Chapter 8 is finally up. Took me long enough. -.-

This is another long chapter:  3732 words ~ Wooooo(:

I`ll do individual replies & other tomorrow when I get home from school.

________________________________________________

“ Thank you? ” JongHyun repeated SungHee’s simple two words as he walked over to sit down at his desk. His eyes stared blankly at the ceiling as he tucked one arm behind his head. Thoughts flowed in and out of his mind as JongHyun questioned his own behavior that day.

 Although he lost Round One, why was he still contented with himself?

It didn’t make sense as JongHyun thought about it initially, but once he came to the possible answer, he couldn’t help but chuckle in mockery at it, “ Fun? ”

JongHyun spun around in his chair and placed his feet on his desk, “ Maybe I was satisfied because today was fun? ” He emphasized on the ‘fun’ sarcastically.

JongHyun scratched his head as he tilted it to one side, “ Who knows.”

Although it was still rather early in the night, the tired JongHyun was soon fast asleep with his head resting on his desk, still sitting in his chair.

_____________________________________

Gyuri kicked off her heels as she dragged her own suitcase into the room the three girls all shared. She tossed back a few curls that fell out of place as she went to look for SungHee, “ SungHee-ah?”

“ Yeah? ” SungHee called from the bathroom before she walked out casually with her hair loosely tied in a bun and wearing black frames.

“ Ready ? ” Gyuri said as her eyes didn’t leave their refrigerator, standing in front of it deciphering what to eat.

SungHee sat down on their kitchen floor as Gyuri walked over with a cup of yogurt doing the same.

“ What did you find out about him? ” Gyuri putted another spoonful of yogurt into .

SungHee tilted her head to one side, “ Not much. ”

“Hm?”

“ He lives by himself…and I went through most of his papers, nothing really made sense together.” SungHee looked at Gyuri, “ I didn’t see anything too extraordinary.”

Gyuri bit her spoon, “ You went to his house?”

SungHee sighed, “ It rained…long story. Anyways, this is all I did.” SungHee walked to retrieve her notebook computer and Gyuri followed while still eating her yogurt. She flipped the top open and typed a long password accessing a screen marked with coordinates looking somewhat like a map, “ See that red dot? ” SungHee pointed to a small bleeping red spot, “ I tapped his phone, so we can track him when we need to.”

“ Sounds cool”, Gyuri said as she tossed her empty yogurt cup into the trash can

SungHee continued with her discoveries, “ and this.” She pulled up another window on her screen, “ Kim JongHyun’s schedule. I found it on his desk.” SungHee pulled out another hard copy of the schedule, the original she had picked up from JongHyun’s desk.

Gyuri nodded in somewhat fascination, “ Apparently, he has a meeting in two days?” Gyuri pointed to the box indicating that date 2 days from that day and looked over at SungHee.

“ I was wondering about that too.” She rubbed her lips with her thumb, “ It doesn’t tell the time nor the place. Anyways, what happened on your side?”

“ EunHyuk’s meeting with this mysterious person he called KooRi, or ‘ice’ in Japanese, in Japan.”, Gyuri looked concerned, “ He won’t let me in on anything about this ‘KooRi’ person. ”

“ Could…he be suspicious of us?”

Gyuri shook her head slowly as though still in thought, “ We’ve been by his side for a year now; I doubt he’d suddenly start suspecting us, unless this has to do with Kim JongHyun’s appearance. ”

SungHee bit her bottom lip again with the same serious expression Gyuri wore on her face, “ Did EunHyuk ever mention Kim JongHyun? ”

“ Never--not since I’ve known him. ” Gyuri replied quickly and confidently, “ I even got a chance to take a look at his PDA-- no trace of anything suspicious.”

After a short pause of utter silence as both girls were in thought, Gyuri spoke again, “ We should end this soon--as soon as possible. Kim JongHyun’s still suspicious, but let’s avert our attention back onto EunHyuk’s case. ”

Gyuri cracked a small smile on her face, trying to reassure SungHee that she was right and it would all end fine, “ Alright, I’m going to go to take a look in the headquarters since EunHyuk won’t be back in a day or two. ”

Gyuri slowly stood up and walked to the door before SungHee called her.

“ Unnie?”

Gyuri turned around, “ Hm?”

SungHee smiled at her, “ Be careful.”

“ Alright, call me at my office in Jewel or my cell phone if you find anything new.” Gyuri walked out and closed the door behind her leaving SungHee by herself in the apartment once again. She sighed as she stretched tiredly and immediately crashed onto her bed once she reached the bedroom.

“ Kim JongHyun…” She muttered as she was still thinking about his presence before she soon fell asleep.

________________________________________________
The rainy night in Seoul had seemed to calm down a bit, as Nicole happily skipped down the street. She splashed in puddles in her pink rain boots, jumping from one to another at times. Nothing made Nicole happier than food as she was on her way to the bakery.

The streets were bare, yet clean from the rain; streetlights casually began to illuminate as the sun setted. The smile on Nicole’s face didn’t fade at all as she smiled from ear to ear thinking about the food she was slowly approaching, closer by the step, or in her case, jump.

She turned the corner, seeing the bakery clear in her view. Unable to hold in the excitement, Nicole made a dash for it. Before entering, she plastered her face to the window and stared at the variety of cake and sweets. Once she opened the door and stepped inside, Nicole took a nice deep breathe, “ cake…” she muttered.

The designs of this bakery was simple-- less was more. She seated herself down at a small, round wooden table of the bakery to leave her umbrella at there. Nicole was the only customer at this hour, as everyone else was either at home enjoying dinner with family or still finishing the long hours of work.

She skipped in joy to the long display of baked goods, running her hands along as she walked by all of the for the first time, as though in admiration. The second time around, she stopped to look at them in detail.

“ What would you like, Miss?” A old woman in an apron, with a friendly eye-smile asked

Nicole pouted indecisively, “ I can’t decide.”

“ What are you looking for, Miss? ”

She bit the tip of thumb in thought for a moment, “ Something good…but BIG…” Nicole smiled sheepishly, “ I’m hungry.”

The old woman smiled as though she found exactly what Nicole would’ve wanted; she left for the kitchen, then came back out with a plate with assorted cookies. Nicole’s eye widened in delight at the plate of sweets.

“ Miss, would you like some of these?” she placed the plate down, “ These are left-overs from today and we sell the whole plate for cheap around this time of the day.”

Nicole nodded, bobbing her head up and down, “ Mm, I want that.” She pointed to another large piece of chocolate cake in the bright display of assorted pastries, “ and that ~ ”

Satisfied, Nicole walked back to her seat, slightly fluttering her arms, excited for her food to come. Not even a minute passed when a waiter brought over her plate of cookies.

“ Your cookies are here.” Nicole eyed the cookies deliciously, then looked up to smile at the waiter who bought those over, “ Thanks.”

The waiter letted out a small smile, “ Your free cup of tea and cake is coming very soon.”

Although Nicole was very interested in the cookies, she turned around in her seat to take another look at the waiter who was walking away. He had a really unique style, not speaking of his attire as he was simply wearing the uniform for the shop, but rather of his hair, or half of his hair so to speak. Nicole had never seen a guy in her life with half-shaved hair--his hair on a side of his head did not exist, while it did on the other side.

Finally done admiring the waiter’s hair, Nicole averted her full attention back to her food. Carefully as though the cookie would collapse into pieces, she picked one up and bit into it.

“ Oh my gosh.” Nicole exclaimed contented although the sound was muffled with full. In another instant, the cookie was devoured by Nicole. Just as her hand reached to grab a second cookie, she stopped herself, “ No, I can’t.” she told herself, “ I have to wait for the chocolate cake to come first.”

Nicole turned around in her seat once more, biting on her fork, “ Choco ~ where are you? ”

Although answering her wishes, she spotted the waiter with unique sense once more, this time holding her cake and a cup of tea. Nicole’s eyes followed the cake until the waiter setted it onto her table.

“ Your chocolate cake.”, he setted down the cup of freshly brewed tea besides it, “ and your tea.”

Like last time, she looked up and gave the waiter another wide smile. She just simply loved whoever gave her food--directly or indirectly.

She waited patiently for Mr. half-shaved head, as she now mentally referred to him as, to leave her alone. Nicole’s eyes followed him secretly as he walked away; when she was sure that he left, Nicole picked up her fork and enjoyed her pastries in pure delight.

For a good fifteen minutes, Nicole happily dug into her cake and devoured the cookies on her plate. She her fingers as she finished the last bit. Picking up her umbrella, Nicole walked up to counter to pay, only halfway there, she reached into pocket and encountered a small problem.

Quite embarrassed, Nicole ran back to her table. Once again, she reached into her pocket to dig out its contents. A few wrinkled bill dropped onto the table.

She scrunched her face in confusion at the dilemma, “ Eeoteoke…” she stared down at her own stomach, “ Eeoteoke…you’re already in there.”

Nicole sighed, then counted her money again, “ Aish, still not enough.” she muttered to herself, “ SOS? ” It was time for Plan B; she grabbed her phone and dialed a few numbers.

“ Yeboseyo.” SungHee picked up on the other line.

“ Unnie…” Nicole pleaded.

“ Yeah? ”

“ Help me.” Nicole whispered, while covering the phone’s mouth piece, so no one finds out that she didn’t have enough money to pay for her food, “ I’m short on money.”

“ How much did you eat this time? ” SungHee asked sleepily as she was sleeping just minutes prior to the phone call.

“ I’m just short a little bit.” Nicole tried to convince SungHee to come cover the rest of her bill again, “ Unnie?”

“…”

Nicole stared, wide-eyed at her phone as she didn’t hear anymore responses come from the other line, “ Unnie must’ve fell asleep on me.” She sighed as she tried to dial the second number.

She waited patiently as the phone beeped constantly. Just when she was about to give up, the other line seemed to have picked up, “ Gyuri-unnie?” Nicole listened, but all she heard was loud music, which also stopped within a minute.

Desperate, she held onto her phone tightly, trying to think of another solution. Nicole bit her lip as she thought, “ Maybe I can do some dishes…”

She stood up, about to execute the plan, but sat back down, “ That’s too embarrassing.”

Nicole thought about it more and finally came down to her final and only decision. She walked over slyly to the counter approaching the waiter with unique sense, whom she called Mr.Half-shaved head. Nicole hesitated for a moment, but finally quietly tapped him, “ Excuse me.”

He turned around, surprised by Nicole’s approach, “ Deh? ”

“ Just come here.” Nicole signaled for him to follow her to her table.

Nicole sat down, while Key stood by her seat, somewhat confused. Nicole looked around although there were barely anyone in the bakery; she signaled for Key to come closer, “ Can you lend me some money?”

“ Bwoh? ”

“ Please? ” she tried using her aegyo factor, “ The truth is…”

Key listened although he didn’t exactly have the intention to lend this strange girl any money of his.

“ I’m a bit short to pay.” She looked up at Mr. half-shaved head with pleading eyes, “ Please?”

Key hesitated, “ Why me?”

“ I have no one else who can come rescue me.”

He sighed, “ Alright, alright. I’ll be back.” He walked over to the counter to retrieve his own wallet and pulled out a few bills, then stuck the wallet back into his apron, “Give me the money you have.”

Nicole handed over the money she had.

Key walked over to the counter and placed the money into the cash register. Nicole’s eyes followed Key; she smiled in relief as he finished paying. He smiled at her back, “ There.”

Nicole grabbed her belongings and ran to the counter, “ Thank you so much.” She bowed slightly with her head.

“ Yah, are you planning to pay me back? ”

“ When do you get out? Of work? ”

Key took a glance at the clock, “ About now.”

“ Come with me then. I’ll pay you back.” Nicole smiled at Key again, “ Come on. I’ll wait for you here.”

Although slightly irritated by this point, Key walked to the locker room to change out of his uniform, defeated by the girl whom he doesn’t even know, “ Yaaah, what’s her problem? Aish. ” He muttered quietly as he changed into his regular t-shirt and skinny jeans in the locker room. Key grabbed his bag, about to head out to meet Nicole until he suddenly remembered something.

“ Ah, I better call JongHyun-hyung first.” Key pulled out his phone from his pocket and pressed the speed dial button, still waiting as the phone beeped, “ Who knows if he ate yet; he could be dying right now for all I know.”

Please leave your message for--

Key scowled at his phone as JongHyun didn’t answer his call. He sighed and resorted to simply texting JongHyun telling him that he won’t be home early tonight before heading out to meet Nicole who was suppose to pay him back.

Key walked out to see Nicole near the cake display outside again, plastering her face close to the window, starring at it with happy eyes.

I swear, if I looked like a piece of cake, she probably would’ve ate me alive.

He fixed his hair quickly before walking up to Nicole, “ Let’s go. Where are we going?” Although Key didn’t know this girl, he was somehow willing to trust her as he followed this cake-loving girl.

“ We’re…going to this amazing place.”

“ So you can pay me?”

Nicole stopped walking to turn around and talk to Key, “ I’ll pay you after we go to amazing place.”

Key looked at her confusingly as he slowly tilted his head, “ Why can’t you just give me the money, so I can go home?”

Nicole pouted as she thought for a moment, “ If I pay you back, will you still go to the amazing place with me?”

“ No.” Key responded quickly without much thought at all, “ Do you realize that I don’t know you nor do you know me? I could be a killer for all you know. ”

“ But I’ve never met anybody who has half-shaved hair before~” She exclaimed jokingly, but Key didn’t seem convinced. She looked down at the concrete pavement, somewhat hurt by Key’s reaction although it was completely true, “ And I…don’t really have friends…”

Key stared at her saddened expression, How could he let a girl he didn’t even know cling onto him like this?

But as he assessed the situation more, the more guilty Key actually felt.

Maybe she just wanted to be friends? What could a girl like her do?

“ Alright.” Key finally agreed, letting the word escape his lips.

“ Really? ” She beamed, “ Are you my friend then? ”

“ We’ll see.” Key began to walk down the street with Nicole soon following. She was contented--extremely--with befriending the bakery waiter who was kind to lend her money; Nicole nearly jumped up and down while walking down the street with Key, heading to her apartment to get money.

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

“ Wait here while I go grab my wallet.”

Key nodded as he watched Nicole run off at super speed around the street corner.

How does she run so fast? He laughed at himself, Weirdest girl I’ve ever met…and became friends with apparently too.

It was a five-minute wait before Nicole came dashing back, still panting from running so fast back so Key wouldn’t ditch her for taking too long.

“H-here.” She was still catching her breath while handing over Key what she owed.

“ Alright, where’s this amazing place you want to show me? ”, Key thought it all through. It was pointless getting worked up and irritated by her and her wanting to be with him although they had merely met for just a few hours.

“ Let’s go.” Nicole said with excitement as they turned to a different street and continued to walk down the street. It was a short walk from her apartment.

The two stopped before the amazing place Nicole spoke of.
“ This place?” Key looked over at Nicole to see her nodding and dragging Key inside the American fast food restaurant, the only one amidst every native Korean restaurant in Seoul.

“ Yah, does your life revolve around food? And nothing else?” Nicole didn’t answering Key; she was too busy seating themselves and handing over the menu over to Key.

“ What are we doing here righ--” Key was cutted off abruptly when Nicole handed a menu to Key, which he directed his attention to.

She picked up her wallet and waved it at Key, “ I have my wallet. Pizza? My treat.”

“ Pizza? ”

Nicole nodded and Key proceeded to ordering their food; the waiter took their order then left the two alone.

A pause of silence followed until Nicole decided to stop the awkward wall between them.

“ You know…” She began, “ You know why I love getting American fast food here?”

Key stared at her as though signaling her to continue with her story.

“ This is the only place that makes me feel like I’m back in America again.”

“ Do…you miss America?” He inferred that she used to stay in America.

Nicole nodded slowly, “ But I love here more; I have my unnies with me.”

Every time Nicole began to lose her cheerfulness, Key seemed to sadden with her, feeling guilty of being rather harsh in words at times. He didn’t mean it--it was just his nature.

He felt quite apologetic as he looked at her, a bit surprised.

“ What’s your name?” Key smiled at her, trying to change the atmosphere.

“ Nicole. Ni-coh-leh.” She attempted to say it rather Korean phonetically since not every Korean could imitate her American accent, except Key was an exception as he pronounced Nicole perfectly. That very fact made her happier to be friends with Key--he was the first she met in Korea who could say her name like she had so long heard it.

“ What’s your name then? ” She looked at Key.

“ I like to be called Key.”

“ Key?” Nicole looked at Key with a extremely confused expression, “ The thing you stick in doors?”

Key chuckled at her comparison, “ Kim KiBum. That’s my real name.”

Although unexpected, Nicole’s face brightened up at the mention of his name,“ Kim Bap!”

“ Ki-Bum” Key emphasized.

“ Kim BAP!” Nicole retorted, stubborn and unwilling to call him Key nor KiBum.

Key sighed. This girl is unbelievable.

_________________________________________

JongHyun nearly jumped and toppled out of his chair he was sleeping in as Key’s loud yelling filled the room, or rather apartment he was in. He managed to stand up, still rubbing his eyes sleepily as he looked around for any signs of Key.

Apparently, not.

It took a while for the recently awaken JongHyun to realize his phone was vibrating. By the time he dragged his feet over to the coffee table it sat on, the call was already missed. Piecing it all together however, it must’ve been Key who played a prank on JongHyun by setting his ringtone as his own screeching voice.

Before long, the phone began ringing again with Key’s voice. JongHyun picked up immediately.

“ Hyung!” Mir yelled through his phone.

 “Hm…” JongHyun was still rubbing his eyes, waking himself up.

“ Park Gyuri. I saw her.” Mir said seriously although the music in the background rang loudly, making JongHyun doubt he heard the right thing.

“ Bwoh? Why’s the music SO loud?” JongHyun exclaimed with surprise as he began to get dressed, changing out of his pajamas.

“ I’m serious. I just saw her walk in with a bunch of mafia-looking guys.”

JongHyun stripped off his shirt with one hand, while the other held the phone to his ear. He pulled out a rather business looking dress shirt and began wearing it, “ Where are you right now? ”

“ Jewel Night Club.”

“I’ll be right over.” JongHyun hung up immediately after that and began to button up his shirt fast and changing altogether. He wore a white button-up with the word, REVOL printed onto it with a leather belt and jeans.

He smirked at the thought of finding out more about this case as he grabbed a few essentials and flew out the door.

Jewel, right?

 _____________________________________

Omgosh~ KeyCole in here is freakin` adorable. I think I was like over-influenced by My GF is a Gumiho, so I started to sorta base Nicole on Miho~ ke ke ke

@afifa_ellia: At your request, I wrote more Nicole parts in this chapter ^^ ke ke & yeah~ KimBap LOL Of course Nicole would think he`s food xD

@StoriesfromtheHeart: Yay~ haha I`m glad you enjoy my story & obviously I always welcomes new readers(: keke

@saranghaejunsu: Next chapter, there should be more Gyuri and JongHyun~ ^^ & I`m glad you like the fanfic

@DreamiiHeroine: LOL, so you`re actually reading this story? xD I`m still working on planning out In The End, It was I sequel btw, so I`m just letting you know that I didn`t forget xD & YES~ I call them KeyCole, they`re adorable. ADORABLE ^^ I sorta based Nicole off of Miho with food and all~ but then, its sorta with my love for food. I loooove food too~ ke ke especially cake, we discussed this already, didn`t we? (;

Bwahaha~ i`m loving all the comments. thanks so much!~ ^^

Comments are absolutely adored(:

School started & it , so I won`t update really frequently anymoe TToTT