Morning light trickled into the dark bedroom forcing the occupant of the bed to wriggle further under the duvet to cover his eyes. He didn’t want to wake up and he refused to greet the blinding light with cheer and merriment. It wasn’t until someone shuffled their way into his room and threw the curtains open that the occupant of the bed made a sound; he groaned, stretched then buried his face into a fluffy pillow.

“Wakey Wakey!” The intruder called before tugging at the occupant’s duvet. “It’s time to get up!”

“Noooooo!” The occupant moaned burying his face further into the pillow. “Go away” He mumbled into the plush cotton.

“No Son of mine will waste his youth by sleeping all day!” The occupant instantly recognised the soft yet underlining threat of his own Mother’s voice causing him to only further moan.

“Leave me alone Ma!” He tried to roughen his voice but the grogginess caused by sleep only cracked his normally smooth voice. His Mother laughed and continued her annoying pursuit of pulling the duvet from her Son’s vice grip.

“Only when you wake up, I need you to go out and get some shopping for me” Her persistence finally paid off and in one final tug she pulled the duvet clean off the bed. Her Son, the occupant, instantly curled up into the foetal position, in an attempt to hide his now shivering body, and whined in reply

“I don’t want to, get Mihyun to do it!”

“I am not sending out your sister to do your work plus, unlike you, she has a job interview” His Mother’s words forced the occupant to sit up straight and meet her incredulous gaze.

“That’s today?” He blinked a few times before rubbing his forefingers over his closed eyelids.

“Did you forget? Of course it is!” The occupants Mother sat cross-legged on the edge of his bed. “Seunghyun dear, not that this is any of my business, but do you need to see a doctor or something?” She reached over to her Son and grabbed his hand trying to show the fact that she understood exactly what he was feeling. Seunghyun shook his head, embarrassed by the mere suggestion, and took a minute to sigh.

“No, I’m fine Ma honestly” He in as much air as he could before sighing again, using more force and trying to release the rest of the caged emotion which up till now refused to be felt. Closing his eyes his concerned Mother could only watch and sigh herself. “I just need time to adjust” Seunghyun tried to tell her truth, he had tried so many times, however every time he came close to saying how he really felt something in his throat stopped him from talking. If the truth be told Seunghyun felt like a useless waste of space, an inconvenience to anyone and everyone. He hated leaving the house, leaving his safe bedroom, though he knew that he couldn’t stay hidden away forever.

“I love you Son” Seunghyun opened his eyes to his Mother’s answer and found her a little too close for comfort. She tried to scoop him up into her arms despite the fact that he was way too old to fit like the child he once was into her embrace. He didn’t reply, how could he? His eyes widened like saucers from the sudden contact and his body stiffened, his Mother was never one for affection, she would never hug him and especially like this. When she finally let go Seunghyun fell back against his pillows and took a minute to compose himself, meanwhile his Mother slid off his bed and headed to his bedroom door. “I’ll just get the list and some money, get dressed and come downstairs” She quickly explained then closed the door.

“O-” Seunghyun went to reply but the door clicked halfway through his second syllable. “Damn” He sighed once more and observed the damage, his duvet was now strewn across the cold floorboards and that sun, that blinding shock of light, peeled back his eyelids pretty much forcing Seunghyun out of his bed and over to the curtains. He closed them again as a smile formed on his usually downturned lips, trudging back over to his fallen duvet he threw it back over his bed, not caring about where the poor thing would end up and proceeded to get dressed.

Seunghyun didn’t bother to look at what he was putting on, the only thing that he took into account was what smelled and what didn’t, the latter being the winner. He couldn’t find a pair of matching socks so he shoved on a miscellaneous pair consisting of one blue and one pink sock. Clothes didn’t bother Seunghyun, they were just a trivial expression which he felt that people often went too overboard in thinking, no, a plain pair of jeans, a black t-shirt and a green hooded jumper would do. “Anyway” Seunghyun mumbled to himself as he pulled the hooded jumper on, “it’s not as if I know anyone to give a damn” and this concluded his daily attire. You could say that Seunghyun was the most pitiful self-absorbed person in the world however he had a lot to be pitiful about, not that he was going to explain himself any time soon. Sluggishly making his way out of his bedroom, along the hallway, down the stairs and into the kitchen Seunghyun found his Mother perched on a kitchen bar stool. She watched as her Son trundled his way into her presence, shaking her head at the lack of care which was so obvious in his appearance.

“List?” Seunghyun merely stood on the opposite side of the counter to her and held his hand out.

“First breakfast” She smiled as she pushed a plate of eggs and toast over the counter.

“List” Seunghyun repeated glancing down at the breakfast and back up at his determined Mother.

“Food” Her eyes slimmed down into that look of ultimate eye torture, she wasn’t going to budge and she wouldn’t stop staring at Seunghyun as if she was about to murder him until he had eaten every last speck off of the plate.

“I’m not hungry” He caved a little as he was never any good at arguing with his Mother, though this little fact never stopped him from trying. She was as stubborn as a mule and Seunghyun knew he would have to give up soon.

“And I’m not giving you the list” She folded her arms and tilted her head to the side further implementing her demand.

“Well then I’m not going” Seunghyun grumbled becoming furious with his Mother second by second.

“Well then I’m not driving your sister to her interview and it’ll be your fault” He watched as she tried to hide her smile, the wrath of Mihyun was something Seunghyun did not want to deal with and the smirking woman in front of him knew this all too well.

“Why is Ma not driving me?” The shrill voice of Mihyun called from the hallway. Speaking of the devil, it only took her a second before she appeared beside her little brother in the kitchen, she popped up like an unwanted genie.

“Do you want to tell her or shall I?” The smile on their Mother’s face only grew wider. Mihyun grabbed a sharp hold Seunghyun’s shoulder and applied a small amount of pressure, enough to get his attention but not enough to hurt him.

“You, what are you doing?” Mihyun peered around her brother’s shoulder just so that she could send glaring daggers in his direction.

“I’m not doing anything” Seunghyun replied still trying to keep up the eye contact with his Mother. “It’s Ma’s fault!” Seunghyun’s childish answer only caused Mihyun to sigh and roll her eyes

“You two please pack it in” She pushed Seunghyun away from the kitchen counter and swiped the plate of eggs away. “If Seunghyun doesn’t want to eat this then you can’t force him Ma and Seunghyun if you can’t appreciate the effort that Ma has put into making you breakfast then I’ll eat it” Mihyun walked out of the kitchen and through a different door into the conjoining living room. “Ma you’re taking me, Seunghyun you’re going shopping, simple as” She ended the brewing war from the sofa.

“Fine” Their Mother huffed still keeping her gaze locked onto her disobedient Son.

“Fine!” Seunghyun repeated with just as much determination. He stuck out his hand once more and reluctantly his Mother placed the list on the top of his palm, she didn’t say another word to him before shoving some money from her pocket onto the counter and exiting the room. Seunghyun picked up the wad of notes and slipped them into his jeans pocket. He could hear Mihyun turn the television up to a ridiculous volume and dreadfully sing along to whatever ill sounding boy band she was watching. Seunghyun walked back out into the hallway, picked his trainers up from the shoe rack and slipped them on before opening the front door and slamming it as hard as he could shut.

This was the first time in about two months that Seunghyun had left the house. He scanned the sun and the somehow familiar garden path which led to a little black gate, this was his last barrier from the world, inhaling a deep breath he forced his legs to walk a couple of paces forward. The smell of the front garden was exactly how Seunghyun remembered it the light fruity floral aroma greeted his nostrils with a comfortable familiarity, their source being the row of rose bushes which guided the garden path forwards. He took a couple more steps forwards and reach out for the little iron gate. His hand gingerly cupped the bar of gate, the smell of the roses combined with this feeling of opening the gate triggered the memories in Seunghyun’s brain.

The last day that he had left the house felt exactly like this except his heart was full of optimism; finally Seunghyun was in the big city with his Mother and Father. He was ready to take on the world and so he proceeded to his place of work with an extra skip in his step, he smiled at all the people who passed him even those on the bus who every one else usually ignores. He welcomed the move with opened arms, being with his family and moving to the big city to live with his sister who was already here. It felt good to have everyone under one roof and the lightness which came with this happiness couldn’t stop Seunghyun from feeling giddy. When he reached the office, when he handed his untouched coffee to a random receptionist (who always looked so depressed) because he didn’t need it after buying it well that was when the day started to go wrong. He reached his usual squished desk, sat down in the middle of his two female co-workers, and the desktop computer awaiting the day ahead of pointless proof reading and rewriting posts for his company’s website. He didn’t hate his job but he didn’t exactly enjoy it. Hours flew by, fingers tapped words in such a rhythm it was as if the rows of workers were one cohesive orchestra, Seunghyun paused to take a sip of his water when he felt a hand gently squeeze his shoulder.

“I’d like to have a word with you in my office” Came the whispered command from Jinju who just happened to be the boss’s daughter.

“Sure” Seunghyun hurriedly gathered himself before standing up and following Jinju into her office. She was always around thus Seunghyun knew her face all too well, he had no qualms about what she was going to talk to him about and he hoped with all of his heart that he was getting a promotion or something. Six years trekking into this god forsaken place every day, even when Seunghyun lived outside of Seoul, surely he deserved a little credit?

“Please take a seat” Jinju waved her slender hand in the direction of a chair before taking a seat herself. Seunghyun obediently sat down on the chair facing her, nervously twisting his hands together. “I have some bad news Seunghyun” Her blank expression failed to give him any clues as to what she meant there were no obvious looks of sadness or regret, only a sharp reserve. “We’re going to have to lay you off. Think about it this way we’re not firing you, we’re merely releasing your talents into the world” She stood up and made her way around the desk, once there she sat on the edge of her desk clearly invading Seunghyun’s personal space.

“Why?” Seunghyun’s shocked words fell from his mouth before he could stop them. He wanted to scream at her, plead with her, he needed this job if he was ever going to be independent from his parents.

“Do you want the honest truth?” She calmly answered Seunghyun’s question with one of her own leaving the man to just stare at her in a state of shock and disbelief.

“Yes” Was all he could reply with.

“My Father won’t allow me to date people who work for him and so I figured if I were to fire you perhaps we could…” Jinju left the end of her sentence to float into Seunghyun’s ears, he cringed at the mere thought of dating her and stood up, he felt no attraction to her whatsoever.

“Just what do you think you are playing at?” Seunghyun snapped “This job is my life! You-You can’t-” His voice failed him as did his mind in thinking up an appropriate response. Jinju lightly pushed herself up from the desk and sauntered over to Seunghyun, he could see that she was trying her hardest to flirt with him. “No!” He shouted before grabbing her shoulders and pushing her away. She shrieked and dramatically fell back against her desk being very obvious about looking towards the door, Seunghyun slowly turned around to meet the deadly glare which now wanted to burn him into oblivion.

“Daddy!” Jinju called from the desk. Seunghyun froze.

“Just what exactly is going on in here?” The low gruff voice of Seunghyun’s boss and Jinju’s father growled.

“Daddy he wanted to have his way with me and when I said no he pushed me onto the desk!” Jinju smirked as she passed Seunghyun and flailed her arms around her Father. He couldn’t believe how childish Jinju was, how she acted like she was ten rather than her twenty plus something age. Shell shocked and tongue tied Seunghyun didn’t reply. “Is this true Seunghyun?” Her father persisted curling his hand protectively around the back of his daughter’s shivering head. Seunghyun shook his head from side to side. “Get out” He spat the words out as if he was speaking to a pile of dirt “I said get out!” He shouted when Seunghyun didn’t respond. All of Seunghyun’s worth was stripped from him, who would possibly believe him over the boss’s daughter? It was ridiculous to even try and fight for his old job. Ashamed Seunghyun bowed his head and left the office, grabbing his few belongings from his desk before leaving the office building forever. There was no way that he could go home, there was no way in hell he was telling his Mother or Father what had truly happened, he would rather die than try to convince them of his innocence. Seunghyun wandered the busy city streets, dazed and unsure of what to do now he continued to walk until a fence physically stopped him from walking on. He peered over the fence and over to the river watching as little boats quite happily passed him by, giggles from schoolchildren echoed from behind and the loud noises from the grey roar of the city streets pierced his ears. The noise became too much, the waves upon waves of tourist boats became too much, the excitement and buzz which carried on as if the ending of someone’s world was entirely irrelevant became too much. Seunghyun didn’t know just how much of this much-ness he could take. It wasn’t until his phone buzzed that recognisable tune of happy twinkling that Seunghyun realised the answer to his question.

“Hello?” He answered the call then pressed the phone to his ear. It was home calling.

“Seunghyun are you working?” It was the sound of his Mother’s voice reverberating down the line and she sounded concerned.

“Yeah-I mean- I’m on a break, why Ma?” It wasn’t a part of his usual daily routine to have his Mother bless him with a phone call.

“It’s your Father, he-he-” The line buzzed from the noise surrounding Seunghyun and he tried to cover his other ear with his hand, he could barely hear her. “You need to come home right away”

“Why Ma? What’s happened?” Calm was not a feeling which Seunghyun currently possessed, he needed to know what was happening right now and not in thirty minutes when he finally reached home.

“Just come home! Mihyun is here too but I need my Son!” She wailed before the call ended, it was no use, Seunghyun would have to wonder the whole journey home. Luckily he was able to find his way back to the office and over to the bus stop which already had a bus waiting. Though a part of him wished that the bus was never there, that he wasn’t able to go home and witness the-the-

Seunghyun snapped from his memories and with a sharp jolt he retracted his hand from the bar of the gate. These memories, being here right now back at this place, he just couldn’t leave. A breath, of which Seunghyun hadn’t realised that he had been holding, eased itself out of his nose and the force of the breath, the force from his lungs, caused his mind to crash back into reality. “But I need to go” Seunghyun willed his hand to reach up for the gate “I have to” the hand shook as it reached the height of the gate’s bar. He grabbed the gate using as much of his energy as he possibly could and wrenched it open. Practically jumping over the slab of cement which separated him from the comfort of his home and the rest of the world, Seunghyun sighed remembering the list currently scrunched up in the hand which wasn’t holding the gate. He carefully unfolded the list and read some of the items out loud “Vegetables: Cabbage, Fresh Spinach, Carrots…” Through focusing on the list and trying to remember what he needed to get Seunghyun was able to walk down the street, soon the worry of leaving his home behind faded and was replaced with a new apprehension.

“Just what exactly does she mean by Woman’s Things?” He questioned whilst folding the list back up and slipping it into his trouser pocket. This question seemed to bug him, he had never been shopping before and this explained everything, or so he thought. Without realising exactly where he was walking Seunghyun quickly found himself in front of an American style shopping mart. He looked up at the shops bright sign and shrugged, it wasn’t as if he knew what he was doing or where he was supposed to be going. Upon entering the shop though Seunghyun wanted to immediately leave, people whizzed around like swarms of bees chasing each other for the right flower, shoving other people with trolleys and baskets. Nervously Seunghyun took the list from his pocket, unfolded it again, and picked up the nearest basket concluding that the list didn’t have much on it and thus he didn’t need a trolley. Plus he didn’t like the idea of trying to weave it in and out of the crammed aisles, so he held onto the basket handles as hard as he could then stepped further into the shop.

A feeling of amazement fuzzed Seunghyun’s anxiousness, he stopped at the closest stack of shelves and stared at it for a while. Just how was he going to get everything of this list? His Mother was insane, it took a couple of minutes for Seunghyun to realise that he could hear her voice commanding that he move away from the cake shelves and venture further into the actual shop. Sighing he stepped away from the shelf and continued down the aisle, he followed the maze of aisles around the whole shop picking things up from the shelf as he went, occasionally he would look at his list although he was getting rather good at remembering what came next. It was about halfway through his shop that Seunghyun ran into trouble; a child was knocking every single bottle of water onto the floor as its Mother walked off ahead. One of the water bottles split open and a scrawny looking shop assistant was trying his best to get the Mother and her child’s attention whilst at the same time clean the mess up. Seunghyun put his basket on the floor and left it there walking up to the panicking boy and offering his help.

“Excuse me Miss!” Seunghyun walked past the shop assistant and over to the Mother “Does your child have a secret vendetta against water bottles?” He caught the Mother’s attention by gently tapping her on the shoulder, she noticed his question then shrieked at the child, and after scolding it the Mother thanked Seunghyun before continuing her shop – with her child now firmly trapped in the trolley seat. Seunghyun bowed a little before returning to the poor shop assistant, the guy was trying to mop up the water with a huge roll of thin kitchen paper.

“Would you like a hand?” Seunghyun asked as he crouched down beside the guy. He was ignored for a few seconds before his presence was noticed causing the boy to jump and nearly slip over, luckily Seunghyun caught the guy’s arm and pulled him back up. “Sorry!” Seunghyun apologised before the guy could. The two shared an oddly confused stare mixed with a tinge embarrassment.

“It’s O.K! I’m sorry I didn’t see you there, are you alright?” Seunghyun continued to stare at the guy as he spoke, he noticed the lines of stress which prematurely wrinkled the shop assistant’s face, the lines which started just underneath the corners of the guy’s tired brown eyes and ended just before the dips leading up to his nose. The guy could’ve been twenty-something or thirty-something, it was anyone’s guess.

“I think I should be asking you that” Seunghyun offered whilst tearing a couple of pieces of paper off the guy’s kitchen roll. He started to wipe the floor when the guy answered

“You shouldn’t be doing that, it’s not your job” The guy’s voice was flustered, caught halfway between needing the help and needing to get on with his job. He moved the roll of kitchen paper to the other side of his body where Seunghyun could no longer reach it.

“It’s no problem and you’ll be here all day trying to sort this mess out” Seunghyun shrugged throwing the used paper into the guy’s nearby red bucket. “Plus we don’t want people falling over do we? It’s a safety hazard” He leaned over the guy and grabbed the kitchen roll.

“I-I-” The guy stammered then went deathly silent “Thank you” He volunteered watching as Seunghyun tore more paper from the roll.

“Don’t mention it” Came Seunghyun’s quick reply. After a moment more of wiping and cleaning Seunghyun and the guy were back on their feet, facing each other. Seunghyun extended his hand out to the guy and they shook hands, politely acknowledging their small exchange. It was time for Seunghyun to resume his shop and so he returned to his abandoned basket, once he had picked the basket up off the floor though the guy approached him again.

“I didn’t catch your name?” The shop assistant shuffled on the spot as if he was nervous about something.

“Oh?” Seunghyun peered up at guy from checking the contents of his basket. Baffled by the guy’s request Seunghyun gave him a one word answer “Seunghyun” He awkwardly pointed out, well it wasn’t as if he had a lot of practice in talking to people. Although he quickly wondered why the guy was looking at him expectantly as if he should be asking the guy as question “Oh, what’s yours?” He asked after a moment of awkward silence.

“Jiyong!” The guy did a whole ninety degrees bow something of which no one had done for Seunghyun in a long time.

“It’s a pleasure” Seunghyun tried to hold his chuckle in his chest but it was no use, he couldn’t help but laugh at this incredibly dorky guy. When Jiyong returned from his ninety degrees holiday he joined in with Seunghyun’s chuckle though his was far more timid and anxious. “I should be going now, I’ve got to finish navigating my way through hell” Seunghyun politely bowed his head as a goodbye and continued his journey down what appeared to be a frozen food aisle leaving the poor shop assistant to carry on with his job. What Seunghyun failed to notice was that the guy, Jiyong, had not moved an inch since their introduction and was frozen like some sort of timeless monumental sculpture. Aisles and aisles later Seunghyun was eventually finished, he had never felt this elated before and as he loaded the checkout with the contents of his Mother’s list the grin which was now stretching itself across his face grew even wider. Then he wondered about the shop assistant, what was the guy doing now? What was his story? Did he have another job? How old was he? The questions just kept on coming that is until the shop assistant at the checkout barked a grand total of the entire wad of notes which Seunghyun was hoping not to spend the entirety of. He slowly passed the money over to the worker then cursed once he realised the amount of carrier bags that he was left with.

“Have a good day!” Seunghyun smiled at the checkout lady and scooped up his bags, the weight was manageable once he had figured out how to balance the load. He was about to leave the shop when a familiar face caught his eye, it was that Jiyong guy and he was waiting just in front of the exit. Seunghyun was going to ignore him and leave, obviously the guy wasn’t waiting for him they had only just met for crying out loud, admittedly this theory crumbled to the ground when Jiyong caught his eye and promptly ran over to him.

“Let me give you a hand!” Jiyong enthusiastically yanked one of the bags from Seunghyun’s hand which unfortunately caused the whole thing to split. It didn’t take long for the contents of Seunghyun’s shopping to be on the floor, it was only one bag but still, the mess was ridiculous. “Oh I’m sorry!” Seunghyun just stared at the guy in disbelief, who in the hell acts as if they know someone who is nothing but a complete stranger to them? He wasn’t surprised by the loss of his shopping rather he was surprised at the warmth that this guy seemed to radiate by the bucket load.

“Don’t worry about it” Seunghyun genuinely meant it, he didn’t care if the guy yanked all the shopping from his hands. “It was all a little too heavy anyway” He tried to brighten the guy’s face which was currently looking down at all the shopping with a look of sheer panic etched into his soft features. “If you can just get me another bag we can pack it back up” Seunghyun tried to meet the guy’s gaze but Jiyong was unresponsive, his eyes seemed to be locked onto the broken shopping.

“I can’t do a thing right!” Jiyong angrily mumbled to himself before stomping away and grabbing a bag from a nearby checkout. Seunghyun shook his head and lightly laughed, placing his other bags down on the floor and sweeping the remains of his spilled shopping together. “I’m so sorry” The ashamed sigh came from behind Seunghyun’s head, not a moment later Jiyong was kneeling down beside him trying to tidily pack the spilt shopping into a fresh bag.

“I said don’t worry about it” Seunghyun tried to reassure the guy again but Jiyong was having none of it.

“I only wanted to ask you out for a coffee and then I-” Jiyong cut the end of his sentence off once he realised that he wasn’t thinking in his head. Seunghyun abruptly stopped packing his shopping and quizzically examined the guy, was he insane?

“Huh?” Now Seunghyun had become the frozen monumental sculpture. No one had been so forthright with him before, questions were always left unspoken or that's what Seunghyun used to think.

“I mean” Jiyong's face flushed red matching the colour of his dreadful shirt which must've been a part of his uniform. He stammered for a moment, tongue tripping over the wrong words and trying to replace them with the right ones “What-What I meant to say is- Can I get you a drink? As a thank you for helping me today. No one's ever stopped to help me before and I- well- I wanted to-”

“That would be lovely” Seunghyun’s mouth moved before his brain had a chance to think about how gay this all sounded. “But I'm not ga-”

“Oh no!” Jiyong's face turned an even brighter shade of crimson and he shook his hands in time with his disagreeing head “Neither am I-Not like that- I mean-”

“Oh” Seunghyun laughed a little embarrassed by the thought. He had to swiftly change the conversation “So have you finished your shift?”

“Yeah I have” Jiyong resumed his clearing up of Seunghyun's shopping “But I- I know it's kinda sudden-you know of me to ask- so if you can't do anything now I-I won't be disappointed” Bingo! The conversation change had worked.

“Well I'll have to drop this shopping off at my house but afterwards I'd like to do something” Seunghyun smiled as he reached out for the last of his spilled items, it was a box of what he presumed to be the correct definition behind his Mother's mysterious entry of “Woman's Things.” Though he wasn't the only person to absent-mindedly pick the little box up, Seunghyun glanced at the box when he felt an extra weight at the other end it was Jiyong, and the pair had reached for the box at the same time. The moment was quite sweet until Jiyong noticed what the little box was and proceeded to shriek his head off whilst throwing the box away from his hand and Seunghyun's. The latter watched the embarrassment with exasperated eyes “What was that?” He grumbled as he crawled a few inches forward, grabbed the box and shoved it into a different bag. “Have you never seen Sanitary Items before?”

“Err...” Jiyong looked as if he had been slapped around the face a few times, clearly the boy had issues, but he wasn't Seunghyun's problem.

“Never mind, give me that bag back and lets go” Seunghyun rolled his eyes and stood up waiting for Jiyong to do the same. When the scrawny guy finally did he started to profusely apologise again

“I'm so sorry, you said you're name is Seunghyun right? I'm sorry Seunghyun”

“It's fine” Was the small reply which Seunghyun accompanied with a silent eye roll.

“Can I carry some of your bags for you?” Jiyong offered sticking his foot out into the automatic door and causing them to prematurely open. This meant that the pair were surprised by the sudden shock of cold air and Seunghyun noticed how Jiyong's red shirt only had short sleeves, the poor guys arms prickled with goosebumps from the cold.

“How about we trade?” Seunghyun shot a kind smile in Jiyong's direction “How about you take one bag and my hoody? I'm feeling a bit hot” He passed one bag over to Jiyong (Keeping the previous spilt bag in his own hands) and with his now free hand Seunghyun ped his hoody and handed that over too. Jiyong stared at Seunghyun as if he had given him a gold medal or something.

“Sure I can hold this” Jiyong uneasily answered slinging the hoody over one shoulder and gripping the plastic bag as tightly into his hand as he possibly could.

“You can put the hoody on if your cold” Seunghyun offered trying to give off the impression that he didn't care by shrugging and continuing his walk forwards.

“I'm not cold” The goosebumps still clearly visible on Jiyong's arms conflicted with his words.

“Sure you aren't” Seunghyun chuckled as Jiyong hurriedly slid the hoody on. It was strange how this random guy who seemed to be even unluckier than Seunghyun easily made him smile. Maybe it was because of how piteous the guy was? How despite his best efforts and pure intentions there always seemed to be something which would drag this guy back to the Earth from his home planet. Though it might sound mean and a little cruel Seunghyun was starting to find a bewildering comfort in this guys setbacks, it was nice to find someone who was just unlucky as himself.

“So...” Jiyong's voice echoed over Seunghyun's thoughts “You're from around here then?”

“Yeah” Seunghyun replied totally preoccupied by two passing schoolgirls who were crying. One of them said

“I can't believe Oppa is getting married!! Waeeeeeee!!” The other girl then replied with

“I'm happy if Oppa is happy, We have to be happy, Oppa is happy”

“Seunghyun?” The sound of impatience suddenly flooded Seunghyun's ears and he snapped out of his stare. “Oh so schoolgirls are your kind of thing?”

“What?!” Seunghyun's pupils dilated from the shock and they returned to looking at Jiyong.

“It's okay if you're into that, a lot of guys are, that's why girls dress up as school kids for Halloween” The cheek of this guy, wait what-

“Girls dress up like schoolgirls on Halloween to impress guys?” Seunghyun's feet were out of sync with his mind and he had stopped walking, utterly frozen to the spot.

“Yeah didn't you know that?” Jiyong answered casually as if this information was just a part of everyday conversation.

“Mihyun!!” Seunghyun scolded his sister out loud “She told me that she wanted to go as Harry Potter, I should've realised that she was lying!”

“Eh?” Jiyong's brows furrowed with confusion. “Dude you do realise that Harry Potter is a bloke? So unless your sister was you know, cross-dressing-”

“She was wearing a skirt!!” Seunghyun had no idea why his mouth was still moving because this information was of no relevance to Jiyong.

“There is no way that Harry Potter would've worn a skirt” Jiyong started to laugh as he witnessed just how dumb Seunghyun could be, the first of many occurrences.

“Aish!! That girl! And I let her out of the house dressed like that, it's disgusting!” Then it hit Seunghyun, why in the hell was he sharing this information with Jiyong? “Ah crap” He sighed when he noticed Jiyong's side splitting laughter.

“You're such a bingu it's unreal!” Jiyong playfully slapped the side of Seunghyun's arm “Harry Potter a girl? That's hilarious!” Seunghyun's cheeks were now lined with a deep shade of crimson. Dammit!

“Ya! Sooo funny” Seunghyun sarcastically laughed “Anyway I am not a bingu, how rude!” His feet remembered how to walk and so they resumed their journey. “Come on you've got a coffee to buy me” Seunghyun glanced back at Jiyong who was still giggling “And for that laughter I'm going to order the most expensive one in the whole shop!” His threat completely cut Jiyong's laughter and the scrawny guy took a couple of steps to catch up.

“Now Seunghyun, don't be unreasonable” They started to pick up the pace whilst Jiyong tried to backtrack his way out of having to buy the whole shop “Think of it as me giving you an insight into the inner workings of the female brain”

“And you would be an expert on that subject would you?” Seunghyun briskly replied walking as fast as he could in the hope that he would annoy Jiyong a little bit.

“Er” Jiyong nervously cleared his throat “Not exactly”

“Do you have a sister?” Seunghyun continued his pursuit, eyes on their journey forward.

“No” Jiyong shook his head and lowered his head a little, Seunghyun watched him from the corner of his eyes.

“Were you a woman in your previous life?” He tried to hide the smirk which was now forming on his lips, watching as Jiyong's tongue became tied hindering his basic capabilities to form a single sentence. “So just how exactly are you knowledgeable in the inner workings of the female brain?”

“Er-I-I-” Then Jiyong made an incomprehensible noise which sounded as if a whale had crawled into his throat and was now dying. Seunghyun laughed

“Now who's the bingu?” He jested nudging Jiyong's arm with his own elbow. “Never mind this is my house” Seunghyun continued before Jiyong could think of an answer, which he probably would have if he had been given a few more minutes thought. Without even realising what he had done Seunghyun opened the gate and led Jiyong along the garden path, right up to his front door. “Dammit!” He cursed under his breath as he realised that he had left the house without his keys.

“What's up?” Jiyong timidly asked from behind.

“Forgot my keys” Seunghyun tried to mumble his answer so low that he hoped that Jiyong wouldn't hear it.

“Ah” Jiyong seemed to hear Seunghyun's answer and cringe. Seunghyun was ready to karate chop Jiyong 's head off if he even uttered the word bingu. Before either could respond though the front door swung open and there stood the devil woman herself.

“Mihyun” Seunghyun nodded

“Forget something did we?” She teased waving Seunghyun's keys directly in front of her Brother's embarrassed face.

“Perhaps” He blankly replied trying with all of his strength to fight the urge to slap his keys out of her hand. “Now move unless you want your ice cream to melt” At the mere mention of ice cream Mihyun took a step back and moved out of the way of the front door. Seunghyun stepped inside and went to walk past her when she cleared directing her gaze back to the door as if he had forgotten something. Seunghyun looked back and Jiyong remained outside, he looked as he was garden gnome or something wearing Seunghyun's green hoody which was obviously too big for him. “Ah come in Jiyong, I won't be a moment. Mihyun this is my new friend Jiyong, Jiyong this is my sister Mihyun” He introduced the pair and waved a hand at Jiyong, enthusiastically inviting him in. Jiyong smiled, went on another ninety degrees holiday and even shook the witches hand, he was way too polite for his own good.

“Did you buy him from the supermarket? Can I buy one?” Mihyun joked with a hint of dry sincerity deepening her voice. “I'd like to meet a guy with manners” She beamed at Jiyong instantly taking to him “It's a pleasure to meet you, are you single?”

“Mihyun!” Seunghyun headed into the kitchen, dropped the bags off then returned to save Jiyong. “Leave him alone” He grabbed Jiyong's arm and tugged him towards the kitchen “I'm just dropping the shopping off then we're leaving. You'll have to sort it before your interview” Seunghyun continued to talk as he took the last bag from Jiyong and set it on the counter.

“Seunghyun” His sister tried her hardest to protest but her whining only made Seunghyun want to leave the house quicker.

“We'll be leaving now” He merely replied still dragging Jiyong by the arm. “See you later” He offered whilst opening the front door then he remembered. Seunghyun dropped his hold on Jiyong once they were safely outside and returned to his sister “Good luck” He gave her a contemptuous thumbs up before swiping his keys from her hand and shutting the door in her face.