Jaejoong arrived at Lee Donghae's home late that afternoon. Donghae lived in a cul-de-sac neighbourhood just outside the SM University campus.

'Welcome Jaejoong,' Donghae said when he opened the front door to find Jaejoong oh his porch carrying a cooler of things that needed to be refrigerated immediately. He stepped aside and let Jaejoong enter. 'You know the way. Do you need help?'

'No, Thank you. I'm fine' Jaejoong said, though summer was his busiest season and the time when he had the least help. He usually hired first-year culinary students at the college to help him during the school year. The only questions they asked were culinary ones. He'd learned the hard way to avoid hiring any locals if he could help it. Most of them expected to learn some magic or tried to get to the apple tree in the back yard, hoping to find if the local legend was true, that the apples would tell them what the biggest event in their lives would be.

Jaejoong went into the kitchen and put away the things in the cooler; then he opened the kitchen door and bought in the rest of the things through the back entrance. Soon the kitchen was alive with the steamy warmth and crafty scents that eventually flowed through the house, welcoming Donghae's guests like a kiss on the cheek.

Jaejoong was ready to serve when everyone was seated. The menu tonight was salad, maeuntang, pork tenderloins stuffed with nasturtiums and chives and goat cheese, lemon verbena sorbet between dishes, and the violet white cake for the desert. Jaejoong was kept busy, monitoring the food at the stove, arranging the food on the plates, serving then deftly and quietly taking plates away when the guests had finished a course. This was as formal as any affair he catered. When he had to work alone, he didn't focus on the people, just on what he had to do, which was painfully exhausting that evening considering he had slept the night before on the hard ground of his garden. But he was never very good with people.

Still he was aware of him, though. He was seated two places down from Donghae, who was at the head of the table. Everyone else watched the food as it was placed in front of them. But he watched him. His dark hair almost touched his shoulder, his arms and fingers were long and his lips full. He was..........trouble.

'Have we met?' he asked when Jaejoong finally made it to his place as he was serving desert. He was smiling with such a nice open smile making his eyes go mismatched that Jaejoong almost smiled back.

He put his plate in front of him. 'I don't think so,' he replied.

'This is Kim Jaejoong, the caterer,' Donghae said, happy with wine, his cheeks pink. 'I hire him for every department gathering. Jaejoong this is Shim Changmin. This is his first year with us.'

Jaejoong nodded, extremely uncomfortable that all eyes were on him now.

'Kim,' Changmin said thoughtfully. Jaejoong started to move away, but his long fingers wrapped gently around his arm. 'Of course!' he said, laughing. 'You're my neighbour! I live beside you. Near Jayu park, right? You live in that large Vintage style house?'

Jaejoong was so surprised he'd actually touched him that all he could do was give a jerky nod.

As if aware that he'd gone stiff, he let go off him. 'I bought that lavender house next to you,' he said. 'I moved in a few weeks ago'.

Jaejoong just looked at him awestruck.

'Well, it's nice to finally meet you,' he said.

Jaejoong nodded again and left the room hastily. He washed up and packed away his things, leaving the last of salad and cake for Donghae in the refrigerator. As he worked, he kept running his fingers unconciously along his arm where Changmin had touched him, as if trying to brush something off his skin.

As he took his last box out to his van, he felt a strange gust of wind. He turned to see a figure standing under the oak tree in Donghae's front yard. He couldn't make him out clearly, but there were tiny pinpricks of purple light hovering around him, like electrical snaps.

He pushed himself away from the tree, and Jaejoong could feel him staring at him. 'Wait,' Changmin called. 'Do you have light?'

Jaejoong set the box down and reached into his pocket and bought out a white lighter Juri had given him earlier that day. This was what he was meant to do with it?

He felt like he had water against his back, pushing him towards the deep end that was Changmin, as he walked closer to him extending the lighter. He stopped a few feet away, digging his heels in as whatever force it was that tried to take him closer to Changmin.

Changmin was smiling, easygoing and interested. He had an unlit cigarette between his lips, and he took it from his mouth.

'Do you smoke?'

'Sometimes,' Jaejoong still had the lighter in his outstretched hand. He didn't take it.

'I know, I shouldn't. It's not a very social habit though.' When Jaejoong didn't respond, Changmin shifted from one foot to the other. 'It was a wonderful meal,' Changmin said,still trying.

'Thank you.'

'Maybe I'll see you again?' Changmin asked hopefully.

Jaejoong's heart started to race. He didn't need anything more than he already had. The moment he let something else into his life, he would get hurt. 'Keep the lighter' Jaejoong said, handing it to him and walking away.

                                                                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Jaejoong pulled into his driveway, there was someone sitting on the top step of the front porch. Leaving his headlights on and the car door open, he jogged across the yard, all his earlier fatigue gone in panic. 'Juri, what's wrong?'

Juri stood stiffly, the glow from the streetlights causing her to look frail and ghostly. She was holding two packages of new bed linen and a box of strawberry Pop-tarts. 'I couldn't sleep until I bought you these. Here, take them and let me sleep.'

Jaejoong hurried up the steps and took the things; then he wrapped an arm around Juri. 'How long have you been waiting?'

'About a hour. I was in bed when it hit me. You needed fresh sheets and Pop-Tarts.'

'Why didn't you call me on my cell phone? I could have picked these things up.'

'It doesn't work like that. I don't know why. And I don't know what they're for! I never know what they're for!' Juri took a deep breath, then said in a whisper, 'I want to go home.'

Jaejoong patted Juri gently, reassuringly. 'It's OK. I'll take you home.' He set the sheets and Pop-Tarts on the wicker rocker by the front door, 'Come on, sweets,' he said, leading the sleepy old woman down the stairs and to the van.

                                                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Shim Changmin got home, Jaejoong's house was dark. He parked his car on the street and got out, but then he stopped on the walkway to his house. He didn't want to go in yet.

Changmin was teaching classes that summer, but there were couple of weeks between the spring and the summer semesters, and he always got restless when he didn't have a routine. He took a lot of comfort in structure. Sometimes he wondered if he was made that way. His parents were painters, and they had encouraged his artistic streak. It wasn't until he started elementary school that he realised it was wrong to draw on walls. It had been such a relief. School gave him structure, rules, direction, and he didn't like the thought of leaving it. So he decided to be an artist and even teach.

His first position after getting his master's degree was at a high school in Busan. After a year or so, he also started teaching night art classes at the local university and held some art exhibitions of his own creation. A few years later, during a restless summer break, he found out about an opening in the art department at SM university, and he interviewed for it and got the position.

He heard a thud now from around the side of his house, so he headed to the back yard. The light from the porch illuminated the back yard, not nearly as large as the one next door. The Kim's metal fence, covered with honeysuckle seperated the two yards. Twice since he moved in, Changmin had pulled kids off the fence. They were trying to get to the apple tree, they said. That apple tree was special.

He walked around the fence, taking deep breaths of sweet honeysuckle. His foot hit something, he looked down to see he had kicked an apple. His eyes then followed the trail of apples to a small pile of them close to the fence. Another one hit the ground with a thud. This was the first time he'd ever had apples fall on his side of the fence. Hell, he couldn't even see the tree from his yard.

He picked up a small pink apple, rubbed it to shine on his shirt, then took a bite. He walked back to his house, deciding that he would put the apples in a box tomorrow and take them to Jaejoong, tell him what happened. It would be a nice excuse to see the pretty Jaejoong again.

He smiled and the last thing he remembered was putting his foot on the bottom step of the back porch.

                                                                        Then he had the most amazing dream. 

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A/N: Hi readers, 

Finally Jaejoong and Changmin met and I have wrote both of their Povs while in the next chapter Ryeowook's pov would include. It's going to be like this throughout. And well our Jae is a little unfriendly here seems like Changmin has to work hard to get Jaejoong's attention *pouts*.

And well even it seems like the readers don't like this story that much *pouts again* because there are lack of comments. No problem I still appreciate my subscribers, THANK YOU!!

Enjoy, Be happy and healthy!!

Credit of the images goes to their respective owners!!