a chair, surprisingly some plants which had these scientific labels on the pots. On the table was this amazing replica of whatever he was creating, but you knew it was extraordinary even without him explaining it.

Seokmin's balcony had two fancy white chairs and a matching table with plaid cloth on it, and a few old ovens.

There were loads of other balconies in front of you. One had extremely beautiful flowers blooming away in their pots as if it were a park, another had stuff like unused cupboards and boxes, and another looked extremely clean and luxurious with a chair that looked like it costed millions.

You realized moving here wasn't that bad after all. It was a place where people lived different lives even if they were all in one place, one building. Each balcony had their own story.

Those stories were willing to be heard.

-------------------------------

I made a comeback with a new story yAs

I feel like the ongoing stories that im currently writing are decreasing so boom boom here's a new one

Just a reminder that this isnt a love story, it's about seventeen and their individual lives. So there'll be no romance.

Or will there? ;)

Hope you guys enjoy this book! Dw this isnt a reverse harem where everyone falls for her lmao

Have a nice day <3

- Cee