“Thank you for agreeing to present the talk Kyuhyun-ah,” Mr Jung expressed his gratitude as he set down a cup of tea on the coffee table for Kyuhyun before taking a seat opposite his former student.

“It’s my pleasure seon-saeng-nim. But really, career talks during the assembly? It seems so yesteryears. No offence, but do the students ever listen? At least during my time, we seemed to be bored by all the speakers,” Kyuhyun chortled.

“That’s why I invited you today to be one of our speakers. I’m sure your job would interest the students out there, at least the female students,” Mr Jung laughed.

“But they’re not even part of Younique’s readership demographic,” Kyuhyun pointed out. “I wonder if they ever heard of Younique.”

“I did consider that, but it would be inspiring to the students at least…since you started out with the school paper and all,” Mr Jung said.

“And I was really stressed out over what to say to keep the students engaged. Anyway, I’ve prepared some multimedia presentation to go with the talk,” Kyuhyun informed.

“That’s really great Kyuhyun-ah,” Mr Jung gushed. “Anyway, how’s your health? Is that getting any better? I remember that you had some heart problems when you were with us.”

“Much better now, seon-saeng-nim. Thank you for your concern. I’ve had an operation last year and I’m doing better now. At least my illness is no longer life-threatening,” Kyuhyun smiled.

Just as Kyuhyun picked up the cup to take a sip of tea, he felt his heart racing rapidly. His hands trembled and the cup shook. He quickly set down the cup back on the table.

Why was he feeling this way? Was he nervous? Why would he be nervous about giving a talk? He’s the almighty Cho Kyuhyun who has worked with all sorts of celebrities and models big and small, difficult and easygoing – so why would be he afraid of a bunch of teenagers? Perhaps it is because they’re critical, very critical. It’s probably much worse now in this generation than it was in his generation.

Just then they heard a knock on the door. The rapid palpitation in Kyuhyun’s heart had yet to calm down. In fact it grew stronger that Kyuhyun felt that his heart was about to explode within or burst through his chest.

“That should be the other speaker for the day,” Mr Jung informed. “He’s a photographer. Excuse me for a while.”

Kyuhyun nodded his head as Mr Jung stood up and went to open the door. Meanwhile, Kyuhyun took deep breaths in an effort to calm down. He was so occupied by his thoughts that he did not bother to take notice of the other guest. In fact Kyuhyun’s view was obscured by Mr Jung. Finally, the thumping stopped and Kyuhyun slumped back in relaxation. Just then Mr Jung stepped aside and Kyuhyun raised his head and turned towards Mr Jung and he was astonished at whom he saw.

Lee Sungmin.

Mr Jung motioned for Kyuhyun to come forward. Kyuhyun rose from his seat and with his trademark smirk, sauntered across the room.

“It’s been a long while Sungmin-ssi,” Kyuhyun remarked as he bowed.

“Yes, it’s been a while,” Sungmin stuttered as be bowed whilst trying to recover from the surprise at meeting Kyuhyun at his formal school.

……

Kyuhyun and Sungmin were sitting opposite one another at Prince Coffee House. The talk had already ended and since they had some time on their hands, Kyuhyun invited Sungmin for a chat over coffee.

Kyuhyun had just brought the drinks back. “I look the liberty of ordering for you an espresso. I had this feeling that you might like an espresso.”

Sungmin nodded. “It’s uncanny. You really could read my mind.”

Kyuhyun reached for a packet of sugar, tore in open, poured half a packet into his café latte, and stirred the drink.

“It’s a shame that the latte art had to be destroyed,” Kyuhyun remarked.

Those words, they sound so familiar, Sungmin thought.

“Aren’t you using the entire packet of sugar?” Sungmin asked.

“I don’t really like my coffee sweet,” Kyuhyun replied. “I used to like my coffee sweet. I would use more than a packet, but now, I would usually use half a packet nowadays.”

Sungmin blinked his eyes and thought he saw Siwon sitting right in front of him. Siwon doesn’t like his coffee sweet too. He usually uses half a packet of sugar.

Sungmin was about to call Siwon’s name but just then he blinked his eyes again and realised that it was Kyuhyun that was opposite him. 

So Kyuhyun turned out to be two years in junior in high school.

Sungmin’s mind took to him back to the talk earlier. So it turned out that Kyuhyun used to be a member of the editorial team responsible for the school’s monthly newspaper.

Kyuhyun worked as a journalist covering political news for a few months before he was transferred to the lifestyle desk. That was when he started reading up on fashion and immersed himself in all lifestyle trends. He attended many events and established many contacts in the industry. He was later scouted by the then editor in chief in Younique who invited him to join the magazine as a features editor where he was trained to succeed the editor in chief in the future.  

Kyuhyun’s talk was rather interesting as he spoke about the production process of the magazine. He spoke animatedly about the frenzied schedules and pressure the team has to face each issue. He also showed some slides of the various covers of Younique. He even showed them a mock-up of the magazine and screened a behind the scenes footage of a previous photo shoot.

Kyuhyun later took questions from the students. They wanted him to spill the beans and secrets of some of the celebrities he worked him. Without mentioning any names, he did share that some of them do act like divas and were really difficult to work with, but he added that he always he has his way of getting them to cooperate with him. Another student asked about how he felt being with so many beautiful women in the industry. Another asked him whether the magazine was all glitz and glamour. Another asked him whether people in the industry are superficial. He managed to give a witty response to all the answers. But the most difficult question posed that afternoon was about the possible rumour that he was dating Victoria and whether he was going to get engaged to her.   

This put Kyuhyun into quite a spot. So he decided to go with the usual standard media response by saying that he and Victoria are just really close friends much to the disappointment/relief of some of the students. Sungmin, however, knew better.

“I’m feeling hungry,” Kyuhyun announced. “I want to get something to eat. Do you want something?”

“Sure, anything will do,” Sungmin replied.

Kyuhyun returned not long after with a chicken pie and a slice of cheesecake with a strawberry jellied layer on top.

“Strawberry cheesecake! That’s my favourite!” Sungmin squealed. He realised that he was making an embarrassment of himself and he shrunk back in his seat.

Kyuhyun merely chuckled at Sungmin as he broke the puffy crust of his chicken pot pie. He took a nibble of the crust, before breaking the rest of the crust and letting the top sink into the creamy gravy before scooping it up with a chunky piece of chicken and potato and devouring it.

The image of Kyuhyun reminded Sungmin of Siwon as Sungmin paused on his meal. Siwon had once before ordered a chicken pot pie and had broken the top crust, taken a bite at it, before letting the rest of the crust collapse into the bowl of gravy before lapping it up.

Like Siwon, Kyuhyun also got some cream stains on his lips. This triggered Sungmin to say, “Wonnie, there’s some cream on your lips.”

Sungmin took the paper napkin and leaned forward to wipe the stain of Kyuhyun’s lips but Kyuhyun only asked in return, “Wonnie?”

“Anyway, I’ve got that,” Kyuhyun continued as he took his own paper napkin to wipe his lips.    

Sungmin pulled back and realised that it was Kyuhyun and not Siwon that was sitting opposite him.

Why did I even mistake Kyuhyun for Wonnie? Isn’t this the normal way that most people eat a pot pie? Why am I even mistaking associating something so common with Wonnie?

Anyway, Kyuhyun did not press on who Wonnie was.

“So you were a member of the photographic society in our high school?” Kyuhyun asked.

“Vice-president, to be exact,” Sungmin replied.

This caused Kyuhyun to withdraw back and paused wistfully.

“Is there anything wrong?” Sungmin asked when he noticed Kyuhyun had fallen silent.

Kyuhyun shook his head.

“It’s kind of strange that we might not have met one another in school only to run into each other more than a decade after our graduation. Wait… have we ever run into one another in school? After all you were with the editorial team and the photographic society worked quite closely with the team…” Sungmin asked.

“I don’t…think…so…” Kyuhyun muttered. “I was only a writer. You would probably have dealt with my editor or something.”

Sungmin nodded in understanding.

“How did you get into the school’s editorial team? Most guys at the age would prefer some outdoor clubs or societies that organise a lot of events,” Sungmin enquired.

“What about you? Why join the photographic society?” Kyuhyun asked in return.

“Ya, I asked the question first!” Sungmin protested.

“I wasn’t able to do sports. I suffered from a con heart condition so I can’t exert myself. So I did mostly indoor stuff like music, writing, computer games, mathematics and all that. I even represented my middle school and our high school in Olympiads and won,” Kyuhyun beamed.

“Anyway, my language teacher thought I have a flair for writing and so recommended me to try out for the editorial team. I’ve been keeping a journal since elementary school and I like to write opinion pieces, so I thought that it might be a good idea to join. And as for how I got into the business, you already know the story from my talk earlier,” Kyuhyun said as he took another bite of his pie.

“So did you feel left out just because you couldn’t do sports?” Sungmin asked.

“A little I guess. I wasn’t the coolest or hottest guy around. I still had friends. I was viewed as a geek or nerd. But those who knew about my condition didn’t see me as that,” Kyuhyun shrugged.

“But look at you now! You have one of the coolest jobs around. You mingle with celebrities and good-looking people; you attend all the great events and parties. I bet that some of your ex-schoolmates or ex-classmates must be regretting viewing you as un-cool or something,” Sungmin remarked.

“Well, you work with good-looking people and celebrities too,” Kyuhyun pointed out.

“Not as often as you,” Sungmin replied.

“So why did you join the photographic society?” Kyuhyun asked.

“Well you know about my story, don’t you? I told you about how I got into photography on the car ride in Jeju,” Sungmin said.

“Oh! That’s right. It started with an old camera your father had given to you which you then started experimenting or something. And you mentioned something about your fascination with capturing memories…”

“You actually remember!” Sungmin exclaimed happily.

Kyuhyun nodded. “So did your classmates see you as being a nerd or a geek, or less manly because you were in the photographic society?”

Sungmin shook his head. “I also participated in martial arts so…”

“Wow!” Kyuhyun gasped. “I wouldn’t have known.”

“What do you mean?” Sungmin pretended to look offended.

“I mean…I mean…” Kyuhyun stammered, knowing that he had made an inappropriate comment. But Sungmin just laughed it off good-naturedly.

“I don’t really practise martial arts nowadays,” Sungmin said.

They continued with their food and drink in silence until Kyuhyun piped up, “So you did fine arts in the university?”

Sungmin nodded and sighed. “However that displeased my parents. They wanted me to study something more practical. They felt that this line had no future or prospects and I wouldn’t be able to earn a decent loving. So I worked pretty hard at establishing my portfolio and myself. After some time, they finally approved of what I did.”

Kyuhyun nodded in understanding. “You’ve done pretty good work there. And with your latest shoot for Younique, you definitely put your name out there. I’m sure more projects would come your way.”

“Thanks for giving me a chance,” Sungmin said.

“Speaking of which, I’m so sorry for not contacting you earlier. I’ve wanted to contact you but I realised that I didn’t have your number and then I just kept procrastinating,” Kyuhyun rattled.

“Do you have a business card or something?” Kyuhyun asked.

“I do,” Sungmin said as he reached for his wallet and fished out a business card and handed it to Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun did the same but he took out a pen and scribbled his handphone number and email on the card.

“I know that it would be difficult to contact me if you try to go through the receptionist. So it would be easier to contact me on my handphone,” Kyuhyun said.

“Thank you,” Sungmin said.

“I did say I would like to explore opportunities to work with you in the future,” Kyuhyun said.

Sungmin nodded.

“Younique has some projects line up. Would you be interested in some of them? Perhaps you would like to come down to my office on Monday afternoon to discuss?” Kyuhyun asked as he took out his handphone to check his appointments. Is 3pm okay with you or do you have some other job or engagement that day?”

Sungmin took out his handphone to check his appointments. “I don’t have anything up. Monday at three in the afternoon is fine.”

“Great, I shall see you then,” Kyuhyun said.

Just as they were about to finish with their tea, a sudden realisation struck Sungmin.

“Kyuhyun-ssi, were you that guy with the plastic frame glasses who always sat in one corner quietly in the co-curricular activity room?”

“Remember the accident that happened outside the school...?” Sungmin continued to press on.

And Kyuhyun suddenly remembered.

This is the same Lee Sungmin from high school – except that he is now more matured and grown up.  

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Ok, thank you guys for the patience and waiting for two weeks =) 

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. So they had a connection much much earlier. 

Anyway please continue to comment and support this story =) Thanks once again.

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KyuMin: Almost a love story

KyuMin: 60 Days 

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