As Yohan stepped into his new apartment, he was struck with a wave of awe. Gone were the empty rooms that had greeted him just days before; instead, the living room boasted an elegant sofa, table and chairs, a dining table and even a brand-new refrigerator.
It didn't take long for him to figure out who had gone through all this trouble - Landon.
He put down his bags in the bedroom and immediately headed next door to Landon's apartment. After knocking on the door for what felt like an eternity, it finally opened, revealing a pair of sharp green eyes that stared at Yohan fiercely - as if he was about to be attacked by a wild jaguar.
However, another figure appeared from behind the glaring man - a much shorter one who kicked the tall man's hind legs to intervene.
"What are you doing? Scaring my friend?!"
The voice belonged to Landon who then pulled Yohan inside.
"You've finally arrived." Landon exclaimed happily as they sat on the sofa together while giving daggers towards his boyfriend. Meanwhile the tall, green-eyed man glared back at Landon. The tall man grumbled in annoyance at having his rest interrupted, while he sat down opposite to them.
"As you know, this man is my temperamental boyfriend. I hope you don't take offense to him, just ignore what he says." Landon explained with a sigh.
Yohan chuckled lightly and nodded at the green-eyed man.
"Hi, I'm Yohan."
The sullen man still looked annoyed but eventually gave in after being glared at by Landon.
"Jun." he muttered curtly.
Landon rolled his eyes but finally resigned himself to his boyfriend's behavior.
Oddly enough, Yohan found himself feeling strangely at ease with Jun's abrasive personality. There was something about the boxer's piercing gaze that felt almost familiar to him, as if they had crossed paths before in a past life. But Yohan rarely left his home and only interacted with few people beyond his husband and his inner circle. So how could they have crossed paths before?
Pushing those thoughts aside for now, Yohan turned his attention to Landon and expressed gratitude for helping furnish his new apartment.
"You're too kind..." said Yohan. "If you manage to sell that jade for a good price then I insist you take your cost from it."
Landon grinned widely in response, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Oh, don't worry about that." he said nonchalantly. "The price for the jade seems to be higher than we anticipated so the cost of furniture won't make a dent."
As Yohan and Landon conversed, Jun's gaze remained fixated on Yohan with a furrowed brow. Suddenly catching himself staring at the man for too long, he looked away quickly.
"I feel like I've seen him before..." Jun muttered under his breath before dismissing the thought entirely. "Never mind, just looks like a generic face to me..."
Yohan's heart skipped a beat. Had Jun also felt that strange sense of familiarity?
But Landon wasn't having any of it and threw a pillow at Jun with an annoyed grin on his face. "Are you blind?!" he exclaimed in exasperation. "Yohan is one of a kind! How can you call such rare beauty generic?"
Jun simply shrugged, his gaze locked onto Landon with a playful glint in his eye. "He may be beautiful..." he admitted nonchalantly, hugging the pillow that had been thrown at him. "But he's not my type."
"You're more attractive to me." Jun added bluntly, causing Landon to blush deeply with embarrassment at such unexpected confession.
"Well... as my lover, it only makes sense that you think I'm good-looking," Landon responded coyly, trying hard not to break out into a wide grin even as happiness bubbled up inside of him. "But don't worry darling... I always feel the same way about you."
Yohan watched with a mixture of amusement and embarrassment as Landon and Jun exchanged loving gazes. It was like he could see a pink background with hearts floating in the air between them.
However, as they continued to flirt and exchange loving gazes, Yohan began to feel like the third wheel looking in on their intimate moment. But he knew that this was something he would have to get used to now that they were neighbors.
Just then, Landon remembered Yohan's presence and cleared his throat before diverting the conversation towards something else.
"By the way, did you know that the biggest amusement park in the country is being built here? I can't wait for it to be finished!" Landon said excitedly while scrolling through his phone, showing Yohan a news article on his phone.
Yohan chuckled at the sudden change of topic, but still read the article carefully. Something stirred within him as he vaguely recalled hearing about an amusement park project from two brothers in his previous life.
Could this be the same project Kian was referring to? But despite trying to recall more memories about it, nothing came back to him except a feeling of importance attached to it.
Lost in thought, he hardly noticed as Landon got up from the sofa and began setting up a portable stove on the dining table for shabu-shabu, while Jun assisted by helping set everything else on the table. It wasn't until Landon called out that food was ready that Yohan snapped back to reality.
The aroma of cooking meat wafted through the air as they all began to enjoy their meal together. To his surprise, Yohan found that Jun was quite attentive despite his usual grumpy demeanor. Every time a new piece of meat or vegetable was cooked, Jun made sure it went into Landon's bowl before even thinking about taking any for himself.
"You don't have to say anything." Jun muttered when Yohan tried thanking him for putting food in his bowl too. "Just accept it."
"You don't have to say anything. Just accept it."
Those words struck a chord with Yohan, leaving him stunned. He couldn't quite place where he had heard them before, but for a moment he felt certain that he knew Jun from somewhere.