It was an early Sunday morning, with the sun shining brightly and birds chirping merrily signifying the long awaited arrival of spring after the bitter coldness of the harsh winter the past few months, yet Seunghyun was still in bed trying to fall back asleep whilst other people were already out of their houses and savoring the warm sunlight. He was never the type to get up at such hours ( especially on a Sunday!), but Seunghyun could not help being roused with the delicious smell that made his mouth water and his stomach growling.

    
    Cracking an eye open, he spared murderous glance at the digital clock that showed the time in a blaring red color on his bedside table. He could only groan in disbelief and kick at the thick sheets wrapped around him.

    6:05.

It was a first for the last few years after he graduated in college, to wake up earlier than ten o' clock, which obviously meant that he comes late to work, almost every single day. Seunghyun, to put it bluntly was never a morning person and was too lazy for his own good. Humming a song while frying eggs and waiting for the coffee to brew with the morning paper in hand isn't exactly his style. Oh, no. Choi Seunghyun is someone who gets cranky on mornings and preferred having his morning coffee while running as if the hounds of hell were after him as he tried to catch the bus for work; he isn't exactly Mr. Sunshine and smiley face in mornings.

    In actual fact, he hated it. Having to wake up and go to work, when he could just stay in bed and sleep the day away then stay up the whole night in front of his mixer table and laptop, making songs no one else will get to hear except himself and the lone bearbrick on display in the far corner of the room, if not for the pile of unopened bills in his mailbox.

    Seunghyun tried. He tried to ignore the luscious smell that urged him to leave the confines of his bed, but failed miserably. Like being hypnotized, Seunghyun found himself getting up and blindly making his way out of the bedroom with half- opened eyes.

    Nearly walking straight into the closed door, he fumbled with the door knob all the while stiffling a yawn and stepped out of the room.

    Like being slapped into full consciousness, all sleepiness to have fled him as the smell of butter (lots of it, he bets) filled the air inside his aprtment. The smell was so strong he was convinced that it came form his own unused kitchen. For a moment, he toyed with the possibility that it was his mother's doing and although she had a key to his place, surely she would have informed him if she ever came to visit.

    As quietly as possible, he made made his way to kitchen, shivering slightly when his bare feet made contact with the cold floor and slowly peeked inside the kitchen. Sneaking around in your own place like a thief surely looks stupid, but hey, it's better to be safe than sorry. For all he knows, maybe an actual burglar broke into his apartment while he was deeply asleep and decided to have breakfast while going at it.

    Ha. Seunghyun snorted inside his head.

    To his disappointment, his mother was nowhere to be seen, or even a thief for that matter. The kitchen, with its yellowing and chipped tiles, leaking faucet and broken cupboards ( just a few things he was too lazy to bother fixing) still looked the same way he had left it last night. No burning stove or sizzling toasts. He could still even make out the puddle of spilled apple juice he forgot to mop.

    Certainly he wasn't imagining things, right?

    With a defeated sigh, he padded his way to the living room and plopped himself down the battered old couch and hugged an equally worn out throw pillow to his chest. Sleeping again sounded like a good idea to him.

    He slowly closed his eyes and just when he was about to slip back into consciuosness, a gust of fresh spring air blew from an open window and along came with it was yet again the smell of French toasts.

    Seunghyun jumped up, hitting both his knees on the stained coffee table and hobbled towards the said window.

    So this explains why there were a lot of mosquitoes last night.

    A welcomed shiver ran down his body with the crisp air continously blowing softly, mingled with the slightly burnt smell of toasts. He simply had to have a taste, or even a mere bite would suffice, of those toast that were slowly driving him mad; and if the delicious aroma was anything to go by, Seunghyun was pretty sure it tasted like heaven itself.

    Since the toasts didn't come from his kitchen nor was it a product of his imagination, only one answer came to his mind. His new neighbor, whom he haven't got the chance of meeting (not like he cared anyway).

    With a firm resolve, Seunghyun walked over to the glass door that led to the balcony and opened it with a flourish of his hands. Immediately, the warm sunlight hit his eyes directly, causing him to flinch like a freaking vampire and almost ran back inside before he caught fire and turn into ashes. What made him stop though, was the sight of fresh strawberries, a pot of steaming coffee and good heavens, a plateful of those crisp french toasts fresh form the skillet, prettily arranged on a table with pristine white cloth.

    As if on cue, his stomach made loud and embarassing noises, and Seunghyun could only be glad no one was within earshot to hear it.

    Knowing it was crazy and that maybe, just maybe he'd regret it later, Seunghyun quietly observed any sound or movement that might indicate his neighbor being near by the balcony and when there was nothing, he slowly climbed over the railings.

    If his estimations were correct, there was a good three or four feet gap that separated both balconies, which was not a problem since he had long legs and was very handy at the moment. It was scary, given how he could slip and fall five floors to the ground and meet his untimely demise.

    After the heart- pounding, adrenaline pumping two minutes of his life of careening dangerously over the edge of a balcony, he managed to safely set foot on the other balcony much to his great relief. Taking deep breaths, he carefully tiptoed towards the open door and peeked inside.

    Nodding in affirmation, Seunghyun was utterly impressed with how clean and organized the apartment was despite the fact that his neighbor only moved in one or to weeks ago, a far cry from his own apartment which still looked as messy as the day he moved in some two years ago.

    Upon making sure that the coast was clear, he immediately sprang into action and carried out his modus operandi. Fueled with determinaton, he trotted to the general direction of the table and gingerly picked the largest (shame on him) slice of toast off the plate.

    Guilt immediately hit him hard in the gut, with little voices in his head berating him for such act. It was too late to go back though, he decided sheepishly.

    He fully intended to be out of the crime scene as quickly as possibe, but unfortunately failed to hear the soft pitter- patter of feet behind him.

~

    Seunghyun almost jumped (literally and figuratively) out of his skin as he was already on the other side of his neighbor's balcony railings, when the loud barking of a dog surprised the guilt out of him. His all time lethargic and sluggish body momentarily surged with strength as adrenaline kicked in, and he managed to close the short distance between the two balconies in one leap.

    It took a few moments for him to consider opening his eyes and check that he'd landed back safely into his own balcony and not on the hard concrete a hundred feet below. When he finally did, Seunghyun felt like pumping his fist in the air, which he shamelessly did a few times with the toast in one hand, and even did a little dance despite with shaky legs.

    As if to mock the dog, he turned back with a smirk of victory on his face, when what he saw wiped all traces of smugness and was replaced with absolute embarassment that made him want to dig his own hole and stay in for the rest of his pathetic existence. Oh, the horror!

    There stood a young man about his age, with strawberry blonde hair that looked so soft to the touch, messily tied into a little ponytail and warm chocolate eyes that watched him in wonderment. And as if to finish the adorable sight before him, the boy, obviously Seunghyun's neighbor, wore a ruffled powder blue apron with two smiling cupcakes.

    Unknowingly, Seunghyun stood frozen and staring (without blinking!), until the other cleared his throat to break the awkward tension that hung heavily between them.

    Simply not knowing what to do with himself, Seunghyun only made things much more worse when he lurched forward for the door, momentarily forgetting it was made of glass and that he'd closed it previously, banging his face against it.

    He nearly howled in pain but stopped himself and instead whimpered, ing whimpered like a kicked puppy as his fingers soothed a throbbing nose.

    An unmistakable gasp of surprise from his neighbor travelled in the air and Seunghyun couldn't help sneaking a glance at the other, who had a hand over his mouth. Soon enough though, soft giggles was heard as the boy tried hard to hold in his laughter by biting at his lower lip, eyes full of mirth.

    Overwhelmed with different emotions he didn't know what to do with (mostly from being in awe with the boy and partly from making a clown out of himself), Seunghyun dashed back inside his apartment without even looking back at his neighbor.

A/N: Um, I wanted something short... and ended up with something this long... meh, oh well *shrugs* . This is just the first part, i'll be posting the next one maybe a few days from now... but then again maybe not * evil laughter* Let me know what you guys think though. Love!

*Please pardon any mistakes I‘ve committed. I’ll fix them later.