Kyung Mi sighed; her eyebrows furrowed in frustration, trying to pick between a strawberry or banana milk. Finally deciding to go with strawberry, she grabbed the heaven-packed bottle and headed towards the cash register.

A familiar ringtone blasted out from her backpack as she hurriedly ped the bag, pulling out her phone before answering the call. “Hello?”

“Kyung Mi, where did you go?” The girl inwardly groaned, recognizing her mom’s voice on the other line and the lecture soon to be given towards her.

“Umma, I’m at the supermarket.” She could almost see her mom’s frown of disapproval. “You’re not out meeting someone are you?”

Kyung Mi sighed before insuring her mom that she was out at the supermarket to simply buy some strawberry milk. “Come home right this instant. You should know better. The finals are coming up soon and you’re wasting your precious studying time.”

Looking ahead of her, she sighed at the long line of people waiting to pay for their groceries. “Yes Umma.” A look of slight irritation bit at the girl’s features. Ending the call, she looked sadly at the bottle of milk. “Well, I’ll hopefully meet you sometime soon.. So much for rewarding myself for getting all A pluses on my tests.”  

Running to place the bottle back with it’s family at the dairy section, she headed out of the supermarket, making her way back home, knowing he mom will for sure be complaining about her lateness. Just when exactly will her parents ever be satisfied?

Her thoughts wandered off to the test tomorrow morning and suddenly felt herself becoming drained. Science wasn’t exactly her strong point in school, but yet that’s what she’s trying so hard. An impact made Kyung Mi snap out of her thoughts. The person must have been very big compared her, considering it made the girl stumble a few steps back.

“Oh I’m- “ The words of apology were cut off the moment she came in face with the stranger - staring back at her with such venomous eyes, it could kill. The cold dark glare made her shrink back. Looking down, she spot a huge ice cream stain on his suit. In his hand was a half eaten ice cream cone and the girl finally understood why he was giving her such a glare.

“Say you’re sorry.” the male demanded, earning a frown of distaste from her. Kyung Mi has always been the girl who hated rebellious or unrespectful people. Her morals in life were high and people who broke them caused her to have an utter dislike in them. Biting at her lower lip, she held back from yelling at the man’s face, muttering a word of apology.

“I’m going to need to get this dry cleaned.” the male commanded once again as Kyung Mi’s frown grew deeper. “And how much would that be?”

“500 dollars.” She shot him a look of disbelief. “500 dollars?! Sir, are you insane? There is no way a dry cleaning could cost that much.”

Raising an eyebrow at Kyung Mi, the male sauntered back and forth before her. “I had specifically ordered this suit to be made according to my liking, therefore I cannot go to one of those simple dry cleaning stores on the streets. There is a private dry cleaning company for brand suits like this and the price is reasonably high.”

“Private dry cleaning company? Is there even such a thing?” A voice interrupted from behind and Kyung Mi couldn’t help get get surprised by the deepness of the voice. It was sure to belong to a male. Turning around, she came in face with a unexpectedly handsome young male. He looked around the same age as her, if not older by a few years. But the deepness of his voice was surprisingly low.

“Excuse me young sir?” The elder man gave the nameless boy a questioning look.

“You heard me. I’ve never heard of a private cry cleaning company. And even if there is, you should understand that this is simply an accident.” Kyung Mi stared incredulously at the unknown stranger. Was he actually trying to help her?

“An accident that was her fault.” The man accused as the latter shook his head in disagreement.

“We aren’t so sure of that. Is there proof to support the fact it was completely her fault and you weren’t being careless either?”

The man growled, ignoring the young male before turning to face Kyung Mi again. “Miss, I’m going to need the money or there will be consequences.”

Gnawing her lower lip, the girl unconsciously looked up to the nameless stranger for help. Why, she didn’t know. Maybe because she found a bit of hope, considering her had tried helping her out. As if he caught her message, or if it was simply her imagination - she wasn’t all too sure during this stage of shock -  she caught the male’s lips twitch up into a slight smirk.

And what happened next was a total blur. The next thing she knew, she was hand and hand with that unknown stranger, dashing through the streets of Seoul. From behind, a couple men in black suits were chasing them. Passing by the people in the streets, they received several shouts of complaints and looks of disapproval. Kyung Mi frowned. She was never the type who would accept being looked down at by someone.

“Yah! What do you think you’re doing?!” Kyung shouted, completely bewildered of why the boy had suddenly taken her hand and started running. They don’t even know each other.

The male looked back for a moment, checking to see how far the men were from them, before giving her an unexpected look of amusement. “You look to me for help didn’t you? Well, I’m helping you right now.”

Kyung Mi was already panting hard by now, barely able to keep up with boy’s speed ahead. “I didn’t expect help to be this way! “

“Well what else can we do?” The girl yelped slightly, almost hitting into a street lamp while running. “Stay there and pay him the money? I doubt you’d have 500 dollars to pay him.”

Pressing her lips into a straight line, Kyung Mi couldn’t help but agree to what he had said. “Come on! They’re catching up and we’re slowing down!” Turning around, she became panicked, seeing how they had suddenly appeared to be much closer to the runaway couple. A look of fear stuck her as she pushed her legs forwards as fast as she could, being slightly frustrated at how they weren’t making her move as fast as she wanted to.

“What are we doing n --” Feeling a large pair of hands covered , her eyes widened before recognizing the familiar voice speaking into her ears. “Sh, quiet. You would want us to get caught now would you?”

Kyung Mi shook her head slightly, seeing that it was only her savior trying to keep her quiet. They stayed like that for a few minutes, his heart beating behind her while little pants were coming from as the result of the running from earlier.

“I think we’re safe.” He finally said at last as she let out a big sigh of relief. Kyung Mi finally took a good look at the boy and suddenly found herself having a certain dislike in him. No, she wasn’t that type of people to be judging anyone, but why she had this feeling of distaste in him, she didn’t know. The girl couldn’t help herself. It was just there. His aura gave off a bit of a rebellious feel, and she was well aware of her dislike in rebels. Was that the reason why?

Scanning his body, she could see he was quite built for his ages, his bare arms showing off some muscles and her mind couldn’t help but wonder if there were abs covered under his shirt as well. The little thought made the female blush slightly, now kind of thankful for the running earlier to cover up for the redness in her face.

“That was fun wasn’t it?” Kyung Mi snapped out of her thoughts at the boy’s words, and looked up, becoming surprised of the expression on his face. He was showing her a smile, and it seemed so sincere that she almost regret having thought bad of him earlier. What his face was showing - Kyung Mi couldn’t put it into words. It showed of such joy and happiness; his eyes were almost sparkling under the sunlight. And that was what bewildered her.

Just why is he so happy?

The had run away from people who were trying to get money from them, and possibly do something else if they didn’t have the payment, but yet, why is he smiling as if he just heard that he died but managed to come back alive?

She found herself lost in his smile, in that happiness of his, and felt herself becoming just a slight bit envious. Snapping back to reality, she frowned deeply at the boy, earning a confused look from him.

“No it wasn’t.” Kyung Mi gave him a hard look, his confused expression turning even more confused. “Did you know how dangerous that was?”

“Well you’re the one that caught yourself in that mess the first place.” The boy reasoned, making the girl embarassed. She had always been the type to win at any arguement. Her frown grew deeper as she continued.

‘Well yes but there could have been other ways to have solved that problem. It wasn’t a good choice to go running off like that. People in the streets don’t appreciate that and I don’t like looking like a hooligan running down the street.”

The boy raised an eyebrow at her. “Other ways to solve it? Like what?”

“Um..” Kyung Mi bit her lip - a habit of hers when she was trying to think - trying to find a solution.

The boy chuckled. “See? There’s nothing.”

“No! There is one! I just have to think of it!”

“But by the time you think it one, it’s already too late. So why not just do what your instinct tells you to?” Growing slightly shocked at his words, she opened to argue but stopped when she felt his hand on top of her head, ruffling up her hair. On his face was the same smile she saw earlier when he asked her the question.

“Hey, sometimes, it’s okay to let loose.”

“What do you me - -” Her sentence was cut off as he said bye, waving to her as he walked off in an opposite direction. “I’ll see you around sometime.”

He turned around, giving her a smile again, and somehow this time, she felt her stomach do an unfamiliar churn at it. And the next thing that came out from was something she’d least expect herself to say to a stranger who she would probably never even meet again.

“Wait!” The boy turned around, tilting his head at her as she bit her lip.  “What’s your name?”

Her lips rose to a smile that almost seemed teasing. “Fate.” Her eyebrows furrowed. His name is Fate? “It’s all up to fate. If it decides to let us meet again, I’ll tell you then.” And just like that, Kyung Mi could see his figure slowly fading in the distance.

His words rang in her head loud and clear. He'd tell her when the meet again. And she couldn’t help but hope that they will.

Author's note : The first chapter seemed a bit boring to me. What do you guys think? Does it seem a bit cliche? No worries, I'm honestly asking you to stay with me cause I just know you won't regret reasing this alright? This is the first time I'm confident in one of my storylines (trust me doesn't happen easily. I have super high expections of myself) so I'm honestly asking for you guys to stick with me and read through the entire thing.

You won't regret it alright? ; w ;

comments make me feel loved and I like opinions from my readers. lets me know what to improve on and fix. happy reading!