That special day… Wasn’t really special for Cho Kyuhyun. Not if you don’t count waking up an hour late, forgetting his lunch and money for a daily snack and therefore sitting grumpily in a school cafeteria, watching his friends (if you could really call them ones) eating their lunch so disgustingly eagerly as if they hadn’t seen food for a week, as special.

“Kyu Hyung?” A handsome, ridiculously tall boy asked in between hungrily munching on his sandwich and loudly slurping his Cola. “Aren’t you hungry? You had so hard classes before…”

Kyuhyun rolled his eyes with distaste when they younger burped, not even bothering to cover his mouth. Uh, meet Choi Minho, everyone. The handsomest piece of man flesh of the entire second graders in their High School. And the most gross one if Kyuhyun may add so. Not that girls seemed to notice it anyway; it took one gesture of fixing his hair and they were swooning over him like he was some sort of god. Which he was, to them.

Choi Minho however had his own almost-god-like figure he loved to bother all the time instead of looking at any of those fangirls of his. Which was Cho Kyuhyun. Well isn’t his life just perfect.

“Yeah,” another voice joined their conversation. “It’s at least odd to see you without your lunchbox, Kyu baby.” Large puppy eyes looked at him in concern. “Aren’t you sick maybe? You should go see the nurse, Minho can go with you there, we all know you’re not-really-fond-of-but-absolutely-not-scared-of-doctors.”

And here you are. The reason why Kyuhyun didn’t have to miss his parents at all – Lee Donghae. Self-proclaimed protector and best friend of his. The owner of the biggest girl fanclub in the entire Seoul High, the guy that made younger girls melt in his dark brown orbs while the older ones almost fought each other to be able to take care of him as if he was the most perfect combination of a puppy face and six pack abs. (Duh, he was.)

The guy who believed in aliens and whose biggest dream was to meet one. The one who didn’t pass twice because of his… Kyuhyun would like to use the term ‘idiocy’ here. The fanclub though succeeded in making everyone believe that ‘Donghae oppa was just too kind and wanted to grace them with his company for more than mere three or four years’.

Kyuhyun groaned in frustration. He had honestly no freaking idea why he continued to sit with them for lunch. And go to school with them. And return home. (Cause they lived in the same neighborhood, just his luck. Or at least, Donghae did. Minho was the kind of nuisance that actually made efforts to walk him home. Every. Single. Time.) And basically spend most of his time out of classes with those freaks of guys.

The good thing was that Minho, being younger, attended other classes (Not that he didn’t try to somehow skip the difference to be able to be with Kyuhyun all the time. It was one of the most beautiful moments in Kyuhyun’s life when it turned out an impossible task for the younger and he might have shed a tear or two while thanking god for this blessing.)

Donghae on the other hand didn’t give a about attending any of them, to be frank. Which could have been the reason behind his a-little-bit-too-long stay in High School.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Kyuhyun mumbled while taking his algebra notebook out to busy himself with anything different than watching those two eat.

“Come on KyuKyu, we all know how grumpy you get without your daily portion of calories.” Donghae winked at Minho, who was obviously conflicted between eating the rest of his delicious sandwich and sharing it with his hyung. Keep in mind how hungry he always was and how much he wanted Kyuhyun to join his personal fanclub (possibly becoming its leader) and you get the intensity of his inner battle.

“Do not.” Kyuhyun disagreed half-heartedly, beginning to do his homework for the next classes.

“Do too.”

“Do not. And how many times did I tell you to stop using that stupid nickna…” He finally looked up to glance at Donghae and froze.

Was his mind playing tricks on him because of the deficiency of calories? Out of the window behind Donghae he saw… a feather. A big, white one that his mind couldn’t exactly classify to any species of birds he knew, and he knew a lot of them.

The feather fell down and Kyuhyun was going to shake his head and forget about it when another movement caught his attention. The single feather was followed by at least a hundred more exactly identical ones, falling down in a spiral motion. And what a beautiful sight was that! When one of them accidently hooked up against the window frame, Kyuhyun squinted to get a better catch of it.

It was huge. The size of an eagle’s feather at least, if not bigger. And the whiteness of it was so pure, so bright that Kyuhyun couldn’t help but be sure it had never in its existence been tainted by any other surface and any other touch.

And while one half of his mind was busy  admiring the  phenomenon, the other, more reasonable one, began wondering how was it possible that no one else seemed to notice it. Behind the feathers’ theatre he could see people enjoying their lunch break, sitting on the grass and the benches, talking, laughing, eating… And yet not once did anyone stop to spare a look on the, let’s face it, kind of odd occurrence.

“…sure if your sister was here, he would totally agree with me on that, don’t you think Minho?” Donghae’s voice bore its way into Kyuhyun’s brain after what felt like an hour.

(If he bothered to keep a wristwatch like people reminded him to, he would have known it was barely half a minute.)

“Hyung?”

Kyuhyun blinked and averted his gaze at the younger. “Minho’s right.” He replied mechanically and threw another, experimental look out of the window.

The feathers were gone. Completely. As if they were never there. Because they most probably weren’t, he thought and dismissed the weird few momwnts out of his head. He had definitely better things to worry about anyway. Like Minho’s big hand miraculously appearing on his hip.

“Yah! What do you think you’re doing!”

After leaving the school building Kyuhyun couldn’t help but glance at the place he had seen through the window a couple of hours ago.

Clear. Nothing but a grass.

He smiled contently. Just like he had thought – simple hallucination from starvation. Not sparing the matter a second thought, Kyuhyun headed home with peaceful mind, filled only with his favorite games waiting for him at home.

Ding dong.

The only human being noticeable in a dark room, lit only by a small lamp and the faint light coming from the opened laptop, grunted some incoherent mumbles under his mouth, not having any intentions to stand up and open the door to his house.

Ding dong.

He rolled his eyes upon hearing the bell for the second time but still make no movement to go to the front door what-so-ever. It was probably just Minho wanting to hang out anyway. And he had his own spare key, just for occasions like this one.

Knock, knock.

Knock, knock, knock.

Okay, now that was weird. Kyuhyun furrowed his eyebrows and paused the game he was currently winning. He pricked up his ears but the silence was stretching longer and longer. Maybe it was a postman after all, or some annoying peddler. Uh so they work even under such conditions, he thought (maybe feeling a ti~ny little bit sorry for them) meaning the downpour visible out of the window and shrugged. Not his business. At least they walked away and he could go back to…

Knock, knock… Knock.

An irritated sigh left his mouth.

“Minho, I swear, if you lost another set of my keys, I am so going to kill you! How many times will I have to change the lock because of your stupi…!” The unfinished sentence hung up in the air as Kyuhyun finally opened the door and found a... very-not-Choi-Minho-looking boy standing out in the rain. “Oh. Uhm. Any letter for me? Or, uh, are you selling umbrellas?” He asked and immediately wanted to slap himself.

The boy didn’t look like his postman and most definitely not like any kind of peddler. In fact, if Kyuhyun was to make a guess, he’d say the stranger was an actor. He was beautiful.

He couldn’t have been more than twenty, maybe twenty-two years old. He was a bit shorter than Kyuhyun himself but definitely broader in shoulders; his clothes were, well, drenched. But other than that, extremely clean and bright. Half of his face was covered by dripping wet strands of light blonde hair but from what was visible, Kyuhyun could tell that the boy’s skin looked like he had been taking care of it a lot, or maybe was lucky enough to be born that way, and that he owned the prettiest lips Kyuhyun had ever seen any male have. When the stranger tilted his head so that more of his hair went off his face, Kyuhyun saw a pair of big, cutely shaped eyes containing so much happiness, he felt a little taken aback.

“Um,” Kyuhyun shifted uncomfortably. “Good evening?”

“Hi!” The stranger replied enthusiastically waving his hand even though he stood mere half a meter away. He didn’t seem to mind the rain in the slightest.

“Not that I’d want to be rude or something, but… Who are you?”

The boy’s eyes went even wider than original when he laughed and palmed his forehead embarrassingly.

“How silly of me, I’m sorry I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Sungmin!”

Oh yeah, so it’s all clear now, thought Kyuhyun sarcastically.

“Right, Sungmin-ssi. Why don’t you tell me what do you—“

“Kyuhyun-ah, you’re alone now, right? Good! I’m cold and starving actually. Isn’t it cool?” Sungmin’s excited voice cut Kyuhyun off as its owner sneaked under the frozen gamer’s arm and into the house.

Kyuhyun stood there a little while more, still shocked at this boy’s straightforward not-really-rudeness-but-almost, and he would have stayed in such position much longer had he not heard someone rummaging through his already half empty fridge. Frowning, he slammed the door shut and hurriedly made his way into the kitchen, where he found Sungmin standing in front of the open refrigerator, with his mouth hanging low from the amazement visible in his big eyes.

“Wow…” Sungmin let out, still staring at the fridge’s content.

Kyuhyun peeked above Sungmin’s shoulder and tilted his head in confusion. There was a couple of eggs, a bottle of milk, butter and some leftovers of the kimbap Donghae brought him the day before. Not really something special enough to cause such reaction from anybody.

Sungmin’s eyes fell on the bottle of milk. “Can I have that?” He asked cutely.

“You mean milk?” Asked Kyuhyun, just to make sure. “I thought you wanted to eat.”

“Milk…” Sungmin repeated then finally looked back at his involuntary host. “Yes, I’m hungry.” He smiled.

“Why you… Uh, never mind.” Whatever it was the other was here for, it could wait until the pretty guy was no longer starving. “I’ll make you something to eat then. With milk,” he added, seeing Sungmin opening his mouth to argue. “You go to the bathroom, it’s the first door to the left upstairs, and grab some towel to at least dry your hair.”

When Sungmin nodded happily and left the kitchen (leaving wet spots on the floor. Donghae was not going to be happy when he sees it), Kyuhyun took out the eggs and milk, deciding to make an omelet. Not exactly something fancy but hey, he hadn’t been expecting any wet, hungry, weird visitors today. Or ever, for that matter.

“Hmm, smells amazing.” His guest was back. “What is that?”

Kyuhyun raised his eyebrows.

“Haven’t you ever eaten an omelet?” He asked disbelievingly.

Sungmin smiled in response. (Did he ever stop smiling?) “Where I’m from, we don’t really have such things to eat.”

“And where you’re from?” Kyuhyun asked casually while putting an omelet on a plate and placing it on the table. Sungmin tore his gaze away from the food and changed his smile into a bit mischievous one.

“Wouldn’t you like to know Kyuhyun-ah.” He sing-songed before biting a part of his dish off and chewing it with a blissful expression on his face.

Kyuhyun froze suddenly and felt a very very unpleasant feeling creep up his spine. “How… How did you know?” He stuttered nervously.

“Hm?” A pair of smiling eyes looked up at him.

“I…” Kyuhyun hesitated. “I didn’t tell you my name.”

He expected many reactions from Sungmin. To stop smiling for sure. To start trying to convince him that he did in fact say his name earlier. Denying everything. What he didn’t expect, was the off-handed laughter coming from the eating boy, as if it was completely normal to behave the way he did.

“Oh that! I know much more about you than just your name Kyuhyun-ah,” grinned Sungmin after swallowing the rest of his meal. “For example, you’re an outstanding cook! Can I have more milk though? It’s delicious.”

He did not know what made him take the glass and refill it with the milk. Was it Sungmin’s smile? His lack of nervousness? His enjoyable aura? Kyuhyun’s own shock and stupidity?

Whatever it was, Kyuhyun decided he had enough. This evening was becoming way too strange and his rational mind was sending him loud and clear red alerts.

Fighting off the urge to pinch himself, Kyuhyun took a deep breath.

“Okay,” he began calmly. “Enough is enough. Who are you Sungmin-ssi? And I mean for real. Because if you don’t tell me now, I am most certainly calling the police. I mean it.”

Sungmin seemed to sense Kyuhyun’s desperation as he put his glass away and stood up to match Kyuhyun’s level. A very gentle smile appeared on his face.

“Don’t worry Kyuhyun-ah, I’m no thief if that’s what you’re thinking.” Like there’s anything worth stealing here, thought Kyuhyun but kept it to himself. “Quite the opposite actually.” He grinned once again. “I’m an angel. Your angel to be more specific.”

“But angels don’t exist!” Jangmi’s voice disrupted the stream of Kyuhyun’s words. The man chuckled at the girl; he knew she wasn’t going to restrain herself from talking at last. It took her pretty long time though, longer than he would expect.

“Of course they do!” Hanbyeol tried to look at her sister, the fact that they were on different levels making it quite hard of a task.

“They don’t!” The younger girl argued back.

“They do!”

“Do not!”

“Do too! Uncle, tell her!”

“Yes Kyuhyun oppa! Tell her!”

Two pairs of little angered eyes landed on him. Kyuhyun smiled mysteriously at the bickering sisters. “Well. The nineteen years old version of myself would have definitely told you to stop asking such stupid questions. However…”

All of sudden a head appeared in the gap between the door and its frame, making Kyuhyun stop in the middle of his sentence. “Kyuhyun-ah, did you fall asleep as well?” Hangeng’s hushed voice whispered. “We’re back now and you can… Uh-oh. Why are you not sleeping yet, girls?”

Jangmi and Hanbyeol quickly covered themselves with blankets. Jangmi couldn’t resist though and peeked at her appa. “Did you bring any presents?” She asked hopefully.

Hangeng chuckled. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Now go to sleep before your umma sees you! And you are free to go my friend,” he added, looking at Kyuhyun. “We are forever grateful for taking care of our little devils.”

Kyuhyun laughed at this particular choice of words as he stood up, stretching his asleep muscles, and headed to go out. Suddenly he felt little fingers catching his hand and he glanced down at Hanbyeol who was biting her lips with unreadable expression.

“Yeah?” He probed gently.

“Uncle… This is not the end of your story, is it?”

The man smiled oddly and sighed. “It’s the very beginning Byeollie.”

“Then… Will you tell us the rest of it? Someday?” She asked hopefully, not minding the hated nickname he used unconsciously.

“Someday.” He agreed and Hanbyeol was somehow sure her uncle’s mind was far away when he spoke the words. Far away in a kitchen of dark house, reliving this one evening from six years ago. 

Second chapter for you~ Hope you like it :D

I think I'll be posting one chapter per week, let's say, on Mondays - to make you smile at the beginning of a week, how does that sound? (At least a month is the sure thing, about later... we'll see ;p)

~love, puppysauruss ^-^v