It had been two weeks since the cleaning lady had retired, and Sehun had been cringing at the sight of his apartment given that he really couldnāt clean if heād wanted to. Heād been working at least four nights a week behind the bar, and his once a fortnight due date was creeping closer, looming over him with the threats that he couldnāt finish the required number of designs demanded from him. It wasnāt that anything would really happen to him if he didnāt turn in enough apart from receiving less salary according to the set which he failed to hand in (and even when he didnāt deliver the entire quantity, normally the pay was still abundant), but he sometimes felt viscerally apprehensive when it came to that line of work. There was a fear of losing it, for the memories of those older days which marred him with more scars mentally (even when heād thought that he hadnāt had the capability, the space to etch more of those grotesque lines across his psyche after years of being his fatherās son) still haunted him, and losing his job would mean to revert back to those days of being unable to support himself, of being dependent on someone who would demand for something that he could offer in despair.
(Heād lie if heād said it didnāt hurt. It did. It had always been.)
Three more blueprints, four more days. It was barely enough, and his head was heavy with the ache of lost inspirations, escaping the crevices of his mind with every passing moment. He couldnāt really concentrate with his surroundings being littered by crumpled pieces of paper and a lot of scattered books, decorated with a plethora of mess which he knew he couldnāt deal with himself for he was still a little too fatigued after the previous nightās shift. So as he plopped and sprawled himself atop the couch, he just wished that this new housekeeper which heād hired out of luck would do a great job with the cleaning.
Heād been pampered, apparentlyāhe just noticed that. His life had been made easy with the presence of the kind old woman who had done everything for him as long as heād paid her decently, and she sometimes had even shared simple meal recipes so that he wouldnāt die from starvation. His life had always revolved around work (and video games when he wasnāt working, since sometimes he felt too lethargic to function, body decrepit from being battered overnights), and so now that he had to return to his cleaning routine, heād forgotten how. His limbs had forgotten howālassitude had claimed its place for too long in his sinews.
It was almost the time of the appointmentāalmost twelve, and he closed his eyes as he stayed still, letting his mind relax but not to the point where he would fall asleep. He couldnāt fall asleep, even if he wanted to, for waiting for something and being waited for by someone engraved restlessness in him. He wondered if the person would actually make it, though, or if he would be left with another week of trying to scavenge for another person to hire. It did seem dodgy since the person didnāt come from an agency or anything of the like, but Sehun himself had no knowledge whatsoever as to how the whole hiring business was processed formally, so heād chosen the similar route that heād done back then, and surely expected the same outcome.
āHanā was the only detail which heād attained about the service provider and he hadnāt been in contact with the person directly. Heād called the number given on the pamphlet plastered, and had been redirected to a lady who took the call for the boy. So it was as much as he knew about this person, and so he had his fingers crossed as he wished that this person could be trusted enough with the task.
Almost twelve. He flicked his eyes open and thought of getting another cup of coffee even when it had only been less than two hours since his first one, the lethargy weighing his mind too much that he couldnāt be as innovative as heād like to be. He was about to get out of the couch and head towards the kitchen when the doorbell rang, so he hurriedly scampered onto his feet to reach the door and tried to not wake the puppy up as he approached the entrance for Phoenix was still sleeping soundly, curled like a ball of orange fur nearby the rug. He couldnāt see the male clearly through the peephole, but it seemed like it was the person heād been waiting for, so he opened the door to find the supposedly housekeeper, and was slightly taken aback by how young the other male looked. He blinked once, before asking tentatively if heād gotten the right person, āHan?ā