Karaoke Man | JJK
JK fluff
After many, many weeks of sleepless nights you finally managed to have a full night of sleep. You felt brand new, full seven uninterrupted hours of sleep. It only happened when your really noisy neighbour wasn’t at home. There were period of this sweet peace few days at the time. But recently he has been home all the time, so there was no way of you having some peace and quiet.
You got up from the bed and got ready for the day. For once you weren’t dragging your feet to your kitchen to get a few sips of coffee before you were able to progress with your day. It felt like a bliss. You even started smiling to yourself and humming. It was the time go to work soon, so in the best mood in weeks you grabbed your work bag and left. How long will the bliss last, you found yourself wondering through the day. You wished he would move out, he was so annoyingly loud all night, every night. After work, still in the best mood you were in for a very long time you got yourself to a gym you have been going for a while now. It’s really close to your apartment building and it’s open 24/7. It has been helping when you couldn’t sleep because of this guy. Singing on top of his lungs to a karaoke mic wasn’t the best atmosphere to get yourself cosy in bed and close your eyes after a long day of meetings with clients.
As you were walking into the gym you noticed a very familiar face walking out of the same building. You thought about where did you see the face before but you couldn’t put 2 and 2 together. Brushing off the person you started with your work out to tire yourself out properly, in case you wouldn’t get enough sleep tonight. The 30 minutes on the treadmill went by fast today and as you were going off it you realised who’s face it was. He is back. You rolled your eyes and huffed out loud. Of course this couldn’t last very long. This day was so good, felt really nice and you felt like yourself again. Lack of sleep has been really affecting you so you promised yourself last time that if he will start again, you will report it and also knock on his door and make sure he knows how much damage he is doing.
Sometimes you were wondering if he is just very lonely or if maybe he is doing this on purpose to annoy people to get some attention. You didn’t really know much about him nor what his name was. The only thing you knew was the number of his flat, because it was directly above yours. Maybe he will spare you today and he will just go to sleep like everyone else in the building.
You finished your work out and on the way home you grabbed a take away from the same old place you always do. Still humming to yourself, you realised the song you were humming was one of the songs your really loud neighbour was singing few nights ago. It’s getting to you, you don’t even know the title of it. It annoyed you even more, because you really needed good night sleep to function properly and now you also have songs stuck in your head you never heard until it was fed to your brain when you were trying really hard to sleep. All of a sudden you lost all the appetite and you weren’t really hungry anymore. Manged to drag your feet to the lift of your building and got to your floor, number six. Your loud neighbour was occupying floor number seven. Was he back at home? It was getting late in the evening but it was awfully quiet around. It was like an expectation you had, to walk home and hear him screaming on top of his lung. To your surprise that wasn’t the case so you got inside and made a really nice spread of your take away food on your coffee table, turned the tv on and put your current drama on. You promised yourself to not get affected by any of this anymore, just focus on yourself and what you had planned. But every time you forgot about it for a second, that one stupid song would play around in your head. It made you chuckle because you never expected to be this grumpy person to tell others to be quiet. Months ago when it all started it wasn’t such a problem to you, because you had no idea how long it’s going to last. But it was getting to almost a year of this. How could he just do a recital every night for the past year?! Maybe he should become a singer so then he would be able to sing somewhere else – you thought to yourself.
Steamed dumplings finally gotten cooler and you managed to shove few of them down your throat when all of a sudden you heard the loud music starting again. Technically it wasn’t that late yet, so he had every right to be loud. You swallowed your dumpling and took a deep breath.
‘Louder, let’s just make this louder’ you said to yourself and you started looking for the remote that was previously on your sofa, but for some reason disappeared when you needed it the most. Your hand kept looking for the remote behind you but you had to turn around to finally see it slipped from the sofa and was actually laying on the carpet, next to you. You turned the volume of the tv up few times and continued with the food. ‘it’s fine’ you took another deep breath and focused on the storyline. The music upstairs calmed down and it felt like you either got used to it by now or he turned it down. Or maybe you just got so invested in your drama, that devouring one episode after another had sucked you into it’s story so much that nothing else mattered at the time.
Buzz of your phone on the table stole your attention and you realised how late it has gotten. One in the morning. Getting up from the table you swiped all of the empty boxes from your dinner, which you left in the kitchen and you went into the bathroom to get read for bed. And that’s when your patience has run out. The music all of a sudden turned really loud again and you heard the man signing and almost crying ‘Yes or noooo, yes or nooo’. You rolled your eyes, without thinking twice you walked out of the bathroom and your flat, grabbing your keys last minute and took the lift one floor up. Number 7. Apartment number? Also 7. You knocked on the door but no response, obviously. He couldn’t possibly hear you knocking since he was still asking yes or no, god knows to who. You rang the doorbell and knocked louder again. The music stopped and you heard scratching on the floor, sounded like a pet and then really quiet taps on the floor towards the door. You waited for a little bit longer and as you were about to walk back to the lift, the door opened.
‘Can you shut the hell up? Yes or no?’ you started immediately, before he even manged to open the door completely. It was your spin on the song he was currently singing. You had enough and you promised yourself to stand up for yourself and the rules of this building.
‘Hey bunny’ he looked at you with a huge smile on his face, clearly amused by something and winked at you.
‘Ex.. excuse me?!’ you were taken aback by his confidence, as you were coming to him to complain on how loud he was. Bunny? Why would he call you a bunny? And then it hit you. You were getting ready for bed and you had your headband with fluffy bunny ears on, to keep your hair from falling on your face. You must have rushed out of your bathroom so fast that you forgot to take it off. You must have really looked hilarious being super angry with the cutest little hairband on your head. ‘Ah this?!’ you pulled it off your head and crossed your arms on your chest. No distractions, he won’t let you sleep again.
‘You could have kept it on you know. Suited you’ he chuckled and bit his lip. He was tall. His shoulder were filling the entire door frame, piercing in his lip, left arm tattooed from the shoulder to the fingers. He was wearing grey sweats and a black loose t-shirt.
‘It has been months and you have so bloody loud almost every night. Could you please do it during the day? I can’t sleep. I live directly under you and..’ he stopped and interrupted you as you mentioned living under him.
‘I didn’t notice you under me every night’ and as he said it he was staring you in the eye. He didn’t even flinch. All kinds of nasty coming out of his mouth, yet he would confidently stare you down. Was he trying to make you uncomfortable on purpose? Or was he trying to charm his way into singing out loud another night. It was difficult to tell and you couldn’t process it happening fast enough. He was really handsome, he was your type and all of his stupid, flirtatious words were getting into your head, so your cheeks started blushing.
‘I think maybe you should start a career in signing hm? Then maybe at least one of us would be able to sleep sound all night’ you decided to resist his charm and push through. You rehearsed what will you say to him for months and when you finally mustered your courage to call him out and complain, he was ruining your speech.
‘Listen, I actually’ he started. How could he tell you that he is actually a professional singer if you were so casually dropping it in the conversation. You clearly didn’t recognise him and it didn’t happen very often especially around where he lived so this felt like a breath of fresh air to him. ‘I am really sorry, I thought my walls were sound proofed enough but I think it must be going through the ceiling. I will turn it down..’ as he was about to say the magic words and have you go back upstairs, something moved around his legs and a big dog walked out of the flat, wagging his tail at you and jumping up and down.
‘Oh hi’ your face changed immediately when you saw the dog. He was adorable and so happy to see you, you couldn’t look angry for very long.
‘Bam, Bam… Bam house’ he repeated few times and the dog obediently went back inside leaving you bent down looking up at the guy now.
Your deminer changed back to angry as you straighten yourself up.
‘Thanks. Please keep it down during night hours. It has been a nightmare for me’ you finished and walked towards the lift. You saw in the corner of your eye him bowing down apologetically before the door closed in front of you and the lift started moving down. You took a deep breath and finally smiled to yourself. You did it. You were brave enough to up to a cocky guy and tell him off. It was only right. You were surprised any other neighbours weren’t complaining about it yet.
He stood in the door for a little while longer staring at the lifts door. After few more seconds he closed the door and walked back inside his flat shaking his head.
‘We have been so naughty Bam. How embarrassing for us’ he shook his head in disbelief and kept walking towards Bam’s cage ‘Even a really pretty girl doesn’t want to have anything to do with us because of how loud we have been’ he flopped on his sofa and hid his face in his hands. He was still stunned at the fact that you didn’t recognise him. It was so rare, especially around women. He remembered the bunny ear headband you showed up with and kept smiling to himself. He rarely came across neighbours of this building, as a lot of people living had different schedules and some of the flats weren’t even rented out yet.
You walked back into your flat, hearing the sweet, sweet silence. What a relief. You finished up your skin care in the bathroom, changed into comfy clothes and went straight to bed. You didn’t have that much time left before you have to get up for work again, but at least the few hours will be quality time. Proud of your achievement you went to bed, turned the light off and fell right asleep.
***
Few days later, after few days of peace and quiet you were getting ready for bed again. Bunny headband on your head, picking out a sheet mask to put on. And as you were finishing putting it on, you heard really loud music coming from above you. You looked up to the ceiling and sighed. No way he has the guts to do this again after he promised to be quiet. Really? He could only last few days. Incredibly angry you stormed out of your flat again, took the lift up and knocked on his door. Yet again, because of the loud music he couldn’t hear you knocking. So you rang the door bell. Music stopped right away, the door to the flat opened and there he was. Grinning and smiling eye to eye.
‘Hey bunny’ he said again and you immediately realised you were wearing it again as well as the face mask. He looked amused and almost happy to see you again.
‘You said you will turn it down, then you were quiet for few days…I hope this was a resolved issue’ you started talking at him and he just kept smiling. His smile kept getting wider as he was visibly checking you out.
‘I was out of town for few days you see. I thought you might have missed me so I decided to surprise you’ he explained entertained by your face getting more annoyed and red as the time past.
‘You must be joking, right? Is this a prank? Is there a hidden camera here?’ you started looking around the hallway and corridor leading to the lift.
‘No hidden camera, although that is a good idea…’ he started dwelling on your words.
‘So why on earth did you think it was a good idea to start this in the middle of the night again?’ you answered trying to contain your voice as it was indeed getting really late.
‘I was bored’ he answered simply and stared at you, looking for something in your eyes.
Bored.. he was just bored. You were boiling inside but you decided to just cut it off and walked off to the lift. He smiled at you one more time and closed the door behind him. The music didn’t come back on this night and you were grateful this intervention worked it’s magic.
The silence lasted another three days and he started at it again. You decided however to ignore it. Because you were suspecting that he was now doing this for attention. Your attention in particular. You found your trusty earplugs in your drawer and grabbed sleeping pills from your kitchen. Determined that you were having a full night of sleep tonight. And you did. Somehow when you woke up to go to the toilet around 4 in the morning the music wasn’t on and you went back to sleep for another four hours.
As that day was Saturday, it was the best day to get an early work out in. You arrived at the gym around 10am and started on the treadmill. Earphones in, focused on the film you were watching on the screen you kept going. With that you didn’t notice that someone started using the treadmill right next to you. You just kept going and going. Until in the corner of your eye you saw a familiar tattooed arm. You looked to the side and saw HIM. Smiling at you.
‘Hey Bunny’ he smiled and awkwardly waived at you.
‘Wha…?’ your mouth open wide in a pure shock. Why is he here? How did he know where to find you.
‘I thought I saw you here last time and I wasn’t wrong. Good day for a work out isn’t it?’ his smile was addictive. He looked so sweet and his big doe eyes were shining as he was looking at you.
‘It is. Because you thankfully stopped the music last night’ you huffed at him and sped up your pace on the machine.
‘You didn’t come to scold me last night’ he admitted, still trying to attract your focus.
‘I learned few new ways how to deal with it’ you smirked and stopped your run. Grabbed your water bottle and moved away from the treadmill. His smile was still plastered all over your mind. He was just so good looking, so your type but you tried to remind yourself why is he the villain of your story.
He went to scold him few more times because he would keep increasing the volume. Like he really didn’t care about the other neighbours that at this rate definitely could hear all of this. He was as amused each time and each time he called you bunny, opened the door with the widest smile. And each time you would finish the scolding with a small talk or a short conversation about something you both had in common.
But then the music stopped. For weeks. You had no idea what was going on and you started to miss it. Oddly, you never thought about this before but you started liking the guy. Neither of you exchanged names or numbers, yet you started to look forward to another night of you scolding him and then talking for few more and more minutes. You started thinking about his dog, Bam. As he would walk out of the door occasionally to say hello to you and you wouldn’t resist and pet him a lot. It all seemed like a very old dream of yours that stopped coming to you every night.
Eventually you mustered enough courage to go and knock on his door during the day. Maybe have an actual conversation with him. You started feeling a little guilty being so cold and grumpy every time you saw him.
You rang the door bell few times but no answer. Nothing, just pure silence. Decided to knock on the door and when you did the door opened on it’s own. It was open, not even closed by the handle. You poked your head inside and saw empty flat. Only few boxes laying in the middle of the hallway but there was no furniture left, no personal belongings. Nothing. You decided to walk inside. Knowing this is not your business nor you have previously been inside.
Your phone started buzzing in your pocket and you took it out. Notifications from some random gossip websites you never read. The notifications would come up now and then and you promised yourself to turn them off and forgot each time.
‘Jungkook of BTS has moved from his flat to his new fancy house’ was the headline. Then right next to the headline was a picture of a guy with a pierced lip and doe eyes you recognised. OH. MY. GOD. You locked your phone and you were about to turn around and leave the empty flat to go back up to yours and do a research and confirm what you have just read but you were too late.
‘Hey Bunny’ you have heard behind you and you closed your eyes for a second, hoping it was just in your head. You turned around hoping you will see nobody there but you were wrong. You weren’t hallucinating, it was him. And when you remembered the picture on that notification. It was him. He was Jungkook of BTS and you clearly lived under the rock. You told him to become a professional singer… you were so embarrassed and ashamed you wanted to just walk past him and go up to your place. But he grabbed your arm as you were trying to leave swiftly.
‘Please don’t leave’ he added and you stopped walking towards the door when you felt his arm holding you in place.
‘I am so sorry, I never should have..’ you were really embarrassed and you couldn’t even look into his eyes.
‘I tried to tell you bunny, but it was so much easier this way’ he now grabbed your entire figure and turned you around so you were facing him. You still weren’t looking at him, just down on your shoes. Cheeks burning red.
‘It’s okay. I- I should go. I’m not even sure why I got here’ you answered shyly and tried moving towards the door again but he held you down in place.
‘Why did you come here at this time?’ he asked trying to looking into your eyes but you kept looking away.
‘You stopped singing and it has been weeks. I got used to it. I actually couldn’t sleep without it’ you admitted and finally looked him into the eyes. He wasn’t angry, he wasn’t upset. He looked amused, just as amused he was the very first time he saw you in your bunny headband at his door step.
‘I moved’ he finally admitted and smiled, searching for something in your eyes. You froze. It all made sense to you. Of course he moved. You knew that know, from a weird gossip website that decided to send you a notification about it. He loved the fact that you admitted that you couldn’t sleep without him singing. It gave him butterflies and he bit his lip again looking directly at you.
You both froze. Silence. Complete silence. You had thousands of thoughts coming through your mind. He wouldn’t even blink, afraid to scare you off. But the both of you felt the increasing tension building up and when it became too much he leaned forward, grabbed one of your hands and pulled you closer. He closed his eyes and softly kissed your lips. You froze even more, not really knowing how to react. You were ecstatic. This has been building up for days, weeks, months even. But you had no idea who he was and now that it was revealed it was terrifying. You kissed him back, very slowly and gently but it gave him the green light to proceed and he slowly walked with you forward until your back hit a wall. As it happened he broke the kiss and whispered:
‘I came back for you bunny’ he grinned and buried himself in your lips.
