It hadn't even been an hour since Xu Wei logged out of the game to try to get some sleep, and he had only been in a half-unconscious state. He was not asleep but not fully awake either, and he was able to hear the smallest movements that filtered through the apparently thin apartment walls from the hallway or apartment next to him.
Just after five in the morning, there was a knock at his door. It was small, as if the person on the other side had just grazed the door lightly with their knuckles, but Xu Wei's eyes burst open, and his blanket fell from his half-naked body as he sat up.
Then, the person knocked again with more resolve.
Xu Wei checked the time, and his nose scrunched up. Who the hell knocks on someone else's door at this ungodly hour? Even salesmen had some semblance of shame!
When the person knocked a third time, Xu Wei decided to get out of his bed. His hand trembled slightly as he carefully lifted his blanket, and he slowly turned, his feet gently touching the ground.
He carefully walked toward the door, careful not to let the heels of his feet touch the ground too quickly in case he made any sound.
Then, the door knob jingled slightly.
Someone was trying to fucking open his door!
Xu Wei subconsciously held his breath as he approached the door, his hand reaching out to grab the baseball bat that leaned against the wall beside it. Then, against his better judgment, he unlocked the door and swung it open.
The baseball bat fell to the floor, and Xu Wei cursed. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
In the middle of the hallway stood Shin Han with tears running down his face. It seemed that each time he'd meet this man, he'd be crying his eyes out. It was surprising that he couldn't hear him crying from inside the apartment.
"I…" Shin Han started, then burst into ugly sobs. "Someone broke in, Bao Bao lives in the dorms and I couldn't get in."
Xu Wei stood in his door frame for a moment, his mind too exhausted to properly understand what he was saying. However, he soon grasped the meaning of his words.
Someone had broken into this guy's place.
'What the fucking hell is this level of crazy?'
He could hear someone moving about in the apartment next to him and remembered his neighbor's warning, which made him want to curse even louder. It wasn't his fault that people rushed to him in tears, okay?
Before he had a chance to pull Shin Han into his apartment, the door next to him swung open and Jun Hie walked out, looking rightfully pissed off. He wore a set of silk black pajamas that surprisingly made him look even scarier than he had appeared earlier in the day.
"Can you…"
Jun Hie's words paused as he took in the scene before him, and his eyes silently judged Xu Wei.
Xu Wei looked down at himself, shirtless, blond hair, standing in the doorway to block another man from entering his apartment, and a baseball bat that had rolled into their shared hallway. Meanwhile, said man was sobbing in front of him, looking like a lost puppy… No, he looked like a little maiden being thrown out of the house. He didn't even know how to begin to explain himself out of this one, his entire image had been ruined in a matter of seconds.
Jun Hie crossed his arms and stared at his new neighbor, and Xu Wei could swear he could see the word 'scumbag' written in his eyes that reflected him.
Xu Wei solemnly stated. "It's not what it looks like."
Then, without letting his neighbor say anything else, he grabbed Shin Han's arm, pulled him into the apartment, and closed his door.
Shin Han sobbed. "Baseball bat."
"…"
When Xu Wei opened the door again, his neighbor was still standing in the hallway. He looked over, nodded, then grabbed his baseball bat and went back into the apartment, not realizing that he'd ruined his image further.
Jun Hie's eye twitched as he thought to himself. 'Beating people up, too?'
Still, he tried to push the thought to the back of his mind as he veered toward his fridge and grabbed two cans of beer. Afterward, he went to his bedroom and grabbed his phone before sitting on the ground at the table. He glanced up and beckoned Shin Han to join him.
While Shin Han collected himself, Xu Wei called Shin Bao.
He didn't expect the other person involved to pick up, but he actually picked up on the last ring.
Shin Bao's exhausted voice came through the other side. "Did someone die?"
Xu Wei clicked his tongue. "Not yet, you might if you don't get here in the next fifteen minutes."
Shin Bao rolled over in his bed, evidently not interested in going to the other man's apartment. "Fuck, I just carried you for half the night. Do you miss my cuddles or something?"
Shin Han still hadn't collected himself, so Xu Wei moved the phone over to pick up the other man's sniffling. Then, he brought the phone back to his ear to explain: "Your brother showed up here with nowhere to go. His place has been robbed."
"Robbed?"
Xu Wei clarified. "In real life."
"…" Shin Bao sat up in bed and said. "I'll be right there."
Xu Wei hung up the phone and cracked open the can of beer, and took a sip. He glanced at the man and asked. "Did you call the police?"
Shin Han nodded. "I called them but…" He sniffled again. "There's no camera, and no lead yet."
Xu Wei nodded and took another sip of his beer, then waited for the man to calm down as the other sibling came to his apartment, as he didn't feel like going through the story twice. It was good enough that the police were taking it seriously, but it was hard to narrow down any suspects without a previous beef - it probably wasn't that demonic couple, but one of their die-hard fans, or it could simply be someone who saw his information and knew little about the situation.
That was the issue. There were no leads.
By the time Shin Bao made it to the apartment, Shin Han had calmed down. Xu Wei glanced at the location market on Shin Bao's phone and hummed.
Should be here any minute.
He heard someone attempt to jingle his door open, then a short pause of realization that the door was locked passed through their little brain, and they knocked.
Xu Wei shoved himself up off the ground and opened the door to find Shin Bao all decked out in PJs.
Shin Bao wasn't looking at him, however. He turned his head to see where Shin Bao was staring, and found Jun Hie staring at them from the entrance to the elevator.
In the few minutes that it took for Shin Bao to get to the apartment, Jun Hie had enough time to get changed. He wasn't wearing a fancy business suit this time, but a simple pair of jeans and a gray sweater.
Meanwhile, Xu Wei was still half naked, Shin Han was sitting at the coffee table drinking beer with a red face and watery eyes, and Shin Bao was standing outside of the apartment in checkered white and blue pajamas and messy hair.
Xu Wei met Jun Hie's eyes. He kept his eyes locked on the other man as he reached his hand out and grabbed Shin Bao's collar and wordlessly pulled him into the apartment and slammed him against the apartment door.
Shin Bao complained. "Did you have to do that? You could have fucking moved!"
Xu Wei clicked his tongue. "Because of you siblings, my image has been ruined. I might need to move, ah."
"What are you talking about? I'm only in pajamas!"
"En."
"You're the one who should be ashamed. Do you own a shirt?"
"I own a lot of shirts."
"Then put one on!"
"It's not my fault you two siblings keep showing up in the middle of the night, no, it's not even the night anymore. Damn, good morning."
"Good morning my ass."
Shin Bao grabbed a beer from Xu Wei's fridge and sat down. Soon, the three were in the same position as they had been the previous night.
This time, however, Shin Han had stopped crying and was able to finish his story quickly. "I came home tonight to a broken door and my belongings all over the place, it was ransacked…"
He pulled out his phone and showed the two men some of the pictures he'd taken. It truly looked like a tornado had spawned directly in his place, tearing through the drawers and even flipping the couch in its wrath.
Whoever it was had no desire to stay subtle about it, but they also didn't seem to take any of the more expensive items, such as the shiny PC, monitors, or TV that were in frame. No, they wanted to scare Shin Han and show him that they knew exactly who he was and where he was.
Shin Bao cursed. "Even if they have a grudge, that's too much."
Xu Wei agreed. "They're bringing online drama into real life, this should have never been brought to light."
Shin Bao glanced toward Xu Wei. This situation was…
Xu Wei noticed his expression and nodded knowingly before he added. "You're going to need to move, and contact your employer just in case they try to get in contact with them. Did you let your mother know?"
"I can't, she'd lose her mind."
When he was about to retort, saying that his mother would want to know, he got shut down by Shin Bao's glance. He couldn't give advice on this part when he had kept his own situation from his family for the same reasons.
They just didn't want their families to worry and thought they could deal with everything on their own, which was exactly why Xu Wei wanted Shin Han to tell his mother what was going on.
At least he was talking about it with them, so he wasn't dealing with it entirely on his own, and he had also reported them to the police.
After a few moments of silence, Shin Bao turned his entire body toward Xu Wei and seemed to want to say something.
Xu Wei interrupted his line of thought. "No."
With a long gaze, Shin Bao said. "It's similar."
"It's not the same."
"It could help."
"It wouldn't."
Shin Han looked between the two of them and set down his can of beer with a frown. "What's going on?"
Xu Wei said nothing, he only stared at Shin Bao while taking a sip of his own drink.
Eventually, Shin Bao relented and just ended up shaking his head. "Nothing. We knew a guy who went through a stalking situation due to the game."
Xu Wei seemed happy with that answer and picked up his phone. "It's not the same situation, though."
He pulled up the Legends of Xia forum and searched for Shin Bao's name, his gamer tag, phone number, and address. Nothing showed up. The little bastard wasn't a complete idiot, then.
If they did post something, then it would be easier for the police to track them down.
Shin Bao sighed. "Where will you stay?"
Shin Han shook his head. "I don't know, I have a bit of money saved up, but it's going to be a pain to switch over all the mail."
"Maybe you can stay here."
"I don't think…"
Xu Wei lifted his gaze and looked at Shin Han.
Other than the crying, he didn't seem like a messy or loud person. In fact, it might just be easier to keep him here so he wouldn't be faced with a similar situation and end up in his hallway sobbing once again.
"Just stay here until it's sorted." He remembered the other night and added. "Try to keep your hands to yourself."