The next day, there was another knock on Kyuhyun’s door at midafternoon and Kyuhyun jumped to his feet right away and rushed to the door.  He opened the door wide and smiled at seeing Ryeowook standing there with a paper bag. 

            “Hello!”

            “Hi!  I brought you some goodies to thank you for yesterday,” Ryeowook said.

            Kyuhyun moved out of the way and waved him in.  He’d spent the better part of his day cleaning his house, which he hadn’t done in some time.  Kyuhyun wasn’t the type to keep empty bottles sitting on random surfaces or to throw laundry on the floor, but he also wasn’t very keen on washing and dusting things, so the apartment gleamed with the extra attention he’d paid it.  It even smelled nice with a faint lemony scent in the air. 

            Ryeowook walked straight into his kitchen and set the bag down on the kitchen table.  “I thought I’d bring you a few things, since I often bake more than we can sell anyway and people always want the freshest stuff, so I bought over some white and wheat bread,” he said, taking them out of the bag and setting them on the tabletop.  “Then I brought a caramel roll, a few cookies, a chocolate cupcake, and a couple donuts.  I’m not really sure what you like to eat, so I just brought over a little of everything.”

            Kyuhyun’s eyes went wide as he stared at the sweets in front of him.  “The trouble is, I like everything.  So, I’m probably going to eat all of it in an embarrassingly short amount of time.”

            Ryeowook looked him over.  “You don’t look like you eat anything.”

            “That’s because I never have any food here, remember?”

            “No,” he corrected him.  “Your cupboards are full of food.  It’s because you don’t cook.”

            “How the hell do you stay so slim when you can bake all this?” Kyuhyun asked, grabbing one of the cookies and starting in on it.

            “You learn to control yourself.  When it’s always available to you, it isn’t as big a deal,” Ryeowook said, shrugging.  “Do you even have anything to make a sandwich with?  I should have asked before I bothered bringing bread over, I guess.”

            “I have butter in the fridge,” Kyuhyun said, still chewing his cookie.

            Ryeowook looked around his kitchen, noting that he did have a microwave, coffee maker, and a toaster.  “You don’t order out much then?”

            “No, I usually buy frozen stuff and nuke it,” he admitted.  “There’s really no sense learning to cook when I’m the only one here anyway.”

            Ryeowook shook his head.  “I happen to cook almost every night.  Then I just eat my leftovers for lunch the next day.”

            “Every night?” asked Kyuhyun in disbelief.

            Ryeowook nodded.  “But, of course, I clearly like to bake and cook, so it comes naturally to me.  Sorry that I didn’t have any red velvet cake to bring in, but next time I make some for the bakery, I’ll save you a slice and bring it home.  Okay?”

            “You don’t have to do that—although you can if you want—but this is more than enough to pay back for the sugar.  You didn’t have to bring me all this,” he said.

            “Well, the bread just ends up going to waste if I don’t sell it within a couple days.  I donate what I don’t sell to the homeless shelter anyway.  From now on, I’ll bring you some.  Since you don’t have any food, you’re almost as bad off as they are,” he joked.  “Although I don’t know your preference.”

            “White.”

            “Wheat is more nutritious.”

            “Oh, you’re one of those people, are you?” Kyuhyun said, picking out another cookie.

            “I am, but I’ll still bring you white if that’s what you like,” Ryeowook smiled.  “Should I rummage through my old cookbooks and see if there’s any that you might like?”

            “That would be a waste of time,” Kyuhyun informed him, biting into the second cookie.  “I don’t care how easy it is, I’m just too lazy to cook.”

            “Well, it tried,” Ryeowook said, sighing.

            From then on, every two or three days, Ryeowook began to bring Kyuhyun over a loaf of bread and one or two goodies from the bakery.  He refused to bring more sweets, claiming he didn’t want to be held responsible for his neighbor gaining weight from overindulging.  Kyuhyun, in turn, began to pick up jellies, lunch meats, cheeses, lettuce, mayo, and cream cheese whenever he was at the grocery store.  He found more and more ways of using up the bread that Ryeowook gave him and even occasionally made himself a grilled cheese sandwich, although he never told anyone that he’d the stovetop to make something.  He didn’t want anyone thinking that he’d accepted the idea of making himself a meal.  It was just nice to try something different once in a while.

            In early December, there was a knock on Kyuhyun’s door and he eagerly jumped to his feet, although he was a little confused.  Ryeowook had dropped off bread and chocolate covered pretzels the day before.  He wasn’t necessarily due back for another day or two.  Perhaps Changmin was coming to see him and forgot to text first, but then he opened the door and smiled at seeing his little neighbor. 

            “Hi,” he warmly greeted him. 

            “Hey, Kyuhyun.  I’m making curry for dinner and I was wondering if you’d like to come over to eat,” Ryeowook invited. 

            “Really?” Kyuhyun asked, his heart beginning to beat loudly in his chest. 

            Ryeowook nodded.  “Yeah, I made more than I planned in order to use up some chicken and as much as I like it, I don’t want to eat it all week long.  Do you want to come over at about six and have dinner?”

            “I’d love to,” Kyuhyun enthusiastically answered.  “I can bring some wine if you want,” he offered.

            “Sure.  See you in a little bit,” Ryeowook said, going back to his own apartment.

            Kyuhyun shut the door and then leaned back against it.  He’d never been invited to Ryeowook’s apartment before—aside from that first day—although Ryeowook had been in his numerous times already.  He suddenly felt excited at the idea of learning more about his neighbor.  You could tell so much about a person by what their home looked like.  Kyuhyun’s apartment was admittedly rather plain, but he had nice furniture and electronics.  He made decent enough money, so his stuff wasn’t mismatched or worn out, it just didn’t have a whole lot of personality to it.  He didn’t have a lot of pictures or knick-knacks sitting around.  Now that Ryeowook made a habit of stopping by regularly, he kept up on dishes and vacuuming and all that.  But he had a feeling that he would understand Ryeowook much better by seeing his place.  He had a feeling that Ryeowook’s personality would be poured right out into his home décor and he couldn’t wait to see it.

            Kyuhyun glanced at the clock and realized he only had a half hour.  He decided to change, feeling too grubby in his flannel shirt and baggy jeans, and put on a nice sweater and one of the pairs of jeans he owned that usually had the female residents of the ap