5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Wooram Mok on Jul 6, 2021 16:45:51 GMT -8
Wooram nodded and said, "I mean, we came down about four times a year, maybe once extra if something came up, but yeah, it sounds like I was more used to it."
He was slightly baffled by Raein's reaction. He couldn't tell if it was a good reaction or not, though mostly it just seemed confused. He nodded and said, "Yeah, most major cities, and some smaller cities, have them. There's even a really small one in Seoul, I was curious and looked it up. But, um, as far as what it looks like, I mean, there's a lot of rainbows around, lots of queer themed businesses, stuff like that. Just overall pretty welcoming to all sorts of people who aren't going to feel welcomed elsewhere. I've not gotten to spend a ton of time in Cap Hill though, since it wasn't the sort of thing that I was going to be able to drag my parents to, and I didn't make it down from Bellingham very much at all."
Wooram was distracted from this topic by Raein's confusion over Kpop. He smiled and said, "Kpop is short for Korean pop music. There's a lot of cool music videos and it's a pretty broad style."
Before he could delve into talking about music more though, the little timer on his phone went off, and he said, "We can definitely keep talking about this, but we should probably start making our way towards the Ocean Breeze Apartments now so that we make sure that we get to our appointment with plenty of time."
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Middle School ESL/Korean I Teacher.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/29/1998.
26.
Tiger (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
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Post by Raven Raein Kong on Jul 6, 2021 17:11:39 GMT -8
Raein looked at the time on his phone and nodded, still processing the rest of the words Wooram had said to him, but keeping it together enough to get up and throw away his cup and returning to the table. He was in awe that such a place could exist. He knew full well he wasn't the only LGBTQ+ kid in school, he couldn't have been, but if there was, they never came out to him. And he knows they would have known each other, so that wasn't the issue. He was still getting used to seeing the rainbow flag in various shop windows. And he hid his excitement about it every time. It would take adjusting, but maybe he could finally release that excitement, at least a little bit.
He looked back up, realizing he'd been spacing out and just assuming Wooram was wondering what the heck his potential-future-roommate was thinking so hard about. As his mind processed more of the words, he got excited again and his voice squeaked, "That's a thing?" He cleared his throat, and once again remembered to keep his voice at a normal level. "You mean there's more Korean music than just traditional and trot?" When he was little, his grandparents would send his mom new CDs, claiming they were "popular" and she should have a copy. "How long has this existed?" He breathed.
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5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Wooram Mok on Jul 6, 2021 17:19:15 GMT -8
Wooram carefully cleared his things from the table, still unsure of exactly what sort of reaction Raein was having to parts of their conversation from how thoughtful and possibly slightly confused the other man looked. He smiled when Raein responded to the idea of Kpop, and decided that that seemed like a safe enough topic of conversation as he started leading their way towards Ocean Breeze Apartments so they'd get to their appointment a little bit early.
He said, "Yeah, there's a lot more Korean music than traditional and trot, though I've listened to enough of those as well, since my parents are well kind of old for being my parents. I have a way older sibling, who is more the age that you'd expect them to be parents of. Kpop's been around for a while, but it really started picking up in the early 2000s. A lot of the groups that I listen to are way newer than that though. I was kind of starting to listen to it around fourth fifth grade, so not long before I moved to the states, and it was one of those things that I paid attention to a lot on the internet since then. There's a lot of it up on YouTube."
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Middle School ESL/Korean I Teacher.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/29/1998.
26.
Tiger (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Raven Raein Kong on Jul 6, 2021 17:45:24 GMT -8
Raein was about to comment more on KPop when he paused at realizing just how much he towered over Wooram. "Oh you're um..." He covered his mouth, patting it gently as if scolding it for saying things. He lost his train of thought for a moment before catching up to Wooram again. "Um yeah... Me and the internet did not really get along until I moved to Olympia. And even then it was kinda shoddy. The last time I was on YouTube was about ten years ago, probably. It took me nearly 30 minutes to watch a nearly 5 minute video." He debated telling him what the video was. Wooram seemed more knowledgeable about LGBTQ+ things, so maybe he'd be familiar with it. "I heard someone at a cross country meet once talking about Todrick Hall's song for the 'It Gets Better' project? And wanted to check it out." Even admitting that much made his palms sweaty and his heart was racing. At this rate, he'd be dead before he could come out to someone, let alone confess to them. He held out his phone and wiggled it a bit, "But I've had good reception and there's free wifi where I'm currently staying. Do you have any recommendations?" He added excitedly, hoping the change of subject would calm him down. ((In case you didn't want to watch the actual music video (as it contains bullying, homophobia, transphobia, and suicidal ideation), here's the lyrics. Though I feel like it's really important to note that in the line "They don't understand the life that you choose," "choose" is in quotations. I couldn't find any lyrics that reflected that though.)) |
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5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Wooram Mok on Jul 7, 2021 0:08:51 GMT -8
Wooram stared up at Raein while he started talking and finished the sentence, "Really short. I'm aware, it's one of the downsides of getting fifth instead of fourth, a lot of them are already taller than me."
He smiled up at Raein, trying to convey that he wasn't bothered about it. There was definitely a part of his brain trying really hard to point out that he could basically be tucked under Raein's chin very comfortably, which wasn't a very helpful part of his brain.
Wooram gave Raein a curious look and said, "I don't think that I've ever heard of Todrick Hall before. Though part of that sounds familiar and I can't really place it. But I'm guessing from cross country meet this was in high school, and like, I didn't start getting super familiar with things in English on the internet until partway through high school, though I was trying. That sounds like a painfully slow internet speed though, I can see why you weren't just exploring music videos and the like."
He thought over his playlists and said, "Once we're not on the way to our appointment to see the apartments, I can pull some stuff up on my phone and show you, or send you some links to stuff I like. But that's the buildings right up ahead there."
He pointed out some of the only multi-story buildings in sight, wondering if they were really strange to see for someone who had grown up so out in the middle of nowhere.
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Middle School ESL/Korean I Teacher.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/29/1998.
26.
Tiger (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Raven Raein Kong on Jul 7, 2021 21:19:35 GMT -8
Raein let out a sigh, of relief or frustration, he wasn't even sure. "I see..." He said quietly. He wasn't really sure what else to say in that regard, so he let it drop. At least it stopped his nerves.
He nodded, "That sounds like a plan. I look forward to seeing some of the music videos..." He said, his voice fading off as the building came into sight. He'd been to Seattle, so the skyscrapers didn't always surprise him, but the random, larger building when they'd been surrounded by up to two stories buildings beforehand still threw him for a loop. He looked back at their path, making sure he hadn't just missed other larger buildings. "Um. Wow." He said simply.
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5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Wooram Mok on Jul 7, 2021 21:35:59 GMT -8
Wooram noticed that Raein seemed hesitant, and he wondered if it was the big building. He said, "Ready to head on in? We've got a few minutes so we can see what the lobby and stuff look like."
He glanced down at the listing on his phone and said, "It looks like for the three 2 bedroom 2 bath apartments available, there are two on the ninth floor and one on the seventh floor. Do you have a preference when we're asking to see them?"
Wooram wasn't super used to apartment buildings that big, but he'd been in a few over the years, and in buildings on university campuses and for hospitals that were that tall, so it didn't particularly daunt him.
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Middle School ESL/Korean I Teacher.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/29/1998.
26.
Tiger (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Raven Raein Kong on Jul 7, 2021 22:41:50 GMT -8
Raein was still eying the building, but nodded anyway. His faced paled at the mentioned floor levels of the available apartments. "Um... is there nothing... lower?" He asked hesitantly. He shook his head, as if shaking his thoughts away, "Um, yeah, we can check out the lobby and stuff." He added.
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5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Wooram Mok on Jul 7, 2021 22:56:15 GMT -8
Wooram looked at Raein with a little bit of concern. He said tentatively, "The 2 bedroom 1 bath is on the second floor, but it's only $75 a month less, and I'd really prefer to have my own bathroom. There's a 3 bedroom 2 bath on the third floor, but that's $250 a month more, and I'm not sure I want to spend that much for a bedroom that I'm not even sure I'd use for something."
Wooram was a little nervous about living on an upper floor, he'd never done that before, but it also would probably have a lovely view of the Sound.
He led the way into the lobby, looking around. It was a well lit space, with a bank of mailboxes, and an area off to the side with a glass window dividing it from the lobby had some gym equipment. Wooram glanced at his phone and determined that they had about 10 minutes until their appointment, and the front desk wasn't busy. He said to Raein, "It looks nice in here, I'm going to go tell them we're here."
He walked up to the front desk person and said, "Hi, my name's Wooram Mok, I set up an appointment to do an apartment viewing for the available 2 bedroom 2 bath apartments. Is this the right place to check in?"
The person at the front desk nodded and said, "I'll go get my boss, she does the viewings," before disappearing into an office.
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Middle School ESL/Korean I Teacher.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/29/1998.
26.
Tiger (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Raven Raein Kong on Jul 9, 2021 17:14:26 GMT -8
Raein paled more as Wooram told him about the other available apartments on lower floors. "Um, yeah, then the available two bed two baths are fine." He said, swallowing hard. He hoped that were true. He just had to pretend he was... maybe living on top of a mountain? That sounded stupid, but whatever would help him sleep at night, he supposed. He looked around the lobby while he waited for Wooram to return, vaguely aware he had nodded when the other man said he'd go check in with the office.
The lobby itself was nice, and comfortable. It seemed new but in a way that older buildings sometimes over-polished the floors and put on new paint and new furniture was brought in to freshen up the space. He was still looking around when his phone buzzed, and he pulled it out of his pocket.
'Hey, any luck on the apartment/roommate hunt?' One of his friends from Olympia had texted.
Raein debated for a moment lying to him, but decided if his friend started lecturing him he'd just silence his phone. He responded, 'I'm looking at apartments with a potential roommate now. Another teacher. I'll tell you about it later.' He included a link to Wooram's original Craigslist ad so his friends could for anything sketchy. He was about 95% sure Wooram was genuine and not a serial killer, but he'd seen enough TV shows to know he also didn't really have a leg to stand on in terms of judging people. He'd only known about 100 people his entire life, and had heard about the other approximate 200 people living in town (and may had seen them back when his parents made him go to church, but that stopped when he started high school as long as he pretended he had a lot of studying to do).
'... I told you to send ads to us first. But w/e, he seems ok. ttyl.' His friend sent back, then soon after added, 'If you don't call me by 8pm I'm going to assume you were murdered and call the cops.'
At this point, Raein was leaning against the back of a chair, taking note that it actually seemed pretty plush, and potentially comfortable, but he assumed Wooram wouldn't take too long. 'You're not going to try reaching me first in case I forgot?'
'No.'
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5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Wooram Mok on Jul 10, 2021 11:25:01 GMT -8
Wooram came back over to where Raein had found a seat to wait, not bothering to sit down himself. He said, "The guy at the desk went to go get his boss, who does the viewings. She should be out in a moment."
He looked around a little more and added, "The building looks nice so far though. We'll see what the actual apartments are like."
He really hoped that this would turn out right. Everything he'd seen online said that it was a pretty nice complex, and it seemed to be where a lot of people around their age lived in Cedar Beach. Wooram hoped that in a few years, he'd be able to buy his own little place, maybe he'd be lucky and have it be with a partner at that point. He was just starting his career at this point though, and who knew if he'd even end up staying in Cedar Beach. He liked it so far, with it's combination of proximity to but also enough space from his parents and what he'd seen of the town.
He was quiet while he waited, and it was only a few minutes before a woman who looked like she was in her mid-thirties came out of the office. She walked over to them with purpose and said, "The two of you are the ones who wanted to see the two bedroom two bath apartments. Wooram and?"
Wooram smiled at her and said, "I'm Wooram and this is Raein."
She nodded and said, "Nice to meet you, I'm Sarah, one of the property managers. We've got three two bedroom two baths open. Two on the ninth floor and one on the seventh floor, but someone toured the one of the seventh floor earlier today and said that they'd be putting in an application for it. I'll show you the ones on the ninth floor, since they're two separate models, about the same amount of space though. Some people have a layout preference once they see both of them. We are expecting to have another apartment come up at the beginning of September on the second floor, but it's the same model as one of the ones that I'll be showing you."
Wooram nodded and said, "We're both just moving into town now, and we'll be starting teaching in the district this coming school year, so September would probably be awfully late to move. I'm anticipating seeing the two models though."
He looked at Raein, wondering what the other young man would think of probably ending up on the ninth floor. Wooram was mostly just looking forward to seeing their options.
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Middle School ESL/Korean I Teacher.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/29/1998.
26.
Tiger (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Raven Raein Kong on Jul 11, 2021 9:31:14 GMT -8
"Okay," Raein said, pocketing his phone. He looked around and nodded at Wooram's observation. "It looks like they actually care about the upkeep, which is good." He added.
He watched the happenings of outside while they waited, turning and nodding in return to Sarah's acknowledgement. He frowned a bit as she mentioned someone already expressed interest in the seventh floor apartment. "I look forward to seeing them as well." He agreed. He attempted to swallow his fear, but a few years back when the family had gone to visit his grandparents in Spokane and they were living on the fourth floor, he learned he had a fear of heights. This was only exacerbated when his Olympia friends discovered he'd never been high than about five stories and took him to the Space Needle on their first trip to Seattle. If everything else checked out and it made sense to go for the top floor apartments, then he'd just keep the blinds closed.
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5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Wooram Mok on Jul 12, 2021 11:42:44 GMT -8
Wooram followed Sarah's lead as she took them towards a small bank of elevators to get up to a higher floor and started giving them an explanation of the two different types of units. He glanced cautiously at Raein several times. The other man seemed nervous, and Wooram didn't precisely know what was bothering him, though from what Raein had said so far, his hunch was on being nervous about the upper floors. Wooram honestly wasn't sure that there would be that notable a difference between seventh and ninth floors though.
Sarah told them, "We have two different models for our two bedrooms. One is much more popular among roommates who are working adults because the two bedrooms are about the same size, and while one has an en-suite bathroom and the other has a bathroom off the hall, the two bathrooms are of similar size and niceness. It's also the more popular unit for our families with more than one kid sharing a room. The other model is usually more popular with single adults who want an at home office or parents with one kid or small kids who don't plan to be here a super long time because the second bedroom is much smaller, almost closer to being an office size than a proper bedroom. We've got one of each available, and they do have the same basic set of amenities and square footage; however, we do charge $50 a month more for the units with the two big bedrooms."
The elevators didn't take long to get them to the ninth floor, something that Wooram appreciated. He didn't love it when elevators took forever to climb floors, and that would have been a point against an upper story apartment for him. Sarah said, "We'll take a look at apartment 903 first, since we're right by it here, but this is the one with the smaller second bedroom. Unit 915 is just a little ways down the hall, and it's got the two big bedrooms."
She unlocked the door to the apartment, clearly freshly cleaned and painted, and started point out the amenities. One of the bedrooms was much larger than the other, with a small balcony, but there was also one off the living room, so it wasn't like the person in the larger bedroom would have sole balcony access. The other bedroom was distinctly small with a small window and seemed almost sized for a child, though Wooram could see how it would make a decent office since it did have some natural light from the window and like the rest of the apartment was well lit in general. The kitchen was nicely laid out, and he liked the general flow of the apartment, but it did seem like it would be a slightly unfair distribution of space to have one of them have that tiny bedroom, and the other a nicely sized master suite.
He looked at Raein for his response to this apartment though. Sarah said, "One of the biggest selling points of this particular unit is that it is probably our single unit with the best view of the Sound and the Olympic Peninsula, especially from the balcony in the master bedroom. It also gets a lovely cross breeze with the windows open."
She gave them a chance to look around the unit and see what they thought. Wooram told Raein, "This is a nice quality of apartment, and I really do like the kitchen and how the shared living spaces are set up. I'm not sure that the bedroom distribution would feel super fair though. I'm guessing that we should take a good look at the other unit before making any decisions."
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Middle School ESL/Korean I Teacher.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/29/1998.
26.
Tiger (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Raven Raein Kong on Jul 13, 2021 19:29:13 GMT -8
Raein followed Wooram through the apartment to check it out. He grimaced at the smaller bedroom, though did appreciate the smaller window to go with it. That meant he could more easily ignore just how high up they were. He stayed well away from the master bedroom balcony, but other than the small bedroom, the apartment didn't seem too bad. But, he'd probably want to argue for splitting the rent more 40/60 or something if they took it.
"If there is some reason we don't like the other apartment, I believe we could make this one work; I'd be happy to take the smaller bedroom, to be honest, but I agree that I'd like to see the other unit first." He spoke carefully. As long as he didn't look outside, he could forget just how high off the ground the elevator had brought them, so he was starting to get his bearings a bit more.
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5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Wooram Mok on Jul 14, 2021 7:01:07 GMT -8
Wooram was surprised when Raein volunteered that he'd potentially be willing to take the smaller bedroom if they went with this apartment. He wasn't sure that he'd have been comfortable with the same choice. He said softly, while they were far enough away from Sarah looking around, "If we ended up going with this one, and you took the smaller room, I'd be happy to take a little more of the rent, maybe a 60-40 split, it would only seem fair if I was ending up with a bigger space."
Wooram was satisfied with their look around the first apartment, and he smiled at Sarah and said, "We'd love to see the other floorplan as well."
Sarah nodded and led them down the hall to unit #915. Immediately upon walking in, Wooram realized that this apartment had one major downside on the one with the smaller bedroom: instead of a nice open kitchen space that people would have an easy time sharing, this layout had a galley style kitchen with the refrigerator down at the end. If one of them was cooking, and the other needed something from the fridge, it would be an annoyance.
Sarah talked up the positive points of the apartment, the two bedrooms were about the same size, with huge windows that let in lots of natural light, and there was a bigger balcony off the living room. Wooram was still mostly focusing on the kitchen though. Once Sarah let them loose to look around the apartment more, he asked Raein, "What do you think of that kitchen? It seems less convenient, but the bedrooms are better split between two people for this one."
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