(as i was writing this i realized that the last 3 chaps all took place in one night T_T talk about progress)

I sat across from Kyu at the kitchen table watching him take noisy slurps of his ramen noodles as I took small bites. I stared as he inhaled the food, splashing soup all around the corners of his mouth, all the while with his eyes closed and his head leaning to one side.

Kyu’s not really a morning person. It’s not that he gets grumpy after waking up or anything, it’s just that it’s like he’s on autopilot for the first couple of hours. Later today, if I were to ask him about breakfast, he would remember that he ate noodles, but he wouldn’t remember that he almost burned the place down by slipping the pot holder into the pan while waiting for the water to boil, thus forcing me to take over breakfast duties whiles he napped at the table. 

It still fascinates me that he knows where to aim the fork at his face because I’m pretty sure I once jabbed myself in the nose when I was in a similar state.

Kyu was the first to finish, and when he did, he got up to place the empty bowl in the sink, just when we heard a knock at the front door. 

Eyes opening half way, Kyu shuffled to the door and after a short, uninterested ‘hi’, he was making his way back to the kitchen table, leaving the door ajar. “It’s for you,” he says lazily. “Matthew.”

Matthew? I hurried out of my seat and went to the door to see Matthew there with his hands together behind his back and a fatherly smile on his face which I responded to. “Hi Matthew.”

“Donghae, my boy. Did you sleep well? It seems like Kyuhyun is still counting sheep.” He let out a raspy  chuckle.

Matthew is the limo driver that Umma assigned to me when I was still young. He was on the older side, but not too old, even though he had white hair and a considerate number of wrinkles. He’s also really tall. His mother was from New York and that’s why his name is so English sounding. It used to be a little hard for me to pronounce when I was younger, so much that at one point I called him Mah - Chu which turned into Macho, for  a whole year, but after  I started getting English lessons, it became more comfortable. Besides from Kyu and Leeteuk hyung, he’s one of the closest friends that I have and I tell him everything. 

“You might be right about that. But I slept fine, thank you. Come in.”

“Oh, no. You’re mother actually sent me here to pick you up.”

“Oh! We should get going then. Just give me a sec.”

He nodded and moved to lean against the door frame and I took large steps back over to the breakfast area to see that Kyu’s head was propped on his palm and was pushing up the left side of his face making him look funny. 

Too bad there was no time to take a picture… you know what, I’ve got time. 

I pulled out my phone and snapped a shot but it turned out blurry because my shoulders were shaking lightly as I tired to hold in a laugh. When the second shot turned out better, I pocketed the phone and poked my best friend in the cheek a couple of times before he came to his senses. “What?” he grumbled out. 

“I gotta leave. Umma’s expecting me back at home.” I picked up my unfinished noodles to help clean up my portion of the mess, but Kyu just flapped his hand in the direction of the door. “Leave it and just go. I don’t want you to lose an arm or something because you were five minutes late.”

I shook my head. Still as rude as ever. I reached across the small space to swat at his head, and when he didn’t respond, I concluded that it was still too early for him. 

“Ok. I going. I’ll talk to you later.”

Kyu just hmmmed and I rushed back over to where Matthew was patiently waiting, turning the lock from inside and shutting the door before spinning to follow as Matthew led the way onto the streets where the black limo stuck out like a sore thumb in the middle class neighborhood. 

Matthew looked a little shocked to see a group of girls posing and taking pictures around the vehicle but I found it kind of funny and cute so I tugged at his sleeve and told him that we could wait by the building entrance until they were done, not wanting to ruin their fun. 

After they had taken their share of photos ten minutes later, Matthew looked relieved as he walked over to the driver side.

We started driving and for a while it was quiet. I was enjoying the scenery, which was mostly small residential buildings and the occasional store or fast food place, when Matthew glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “Donghae, son. Are you alright? I heard from some of the maids about what happened last night.”

My eyes dropped to my lap as I recalled the scene, but refused to think much about it. “Yeah. I’m fine.” I flashed him a smile when his eyes met mine in the mirror again. He looked a little doubtful but I told him not to worry about it. 

“If you ever need anything, don’t ever hesitate to ask me, ok?” I said ‘yes’ and that conversation died down. 

Halfway through the drive, we started talking about random things like the latest gossip running between the maids and how many times in the last few weeks Kyu had managed to tick Heechul hyung off (yes, he knew about that too). 

Because my house wasn’t that far from Kyu’s place, we were pulling up in front of the main entrance twenty minutes later. 

I made my way up the steps that lead to the huge, heavy double doors and hadn't even gotten one foot fully in the doorway yet when I was being rushed off by one of the maids who told me that Umma requested to see me as soon as I got home. 

I was led once again to Umma’s office and when I was given permission to enter, I saw that she was pacing around the room twirling a pen in her hand as she flipped through a ridiculously large file. 

At the sound of the door, she didn't look up, but instead, pointed with the pen for me to take the guest chair close to her desk. 

Even though it was quite early in the morning, her face was already polished perfect with a noticeable amount of makeup and she had on a black button up blouse and a pretty red skirt.    

“The business party is tomorrow night and it’s a big move for my company so first impressions are necessary. You need to look your best so I suggest you go shopping for a new suit; one that shows you’re my son.” 

I nodded in understanding and was waiting for her to say something else. A little part of me was hoping she would bring up last night and tell me it was a mistake. 

But that didn’t happen because when she noticed I hadn’t left yet, she gave me a sharp look and said that I should get going. 

I was feeling a bit down as I went into my bedroom and slowly inched my way over to the huge walk in closet, playing eeny meeny miny moe to pick an outfit worthy of heading to the mall in. 

I was slipping on my batman shirt when I heard a knock on my door. When the shirt was fixated correctly, I called for the person to come in. 

It turned out to be three people: two of the younger maids, Sandara and Bom, and Matthew standing behind them looking as if he was there against his free will. 

The two noonas quickly slipped into the room leaving Matthew to take his time.

Sandara noona came over and started to pinch my cheeks while Bom noona tried to pry her hands away from my face. 

“Leave the poor kid alone. If you keep doing that every time you see him, he’s gonna have overly saggy cheeks when he turns old.”

“It’s true.” Matthew piped up from where he was now sitting at the edge of my bed. “Happened to my brother. He had a hard time with the ladies at the nursing home.”

I giggled and asked them why they were here. 

“To go shopping with you! It’s gonna be so much fun!” Sandara noona exclaimed a excitedly. Bom noona slapped her over the head for making such a scene and Matthew just shook his head. 

“Alright. Let me just fix my hair and then we can go.” I ran my hand through my hair bringing my bangs to front and making sure there were no stray pieces left out in the back.  

I gave myself a once over in the full length mirror. The black tee shirt and blue jeans looked fine together so I announced that I was ready which resulted in my arm being jerked towards the bedroom door as Sandara noona dragged me outside with Bom noona and Matthew following closely behind.

~

When we arrived at the mall, the two women led the way, and Matthew and I trailed behind like two lost puppies; whenever I came with Kyu, we would always end up at the electronics store, specifically the gaming department, so I didn’t really know my way around.  

We ended up in front of a very fancy, elegant, high end store, and only after going in and spotting the giant logo on the wall did I finally realize that it was one of Umma’s stores. 

As soon as we stepped in, we were attacked by an eager sales associate who asked if there was anything specific we were looking for. Bom noona did all the talking, saying that we were in store for something elegant but sophisticated whiles Sandara noona kept interrupting in the background about making sure there were lots of colors ,which went ignored. 

We were led over to a private area that had a huge changing room with small couches set up around it. I was told to make myself comfortable while Bom and Sandara noona went with the sales associate to pick some outfits. 

It took a while but eventually the three of them came back, each carrying a huge pile of clothes. I was pushed into the changing room and handed a shirt and a pair of pants before the heavy curtain was pulled shut, leaving me inside to try on the pieces.

This went on for a while. Sometimes when I was changing, there would be a warning call from Sandara noona before some additional pieces of clothing or accessories came flying over the top of the dressing room. 

Every time I stepped out and into the little observation area, Sandara and Bom noona would ‘awww’ and come up to me, tugging at my clothes asking if it was too tight anywhere and how much I liked the outfit on a scale of one to ten. 

Matthew was relaxing in one of the outer couches and would give a silent thumbs up my way if he liked something or make a gagging face whenever he found something dislikable. 

I would giggle at his occasional gestures for the bad outfits but I think that sent a wrong message to the three in charge of this whole operation because every time I would laugh at one of Matthew’s faces, Bom noona would tell the sales associate to pack up the outfit I was wearing.

The whole experience took a total of about four hours because not only did I try on a lot of clothes, but I (or more like Sandara noona) was talked into trying on fancy shoes, and we ended up getting three new pairs. 

It was quite a struggle getting into the parking lot and to the limo with all the bags that each of us were carrying, especially due to the amount of people at the mall, none of whom didn’t really understand the concept of moving out of the way for someone who had just emptied out an entire store. 

When we were all packed up and driving, I spotted an ice cream parlor tucked away in a side street and I somehow managed to convince Matthew to stop so that we could buy. I got strawberry kiwi, Sandara noona got chocolate chip mint with extra sprinkles, Bom noona picked mango peach, and Matthew went old school with vanilla. We chose to sit outside under one of the umbrella tables and people-watched for a bit an after that we headed back. 

I’m pretty happy with the way today turned out.