Onew was surprisingly good at economics related things. He helped you with a subject called industrial organization when he wasn't working in his song. You realized you weren't much help. You just couldn't write songs, it wasn't your thing. So you gave up and decided to study for tomorrow's exam instead of bothering him with your babbling. He will probably do a good job without your help. 

It was the second week since you began to meet him every day at the café after classes, from Monday to Friday. The owner already knew you and always greeted you by saying your name.

“Earl Grey, Selene?”

You smiled. “Please.”

He even gave you a gift card to shop in his café. You would use it to buy the sweets and iced coffee that Jjong liked.

“You have brought a nice friend, Onew. She has become one of our best customers now.”

“She is, isn't she?”

You blushed a little at his statement.

“Monopoly exists when an enterprise is the only supplier of a particular good or service. They lack of economic competition and substitute goods. It’s the opposite of perfect competition.”

Onew made a summary of the reading about monopoly you had to read. Wow, he was so good at that.

“Love is like a monopoly, don't you think? Only one person can receive someone’s heart. If not, it turns into a competitive market.”

You found it curious that he did that kind of comparison.

“Does someone have your heart?”

“Not anymore,” he simply said.

“You had a lover, hadn't you? And now you would like to forget her. What happened to her?”

“It is from the past now.”

“But you don't like anyone now? Not even someone from this café?” You insisted.

“I told you. I'm not interested in a relation.”

“Neither I. I had a terrible experience in my last relation.” You sighed.

“What happened to Minho? Have you forgotten him?”

You frowned. “He keeps texting me but I'm just ignoring him. I have nothing to do with him. I guess someday I’ll have to answer. Hey, let's not talk about that. I have to finish this reading for tomorrow.”

But you couldn't focus on the reading anymore. You wondered why Onew didn't want to open his heart to anyone. You told him everything about Minho but he didn't feel like telling you about his past life, about his ex girlfriend to be exact. He was kind of a mysterious man.

“Excuse me but we are about to close,” a waitress approached the table and told you.

“What? It's 11pm already? Oh, it's so late I didn't even notice it.”

“I did but I didn't want to distract you. You told me you can't focus at home and you have exam tomorrow. I'm sorry.” He gave you an apologetic smile.

“It's okay. I don't need to study at home since I finished all the readings and you were a good teacher. I didn't expect you would know so much about economics!”

He smiled. “I'll walk you home.”

“It's late. You don't have to.”

“Exactly; it's late. I won't let you walk alone at this hour.”

Once you walked outside the night breeze you froze. Your body shook a little. Just like in Maldives, he took his jacket off and put it over your shoulders. And just like in Maldives, you smelled the sweet scent of his jacket.

“Don't do that or I will fall for you,” you joked. “Are you always such a gentleman?”

“You think I am faking it?”

“I don't have many friends here. Jjong is my only close friend and the only male friend that I know is a gentleman. Well, Taemin is a good friend too but he is kind of cold.”

“Who's Taemin?”

“A classmate of mine. There's Key too but he is annoying and bad mannered.”

He chuckled. “You don't meet many good men, uh?”

“There's only you and Jjong. I'm glad you are my friend.”

“I'm glad you are my friend too.”

You smiled. “We have arrived. Thanks for accompanying me. See you tomorrow?”

He nodded. “Good nights, Selene.”

His sweet voice kept floating around you in the soft breezes wrapping you. His sweet voice accompanied you to the eight floor of your apartment. You shook your head. Why you were hearing Onew's voice when he already left?

“I've been with him too much. I see him from Monday to Friday, it’s normal I hear his voice inside my head. I'm not crazy.”

“But you do look crazy,” someone said.

You startled. “God, Jjong. You look like a ghost standing there.”

“I just arrived when I heard your voice. What were you talking about?”

“Nothing. I was mumbling.”

“We're not feeling awkward anymore?” He joked.

“Oh, shut up. Last night was really embarrassing. Let's not mention about last night anymore. Hey, you look tired. Go to sleep.”

“Hey, you look happy.” He narrowed his eyes.

“See you tomorrow!”

“Yah!” You heard him before you shut the door.

I'm not happy. Well, I am happy. But it's not a crime to be happy. It's normal to be happy, isn't it? You thought. You were with Onew minutes ago. You were happy because you were with Onew. Was that the reason you were happy? You closed the eyes. You had to admit you loved to spend the time with him. You were happy when you were with him. It was the same with Jjong but he was always busy at the studio recording making good songs, but knowing that your feelings were the same towards Onew than with Jjong it made you feel better; that meant you didn't have feelings for Onew more than friendship. He also said he wasn't interested in a relationship.

You took a long shower with hot water, wore the pajama that you wore at Maldives, the one that Onew said it was cute. You grimaced. He also saw your cute . You grimaced again.

You took the book from the night stand, Kafka on the shore, and read until you dozed off. You didn't have dreams, you slept peacefully.

***

Right after classes you went straight to the café. It was a habit; even if you didn't have to study you would go. Also, you would get tea for free. You came on time at the café but Onew was nowhere to seen. Maybe he went to the restroom? Or he was late. Maybe he had a problem with a student. But he would text you, wouldn't he? You sat at the usual table and waited for Onew.

“Hi, Selene,” Thomas, the owner of the cafe, greeted you. “Onew told me to give you this.”

“Hi, Thomas. What is this?”

It was a paper note with Onew's cute calligraphy.

_______ park

It was the name of a park. Why would he want you to know the name of a park? Did he give you an assignment? You had to do a research about that park? Then you received a text message. He wrote follow the map and attached an image of a map of Seoul explaining you how to get to _____ park.

You had no idea how to get there even though you had a map. You asked Thomas if he knew how to go there. He told you to take the line 2 to ttukseom station and leave exit 8, then walk two minutes and you will see the park.

You whined. Why would Onew want to do such thing? Today you rushed to the café specifically to taste the new cake that Thomas baked. You were starving and you won't get to taste that cake. You got off of the station and your stomach growled. You wanted to kill Onew for making you do this just in this day when you didn't have lunch at uni.

You walked around four minutes until you found Onew sitting on a blanket spread on the grass. On the blanket was displayed different type of foods, from kimbap to kimchi and cake!

Your stomach growled as soon as you saw all the foods and it was heard clearly. He chuckled.

You ignored your stomach. “What is this?”

“Picnic. I really wanted to do this. I use to come alone but since I enjoy your company I wanted to invite you.”

“You did all these by yourself?”

He nodded. “That's why I didn't ask you to come straight from classes otherwise I wouldn't have enough time to prepare all these. I brought Thomas's special cake. I thought you would want to try it.”

Your inner self exclaimed yes!

“If it was made by Thomas then it would taste delicious!”

“It seems you like Thomas a lot.”

“Are you jealous?”

He smiled. “I made the kimbap.”

“You cook? Are you kidding me?”

He laughed. “Why would I joke?”

“Wow. Have you realized you are the perfect husband? You are smart, you cook, you are nice and funny and you sing. I haven't heard you sing though.”

He chuckled. You blushed. You didn't realize you were talking too excited about him being a perfect husband.

“How was the exam?”

“A had trouble with one question but it wasn’t that hard. You helped me a lot.”

“We can study together next time.”

“Really? That would be awesome. Why you chose this place today?”

“I got bored of hearing the same kind of people talking about the same thing. I need to hear different conversations. I thought in this place I could find many couples or interesting people. But today I don't want to hear their conversations. We can't hear them from here anyways but it would be creepy if we follow them. Today I'm going to analyze their gesture and movements.”

“I can help you! I love to observe people when I'm alone. People are interesting. Why you chose couples? Why not singles or folks in general?”

“I want to see things that I don't get to see or experience by myself every day.”

“Oh. You haven't been with someone since... her?” You asked even though you didn't know who was her or what happened to her.

He sighed. “Her name was Soojung. We were about to marry but she died in a car accident.”

Oh. That was too much information for only two sentences.