I wiggled my fingers like in nervousness. This was the first time that I was going to my favourite place with someone else. I mean I love, love, LOVE malts (who doesn’t) and it was something different, so why not?

Breathing in and out, I tried to get rid of the nervousness before Luhan would get here. I ran to the bathroom to make sure that I looked alright. With my hair styled up (please don’t ask how I got it that way) with my black jeans and blue and white plaid shirt, I thought that I looked alright. I waved to myself and snickered at my strangeness before leaving.

The doorbell rang and stopped. I could see Luhan standing and waiting for me. He looked amazing with his honey blonde locks and black pants with a screen printed tee and an open jean button down. Slowly, I walked to the door, opening it too quickly and smiling.

“Hey,” I said, mentally kicking myself for saying something really lame.

Luhan grinned and bounced, giving me a hug. “Hi! Ready?”

“Yeah, let me just close up the house and then let’s get going.”

He nodded and opted to wait by the door. “You’re not going to tell me where we’re going?”

I laughed. “Not yet. You’ll have to wait and see.”

“But I don’t want to wait.” He whined.

“Too bad Lu.”

“Seokkie~”

“I’m not saying anything.”

“Kim Minseok.”

“Still not saying anything.”

He huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “Fine. Don’t say anything.”

I laughed once more and motioned for him to follow me out of the house. We walked side by side, our hands brushing as Luhan chatted about work. He talked about his favourite coworkers and how they were always going out and he talked about his boss and how frustrated he was with the man. I grinned happily knowing that he was content with what he was doing and the direction he was going. Everything seemed perfect then.

We crossed the street with our hands finally intertwined. I could see the malt shop just up ahead and my excitement took over me. I pulled Luhan along until we stood outside Malts and More. From the window, the store was decorated with a American 50’s theme complete with the black and white checkered floorboards, red stools and tables with a vintage jukebox towards the entrance.

“A malt date?” he asked as he pulled me through the door. “Really?”

I shrugged. “I’m an editor, Lu. Instead of drinking coffee like a normal person would do, I drink malts and shakes. I’m different that way.”

Luhan laughed and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “I love it, though. So different.”

I grinned, happy that Luhan liked the place I picked. I know that we said we’d switch off dates but when we went hiking a couple of days ago, I knew I had a lot of creative dates to think of.

Luhan picked the table closest to the jukebox and continued to look around the shop, his eyes taking in the sights of 50’s posters, English words written in a fancy font. Everything that was in the shop held Luhan’s attention like he was a little kid getting candy.

“What kind of music do they have in the jukebox?” he asked, looking at the old piece of machinery.

“Go look.”

My boyfriend stood up to look at the jukebox while I waited for our waiter to make his rounds towards us. “It’s all old things!” he said happily. “Most of them are American though but it’s still cool.”

“Isn’t?”

Just then someone came up to our table with a bright smile on their face. Our waiter was dressed in black pants and a white button down with a simple black bow tie. His name tag read Chunji.

“Hi, welcome to Malts and More. What can I get you?” he asked putting down the menus and I paused.

“Can you give me another few minutes? I’m waiting for him to stop ogling at the jukebox.” I said pointing to Luhan.

Chunji nodded and left me to stare at my younger boyfriend who wouldn’t stop looking at the music. Slowly I got up from my seat and made my way over to where he was standing. I creeped up behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist.

“Having fun?” I asked startling him. He patted my hands and nodded.

“I like it here. It’s very retro and nice.”

“Wait until you have one of their malts. They’re amazing.”

“Oh really?” he asked peeling my arms off his waist.

“Yes really.” I said guiding him back to the table. “They have traditional flavors like strawberry and vanilla but they also have the strange flavors like bubblegum and eggnog.”

Luhan shot me a look and sat down, me following the motion a few seconds later. “Eggnog?”

“You know that American Christmas drink that’s filled with alcohol.”

The younger snorted. “I know what it is I just didn’t know they made a malt flavored one.”

“The things that are out there.”

He grabbed a menu and looked at it. “What are you going to get?”

“I always get the banana one but I think that I’m going to get something different.” I looked at the back of Luhan’s menu, looking for something that I haven’t tried just yet.

Silence took its place as we continued to look at the menu. I couldn’t think of anything to talk about at the moment but I didn’t think it was needed because we both were pretty comfortable with the silence.

I’m honestly going to say that it felt nice to have someone else at the malt shop with me. I was always alone doing my work but having another body, another person with me made everything to be better than being alone. Maybe that’s just being with someone in general. Everything is better.

“Let’s share one.” He said putting down the menu with shining eyes. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all. Which one do you have your eye on?”

“The strawberry banana one. What do you think?”

I nodded. “It’s a good one and made from fresh fruits. Sometimes, though,” I said putting up my finger and gaining Luhan’s full attention, “you’ll get the chunks of banana or strawberry that you can eat instead of drink.”

He laughed, putting the laminated paper down and grabbed my hands. “Really?”

“Yeah and they’re even sweeter because of the honey that they used.”

He didn’t say anything after that and opted to stare at me with those big doe eyes of his. They sparkled the more that he looked at me before they turned into those half moons that I loved so much.

“Are you two ready?” Chunji asked startling the two of us.

I looked away and turned to face the waiter who only had a smile on his face. “Yeah, we’re going to share the strawberry banana one.”

With a nod, Chunji wrote down the order. “Anything else?”

“A side of curly fries.” Luhan said. “And two glasses of water.”

“Alright. I’ll have that coming right up.” And with that, Chunji the waiter was gone.

“I hope that was alright.” Luhan bit his bottom lip and I nodded. He beamed. “Good! Now tell me about this new writer of yours. You wouldn’t tell me anything over the phone.”

I groaned. “Do you really want to hear about my job? It’s not that interesting.”

“Well the people that you work with get to create these worlds that only they know and some of these worlds are amazing.” He paused. “Are you ever going to turn in your pieces?”

I looked shocked for a moment before shaking my head. “My pieces aren’t good enough to be published.”

“I thought that they were.”

“They’re not. I mean have you seen what’s out there in the market? There are these genius writers that are so creative with their words it’s amazing and these writers that can make you feel the emotions that the main characters are feeling. I can’t do something like that.”

Luhan gave me a look. “Sure you can. They say that practice makes perfect and I’m sure that if you work hard enough, you’re going to be able to write something that would make people feel the emotions that you’re writing about.”

I sat there, thinking for a moment at Luhan’s words. If I did start to write my own pieces and really worked on them then maybe they might be good enough. A smile started to light my face the more that I thought of it.

“Maybe you’re right.”

“I’m always right.” Luhan said with a grin.

We both laughed as our waiter brought us our malt with whipped cream and two cherries at the top. He placed our waters and the basket of curly fries next to each other before leaving us again. Plucking a cherry off the top, I placed it in front of Luhan’s lips and waited for the younger to take a bite out of it. He grabbed the other one and place it in front of mine.

“On the count of three, we both take a bite.” He said and I nodded.

“One,” I said.

“Two,” He continued.

“Three!” I laughed and he smiled and took a bite out of the cherry the same moment I did to mine. I felt the sweetness from the syrup it was in and smiled letting my hand fall to the table.

“Good?” I asked and he nodded

“Good?” he asked and I nodded with a laugh.

Chunji came back with two straws and smiled sheepishly. “I forgot to give these to you. I’m sorry.”

Luhan waved him off and took them. “It’s not a problem.” He said and I nodded. The waiter smiled before leaving the two of us once more.

I watched as Luhan stuck the straws into the drink and took a sip. His whole face lit up like a child getting candy. He smacked his lips when they left the red straw and a grin came onto his face. “This is amazing.”

“I told you.” I said to him as I took a sip and grinned. “Some of the best malts that I've ever had.”

“How did you find this place?”

“It was by accident, really. I was taking a walk done day and I found this here. I've been coming here ever since.”

Luhan nodded and drank. “Well it’s a good place.”

“Very good.”

The conversation turned from there, talking about whatever came to our minds from friends, to family, to what it would be like if we went back to China. Everything about those moments within the malt shop was amazing.

-

Luhan and I decided to take a walk down on the trails in a park nearby. It was nice to feel the cool air and Luhan’s hand in mine.

While we were walking, we had spotted a small carnival that was going on and we continued to walk through with smiles on our faces. We laughed and giggled as we walked, I swinging our hands and pointing to the festive colourful booths that were all over the place.

A smile never left my face until I saw a head of blonde hair. It looked familiar from where I was standing. Very familiar, I just couldn’t put my finger on who it was.

“Is everything alright?” Luhan asked me and I nodded, my eyes leaving the person with blonde hair.

“It is.” I said with a smile. “Let’s go and try some of that kettle corn I keep hearing people talk about.”

Luhan pulled me away from that spot that we were standing on. I glanced back hoping to see the blonde haired person once more but they were gone. It was like they were never there in the first place.

How strange.

miki says: this was supposed to be up yesterday but i started to watch lord of the rings instead and then had a mini-thon with my borther with the movies. so yeah, that happened. (i'm obessed with the hobbit, really.) anyways, i believe that most you you will figure out who the person at the end is just don't comment about it. i would like to have the thought that no one knows who it is. i'm being that way for now. OTL so that's all for now and i'll see this story next week! oh and please pardon any mistake you see. i really need a someone to tell me if things are wrong.

ciao ciao