After my random encounter with the famous ballad singer living next door, I spend the rest of the day arranging the flowers I had at home. Other than taking up yoga, I immersed myself in flower arranging as well. The art of making a beautiful bouquet for home decorations and displaying it was interesting to me.

I was walking pass a florist shop one day and found myself engrossed in the way the florist was arranging the flowers in the window display. That was when I picked up flower arranging. I didn’t go for classes; I just bought several types of flowers and arranged them to however I liked it to be.

There was a sort of calmness that flower arranging gave me. It brought me this opportunity to grow patience; something that I never did in the past. In order for my final bouquet of flowers to look good, I had to have patience, cutting each stem and placing the different flowers together. I couldn’t just dump the entire lot of flowers into the vase and hoped that it will look nice all by itself.

After a few months of experimenting with flower arranging, I grew to like dried flowers; sometimes I would buy a dozen of roses and leave them in the balcony for them to dry up. The idea of spraying perfume on the dried flowers and placing them in vases as air fresheners was kind of inviting for me.  

I was about to go out to the nursery to get more flowers when the moment I opened the door, I saw someone I didn’t wanted to see or rather I thought I didn’t want to see.

My mother stood at the entrance of my door, pushing her sunglasses above her forehead, staring at the unit number before setting her eyes on me.

Her eyes widened; she finally found me. All this while, she only knew the telephone number of the apartment but she had no clue about the address.

At last, she had found me.

I was expecting some kind of apology but I was wrong.

“You were living here all along?!” She started arguing.

No greeting, no warm hug, not even a friendly smile, nothing.  

“This is the way you say hello?” I retorted.

“Choi Rae Ah! Don’t start that with me.” She snapped back sharply.

After everything that had happened, my mother still hadn’t change. She was the same as she was back then.

“You’re the one who started it.” I glared back at her.

“You have fooled around enough; you’re coming home with me!” She shouted furiously.

“Fooled around? Is that all you can think of?” I told her off.

“You think I have no idea what you’re doing? This yoga instructor thing is just for fun isn’t it? Another one of your brilliant ideas? Or was it Kim Mi, that beloved best friend of yours who introduced the idea to you?” She snarled sarcastically.

“This is between the both of us; do not drag Kim Mi into the picture.” I said defensively over my best friend.

If it’s not for Kim Mi, I would have committed suicide a long time ago. She made me appreciate other things in life.

“I do not want to continue quarrelling with you here. Now pack your stuff and we’re going back. Two years of fooling around is enough.” My mother said, lifting an eyebrow, looking fiercely back at me.

“I’m not going back with you.” I said coldly.

“You are coming home with me this instant!” She screeched.

I shook my head. “You’re impossible!” I lashed back before in a breath when I noticed the ballad singer had come out of the lift to see such a sight.

Why must he arrive at the wrong time? I hated showing my weakness to others. But Kyu was just like Hyun, arriving at crucial times when I was in need.

Kyu came straight to my side, “Rae Ah, is everything okay?” He asked.

I turned to look at him, I wanted to say yes so badly but I knew my physical appearance would have proved me wrong; so I shook my head slightly.

I nearly forgotten the reason why I was about to tear when my mother spoke.

“Who is this?” She eyed Kyu from top to toe, giving him an ugly look.

I looked at Kyu before glancing back at my mother.

“This is none of your business.” I remarked. Somehow, I shifted my weight and stepped forward, in front of Kyu.

My mother was bolder. She ignored whatever I said and glared at Kyu straight in his face, questioning him. “Who are you?!”

I couldn’t stand it any longer. My mother came to my apartment, throwing derogatory insults and comments at me when I was expecting an apology from her for being a part of my accident; she had no idea she was in the wrong.

Furthermore, I didn’t want to cry in front of her. I didn’t want to show that I was weak as she would triumph over my weakness.

Without thinking much, I quickly grabbed Kyu’s hand and placed my hand in his, “He’s my boyfriend, alright? Please leave.” I commanded and stomped back into my apartment, dragging Kyu in the process.

Upon closing my door, I saw my hand still being together with Kyu’s hands as I withdrew them immediately.

“Sorry! I-I.. T-that..I-I…” I stuttered as I tried to find the right ways to explain myself but I couldn’t. I was way too nervous; my mother was a scary person.

“Do you mind telling me what just happened?” Kyu said as he walked over to the kitchen and placed his groceries on the kitchen counter and went on to sit on the sofa.

What am I going to tell him?

 “She’s your mother right?” Kyu stated.

How did he know? Then again, he must have noticed the striking resemblance I had with my mother.

I just nodded my head gently and stared at the ground.  

 “What happened?” He asked.

Keep it simple, Rae Ah, keep it simple. “My mother and I don’t really have a very good relationship together.” I said truthfully.

“I could see that.” Kyu blurted out.

Somehow, my tears came flowing down and I started sobbing. Memories of the past flooding my mind. I mean, I never wanted my relationship with my mother to be this bad. I thought my mother would be there for me when I lost the baby, I thought my mother would be there to support me, to encourage me to carry on with life but no, my mother was the direct opposite.

She hired somebody to try to hit me so I could lose the baby. Which mother does that?! Only my mother.

“I didn’t mean to be this fierce! I’m sorry.” Kyu quickly said as he grabbed the tissue box that was on the coffee table and hand it to me.

Kyu got up immediately and went into the kitchen, I heard the sound of water being poured into a cup and Kyu was walked out of the kitchen was a cup in his hand and gave it to me .

The cup was warm; warm water.

I looked up at him and muttered, “T-Thanks.”

I drank the water and composed myself before settling down on the far end of the sofa, facing Kyu.

“My mother ain’t like Mrs Cho, as you can see.” I said softly, looking down at the cup to avoid staring at Kyu.

From the corner of my eyes, I could see him nod his head.

“My mother had a hand in an accident I got into two years ago.” I answered quietly.

 “That’s why I’m not staying with my family.” I confessed bitterly.

I took a quick glance at Kyu, he seemed like he wanted to say something but he decided not to.

And then there was silence. I continued to stare at my cup.

“Since I helped you just now, you owe me dinner.” Kyu suddenly said.

Dinner? What’s with him and dinner?

I looked up immediately and frowned at him.

The reason why I have be rejecting people for dinner was because Marcus and I always made it a point to have dinner together. After he passed away, I couldn’t bring myself to have dinner with another person.

But that was two years ago. Two years have passed and I finally accepted the fact that he was gone and I should move on with life.

Yes, I should move on with life.

Cho Kyuhyun’s POV

I was sitting on the high stool, facing the kitchen. I looked around and observed my surroundings; Rae Ah’s kitchen was decked out in shades of hazelnut brown to caramel. The kitchen was filled in interesting unique furniture. I looked over to the sink; her cups were hung individually by metal hooks while her dishes were laid on an overhead compartment. Her wooden flooring made the home looked like a cottage.

I stretched my gaze to the living room; her L-shaped sofa took the most space in the living room, right in front of her television and mahogany coffee table. The wooden flooring made the apartment looked cozy as it led to the balcony. The balcony was covered in carpeted grass; with her yoga mat spread out, there was a recliner at a corner with a side table.

From where I was sitting, I could see the corridor leading to the bedrooms; instead of three doors since her apartment was similar to mine, I spotted only two; she might have combined two of the rooms together.  

Returning my gaze to Rae Ah, I saw her switched off the stove as she carried the pot over to the kitchen bar top counter and placed the pot in the center of the counter.

After my suggestion earlier on, Rae Ah offered to cook dinner herself, I was more than happy to take up that offer.

She was finally having dinner with me. 

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Hey readers *waves*

Yay! She finally decided to go ahead and have dinner with Kyu! 

I have been on a writing spree as school starts next week! So I would like to write as much as possible before school begins.^^ Hoped you guys enjoyed this chapter, please give feeeeedback! 

Commmmmmmmment!!

Xoxo.