On one fine day in autumn, a cute bookshop owner, Lee Sungmin, placed an ad outside her shop door, at 137 Little Bourke Street in Melbourne. The ad was for an assistant job in her bookshop and any interested applicant could either walk in, or emailed to her.

Lee Sungmin owned My Bookshop after her parents left her with a substantial amount of money after their sudden death in a car-crashed in one of Australian highways. The Lees has migrated to Melbourne from Seoul when Sungmin was in high school. Continuing her high school studies in Melbourne was a challenge as she spoke little English. Eventually she picked up the language and now loved reading English books the most.

On her way back from school, she often dropped by this old bookshop at Little Bourke Street and made friends with the owner, granny Alice, who was in her twilight years. Sungmin got to know that the granny wished to sell off her bookshop due to old age, but money was tight at that moment, so the Lees could not fulfil Sungmin's wish to buy over the bookshop when Sungmin brought up the subject. 

After her high school, Sungmin worked at the bookshop to help granny Alice, and though her salary was very meagre, she truly enjoyed her time there. Her opportunity to buy over the shop unexpectedly arose after her parents' sudden death. She was very down with grief for months, but granny Alice managed to boost her confidence and helped her back on her feet and come to terms with her unexpected loss.

Granny offered her to buy over the bookshop, and without much thinking and with the help from granny Alice's  legal friend, she closed the deal, and re-designed and did some renovation to the bookshop. Granny Alice went back to her hometown in Adelaide after ensuring that Sungmin was okay and could manage the shop.

The renovated bookshop now has a small mezzanine floor towards the 2nd half of the shop, linked by wooden staircase from the ground floor, mainly for those people who wanted to read or just need a quiet place to browse through some magazines.

When Sungmin has more and more customers, she found that she could not cope with doing everything by herself. She has to do the ordering of her book supplies, she has to clean the whole bookshop, she has to be at the cashier, she needed to arrange the books at the bookshelf and she needed to do stock-take herself. On top of that, she needed to catch up on any books exhibition because that way, she could get variety of books at a cheaper price, and she also need to keep in touch with her Korean friends either in social media or meet ups whenever they came to Melbourne.  So, in conclusion, she needed an assistant or else she will end up with no social life! 

Based on her financial report that she did every month-end, her shop's profit should be enough to cover an employee's salary. With that in mind, she places an advertisement for an assistant in her bookshop.

Some of her customers did enquire about the position whether she accept part-timers, in which she replied she has no problem discussing it with the applicant. She understood that some students needed pocket money and the only way was to work part-time.

Two days later, a slim, tall and studious looking guy walked in with spectacles perched on the bridge of his nose. He asked for the owner and when Sungmin said she was the one, he seemed surprised. Maybe because he expected the owner to be older?

"Good day. I'm sorry, i didn't expect you to be so young. I am here for the advertisement for a bookshop assistant. Is it still available?" the guy said politely. He seemed ok but by his look, Sungmin guessed he must still be in a university.

"Hi, yes it is. I am the owner, Lee Sungmin. Would you like to fill in this form first?" Sungmin passed him the form that she has prepared.

"You are Korean?" the guy looked at her with a smile while taking the form from her.

"Yes, are you Korean too?"

"Yes, I am, I'm sorry for my rudeness. I am Cho Kyuhyun and I'm on my final year of my Master in Monash Uni. My friend told me of the ad, so here I am" he said, bowing slightly and still smiling. He looked very handsome when he smile, Sungmin thought, but quickly dismissed her wondering thoughts.

"Nice to meet fellow Koreans! Ahh, Kyuhyun-ssi, you can sit upstairs to fill up the form. Just pass to me after you finish it" Sungmin gestured towards the mezzanine floor.

"Wow, this place changed a lot, but so much better"

"You came here before?"

"Yes, when it was owned by granny Alice. I used to drop by when I was in RMIT, but since I switched to Monash, I hardly come to this area. Ok I will pass you back the form soon" Kyuhyun bowed and went up to the sofa upstairs.

'He always dropped by here during granny Alice time? Ohhh yes, now I remember, granny often told me about another Korean person that she knew, just that I never managed to meet that person. So he was the one.. ' Sungmin was deep in thought. Her thought was interrupted by a customer who wanted to pay for a book, so she became busy at the counter.

Kyuhyun suddenly appeared in front of her. "Form completed" he said with a smile. Ohhh that handsome smile again. He has taken off his glasses and he looked.... ermmmm... gorgeous..

"Thanks. You need to go off or you can wait? I can do a short interview after I look through the form. But if you need to go off, I can call you for an interview on another day".

"I can wait, don't worry. Just that I'm hungry haha. How about I buy lunch and come back here? Errr if you haven't had lunch, I can buy for you too"

"Ohh how nice of you. If it's not too troublesome, yes I need lunch. I normally close this bookshop at 2pm for lunch break. Hmmm, tell you what. We go for lunch? I can look through your form while we have lunch" Sungmin suggested, since it's 5 minutes to 2pm.

"Sounds great! Want to go to that Indonesian shop down the road? I think it's called Nelayan. I went there once last time and I always wanted to go again".

"I always wanted to try but I was always rushing, so I just grabbed sandwiches from Melbourne Central mall. Ok I close up and we can go".

"I'll wait outside" Kyuhyun smile (again!) and sling his bag and opened the door.

They walked to Nelayan and thankfully it wasn't crowded. They got a seat and went to the counter to order their food. The food is 'padang' style and they just need to select their dishes and collect their food (rice and the selected dishes) at the counter. To Sungmin's surprise, Kyuhyun paid for her food as well, and pushed her money away. He said it was his treat.

Sungmin tried to pay him again when they reached their seat. "Don't worry about it. I got my pay from the tuitions that I gave"

"No no, you need money for your studies, please take it"

"Ok, you pay for the drinks then? I think we need to take from that fridge ourselves" Kyuhyun point to the freezer with drinks.

"What drink do you want Kyuhyun-ssi?" Sungmin asked while both of them walked towards the freezer of drinks. 

Kyuhyun looked over at the freezer and decided on coke light and Sungmin took the lemon tea. While Sungmin did the payment, Kyuhyun took 2 glasses and straws. 

Somehow, Sungmin felt like it's a lunch date. But why? It's just a casual lunch with her prospective assistant. 

Sungmin started casual conversation while looking through the job application form "So since you give tuitions,  why do you need the bookshop assistant job?"

"Hmmm, tuitions are only on weekends and those are enough for my meals, transport and daily needs. It's enough for rent too but a bit tight, so I was thinking of working. If I can do part time only at your bookshop? And if it is okay with you, in the afternoons only? I have lectures in the mornings".

"It is alright with me, I only open my shop at 10 in the morning and it's normally not crowded.  And Ohh you did volunteering work at your campus library? So you are familiar with book catalogues and genre categories?"

"Yes I am. And I can start work after 2pm, if that's okay with you?"

"Kyuhyun-ssi, when can you start? 

" Really? I'm hired? "

"Provided you agree with the salary and sign the employment contract. If you can, you can start on this coming Monday? I will prepare the employment letter and you can drop by anytime tomorrow or Saturday to discuss your salary and if you agree to it, you can sign" Sungmin smile. And added "I hope to welcome you to My Bookshop!" 

"Thank you, my future lady boss" 

"Actually I prefer not to be formal. So just call me Sungmin or just Min" 

"And just call me Kyuhyun, or just Kyu. And thank you for offering me the job as your bookshop assistant" 

"Ok if you are finish your food, shall we go?" 

"Yup, let's go" and they walked out of the cafe. 

A student on a bicycle zoomed past very near to Sungmin and Kyuhyun pulled her to safety. As her height only reached Kyuhyun's shoulder, she ended up on his chest. Somehow she felt safe in his arms, she didn't know why. Kyuhyun let her go but switched sides with her so that she walked on the inner side of the pathway. 

Once they reached the bookshop, Sungmin reopened it and walked inside. 

"I will make my move. I'll come over tomorrow afternoon? What time do you close on Saturday?" 

"4pm. But if you are late, just send me a text and I will wait for you. Here's my number" Sungmin passed him her name card. 

"Thank you, Sungmin. See you tomorrow!!" And Kyuhyun bowed and waved, before walking out. 

'Wow, what a gentleman. And from his age that he stated in the form, he is only 2 years younger than me. And major in business finance and financial analysis. Wow. I didn't even make it to university' Sungmin thought. 

She don't know why, but she was looking forward to see Kyuhyun again tomorrow. And she felt giddy because from Monday onwards, she would see him every afternoons!!