stand beside it we can't hide the way it makes us glow
Joo slipped out of Sacha’s room effortlessly, the same way he often slipped people’s minds. He’d been apprehensive about whether or not he’d be able to maintain his morning routine in the house -- correction, mansion -- provided by the agency. Esther had sworn up and down that he’d never be able to stick it; 06:00 am starts weren’t natural in the first place, she had said, before going on to rally her brothers into placing bets on when they thought their most beloved brother’s breaking point would be. Noah had placed down 50 cents and his favourite red power ranger on Joo making it until his first world tour, at least, and whilst the statement had been incredibly misinformed and provided by a seven year old, it had hit home and given Joo enough courage to place one more moving box into the trunk of the car.
Home, as it were, was supposed to be728 North KILKEA Drive now.
Stifling a yawn, Joo made his way through the larger than necessary halls towards his most frequented location: the kitchen. Between splaying himself out onto either Sacha’s duvet or a spare chair in one of the studios, Joo had honestly spent more time contemplating the granite of the kitchen island counter tops then he had settling into his new room. It was ridiculous, he knew. To be so reluctant about it. He just wasn’t sure how to manage the new space he’d been given efficiently. His reluctance had nothing to do with the distance between the wardrobe and the bed, or how it was too large. It had nothing to do with mattress, either. Or how that was also too big.
Morning light lingered outside the windows, strips of it demanding entry against the blinds that were yet to be drawn. The faded glow in the dark words stretched across Joo’s chest relished in the dim lighting; Frankie say Relax living to see another day. Curling his hand into the worn shirt, the material soft and familiar between his fingers, Joo took in the sight before him. There, hunched over the kitchen table with his fingers still hooked onto the handle of his mug, was Freddie Young. Needless to say, he hadn’t anticipated that.
Pausing cautiously in the doorway, Joo let out a relieved breath of air as he saw the slow, steady rise and fall of the boy’s shoulders. He was breathing, then. Confident he was no longer stepping into an episode of CSI, Joo approached the table, stopping short when he realized he wasn’t sure what the proper housemate protocol was for this. The only experience Joo could draw on for this situation was when he had played sleeping lions with his siblings, and even then, that had been pretend. Esther, Noah and Daniel hadn’t been passed out from the result of sleep deprivation by the looks of it, so it wasn’t quite the same thing, really.
With hesitance, though less caution then before, Joo unhooked the fingers clasped around the mug and the contents inside. Gently, he rubbed his thumb over the knuckles in an attempt to coax the body slumped in front him out of sleep. “Excuse me,” he murmured quietly, his other hand moving to Freddie’s slack shoulder to give it a squeeze, “I’m trying not to startle you right now but you really need to wake up. You’re going to damage your spine. Freddie, please.”
