Chapter Two: Shit don got Serious
For anyone who came back, thank yall! Hope yall enjoy this one!
Hey now, you’re an all star
Get your game on, go play
Hey now, you’re a rock star
Get the show on, get paid
(and all that glitter is gold)
Only shooting stars break the mold
So, being an adult was lowkey hard.
The first few days, Elijah slept in his car and survived off of gas station food. It wasn’t the greatest, but it was survivable! Elijah genuinely did try to score a job, but people took one look at him and scoffed. He thought he looked pretty serious with his khakis and superman shirt, but apparently that was anything but the truth. Whatever, the shirt was his lucky charm, never failed him, just took a while to work is all.
Elijah also spent his days wandering around when he wasn’t in his car. Boy, oh boy, California was piping hot! But he found himself basking in the sun when he wasn’t being glared down by employees.
Another thing he found cool in California was his friend, Mr. Choi! Elijah liked to call him Ssaem ever since he saw the small old Korean man whoop some thieves. It was like definitely the coolest thing he’s seen so far on his journey of independence.
Elijah bursted open the doors to Ssaem’s shop. He owned a hole-in-a-wall plush shop. Which was very funny, because you’d never expect that from such a grumpy old man. But the shop was littered with Hello Kitty decorations, plushies up to the ceilings from all kinds of fandoms. Elijah begged him to make a plushie of himself (his plushies were so detailed!) but he only got a fork thrown at him in return.
“Hiiii, Ssaem! Look, it’s me, your favorite guy, I’m back!”
Elijah walked up to Ssaem with open arms. Afterall, it’s been two days since Elijah’s last been up here. Too busy job hunting, food hunting, searching for a place to stay, and a place to put his car safely at. Elijah was for once a busy man!
Elijah didn’t get the hug he wanted, only receiving a grumble from the old man.
“You stink. Bad.”
“Heh, that’s a Micheal Jackson song.”
“No, no, you don’t take showers? Walk around stinking all day? Nasty young man.”
Elijah pouted, he didn’t even have to go in him that hard.
“C’mon, old man, lighten up on me, please! I’m like, lowkirkenuinely poor right now, dude. I tried to bathe in the river but I almost got stoned for that.”
“Poor? No house?”
“Yeah dude! This adulting gig is tough, like am I right or am I right?”
Ssaem fixed him with a leveling glare before huffing.
“You will live with me. Do chores and stay quiet at tea time.”
Elijah's jaw dropped to the floor, like that one scene from The Mask. Like holy pull dude. Holy cow, this is out of this world. No way he just got that lucky!
“Ssaem, Ssaem, Ssaem, thank you so much man! Like seriously, dude, bro, my guy, like aura is in debt from you! Holy crap, I think I just peed myself!”
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It’s been close to a month since Ssaem’s greatest gift to Elijah. It’s been nice, super nice. He would’ve never thought he’d cried while experiencing a nice hot bubble bath. But hey, you can’t blame a Chad, it’s been a minute.
Job hunting was starting to actually tire him out. Like, it gets to the point where there's just no hope at all.
Anyways, enough with the difficult stuff. Right now, he was having tea with Ssaem, Hello Kitty, and Kuromi. It was one of their Friday night rituals after a week of chores. Turns out, making plushies by hand was actually pretty hard. He didn’t get paid for it, but Elijah didn’t mind at all. He got to sleep in a house for once, shower, eat everyday-eat full meals at that, and Ssaem didn’t even pressure him about paying bills! Though, he made a vow that once he did get a job he’d take care of the bills all by himself.
“Tea is really nice, am I right guys?”
Elijah looked around for approval, nodding his head to himself when he saw everyone agreed with him, ignoring Ssaem shushing him.
Good, good, the first couple of times he completely fumbled the tea. Ssaem was pissed at him for weeks for messing up the ritual, almost putting him out. So Elijah was up till 3 am finding out ways to make tea that would earn the approval of a crankily old man.
Suddenly the door opened. Elijah didn’t bother looking up, too busy scarfing his face down with the Jajangmyeon Ssaem so graciously cooked for him. Eli never had it before and didn’t even know how to pronounce, but they were like sooo fire.
Though, Ssaem stood up real quick, and the weirdest thing was that he had a smile on his face. Whoever entered must’ve been a good friend of Ssaem, because he’s never seen the old man smile at humans, only Hello Kitty. Whatever, it was probably another old man Ssaem knew. Probably his bingo partner or something.
“Ah, thank you so much, kind sir. Windows look beautiful. Could not do it myself, and lazy bastard back there is too short as well. Thank you so much!”
Elijah whipped his head towards them. Was Ssaem really that mad because he forgot to rock Hello Kitty to sleep? That was literally a week ago!? Plus, he wasn’t even that short!?
Elijah took a close look at the both of them, not really liking the fact he was getting dogged on while he was clearly present. Elijah looked at the man’s face and
Oh
The man looked around forty something, six foot two if Elijah was guessing, medium wavy brunette hair. The man’s arms and shirt was dirty, but in a way ‘this dude’s been working hard’ type of dirty. Elijah’s never really been into dudes, most of his crushes were girls, but Elijah was rethinking his entire life right now.
“It’s no problem sir, really.”
Ssaem rushed to grab the money to pay the man, well that’s what Elijah was assuming. Now it was only Elijah and the man. The man was looking anywhere but at Elijah, like how you avoid looking at a crackhead who’s in your face with peanut butter all over their body.
Should Elijah say something? Would he even respond? Wait, he can’t let this moment pass. As an adult, he must take every chance of success he could possibly get. He just wanted to talk to the man, that’s all.
“Do you vear vigs?”
The man turned to look at him slowly, blinking his eyes at him owlishly.
“Excuse me?”
“Vhen vill you vear vigs?”
The man opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by Ssaem. Gosh darn it, the worst possible moment for him to show up. You see, this only happened because he didn’t wear his superman shirt today (Ssaem said it was dirty, he had to give it a break for a few days.)
“Ignore him, please. Here is money, again, thank you so much sir!”
The man gently grabbed the money from Ssaem, giving him a small smile with a curt nod before taking his leave.
Ssaem made his way back to the tea party, casually sitting down as if everything was normal.
Everything was not normal! It’s like the zombie apocalypse just started, kind of abnormal. Like Elijah’s heart totally isn’t popping out of his chest kind of abnormal.
“Ssaem…..who…who was that?”
“Close your mouth. Drooling everywhere.”
Elijah let out a whine, why did his Ssaem decide to be difficult in the worst possible moments. Though, he did clean up his drool.
“Ssaemm, that’s not what I asked!”
“Very good, hard-worker. Cleans window very well.”
“No, no, no! Ssaem, like as in a name! What’s his name!?”
“Stupid young man. Why would I know? Hard-worker, pay him, he leaves, that’s all. Not best friends.”
Elijah groaned. He didn’t even know what company the man worked for. How was he even supposed to live after letting a man like that slip out of his fingers. He didn’t even get to have a conversation with him, but the eye contact was really nice!
Elijah got up, cleaning up the space. He went to the kitchen upstairs and began watching dishes. Ssaem came up after him, silently joining him in cleaning up. He couldn’t even look at him, not seriously angry but definitely disappointed at the lost opportunity.
“Many cleaning companies are hiring, one may be his.”
Elijah froze, Ssaem was the absolute goat.
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Author’s Note: Second chapter done! How we feeling, how we doing? Okay, I know I said Matt wasn’t gonna be seen anytime soon, buuuuuuuut I couldn’t help but think “it’ll be so funny to tease them.” And the rest was history.
Truthfully, I am a bit scared to write for Matt. I’m trying to get both of their voices and personalities down. Elijah’s a bit easier due to the fact I’m just as much of a dumbass as him. But Matt is a whole other world. Any tips?
Also, if you feel as though there's some songs that totally fit their personalities, don’t be shy, share em! And it doesn’t even have to fit their personalities fr fr. If I can find a set of lyrics that relates to the situation, their feelings, their thoughts, or even some foreshadowing, I’ll use it!
Right now, it’s gonna be mostly Elijah’s perspective, but Matt’s is definitely down the line for sure! I’m thinking Nirvana for Matt, specifically Come as You Are. But yeah, just write em down!
Again, any constructive criticism is welcome. Be kind though, this is my very first fanfic.
Bye yall, love yall! Thank yall so much for reading this, I only hope it’s worth it for yall!