Chapter Text
Saturday, 9:17am 🐱---
"Hurry up Dad!" Jeongin said, tapping his little feet up and down, crashing them against one of the steps he was sitting on with a little pouty-frown across his face. Seungmin sighed at him as he continued to play whatever game he was engrossed in on his phone, tapping at the screen.
Minho came out, two baseball kit bags in hand, two blue lunchboxes and a tiny Avengers rucksack slung over his shoulder.
"I fail to see how you two are going to play baseball and have lunch today without your baseball kits or lunches…" Minho huffed, tutting at them before shoving his keys in the door to lock it behind him, struggling with the load in his arms.
As he made his way down his drive, he saw Ms. Park, his glamorous, bleach-blonde neighbour outside on her front porch with a cigarette in her hand, leaning over her fence. She was wearing a loose-fitting summer animal-print dress and large sunglasses to probably hide her wine-induced hangover eyes. He could see she was wearing a bright red lipstick, which was slightly unusual pre-9:30am... In fact, Minho wasn't sure he'd ever seen her open her curtains before 1:00pm on any given day. She was more of a ‘night person’.
"Good morning, Ms. Park! Great weather out today!" He said to her, waving as he escorted Jeongin down the front porch steps and across the lawn, Seungmin following closely behind, still focused on his phone.
"Morning, Mr. Lee" She responded enthusiastically. "Why yes, isn’t it? Isn't it, rather hot outside today?" She slipped her sunglasses down, a teasing grin on her face. "Definitely my type of weather..." Minho saw her flick her head and eyes a little to the left-hand side, forcing Minho to look to see what she was pointing to, slightly bewildered.
There was a small-ish moving van pulled up outside of her house. She was number 14, so he assumed it was for number 16, which had been 'For Sale' for quite some time now; at least six months. Both of the back doors of the truck were open, and Minho could see flat-packed furniture inside it. There was also a little purple-blue, galaxy patterned, bicycle propped up against the gate with a tiny white basket mounted on the front.
Suddenly, something, or someone, caught his attention, forcing him to stop in his tracks, Seungmin bumbling into the back of him with a little “oof” as he was so focused on his game to notice him stop.
There was a man carrying one of the boxes in both hands, walking up to his front door. From his back, Minho could see that he was maybe a little shorter than him, with dark brown, long-ish, dark hair, half-hidden with a black cap. He was wearing a white, loose-fitting muscle shirt, showing off his arms and some of the side of his rib-cage.
Minho felt his throat become a little drier than normal as he blinked himself back into reality. It was a while before this street had a new resident, but he honestly wouldn't complain if he got to see those arms on a daily basis…
He looked back to Ms. Park, who started fanning herself frantically with her hand, rolling her eyes backwards. From her side of the street, she could probably see him from the front. She was totally shameless, and it made him laugh a little at how audacious she was.
Minho thought to himself that the boys would probably be late for Club if he didn't get a move on; they were already fifteen minutes behind schedule. He'd have to admire from afar and get back to her with his 'ranking' later on...
They piled into the silver 'Dad Wag', Minho leaning back across them to make sure both boys were in their car seats and strapped in. He reversed out backwards, looking back over his shoulder as he saw the new neighbour again, this time from the front, re-appearing from his front door. Luckily, there was nothing behind him, because he nearly forgot how to drive at just the sight of him.
8:23am 🐿️---
Jisung drove up to his designated street, slapping his hands on the steering wheel in time to the music, feeling pretty invincible up so high in the moving truck.
He'd been so excited to move in for months now, and it was finally moving in day.
The only niggling thing on his mind was that he wished Felix could come with him, but it was inconveniently his Mom's weekend to have him.
Plus, she insisted it was too dangerous to have an 8-year-old in an 'empty, dirty, old house'...
Not that tiny Felix would be able to help in any kind of way, but he always missed his presence when he wasn't there.
He was such a bundle of energy and he could imagine how excited Felix would be to see his new room, thinking about which drawings of what mythical creatures he could cover the walls with.
Jisung pulled up to the house numbered '16', a large grin appearing across his face as he did.
He could see his next-door neighbour, a slightly older woman, peering out of her window at him from just behind her curtain.
She didn't look particularly subtle at about the fact that she was watching him, but Jisung thought that in a little cul-de-sac like this one, new neighbours were probably a rarity.
Plus, his van was probably blocking a part of her drive.
That was probably why she was focused on him so intently.
He started unloading the truck, peeling his zip-up jacket off, as it was far too hot outside to be lifting boxes in 85° heat.
He tossed it aside on the grown-out, dandelion-infused grass, and pulled Felix's bike out of the back, as it was the last thing they packed.
Felix had insisted on riding it as much as possible now that he had learnt to ride with 'only one hand!'
He propped it up beside the fence.
As he brought the furniture in, he wandered through the hallway.
Everything was so beige, neutral, and boring, a little too boring for him and Felix.
He thought he would definitely have to repaint and mount a few pictures, or something.
The first door to the left was the living room, which had some navy-blue decor on the boarding of the wallpaper, but it was still overwhelmingly dull.
Then at the top was the most bog-standard, off-white, poor-paintjob kitchenette he’d ever seen.
He headed upstairs with more boxes, jostling some of the larger packages.
He came to a small, pale yellow box room with some left-over Looney Tunes border; the paper barely hanging on to the wall.
He'd assumed it had been a nursery, before.
This little room would be Felix’s', and the teal-ish colored larger room with the ensuite next door would be Jisung's, as soon as he could get someone out to fix the plumbing.
He felt a sense of relief as he headed back outside, smiling just knowing that the house would be his and Felix' to make as many memories as they wanted.
It was the first house he'd managed to afford on his own, and it made him feel accomplished, even though it clearly needed a lot of work.
He could see across the road there was a little greyish-silver Hyundai Tucson pulled up at the curb.
It was probably the neighbour at either 13, or 15, more than likely.
He also saw two young boys, probably no older than Felix, meandering out on the front steps.
One of them was kicking his little Converse high-tops up and down on the steps as he sat. His almost-black hair adorably tousled and almost covering his eyes.
He could hear them whinging for someone to hurry up.
Jisung smiled at the sight of them, thinking it would be great for Felix to be able to make friends his age on his own street.
He saw a man scramble out of the doorway, with arms full of bags, totally flustered with his hair sticking up at the back.
From beside him, he could see his new older, female neighbour had oozed out of her front door in some kind of kaftan, or leopard-print dressing gown, or whatever it was called.
She was leaning kinda weirdly over her gate, peering at him from time-to-time, but not directly enough for Jisung to be able to initiate some kind of formal greeting.
It was, bizarre, to say the least, so he shrugged it off and continued to bring the boxes in, trying to avoid her.
As he came back out, he clocked the driver in the Hyundai backing out of his driveway, who swerved a little as he came out.
Probably one of the boys distracting him in the back.
Jisung could relate.
Felix would often distract him in the car.
10:39am 🐱---
As Minho dropped the boys off, he decided to do a small food shop, and buy a new exercise mat, more dumbbells and set of resistance bands. He'd probably do a home workout now that the boys were at their day club.
Every other Saturday from 10:00am to 4:00pm were 'his time', but it mostly consisted of cleaning up after the boys and preparing food, anyway… He'd even bought two new 'erotic novels' on a spontaneous whim around three months ago, not that anyone knew; thinking it might inject some 'spice' into his life. Honestly, he hadn't even read them yet and he felt a bit embarrassed to do so, anyway.
He sighed at how ridiculously mundane his life had become…
As he pulled back into the street, he noticed that the 'For Sale' sign out the front of 16 was lying flat on the pavement, and the moving van from earlier had gone. He parked up outside his dropped curb, attempting to grab all of the bags from the back of the car in one trip, which was pretty delusional by any means. He shoved his keys in his mouth and tried to grab as many of them as he could in his arms.
"Do you need a hand?" an energised voice shouted from across the road.
Minho turned around to see the new neighbour bounding forward towards him, offering to help him almost immediately.
"Oh, no, it's fine, honestly, I’ve got it." Minho replied, mumbling with his keys in between his teeth and shaking his head in embarrassment.
The neighbour’s arms were fully on show still, and Minho had to stifle his own breathing for a moment, because it was suddenly much harder to breathe than it was before... The neighbour grabbed at a couple of the bags from the back, and Minho became strangely embarrassed about how messy the trunk of his car was.
"Wow, what do you have in here? Weights?" The neighbour replied with a bewildered look on his face as he lifted a few of the bags out with a bit of a struggle.
"Oh... Actually, that's exactly what I have in there." Minho replied, laughing a little at the absurdity of it all. "Literal, weights."
“You work out?” Jisung said, intrigued, cocking his head a little to the side.
Minho suddenly cringed, he seriously hoped his new neighbour wasn’t one of these dudes that worked out all the time, though it would explain the rather obnoxious muscle shirt he was wearing…
“Only at home really. I have two kids so finding any time to do anything is pretty difficult, these days!” Minho sighed, punctuating the end of his sentence with a little laugh as soon as he realised how pitiful it sounded.
The neighbour helped him to the door with his bags and Minho placed them inside his hallway, turning back to him.
"Thanks for helping me, you didn’t have to."
"Honestly it's no problem. I'm Jisung, by the way; Han Jisung. I live at number 16. I just moved in today." He looked back across to his house then back. He put his hand out to him, and Minho shook it in return.
"Minho, Lee Minho. I live, well, here." He pointed inside the hallway and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Not to be totally weird or anything, but do you know anywhere good around here to take an 8-year-old to eat? You said you have kids, and I saw that you had, two sons?” He questioned. “So, I thought you might know. Not to be like, creepy or anything!" Jisung laughed defensively, smiling brightly. Minho couldn’t help but notice how much softer his face was compared to his rather muscular physique.
"Oh. Yes, I do, I have two sons. Um, there's an American-style diner about twenty minutes down the main road if your kid likes that kind of thing." Minho responded.
"Perfect. He loves western food. Thanks!"
Minho made a mental note of the fact that the neighbour, Jisung, had a little boy around his kids age. He thought back to the little purple-blue bike with the tiny white basket he saw outside the house earlier, that was likely whose it was.
He thought it would be great for Jeongin and Seungmin to be able to make friends their age on their own street. The rest of the street consisted of young couples that partied too hard and horny cougars that had lived there since the dinosaurs roamed.
"No problem, thanks for helping me with these."
"Not at all! No worries!"
Minho looked around self-consciously as the exchange came to an end, he smacked his lips together and looked towards Jisung who just smiled at him, his cheeks puffing up with a wide, boxy grin.
"Well, anyway, hopefully our boys can meet some time!" Jisung said, turning foot to head off down the path with a little wave. “It was nice to meet you!”