alone together || h.s au

two: time flies when i'm with you

"You should invite your new neighbour to our housewarming party," Niall says as they step out of the lift and into the lobby of the building. Office people are milling around, all of them heading towards the exit. Everyone walks with a spring in their step as they welcome the end of the week and the beginning of the weekend. Come Monday everyone will walk around as though there's grey clouds hanging above their heads. "You two have been hanging out, right?"

Harry wouldn't say they have been hanging out -- labelling what they've been doing as hanging out would be too generous -- but he does bump into her a lot in the last few days and whenever they see each other, they'd end up talking for a few minutes before they go to their respective way.

On Friday morning, the day after he helped her get rid of the medium sized spider, he caught her watering her plants when he's about to leave for work. They talked briefly that morning, about what they had for breakfast and what their plans were for the day -- he had scrambled eggs meanwhile Min Ji only had coffee because she still hadn't gone to the supermarket, and Harry's plan for the day was to hopefully finish his article and submit it before the day ended and Min Ji's plan was to go grocery shopping and to hopefully finish unpacking (he found out later on that they both achieved their goals for the day).

When he got to the office that morning, Niall was already at his desk which only meant one thing: Harry was late. Since Niall didn't buy his 'I woke up late' excuse', he ended up telling his friend about his new neighbour and there's a possibility that he's imagining it but he could've sworn that Niall was fashioning a scheming look when he left his desk. He didn't think much of it, though, but now he's thinking about it again.

"I guess," he answers with a shrug -- it's a safe answer, one that doesn't require him to provide an explanation.

"Then she should be at the party," Niall says with finality.

"I thought you're keeping it small." Harry narrows his eyes at his friend. That's what Niall told him the other day. Well, technically, it's what Brooklyn told Niall who then told Harry. He might have to create a group chat for the three of them soon so he and Brooklyn could chat without using a middleman who has the tendency to forget things sometimes. "Close friends and family members only."

"Well your friend is my friend," Niall tells him as he pushes open the door and holds it open for him and a few other people who thank him as they leave the building.

Harry opens his mouth to tell Niall that Min Ji isn't his friend, but decides against it. He considers everyone in his building as his friends and his new neighbour shouldn't be excluded. Besides, although it's only been a week but he's known several things about her.

He knows that she has an older brother whom she's close to because on Sunday afternoon when he stepped out of his flat to throw away his trash, he bumped into Min Ji who was late to lunch with her brother, which she told him later on is something that they try to do every other week. He also knows that she's a good cook because later that evening, she knocked on his door and offered him some kimchi fried rice that she made herself — Harry could've sworn he's never tasted anything that good before.

And then on Monday morning, instead of catching her watering her plants, he caught her before she left for work. It's her first day of work, she told him, as a junior architect at an architectural firm and she's nervous as hell that she set up five alarms so she wouldn't end up waking up late and make a bad first impression on her first day.

Harry and Min Ji talked as they descended the stairs and he found out that she has an architecture degree but before this job, she worked as an assistant at a law firm and having had enough of the job that wasn't remotely close to her degree as well as her interest (and also she had a shitty superior), she finally quit after working there for two years.