"I guess it's decided then? Let's go to Moulin Rouge, there's a section for mommys-to-be as well!" I had barely opened my mouth before feeling Taeyeon already dragging me into the direction of the store.

"W-wait a sec, what should I buy such underwear for? There's no one who'll see me wearing it, I don't even know if I'll-"

"Oh, So Eun. Lee So Eun, please don't be so pessimistic! There are tons of guys who'd love to go out with someone like you! And look at this night gown, isn't it cute? It'll surely make your future-boyfriend look at your tummy and think >Oh, I want to protect her< even more!" She stuffed a few night gowns, undergarment sets and bras into my arms before making me try them on;
Well, I see why Tae wanted to come here- let's just say that she's pretty popular with the other gender, for both- appearance and personality. But that's no reason for making me try something like this on!

"Tae, really, I won't wear this stuff either. Let's find something nice for you and go on."

"Eunnie, you're so..." I could hear her clicking her tongue as she rolled her eyes and looked at me. "Okay, let's make a deal. Just buy one of each, okay? A night gown and a set- or maybe two, or... urgh, why aren't you interested in underwear at all?!"

I snickered at the way Tae got frustrated and decided to give in. "Well, as long as it makes you happy..."

That made her smile return to her lips. "Good girl! You can't continue on with those flower-patterned bras of yours. Come on, who got you pregnant with those? He must've been totally drunk!" She laughed out loudly as I tried to cover with one of the bras I was holding.

"Y-yah, stop embarrassing me! And by the way, I really like flower-patterned clothes." True, true. Today I'm wearing a floral-patterned skirt as well.

"Okay, okay, we'll discuss that over a laté macchiato la--- Oh. Wait, are you even allowed to drink coffee-ish stuff?" I blinked at that and gave that a deeper thought. To be honest, I wasn't even sure about whether to ke-

"Since we don't know that for sure, it means juice for you, dear." I pouted.

"At least make it strawberry milk..." I muffled while trying on the second bra.

"Girl, you'll turn fat from all that milky stuff you drink each day." You could barely hear Taeyeon grin behind the courtain.

"I'll be fat in a few months, either."      Hmpf!

<<<<<<<<

Well, half an hour later -and after spending a quarter of my monthly allowance for clothes- it had started to pour outside, and I finally got my strawberry milk to drink. I really don't know why, but since about two weeks, I started craving for things- my passion was, as you could guess, strawberry milk. Good thing Taeyeon and me lived together in an apartment, since my parents would have probably gotten suspicious of me waking up to eat some melon slices along with whipped cream and bananas early in the morning. Taeyeon didn't mind that, and often joined me in my nightly meals. Sometimes even I wasn't able to tell which one of us was... pregnant.

"But that means no cheese, no milk and no- So Eun, watch out!" I was listening to Taeyeon rambling about my eating habits as I sipped some milk, not caring about the cars driving by at all. I looked up, only to see someone taller than me blocking my view... a young man. His dark, wet  hair framed his face in a handsome way, and his lips moved soundlessly while his eyes were covered by a pair of big sunglasses... oh, wait.

"Hey girl, are you okay?" His grip on my shoulders got stronger. "Hello?" His jaw line looked familiar...?

"Oh, uhmm, yes, I'm fine." I suddenly realized I had been staring at him, and therefore freed myself from his huge hands before bowing to him.

"Thank you for reacting and shielding her", Taeyeon entered the scene, and my beating heart calmed down in an instant. "I really didn't want her to-- oh no, you're soaked totally! And your clothes got all muddy, too... Wait, is that coat from Burberry?! Oh, I mean..." I released a muffled laugh as Taeyeon kept struggling with the right words to say.

"Oh, that's no big deal. I'm living nearby, and my shirt is totally dry." He just waved our sorrows off before taking off his jacket and facing me. "I'm just happy that you're okay." His lips turned into a small smile, yet changed into an expressionless line again as soon as Taeyeon started talking again.

"Well, since the two of you seem to have such good vibes, why don't you join us for some coffee? We'd like to show you some gratitude before parting ways again... don't we, Eunnie?" She elbowed me slightly, only to receive a click of my tongue. Did she always have to take the chance to embarrass me whenever it was possible? Doing that for me didn't mean anything!

"Oh, I'd really like to... if I'm allowed, that is." With that, he leaned forward, his face getting closer to mine. My cheeks flushed, I noticed the edges of his lips curling up again, and before I knew it, we were already on our way back into the mall.

<<<<<<<<<<<<

"Oh, before I forget about it... would you like to have a bag for your coat? I guess it's not comfortable to wear it over your shoulder while it's all wet... is it?"

He chuckled, and while the waitress of the cafe we were sitting in made her way up to us, he gave me a simple nod as an answer. Agitatedly, I dragged the skirts I had bought into another plastic bag before handing him the now empty one.

"Thanks", he said before folding his coat neatly and putting it into the bag.

"Hello, dears~ I'm Seok Hye, may I take your orders?" The waitress had reached our table and seemed to loose no time- may it be in taking our orders or flirting with that guy next to me.

Neither Taeyeon nor me had even taken a look at the card yet, and so it was our dear stranger who made the first move;

"That makes an ice coffee, one strawberry milk and... grapefruit juice?" He gave Taeyeon a questioning look, who seemed to pout.

"What? I'd never drink such stuff!"

His eyes still hidden behind those dark sunglasses , I barely saw his face turning into an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, you gave off this sour vibe... like you're the typical grumpy type. I'm sorry, I must've been... mistaken."




After the three of us had been chatting for a while -or, actually, I listened to Taeyeon chatting on while the unknown man seemed to eye the two of us from time to time-, I was the last one to empty her glass before we got up. Casually, I took out my wallet to pay for my drinks, as the stranger in front of me pulled out some money and threw it on the table- well, the amount was worth at least ten servings strawberry milk!

"What are you doing?", I mouthed, before Taeyeon put a hand over my lips and stopped me from speaking any further.
"Oh, that's very kind. You seem to be a real gentleman!", with that, she nudged me "...Don't you think so, too? So Eun?"
Instead of simply giving her a nod, I freed myself and still opened my purse, only to take out my share of the bill. "Well, gentleman or not, I'm not poor enough to let a stranger pay my bill." As Taeyeon sighed and murmured something close to "Urgh, I'm giving up...", the guy raised his eyebrows, now showing behind his dark glasses, and slightly tilted his head before giving me a radiant smile.

"Fine then. Let's leave it like this- I don't want anyone here to feel uncomfortable." He slightly bowed before adjusting his sunglasses. "Anyways, I have to leave the two of you now. There's still something for me to take care of, so... our ways will part here." I tried to ignore it, yet that last sentence made my stomach twitch while my heart spead up for a few seconds. Why did he sound so familiar all of a sudden?

"That's sad to hear... anyways, it was nice of you to save So Eun from getting soaked earlier", Taeyeon spoke, now a soft and motherly tone swinging along with her words. Don't ask me about her and those mood swings- because I still wasn't able to figure them out in the last years. She simply was changing her mood and mind pretty fast sometimes- and, well, it was something I appreciated once we argued or whenever she was sad.
"Uhmm, yeah, thank you!" I bowed before looking up to him once more. "I'm sorry for putting you through this, too. If you want me to pay for the cleaning, just contact me." With that, I took out my notebook and wrote down my cellphone number before ripping the side out and handing it to him.

"Ah, yeah... I guess I will contact you during the next week." I felt intimidated, wondering if he was angry, yet his slight grin showed me otherwise. "Well, I guess that means goodbye."

"For now", Taeyeon added before bowing at him and wishing him success in whatever he had to get done...

"Y-yah! Mister!" I felt my cheeks growing hot as I noticed what I just had done. He turned around once more, giving me a questioning nod.

"Wh...what's your name? If I may ask?"

Another smile... and he casually turned back to walk off, waving at us in a cool way.

"Oh, what has gotten into you? You've been searching your shopping bags for the last 20 minutes!" Taeyeon snapped at me as I turned my bags upside down, hastily spreading my new clothes all over our sofa in the livingroom.

After the stranger had left us, the two of us had slowly walked back to our housing complex- it had stopped to pour, and so we had been able to get back all safe and sound. While the two of us looked into our bags, though, I noticed that something was missing- a pair of lingerie, or to be exact, my favourite pair of lingerie.
"Urgh, where is it? Tae, did you see it somewhere?" I heared her releasing a deep sigh before joining me in my search.

"I already told you that, probably, you forgot to buy it! Did you already check the bill? Maybe you left it in the changing cabin---"

"No, it's on the list! There", I showed her the small piece of paper, "And I also can't imagine that the cashier forgot to put it in..."

I sulked, already giving up, yet not able to get over the loss of my favourite set of flower-patterned underwear, before Taeyeon snickered besides me. "Well, maybe the other clothes got sick of the bra's pattern and threw the set out... or what of you lost it on the street and some ert picked it up?" She wiggled her eyebrows, making me blush at the thought of someone... no, not my favourite underwear!!

"Y-yah, stop that! It's not funny at all!"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Meanwhile, a young man, maybe two years older than you, entered the house of his family which he hadn't been in for about two years now. Studying abroad had stopped him from visiting his family monthly, and now he simply was happy to be back again. Back in Korea, back in Seoul. He actually had been in the city about three months ago without his family knowing, wanting to take care of his transfering information and the paper work connected to it without anyone disturbing him. Even though he loved his family, he had never been that attached with any of them, and so he preffered to keep his visit a secret.

Stepping through the door he turned around, noticing that -even though the walls and even the furniture had changed-, the typical scent of home was still there. The scent he had missed so badly back in America, where no one was greeting him when he opened the door to his lonely apartment, or the smell of something his mother cooked slowly starting to turn into something uneatable due to heat or too many odd seasonings.

"Oh, mom, you're--- Hyung?!" The young man turned around, smiling even though he also was surprised to see his younger brother up the stairs. "Oh, hey. It's been a while."

The younger guy snorted. "A while? You didn't contact me for like... five, no, six months! I missed you, man!" Hyunjoong cried out as he trampled down the stairs, enveloping his brother in a suffocating hug.

"Yah, since when did you turn into a girl?", the older one laughed before shoving off his dongsaeng and eyeing him up and down. "Seems like you worked out a lot."

"Yeah, well, being a ladies man is hard. You might not know what I'm talking about, but---"

The older brother released a loud laugh before messing with Hyunjoong's hair. "Now, stop that. There was a young lady waiting in front of the door, asking for me to tell her about the date you forgot. Ladies man." The younger one cursed once or twice, before getting back upstairs into his room, with the words "Sorry, Hyung, we'll talk later!".

After realizing that his younger brother had left, the stranger got upstairs as well, entering his old room- only to see that nothing had changed since he left. No piece of dust was flying around as he simply let himself fall back on his bed in a plump way, enjoying the feeling of his back on the soft matress for a few minutes, simply breathing in and out. His mother had taken good care of his room, as it seemed.

"Well, back to business....", he muttered, getting up and reaching for the bag that girl had given him back in the mall, and carefully took out his muddy coat- before noticing something else in the bag.

"What the... Oh god, no." He simply laughed, dropping the coat on on the floor before reaching for the set of flower-patterned lingerie, stuffed into the very edge of the shopping bag. "Oh, you clumsy woman", he whispered before the soft material, shuttering slightly at the familiar feeling. He fell back on the bed again, underwear still in hand, and smiled to himself before taking of his sunglasses to have a better sight, his hair now all messy, giving him a cuter image. Drowning in his memories, he saw your face in front of him, the smiles, the happy glim of your eyes, and also the single tear you had once shed as he watched you...

"So that's how we're connected, my beautiful."