Exactly As It Sounds • Young K • Day6

viii.

Chapter 8

"When asked to reveal the inside of me,

The world's tides gripped at my heels.

But here, before you, I say I am

And your eyes beg me not to leave this alone."

-"Wondering"

The incident with the saesangs leaves you feeling confused. Even if Young K explained his initial mistrust towards you, he had still asked to have you fired. You'd thought he hated you, but when you finally gave him your apology he'd accepted it so easily is was almost exasperating.

Just when you think you have him all figured out he always does something to surprise you. And in the meantime you're about to go on your first tour. Day6 was preparing to go to Japan.

Preparing for a concert is exciting, but it's more stress than even you'd been anticipating. But the past few months you've grown closer to your team and Day6, and with Wonpil behind you all along the way, your days are mostly happy.

It's exactly two weeks after you'd been stuck in a closet with Young K that you visit his dorm for the first time. Although in a lot of respects JYP was a lot more fair than other entertainment agencies, they still had a strict anti-dating policy for rookies, and an even stricter rule about dorms.

No girls. No exceptions.

So when you find yourself exiting the elevator to the ninth floor, your arms trembling from bearing the weight of six heavy garment bags, you can't curb a small bit of curiosity. When a member of the wardrobe team had caught a bad cold, Bora had sent you to their dorm to drop off some stage outfits that needed to be fitted.

Balancing the enormous mound of clothing precariously, you stretch your hand forward and ring the intercom. After waiting several seconds with no answer, you go ahead and punch in the code. Bora had told you the boys might not be home. With a concert right around the corner, extended practices until the early hours of the morning weren't unusual. In fact, you'd barely seen Wonpil over the last couple of days. As you lumber into the apartment, half dragging, half carrying the heavy load, you breathe a sigh of relief once you've finally toss the heavy bags onto the table in the kitchen. Straightening up and stretching your aching back, you take in your surroundings.

The apartment is slightly messy, pretty typical for a bunch of twenty-year-old guys who are barely home. The living room has several snack wrappers, an empty pizza box, and a greasy container of what used to be take-out chicken, as well as an assortment of graphic novels lying around. You spy a pair of mismatched socks lying over the arm of the couch and smile at a guitar pick resting on top of a pile of sheet music, notations scribbled in the margins.

Glancing over at the kitchen, you see the sink piled so high it looks like an avalanche of dishes will come crashing down at any moment. Remembering how Wonpil complained Sunday about being on dish duty this week, you hesitate. You really weren't supposed to stay in the apartment for very long, but since no one was here, you figured it can't hurt.

You weren't that traditional type of girl, the type to clean up after some guy's mess, but Wonpil had been more of a friend the past couple weeks than you thought you could ever repay. So even if you were dead tired, what was a couple dishes for friendship's sake?

Filling the sink with warm, soapy water, you tackle the dishes slowly. Surprisingly, it's kind of therapeutic to clean. The repetitive motions are calming, and you find your thoughts slowing down as all of your tension over the last week melts away. After doing the dishes you end up taking out the garbage and recycling. Then one thing leads to another and before you realize it you've practically cleaned everything in the kitchen.