Chapter 2

He's a little late tonight, and he can hear his neighbor's shower already running as he steps into his bathroom.

There isn't any rapping yet, and Nolan wonders if he's missed it or if his neighbor is just in a bad mood today.

There are some days where Rap-nim doesn't sing anything, and Nolan leans against the wall and wonders if something has happened, wonders if it's time to go next door and introduce himself and ask if anything's the matter.

Today is not one of those days, though, as his neighbors low voice starts up a few moments after Nolan gets his own shower going, and Nolan sighs in the relief of being able to remain a silent admirer for just one day longer.

And, as if things weren't already nice enough tonight, Nolan recognizes the first lines of Outsider's

Bye U

, and mentally gears himself up by running through the song in his head.

Oh, there's a singing part.

Well, Nolan does have a few years of vocal training under his belt.

He goes about with his shower, enjoying the nice background track that his neighbor's voice makes, and then it's time for the first chorus, and Nolan won't even let the stinging shampoo in his eyes keep him from singing G.O's lines as best as he can remember then.

He enjoys it a little too much, high off of feeling the knots in his muscles relax under the hot steam and hearing his own voice hit all the right notes, and maybe he sings a little louder than usual but he can't really find it in himself to care.

Until his neighbor doesn't start rapping the second verse and Nolan realizes with a sinking stomach that damn, he's been caught.

bragged to the entire world

After that first night, Koen doesn't hear his neighbor sing again for nearly a week.

He's debated going next door and maybe asking him about it, but even Koen has to admit that "hey, I've realized that we sang a duet when I was in the shower, wanna do it again sometime?" sounds pretty dumb just in his head alone.

And even though it scares him a little to realize that he has an audience now—maybe even always had one—he figures that his neighbor must appreciate his rapping if he hasn't told Koen to knock it off by now.

He must be a musician too, Koen figures, maybe even a fellow student at EyrieArts.

A music major, Koen decides from the way his voice had been pleasant and sweet and followed the high-pitched melody in a way that makes Koen want to listen to it over and over again.

Koen's down in the landlord's office to complain about the clogged sink basin when he catches a glimpse of the floor plans for his apartment, and so he tunes out the landlord's promises of "a plumber soon" and scans over the yellow paper quickly to find that yup, there's his bathroom, and there's the bathroom of his neighbor, separated by only a few thin pieces of wood and insulation.

Which means when Koen sings in the shower, his neighbor listens from the shower.

And maybe someone else would have found that to be really strange, but Koen's just a bit awed at the thought that someone likes his rapping enough to time his showers around Koen's.

And maybe Koen's a little more intrigued at the thought that there's someone, someone with a sweet boyish voice and a tendency to sing just a little too fast sometimes, who showers just a few inches away.

So one night when he gets home just past two in the morning and wearily trudges into his bathroom to take a shower so he can pass out, he's more than just a little excited to hear that his neighbor is singing

first

.

He recognizes the song almost immediately as

Habit

by Epik High feat.

Ha DongKyun, and even though his neighbor's voice doesn't really have the husky quality of DongKyun's, he can appreciate the effort it takes to attempt that R&B style and manage to sort of pull it off.

And Koen's a gentleman, which means he can't just let his poor neighbor sing all by himself at this time of night, so he launches into the rap lines with the assuredness of someone who's listened to Epik High more times than they should.

He can hear his neighbor's voice squeak and go off key for a second when he hears Koen joining in, and Koen takes a second to think that it's a little endearing before he focuses back on the song, shutting his eyes and furrowing his brows as he tries to get all the inflections just right, keep the rhythm and the feel even though his voice sounds a little different from the original.

Koen's glad to hear the sound of his neighbor's voice again when he resumes singing, and thinks to himself that this is their first proper duet, their first real time singing together intentionally and huh, they actually sound pretty good.

you've got me going crazy

Nolan's not really sure when their occasional duet becomes a nightly ritual.

What used to be Nolan silently appreciating Rap-nim turns into Nolan singing along to all sorts of Epik High songs.

His neighbor's taste in music isn't too different from Nolan's own, and sometimes even when Nolan doesn't know the lyrics, his neighbor doesn't seem to mind too much if he just hums the melody instead.

One time Nolan tests out his vocal abilities in Primary's

Question Mark

, and is rewarded by a few cursory claps from the other side of the wall.

Nolan thinks he's starstruck.