just gimme a reason
Chen/Lay (Jungeun/Meixing), 1364, PG13
Jungeun delivers pizza and friendship. (Written for femmexo)
Jungeun groans as her fuel light flickers to life, effectively snapping her out of the late night (early morning?) daze she had succumbed to. This is it, she reminds herself, the last house on her too-long list, the last delivery before she’s allowed to drag herself home and curl up under her comforter for a few meager hours before class starts.
The life of a pizza delivery girl is by no means glamorous, but it’s enough to pay for textbooks and study snacks, and really that’s enough for her. Plus, she can use it for an excuse not to hang out with friends. Not that she doesn’t love her friends, but sometimes she’d rather it just be her, her girls’ songs-usually EXID or 9Muses but she’s not picky-being blasted through the shitty car speakers, and five or six boxes of pizza sitting contentedly in her passenger seat. On the other hand, there is the matter of hours. See, when she saw that the place was open 24/7, she didn’t think it meant 24/7. And since she’s relatively new, she still gets the weird shifts, which explains why she’s still delivering pizza at three in the morning.
She rolls to a stop in front of a pretty nice condo building and steps out, willing her car to somehow recharge enough for her to make it to that cheap gas station on the way home. She grabs the simple medium pepperoni pizza out of the car and heads towards the front doors, tapping in the security code from the receipt. From there, she makes a beeline for the elevators and smothers a yawn with her hand when the doors slowly slide closed.
Jungeun taps her foot as she ascends to the twelfth floor and plays her usual delivery game-attempting to guess what kind of person she’s delivering too. The last delivery-a large meatlover's and a two-liter mountain dew-had indeed turned out to be going to some teenager who was staying up late gaming. He'd challenged Jungeun to a mario kart race but she had reluctantly declined, asking for a raincheck. So, for this no-nonsense order, Jungeun suspects she'll be confronting some neat, put together person who's regretfully up late to finish a project and needs the pick me up.
The elevator doors open and she steps out, walking down the hall and looking for room thirty-two. She finds it near the end of the hall and blinks at the device near the doorjamb. A buzzer. Fancy. Jungeun presses the button and then rocks back on her heels, listening for movement on the other side of the door. A few times, she's had customers fall asleep on her and it's been an awful experience going back with a cool pizza. She hopes that this person is still awake.
The receiver comes to life with a staticky noise and a mumbled greeting. "I'll... be right there."
Jungeun frowns. This person sounds more tired than she feels. And that's saying something.
Not a moment later, the door opens and Jungeun finds herself facing not a put-together blue collar worker, but a disheveled person swaddled in blankets, face puffy and eyes rimmed with red. "I'm so sorry," they sniffle, "let me just-" hands free of the blanket, three things happen at once. The blanket slides off a pair of small shoulders, the money held in small hands flutters to the ground, and the person breaks into a bout of sobs, head thrown back and wails echoing into the hall.
Jungeun's chest aches. "Oh, honey," she practically whispers, debating a second before sliding her way past the door, dropping the pizza on a counter littered with used tissues, and then squatting to pick up the dropped cash. She counts out the amount needed just for the pizza and hands the rest back to shaky hands. She eyes her customer a little critically before making a final decision. "Hey," she says quietly, "are you alright?"
The sobs taper off, little whimpers accompanying a vehement head shaking in a negative.
Jungeun sighs, bids her bed goodbye for the moment, and closes the front door so that they won't get any angry neighbors. She carefully herds the crying one over to a couch that looks like its been occupied for most of the day and tucks the blanket back around the shaking figure before taking a tentative seat on the edge of an adjacent cushion. "So, you wanna talk about it?"
"M-my girlfriend broke up with me." They pause to blow their nose. "She told me that she loved me, that I was the prettiest girl she'd ever met. When I told her that I couldn't give her everything, she told me that it was fine-but then," the words end abruptly to give way for a heart-wrenching sob, "yesterday, she told me she wanted a physical relationship. And then she left m-me."
Jungeun cautiously moves forward and rubs circles into the sobbing girl's back. Okay, so, if she's reading this correctly-she hopes that for both of their sakes she is-then she might be able to help. "I've got a friend who's asexual," she starts, and to her relief the sobs quieten down and watery eyes glance up at her in something akin to surprise. "I mean, I'm demi and I don't really know what you're going through, but Soon-she came out last year-went through quite a few ignorant boyfriends till she found this really nice one who gets her." Jungeun screws up her face. "So, there's gotta be someone out there better than this ex of yours. She doesn't even know what she's missing." She gives the girl's side a light tickle and earns a small smile. Nice, she's getting somewhere. "Anyway, now that I've forced myself into your home and have violated your personal space and your couch, do I get a name?"
The girl giggles, a light, tinkly sort of noise, and meets Jungeun's stare. "Meixing." She sniffled. "And I thought pizza would cheer me up, but you're a bonus."
Jungeun shoots the girl a grin, hopping off the couch. "Speaking of, you should dig in before it gets cold. This guy has been traveling around for a little while, preparing to put a smile on your cute little face." And as she turns, Jungeun does catch a smile on the girl's face, the bags below her eyes almost disappearing and little dimples springing to life in her cheeks.
Meixing accepts the pizza almost reverently, holding the box in her blanket-swaddled arms. She shoots Jungeun a worried glance. "You're... not going to leave now, are you?"
Jungeun shrugs, plopping down beside the girl. "You order the pizza, you get me, too. Sorry, we're a package deal." After a quick glance, she nicks a slice and takes a bite. Yes, she's an awful person. She knows. "So, what have you been doing all day?"
Meixing points to the television that Jungeun had somehow overlooked and the pizza delivery girl balks. It's stopped on a still of Marley & Me.
"Um, what the hell is this? You know how this ends, right?" At Meixing's nod, Jungeun groans in mock exasperation. "Okay, we're friends now and I don't let friends hurt themselves like this. Here, let's see what you've got." She throws herself onto the ground and shuffles through the dvds there before letting out a soft aha and pulling out an Indiana Jones shoved into the back. She holds it up for approval and sees Meixing's eyes flash in interest. Good. She navigates the slightly confusing system and, everything done, settles back onto the couch and grabs another slice of pizza.
Meixing's face is a little bit clearer, and she sniffles sparingly, blowing her nose only once as the opening credits flash on the screen.
Halfway through, when Jungeun feels her eyelids getting heavy, a weight settles into her side and Meixing pillows her head on Jungeun's shoulder. "Thank you," she whispers, and Jungeun merely laughs into her hair, throwing an arm around narrow shoulders.
At five in the morning, Jungeun returns to her crappy car with a smile on her face and a new contact on her phone.
Jungeun delivers pizza and friendship. (Written for femmexo)
Jungeun groans as her fuel light flickers to life, effectively snapping her out of the late night (early morning?) daze she had succumbed to. This is it, she reminds herself, the last house on her too-long list, the last delivery before she’s allowed to drag herself home and curl up under her comforter for a few meager hours before class starts.
The life of a pizza delivery girl is by no means glamorous, but it’s enough to pay for textbooks and study snacks, and really that’s enough for her. Plus, she can use it for an excuse not to hang out with friends. Not that she doesn’t love her friends, but sometimes she’d rather it just be her, her girls’ songs-usually EXID or 9Muses but she’s not picky-being blasted through the shitty car speakers, and five or six boxes of pizza sitting contentedly in her passenger seat. On the other hand, there is the matter of hours. See, when she saw that the place was open 24/7, she didn’t think it meant 24/7. And since she’s relatively new, she still gets the weird shifts, which explains why she’s still delivering pizza at three in the morning.
She rolls to a stop in front of a pretty nice condo building and steps out, willing her car to somehow recharge enough for her to make it to that cheap gas station on the way home. She grabs the simple medium pepperoni pizza out of the car and heads towards the front doors, tapping in the security code from the receipt. From there, she makes a beeline for the elevators and smothers a yawn with her hand when the doors slowly slide closed.
Jungeun taps her foot as she ascends to the twelfth floor and plays her usual delivery game-attempting to guess what kind of person she’s delivering too. The last delivery-a large meatlover's and a two-liter mountain dew-had indeed turned out to be going to some teenager who was staying up late gaming. He'd challenged Jungeun to a mario kart race but she had reluctantly declined, asking for a raincheck. So, for this no-nonsense order, Jungeun suspects she'll be confronting some neat, put together person who's regretfully up late to finish a project and needs the pick me up.
The elevator doors open and she steps out, walking down the hall and looking for room thirty-two. She finds it near the end of the hall and blinks at the device near the doorjamb. A buzzer. Fancy. Jungeun presses the button and then rocks back on her heels, listening for movement on the other side of the door. A few times, she's had customers fall asleep on her and it's been an awful experience going back with a cool pizza. She hopes that this person is still awake.
The receiver comes to life with a staticky noise and a mumbled greeting. "I'll... be right there."
Jungeun frowns. This person sounds more tired than she feels. And that's saying something.
Not a moment later, the door opens and Jungeun finds herself facing not a put-together blue collar worker, but a disheveled person swaddled in blankets, face puffy and eyes rimmed with red. "I'm so sorry," they sniffle, "let me just-" hands free of the blanket, three things happen at once. The blanket slides off a pair of small shoulders, the money held in small hands flutters to the ground, and the person breaks into a bout of sobs, head thrown back and wails echoing into the hall.
Jungeun's chest aches. "Oh, honey," she practically whispers, debating a second before sliding her way past the door, dropping the pizza on a counter littered with used tissues, and then squatting to pick up the dropped cash. She counts out the amount needed just for the pizza and hands the rest back to shaky hands. She eyes her customer a little critically before making a final decision. "Hey," she says quietly, "are you alright?"
The sobs taper off, little whimpers accompanying a vehement head shaking in a negative.
Jungeun sighs, bids her bed goodbye for the moment, and closes the front door so that they won't get any angry neighbors. She carefully herds the crying one over to a couch that looks like its been occupied for most of the day and tucks the blanket back around the shaking figure before taking a tentative seat on the edge of an adjacent cushion. "So, you wanna talk about it?"
"M-my girlfriend broke up with me." They pause to blow their nose. "She told me that she loved me, that I was the prettiest girl she'd ever met. When I told her that I couldn't give her everything, she told me that it was fine-but then," the words end abruptly to give way for a heart-wrenching sob, "yesterday, she told me she wanted a physical relationship. And then she left m-me."
Jungeun cautiously moves forward and rubs circles into the sobbing girl's back. Okay, so, if she's reading this correctly-she hopes that for both of their sakes she is-then she might be able to help. "I've got a friend who's asexual," she starts, and to her relief the sobs quieten down and watery eyes glance up at her in something akin to surprise. "I mean, I'm demi and I don't really know what you're going through, but Soon-she came out last year-went through quite a few ignorant boyfriends till she found this really nice one who gets her." Jungeun screws up her face. "So, there's gotta be someone out there better than this ex of yours. She doesn't even know what she's missing." She gives the girl's side a light tickle and earns a small smile. Nice, she's getting somewhere. "Anyway, now that I've forced myself into your home and have violated your personal space and your couch, do I get a name?"
The girl giggles, a light, tinkly sort of noise, and meets Jungeun's stare. "Meixing." She sniffled. "And I thought pizza would cheer me up, but you're a bonus."
Jungeun shoots the girl a grin, hopping off the couch. "Speaking of, you should dig in before it gets cold. This guy has been traveling around for a little while, preparing to put a smile on your cute little face." And as she turns, Jungeun does catch a smile on the girl's face, the bags below her eyes almost disappearing and little dimples springing to life in her cheeks.
Meixing accepts the pizza almost reverently, holding the box in her blanket-swaddled arms. She shoots Jungeun a worried glance. "You're... not going to leave now, are you?"
Jungeun shrugs, plopping down beside the girl. "You order the pizza, you get me, too. Sorry, we're a package deal." After a quick glance, she nicks a slice and takes a bite. Yes, she's an awful person. She knows. "So, what have you been doing all day?"
Meixing points to the television that Jungeun had somehow overlooked and the pizza delivery girl balks. It's stopped on a still of Marley & Me.
"Um, what the hell is this? You know how this ends, right?" At Meixing's nod, Jungeun groans in mock exasperation. "Okay, we're friends now and I don't let friends hurt themselves like this. Here, let's see what you've got." She throws herself onto the ground and shuffles through the dvds there before letting out a soft aha and pulling out an Indiana Jones shoved into the back. She holds it up for approval and sees Meixing's eyes flash in interest. Good. She navigates the slightly confusing system and, everything done, settles back onto the couch and grabs another slice of pizza.
Meixing's face is a little bit clearer, and she sniffles sparingly, blowing her nose only once as the opening credits flash on the screen.
Halfway through, when Jungeun feels her eyelids getting heavy, a weight settles into her side and Meixing pillows her head on Jungeun's shoulder. "Thank you," she whispers, and Jungeun merely laughs into her hair, throwing an arm around narrow shoulders.
At five in the morning, Jungeun returns to her crappy car with a smile on her face and a new contact on her phone.