The morning sunlight shine it’s way through the large window to a pair of closed eyes.  Sounds of the chirping birds hit his ears.  A stunning beauty laid on top of a bed, breathing peacefully.  His eyelids slowly opened, revealing a pair of beautiful dark orbs.  He took his time gathering all his soul to his body, staring at the ceiling. His eyes wander to the table on the other side of the room and saw a breakfast set neatly arranged on a tray.

He frowned feeling how strange it is.  Suddenly he realized some non-stop buzzing sounds could be heard from his phone.  He reaches it from the end table to check the lock screen.  A bunch of ‘happy birthdays’ keep coming making the previous same message scrolls down.  That does pretty much explain how the amazing breakfast could be in his room.

He got up only to take the foods, which has been prepared by the maids his father sent when he was asleep.  Small colorful envelopes sat next to the tray, he took it to open and read it one by one. 

He smiles at the cheesy birthday letters from his family.  He put them in the drawer on the table.  He grabs the tray and brings them to his bed.  He glanced at the window; the bright blue sky filled with big fluffy clouds came to his sight.  He got off from his bed to approach the windows.

The window creaks as he pushed them open.  Half of his body came out from the window, inhaling the fresh morning air. 

A view of the garden came to him.  Beauty flowed from all sides of the garden.  A pair of dramatic willow trees stood on each side of the small lake; a few wide water plants were seen floating on the water.  Daisies peeps trough the green grass, he imagines the grass crunches under his weight.  A few buds flower on the trees.  The lilies look as white as the swans who gracefully swim on the water of the lake.

He had no idea why on earth would the gardeners adopt the swans only ‘to make the garden looks more classy’.  He stifled a laugh.

He went back to his bed after closing the window to finish his breakfast.  He sipped the cup of tea and put them on the end table beside his bed. He placed the dirty plates on the tray and left for a shower.

The dirty dishes on his bed were all gone and his bedroom already looks neat as he walks out of the bathroom.  Thank god it’s his birthday.  However, he wonders how could the maids know the right timing to do that sort of stuff. 

His phone gave a long buzz shortly thereafter.  He takes a look at the screen to find a notification of a newly arrived email.  He opened the message to read a task message from his dad to meet him at a certain café to have some ‘good talk’.  Well too bad, he knows very well by ‘good talk’ it means long lecture.

“How wonderful.”  He sarcasm.  He wonders what would he talk about this time.  Too lazy to type, he decided to give a call.  Even though he wasn’t so sure his dad will pick up the phone on the first call.

“Hello?” the familiar voice reverberated through the line.  It actually makes him happy when he got to hear his dad’s voice.  His dad is so busy they rarely met.  Plus, they didn’t live in a same house, so that kind of add the matter even more.

“Dad?  It’s me,” He utter carefully.

“Oh, it’s you!  Do you enjoy your little morning present?”  His dad asks.  Even Seungcheol couldn’t see him he knows his father was smiling.

“It’s great, I love it so much” his dad apparently knows that his eldest son doesn’t like excessive things and that makes Seungcheol really kind of grateful.

 “Good to know.  Now, what is it?”  He retorts jokingly. Seungcheol laughs.

“About the text you send me earlier…” His voice got a little shaky.  He is pretty much a nervous wreck when it comes to ask something that is most likely to pissed his dad off.

“What about it?”  His dad frowns a bit listening to his son’s unusual tone.

“Um... Can I not?”  He asked meekly, slowly, not wanting to ruin his dad’s mood.

“Not what? Coming?”  Seungcheol didn’t answer only bit his lip.  His dad knows it’s a silence of approval anyway.  “Why?”  His dad asked once again.

“Well... you know...” he thinks of an excuse as he got up from the bed and started walk around

“Seungcheol, I’m your dad, I know you for so long.  Now, stop trying to make excuses and go get dressed.  Jihoon is on his way to pick you up” his dad’s stern voice can be heard from the line.

Seungcheol groans mentally, he already saw that coming though.  “Okay, dad” 

“Okay”

“Uh, by the way…”

“Yes, son?”  His father held his phone back to his ear when he was about to end the call.

“Who’s Jihoon?”  Seungcheol decided to have some small talk to ease his dad’s mood thanks to his stupid request earlier.

“I don’t know, guess.”  He joked.  Hearing that makes him relieves his little plan kind of worked.

“A member of F4 from the drama Boys Over Flowers?”  He joked back. That’s Jihoo. Yikes that was a very very very awkward joke no one would understand.

“Exactly”

“Dad, seriously?”  Seungcheol laughs

“Well, he’s my new personal driver”

“What happen to the old one?”

“His wife had an accident that caused permanent injury on her leg and decided to quit his job and look for another job in his hometown instead in order to look after his wife easily.”  His dad answers in a breath as if he receives that question hundreds of time.  

“Oh” he held back a chuckle imagining how many people had asked the same thing.  “Well, I guess I should get going since the driver is on the way, then.” 

“Good”

He ended the call after saying their goodbyes, and threw his phone to the bed.  He sighs as he drops his body back to the bed.  His eyes widened when an idea struck his brain.  The wooden floor thuds as he quickly ran out of his room. 

Since, it’s the beginning of the month the assistants should be here.  Yes, they came once in a month to clean the house and check some stuff in the kitchen.

He ran to the kitchen to expect a short guy he is looking for was seen in the kitchen.

But alas, no one is in the kitchen.  His body jolted in panic.  No, he’s not going to the so-called meeting only to listen to another boring lecture.  Not today, at least.

The panic recede when he hears soft footsteps from outside and saw the man he was looking for from the open window on the kitchen.  He was heading to the gate, about to leave.  Seungcheol ran to him quickly before he gets any further.

“Wait!”  Seungcheol shouts when he was only about 2 meters away.  He turns around to saw a tall figure going towards her.  He bent his body in front of him only to catch his breath.

“You look like you have run a marathon,” he chirps.

“Running from there to here is sure a marathon.”  His breath still a bit hitched as he points to the house not so far behind him.

“You’re just exaggerating, the distance from here to there is not even that far,” his cheeks wrinkled as the result of his smile. It was actually the panic that growing inside him earlier that caused him to this.  But remembering he doesn’t have much time before the driver reach his place, he shook the thought off.  “What makes you here?”  Soonyoung asked.

“You’re going to the market right?” 

He nodded

“Can I come?”  There was a slight pause between them.

“I’m really sorry, but I heard your dad wants to meet you later, the driver is on the way here.”  Hearing that makes his mind blows.  How on earth did he know about this when his dad had just let him know a couple of minutes ago?  That was pretty much something.

“I know, but can you please do me a favor for this?”  He pleads.  Soonyoung almost cringes watching the boy who usually acting so calm can be so different.

“I can’t, I’m sorry.  Besides, what are you going to do there?”  He slightly frowned

“Anything! Seriously anything” he nearly shouts at the first word.  “I could carry all the shopping bags so you won’t feel tired.”  He started to feel hopeless. 

“Seungcheol, if it wasn’t your father I would allow you to come from the beginning.”

“You don’t have to worry about that.  I always took the blame for something I caused anyway.  Tell me one time my dad ever blame you or other person about something I did?”  Soonyoung started to think of a time, which he didn’t find.  “Exactly.”  He presses.

~

It was an indoor market, a large area with medium ceiling.  The stands were arranged by the foods they sell.  Small banners were hung on the ceiling as a pointer of sections.  His feet move following the direction of the footsteps beside him. 

“What’s on your list?”  His eyes wander to the surrounding around him.  His attention went to the freshly-out-from-the-oven breads on the stands, which lead him to the fact that they were entering the pastry section.

Soonyoung fishes out a small paper from one of the side pocket of her pants to scan it.  “We run out of eggs, lettuce, some spices,” he speech “and other stuff.  You can pick other things if you like.” He nods as he finished. 

His arms started to feel stiff as he carries the plastic bags that keep increasing as they stop at various stands to have the words on the list streaked one by one.  “What else?” He asked as he takes another plastic bag from another stand.

“We haven’t got lettuce and,” her eyes scanned the small paper to makes sure nothing else is unscratched except that word.  “Yup, that’s left.” he folds it back and insert the small paper to one of her side pockets, as it was the last on the list.  Seungcheol exhales, that means say goodbye to tight plastic handles that turn his fingers all pale and numb.

“Where should we get it?”  He asked while tailing the other.  He ignores while continue her steps, giving him a signal to follow the direction as he goes.

Seungcheol frowns when they were about to walk towards a big wall, giving him the idea that it was the end corner of the market.  He cancels the intention to tap the guy on the shoulder when he realized there were stairs to the lower floor.  No, more like descended ground since it’s literally wasn’t staircase shaped. He keeps tailing him as they went down the floor. 

This is the first time he had seen a market in a basement as they reach the bottom floor.  The area is not as big as the market above and the ceiling is lower.  There are only a few sections in this area.  One of them was the vegetables section, which is the area they are standing on right now. 

Each stand in this section somehow looks more crowded compare to the stands on other sections.  His eyebrows slightly raised that when he discovered that they didn’t only put the vegetables in the baskets, but they hang some of their selling above the baskets as well.

“Which stand are we going to stop by?” Seungcheol mumbled.  His voice was barely audible as it was molded with the busy noises around them.  Fortunately, Soonyoung’s hearing was sharp enough to catch Seungcheol’s phrase as he points to a stand not so far ahead of them.

They finally stop in front of it.  This stand is pretty much the same from the other besides the differentiation of the items they sell.  But, unlike the other stands, this one hangs more long vegetables.  Although the greens don’t entirely covering the view, but it does deter enough.  So, the buyer has to duck a little to meet the seller, and also vise versa.

Seungcheol stood next to Soonyoung as he was talking to the seller guy.  Seems like they are pretty close guessing from the way they interact.  He glances at the guy from the small gaps between the hanging long beans; his cheeks sank as the impact of the bright smile he gave across his face while talking to the assistant beside him, his eyes turning crescent.  For a man standard he has a long hair, tied back.

After short minutes of talking, Soonyoung finally pays the stuff he bought and gave him.  “Seungcheol, do you want me to carry this one?” He points the plastic bag the seller guy held, concern shown from his tone, seeing the amounts of plastic bags he carry.

“It’s okay, I’m good,” he told him as he duck to take the bag.  “Thanks” he told the seller while his hand took the plastic.  Seungcheol’s gaze met the others when he replied a soft

“You’re welcome” 

Seungcheol’s eyes didn’t leave the guy until he pull himself up.