Kk—ling-a-ling-lingg..

The ringing sound of the small bell attached to the door signaled that somebody is either entering or leaving the shop.

Woof!

"Stay, Ari, Oh. Good girl!". Kyuhyun ran his fingers through his hair as he casually walked towards the counter of the laundry shop, feeling somewhat therapeutic and clean because of the lingering smell of fresh citrus and flowery scent- perhaps even a hint of lavender.

Every single day for the passing week, this has been his routine. Ever since the two year old washing machine in his apartment broke down, he had been sending his dirty clothes to Super Shinee Laundry Shop to have them washed and cleaned. He and his housemates had decided to send the washing machine for a repair and that they will have to send their own clothes to the laundry shop. 

So every day, except for weekends, he sends his clothes in during lunch time and collects the clean laundry in the evening.

One of his housemates, Sungmin, found it rather convenient and offered him a part time job of walking his dog, Ari, during the evening- when he comes back from university to pick up his laundry. So basically, Kyuhyun and Ari would be there in laundry shop almost every day.  You can tell, because even Ari knows how to behave in the shop.  

But that day, his routine changed a bit. He was late- delayed by, probably about an hour. He usually walks Ari near the park first, and then head to the laundry shop to collect his clothes.

Today, his course mate, Sora, insisted that he stopped by the cafe where she works part-time as an account manager there- checking and balancing the account of the famous ‘Quiche Qafe’.

***

"But I don't really like quiche, Sora. It’s like--"

"There are ones with less spinach inside, you know,” Sora reassured him. “I'm not taking no for an answer. Please-just-come.." she tugged the hem of his shirt with a little bit of aegyo.

"I--" Kyuhyun stopped as Sora let go of his shirt and started to frown. "Fine then, I'll make a quick stop," he shrugged and immeditately the frown on Sora's face vanished. "Oh.Maja. I forgot Heechul hyung loves quiche! I'll give it--"

"Ahh andwae..!" she whined excessively,  making a few of their university friends passing by the Medical Faculty turn their heads towards them and snickered at the poor Kyuhyun, knowing what he had to deal with. "Are you really going to be like this after all those free calculus tutoring I gave you, Kyuhyunnie?" her eyes shifted, attempting for yet another sympathetic expression.

A quiet sigh left his soul, disappointed that Sora had brought up the issue again, using it against him to her convenient, but unfortunately for him, she was right. If it weren't for Sora, he would have failed in calculus that semester.

He really did have her to thank- the only female friend, who acts so clingy at times, making him confused and clueless sometimes.

"Ara. I'll be there," he faked a smile, not knowing that even a fake smile could melt the heart of Oh Sora.

***

"I thought you and Ari aren't coming today," Byungchul, the owner of the shop greeted him and made some calculations, “an hour later than usual.”  

"Ah, we made it, didn't we, girl?" he looked back at Ari, sitting obediently on the doormat, thinking that Sungmin might be worried too. "Had to stop by somewhere first," he added, smiling with his lips sealed forming a thin line, his brows rose, dangling a brown paper bag that wrote "Quiche Qafe" across, just to prove his point.

"Quiche? I heard they’re giving away free food to lucky customers today. You must be one of them. Yah.. I'll get your clothes," he chuckled as he went through the door, leaving Kyuhyun shoving the paper bag into his backpack.

Woof!

"Mwoya," Kyuhyun turned to look at Ari. "What is it, Ari ya?" and Ari barked again, keeping her eyes steady on something, possibly behind Kyuhyun.

The moment he turned back to the counter, a pair of eyes were staring his way. She seemed to be frightened of Ari.

Kyuhyun was surprised at the sudden emergence of this person. What- when- was she here the whole time? He looked at her, and so did she, with a small-scale smile, as she gently nodded her head, silently greeting him. The way her pretty eyes and luscious lips work their way to form that gorgeous yet subtle expression on her face made Kyuhyun just want to teleport himself next to her and try out those cheesy pickup lines he learnt from his sunbaes, Kangin and Shindong, and then they would laugh together- I’d love to hear her laugh, and he'd casually, without shame, ask for her number so that they could go out later- somewhere, anywhere!

Awestricken, he nodded in return.

Holy mother of Starcrafts. Just-- would you just look at her eyes? Damn. Wow.

"Got it!" Byungchul sang from behind the doors, causing the girl to quickly look away from Kyuhyun and continued stacking the pile of clean laundry on the other end of the counter.

"Kyuhyun? Yah," the 35 year old man waved his hands in front of Kyuhyun's face, clicked his tongue in slight annoyance after being ignored. "Mwo ya?" he trailed Kyuhyun's gaze and saw what he had his eyes fixed on. "Tch.. Boys these days.." he snickered and a smack landed on the lad's shoulder, making him twitch, startled.

"Isskk.." he rubbed the sore spot. "Is it ready, hyung?" he asked the man who just shattered his midsummer's night dream, despite the fact that it was really mid-autumn. A hint of blushed coloured his face, being discovered by the hyung.

"It's been ready 10 years ago, genius," he joked and pushed Kyuhyun's bag filled with his fresh clean laundry towards him and both shared a laugh right after. "Ah. Mira ya, Madame Bong's fur coat is ready, could you please let her know?" Byungchul ushered his head to the direction of the door.

"Ne" and she quickly went through the door, to the small office of the shop, simultaneously tying her hair up into a bun as she did.

An irresistible urge to her every step until she disappeared into the room took over Kyuhyun, mentally taking notes down;

1. Name:    Mi Ra.
2. Hair:      jet black, long, looks really soft and might smell good too, I just want to-- erm.
3. Eyes:      gorgeous.
4. Smile:     … indescribable. Wait- beautiful. No, yeah. Indescribable.

"How much, hyung? " he asked as he shoved his hand into the back pockets of his slacks, his vision maintained stationary at the door,  hoping she'll pop out of there anytime.

"The usual," Byungchul answered simple, with a smile across his face.

"Ariiiii!" Sungmin sang happily as soon as the door opened and in came Kyuhyun together with Ari. “And just where did you take my Ari Ari to?" his tone changed. "You're late."

"Whaaat..?" Kyuhyun whined. "Just-one--hour late..?" he looked at his watch and shrugged his shoulders, as if it was not a big deal, and head straight for the kitchen. "Who wants quiche? Ergh.." he picked up the bag containing the spinach quiche with his two fingers.

It wasn’t that he hated the quiche. It’s the healthy dose of vitamins provided by the vegetable (spinach) inside it that he hates. If there possibly was no more food left on earth, but vitamins and energy providing vegetables, he'd rather die of hunger-- yes, it was that bad. He even resorted to taking chlorophyll supplements to cover the minerals he lacks of.

"Yah.." greeted Heechul, slapping Kyuhyun's behind with one hand, wearing just a towel wrapped on his lanky body. He must have just showered, hence the smell of soapy tangerines, perhaps from his shower cream. "Why did you get the spinach quiche if you hate it so much? Give me. I'll eat it all," he assured.

"Was the slapping of the necessary, Heechul hyung? Seriously, just gobble the quiche up already," Kyuhyun flapped both his hands in front of Heechul's face and made way to his room.

"Aigooo.. Look at him," he complained and grabbed a piece of the quiche, shoving the slice of the pie into his mouth. "Mmmm.. Spinach," he mumbled as crumbs fell from his mouth and landed onto the floor. “Urgh,” and reached for the dustpan and a broom.

Kyuhyun tossed his backpack onto his blue-black linen-ed bed and nosedived onto his bed, feeling a little worn out. After a few seconds, turned his body around and stared out of the window of the shared apartment.

'Ne~'

He remembered how sugary sweet her voice sounded. How attractive she looked tying her hair skillfully into that cute bun, resting happily on her head.

Mi Ra.. Whoever allowed you to be that beautiful, and that smile? He thought that she should be banned from randomly flashing that smile, affecting hearts- making them swell, upon just the look of it.

It has been a while since a girl made his quiet heart raced. The feeling was familiar to him, but way more intoxicating than the previous experiences.

There are girls. There always are girls around him. It wasn't anything like he wasn't popular in university. He has this simple and clean look, which always easily made girls feel comfortable around him. Plus, he wasn't exactly the bad boy type, nor was he the hardcore rough kind of guy. He's just this pretty simple and easy to get along with dude, who everybody likes.

Graduating as a medical practitioner helped adding points to the cool tab he already aced.

So, it really was no wonder if he was popular amongst the girls in his university.

And then there's Sora, Oh Sora- the heartthrob of many guys. Heck, even his sunbae, Leeteuk, thinks she's hot and forever reserved a special place in his heart for her. Generally, she's the girl every guy wants to date- every guy, but Kyuhyun, of course.

It's not that he doesn't like her, or denies her beauty, no. He admits that whenever Sora comes real close to her- which she always does, and the smell of her flowery perfume kissing his nose, he does find her attractive. The way she speaks and whine and laugh; everything about her is attractive, but not to the point that he'd want to claim her.

Sora does not get it to his heart, making him having to deal with people like Leetauk, who adores her, scolding him for not giving Sora the attention she deserves and nagging him on how lucky and thankful he should be, a goddess like Sora would even turn his way.

Tch..musun goddess? He would say to his hyung, earning a full blown kick right after that. If only Leeteuk wasn’t five years senior than him, oh the things I would do to avenge myself!.

But-- but that girl who works with Byungchul hyung..

'Ne~' -- her voice echoed in his mind again and then sunk straight to his heart, making him feel his body light, lifting him up to cloud nine. All this just by the mere sound of her voice… and those gorgeous eyes—he started to drift away again. Who has eyes like that? A goddess. Now that- that I can call a goddess.

He buried his face into his pillow and giggled, like a certified fanboy fanboying.

"Oh no.. Oh. No," Ryeowook put down his book and shook his head, cursing the fact he just had to witness his buddy crushing hard by himself. "Who is she?" he folded his arms and leaned against the wall by his bed, patiently waiting for an answer, his eyes minimizing, scrutinizing his roommate.

"M--mwo? Mwo?" he lifted his blushing face, and mentally smacked his head for forgetting he actually has a roommate.

"What? Did we just meet 2 seconds ago? Oh. Sorry. I'm Ryeowook the great," Ryeowook blathered. "Yah.  Cho Kyuhyun. The last time I saw this same behavior was when that noona from the hospital asked for your name. You were so happy she finally realized your existence and thought that it was the beginning of a romantic relationship,  when all she wanted to do was—was-- puhahaha!" he stopped before laughing his head of irrationally and then regained composure and continued, "invite you to her wedding!".

"Whatever," Kyuhyun couldn't be bothered by his roommate--fellow-course mate, Ryeowook, whom he has been sharing the room with since four years back. "You forgot she said she actually likes me and if she hadn't been engaged,  she'd-"

"Oh shut the eff up," Ryeowook stopped him, not the least interested in his vanity affairs. "But seriously, who is she?" he continued his earlier schema of finding out who could possibly have caught the attention of the extensively hard to impress Cho Kyuhyun. "Hokshi.. Did you and Sora ssi finally--" he paused as he ed the air.

"That's just sad," he exclaimed with an emotionless expression and threw a towel to Ryeowook, successfully earning a three point for landing it on his head. "Wipe that disgusting look off your face," he said as he left the room.

Ryeowook pulled the towel off his head in a slow motion. "He's avoiding the question, must be something good..." he concluded and smirked to himself, when he heard the sound of excited men in the living room and soon enough a howling from Kyuhyun saying ‘I don't like vegetable, you horrible man!!’