It Just Happened That Way || JEONGIN from skz!

4

My eyes are frantic. My heart is pounding like crazy. Am I living inside of a fucking Korean drama right now, or did this guy actually think that I wouldn't be able to catch my footing or something? Who actually falls all the way to the ground when they slip, really, who?

And yet...And yet I can't help but feel how strong his arms are. I can't help but to smell his cologne.

This all happened in the span of two seconds, and yet, it felt like an eternity. I snapped out of it and rushed to get out of his arms, before mumbling a quick Sorry, thank you!

I properly look at him for the first time and my breath hitches. Jeongin?

He raises his eyebrows in surprise and asks, "You're that Americano girl from the cafe aren't you?" and looks between me, the boxes, and the building.

"Do you live here?"

"Um yeah," I laugh nervously, "I just moved in this morning."

His eyes light up, and he excitedly says, "I live here too!! What floor are you on?"

My eyes widen, and I sputter out, "I - I live on the top floor, unit 501. What about you?"

"No way. Are you kidding me? Tell me you're joking — I live in 502"

It takes all of my strength to prevent my feeling of surprise and freak-out from showing on my face. Instead, I plaster on a standard surprised look, my mouth slightly gaping as I laugh, eyes big, saying "Noooo way."

He laughs with me before asking, "By the way, what's your name?"

I blush a little. "My name is Lee Yeona. What about you?" I ask him because this is a NORMAL conversation with a nORMAL person, not someone I had watched grow up since 2017.

"My name is Yang Jeongin. Anyways, let me help you get these boxes upstairs."

The next couple of minutes, we work together to carry the boxes inside the elevator. It's a little cramped after we tetrised everything inside, and we end up standing only about 2 feet apart from each other. I quickly notice how I am only about two inches shorter than him. Skz really do be small boys.

We stand in silence during the ride, as we catch our breaths.

I hope he can't hear how hard my heart is pounding right now, and that he can't see the sweat on my forehead. Why..why didn't I wear makeup today, I thought to myself, before shooting it down with a Well, now that we're neighbors, it's not like I can just always be wearing makeup. Way too much work.

Ding!

The elevator opens up to the fifth floor, and Jeongin immediately begins unloading the boxes. I rush to my door and punch in the password before propping the door open.

Once the boxes are all inside of my empty apartment, he stood proudly in the kitchen, stretching his arms above his head, as if he had accomplished some big task. He sighed and looked around the apartment.

"Wow! You get the other side of the view. I got the mountains and you got the city," he explains. "You know our apartments are symmetric! This is so trippy."

I laugh a little, and tell him, "Wow, you have to let me see that view some time. I'm glad there are mountains here just like back home."

"Where's home?"

"I'm from California! I just moved here," I say shyly.

"Oh! Your Korean isn't bad at all, by the way, considering you just moved here," he says encouragingly, "Your accent is almost unnoticeable. I have a friend who's accent was pretty bad in the beginning, but he figured it out really quickly. His first language is English too! I'll introduce you two sometime."

I grin at him, knowing well that he's talking about Felix, another member from Stray Kids. "That'd be nice. I haven't been able to meet anyone yet and I've been here almost a month."

He smiles, and points at the boxes.

"So...do you need any help assembling things?"