How to Embarrass Yourself, A Step by Step Guide

Snow

"Are you sure you grabbed the right one?" The boy flipped through the pages like mad, searching for the certain heading his friend had told him about. Not to mention that this kind soul went to fetch it, so Jongdae could use it for this rather stupid assignment. Was probably his own fault though. This professor had no sympathy for students sleeping during lectures, not like Jongdae needed them anyway.

"It's not my fault you dozed off, Dae. I mean, I know you're literally always occupied thinking about a certain someone, but that still doesn't give you the right to simply snore away in his lectures. It was about time, that he gave you a punishment—"

"Tell me the fucking page, Minseok."

"I am older than you—"

"On a second thought, I don't need your help." Jongdae pressed the red button without looking at his cellphone and shook his head. Minseok dared to call himself Jongdae's best friend and yet he was so mean. It was not like Jongdae could help it. He was a man and his hormones liked jumping off a cliff, whenever he was confronted with his neighbour.

Yesterday was such a tragic day. He couldn't help watching that man undress. It certainly wasn't his fault that their flats were across each other's. He didn't choose this room, so he could goggle at others. Nobody wanted to understand that though.

Putting this issue aside, Jongdae was fine with just staring at this perfect piece of art. That much wasn't unusual, considering the man had moved in just a few weeks ago and still didn't manage to actually buy himself some curtains.

If he didn't want onlookers, then surely he would have bought them.

Jongdae stared at the words in front of him and read over the task once more.

Yesterday was awful though. Jongdae had often dared to take peek, just a very small one.

He tilted his head as he patted the empty paper over and over again with the closed side of the pen.

Maybe not just a peek. He wasn't sure, but he still didn't know how he managed to get himself caught. He hadn't even intended to watch his neighbour as he was singing loudly to Girl's Day's Twinkle Twinkle.

It was just by chance that Jongdae drew his curtains to the side at the worst possible moment. Once again, he had caught his neighbour taking off his clothes in front of the window. He swore to himself not to watch again, so Jongdae begrudgingly tore his eyes away, but that wasn't before said man turned around to stare at him.

He was never this embarrassed and he couldn't sleep all night. Not to mention how awfully stupid it was of him to let go of the curtains, stumble back onto his bed and stare at his wall like a freaking maniac. It was not like had just committed a crime? Definitely not the case.

Jongdae shook his head, once more trying to concentrate at the task at hand. Minseok was right about the heading which sounded much like the essay's headline. This ought to help him—

A sharp scratching sound could be heard and Jongdae sighed. Yes, there was some fucking snow covering the pavement but why, why of all times did someone have to shovel it away now? The boy put his chin on his hand and continued taking notes, trying to ignore the screeching and pavement scratching noises which were slowly filling up the room. Someone should have made this soundproof.

So he opted to using his earphones which soon blasted some of Davichi's songs in a decent volume, completely shutting him off from the world around him.

It was only much, much later that Jongdae put them away again. He stretched his legs and sniffed once, ears slowly suggesting to the silence.

At least he thought there would be silence by now. That was not the case. The shovel could still be heard and Jongdae only shortly asked himself if a grandpa was trying to shovel to his best ability. Nobody could be that slow. Jongdae shook his head, closed the textbook, took a deep breath before climbing onto his feet to open up the curtains.