The Green Home stinked.

And's dirty.

And filled with people.

And— oh my god, is that a dead rat?!

Jeong-Suk took a deep breath, closed her eyes and told herself that everything was going to be good.

"Welcome to the Green Home, Sukkie! It's not that bad here. Nothing like that bungalow mommy had rent once on Jeju Island . . ."

Okay. Yes. Everything was going to be okay. This was her choice, it was no time to back up and think about her beautiful, large, comfy bedroom, filled with pillows and blankets and—

"No!" she exclaimed, hands straight and going up, as if to block those very bad, very comforting thoughts.

"Shut the fuck up!" a short man yelled from a small grocery shop. Suk had learned that it was reserved only for the residents of the apartment complex. "People are trying to work, here!".

The girl shrieked and bowed deeply: "I'm so so so sorry! I didn't mean to bother!". And she bolted up the stairs, the tiking of her heels echoing against the walls.

Deep breaths, vison clear, one leg in front of the other—

Thump!

Okay, maybe she forgot to put the right leg in front of the left one while running, she tripped and landed on her face.

Maybe.

It's not like there was someone watching.

She groaned and mentally cursed, wrinkling her nose at the dark stain now on her dress.

Then, while getting up, she met eyes with a boy, who looked just about to open his apartment door.

Suk blushed to the tips of her ears and quickly stumbled on her feet. "I'm okay! No worries! Nothing to see here!". She sent him two thumbs up with a big smile, hoping it would help the—

Oh.

Oh.

Now that she could take a good look at him she blushed even more.

Long, dark — and a bit messy, she had to admit, but it only added to his charm — hair framed his face, full pink lips parted in a confused frown. His gaze were shiny but a little empty, like there was a fog hanging over whatever was underneath it. And he was tall, damn it.

In short, he was pretty.

Like, i-would-take-him-to-my-parents-and-maybe-my-dad-would-like-him kind of pretty.

She was staring at him. He was staring at her. None of the two seemed to make a move to break the awkward silence or the awkward staring contest.

Until, he decided to do it by stepping inside his apartment, the sharp slam of the door closing on her face making her jump out of her trance.

A huge smile stretched her mouth as she continued walking down the hall.

She found her apartment — number 143, she realized with a giggle — and quickly stepped inside, closing the door and leaning on it with her eyes shut, squealing in delight.

Did she just have a K-Drama moment with the incredibly attractive boy next door?

Maybe life at the Green Home wouldn't be so bad, after all.

Then, she looked at the room where she would've lived for the rest of the year and her enthusiasm quickly died.

Mold stained walls glared back at her, air hot and smelly, blinds shut and a single ray of sunshine picking into the room and onto the dusty floor.

Suk took a deep breath and printed a ( another ) huge smile on her face.

Goodbye old, boring, clean life! Welcome new, exciting, slightly dirty one!

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

You know, if you squinted, life at the Green Home wasn't that bad.

The first week had been relatively easy: wake up, daily walk at the gym, breakfast, lunch, admiring the pretty boy next door from afar, dinner, sleep. Repeat.

And, listen. It would've continued smoothly if at her eighth day there he wouldn't have noticed her.

Well. If you write it that way, it doesn't look too bad, but trust me, it was.

She had always been incredibly clumsy, so that Saturday when she tumbled over some boxes left in front of her apartment she didn't really put to much thought into it.

What she did notice was how those boxes were in reality just a really small one, and wasn't even before her apartment.

Uncooked thin ramen was spread across the floor, its container broken probably by her foot, and she had managed to step on the hot sauce bag as well.

And, of course, the apartment door had to open right at that moment.

Jeong-Suk stumbled to her feet, red risingto her cheeks, feeling the cute boy's gaze on her.

"Hi!" she exclaimed, bowing quickly and then holding up a hand in the air. "Funny how we seem to meet always like this! You know, me on the floor, you standing and staring down at me . . . ". The cute boy didn't reply, therefore underlining what she just said. "Exactly like that! Anyway, I'm Yang Jeong-Suk! But you can call me Sukkie! I'm new here, I just moved in! What's your name?". She knew she uses too many exclamation marks when talking, but that's okay.

Giving the girl one last glance, the cute boy kneeled and started cleaning up the mess she'd made.

"Oh, right!" she slapped herself on the forehead, like that thought didn't even crossed her mind, before lowering herself on her knees and helping him.

At that, he stopped.

One beat. Two.

"What . . . What are you doing?".

"Helping!" she chirped.

Silence.

Then . . . "Why?".

She stopped what she was doing to look at him in the eye, her eyebrows pinching together and her lips going outwards in a small pout.

"You don't want my help?" said her voice in a tiny whisper, puppy dog eyes staring at him like she couldn't understand such a question.

He blinked in response, visibly confused. Hesitated. Blinked again. Lastly, he nodded.

Jeong-Suk expression lit up in an instant, flashing him a toothy smile and going back to what she was doing, gathering all the raw ramen pieces in her hands.

They continued working in a comfortable silence ( at least in Suk's opinion ) and a few minutes later everything was clean again, the dirty food thrown away in a trash can.

Suk rubbed her hands and bowed again, this time in apologize: "I'm so sorry for ruining your dinner! I swear, most of the times I don't know where I'm going or what I'm doing and I just wobble around like crazy and it just casually happens to be in front of your door every time! But—".

"It's okay." he mumbled, forcing a small smile on his lips.

For a second, she thought of excusing herself in one of the nearest doors to hide her blushing face and scream her lungs out till it faded.

Instead she decided to furiously shook her head: "Uh huh! It's not okay! I'll buy you a new one! Or, like, maybe two, or three, or— wait, what flavor was that?". She gasped, and he flinched. "Oh my god, what flavor do you like more? Do you want the same ramen? Maybe you'd prefer another brand? Or—Or I could get you some kimbap! Or maybe—".

"It's okay." His eyes were open wide and blinking non-stop, his mouth tilted up in what she swore, looked like amusement. "Thank you".

Maybe he had expected her to drop it there, but it was immediately clear that he had underestimated her.

"Why are you thanking me? I stepped on your ramen! It is not a good thing! And I was obviously walking around your apartment because I saw you the other day and you're, like, really really cute! That's basically stalking! That is not a good thing!".

She looked at him straight in the eye, like she was declaring a very serious, very crucial statement.

Then, her lips parted like a gaping fish. "And why the heck did I say that? For god's sake, why can't I just stop talking? Well, I don't know! But what I know is that you should not be thanking me for anything!".

Her yapping ended in a solemn tone, the words echoing on the thin walls of the building.

Honestly, the boy gawked at her like he was both equally stunned and scared, thrown aback by this random outburst of this random girl he had never spoken a word with.

He didn't . . . didn't really know what to say so he just . . .

"I'm Cha Hyun-Su."

Oh my god, did he just told me his name? Is it—

"Is that your name?" she asked, in awe, like she couldn't believe he actually said it to her. Did he actually say it to me? Oh my god.

He nodded.

Oh. My. God.

She squealed, letting her weight shift from one leg to the other in excitement. "That's a really nice name!". Okay, maybe she didn't know what to say, but still. "My name is Jeong-Suk! But I already said that! Do you think—".

He stepped inside of his apartment and shut the door on her face.

She smiled, trotting back to her own and frantically grabbing her purse, before going out again.

The convenience store should've had a bowl or two of ramen left.

jade speaks —— i really hope you guys will love sukkie as much as i do, because ugh. she's the cutest and so fun to write, you have no idea.

sorry if some vocabulary was repeated a lot during this chapter, but as i said, english is not my first language. feel free to point out mistakes of any kind if you want to! just do it nicely :)

thank you sm for reading <3