Sugar Across The Hall | J. H.

VII.

"Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah, let me just grab the chai from my fridge." You disappear from the door for a moment, carefully retrieving the large thermos full of homemade spiced black tea. You're just glad it turned out well; it was only your second time making it from scratch, and you even had to steal some cinnamon sticks from Joshua while you were making it yesterday.

"I've never had chai before," he admitted, pulling out bags of whole spices from his cabinet. "But I have cinnamon, star anise, cardamom-"
"The cinnamon will do, thanks," you stopped him from continuing, not wanting to hear him list spices you'd never even heard of before.
"How many sticks?"
"Two please."

As he fumbled with the Ziploc bags, your eyes drifted over to his spice cabinet, which was practically overflowing with identical glass bottles.

Squinting, you read the label of one of the well-used ones, half-filled with brown powder. Then confusion took over.

That's impossible. Joshua didn't have any nutmeg, that's why he came over yesterday-

"...and two," he finished, gently placing the second stick in your already open palm. "Let me know how it turns out!"
"Oh you'll be able to tell from the smell," you told him, before dashing out of his apartment and closing the door behind you.

Surely you were not overthinking this. He had every spice you knew of and then some. Why on earth would he keep coming to you for something he clearly didn't need?

You had thought about it all night and kept coming to the same conclusion, kicking and squealing under your comforter like a teenage girl. Even now a blush begins to form on your cheeks, so you quickly shake your head and head for the door, clearing your thoughts as if your brain was an Etch-A-Sketch.

Locking it behind you, you turn towards your "not" date.

"Shall we?"

‧⋆ ✧˚₊‧⋆. ✧˚₊‧⋆‧

Joshua Hong keeps very attractive, but very loud company.

Okay. So maybe only two of them are loud.

The ones you learn to be Soonyoung and Seokmin appear to be the ringleaders of chaos, taking turns on an old karaoke machine and putting on a show for whoever wants to hear. Joshua tells you it would have been worse if their third friend was here; thankfully the neighbors were spared when he opted to see his cousins this year instead.

Then there was Jeonghan, the host of this soirée. Him and Joshua have been trying to find HDMI cables for the last fifteen minutes because Jeonghan "doesn't watch tv", but you swear you heard him complaining about the love arc between Derek and Grey during dinner. After a few minutes of secretly watching him half-assedly look through junk drawers, you have a theory that he just hid them, not wanting to show off his subpar gaming skills to the rest of the gang.

You flocked to familiar faces and stuck near Vernon and Wonwoo, playing blackjack at the kitchen island while they told you the most embarrassing stories from college; all of which included Joshua.

"And that was the last time we ever did tequila shots with him," Vernon says, reviewing his cards with a blank expression. These two have the best poker faces you've ever seen. "Hit me."
You flip over an eight of spades in front of him and he curses under his breath. "Damn, another bust."
You turn to Wonwoo, who was sliding his cards together in anticipation before tapping two fingers on the counter.

He gets a five of hearts. Suspiciously eyeing your king of diamonds, he tells you he'll stay.

The moment you both reveal your cards you start squealing, taking the stack of chips in the middle as you win yet another round.