“We arrived, girls. Remember, be nice.” Minah looks around the comfy, homey, perfect-size pastel-painted house with excited eyes.

‘Halmikot House’, a nursing home that of course is occupied by a lot of grandmas and grandpas, attracts Minah less than a heartbeat. She loves and misses her grandmother—she knows going here will heal the emptiness of her heart that her grandmother left. “So what’s your name again? Yori? Yuri?”

“It’s Yura, sweetheart. Why don’t you learn her name to prevent pathetic fail?” Sojin smiles sarcastically, waving off Lay, signaling him to not hit on Yura, ever again.

“Unnie! Don’t be so harsh on him! He’s cute, okay?” Yura pouts, showing her aegyo to Sojin.

“Yura. We’re here to work, okay? And plus, he….” Sojin continues her gazillion kilometers speech of ‘1001 Reasons Why Idols Should Not Date Anyone’ to sad Yura while waiting for the crews to prepare. To the right, Hyeri is spotted reading some text messages.

Minah exhales deeply. She forgot about the existence of her group members—as much as she loves them, they could be quite a hassle at times. And on top of the list, sits Tao and his friends. Minah is not exactly the girl that enjoys company of strangers. Moreover, this particular stranger, Tao, is sadly more than annoying to Minah.

--

“Annyeong haseyo! We are EXO-M and Girl’s Day from Searching for warmth!” The ten of them bows in unison, just like they did at places preceding this one. They have gone to the juveniles and orphanages. To be frank, Minah is only slightly touched. It was pretty heartless, but Minah is honestly too tired both mentally and physically to be anything but numb. Life as an idol is pretty hard.

By now, everyone had separated, talking to the people there, while some plays with the volunteers. Some, like Tao, chooses not to care about the whole scene and instead cozies up near the fireplace. It’s weird, this place is full of people with weak bodies, but the weather in the house forces everyone to wear their ultra-thick jacket.

The volunteers. Minah’s intention was to talk to one of the oldies’, but she can’t seem to divert her attention from the volunteers. Okay, reduce the ‘s’. It’s a volunteer, him, that volunteer.

Standing few centimeters away from him, Minah unconsciously keeps staring at him. “Hi. I’m Minah.” Minah succeeded in letting out few words. To get to know him—that’s what she wants, and being an Aries, she’ll work hard to get what she wants.

1, 2, 3. 4, 5 6. Pursing my lips, I wonder why he won't reply. "Do you volunteer here?" I ask for the third time. 

Shaking his head at times, he steals glances of the vegetables at the left and stacks of nuts on his right. He gazes at the knife… and the dough too, and that probably what makes his eyebrows meet.

He takes the big bowls into his arms, it's obvious it's too heavy and too much for him to carry. He takes another big bowl, and that's when I heard the cartoon-like sound playing in my head.

SPLAAAAASH!! 

My whole face, some strands of hair and dress are covered in some vanilla-scented dough. I blink my eyes a few times, trying to get the dough out of my eyesight. 

I froze. He’s beautiful, perfect; you can’t describe him in words. He’s different—that’s one thing I know. He’s different from all the plastic idols I meet everyday in my world; he’s definitely from another world.

He is now standing far too close, his eyebrows arched and his lips make a frown. He wipes my cheek with a handkerchief very gently. He stops for a moment, looks at the handkerchief, and continues to fix me--with his shirt. 

His shirt smells so nice, a mix of Jasmine tea and the vanilla-scented dough. Strand by strand he wipes all of the dough; as if he doesn’t care if his shirt gets dirty and leaves him shirtless in the skin-piercing cold weather. 

He stops for the second time, this time looking at my lips that is slightly opened. He slowly traces his thumb over it like it's very fragile.

“Kyungshin-ah! What are you doing?!” Jinwoon, Minah recognize him as one of the head of the volunteers. Jinwoon roughly taps on Kyungshin’s shoulder; making Kyungshin lets go of his thumb and turn around. Jinwoon points to the hallway, and with that, Kyungshin goes to the hallway and into one of the rooms.

Deaf-mute? Now that’s a turn off.

At least it should’ve been, not the other way around.