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Three days later he arrived in Ottawa. Huening had worked his magic and talked to his aunt, who in return wanted to meet Soobin. He had met up with him and gave him his spare key in his lunch break for his flat so he could take a quick shower and change into different clothes, and then he had to go meet up with his aunt, Jiyeon.
From what Huening had told him over the years he knew that she was overall a nice lady, a bit peculiar in her ways to choose tenants and a bit uptight, but nice all in all.
At least he hoped so.
Huening had also said the same thing about his oldest cousin Bungsoo and that guy was a nightmare to everyone who was not related to him. Thankfully, he had only visited once a year when they were kids since he lived in Seoul and not in the States.
They had agreed to meet at a little café, maybe five minutes away from where Huening lived, and Soobin arrived a few minutes earlier just to make sure. He didn't want to leave a bad first impression after all.
As he waited, he took a closer look at his surroundings — the streets were busy, much like he had expected, and the sidewalks were overrun with people as well. Growing up in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania was different from living in the middle of Ottawa.
It started with the way the air smelt differently, over how people dressed or behaved in general, or the cultural differences. It was a lot to take in, but Soobin found himself enjoying the diversity. Back home, everyone looked the same, dressed the same and god forbid if you talked about politics, that was just a big 'no', especially on Thanksgiving.
Then again, that was probably a big 'no' in every family.
His eyes roamed around, almost smiling at how different every person that walked by was.
Without meaning to, his eyes remained glued in one place — not far away from him stood another man. He was probably half a head smaller than Soobin and his body seemed lithe and fit, but almost petite compared to Soobin — and as he turned around Soobin could see that he was Asian, too. Maybe even Korean?
He didn't really think about that, though, he was too intrigued by the way he looked, the way he dressed. Soobin didn't know what it was, but he admitted that the man looked good in his flashy clothes and with his brightly dyed hair.
As suddenly as these thoughts came, as suddenly they disappeared again as someone tapped his shoulder and he whirled around — coming face to face with an older looking woman (not old, but old enough to be Soobin's mom), who smiled warmly at him.
"You must be Soobin, right?"
"Uh, yes ma'am.", he awkwardly bowed his head a bit which made Jiyeon laugh before she extended her hand and shook his hand. "I see you were raised traditionally; I like that."
"Yes, my grandma mostly raised me, and she was very strict when it came to traditions like that."
Jiyeon smiled at him again, before asking him to follow her. The apartment was only ten minutes away from where Huening lived. He didn't really know where exactly he was, but the area seemed nice.
It wasn't in the middle of Ottawa -- no skyscrapers and all those typical things that normally a capital city would have, but not too far outside to be in a suburban region. It felt comfortable and good.
There was a park nearby and grocery stores, too. It seemed like a good neighborhood and Soobin suddenly started to fear how much it would cost him to live here.
The house itself was nice and clean too. It only four stories and each apartment had a spacious basement as well with a balcony. The neighbor's (an elderly couple, who was holding hands) he passed when they rode up the elevator seemed sweet, too.
They walked down the corridor and came to a stop in front of the last door on the right side, Jiyeon opened the door and stepped aside, letting Soobin pass her through the door, before closing it again once both of them were inside.
The flat itself was as beautiful as the rest of the house had been. After the front door, was located in a smaller room, where a wardrobe for coats and shoes were placed in, along with a commode right to the left side.
Right across from the door which leads to the next room was a huge full-length mirror and Soobin gapped a little at it. It looked expensive, and he heard a small chuckle coming from Jiyeon as she passed him and walked into the next room, which turned out to be the living room with a dining area.
Once Soobin fully entered he realized that the kitchen was also part of it, almost like a loft, and as he looked around, he decided that he really liked it that way. He loved to cook and having this much room meant that he could finally cook to the extend he wanted to, and he could invite as many people over as he wanted and make enough food for them.
The thought alone made him smile, though the only person he would most likely cook for was Huening whenever he came over, that was a start.
Jiyeon walked through the living room and opened the curtains, pulling them aside to reveal a window front, along with a glass door that leads to a spacious balcony. He had a direct view of the park and the whole atmosphere seemed very calming. Soobin had grown up in an environment like this one and even though he had been more than happy to move to Ottawa, he had quickly sobered up about the idea of living directly in the city.
He stepped outside and looked around — the neighbor's balcony wasn't in his view since they had put up a few plants and they perfectly formed a barrier between his and their balcony.
"It is really nice to live here, this was actually the very first flat I lived in and bought later. The first thing I did was put a few plants here, similar to the neighbor's, and put a comfortable chair down there-", she pointed at the other side of the balcony, away from the neighbors, "- it felt amazing to come home and be surrounded by nothing but plants and my pet cat back then. Life in the office can be terribly draining, but this helped me calm down after work."
Soobin simply smiled and nodded at her, already envisioning what it would be like to come home after a long day at the studio, leaving behind all his worries and just relax.
Jiyeon was right. This seemed like the perfect place to just calm down and relax and the more time he spent here the more he wanted to live here.
