A loud sigh escaped Jonghyun's lips, as he stared up at the sign, which indicated with big red letters that he was standing in front of a dog kennel.

The heath was close to unbearable, as the summer had hit the whole town hard this year. Everywhere all of the grass was starting to wither, and they had all been told to be efficient with the water, so there was no way to save the grass - most likely everyone would have to replant it the following summer, if it kept up.

Everyone stayed inside with their cool air condition, rather than go on an adventure in that kind of heath - even the animals, which usually would be busy at this time of year, seemed to have gotten the same idea, as it was only once in awhile a single bird would venture out from its hiding space to chipper for a small while, before it quickly disappeared into the shadows once again.

"Why did you only buy yourself a puppy? Why don't you ever think of me?" His sister's voice was on repeat in his mind, as his shoulder dropped down and he started investigating the ground for a stone, he could let out his frustrations on.

'Why can't she just go buy her own puppy'? He thought in vain to himself, as he answered his own question, 'Because I'm the youngest.'

Running his fingers through his chestnut colored hair another loud sigh formed on top of his lips, but he stopped himself, before he let it out - because what did it help anyways?

Quickly he glanced up at the cloud free sky, as his eyes shifted to the kennel and then back to the ground again, where he started his search for the perfect stone once again.

Finally he found a stone to kick across the road, and so he did - at the same time as a foreign girl came out of the kennel staring in his direction, and Jonghyun stopped in his track to stare back.

About 10 meters separated with a dusty road between them - the sun was still shining brightly, but she had been smart enough to stay in the shadow of the kennel.

'Does she know who I am?' He thought in panic to himself, as he fixed his fringes out of habit, before he once again looked over at her. Sadly he felt a small drop of sweat run down his forehead, and he realized that it soon would be impossible to save it.

She on the other hand was wearing a black tank top and a pair of cowboy shorts, as she seemed to find the heath unbearable as well. Her dark chocolate colored hair was up in a messy bun on top of her head, so she wouldn't end up with the same problem as him.

As Jonghyun had been busy trying to find out, if she knew who he was, she had gotten closer to him by then leaving the comfortable shadows behind, "I'm sorry, but can I help you?"

Her Korean wasn't flawless, but she spoke it better than Jonghyun had imagined. She had that cute accent foreign people got, when they tried to speak the difficult language, but she did a good job, and it would be a lie, if he said that he wasn't impressed.

He finally lifted his head, since he had tried to hide himself behind his fringes, to meet a pair of beautiful green orbs, who was filled with curiosity, as she stared at him waiting for a reply - but it was soon replaced with recognition.

Her eyes grew wide, and her lips parted slightly, as she blinked a few times, before she mouthed an inaudible 'oh', but the only thing Jonghyun really noticed was how nice her skin was. He would kill to have so beautiful skin himself.

"You're-" his eyes shifted a bit, before he fixated on her. Glancing into her surprised orbs, he couldn't help but smile a little, as he felt his lips pulling upwards by themselves.

"I'm Kim Jonghyun," he smiled brightly as he reached out to shake her hand, but she just stared at him, as if he had been a ghost. A white, scary looking ghost, who were on a mission to eat her.

Awkwardly he pulled his hands back, as he coughed a bit trying to hide his embarrassment, while he out of habit scratched his neck looking a bit worried at the girl afraid that she might faint - or maybe he was thinking too highly of himself?

"I'm-" it was a very low mumble, and as she fumbled with the hem of her tank top, it was as if she was trying to remember her own name, but as her thin pink lips parted slightly to finish her introduction, she was interrupted by a younger girl, who appeared in the opening of the door.

"Unnie," The petite girl called out in a loud voice, as if she hadn't seen the girl in front of Jonghyun not standing more than a few meters away from her, "Can we feed St. James now?"

Jonghyun slightly raised his eyebrow in question, his eyes shifting between the two girls, who were standing in front of him. The girl, who wasn't that much younger than him, had seemed to have forgotten all about him standing only a step away from her, as she turned around to reply the younger girl: "Then go feed him - didn't I show you how to yesterday?"

It was funny to watch the two of them, as even though they seemed to be on close terms with each other, there was this small awkwardness between them, which Jonghyun usually wouldn't have noticed, if he hadn't been observing them closely.

"But James likes you better," The younger girl pushed her lower lip out into a pout, her auburn hair framing her small oval head perfectly, making any kind of rejection towards her impossible. She had probably learned a long time ago how to get everything she wanted.

 It was quick, but Jonghyun noticed the girl in front of him glance over at him in the corner of her eye, before her eyes shifted back to the cute girl, who had now left the safety of the shadows to get closer to the two of them, "I have a costumer Ally."

Jonghyun stared confused at Ally, as another piece was put in the pile of the unfinished puzzle, he had started creating as soon as he had met the girl in front of him. Why did the youngest girl have a foreign name, when she looked Korean? It made no sense, but Jonghyun wasn't going to give up just yet - and he needed to bring home a puppy for his sister.

"He'll probably want to meet St. James!" Ally exclaimed happily, as she almost skipped over to Jonghyun, so she finally was so close, that Jonghyun noticed her big beautiful dark brown orbs, "Right?"

In the confusion of Ally's question, Jonghyun finally realized that the question had been directed towards him, "I would love to."

He agreed without any second thoughts, since he really wanted to stay and learn more about the two girls. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but that wasn't going to stop him - and just the thought of showing up empty handed at home scared him so much, that just the thought of postponing his trip home made him relax.

He felt a small warm hand fit into his, and he looked down at a smiling Ally, who shifted a bit on her feet, so her knee length red dress flew a bit around creating a small swirl of wind - which he gladly greeted.

"Ally, you can't just-" the girl, who had greeted him earlier, started arguing against him going inside the kennel, but it was already too late. The small girl, Ally, had already made up her mind, as she tagged a slightly confused Jonghyun along with her.

Behind him Jonghyun heard a loud sigh escape the girl and a smirk played on top of his lips, as he imagined the girl running a hand through her chocolate brown hair making the already messy bun messier. Maybe even a tuft of hair would go astray, and she would tug it behind her ear in frustration.

He knew from the sound of crackling dust from the road behind him, that she finally had decided to leave the overly hot spot, where she had been standing watching the small girl and him leave her behind, to follow the two of them inside the kennel entering a cooler atmosphere.

"It's over here," Ally said, as she blinked a few times with her beautiful brown orbs pulling Jonghyun's arm down a small hallway, which led to a larger room, where about 10 dogs were living.

They weren't in a cage, but they had the freedom to run around as they wanted to in the room. Everywhere in the room there were toys and food scattered on the floor left by the dogs, who either had forgotten all about it - or just had left the interest.

Some of the dogs were lazily lying on top of each other fast asleep in the corner furthest away, while other curiously neared them to greet the perfect stranger, who had just entered their world.

"So who is St. James?" Jonghyun curiously looked around on all the dogs, as he in his mind tried to guess, which one it was - but sadly no one looked like a St. James. Even though he had no idea about what a St. James looked like, he had a clear image of a Cocker Spaniel in his head - just like Lady from Lady and the Tramp.

"He's not here silly!" Ally laughed loudly exposing her teeth making it obvious that she clearly had been waiting for the tooth fairy almost every night for awhile already.

"Ally, be nice!" The girl, who had been walking behind them all this time, suddenly appeared by Jonghyun's other side to scold the younger girl - but instead of looking resentful, she just smiled, as if she knew she would be forgiven even if she didn't apologize.

"Yeah, how silly of me to think that the dog would be together with the rest," he mumbled in a low voice to himself, as he stared at a small puppy who tried it best to get his attention by biting in his shoe. His sister would love that puppy.

"She's like that towards everyone. Don't worry!" The first thing Jonghyun noticed, as he finally glanced over at the girl beside him was that a tuft of hair was messily tugged behind her ear, just like he had predicted.

He couldn't help but feel a strong sense of connection towards the girl, and he smiled knowingly at her, as she shifted nervously trying to avoid his gaze.

In the middle of the confusion the brunette guy suddenly realized, that he had never gotten the girls name, and that it would be rude to keep on addressing her as the girl beside him, "What's your name?"

 "Myname'sMaria," the girl said really quickly, head bowed down, staring intently at the floor, cheeks turning light pink, as she tugged another tuft of hair behind her ear.

"Excuse me?" Jonghyun chuckled, remembering how she had recognized him a bit earlier. She knew who he was - it was only normal that she felt intimidated by his mere presence.

She took a deep breath, trying to get herself together, as she finally broke her staring contest with the floor to create eye contact, "My name is Maria."

 "Hello Maria," He smirked not breaking the eye contact once, as her big green orbs fascinated him greatly, "I'm Kim Jonghyun."

"And you probably already know, that I know that," She snickered looking away, but Jonghyun couldn't help but feel amused by her sudden confidence boost, as his smirk only grew bigger.

"Can we go see St. James now?" The younger girl stomped childish in the floor, as she probably was starting to feel forgotten, as he and Maria's conversation had went on.

Jonghyun was far from sure, but he thought that he saw Maria roll her eyes, when the petite girl wasn't looking, before she moved across the room to another girl, which he had overlooked at the first glance, "Yeah let's get this over with."

"Just admit that you want me to stay forever!" Jonghyun smiled, as he and Ally also moved across the room to enter the other room that the door let them into.

"Sure. Do you want to sleep under my bed?" Maria faked a thrilled voice, as it this time was her turn to smirk, but none of it affected Jonghyun, who just tugged a new tuft of hair behind her ear for her.

"No. Let's just share the bed!" Winking at her, he abruptly got pulled by a small pair of hands into the room, where a dog just like Lady was laying - maybe just a bit manlier."This is St. James!" Ally presented the dog proudly, but the dog didn't even feel like looking up from its basket, where it was lying comfortable on top of at least three blankets, so it could keep warm

.Actually it didn't seem to want to move at all, and Jonghyun got this weird knot feeling in his gut telling him something was wrong, "Is he sick?"

It wasn't because he knew that much about dogs, but just by judging from the fact, that it had to be kept in a separate room than the others already seemed to lead it in that direction, and Maria was the one to confirm his worries, "Yeah... the doctors doesn't know the illness, so we're just trying to nurse him the best that we can."

"He'll be okay though! The doctor promised me!" Ally beamed, as she finally let go of Jonghyun's hand to bent down to pet James, who finally lifted his head a bit to greet the young girl.

Maria sent Jonghyun a knowing look, and Jonghyun nodded knowingly right away. They both knew that the doctor only had said that to cheer the young girl up, but here was no reason to ruin her hope. And who knew? Maybe St. James would survive against all odds. Life did have its own mysterious ways after all.

Trying to change the heavy topic that Jonghyun had brought upon himself he smiled a bit, as he glanced over at Maria, who quietly observed St. James, as she rested her hands in the pockets of her denim shorts, "So why did you call him St. James?"

She didn't even knew a second to think about it, before she broke into a chuckle, as she gazed at him, "I have a friend back home, who kept calling my old dog James - and I don't know - It just fitted."

"But your dog wasn't called James though?" Jonghyun asked confused.

"No," She laughed, as he looked over at James, "but she has always been like that - deciding things on her own."

Nodding knowingly Jonghyun couldn't help but laugh as well even though, he didn't know the girl, she was talking about.

He was happy that he had had the chance to meet the two girls on this very hot summer day, even though he barely knew anything about them - but somehow he knew that he would get the chance to soon.

He and Maria spoke a bit more, as Ally spoke with James, as she hoped for at least a vain responds from him. They talked a bit about everything and nothing - and neither of them would probably be able to tell other about their conversation, as it seemed as it was most likely to be a dream - but it wasn't.

An hour or so later they were all three standing in front of Jonghyun's car.

It was in the middle of the afternoon by then, and the sun wasn't as hot, as it had been, when he had arrived. The birds were slowly starting to leave their hideouts to eavesdrop on their conversation, as they were saying their goodbyes.

'It's now or never', Jonghyun silently thought to himself, as he stared at Maria, who was busy fighting with her elastic, so she could release her hair from the messy bun on top of her head.

Leaning in Jonghyun kissed her cheek softly, before he only backed a few centimeters away, so their nose tips were almost touching.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he breathed as another smirk played on top of his lips. It was impulsive, but it felt right.

"Why?" Her fingertips lightly touched the place, where he had kissed her, and he felt a bit proud, that he could fluster her like that.

"Because I want to see you - and I need a puppy for my sister!"

Like that he drove off. Thanks to St. James he had had the chance to get to know Maria, and a small tingle could be felt in the bottom of his stomach. It was hard to explain - even for him who always were ready to describe all of his feelings in his lyrics - because to him this was perfection. And you can't describe perfection.