"My heart suddenly flutters

with your short morning message,"

- Juniel, 연애하나 봐

Soundtrack: (x)

[4:26 pm] where r u??? pls answer me

[4:28 pm] mina i know ur mad at me pls let me explain

[4:30 pm] if ur not gonna pick up im gonna come over

[4:31 pm] I’M SERIOUS SEE I’M TYPING IN PROPER VOCABULARY NOW

Mina read the incoming messages quietly before locking her phone away. She wasn’t even at home to begin with.

Another week has passed since the incident at the beach, and as much as she missed the tall giant she called a friend, she couldn’t bring herself to face him. She deliberately confessed her crush towards Chanyeol and he deliberately told her that he didn’t feel the same way. There was no way she would be able to save her face and the embarrassment that came with it.

The supermarket was just a walk away from her apartment was empty on a Saturday morning, just the way Mina liked it. She disliked crowds; she disliked the buzzing activity especially in a constricted building like the supermarket.

Mina hummed, hovering over the ice cream section. watered at the sight of boxes and boxes of ice cream displayed in their respective ice boxes. Her favourite one has got to be butter pecan ice cream stowed towards the right section. She thanked the gods that Koreans naturally do not prefer butter pecan ice cream or she would’ve had to fight her way through a bunch of ice cream enthusiasts throughout her life.

Her hands held onto a box as Mina read the words printed on it, before her nose caught the scent of a familiar whiff of perfume. No, it wasn’t Chanyeol’s- she has been around him long enough to know that his perfume wasn’t this… this sophisticated.

She turned her head from the box towards her surroundings, eyes scanning for the owner of this scent before it settled on her left. Mina widened her eyes in slight shock and then recognisation.

It belonged to a boy- close to a man, in fact. He had brown hair, parted in the middle and ending just above his ears. His eyes were almond shaped, almost identical to hers. He definitely grew a lot in height ever since she last saw him, and Mina merely stared at him without shame. Her lips stuttered to form a coherent sentence, but she managed to call out his name eventually.

“O-Oh Sehun?”

She definitely caught his attention when he turned his head at her, squinting in curiosity before his eyes too widened. “Mina noona? Ah, Lee Mina noona!” The boy called Sehun exclaimed, a hint of laughter evident in his hoarse voice. “I’ve not seen you for so long!”

Mina blushed, nodding a bit too profusely. She knew Sehun from high school- him being two years below her grade, though he has always looked too old for his age. Now that they both were long past their high school years, he has definitely matured out of those days, and boy, did he age like fine wine. His features grew sharper, his height definitely grew, and his stance was more masculine.

Mina thought she was about to faint at how good looking he was.

“M-me too. I-um… what are you doing here so early?”

“Umma made me come here at this hour. She wanted radishes… but I can’t walk all the way just to buy radishes. Hence, the ice cream,” Sehun held a pint of chocolate ice cream in his left hand.

“How about you? What are you doing here so early?”

Mina blinked. “Oh… me? Uh… I was just buying groceries for myself. Now that I’m just at home not doing anything, I’m uh… thinking of cooking,”

Sehun nodded, smile faltering for a second. Of course he knew about her cancer- everyone around the neighbourhood knew, but they were all polite enough not to mention it whenever they were around her. “Do you want me to help you carry your basket? That looks rather heavy,”

She stared at the basket in her hands. It didn’t occur to her that the basket was rather weighty now that she filled three quarters of it. Mina contemplated handing the basket over, but complied anyway. It’s not every day Oh Sehun offers to carry her things to begin with.

“Thanks, by the way,” Mina smiled, a pink blush tainted on her cheeks. “Do you… uh- do you have to go back so soon? I mean- I would love to catch up but I still need to get a few things around, you see…”

“Sure- let’s start with your ice cream then. I did see that you were holding onto the butter praline one. That’s um… that’s kinda disgusting, noona,”

Chanyeol has never felt angry towards Mina. Sure, he has felt pestered and slightly annoyed with her stubborn self, but never once did he actually feel anger seeping through his veins.

What the hell was she thinking?

He immediately left his house when his messages weren’t replied. Chanyeol took his sister’s car without her permission (in which he was certain he would get a scolding for but that didn’t matter since Yura without her nagging is pretty much harmless) and drove towards her house. Once he was right in front of her house, he was greeted by Mina’s parents who exclaimed that she wasn’t at home, to their despair.

After numerous calls to her mobile phone, Mina finally answered her mother’s phone call, saying that she was at the supermarket. Insisting that he should be the one fetching her, Chanyeol bade them goodbye and began walking (more of storming) towards the supermarket that appeared in his line of vision as he got nearer.

To think that Mina not only worried him, but her parents… and to think that she went to the supermarket alone with her condition as well!

His eyes scanned the aisles one by one, searching for any hint of Mina’s presence. He walked from section to section, from the milk section all the way to the snacks section with hopes that they will cross paths somewhere. His shoes squeaked noisily against the floor as Chanyeol eventually broke into a small run, zooming past each aisle. Almost running over old women and mothers alike while muttering endless streams of apologies, he violently halted at the aisle filled with chocolates, spotting Mina with another boy he didn’t have the courtesy to meet yet.

With a grim face, Chanyeol stalked over, hands gripped in fists. “Lee Mina,” His voice echoed as he definitely caught not only her attention, but the attention of the obnoxiously handsome boy next to her and a couple passers-by.

“Ch-Chanyeol, what are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here? You had us all worried, do you know that? Why are you here at the supermarket alone?” Chanyeol questioned, trying to keep his anger at bay.

“I’m not alone- I’m with him,” Mina replied, with a little tremble in her voice as she gestured towards the tall boy standing right next to her.

“What? Who are you?”

With anger comes a little bit of jealousy an