It’s raining heavy when Sehun headed outside. He’s wearing his favorite hooded jacket and covered his face with the brim of his hat. The street was less people than usual and so was the shop. Sehun shrugged his umbrella to get rid of the water. Nina, the waitress welcomed Sehun with a bright smile.

“Hello Sehun, you came alone?” she tilted her head aside to see if there was any one behind him.

“Uhm, one chocolate bubble tea please.” He clearly had no mood to chitchat with her right now.

The waitress looked at him for a moment, wondering why her patron was so down “Okay. You drink here or take out?”

Sehun looked around the shop. There was no one here, except for one boy sitting at the far right corner, well Sehun’s corner, reading book. Sehun frowned at the fact that his spot had been stolen but the quiet atmosphere here was all he wanted. He turned back to Nina “I drink it here, noona.”

“Okay, take a seat and I’ll bring it to you in a minute.”

Sehun slowly walked to his corner and sat down at the table that was opposite his occupied favorite spot. He’s glad that no one was here and that meant he didn’t have to deal with any crazy fan alone. The waitress put a drink on his table, he mouthed “Thank you” before dig in his beverage. As soon as the drink was down through his throat, he released a sigh that has been weighing him down the whole day. I should call to check on her. He fished out his phone and pressed the #2 on speed dial.

“Hello, dad it’s me. How was grandma?” Sehun asked worriedly

On the other side, his dad chuckled a little, he never saw his son this warm before “She’s fine son. The test went well and the doctor said we could go home in two days.” he paused a second “How was your day?”

Sehun leaned his chin on the table “It’s a blur. I couldn’t focus on anything. But to hear good news from you is great, dad.”

“Don’t worry. Everything will be just fine. We’ll take good care of her. You had a long day. Take a rest, okay?”

“I will. You too dad. Send my greeting to mom and grandma.”

“Okay. Bye son.”

Sehun put his phone back into his pocket, taking another sip of his tea. Now that he knew his grandma was okay, he could gain some energy to look around again. His eyes stopped on the reading-book figure in front of him. He recognized the book from its cover, it’s one of his grandma favorite books “Grimm's Fairy Tales”. Tsk, tsk fairy tales huh, how romantic! Was he too old for that kind of book? Sehun thought. Suddenly, the boy threw his book on the table in frustration, glanced back to that book with annoyance as if he saw something disgusting. He growled something Sehun couldn’t hear and then looked outside the window, silently sighed while drinking his cup of tea.

From his seat, Sehun amused the scene which entertained him a lot. Now he had a chance to observe the boy carefully. He’s really good looking, with pale skin. His curly brown hair made his face perfectly small and round. Sehun found himself blushing when the boy suddenly turned back and looked at him in the eyes. Sehun quickly lowered his cap, pretended enjoying his drink. He must think I’m a freak!!

Sehun heard a footstep toward his seat. A fan?  Sehun chose not to look up, hoping whoever came near him didn’t recognize him.

“Uhmm… excuse me.”’ said a boy’s voice.

Sehun didn’t respond. Although he was in quite good mood now, he didn’t want to deal with fan. He was still shy at this thing. That why he always went out with his manager. But then it’s dawn on him that a fan didn’t “excuse me” him, they would just shout his name and jump on him instead. They were scary!

Sehun peeked over his bubble tea to see who was talking to him. It’s the fairy tales reading boy. Okay, I knew it’s rude to look at someone like that before but did he need to come over here. Sehun slowly looked up to face the boy. He’s even more handsome when came close. Sehun could feel his cheek warm up from that thought.

“What do you want?” he answered with cool voice.

The boy hesitated a bit before sat down “Sorry to bother you but I can’t find any other one who would help me. And since you seem nice, could you do me one favor?” his voice had some kind of strange accent.

So definitely not a fan and not Korean either.

“What can I do for you?” Sehun straightened his back and crossed his arms.

“Well, I had a problem with this” the boy said held up the book.

Sehun sent him a curious look “What’s problem with that?”

The boy put down the book with a frown which Sehun found it very cute “I don’t know a word.” then he shook his head “No, lie. I know words but it makes nonsense.”

Sehun reached out to pick up the book in front of him, checking its cover. “Why do you have to read a book that you couldn’t understand in the first place?” he asked as a matter of fact.

And then Sehun spent 15 minutes trying to understand the boy in front of him situation. First of all, the boy had a name, Luhan, a Chinese name. Luhan was an exchange student in Seoul International University, major in business administration. Although his Korean was quite good, he took a language class to improve himself. Every week they would have a small test like writing essay or giving a speech about some recommended books. This week topic was learning culture in children’s books. Luhan had asked his friend, who was a Korean, which book he should read and his friend suggested the “Grimm's Fairy Tales”. It turned out he had to totally understand the whole stories to learn Germany culture in them. And clearly spending almost 3 hours, drinking 2 cup of teas was not helping. He knew most of the words written down there but when they were put into a full sentence, he couldn’t figure out what it meant. Besides, he almost forgot the Grimm’s stories he had learnt back in China long time ago so he was screwed. 

-------------------------------------------

“Well firstly, give your friend a punch the next time you see him for giving such a bad advice. He should know he gave you a hard time.” Sehun leaned back to his chair, said casually.

Luhan winced at the comment “That won’t be necessary. At least he tried.”

Sehun rolled his eyes “Okay, up to you. So what do you want me to do exactly?”

Luhan pursed his lips, not knowing what to say. He couldn’t ask Sehun to explain all the stories to him, it would take hours. His test was in two days and he didn’t have any idea about his presentation. Sehun leaned forward and waved his hands in front of Luhan, gaining the latter’s attention.

“You know, I have to be back before dinner so...”

Luhan startled at Sehun’s voice “Oh, sorry. I..I “ he stuttered. “Never mind, I guess I just figure it out myself. I couldn’t ask you to waste your time on me. We just met.” He let out a sigh before took the book out of Sehun’s hand.

Sehun sensed sadness in Luhan’s voice. He wished he could help. Even though they just met, he couldn’t help but felt attracted to the big-eye boy. It’s the first time he had connection to someone like that. The Chinese boy was about to stand up when he felt his wrist be grasped. It sent electricity down to his spine. What was that?

Seeing Luhan staring at his hand, Sehun quickly released his grip, scratched the back of his neck.

“Well, if it helps, I will ask my hyung some good books for you. His parents run a kindergarten. They must have tons of children books there.”

Luhan lips formed into a big smile “Really? That would be great. Thank you!!” He flopped back to his chair, took a napkin and wrote down his phone number. “Text me the title and I’ll buy it myself, okay?” he handed it to Sehun.

“Uhmm..okay. Another thing, why don’t you present about your own culture? That way is much easier.” Sehun took the napkin, folded it and put it into his pocket.

“Well, the teacher insisted that we should do research on other culture. ‘This way you would learn something’ she said that” Luhan made a face and imitated his teacher’s voice.

They both burst into laughter.  It looked like they were friend for a long time.

“Okay, I got to run.” Sehun checked the time “I'll text you later, Luhan.”

“Neh, thanks. I’ll buy you bubble tea next time.” Oh, it sounded like a date, Luhan quickly added “If you have time, of course.”

Sehun nodded his head with a smile before biting a goodbye. It had stopped raining for a while so the street was now full of people. Sehun lowered his cap and walked as fast as possible back to his dorm. He saw some flash on him before passing through the entrance of the building. Pheww~~, I’m safe now. Sehun thought when he was in the elevator. He took out the napkin with Luhan’s number on it, suddenly found himself grin like an idiot.

END OF FLASHBACK