Jong Hyun was patting Jung Shin's shoulder as he comforted the young lad who was still crying. It was a nice evening, and the friends were in a cute tea house, lingering and killing time. Instead of studying for a quiz tomorrow, Jung Shin was still crying over that fact that Min Hyuk stood him up for Math that morning.

"Uljima, uljima," Jong Hyun coaxed Jung Shin.

Then, he turned to the lovers who were sitting near the counter. The owner of the house, a middle-aged man, was nowhere in sight, for he was using the toilet. Shin Hye and Yong Hwa were being too sweet again that Jong Hyun thought it was uncalled for. Shin Hye was sitting on Yong Hwa's lap, and Yong Hwa was hugging her and her back. Jong Hyun cringed when he saw the lovers cuddling and kissing each other like they were not high school students at all.

"Cut that cr*p, you two," Jong Hyun finally cursed in English although it was already outside of school hours.

Shin Hye looked at him and hissed. "Don't be such a killjoy," she told him.

"I wouldn't mind if you and Yong Hwa will be doing it soon, wherever you will be, but do not display your affections excessively for everyone to see," Jong Hyun retorted.

Shin Hye smirked and leaned on her lover's shoulder, and whispered to Yong Hwa that Jong Hyun was just being a killjoy.

"Ara," Yong Hwa replied. "He should find a girlfriend of his own. Let's see if he can't display his love for all to see."

This, Jong Hyun did not hear.

"Waaaaaaa!!!!!" Jung Shin cried again. And the burning-eyed guy had to comfort him again.

"Guys, guys!" Min Hyuk suddenly called out, bursting inside the tea house.

He saw Yong Hwa and Shin Hye being too sweet, and he saw Jong Hyun comforting Jung Shin.

"Mwo?" Yong Hwa asked in annoyance. He hated how his friend interrupted his sweet moments with his girlfriend.

"I finally saw Erika-ssi," Min Hyuk declared.

Shin Hye, however, was not affected. She knew that Erika was already in Korea.

"Yeah, she sent me a text message, telling me that she met a guy who interrupted the poem reading, and telling her that her name is like a poem," Shin Hye shared. "Was that you?"

Min Hyuk was stupified. Oh how fast the news flew! And in came Hong Ki with him. Hong Ki related to them what happened at the bookshop.

"You want to flirt with girls, but you left me without a partner for Math," Jung Shin said to Min Hyuk in spite.

"Mianhae... Jinjja mianhae," Min Hyuk said to him.

"Jung Shin needs to develop self confidence so as not to rely on you all the time," Hong Ki chided his cousin.

Though a nerd, Hong Ki was confident of his own strengths and did not care what others think of him.

"That's really interesting, really," Shin Hye spoke up before turning to the counter, for the ajusshi had returned from the toilet. "Ajusshi, how much for my margarita green tea?"

The guys looked on as the sole female of their group paid for her alcohol-laced tea. Then, they all went out of the tea house and hung out at another resto to eat dinner. And they took their seats near the counter. A waiter came to them and asked for their orders, but Shin Hye replied that they will call on him again later.

"Why are we here?" Jung Shin asked.

"To eat dinner, and," Shin Hye told him before looking at Min Hyuk from the periphery of her vision. "To meet someone."

"Someone?" Jung Shin asked. "Yeoja?"

"Is she y?" lusty Jong Hyun asked again.

"It's just Erika, babo," Yong Hwa replied, knowing that his yeochin invited  Erika for dinner.

The mention of Erika's name had Min Hyuk blushing profusely. Surely, Erika will not have him embarrassed in front of his friends.

"Annyeonghaseyo?" a female voice greeted them. The greeting did not have a Korean twang to it, so they knew it came from a non-Korean citizen.

The six of them turned around to see Erika coming in alone. The clothes that she wore at the poem reading was the same one she wore tonight, and Min Hyuk found her pretty.

"Annyeonghaseyo?" all but Hyukkie greeted her back.

"Come, sit here," Jong Hyun offered to Erika but was jabbed by Min Hyuk. "Ah, eh... sit by my friend."

Erika took her place beside Min Hyuk and smiled at him.

"Kang Min Hyuk, right?" she asked, and he nodded. "The guy at Vintage Book Shop?"

Shin Hye explained why her friends were there, and Erika smiled. 

"It was a good interaction for me," the Canadian replied. "Poem readings would be boring if I were the only one reading a poem, but somehow, exchanging poems impromptu like what happened this afternoon was really... engaging."

Yong Hwa hailed the waiter, who came and took their orders. Erika had been to Korea twice already, and this was her third time. She wanted to join a group of young people at dinner, for all she had been with during meals were a bunch of ajummas and ajusshis who were friends with her literary agent. And this was it.

Erika told her adventures in every book shop, and the others listened to her, especially Min Hyuk. But he listened not because he liked poetry and stuff. He listened because it was Erika talking.

"This is love..." he thought hopelessly.

~~~~