It was not after a couple of weeks that Mino had spoken about our date to go out. It happened the way he did everything; spontaneously but with confidence. He came to the café, greeted EunYoung and I, slipped a piece of paper with the date and place scribbled with a messy font, and wordlessly stepped out with a huge smile upon his handsome face.

There was not much questioning from EunYoung about Mino, but rather much more about the friend of his from last time. She had a passionate belief that I knew all of the people whom Mino had acquainted himself with, and that's only coming because he talked with me on that day and gave me a mysterious piece of paper of which contents she had not figured out.

The date was set up to a couple of weeks after our small encounter, or to be more precise, it was set up in a couple of hours since the two weeks had already flew by. As strange as I found the time to be, I never said anything, not like I could without having any way to contact Mino and try and change either the date or time.

We were supposed to meet up in a `Starbucks` café in HaeUndae which would take me about ten minutes by bus in a deserted street of Busan. Unfortunately for me, the street will not be deserted at all. In fact, it will be quite the opposite as it was a Friday at six in the evening. I will be considered lucky enough if I get to the café for seven, just the right time of when we were scheduled to meet.

Having a couple of free minutes, I judged my outfit by looking at a full-body mirror that hung on my bathroom door. I was not happy with my outfit, not the least. Even though I said that dates were supposed to be the time for two people to get to know each other better, I also knew that the impression, though not exactly the first in this case, was an important factor nonetheless.

With shaking hands and stumbling legs I dragged my heavy body to the bus stop, having to run the rest of the short stretch seeing the bus ready to take off without me.

There were no empty seats, but never did it discourage me; I knew better than to dream the impossible and expect a seat to appear. And so I stood patiently near the second doors of the bus, ready to leave my position in the coming hour, all the while trying to calm my heavily beating heart that was threatening my rib-cage and stomach that were both about ready to burst.

Once the doors crawled open I jumped the steps of the bus and took off in the direction of the café, already being late by fifteen minutes.

Seeing the lights of the café had instantly calmed my heart back into its peaceful state that I managed to get it under in the bus. Slowing down my pace near the doors into the café, I entered with as much grace as I could and looked around. Once my target had been spotted a huge smile of relief plastered itself on my face; I was thankful that he did not leave and instead waited for my incompetent person.

"I can clearly see who likes to appear early on occasions." Mino chuckled while waving me over with a big smile of his own. "Sit down and relax, I'm going to order some coffee and we're going to go to our real destination."

Never had I a chance to say anything to Mino. Just as his sudden teasing had come, his back was now facing me, heading towards the counter for ordering.

Shaking my head a couple of times I slumped into the chair and lowered my head shamefully. "Great job, Areum. Weren't you the one that said that a good impression is important?" I scolded myself with tightly shut eyes, trying to get rid of the embarrassed blush upon my cheeks.

"You weren't that late." the same deep voice laughed from behind me, a warm hand gently patting my back as if to reassure me. "To be honest, I only came here a couple of minutes before you did, so don't worry." he laughed even louder this time and I lifted my eyes up to stare into his own pools of brown.

"Then it's not too bad." I chuckled with a heavy heart and slumped my back against the chair's spine. "Anyway, where are we going for today, Mino?" I asked in a manner that suggested how uncomfortable I felt with the whole ordeal.

He sighed, easily noticing my unease with his sharp eyes. To get rid of the heavy atmosphere Mino brought a finger to his lips and pouted, pretending to think of a place for us to go; he acted childish to bring me to a better mood. "Hm..." his voice had risen a couple of octaves higher, creating a cringe-worthy resonance that instantly brought a smile to my face. "Should we go to the beach?"

I covered an escaping chuckle with an awkward cough, lowering my eyes to avoid seeing Mino's pretentious cuteness that was surprisingly efficient in making me relaxed. "As in... HaeUndae beach?" I mumbled out through an airy chuckle. He nodded his head vigorously and took a seat opposite of me. "A nightly stroll through a beach..." I sighed, resting my cheek on my hand that was on the table. "Who could've known that you're such a romanticist."

"That's another point that you learned about me." he snapped his fingers in a playful manner and leaned back, his dark eyes roaming over my face as if trying to look into any more features that he missed previously.

I lightly shook my head. "You're wrong, Mino. That's the first thing that I legitimately know about you, apart from your name." I tapped my finger on the wooden table as if to justify my point and he stared at me with wide eyes.

"You know that I like dumplings." he tilted his head forward and widened his eyes, his expression being the one that clearly stated that he was right. My finger froze just a couple of millimetres from the surface of the table as I noded my head to the confirmation of his statement. "You also know that I help people who need it."

"Okay, I get your point." I sighed, highly amused by his childish need to prove himself. "I also just found out that you're childish." at this he pouted and huffed, turning his face away only proving my point further. "So let me summarize all that I know at the moment. You're a fully grown man with a childish personality and childish taste for food, who would most likely sacrifice himself to help another, with a strong sense of a self-set romanticisation." I lifted one eyebrow in question whether I was right and his mouth opened in surprise.

Spluttering a couple of non-sensical sentences he finally decided to calm down and take a calm breath. "Are you a detective or something?" he narrowed his eyes and stared deeply into my own, trying to see whatever it was that I was hiding.

My head tilted to the side automatically as I said, "No, not at all. Why?"

Leaning away from his chair he positioned his chin atop his hand. "You're very good at profiling then, Ms Areum." he mused and quickly sprung his free hand up to ruffle my hair. "You could definitely pass for this position in some police station, or something."

I nodded my head and swatted his hand away, trying to get my hair back into the proper position where they previously belonged to. "Maybe I should, then." I wondered aloud, and through my eye-lashes I saw the playful expression on Mino's face falter.

"I'd rather you not." he said with a complete seriousness. "There are quite a few things in this area that shouldn't be seen by a female eye."

"Are you being ist right now, Mino?" I asked with the same serious tone that he used, my eyes hardening to add a dramatic effect to my tease. "If so, I do not think that our views would go along for too much, Mr Mino."

His face paled and his hands started to flail around his body. "No, no... That's not really what I meant!" he defended himself and it took half of my self-composure to hide the sneaky chuckle that threatened to escape. "The gangs in this area specifically are responsible for ion, and if you get your hands into this, I'm afraid of what might happen."

I closed my eyes and nodded my head with a thoughtful expression. "It seems that you're quite knowledgeable about all of this. Is there something that you're hiding from me, Mino?" the question was supposed to be a humorous one, and as I expected Mino had laughed, only it seemed forced and I did not like the sound of that.

"Who do you take me for, Areum?" he laughed with squinted eyes, the skin on his nose scrunching.

"I don't know what to think of you, Mino. We only talked a couple of times." sending him a soft smile I turned my attention to the waitress that had finally brought the coffees that Mino had ordered. "Thank you, Miss." I bowed my head to her and she sent me a smile.

"Please enjoy our coffee, and please come back again." she said with a smile that suggested her professionalism, bowing her head and then quickly walking away to serve another table.

"Areum, I think I found out two more qualities that you have. Thus a good and a bad one, too." at Mino's sudden proclamation my eyes travelled to his own. "Your main charm is that you're very nice, and the bad one is that you can destroy atmospheres very easily. Though that second one may sometimes be used for good."

"It was you who started all these serious conversations, so don't blame me." I laughed and handed him his coffee. "Besides, I only stated the truth."

He waved his hand that was previously resting on the table with no assigned purpose. "Yes, yes. Of course." he muttered with an amused smile before standing up and offering me his hand. "Shall we go, Ms Areum?"

"Indeed we shall, to the HaeUndae beach." accepting his proposed hand I stood up, his warmth enveloping my body, and he marched out of the stuffed café, me in his tow.

            "This is... Beautiful..." I breathed out as the scene in front of me was just about to take away the remaining breath in my lungs.

The lights from street vendors had reached the sandy trail of HaeUndae beach, colouring it in different shades of purple, pink and blue as well as some yellow and red. As the hour was pretty late for people to visit the beach for a normal occasion, it was pretty deserted, apart from two or three couples walking hand in hand from one street vendor into another, giggling and kissing and snuggling into each other. The sight was added to the effect of the bright lights, which finished the complete experience of our visit creating a beautiful memory.

"Mino... Honestly... Wow..." I continued to murmur while slowly walking closer to the shore where the waves were crashing with a steady beat, appearing and disappearing as they pleased, leaving nothing but sea-foam behind as a reminder of their existence. "Be honest..." I turned myself around to face him. "Just how long did it take you to plan all of this?" my eyebrows were creased and lips set into a pout as I scrutinized him with a look that said to give me all the answers I asked for.

Mino froze as his hand reached over to his nape. "Well..." he began with an unsure voice, hand scratching at his poor skin at the back of his neck. "We hadn't seen each other for a couple of days from when I asked you out, right?" he chuckled and suddenly coughed with obvious fakeness only to cover his reddening cheeks of embarrassment.

"So it took you a week..." my eyes widened as I now stared at Mino with new found amazement. "You're something else..." the sentence was murmured with utmost quietness, but from the way Mino had dipped his head further, it was clear that he heard my statement. "I mean... No one has ever put so much thought into doing anything with me... I'm pleasantly surprised." I sent him a soft smile and slowly walking closer entwined our arms, leading him along the shore of HaeUndae beach.

"Actually..." he coughed again, only this time it felt more real, as if he was trying to find the proper words for something. "I thought of a couple of routes, rethinking a couple of possibilities whether you will or will not like it. In the end, HaeUndae seemed the simplest one, but I figured that you would have liked it better than going to... Let's say the aquarium."

I nodded my head absent-mindedly, surprised by the way he somehow understood a knack of my personality; never ever did I enjoy being in publically crowded places. "True. How did you know?"

"My seventh sense worked up?" he mused with a small grin as he moved his hand to entwine his fingers with my own. I smiled at his subtle way of bringing us closer but hit him with my free hand none-the-less, complaining that he was not even serious about our small date at all. He only laughed and nudged his shoulder into my own. "It was your comfortable posture when you sat in that dumpling shop." he laughed at my pouting. "You seemed comfortable, and people who like crowds don't usually settle well in there. That's something I learned from TaeHyun, a friend of mine."

I raised an eyebrow at his statement, completely interested in what he was saying. "What do you mean?"

He sighed and ruffled his hair. "Well, you see... TaeHyun is a social butterfly. It's not that he enjoys being in public, but he likes to observe people, and when it's only our circle of five, he gets uncomfortable."

I nodded my head to Mino's statement, pretending to understand whatever it was that he was trying to convince me with, trying to hide the fact that I was absolutely clueless about the personality of TaeHyun. "So five... TaeHyun the observer, Mino the romanticist...?" I trailed off, implementing for Mino to continue while quickly dropping the subject of TaeHyun.

He thought for a couple of quick seconds with scrunched brows, but then laughed as he continued. "JinWoo the emotional, SeungYoon the rational and SeungHoon the comedian. Besides, I'll have to correct your opinion of TaeHyun. Yes, I did say that he liked to observe people, but the title that would best suit him would probably be diva. There's really nothing else to add or take. I won't be able to explain it in just plain words. You'll need to see it one day, to believe it."

I chuckled at Mino's passionate description of his four best friends and listened intently when he got into the smallest of details about them, almost giving me their full biographies starting from their diaper days and ending at where they were now. By the time we reached the end of the trail I felt like I knew those four men like they were close acquaintances of mine. I felt like I knew them better than Mino himself.

"Mino, do you like to keep yourself wrapped up in unknown?" I asked him after he stopped laughing at a story of how SeungHoon had asked a girl's phone number once, only to realize that it was not really a girl at all.

The remnants of his laugh disappeared into the cold air and he was left with a slightly opened mouth. "Huh?"

"Don't take it the wrong way or anything, but all you did while we walked was talk... About your friends. Should I rather spend some time with them? They seem like good people, actually." I mused while jogging forward in a slow pace. "Now that I think about it, you stayed in the shadows the first time we met, covering your face with awful sufficiency. I haven't even seen your face until our... Third meet, maybe?"

There was silence from behind me and so I turned back to face Mino, only to find his face right in front of my own; his neck bent so that he would be able to look into my eyes with certainty and determination. "Don't say things like that." he whispered, his breath blowing over my upper lip as his gaze never wavered. "Look all you want, isn't this what you wanted?" were his next words and though he sounded conceited there was no question as to why I had no words in my head to respond.

There was heat crawling up my cheeks the longer we stayed in that position, his brown pools digging themselves into my memory by their unrivalled ferocity; he was trying to prove something, something that I now understood as sincerity. He wanted me to know that whatever he was saying was true and deep from within his heart. He wanted me to know that I shouldn't mention other male names while with him. He wanted me to know.

"Ah, seriously..." I murmured and closing my eyes turned my face away. "You're pretty forceful, aren't you, Mino?" I chuckled, my voice being an octave lower. "That was pretty intense, but it made me realize that I am hungry, and you shall treat me, right?" it was a poor attempt at trying to change the theme of our conversation, but it seemed to be working as Mino shook his head and nodded it later.

            "Sure, let's go." he simply shrugged and brought my hand back into his own, our fingers entwined, the warmth spreading between us, the previous serious atmosphere slowly slinking away.

            I guess he was right when saying that I had a knack at destroying atmospheres; this time it was used for a general good.

            To pronounce Mino as a shopaholic was a slight understatement. It wasn't that all the things he bought were for his own greed, it was quite the opposite, in fact; everything he bought had a thought behind it, a thought about his friends and the way he's going to give either the clothes or the shoes to them.

It was then that I realized just what a sweetheart Mino was. He had a heart of glass that could very well be damaged by a single touch of monstrosity called world.

Chuckling at the reminiscence of his adorable smile when he decided to `surprise` me and gift me with a small pendant of wings I was slowly putting the new clothes that I brought today into their new places.

Throwing the last pieces of clothes into different drawers I slumped into the bed and felt myself growing warmer as the darkness surrounded me.

A couple of hours had not even passed from when I was awoken with a loud thud on my front door; the kind of sound that brought a sense as if something, or someone, fell against it. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes I sat down with a pounding head. Another thud came from the side of the door, this time more of a knock. Wobbly legs lead me into the direction of the sound but I froze when I found myself in front of the wooden entryway.

I heard a soft, muffled, velvety voice come from the other side and my curiosity had been piqued as I leaned closer to the small peep-hole in the middle of my door. Peering through it all I saw was the top of someone's head, the hair being short and bright red. As if sensing my observing eyes the person lifted their head up, or rather his head up, and stared into my eyes with his own pools of darkness, the brown being so dark that one could barely make out the pupils from the irises.

The man's face showed off his undeniable charisma; strong eyebrows and a small nose together with small lips and fierce eyes. His chiselled jaw sported a purplish-blue bruise and a sneer was adorning his handsome face, couple of strands of red falling over his eyes. The closer I looked at the unknown man, the more familiar he became.

Same eye structure. Same facial structure. Same fierce gaze. This man, whoever he was, was extremely similar to Song Mino, and the fact that his chin was bloodied, his eyes now staring into the peep-hole in the door as if he knew that someone was behind it, the way his sneer was disappearing and in its stead there was a smirk left, a much scarier feature that I would have much rather never seen and lived my life with no such terror as I was experiencing currently.

I had no reason to be scared of the red-haired man, but his eyes sent shivers down my spine. It was my instinctive nature that told me to be scared, and I always trusted my hard-to-understand reasoning.

"Song Minho..." he muttered, his eyes never lowering from the peep-hole, staring straight at it and into my shaking eyes. "I guess our conversation will have to be appointed to another day as there seems to be some observants today. Have a nice day." for a split second his eyes fluttered to somewhere below my own curious pair. They shined with a deep hatred and there was another loud thud against my door; he kicked something and that something hit my door with much force.

I flinched from the impact towards the weak barrier, and gasped once I heard heavy breathing on the other side.

It was not something that the unknown man had kicked. It was someone.

Oh my God.

"Well then, Ms Han Areum. You, too, have a nice evening." the velvety voice came again and as I peered through the peep-hole for that one last time, my heart had stumbled right into the heels of my feet.

             A chilling smile was rested upon his handsome face, the shadows on his face from the lamps in the hallway creating an eerie sensation of an upcoming despair. He bowed his body in a ninety degree bow and said his goodbyes before turning away and casually walking into the darkness of the staircase that was a couple of metres ahead of my door.

The realization of me not breathing came with a smack and I stumbled backwards, trying to catch my breath, falling when my feet got tangled in the warm rug on the ground.

"He knew my name..." I panicked. "He knew my name..." slowly, my fist had risen to pound on my chest softly, trying to rid myself of the sudden feeling of panic at the realization that the man must have been a dangerous persona, seeing as he kicked a person right in front of my door while staring me in the eyes. He was not scared, and those kinds of people were never a good omen. "How did he know my name? From where...?"

My mind blanked out as I repeated my previous thoughts over and over. "Kicked... In front of the door..." once again terror flooded my system and I crawled to the door, twisting the lock and opening the barrier only for the body to fall right in.

And oh the sight that had greeted me.

Maybe, my reasoning was not as good as I trusted it to be. Maybe Mino had a heart not of glass, but of something much stronger. I truly hoped that I was wrong, though. This was my new wish; for Mino to be the man that I had thought he was, with a good sense of humour, fashion and responsibility.

            The gasp that was meant to escape had stuck in my throat as tears gathered in my eyes. "Mino?!"