"Damn it. Damn it. Damn it." Jiyong said under his breath as he threw random possessions about, trying to find his missing shoe. It was already 8:05 in the morning and if he didn't find the missing foot wear in the next 5 seconds he was going to miss the bus and therefore be late to work. Again.

"It's gotta be around here somewhere," he mumbled as he threw the pants he had worn the previous night over to the corner. "I was just wearing then yesterday. Why does this happen to me." Two days ago he couldn't find his wallet. Last week he had misplaced his keys. And the week before that he had somehow lost his iPod, but he ended up finding it in his coat pocket just yesterday, thank god.

"Wait!" Jiyong shouted to himself, remembering the jacket that held his music player, which he remembered was piled in a ball at the end of his couch. He quickly ran out of his room and pulled the jacket off the ground, revealing the lost shoe he had been looking for. Foregoing celebration, Jiyong grabbed the boot and shoved it onto his right foot as he stumbled to the front door. Pulling his keys out, he quickly locked his door and made off down the hallway towards the elevator. He pressed the down button and as he waited for it to come back up from the lobby he looked at his phone to check the time. "8:07," he sighed and pressed the down button once more just because he made himself believe that it actually made a difference. When the lift arrived, the doors opened to reveal an empty compartment and he swiftly stepped in and pressed the button for the lobby.

He in a deep breath and let out a sigh of relief as the elevator started descending. "Hang on... there it is again." He said to the empty space as he took another deep breath.

For the past couple of weeks he had been smelling this cologne scent that seemed to linger in the elevator around the same time he would leave in the morning. At first he thought it was some older man that would douse himself in the cheap scent, but when he hung out with his friends over the weekend he smelled the same fragrance on Soohyuk and so he asked about it. Turns out its not for older men and it's not cheap, it's actually a new cologne from some designer that Jiyong didn't even know how to pronounce. But it didn't change his mind this morning, it stunk up the entire compartment and he felt like he was suffocating. "Good lord how much does this guy put on in the morning?" He had been trying to catch the mysterious man that wore the cologne just so he could put a face to the smell, a game of sorts to entertain himself, but alas he was out of luck. "Damn I must have just missed him again."

The elevator came to a stop and he stepped out finally glad to be out in the fresh air. Crossing the street he saw that the bus was just turning the corner, making its way towards him. "8:10, right on time."

~

"Soohyuk, watch out."

"Whoops sorry," the taller man said as he passed by with a tray full of food that he was trying to serve.

It had been a busy morning at the restaurant and the breakfast crowd was starting to turn into the lunch crowd since it was becoming closer to noon. He had had his fair share of customers this morning, some nice and easy, and some not so much, but that just comes with the job. He always put on his best smile despite being called over every 2 minutes and it seem to please his customers into giving him extra tips, something that he would never deny.

"Hey Jiyong, a party of 7 just came in, would you mind if I sat them in your area?" the hostess came up and asked him.

"Yeah sure, two tables just left anyway so I can take them."

"Thanks, you're a life saver," she smiled and walk away to show the customers to their tables.

Jiyong took a quick second in the bathroom to tidy himself up; running his hand through his hair and then washing them. "Just a couple more hours and then I'm off for a week," he said to his reflection in the mirror. He had been working so much lately and even took a couple extra shifts to cover for others but it had been piling up and taking its toll on him, so he had decided to just take a break and have some down time for a week, doing nothing.

Walking out into the dining area he quickly came up to his table and introduced himself with the whole spiel for the resturant on what today's specials were. He could tell right away that this was a business party due to the fact that there were all older men in suits and the serious faces they wore as they looked over the menus, ignoring him as he spoke. But nevertheless he carried on and asked if they were ready for at least drink orders. He heard several murmurs of agreement and went round one by one taking down drinks, mostly coffee or water but as he looked to the 5th person, he noticed that the man was the youngest of the party, and very attractive.

“Sir, what would you like to drink?” Jiyong asked the young man, who couldn’t be but just a couple years older than him, and was still looking at the menu.

The older gentleman beside him, nudged him in his ribs, startling him and he quickly looked around to see what was the matter.

“Seunghyun, what do you want to drink?” the older man asked.

The younger man looked to Jiyong and said, “Sorry, I’ll have a sprite.”

It took Jiyong a minute to register that the man had actually said a sentence because all that passed through his ears was one of the deepest voices he had ever heard. But being the professional that he is, he jotted down the order on his pad and then looked to the next man.

After filling their drink orders Jiyong went around and set them down on the table as the men talked over what ever business they were here to discuss, clearly ignoring his presence. However when he set down the sprite in front of the younger man, Seunghyun, Jiyong reminded himself, he leaned over and whispered a small thank you. Jiyong’s heart fluttered but he remained calm giving a simple nod in return and continued serving the rest of the drink. He then cleared his throat and apologized for the interruption while he asked if they were ready to give their food orders. Without hesitation, the man closest to Jiyong turned and proceed to give his order. Going around it was an assortment of breakfast choices and lunch choices, taking note that Seunghyun chose the California Club sandwich without the avocado. Taking the last order he flashed his best smile and told the group that he would have their food out in no time then made his way to the kitchen to give the order.

After 10 minutes of helping his other tables, Jiyong grabbed a fresh coffee pot and made his way over to the group of men as he silently refreshed their cups. Walking around and saw that Seunghyun looked bored out of his mind. He had to stifle a laugh as the young man did his best at trying to do napkin origami, when one of the other men asked him what his opinion was on the matter. Seunghyun jerked and tried hiding the folded cloth as he composed himself. Jiyong had definitely come to a fast conclusion. This man was absolutely adorable. When he finished refilling the last cup of coffee, he looked up and met eyes with Seunghyun. Immediately Jiyong diverted his gaze as he brought his hand up to cover his smile. He heard Seunghyun clear his throat and when his eyes wandered back to the man, he was facing away but trying very hard to conceal his blush of embarrassment at being caught.

When Jiyong placed the now empty pot of coffee back, he heard the chef call out, “Jiyong, your order’s up!”

Motioning over Soohyuk to help him, Jiyong grabbed the tray of plates and walked over to the party to serve their food. He made sure that he had grabbed the tray with Seunghyun’s plate on it and when he tried placing it in front of the man he had to say, “Sir can you move you napkin please?”

Seunghyun’s eyes bugged a little but he listened to him. And when their gaze met for a second time, they both had smiles creeping into the corners of their mouths.

Once all the food was served he was about to turn and leave when he heard someone speak up.

“Excuse me Mr….”

“Jiyong,” he said was he turned to see that it was in fact Seunghyun who had tried getting his attention.

“Jiyong,” Seunghyun let the name roll off his tongue, making Jiyong grip the tray harder. “ I’m sorry about this but I ordered no avocado,” he admitted. Jiyong saw that he was really trying not to be obnoxious and offered him a small apologetic smile.

“I am so sorry about that sir, I’ll take it and have your proper order out soon,” Jiyong replied as he picked up the plate and quickly walked to to back, telling the cook about his mistake.

As he waited for the fixed order to come up Jiyong took a small chance and peeked from behind the wall to look at the table where Seunghyun sat. The man still seemed out of place amongst the older businessman, but he must admit that he looked damn fine in that suit with the purple tie.

“Whatcha lookin’ at?” came a voice right in Jiyong’s ear.

“Holy fu- Soohyuk you scared the outta me.”

The taller man laughed. “No but really what are you looking at?” he asked again and followed Jiyong’s eyeline. “Ah, now I see…”

Jiyong pulled back behind the wall, grabbing Soohyuk’s sleeve as well, so they were both hidden.

“What?” asked the taller man as Jiyong glared at him. “He’s an attractive guy. I’d totally try to hit that if he were sitting at my table.”

Jiyong just rolled his eyes and waved off the stupidity of his friend as he grabbed the newly remade sandwich.

He walked over to the table and as quietly as possible he set down the plate in front of Seunghyun while whispering, “Sorry about that sir.”

“Things happen. Don’t worry about it,” answered Seunghyun, offering Jiyong a barely there smile which he was all too willing to reciprocate.

“Enjoy sir,” he said and then stood to ask the rest of the table if they needed anything else. Hearing nothing, he simply nodded at let them get back to eating their food, however he saw that Seunghyun was watching him from the corner of his eye and he tried he best not to let it show on his face how much it affected him.

~

7 hours later

It had been an exhausting day. Going from the office, then out to lunch, then back to the office, then back out to different meetings; Seunghyun was worn out. He didn’t understand why his father insisted that he accompany the board members to every meeting when he had just started in the office a month ago. ‘It’ll help you learn the business’ he heard his fathers voice say in his head. But he didn’t even understand anything they were talking about so how would that help him learn?

Running his hands through his hair, he slumped down into his chair and let his body conform to the cushions. “Who cares about the business, I’m just going to stay in this chair forever.” His bones felt like jello and he had almost fallen asleep when his stomach grumbled in objection. Rolling his head to the side he looked to the counter and saw the bag of take out food he had bought on the way home. “It’s so far away…” he whined to his stomach, which answered back with another growl. He just wanted today to be over and the fact that not even food could make him get up, was a testament to that. Leaning his head back onto the top of the chair he closed his eyes, however the second he did he heard a loud crash from the apartment above him.

Now curious, he sat upright and looked toward the ceiling. Another bang and what he thought was muffled shouting trickled down into his livingroom.

“Hmm that’s odd. They never make this much noise,” he said to himself as he talked about the occupant from upstairs.Shrugging it off, he decided to stand up and make his way over to counter to grab the food, but another loud crash and bang stopped him mid stride. He had this feeling come over him that something wasn’t right, that maybe the person was in danger, so he ran out the door and up the flight of stairs to the level above him.

He stared at the door, reading the number 906 on the front before bringing his hand up and rapping his knuckles on the door.

“Who is it?” he heard a pained voice come from somewhere inside. Sounded like a man, he thought.

“Um, I’m from downstairs and-”

“!” came the man’s voice again, accompanied with yet another crash.

“I heard some noises and…” Seunghyun’s voice trailed off as the door opened to reveal a young man who was fiddling with a cast on his foot. “And I wanted to make sure everything thing was alright.”

The younger man then jerked his head up so they were face to face for the first time.

“You’re from the restaurant!”

“You’re from the restaurant!”

They both said at the same time. Seunghyun looked at the young man better and in fact it was the waiter that had served him. He looked a little paler and seemed to be frustrated or in shock or both, he couldn’t really tell which.

He tried thinking of his name, it was Jiyang, Jikang, Jikyung, it was something ‘Ji’ but what was it?

“Ah Jiyong!” he shouted, probably a little too loudly, startling the other man. “Sorry, but your name is Jiyong, right?”

“Yeah,” the younger man replied, but when the sound passed his lips, his face fell into a look of pain.

“Oh god, I’m sorry, are you alright? You didn’t have that at the restaurant earlier.” Seunghyun said as he pointed to the cast on Jiyong’s foot.

Jiyong let out a small huff of laughter as he said, “No I didn’t. But do you mind if I sit down, it really hurts. You can come in if you want,” and retreated back into his apartment, hopping on the uninjured foot.

“Here let me help you,” Seunghyun said as he rushed to Jiyong’s side, offering his arm. “Don’t you have any crutches or something?” he asked as he helped the injured man settle on the couch. Jiyong turned his head and nodded over to the dining room table and Seunghyun saw a pair of crutches laying on the floor tangled with the legs of a chair.

“I was trying to walk to my bedroom when I lost my balance. The table helped me stand upright, but I knocked over a chair and the crutches with them.”

“Oh, so that’s what I must have heard…” his voice fell as he looked around the apartment some more. He noticed a couple books from a shelf knocked to the ground as well as the coffee table, which looked askew. He must be having a horrible time getting around, he thought.

Jiyong moved his body to sit in a more comfortable position and let out a little hiss as his leg moved wiht it.

“Are you alright?” Seunghyun asked for the nth time as he looked about the room. He decided to pick up one of the fallen chairs and bring it over to where Jiyong sat and suggested, “Why don’t you prop your leg up? It might make it feel better.”

Jiyong smiled softly and slowly brought his foot up to rest on the chair. “Thank you.”

“No problem. So how did this happen? You were fine when we left the restaurant this afternoon.”

The younger man chuckled. “My idiot of a best friend is what happened to me. We were cleaning the restaurant after closing, because we’re only a breakfast and lunch joint so we don’t stay open that late, and he was vacuuming the only carpeted area while I was mopping the rest of the floor. He tugged on the machine, stretching the power cord, just as I was turning around to mop a new section and it wrapped around my ankle causing me to slip and fall. And now thanks to him I’m going to be spending my vacation holed up in my apartment with a hairline fracture.” His nostrils flared as he crossed his arms.

Jiyong turned to the older man and saw him wearing a look of bewilderment. “Sorry, I don’t even know you really and I just unloaded my anger out on you. But it might also have to do with the pain meds. I’m not really sure my head is functioning properly. Or maybe it’s because I haven’t eaten something since 11 this morning because I just spent the last few hours in the hospital.”

Seunghyun let out a roar of a laughter at listening to Jiyong ramble on. “Yeah I think the meds have kicked in. You weren’t this ‘spacey’ at the restaurant.”

At those words, Jiyong quieted down letting a redness fill his cheeks. “Sorry…”

“No, no, don’t worry. You’ve had a really ty day.”

“Yeah but you don’t look any better.” Jiyong replied, instantly regretting it and clapped his hand over his mouth. “God I did not mean to say that.”

Again Seunghyun chuckled as he nodded in agreement. “No you’re right,” he said and he looked down to see that his shirt was only partially untucked and his tie almost completely undone. “Work has been… well… draining. It’s almost neverending.”

Before their conversation continued, both their stomachs growled from lack of food and they both just looked at one another, completely dumbfounded, and then busted out laughing at the coincidence.

“Hey listen, I have so take out that I picked up on the way home. I always buy two portions so I have left overs for the next day, but… would you want it instead? I mean its not like you can stand and cook or anything.”

“That actually sounds like a really nice offer. I’m starving.”

“Ok, then let me run downstairs really fast and grab it,” Seunghyun said as he lifted himself out of the chair.

“Wait Seunghyun,” Jiyong called. “Can you help me up, I uh… I need to use the bathroom.”

Seunghyun smiled as the man diverted his again. “Of course.” He leaned down close to Jiyong and the young man pulled back slightly at his advancement. “Well what are you waiting for, wrap your arm around my neck and I’ll help you up.”

“Oh… right…” Jiyong mumbled and slowly brought his hand to the nape of Seunghyun’s neck.

The older man rolled his eyes at the cute hesitation and proceeded to snake his arm around Jiyongs waist, helping him to his feet. As Jiyong righted himself, he heard the younger man take a deep breath and then still in his arms.

“Is something the matter? Is it you leg?” Seunghyun asked in a panic, wondering if he had pulled him up too fast.

“It’s you…” Jiyong whispered.

“What?”

“It’s you. You’re the one…”

“ ‘The one’ what?”

“You’re cologne…”

Seunghyun pulled back thinking that JIyong had better get food in his system fast because being just on the meds was making him spout nonsense. “Jiyong?”

The injured man pulled back to have a better look at his face while scrunching his eyebrows as he said, “Every morning, before work… in the elevator… I smell you…”

Seunghyun wanted to double over in laughter at the serious tone the younger man just spoke in, but instead he just let out a stifled laugh. “Okay, you need to eat something… like now. You’re not making any sense.”

“No I mean it,” Jiyong said with more confidence. “Your cologne is the one I’ve been smelling for the past couple weeks. And…” his voice trailed off.

“And… what?”

“It stinks up the entire lift!”

At that Seunghyun could not hold back and laughed, throwing his head back in the process.

“No really! It smells horrid. How much do you put on in the morning?”

After taking a minute to compose himself he looked to Jiyong and explained, “I take the subway every morning and recently there’s been this older woman who… well she likes to stand rather too close for comfort so I… I’ve been spraying my coat with extra cologne with the hopes that she would stay away.”

It was Jiyong’s turn to laugh, which only lasted for a short second because the laughter quickly turned to a gasp of pain. He readjusted himself, using Seunghyun to steady his shaky legs.

“That is the strangest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Yeah…” the older man agreed as he lowered his eyes in embarrassment.

“But does it actually work?”

“Yeah it really does.”

“But then what do you do with your coat? You don’t wear it all day do you? I’d feel bad for your co workers if you did.”

“No, I open my office window and let it air out.” Jiyong nodded in understanding. “Well lets get you to the bathroom and then I’ll run and grab the food.” he said as he tried helping Jiyong walk.

“Seunghyun you can just hand me the crutches.”

“Oh right…”

Making sure Jiyong was okay to stand on his own, he moved over and disentangled the crutches from the chair, but before he handed them over he said, “Wait. Let me see your phone.”

“Why?” Jiyong asked. That was the last thing he expected to hear.

“So I can give you my number. If you need anything or need help getting something, just give me a call.”

Jiyong tried hiding the small smile the creeped into the corners of his mouth and silently pulled his phone from his pocket. Seunghyun smiled as well and traded the crutches for the mobile device.

“Or you know… if you ever get bored too… you can call me.” he suggested as he finished inputting his number and handed it back to Jiyong while wearing a goofy smile. The younger man let his smile completely take over his lips as they looked at one another and a thought suddenly crossed his mind.

Maybe this vacation wasn’t completely lost after all.

So yeah, that wasn't too bad, right? I've felt kinda off everytime I sit down and try to write lately. But I hope you guys enjoyed it nevertheless.