Jonghyun rolled over and hit the snooze button yet again, having lost count of how many times his alarm had gone off. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was only twenty minutes until he had to be in his first class. After a moment of staring groggily, he realized he would be late and jumped out of bed with a yell of “!” He grabbed some clothes and ran into the bathroom, finding Key soaking in the bath tub. The only light was coming from some lavender candles and soothing music was playing from a stereo. Key had cucumbers over his eyes and some goopy homemade mask on his face. As soon as Jonghyun entered the room, he flipped the lights on and turned the music off.

“Key, I’m late! I need the shower! Can you get out now?” Jonghyun said in a rush. Kibum had soaked in the bathtub like this for an hour every morning. Jonghyun found it kind of ridiculous, but it wasn’t annoying until now- when he was late and needed the bathroom.

“Hey, hey, hey! You’re harshing my mellow. Calm down, you ruined the mood.” Key said calmly, putting his hands up but making no attempt to get out of the tub.

“What part of ‘late’ don’t you understand? I’m sorry I ruined your mood or whatever, but you can continue when I’m gone. Now I need the shower.” Jonghyun said, walking over and pulling the plug to let the water drain.

“Yah! I didn’t say I was done!” Key snapped, his cucumbers falling in the water.

“I told you I’m late and I need the shower. Were you listening?” Jonghyun gave him an incredulous look.

“If you’re late, don’t take a shower. Just wash your face and get dressed or something. You’re ruining my routine.” Key said, replacing the plug. Jonghyun gave him a glare, not wanting to accept logic at this early hour. Then he let out a sharp, angry sigh and went to the sink to wash his face.

“You shouldn’t even be in here right now. You knew I had early classes today.” Jonghyun grumbled.

“Sorry, I forgot.”

“Hmph.”

“My, you’re a ball of sunshine in the morning. Maybe you should try a relaxing ritual too.”

“Maybe you should try taking showers like a normal person.” Jonghyun said, pulling his shirt over his head and leaving the bathroom.      

“You have a good day too, babe.” Key called sarcastically. “Don’t worry, I’ll get out of the tub to fix the lights and music. All dripping wet. It’s fine…”   

~~~~~

Micha got off the bus at the stop near the mall and began to walk slowly down the sidewalk towards it.

*beep beep boop beep boop*

The familiar ring tone she had set for when her fiancé texted her went off and she slipped her phone out of her pocket, continuing down the sidewalk towards the mall.

What are you up to today, yeobo?

Just going shopping~

Who are you going with?

I’m by myself.

O.o Be careful~

I’ll be fine, aren’t you in class? Pay attention to your teacher! Lol.

I really should be going. We are about to start a project, but I will see you later. I love you~

Saranghae yeobo~ have fun.

She smiled to herself and pushed through the doors to the food court of the mall. He’s worried about me. That’s cute. I'll be fine, though. She took a deep breath, inhaling all the smells of the different cuisines that the mall tried to imitate and picked out a Mexicana Chicken. “I’ll have to come back…” She smiled again as she walked by it, heading out of the food court and to the left. 

She began to wander aimlessly, just looking inside all the stores until one caught her eye. 

She had come here plenty of times and knew by now what was in each store. She also knew what stores she would eventually end up in but she decided to take her time looking anyways. Jinki would be in class all day and everyone else was busy so she had plenty of time to waste.

She wandered into a book store and walked slowly around each shelf picking up a few books along the way. She rounded the corner to one of the shelves in the last section she had to look in.

She looked around before getting absorbed in another shelf full of books and noticed a familiar looking boy sitting in a chair, and stared at him for a few seconds, attempting to remember where she had seen him before. He had platinum blonde hair and the black wife beater he wore allowed her to see the large muscles that rippled beneath his skin as he turned the page of the large book in his lap. The thing about him, however, that had caught her attention, was the fact that he was not reading the book that he had just flipped the page in. His head was tilted slightly to the side and his expression was filled with a mixture of shock and recognition as he stared right at Micha. She flashed him a friendly smile, feeling slightly awkward, but he returned it and she turned to the last shelf and began to sift through the books, occasionally pulling some out to read the back cover. 

After a while, she looked up to find the boy looking at her again. When she looked at him, he smiled then went back to reading his book. 

Micha became a bit flustered by this, but went back to looking at the shelf. She went through a few more books, slowly adding to the pile that sat next to her feet, then looked over at the boy out of the corner of her eye. He was looking at her again. She hesitated, feeling slightly panicked, but turned her attention back to the shelf and went through a few more books. Not every person is a creeper Micha, quit being so paranoid and get your books!

She managed to keep herself from looking at the boy again until she was almost done searching the entire shelf.

When she looked out of the corner of her eye again, however, she became startled, and jumped as he flipped his large book shut and got up from the chair.

She acted as though she was absorbed in a book but watched intently out of the corner of her eye as he came towards her. Oh god, oh god, oh god, what am I going to do? Everyone is in class, who is going to save me when I get kidnapped or…

She let out a relaxed sigh when he walked past her and headed for the check out counter.

Micha you have to quit being so paranoid…

She watched as he paid for his book and left, then she went back to the shelf and finished going through the books.

Once she was all done, she bent down to pick up her rather large stack of books then paid for them and headed out the store to the left.

Now that she was carrying a heavy bag of books, Micha decided not to dilly dally and headed right for the place she knew she would find herself next.

She walked into the shoe store and began to look at all of them with wide eyes. “I want them all…” She pouted a bit then laughed at her self and continued to stare at all the different shoes.

Suddenly someone bumped into her back. She turned around as he was turning around saying “Oh, I’m sorry, I was jus-” He stopped short when he saw her and his expression changed from apologetic to a large, beaming, handsome smile. “Oh hi, didn’t I just see you at the book store?”

His smile was contagious and Micha couldn’t help but smile back. “Neh.” She nodded.

His smile grew. “How have you been?” he asked.

She tilted her head to the side and gave him a confused expression. “Since then? Well I left there and I came here…”

He chuckled producing a beautiful sound in his low, husky voice. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

Micha’s face again filled with confusion. “Should I?”

He gave another short chuckle, “Probably not. I was in your math class for about two weeks before I dropped it.” He extended a hand and she shook it. “I’m Yongguk.” He introduced himself, flashing his beautiful, contagious smile. 

Micha thought back to the first week of class and remembered seeing him sitting in the front of the room. “Oh, that’s right! That is why I thought you looked familiar! I’m Micha.”

“I know.” He said, still smiling brightly at her. “What are you doing when you’re done shopping here? Maybe we could grab some lunch.”

“Sure,” she smiled back. “That sounds good.”

Yongguk took Micha’s heavy bag of books and followed her around the shoe store after that. He didn’t really say much, he just watched her as she picked out a new pair of soccer cleats and bought them.

“Where should we eat?” He asked as they walked out of the shoe store.

“I was just going to go to Mexicana.”

His face lit up with a smile again. “That sounds great! Are you ready now?” With out waiting for an answer, he grabbed her hand and pulled her along towards the food court. She giggled a bit and let him pull her, she carrying her bag from the shoe store and he carrying her books.

Once they were at the food court, he dropped her hand and led her up to the counter of the Mexicana Chicken by placing his hand on the small of her back. She gave him a strange look but if he noticed it, he ignored it. When they got to the counter, he nodded, signaling that she should order. She got her usual, then he ordered with her and bought her lunch, keeping his hand on her back the whole time, making her feel slightly uncomfortable.

When their food came, he had to remove his hand to carry his tray, and she let out a silent sigh of relief as she followed him away from the counter.

He stopped beside a table and set his tray and her books down. Then he pulled out a chair, gesturing for her to sit.

“Thank you.” She smiled at him as she sat down.

“You’re welcome.” He smiled back. Then he grabbed a chair from the other side of the table and pulled it around, sitting down next to her. So close in fact, that their legs were touching. She gave him a bewildered look as he grabbed the ketchup and started to put it on his plate.

“Uh…” she began hesitantly, trying to decide how to ask him to move.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” he looked at her, and she smiled thinking he knew what she meant. “Did you want some ketchup too?”

Her eyes widened in disbelief. “Uh, yeah…”

“Here you g- Oh! I’m so sorry!” As he reached over her arm to put ketchup on her plate, some flung from the bottle, landing on her arm. “Here,” He said grabbing a napkin and reaching across her, bringing his face extremely close to hers. “Let me get that for you.” He wiped the ketchup off her arm. “Sorry” he looked at her, before he sat upright again. 

“T-that’s ok…”

He gave her a bright smile and started to eat his chicken. They ate in silence for a bit, Micha feeling extremely uncomfortable with the closeness, and Yongguk, enjoying it.

Eventually Micha decided that things were just getting more awkward and tried to come up with something they could talk about.

“So what made you drop math?” she asked, actually curious as to what the answer was.

“I don’t need it.” he stopped eating to smile at her. “I took a harder math class before I transferred to this school and it took that long for the schools to get it all sorted out for me. I kinda regret dropping now though…” She gave him a curious look and he smiled down at his chicken, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink. “I could have had a chance to get to know you much sooner than this." 

Micha didn’t know how to respond, so she just smiled nervously and looked back at her food. Thankfully, Yongguk changed the subject. 

“So what is your major?” He asked, looking at her again.

“Music!” She said happily, thinking about her classes.

“Oh, that sounds fun. I decided to keep music as just a hobby and go for a more practical job feild." he said with a bittersweet smile, putting air quotes around the word "practical." "I am a Biology major.”

“So is my friend Minho, he is doing pre-med.” Micha smiled back, feeling a bit more comfortable.

“Me too!” He said excitedly. His smile faded for a fraction of a second as he went on. “So... are you dating this Minho?” 

Micha smiled. As she answered, she found herself becoming comfortable and wanting to tell him all about her life. “No, he is dating my friend Chohee. She was an actress but now she is going to school to be a social worker because, actually, she and her brother were kidnapped as children." Yongguk's eyes widened, but she went on. "And she doesn't want anyone to go through what she did, so now she wants to help children in need.”

“Oh, wow. that’s great.” Yongguk pondered the rather staggering information that he had just received. “Not that she got kidnapped I mean…” 

“Yeah! Yeah.” Micha just laughed, understanding what he meant. She went on excitedly, “And her brother-”

“Can I ask you a question?” He interjected.

Micha only looked confused by the interruption. “Sure.”

Yongguk hesitated for a second and scratched the back of his head awkwardly while Micha gazed at him with a confused expression. “Do you believe in marriage?”

A large smile spread across her face and she sat up straighter and answered excitedly. “Yes! I sure do…” Her voice trailed off and her mind wandered to her boyfriend and soon to be husband before she remembered that she was in the middle of a conversation. “Why do you ask?”

Yongguk smiled slightly. “I ask everybody I meet and I keep a kind of mental tally… because I don’t know if I do or not…”

Micha looked confused again “How come you don‘t know?”

“It's kind of a long story…” Yongguk trailed off.

“I have time.” Micha said without hesitation. She was curious about Yongguk and wanted to know more.

“It’s not a very happy story either…”

“You can tell me.” Micha smiled encouragingly.

Yongguk gave a small smile back. He was overwhelmed with a feeling of trust in this girl, even though he had only known for about an hour. He wasn't sure why, but he thought it may have something to do with how fond he was of her. She just seemed so sweet, she would surely listen to him. So he decided to share his story.

“Well I have always had a great relationship with my grandparents and they always taught me, like they taught my mother, that marriage is a good thing.” Yongguk smiled while he thought of his grandparents. The beautiful smile, however, faltered as he went on. “But my parents' marriage didn‘t go very well…” Yongguk dropped his gaze to the tray of chicken sitting in front of him, trying to hide the pain in his eyes from the delightful girl he was dumping this sad story on.

“Don’t get me wrong, they loved each other very much, but… my dad would occasionally get drunk and beat my mother.” Yongguk flinched slightly as Micha gasped at the information. Yongguk tried not to dwell on her reaction and quickly went on. “He never remembered anything the next morning and when he found out what he did, he would get really depressed and angry with himself. My mother loved him, and my grandparents instilled the idea of marriage in her so deeply that she wouldn‘t leave him, even when he told her she should…” Yongguk looked back up at Micha and she could see the tears threatening to spill over, and his voice dropped down to a whisper as he went on. “One time it was so bad that she ended up in the hospital and…” One of the threatening tears escaped and slowly rolled down his cheek. “She didn't make it…If she would have left him, she might still be here...” 

“Yongguk…” Micha said softy, trying to find the right words to comfort him as she instinctively brushed the single tear off his cheek. “I am so sorry…”

Yongguk took a second to search her eyes before giving her a small smile and going on. “So I ask people what they think when I meet them and I will probably base my final decision about marriage on those results. I've thought about it myself and I just can't decide, so I'll get everyone else's opinion.”

"Well, maybe you don't need to answer that question. Maybe you could just wait until you find someone you love and ask yourself whether you want to be married to them. What happened with your parents isn't the rule, it's the exception. Marriage doesn't always turn out badly." 

"Yeah...good point. Thanks."

They sat in silence for a moment, Yongguk seemingly lost in thought. Micha didn’t know what else to say. Luckily, Yongguk changed the subject again at the perfect time. “You should tell me about your friends.” he suggested.

Micha again felt the urge to tell him all about her life. “Ok.” she said excitedly, and happy for the subject change. “Well there are Key and Jonghyun” Yongguk, who had gone back to eating while she talked, smiled when he recognized the names. Micha didn’t notice but kept talking. “They are dating, they are really cute together, they just moved in together.” 

“How long have they been together?” Yongguk asked with genuine curiosity.

“Since about the beginning of the semester,” Micha smiled and immediately continued rambling about her friends. “And then there is Taemin and Junhyung, they've been dating for years. Taemin is a super genius who can do just about everything. Except cook. Luckily for him, Junhyung is here for the culinary program.“ Micha smiled and continued as Yongguk checked his watch. “And last but not least, Jinki is-” 

“I am sorry to cut you off here Micha,” Yongguk interrupted. “But I have to head to class now.” 

“Oh ok.” Micha smiled.

Yongguk tilted his head to the side, “Would you maybe… want to hang out again?” he asked, suddenly looking a bit uncomfortable, scratching the back of his head. 

She smiled brightly at him. “Sure. That would be great."
He gave her a bright, handsome smile back. “Have you ever been skiing?”

Micha thought for a moment then shook her head. “No, I can’t say that I ever have…“

A shocked expression crossed Yongguk’s features and quickly changed to excited. “Really? Never? Wow… OK we are gonna do that then! Can I see your phone?”

Micha slipped her cell phone out of her pocket and handed it over. Yongguk messed with it for a minute, then handed it back. “I put my number in there and texted myself so I have your number too.” He smiled and patted his pocket where his phone was. 

They took care of their trash, and walked out the door together, before they had to go separate ways. Micha made the walk back towards the bus stop slowly, thinking about her day. She chuckled at the fact that she had been worried that he was a ert. Then she thought about the fact that they were going skiing. It sound’s like lots of fun! And hanging out with Yongguk will give me something to do on days when Jinki is in class. I need to introduce them to each other… OMO! What if Yongguk thinks that this is actually a date… I never did get a chance to tell him about Jinki…I’ll have to make sure I let him know next time I see him…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So Jinjae and I are horrible people for neglecting this story so much. OTL

I would blame work and school, but that is not a very good excuse seeing that we have both been working on other stories...

(You can find my short stories here and here. The characters are from exo. :] )

And SOMEONE, cough cough* Jinjae cough*

has been role playing 24/7. 

But anyway, we will try to get back into this.

There is some real drama coming up soon. :)

Thanks so much for reading! ^^

<3 Krys

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey Jinjae here~

So I just wanted to say that I am really sorry for neglecting you guys, and as soon as I get through the annoying fluff parts that I have to write I will probably be cranking out chapters like crazy~

I love what is about to happen here! And yes I have been roleplaying 24/7 and losing lots of sleep because of it!

But I don’t regret it, and I don’t feel bad about it!

*sticks my tongue out at Krys Unni*

You should all Join me!!!

But anyways~

I miss you guys!

Please comment and tell us what you think of this chapter

And we plan on double updating tonight, I just have to finish writing one more part for the next chapter~

In the mean time, I wrote this one shot, that you can find here~

Guess what! It’s 2min and guess what else! Taemin tops!!! Lol

But you should really read Krys unnie's stories cause they are awesome!!!

*hugs you all* Sorry we’ve been gone for so long~

<3 Jinjae