His eyes shone with mirth and his lips broke into a smile. “Hello, beautiful.”

For a few seconds Jaehwa’s mind went blank and she made an effort to try to register what he just said.

What the heck?

He seemed to notice her confusion and withdrew a thin, crumpled slip of paper from the pocket of his jeans, and showed to her the writing imprinted on it:

‘Your life is capable of blossoming into many things. Start off by telling someone they’re beautiful.’

“I’m just doing what the fortune cookie said. Who am I to stand in the way of fate?” he said, and put it back in his pocket. So he was following an inaccurate reading from a piece of paper inside a cheap snack; well that was human logic at its finest. It wasn't every day someone called her beautiful, and knowing that it wasn’t genuine was a little disappointing. “Why were you on the floor?” he asked, his eyes glinting with amusement and it was evident that he tried his best to suppress his laughter.

 “I - I dropped... something.” What. Jaehwa internally face palmed herself as soon as the words left .

“Really?” His voice hinted that he obviously didn’t believe it and she only hung her head in discomfiture. Taehyung grinned craftily. “You know… we met before. You know my name, but I never got yours.”

“Jaehwa. Han Jaehwa,” she told him.

“I’m Kim Taehyung.”

“I know.” 

He smirked and Jaehwa swore she could’ve collapsed on the spot right then and there. It was blatantly obvious that this guy already knew what effect he had on her, and it pissed her off. She hoped that a family of aliens would appear and abduct her, or at least someone, anyone would walk by and notice, but she was certain they wouldn’t care anyway.

“Are you going to buy anything? Or…” Her voice trailed off as she noticed that his lips had devoid all traces of a smirk and in its place, was a sealed expression of seriousness.

“You sell origami paper here too don’t you?” he asked.

“It’s over there where all the stationery is.” 

“Okay, thanks.” Taehyung brushed past her as he walked and she couldn’t help but continue to stare after him after he was gone. What was that? She shook the thought off and resumed back to stacking the new stock of books on the shelf.‘Please Look after Mother’ and ‘A Step from Heaven’ were popular sellers at the moment. Her own copies were at her apartment and were unfortunately collecting dusk on the bookshelf due to her not laying a finger on them since the time she bought them. Of course she planned on reading them, she just didn’t have as much time as she used to. 

“Jaehwa?”

Her head turned at the voice and she smiled when her eyes met with her colleague. “Hi Jungkook.” 

Jungkook was the only serious boyfriend she had and the closest to love she experienced that wasn’t just platonic. They were classmates from elementary up until high school. But it started on her big crush on him in elementary. It wasn’t real love, but she remembered how popular he had been among the girls, even some of the boys in her class. And Jaehwa wasn’t any different. She fell for his charms just like everyone else did and it stuck with her like a leech for ages. Before Hana, he happened to be Jaehwa's best friend in high school, and you could work out the rest from there.

They lost touch with each other when they went their separate ways after graduating high school; Jungkook went off to University and Jaehwa made the decision to not carry on to tertiary education. Turned out that he was working part-time to pay off some of his tuition fees. It was extremely awkward at first, but they eventually got over it. 

Jaehwa studied his appearance and noticed his fringe had been trimmed. For an ephemeral moment, her heart warmed when she reminisced how she used to constantly remind him to cut his hair; he would always forget and it would grow past the top of his ears. “You had a haircut,” she pointed out. 

“Yeah, it looks bad doesn’t it?” he said, smoothing it down for the nth time since he came over to her. His features matured, and he’s grown taller too.

“Not at all, I think it suits you.”

“Really?” He gave her his infamous grin that displayed his front teeth. “Thanks.”

She reciprocated his smile. “So what were you calling me for?”

“Hm? Oh, Ms Kwon went out to buy something and told me to ask you if you could watch over the checkout desk for a few minutes,” he said.

“Of course, could you stack these books for me though?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Thanks Jungkook.” Jaehwa walked over to the checkout desk and waited patiently behind the cash machine until a customer would come up.

A few minutes later Taehyung approached the desk holding a shopping basket flooded with different packs of patterned origami paper. Jaehwa exchanged a glance with Jungkook and he looked just as baffled. Oh well, as Ms Kwon says; you don’t question the customer. The basket landed with a thud when Taehyung placed it onto the counter. Jaehwa had a feeling she’d need to remind Ms. Kwon to restock. It was definitely abnormal to buy this much in one go. Why did he need so many? Jaehwa handed him the change and placed the packs of origami paper into plastic bags. “Have a nice day,” she said when he was leaving.

“See you, sweetheart.” Those were his last words before he went out through the door.

Sweetheart.

Jaehwa scratched her head in agitation, which earned a few unsatisfactory looks from the people who walked past. She really didn’t like pet names. But then again, it could’ve been worse. This was probably something that Hana would pester her about, so she would be better off not mentioning anything about that to her. Maybe some other time she'd tell her, depending on the possible circumstances. Jungkook watched her bemusedly and it was apparent he found the situation before funny. She shot him a frown. “What’re you laughing at?”

“Oh, nothing.” He pursed his lips together and tried to look serious, but it only took a few seconds until she heard him snickering again behind a bookshelf.

Whatever.

Ms Kwon then came through where Taehyung had exited with her shopping bag over her arm. Jungkook and Jaehwa bowed and greeted her. She smiled at them warmly, doing the same. “Do you happen to know who that fetching young man who just walked out was?” 

Jungkook looked at Jaehwa with a suppressed smile and then looked back to Ms Kwon. “He seemed to have a thing for Jaehwa, he called her sweetheart and now she’s flustered about it.”

 “Shut up,” Jaehwa mouthed desperately to him.

“It looked like he bought a lot,” Ms Kwon recalled.

“All of it was origami paper,” Jaehwa said, and glared at Jungkook to signal him not to say anything more of what had just happened. He gave her a spontaneous look and raised his hands up in innocence.

“Only origami paper? What on earth did he need so much for?” Ms Kwon asked, which caused them both to snap their heads back at her. Ms Kwon continued, “Well you know what I say; you don’t question the customer.”

Jaehwa heard someone clear their throat, and in front of her was a customer who was impatiently tapping their fingers on the table. She bowed her head and apologised. “Sorry.”

Jaehwa didn’t feel like cooking that night so she just went with instant noodles. Her apartment was considered quite small - it wasn't really an apartment, it was an officetel. They may not be as spacious as a real apartment, but they have restaurants, cafes and other small businesses on the few bottom floors. 

She was told by one of her neighbors that a new person had moved in to an officetel on the same floor. She didn't really talk with her neighbours much anyway, sadly. But she willingly said "hi" whenever she encountered them. She leaned back onto the backrest of the sofa and inhaled the aroma of the noodles as she stirred it in a small bowl. She stopped mid-way from eating when a knock was heard on the door. She checked the clock: 9:47 p.m. Who would visit her at this hour? No way could it have been Hana, she had the spare key anyway so why would she knock? It might've been Jungkook; he would sometimes come round to visit just so he could steal some of Jaehwa's instant noodles when he couldn’t be bothered to cook. But it couldn’t of been him either, because he would call her first. 

“Who is it?” Jaehwa asked. No answer. “Who is it?” she repeated, the volume of her voice raised. She stood up and put the noodles aside and walked to the door. She brought her ear closer to the wood.

A shuffle was heard from the other side. “I’m your new neighbor. I just moved here recently and finished unpacking so I wanted to introduce myself to my neighbours.”

Jaehwa looked down at her pajamas. If Hana was with her, she’d probably nag at Jaehwa and force her to change into something else. But it should be fine, it would only be a few minutes. “Okay?” she said, undoing the chain and unlocking the door. Creaking it open, she was startled to find who was waiting behind it; he was stood casually with one hand in his pocket, the other hand balancing a plate of food. Out of the ten million people in Seoul, he was her new neighbor? Her life could not possibly get any more awkward. 

Taehyung smiled when he saw her and a look of brief surprise flashed through his eyes. “Oh, it’s you again.” He stood there with an uneasy countenance, looking about. Jaehwa watched him blankly. “Um…” He brought a hand to scratch the back of his head. A charismatic grin broke out across his face. “I have rice cakes,” he said eventually. She glanced down at the rice cakes. How long had it been since she last had one of those? She was hungry and there was a plate of cooked food right in front of her - it smelled enticing too. Great, she had officially succumbed to rice cakes.

Perhaps it was possible for her life to get even more awkward than it already was.