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It was a Monday morning and Mingyu woke up to an irritating and repetitive beeping noise. His eyelids were heavy and dark circles were painted under his eyes. He had stayed up at three in the morning to do his papers. He looked to his left at his bedside table, looking at the clock that read 7:00AM. The giant slapped his hand on top of the digital alarm clock, turning off the sound. He rubbed his eyes groggily, groaning tiredly.

He had two morning classes that he didn't want to attend to. It was way too early to be stuck in a classroom for two hours straight, having to listen to the same old lecturer's voice (that he didn't really even listen to), and doing nothing but writing down words that he didn't bother reading. But it seemed like life wasn't very nice to him, and he was stuck in that daily routine for currently two years of his life.

It wasn't like he wasn't unhappy all the time. He had amazing friends, had a few relationships here and there - even though most of them ended badly. It was fun while it lasted.

"Why do you want to know anyway?"

Mingyu, along with his diva friend were sitting at a table at the back room, sipping on hot cups of coffee. The tall giant had worked at SVT Bookstore for approximately seven months. They were on a ten minute break while Soonyoung and Jeonghan took care of everything else.

"Never mind, it's nothing"

Seungkwan squinted his eyes, glaring at Mingyu as he sipped on his cup. Mingyu took a sip from his cup, and then looked up at his friend's eyes.

"What is it, Seungkwan?"

"Hey, Mingyu?"

"What?"

"Do I look like the kind of person who's stupid?"

"Yes"

" you"

"I love you too"

"But seriously, why do you want to know? It's obviously not just "nothing". Is he an ex-girlfriend's boyfriend? You're lonely and you need a friend? A single man on the market? Is he hot?"

"No. No. Maybe. Yes"

"Ooo, so you're interested?"

"Maybe"

"Maybe means yes"

Mingyu sighs, "Yes ok, he's good looking and I want to get to know him" And I want to make him smile more and make sure he's not pretending to be okay - He couldn't manage to say it out loud.

"Ok look, I was just curious, okay? He probably doesn't even remember me anymore"

Seungkwan just shrugs. "Whatever you say"

---

Mingyu waited at the bus stop for approximately ten minutes before the bus arrived. He stepped in and took a seat at the very back. He plugged in his earphones and looked out the window. He saw the grey clouds painting the sky again.

"I forgot my umbrella again"

After four hours of sleeping, flicking pens, scribbling on paper and drinking multiple cans of energy drinks during his two morning lectures, Mingyu was finally free from his professors boring voices. Well, not that free. He still had work within half an hour. Since the tall giant had nothing better to do, he thought that he might as well go to work early to see his friends.

He took a ten minute walk to the cafe he worked at nearby the campus. He walked until he stopped in front of the store that read SVT Bookstore in large, cursive, bold, orange font. Even after seven months of working there, neither he nor his friends that worked there knew what SVT stood for. They asked their manager, but apparently he doesn't know either.

He opened the door, hearing the entrance bell ring.

"Well look at who it is! The lover boy is twenty three minutes early to work! Love really does make people nicer", Seungkwan exclaims as he hugs the broom he was cleaning the floor with a few seconds ago.

"I'm not in love!"

"Who's in love?" Soonyoung walks to the bookshelf next to Seungkwan while carrying a pile of books.

"Mingyu is!"

"I am not! I just said I was curious about him!"

"But you said he was hot"

"He is"

Soonyoung quirks up his eyebrow. "You found a hot guy and you're not in love? You must be crazy"

"Guys, just because he's hot doesn't mean I'm in love"

"You sure?" Seungkwan asks.

"Positive"

For the next twenty minutes, Mingyu hung out at the back room with Seokmin who was placing price stickers on the back of books. They spent their time screwing around before Jeonghan or Soonyoung would come in and tell them to get back to work. When it was finally time to start work, Jeonghan says his goodbyes as Mingyu takes over.

It's been an hour at work and there are barely any customers besides a person who’s probably a freshman at college, sulking at the price of a college text book that they probably weren't going to use anyway. A ring of the entrance bell is heard and Mingyu looks up from the computer monitor at the counter, ready to greet the new customer. The new customer had glossy black hair, which was something that Mingyu was familiar with - but it wasn't him.

Mingyu gave his usual smile. "Hi, welcome to SVT Bookstore"

"Oh, hi", the dark haired male gave a small smile. "I...I was just wondering if there was someone named Jeonghan here?"

"Jeonghan? His shift was over a while ago"

"Oh... that's ok..." the stranger was still giving a charming smile, but his sad eyes said otherwise.

"Sorry about that"

"It's ok. I might as well have a look around here."

"Okay. Just ask if you need any help"

The stranger walked through the aisles, looking up and down. It went on for about seven minutes before the stranger stopped to a halt, eyeing a particular book. He ran his finger down the book's spine, reading the printed lettering closely. He dragged his finger up to the top of the book, and pulled it out of the shelf. The glossy black haired male inspected the book's cover, and flipped it over to read over the blurb. He flipped it over again, staring at it for a while longer before walking over to the counter. He carefully placed the book onto the counter.

"I'd like to buy this, please"

"Sure thing"

Mingyu took the book in his hand, and clicked a few keys on the keyboard. He took the scanner from beside the monitor and scanned the barcode. The title of the book came up on the monitor's screen.

Last Night at the Blue Angel by Rebecca Rotert ------ Price: ₩12637.91

"That'll be ₩12637.91"

The customer took out his wallet from his back pocket, taking out the amount of money he needed to give.

Mingyu took the money and placed it into the cash register. He put the book into a plastic bag while he waited for the receipt to be printed out slowly.

"Here you go. Have a nice day!"

"Thanks"

The glossy back haired stranger took the plastic bag from Mingyu's hand and made his way out of the book store.

The clock ticked at 4:30PM, telling Mingyu that his shift had ended. He got up from the counter to collect his stuff, and said his goodbyes to his co-workers.

It was a calm afternoon. Mingyu walked along the foot path, passing by the busy stores. Looking through the large glistening windows that reflected the sunlight, he could see cafe workers running around taking orders. He could see the bored cashier chewing on her gum at the counter of a CD store. He could see the cashier of the convenient store at the counter immersed into the magazine he was reading.

Mingyu continued to walk until he felt a rain drop fall onto his face.

""

The tall giant was lucky that he was near the bus stop that he needed to be at.  He quickly went underneath the bus stop shelter, just in time that the rain started to pour down. Mingyu looked up to the sky, only to be met with the usual blue skies to be masked in dark grey clouds. The water drops from above fall down onto the concrete road and the bus stop shelter – the sounds of the rain drops pattering lightly above Mingyu.

As much as Mingyu likes the rain, he notifies himself to check the weather report more often. The occurrence of rain seemed to be more random lately. He takes out his phone from his pocket, and turns on his phone data. He then clicks the weather app to check out the weather report for the rest of the week. The app pops up a series of days and temperatures.

Local Weather – Seoul

Today:   Showers    24°C  /  18°C

Mingyu sighs.  It seemed that there would showers for the rest of the week. He includes in his mental notes to remember to bring an umbrella with him for the rest of the week.