Plastic Taste

いち

"Good. Have a good day, Mr. Miller!" she said politely before turning on her heels and walking back down the hall.

     With a quiet sigh to himself, Joji turned around and shut his door. His feet shuffled against the floor to his bedroom where he took his phone from the nightstand to check the time. However, instead of being met with a cozy 8:07am, he was met with 11:13am. There was no way he'd be able to make it to work and clean out the room...

---

     It was 2:56 in the afternoon and Joji was on the couch, one foot hanging off as he rested his eyes. He had been lying there for about 15 minutes. He didn't particularly wish to fall asleep, but he wanted a little shut-eye before his roommate arrived.

     From the time he finished talking to Nichole to just a quarter of an hour ago, he had done nothing but move his studio into his bedroom. By hand, he had to move his compressors, microphones, and all the other random junk and old clothes from that room, throwing it all into his bedroom to sort out later. He even was kind enough to wash the sheets of the daybed in the studio room since he sometimes took naps in there and probably had all kinds of dirty on it. Not to mention the whole bottle of Febreeze he spent on that room, trying to get that certain cancerous odor out.

     Then, just as Joji was about to drift off, thankfully the front door unlocked and through it, came Nichole and Joji's male roommate. The stranger was about Joji's height, give or take an inch or two. His black hair was styled short, having only a floof of spikes at the top. His head had a wide, ovular shape and his ears peeked out from the sides. It was a shame they were virgin, Joji thought, because a diamond stud would fit nicely on them. The man's body shape was a stocky, athletic one with copper skin with a slight orange tint to it. Joji's eyes traveling back up the figure, he noticed that the man's eyes were not almond, but rather resembled those of a lion's by their Herculean shape and powerful aura. His lips were plump, yet still angled as they curled up towards his wide nose. Unfortunately, he had a bit of an acne problem, so it made him seem a bit younger than he probably was.

     Joji quickly rolled off the couch to his feet, touching his chest to make sure he indeed put a shirt on earlier. He did.

"Mr. Soewarno." Nichole announced as she stepped out of the door frame to let the man through.

The stranger's lips stretched back into a smile as he walked to the couch in front of him, right hand out for a shake.

Joji's eyes shifted down to the hand and then back to the man's eyes for a barely noticeable second before letting go of his white tank to shake the dense, slender hand in front of him, his head dipping into a habitual bow.

"Brian." he said, referring to his own name, adding a delayed little dip back.

"George, but please call me Joji." the other emulated, a small smile making its way to his lips.

"Nice." Brian complimented casually as he gathered up his carryon and looked around the slightly shabby apartment. "Where's my room?"

Without a word, Joji turned around to lead Brian to his old recording studio, half wondering how he'd record from his already tight room.

"I'll leave you to it." Nichole interjected with a cocky smile.

Joji just waved in the air to her dismissively, not even turning around to look at her as she made her quiet exit.

When they made it to Brian's new room, Joji opened the door for him and then gestured with his arms for Brian to go in.

Of course, Brian obliged and as he rested his suitcase by the small bed, he took in a big whiff of the Febreeze infested air. "Holy shit, man. It smells like a whole fleet of grandmas in here. Did someone die in here?"

To that, Joji looked down with a small smile, hands behind his back. He thought he did a good job.. Maybe too good... "No. This just used to be my recording space, so it was kinda trashy before I febreezed the shit out of it."

Brian snickered as he turned to look back at Joji who was still huddled in the doorframe. "You should've left it. I love homey smells."

To that, Joji lifted his head to look up at Brian. "I don't think you would've liked mine."

Their eyes now locked, Brian let out a nervous chuckle to fill the silence of their awkward start.

After a few seconds, Joji broke the uncomfortable linger as he pushed off the door and drew in a breath to speak. "Well, I have to get to work. I'll be back in a few hours."

"Oh.. Okay."

     And with that, they went their separate ways: one where Joji left for work, and one where Brian started unpacking all his things without any help. He was used to that sort of thing and quite preferred it since he was picky about his possessions, but he couldn't help but think it was rude of Joji not to even offer. Maybe it's an off day for him and maybe he's nice in other ways... In the end, Brian decided to let it roll off his back since it was the first day and it was probably a big adjustment for the both of them.