I took a few steps back slowly, with both my hands covering my gaping mouth. The person just stood there with an awkward smile on his face, rubbing his neck nervously. Still laughing very hard, Kyuhyun came up to us, putting his arms around that guy’s shoulders. I looked alternatively at the two of them, still reeling from shock in having found someone else but Heechul in the house.

“Your plan might have worked,” Kyuhyun snickered before continuing, “If your target was Heechul. Regrettably, this is my cousin that I told you about.” The guy smiled at Kyuhyun before looking at me again, “Hi, my name is Sungmin, Lee Sungmin.” He gave me a small smile, with his eyes twinkling with amusement.

“H… Hi… I’m….” I stuttered, still unable to recover from my shock. Kyuhyun chuckled involuntarily at my embarrassment. Suddenly, something came up in my mind.

“Wait a minute, CHO KYUHYUN! YOU KNEW!” I yelled from the realization that Kyuhyun actually knew that it wasn’t Heechul that I was approaching. That bastard! He burst into laughter as he dodged a flying kick I sent out at him. My image was already gone, so I went all out at Kyuhyun, with murder on my mind.

I lunged at him, hands ready to strangle him. “I wanted to tell you! Haha!” He answered while running away from me, “But you were going to get Heechul to deal with me! Why should I help you haha!” I started chasing him around the house, grabbing cushions from the couch to throw at him. He was extremely good at dodging, and none of my ‘flying missiles’ hit him.

“I’m going to kill you! Come back here!”

“No way! Do you think I’m an idiot?”

“YAH! Come back here!”

“No! SUNGMIN, help me out!”

“Haha, leave me out of this!” Sungmin laughingly replied as he looked on at the battlefield before him. Just as I pounced onto Kyuhyun’s back, grabbing him by a death choke, the doorbell rang. “Haha! Sungmin, go get the door! I’m trying to stay alive here!” Kyuhyun guffawed, as he broke free from my death choke. The death chase was becoming a game as I held on to Kyuhyun with one hand while messing up his hair with the other. We were having great fun, and the shameful incident just now was being forgotten.

Sungmin came back into the living room to find me and Kyuhyun collapsed with laughter on the couch, tired out by our mini-wrestling match. He smiled as he lifted up what he was holding in his hands.

“PIZZA!” Kyuhyun and I jumped up from the couch in excitement as soon as we saw the two pizza boxes that he was holding.

Sungmin laughed as he walked over to the dining table, putting the pizzas down. Kyuhyun jumped onto a dining chair and started opening up the boxes while I went into the kitchen to grab plates and utensils. When I exited the kitchen, Kyuhyun was already munching on his favourite- Seafood pizza. Sungmin however, was sitting patiently beside him, waiting for me to join them. What a polite person!

“Aish! Are you that hungry?” I asked Kyuhyun as I passed him a plate and a pair of fork and knife. He gave me a huge smile and rubbed his stomach, indicating that he was feeling hungry. Sungmin thanked me softly as I passed him his dining set. I beamed at him before setting down my own set at the dining table. There were two large pizzas in total, and the aroma of the pizzas was filling up the house. Sitting down, I reached for a slice of the Hawaiian pizza. Coincidentally, Sungmin reached out for the same piece as well. He gave me a shy smile as he motioned for me to get it.

Instead, I took it and placed it on his plate. “Take it as my apology for all the silly things that happened today,” I said as I took another piece for myself. Sungmin started to say something, but he was interrupted by Kyuhyun, who informed us he was going to eat in his room. He then picked up the entire box of seafood pizza. Sungmin and I voiced our opposition at the same time, “Aren’t you going to leave some for him/her?” We looked in each other in surprise and laughed.

“I don’t like seafood pizza,” we said to each other in unison again. Kyuhyun laughed, “I know the two of you don’t like to eat seafood pizza, that’s why I’m keeping it all for myself! You two can fight over the Hawaiian! It’s your common favourite!” He then turned and went into his room carrying the entire box of pizza.

That gamer glutton.

I stuck out my tongue at his back, and turned back to find Sungmin looking at me with an amused look. I gave him an innocent smile before diving back into my food. We ate in silence for a while more, before opening our mouths at the same time again. We laughed again, I gestured for him to talk first.

“Okay,” he nodded as he swallowed his food, “I still don’t know your name.”

I laughed, “Its Yonni, An Yonni.”

“Hi Yonni, it was nice meeting you.”

“Being knocked into, you meant?” I smiled as I answered jokingly. Sungmin laughed and took another slice of the pizza for me. He seemed like a nice person. “Where are your stuff?” I asked as I looked around the house.

“Oh, they are in my room. I haven’t had the time to unpack. As soon as I reached just now, Kyuhyun forced me to play Star Craft with him.”

“Oh that hardcore gamer…” I shook my head as I took another bite, “Are you going to start school tomorrow?”

“Nope. I’m going to start on next week, on Monday.”

“I see… I’m going to get a drink. Do you want any?”

Sungmin shook his head. I stood up and went into the kitchen to get a drink. As I was pouring out a glass of cranberry juice, he came into the kitchen. I looked up at him briefly before looking back down at my drink. “Did you want a drink?” I asked.

“No…” he paused for a moment as he looked around the kitchen, “Do you do the cleaning around here?”

“Yup, why?”

“Everything is really neat in this house; I knew Kyuhyun couldn’t have done it. That human would rather play Star Craft than to clean up.”

I burst into laughter. Finishing my drink in one gulp, I walked over to the sink to wash the glass. “Well, being the only girl here means I’ll have to cook and clean. Not that I would dare to let Kyuhyun cook anyway. The last time round he tried to cook ramen for us it was so soggy that we could just drink the whole bowl of ramen like soup.” I complained as I put the cup back into the cabinet before walking back to the dining table.

Sungmin followed behind me, “I’ll help out now I’m here,”

“Really?” I asked unbelievingly as I sat back down at the dining table, reaching out for my third serving. He nodded and looked at me in a serious manner, “Yes, I can cook and clean,”

“EH?! Seriously?”

“Haha… Why are you so shocked?”

“I’m just shocked that you can cook! Yay! Then I don’t have to be the one that keeps having to cook! Yes!!!” I jumped up in joy. In reality, I really hated cooking. Heechul is very busy at college, while Kyuhyun is very busy with playing his Star Craft. If I was to cook, not only I would have to be the one preparing the food, I would also have to be the one cleaning up. However, being students, eating out is a luxury that we cannot afford often, at least for Heechul and I. I knew Kyuhyun would have volunteered to pay for the food if we had ordered takeouts. Thus, as much as I did not enjoy cooking, I still chose to cook on a regular basis, as I did not want to rely on Kyuhyun too much.

“Okay, we’ll alternate the cooking roster then,” Sungmin smiled at my over-reaction. I nodded happily and placed another slice of the pizza on his plate. “Eat more! My treat!” I grinned, and then I suddenly remembered that I had not paid for the pizza. Polishing off the pizza on my plate, I asked Sungmin about who paid for the pizza.

“No worries, it’ll be my treat!” he answered as he brushed off my concerns with a bright smile.

“No! How can I let you pay? I’ll foot my share!”

“I’ve already said it will be my treat!”

I shook my head profusely. What’s wrong with this pair of cousins? Why do they like to pay for others so much? I walked over to my schoolbag and retrieved my wallet. I made an estimate of my share and walked over to Sungmin, holding out the money to him. He stood up and pushed my hand back towards me gently.

“I’ll treat… Take it as my apology for wounding your forehead with my rock hard chin,” he winked at me before breaking into a sweet smile. My face went beet red as I hung my head in shame and walked back to my seat at the dining table, settling down into another slice of the pizza silently. Sungmin laughed and sat back down at the table, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist saying that,”

I threw a small pout at him, and returned to eating my food. Silence fell as we ate our food without any exchange of words. The atmosphere was slowly becoming awkward again. Apparently, both of us were bothered by the silence as we opened our mouth at the same time again. This time, he let me go first.

“I’m sorry about just now. But I was set up by Kyuhyun! I really thought you were my brother!”

“I’m fine with it, I didn’t lose out in any way, being hugged by you,” Sungmin cheekily replied, and blushed when he saw me gaping at him. “Did… Did he just flirt with me?” I thought in my head, and blushed at the possibility. I was probably thinking too much, he probably just wanted to tease me.

“Urm… Since you are treating me dinner, I’ll help you unpack later okay?” I suggested after my blush subsided. Sungmin nodded as he kept his eyes to his plate, focusing on eating while trying to hide his discomfort. I smiled as I stole glances at him. He was muttering to himself very softly as he stuffed his mouth with pizza.

“He must be blaming himself for saying such inappropriate things to a girl,” I reasoned silently as I too filled my mouth with pizza again. Between the both of us, we managed to polish off all ten pieces of the Hawaiian Pizza, with me having four and him having the rest.

After dinner, I kept to my promise of helping Sungmin unpack even though my eyes were already closing from my sleepiness. The layout of the house is such that the four bedrooms are facing each other. Sungmin had moved into the formally vacant room opposite to mine. All the four rooms were properly furnished when Heechul rented the apartment. When each of us moved in, we customized the original white coloured room to our own preference. For instance, Heechul’s bedroom is painted blood red and black while Kyuhyun kept his room the same way as he liked the white walls. I repainted my room peach pink as that was my favourite colour.

As I entered the room behind Sungmin, I suddenly recalled my first day in this apartment. It seemed like yesterday that I had just moved in. Time really flies at turbo speed, I had already stayed in this house for six months. The décor of the room was pretty simple, with a wardrobe, a bed, a study-desk chair, and a bedside table.

“The room is very clean,” Sungmin commented as he walked over to his luggage cases that were placed beside the bed.

“I clean up the room once in a month. Wiping up the dust and such. No one uses this room at all, and the windows and door are always kept closed. That’s why it’s really clean.” I replied as I ran my hand over the surface of the desk. Upon inspection, I was elated that my hand was spotless.

“Oh, that’ll explain the musty smell in this room,” Sungmin smiled as he dragged his luggage to the centre of the room.

“I’ll light up some essence oil for you later to get rid of the musty smell.”

“That’s fine, I have some that can remove this smell and help me to get to sleep.”

“Oh! You use essence oil too?”

“Yes, I like lighting essence oil. Especially when I’m stressed or when I’m in a new place.”

I chuckled as I walked over to his luggage. As we started unpacking, I noticed that most of his stuff is mainly pink in colour. With all the different shades of pink that was in his luggage, it looked somewhat like a girl’s luggage case. I peeped over at Sungmin, who had his back to me as he was putting his clothes into the wardrobe.

I looked at him from head to toe. He looked like a typical guy, but what’s with the obsession with pink? I mean, yes, he is a pretty boy and everything. But even if there’s not really a gender restriction on colour preferences in this era, having even more pink clothing articles than me is a little unacceptable as a guy, isn’t t?

The thought hung heavily on my mind. I could not comprehend why he would have so much pink stuff. Was it all his? Or there were some strange reason behind this? I decided to ask him directly.

“Sungmin ah?” I started as I handed over another piece of shirt to him. It was blue this time.

“Yes?”

“I… I noticed that you have a lot of pink stuff. Is pink your favourite colour?”

“Yes! I just love pink SO much! It’s a very pretty colour and goes well with everything.”

“Oh… I see…”

“You know...” Sungmin suddenly stopped moving and I looked over at him.

“Yeah? Know what?”

He hesitated and looked at me for a few seconds. “Nothing,” he answered before looking away, resuming his hanging of the clothes in the wardrobe. Something seemed to be bothering him. I frowned.

“Sungmin? What’s wrong?”

He kept quiet for a while as he looked down at the blue shirt in his hands. He then gave a long sigh before asking, “You think I’m gay, don’t you?”

I stared openmouthed at him, shocked at his frank question. Taking my silence as consent. he gave me a sad smile and held his hand out for another garment. I handed him another piece slowly, thinking hard about what to say, I was ashamed of my assumptions, and felt very guilty of stereotyping him. However, before I could apologize for my shallowness, Sungmin became happy again.

“That was the last piece! I think I can handle the rest by myself! Thank you so much for your help!” he exclaimed enthusiastically as he walked over to me, closing the door of the wardrobe behind him.

“Are you sure? You still have lots of stuff to unpack.”

“Aish! The rest of my stuff are just small little things. It’s already 10.30 pm! You still have school tomorrow, I think you better go to bed earlier. You look really worn out!”

“Sungmin… I…”

“Leave it till tomorrow. Go get some sleep now.” He cut me off, walking over to open the door for me. Taking the hint, I left his room unwillingly. I was convinced that his eagerness for me to leave the room was due to my assumption of him being gay because he likes pink.

A little later that night, as I laid in bed after my shower, I thought back in the events of the day. Although my meeting with Sungmin started and ended rather embarrassingly, he seemed to be a nice and gentle boy, a nice change from having to live with evil people like Heechul and Kyuhyun, who was constantly looking for chances to make me into a walking joke.

However, the fact that he seemed more hurt than insulted just now in the room nagged in my heart. There was a very sad look in his eyes when he looked at me after I kept silent at his question. However, tiredness was slowly taking over me. The last thought that I had was that of making atonement to Sungmin, before I unknowingly fell into a deep sleep…