ᴀʙᴅɪᴛᴏʀʏ || baek kyung

Welcome to the Kang Family! We're All Touched in the Head Here.

Welcome to the Kang Family! We're All Touched in the Head Here.

"Do you always sit like someone's holding you at gunpoint?"

Kyung looked up stiffly from the sofa as Jia waved a ladle at him across the hall. It had been a few hours since he had agreed to be her...tenant as opposed to flatmate and he could not have felt more uncomfortable.

The apartment, actually, made him feel at ease. Jia didn't seem fond of the 'minimalistic decor' as she had filled the empty spaces in the hall with plants and tapestries, photographs, wall hangings and what not. There were so many books. On the shelves surrounding the television, on the racks by the dining area behind the sofa, another large bookshelf on the first floor landing.

(He didn't know she could read stuff that went beyond Clifford the Big Red Dog.)

The apartment was warm and welcoming, contrasting the frigid tundra that was the house he grew up in.

It was living in close quarters with Kang Jia that unnerved him.

(Maybe if she hadn't been a girl, he would've felt differently about the situation.)

"There's only so many times I can sort through the five things I have." He replied, staring at the soft, beige rug under his bare feet. "I have nothing else to do."

"Try taking a shower." She turned her back to him, stirring something in a pot, "You smell like death. Speaking of which," She hummed in thought, "are you even allowed to take a shower because of your injuries?"

"As long as I change the dressing afterwards. The wounds used to disappear every time there was a Stage or a timeskip." Kyung absentmindedly touched the cut on the corner of his mouth, "But I learnt how to patch myself up when I was in junior school."

Jia slowly looked at him, "If you can patch yourself up then why did you put me through the trauma last night?"

"I couldn't think straight." He answered honestly, "And...it's never been this bad."

"Right." She didn't miss the way he tried to discreetly sniff the sleeve of his shirt, "Can you go up the stairs by yourself?"

"Yeah. I'm not an invalid."

"My bad. It's just, I don't think you saw me watching you when you tripped and fell forward while trying to hobble up the stairs a while ago."

His lip curled into a sneer as he stepped over Geumbi to go upstairs. Jia paid no heed to him. Instead, she let out a surprised noise followed by a curse. Kyung was halfway up the stairs when she shuffled out of the kitchen area while untying her seagreen apron.

"Hey, I'm just going to head to the convenience store to get some things. You want anything?" She tilted her head upwards to look at him.

Slippers. Kyung immediately said 'no', not wanting to ask. It was so...embarrassing.

"Are you sure?" She frowned.

"Yeah."

"Okay. Um, I don't think you need bandages or gauze or anything since Joonhyun bought enough to last you a month or two. And..." She began to mumble to herself, making a list of things to get while staring through the thin railing. "Right. Just in case, you don't have to worry about anyone coming over at this time. If you want to go out, the apartment passcode is 0-5-0-3."

Kyung stared at her, "Are you kidding me?"

"Shut up."

"That's your passcode?"