YuChun had always wanted to be a spy.

In his youth he would sneak around looking for clues and spying on the neighbors, he would find out meaningless deductions from what he overheard or saw. So this was a thing of adventure for him, excitement racing through his blood as he stalked his prey.

When Junsu had come back with his tale of meeting the fabled Tess and having lunch with her and Hyuk Jae, YuChun became intrigued. Junsu was all smiles and daydreamer eyes once he spoke of her kindness and bright aura. So YuChun was left thinking about how she had touched the two member’s hearts without even batting an eye.

He figured she was probably a great actress and he would have to find a way to reveal her secret personality to them before all was lost.

YuChun was also a bit dramatic at times, if you couldn’t tell.

He waited at daybreak at the apartment building to watch for her, since he knew what she looked like from the show it wasn’t any trouble at all to spot her, especially with the two cameras and group of staff along with Kyuhyun from Super Junior following along.

YuChun silently cursed his luck, as he wanted her to be alone to see who she really was. None the less, he followed at a good distance and kept his eyes and ears open.

 It wasn’t hard to keep people from recognizing him since there was another idol there to keep their attention on so he wasn’t really worried he’d be spotted.

He wore a long scarf and sunglasses to hide some of his face and his hair was styled differently and he looked more like a nerdy college student than Korean super star at the moment.

They were headed to the open market place. YuChun followed at a diagonal so the cameras couldn’t film him at any angle and he stayed with at least one stall separating them at all times as he watched and listened in on their filming.

______________________Tess & Kyuhyun______________________

Tess walked beside the Maknae and shook her head repeatedly. He was unbelievable!

Kyuhyun we all know is a smarty pants who likes to torment his Hyeongs and generally cause mischief where ever he roams, but he was really trying today.

“Nuna, buy me this!”

Tess rolled her eyes and sighed. It was the sixth time the Maknae had pulled this and they hadn’t even gotten halfway into the market yet.

“Kyuhyun if you keep testing my patience…” she said in English then laughed. The Maknae had on a pair of bunny ears and was making faces at her.

She walked over and pinched his cheek lightly. “Aww, Maknae were you not getting enough attention?”

She and he immediately turned serious as he pulled off the ears. “Nuna’s mean and stingy. I never knew you could be like this.”

Tess stuck her tongue out at him and he giggled. “You keep on acting like that and you’ll lose your Nuna’s affection.” She said in a pout and Kyu laughed.

“Tess Nuna you’re even better than me!” he said throwing his arm across her shoulders. She laughed up at him and he was happy in the moment. He was so much taller than her and the image made the film crew laugh as well. There were so many people out in the bright morning milling about and watching their antics, but Tess had grown accustomed to it and didn’t mind at all now.

“Kyu-goon, let’s go over there?” She said pointing to a fish cake stand.

Kyuhyun followed her finger and smiled brightly, he looked down at her excitedly and took her hand “어!” and they were off. He dragged her around stalls and people to get there quickly, then they stopped abruptly at the stand and he grabbed two sticks of the hot food and began munching.
“Nuna’s buying right?”

Tess laughed and patted his head “어, Nuna will take care of you today.”

“Nuna, Thank you!” Kyuhyun said in cute broken English.

“Do the others never let you eat when you come out?” She asked after he wolfed down six more of the skewered food. She watched with wide eyes as he took a whole one off the stick and chew while drinking the steaming broth.

Kyuhyun chewed a bit before speaking “Aniyo, Hyeongie-dul never treats me when we come out, but we rarely get to eat stuff like this anyway.” He said thoughtfully, yet unconcerned. Tess nodded and handed him a bite of sundae.

Kyuhyun grinned and ate the sausage off the toothpick she held with a grin. “Gomawo Nuna”

Tess just smiled in a motherly fashion and ate a bite of tteogbokk-i while blinking rapidly, the simple fact he was with her made her feel like a mom again.

____________________YuChun_____________

He was not a patient man but he found that watching this girl made him curious. More so than he thought he would be. Jaejoong Hyeong was in love with her and from what Junsu had said about meeting and eating with her the other day he could see why. She was caring without being naggy, calm without being stagnant and effervescent without being noxious. 

No other woman had been rated a ten in his books because of some flaw he found in their demeanor or physicality, but he couldn’t really say anything negative about her.
She wasn’t beautiful but she had an inner strength that outshone even her most temperamental mood. Her familial way in taking care of the others, from what he’d seen on TV and watching now from a few feet away, was that she could be a supportive, amazing wife to someone one day.

He watched as she feed Kyuhyun another bite of the spicy rice cake and they laughed at each other when the sauce dripped on her finger. She it off without a second thought and patted him on the shoulder to tell him to wrap it up.

“어Nuna, will you buy me a new game, please?” Kyuhyun asked as they walked down past a gaming store on the right. Tess looked in the window and up at the tall idol and smiled.

“어, But you have to help with the dishes later after I cook, al-asseo?” she said smiling and Kyuhyun nodded eagerly as the entered the establishment.

YuChun scoffed a disbelieving breath out, he didn’t thin a man of 24 could act so childish. He smiled and pulled his cap down lower as he spotted a gaggle of fan girls’ dart up to the windows to peek in at the famous duo and their filming crew.

He wanted to see much more of this woman, but in a setting where there were no cameras and in a natural light to see if she was really that great. Since he knew acting wasn’t that hard for some, he didn’t want to be wrong and hand his Hyeong over to a phony.

.oOo.

Two days later he got his chance. Tess left the building, finally on her own, to go to the institute and finish up her course work. It was sad to think that her time was almost up, living with the guys in the same building and sharing her days with them, it would be so lonely after she was on her own again.

She trudged into the school and buried herself in work and speech to take her mind off her troubled heart, but it didn’t do her much good.

At the end of the day, she felt she couldn’t bear it to go back just yet and be enveloped in their warmth again, so she took the bus headed in the opposite direction and slumped against the cool windowpane to watch the afternoon traffic and buildings give way to residential areas of Seoul.

Unknown to the troubled woman, YuChun was sitting directly behind her watching her reflection with an uneasy frown between his brows.

He had seen her in many different moods so far, thanks to the show and his stalker-ish tendencies, but he had never seen her so dejected before.

‘What is she thinking’ he wondered, ‘to make her so sad?’

Tess sniffled and wiped her eyes before the wetness could be seen. She was not relishing the departure of those guys. They had pulled her out of a depressive funk only to place her into another one.

Oh it wasn’t their fault of course, but her mind wasn’t working too well at the moment. “Gaejasig.”

YuChun’s eyes widened when he heard her curse. Was she talking about Super Junior? The producers?
Who was she calling a son-of-a-b*tch?

He grinned, trying to suppress a chuckle from escaping.
It wasn’t everyday one hears such language come from a pretty girl.

Once the bus was stopped at a dark crosswalk, Tess stood and clambered off noisily, not realizing she had a tail, and walked down the small side street that ran up through the historical homes of Bukchon village.

She ambled along, drifting from side to side with her hands deep in her pockets, as she perused the traditional homes along the way. She sighed as she saw many of them dark and vacant and she felt a curious camaraderie with the old houses waiting for their dreary fate, silent and alone.

She had heard about the regretful lot in store for many of these homes, and wanted to see them before they were lost to entrepreneurship and modern developments.

The horrible thing was that these houses were being torn down so that others could build new modern structures and businesses, totally losing the traditional feel of the village.  People were losing their culture, their way, even here.

She sighed and walked along the empty streets, her nose becoming cold from the night air. Her footsteps were echoing along the pavement and she felt all the more alone and saddened. She wished she had enough money to buy them all and save them.

She passed maybe a handful of people in her stroll but she was alone in her thoughts. Soon enough she decided to stop into a small restaurant and grab a cup of warm tea or hot chocolate to warm her hands and face before heading back to cook for the guys.

She ducked into the small café and took a seat in the cozy interior, removing her coat as she sat and smiling at the menu. She ordered a cup of chocolate and looked around the place. The ambiance was lovely and she felt comforted.

The low rumble of conversations flowed around her from the other patrons in the shop and she waved at a little girl who was turned around in her chair grinning at Tess with missing spaces in her teeth.

She was adorable and bright and she giggled at the foreign lady as Tess made silly faces to her from across the way.

YuChun came in behind her and took a seat near the window, a little behind and to the side of his objective where she wouldn’t notice him.

He watched as she played with the child unabashedly and smiled gently at the mother as if in amity with the woman’s troubles and thoughts. Like his own Mother did when he and his brother got into mischief and she would complain about them to the other moms down their street. 

He felt a little foolish about what he was doing then and couldn’t even guess as to why.

He ordered a vanilla latte and sweet bun and watched Tess from the corner of his eye as he enjoyed his treat.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N: It’s short, I know but I wanted to post another chapter as quickly as I could and I ran out of inspiration near the end lol. I’ve had a lot going on so I have to clean my brain out to get something good to come in. haha I hope I can move YuChun into the game a little more and get him to plan a way for the two to meet. Please anticipate it!

Thank you all for reading my story. Please leave a comment and subscribe! Thank you!!

순대 (Sundae) = sausage
떡볶이 (Tteokbokki) = spicy rice cakes
개자식 (gaejasig) = son of a b*tch
Now don’t go out and start using this just because I put it in here. Korean guys look down on a girl that swears, remember that!

알았어 (al--eo) = Okay
어 (eo) = like an affirmation, like okay or sure!