สาม ѕαм

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Yunho looked around the crowded subway, looking for a seat frantically, reluctant to stand. Luckily for him, he had found an open seat and made a dash for it before anyone else could take it. A young looking girl occupied the window seat much to his chagrin, but it was a seat nonetheless and he didn’t particularly have any room to be picky.

“Excuse me, is this seat taken?” he asked, gently tapping her on the shoulder, noticing she had her music playing. She turned to look at him, her bright brown eyes looking at him before looking at the empty seat next to her.

Gracefully she flicked her hand, motioning for him to take a seat and proceeded to leave her ear bud out of her ear should this unknown male attempt to engage in conversation with her. But the scenario never presented itself. He was respectful, but minded his own business and would have preferred it if no one meddled with his business either.

Despite this, he looked familiar. Even with just the little glance she got of him before he sat down, and despite the fact that half of his face was covered by a large pair of sunglasses, he was definitely familiar. Too familiar in her mind. She had seen him somewhere what seemed like every day.

She tried to shake the thought as she attempted to not peer at him out of the corner of her eyes and averted her gaze back out the window.

A few more stops passed and the subway emptied quite a bit. It was rush hour and everyone was ready to be home. But even as those stops passed, the male didn’t get up from his seat. In fact, he seemed to not even hesitate. Did he really get off at the same stop as her? It was the last stop on this route, there was no way he could just ride it back to the station, was there?

As her stop came up, she noticed he was collecting his things, ready to get up and let her out. But when the subway came to a halt, he exited the train as well.  Curiosity got the best of her as she caught up with him, walking side by side with him. “Do you always take this train?” she asked. It wasn’t like her to be nosy, but she was curious. He was so familiar to her, but she knew she had never seen him on the train before.

“I usually drive, but my car is in the shop. I couldn’t get a ride today,” he replied, his bag flung over his shoulder. It was clear to her that he was trying to hide a smile, looking away from her.  

“You’re really familiar. Do we work together?” she asked, coming straight out with it rather than beating around the bush. She could tell he wasn’t the type to play games, and if she wanted to know something she may as well have just asked him directly. 

“You probably often see me outside my house watching you tend to your flowers,” he replied blatantly. She blushed darkly and looked away from him. “Yeah, I’m your neighbor,” he laughed. “So what’s your name? Now that you know I watch you creepily from my front yard, we may as well become acquainted.”

“Ji Yeon,” she replied, “Ka Ji Yeon.”

“Jung Yunho,” he replied, reaching his hand out for her to shake.  “Well, this is my house. Maybe if you’re not too busy this weekend, we could go out for coffee? An offer a little less creepy for me to get to know you rather than watching your daily gardening habits,” he laughed nervously, scratching the back of his neck.

“I’d like that,” she smiled. “Maybe by then I’ll be a little more prepared to engage in conversation with you about things that actually matter, besides just figuring out you’re my neighbor.”

He grinned back at her, causing butterflies to erupt in her stomach.

“So then, I’ll just swing by and pick you up?” he asked. 

“You could smoothly use a cheesy pick up line on me when I come out to water the flowers. That’d be acceptable,” she replied, bumping her hip with his.

“Right, cheesy pick up line it is. It’s good to finally meet you, Miss Ka,” he said, taking her hand to press his lips against the back of it.

“Oh stop, Mister Jung,” she replied with a wink of her own. “The pleasure is all mine.”