LEMONS / 𝗺𝗹𝗺 (✓)

10.5: where he's tired

CHAPTER TEN (II)
where he's tired (and he's there)

It started becoming such a natural thing for them; to be at each other's places that is.

The first time Hwan found Kalen in his living room, he couldn't stop feeling like a stranger in his own apartment and like there was too little of everything in there. He had never really liked the place he lived and he realized, he didn't want Kalen to think of the picture-less walls and black couch and messy kitchen as Hwan's place.

Despite this, Hwan invited Kalen to his apartment more times than he'd be willing to admit and the embarrassment about asking was always outshined by the smile directed at him afterwards. Apparently, Kalen really liked the place Hwan lived at and Hwan didn't quite get it. It really wasn't anything special; a one-bedroom apartment that was as plain as the day Hwan moved in.

When Kalen had said he liked it, Hwan had frowned and asked him why. It was boring.

"It's kind of like you," Kalen had defended the place.

Hwan had frowned and deadpanned, "You think I'm boring?"

Hwan was boring and he found it funny how Kalen quickly shook his head. "No. And neither is your apartment. It just needs... a plant and... something on the walls, you know?"

Hwan hadn't known and therefore he had just shrugged in response.

Three days later, Kalen had texted Hwan asking if he was home and then showed up twenty minutes later with a plant and a painting of the night sky on a piece of paper that curled together if someone wasn't holding it in both ends.

Kalen had quickly left afterwards because he had class to get to fast, and Hwan almost forgot to tell him thank you (he had to yell it out the window when he saw Kalen run down the sidewalk).

Because the paper curled, it was hard to make it stick, but at last, it did. Hwan used ten minutes trying to figure out where he wanted to put the plant Kalen had given him. He settled with the kitchen table.

It appeared that Hwan was better at taking care of plants than he had thought he would be and apparently also better than Kalen.

"It's not dead?" Kalen had beamed the fourth time he had been there. "You're better than I thought you'd be."

"You thought I'd kill it?"

"Well, I keep killing mine," Kalen had shrugged and Hwan almost thought he seemed too unapologetic about it, it was almost funny. "But you're good at it. How does it feel to be a dad?"

Hwan had rolled his eyes. "It's a plant."

"Plants got feelings. Don't be rude."

Hwan snorted and couldn't keep a smile off his face. "Better rude than a plant murderer."

Kalen's eyes had almost sprung out of his face and Hwan had laughed as he acted like he was speechless. "I—"

When spring came around and Kalen told Hwan that it was the perfect time to start planting flowers in his apartment (like his grandma always did, Kalen explained), Hwan hadn't called him a plant murderer and rather hoped that he would be better at keeping flowers alive.

Kalen had invited Hwan to his place, so he could help with the gardening ("because you have a special bond with them, I don't know," he had reasoned and Hwan hadn't told him he didn't have to convince him to say yes). It was the seventh time Hwan had been at his apartment and it was the first time in that season, that his mother called him.