" this." Seunghyun muttered under his breath.

He was standing in front of a high-end store at the local mall, in search for the perfect birthday gift for his little sister. He's been wandering around aimlessly, with no idea of what to buy; but somehow his two feet brought him there. He could see the inside of the store through its glass walls. Endless displays of dresses, bags, shoes, and jewelry met his eyes. Yepp, he came to the right place.The moment he came through the glass door, he was immediately welcomed by one of the store's assistant.

"What do you exactly have in mind sir?" he asked after Seunghyun told him about his quest on gift-buying for his sister.

"Ummm... I actually have no idea of what to get her," he admitted sheepishly. "But I think i'll have a look around and see what she might like."

The guy raised an eyebrow at him, eyeing Seunghyun suspiciously.

"Very well, sir." The man said before walking off. Seunghyun wondered what was with that guy. He was treated rather coldly all of a sudden...He saw the guy exchange meaningful looks with the other employees in the store. His face turned red as realization hit him; he knew exactly what they had in mind. One word. Shoplifter.

Anger, irritation and embarrassment went through him, quicker than lightning. He made a decision at that moment; he felt very insulted and decided he was going to have his revenge.He passed by a display of bags and he could feel one of the clerks following him; pretending she was fully engrossed on folding and arranging designer scarves.

A few feet from him was a moss-green handbag that was made of crocodile skin, with gold ts and accentuates. But what made a slow smile creep on his face, is not the bag or the brand of the bag; but its price.

Oh it was perfect. An evil smile formed on his face. This was clearly the most expensive (and the ugliest, honestly speaking) bag in the store and he was going to buy it; never mind if his sister would like it or not. He couldn't wait for the clerks' reaction once he went over the counter to pay for it.

He was about to put his plan in action, when his phone started ringing. Fishing it out of the pocket of his hoodie, he answered it without even bothering to check who was calling him.

"Hello?"

"Seunghyun? It's your mother."

"Oh, hi mom. What made you call?" he asked, as his fingers absently played with the price tag of the bag.

"What made me call?" she repeated, sounding incredulous. " I didn't know it was against nature to call my own son and check on how he is doing." She continued clearly offended.

"Aw, mom... You know that's not what i meant." he was smiling fondly now. He never realized how much he missed her, until he heard her voice. He's been so busy at the hospital, he never got the chance to visit home.

"I know Seunghyun. I was just trying to make you feel guilty for not calling us for over a month. We miss you so much.” she said.

He felt like the world's biggest , for neglecting his responsibilities as his parents' son.

"I'm sorry mom. I didn't keep my promise that I would at least call once a week. It's just i've been so busy at work. But even so, I know it's still not an excuse." He said gloomily.

"It's okay Seunghyun," she said. He could hear running water in the background and figured she might be in the kitchen doing her pre-bedtime-wipe-down of their entire kitchen surface."We understand you're very busy. We're not angry; a bit sad maybe, because you can't seem to find a little time in your tight schedule to call us. But nevertheless, we are very proud of you. Okay? So stop sounding so forlorn sweetheart."

"Thanks mom, for understanding." He said, clearly cheered-up. "I'll make it up to everybody."

"Really?" she sounded very excited.

"Yes, of course. Anything for you guys."

"Okay. Then why don't you start making- up to us by arriving on time for the party tomorrow? "she said, teasing him.

It surprised a laugh out of Seunghyun and he could also hear her laugh on the other line.

"Alright, alright. I'll try not to oversleep... Geez, you know me so well." he chuckled into the phone.

"Of course, you're my son. You came from me, so it's only natural that i already know what you're going to do before you can even start thinking about it." she answered airily. "So, have you bought your gift Eun-ji?

"Uhh..." he guiltily eyed the hideous bag he was so close to purchasing."Not yet. I'm still looking."

“Okay, then. I’m hanging up and leave you to what you’re doing. Bye Seunghyun. I love you and remember don’t be late.”

“I love you too mom and I’ll try to be punctual tomorrow.” He said before ending the call.

He continued his hunt, wondering why it was so hard to find gifts for the female species. Close to giving up, he wandered further into the endless displays of bags and shoes, when something caught his eyes. On one of the many spacious shelves of shoes, was the most perfect pair of baby-pink ballet shoes that was just Eun-ji’s size. His sister did ballet ever since she was  five until now that she was about to turn sixteen; he could almost hear her delighted shriek as he gave it to her tomorrow.

 Grinning from ear-to-ear, he was about to reach for the shoes when a slender pair of hands got to it first. He whipped his head to see who his competition was. He expected it to be some too-cutesy teenager or something, but to his surprise, it was a petite young man who could be mistaken for a ‘too-cutesy teenager or something’. The said man was too busy inspecting the shoes in his hand, that he actually failed to notice Seunghyun who stood there gaping at him.

He cleared his throat to get his attention, but to no avail. He cleared his throat for the second time, loud enough for the man and the other people inside the store to hear. The man looked at him, as if surprised to find Seunghyun standing there.

“I don’t mean to be rude but,” Seunghyun started, as he scratched the back of his head to hide the awkwardness he felt. “I was about to buy that pair of shoes…” he trailed off.

“Excuse me?” the man said, brows furrowing.

Uh-oh. Seunghyun thought.

“I got my hands on these first, so technically it’s mine to buy.”  He continued haughtily.

“Well, I had my eyes on it first.” Seunghyun defended.

“Poor you. Given that you were the one who first saw these lovelies here, still you should have been quick enough to use your hands and not your eyes to express your claim over something other people might want.” The man said, waving one of the shoes in front of Seunghyun’s face for emphasis. “If you didn’t know better, you don’t use your eyes in grabbing or holding on to stuff. So, sorry. This one’s mine.” He said, shrugging.

Seunghyun couldn’t think of any quick and sarcastic retort, so instead he settled for.

“Well could you at least stay put for a minute, so I could show this to the clerk and ask for another pair?”

The man looked at him like he had grown two head before replying. “Fine.”

~~~

“I’m sorry, but we don’t have any other pair for these shoes.” The store assistant stated.

“What? What do you mean?” Seunghyun asked.

“It means,” the man interjected, sounding very bored. “That they only have one pair for every shoes you see on display here, including these” he motioned at the ones he was holding. “You utter-and-absolute moron. This is not some cheap place you know…”

Seunghyun clenched his jaw to calm himself. Just when he thought he could finally go home and sleep (for what he wishes like ten years) after buying the damned shoes, some guy steals it from him, and actually had the audacity to call him a moron.

He took a deep steadying breath before facing the man calmly.

“Then can I appeal to your good nature to please let me have those pair of ballet shoes, so I could buy it as a birthday gift for my little sister.” He stated hopefully.

“No. Why should I?” the man replied coldly

The heartless bastard.

“And besides,” he continued, giving Seunghyun a once-over. “Handsome as you are, I don’t think you can afford it.”

Seunghyun felt something snap in him. The hell? Did he just get insulted for the second time that night? His family owns the biggest private hospital in the ing country, which he is about to inherit ownership ing soon. He could buy the whole damn store if he wanted to.

“What was that supposed to mean?” he growled at the other man. It always made doctors and nurses cower, but not this guy though.

“I meant that.” The man replied, gesturing to all of him.

Seunghyun looked down at what he was wearing. A black hoodie, his favorite sweatpants and… slippers. So what? What was wrong with what he wore? He didn’t know one had to be all “dolled-up” when you buy stuff at this store. And besides he was never the one to show-off that he got money; their parents never raised them that way. Unlike the guy across him, who was wearing a shredded top, black leather pants and lugged around a fiery red tote bag.

“So?” he raised an eyebrow at him

“So, it means I’m wasting my breath talking to you here when I’m supposed to be going over the counter to buy these shoes.” He answered Seunghyun like he was talking to some retard.

“Okay fine, let’s say I can’t afford those,” he said pointing at the pair of shoes nestled against the bosom of the petite man. “But can I ask you a question instead?”

The man rolled his eyes at Seunghyun.

“Fine. But make it quick.” he agreed, impatiently tapping his foot.

“Why do you want those so much, hmmm?” he asked, voice dripping with malice.

The ‘diva’ seemed to be caught off-guard with his question. His mouth opened then closed as he struggled to find an answer; the tell-tale color of red creeping form his neck to his face. Seunghyun tried to hide the smirk on his face; he danced inwardly seeing the too-full-of-himself-man getting embarrassed.

“Well?” he probed.

“Because… because I’m a shoe collector.”

“Really now? Since you’re saying you collect shoes, I assume you have lots of them right? So,” he said casually walking closer to the other. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt if you gave me this.” He told close to the other man’s ear, before snatching the shoes.

He was about to turn around and walk-off, a smirk of victory on his face, when he was suddenly yanked back by the hood of his jacket.

“I believe that is mine.” The man hissed at Seunghyun, who has clearly recovered from fluster.

“Like I said, I had my eyes on it first.” He barked, not about to back down.

“Give it here, while I still ask nicely…” the other said in a threatening manner.

“No.” Seunghyun said stubbornly, flicking the smaller man on the forehead.

“You prick. Come he---“

“Excuse me!!!”

The two of them paused halfway, as the shrill voice of a clerk interrupted them. Looking around, they saw other customers giving them, annoyed, scandalized and even some amused looks. Belatedly they realized that the whole store have gone absolutely quite, and they were unwittingly giving everybody a free show.

Before they could even start to save face, both of them were shoved out (none too gently) of the store, with a firm statement of “And don’t come back” from the employees.

Standing awkwardly outside the store, their eyes met for a moment, before they burst out laughing, all the tension between them disappearing.

“Let’s just laugh off our embarrassment from what happened. I’m Seunghyun by the way.” He said chuckling, as he offered a hand.

“I know. In the end neither of us was able to buy the stupid shoes.” He said, blushing profusely from their little scene inside the store.”Oh, and I’m Jiyong.” Smiling, as he shook Seunghyun’s offered hand.

~~~

Seunghyun sat at the back of a taxi, on his way home. He eyed the gift on his side; wrapped prettily in pink gift-wrapper, pink ribbons, with a pink card; pink everything. He replayed the events of the last few hours in his head and couldn’t stop grinning stupidly. He remembered how he fussed over his sister’s gift, how he was mistaken for a shoplifter, how he was called a moron, and how they ended up becoming ‘persona non-grata’ at a certain high-end boutique.

Jiyong, he found out was a fashion consultant, who just recently moved from L.A. to Seoul. They spent a few more minutes talking, and surprisingly he found the company of the other man enjoyable, if he isn’t being a diva. However they were cut-off as Jiyong had to leave to finish some errands.

They parted ways, with Jiyong heading towards the exit of the mall and Seunghyun towards the elevators. He decided to sneak one last look at Jiyong’s retreating form, but as it turns out, the other man was already looking back at him. They both looked guilty at being caught by each other and exchanged embarrassed smiles before finally parting.

~~~

Sighing, Seunghyun stepped out of the elevator as it stopped on his floor. He was dead tired and all he wanted to do now was crawl under his covers and never wake-up again. He noticed the tower of boxes outside the door of the other flat. There were only two flats on the penthouse level of the luxury residence; one was his.

He took out his keys from his pocket, cursing loudly as he dropped it. He was about to enter, when the door of his new neighbor opened, he then decided to introduce himself there and then.  He found himself facing an equally surprised Jiyong in front of him.

Oh.

A/N: I know the ending right?*bleh … but I still hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this one. Please do leave your comments; they are very much appreciated.

BTW: I didn’t read this so pardon any mistakes I have commited.