The sun glistened in all its glory as the morning rose over the quiet neighborhood of Kensington Avenue. The trees swayed pleasantly as a cool breeze went by and the birds chirping their merry little tune as they nested. The mornings on Kensington Avenue were always the same; dull but peaceful, a quite perfect description of myself. I sighed as I moved away from the window sill and headed towards the kitchen, there was no possible way I would be able to start my day without a cup of brew. Today was the official start of my summer vacation, though the University continued to run over the summer, there were only a few who attended which meant that I could take a step back from the life of a professor and just enjoy some time to just be myself.

After finishing breakfast I decided it was time to head out to the grocery store since my refrigerator looked positively empty, save for the leftovers from last night’s lasagna. I grabbed my car keys and my handbag and headed out the door, straight into the grueling heat of summer. As soon as I locked the door, I was startled by some shouting that was coming from next door, which was fairly odd given that the house next door had been on the market and empty for nearly a year. I looked left and saw that the “FOR SALE” sign that was once on the front lawn of the empty house was missing.

    “It looks like we have new neighbors on Kensington Avenue,” I mumbled to myself in amusement as I continued to hear someone shouting, “I can’t find the crate with the Xbox and the games!”

     “That’s because I hid them so that you could have motivation to finish unloading the Uhaul, we only rented it for two days, remember? They charge too much for renting longer than two days so you better get everything out of that truck now because I’m not paying another $150 due to how lazy you are!”

I chuckled as I got into my car, although I would have loved to stay and hear the rest of that conversation, it was none of my business and on top of that, I had no intention of being caught listening by the new neighbors. The trip to the grocery store was boring as one would expect although the free food samples were quite the thrill, they actually had someone making pizza rolls which I was too excited for since pizza rolls have always been my go-to snack for an elegant evening of Netflix, paired with some white wine.

As I was happily munching on my pizza roll, I was briskly pushed aside; almost toppling over the canned beverage pyramid, if it wasn’t for the hand that caught my arm.

    “I am so sorry, are you alright?” I glanced up at the person who had quite possibly saved me from a trip to the hospital. My savior was a boy who was more or less my age and had light brown hair –which I assumed had been dyed that color due to the roots that were much darker, as well as the fact that he was Asian. He was tall but he was not of an intimidating stature, he was slender but well-built judging by the biceps that were on display thanks to his tank top.

    “Miss? Miss are you alright?” He asked, and I snapped out of my current state of shock.

I nodded my head and smiled up at the boy before me, “I’m alright, thank you for saving me, that would have been an awful fall,” I said as I glanced back at the unharmed pyramid then back to my savior.

   “I am so sorry, I was acting careless because a friend and I were having a cart race to see who could get to the meat first and misjudged the turn and I couldn’t stop in time to not bump into you,” the boy explained, his expression full of regret.

   “I forgive you, after all, nothing really happened and you were able to prevent anything that would have happened. No harm no fowl,” I smiled up at him, “just be more careful and be more aware of your surroundings.”

The boy smiled a rather box-like grin as he nodded his head cutely, “will do!” he said,

   “Tae, are you alright?!” Asked another, he was a boy with raven hair, his height was nearly the same of his friend but he held a more muscular physique. Then the unthinkable happened; it happened in the flash of a second, when his glance met my stare. There was already an unsteady rhythm in my chest area due to the almost accident, but the most curious thing was that when it was calming down, with just the mere glance from this one stranger, the rhythm grew in irregularity and my voice was caught in my throat, producing a light gasp that went unnoticed.

The boy who I assumed to be ‘Tae’ turned back to his friend, “Everything is fine, did you get the meat already?”

The raven haired boy nodded his head in response, his glance never meeting mine again after that brief moment as if intentionally ignoring me, “we should get going,” the boy stated, turning away and walking off.

My savior turned back to me, his box-like grin returning on his face as he backed away from me slowly, “see you around, I guess,” the boy said.

I chuckled but nodded my head in agreement; “see you around,” though I knew for sure that the probability of running into each other again was quite slim.

   “My name is Taehyun, by the way,” the boy stated with a smile.

   “My name is Mily,” I replied.

With that said, the boy- Taehyun gave me a playful salute as he walked away, “nice to meet you!”

I chuckled again at the bazaar encounter, shaking my head in the disbelief of it all.