Ironically, he usual spot for studying in the apartment would be… right in front of the TV. Tonight, it wasn't just Kyuhyun and his eternal study buddy, Ryeowook, for Changmin was there, with the daeji galbi he promised, and Oh Sora decided, by herself, that she'd like to join in the fun too, after hearing about it from Changmin somehow.

Kyuhyun frowned as he tried to concentrate on revising for the last paper- finding it rather hard to digest biomedical terms because of the clash of interest he has with his brains, which preferred to repeatedly analyze the short conversation he had with Mi Ra that afternoon, only to conclude that she might not be interested in him, at all, ever.

"Yah Cho Kyuhyun.. Stop dazing and focus, okay?" Sora smiled sweetly, which would have affected a lot of other guys, but definitely not these three stooges. They have gotten so close and saw her only as a little sister- or step sister, Ryeowook would prefer,  because of all the unforgiving comments she would spew at them, except Kyuhyun her sweetheart, of course.

Ding..dong..

"Bet that’s the Chinese~" Changmin sang. Thinking he hadn't bought enough of daeji galbi for the five of them, he ordered some Chinese food.

"Bet that's the chicken~" sang Sora, too, because she knew how much Kyuhyun loves Korean fried chicken, with the spicy sauce, sesame seeds, and everything. 

"And none of you are actually going to answer the door. Unbelievable, " Kyuhyun stood as he rolled his eyes in annoyance. 

"If I win, you pay for the Chinese," Changmin whispered and sneered at Sora at the same time.

"Tch.. If I win, I get to give him a kiss," she wiggled her brows as Changmin and Ryeowook both murmured a 'whatever' and 'as if' at the same time.

"Yes? May I know what you are delivering?" Kyuhyun pressed the intercom before answering the door, just to entertain his friends.

"Chicken," and a loud 'yes!' was heard along with cackles,  as Kyuhyun groaned a 'no..' whilst his hands opened the door. His eyes widen as he saw an overly excited Sora coming his way to claim her prize.

She aimed for his cheeks, but Kyuhyun was about to dodge and instead, a smooch landed in the corners of his lips.

The door opened.

"Chicke--" , "Mmmmuah.."

Both happened at the same time.

Even if she was wearing a Crayon Pop-like helmet, he would still recognize her. It was Mi Ra.

Sora had skipped away, leaving the two of them silent and frozen there, whilst she went to brag to the other two.

"I-- this-- you ordered? " Mi Ra couldn't decide on which flavour of feelings did she wanted to indulge on- was it the 'I'm so embarrassed you now know I work at the fried chicken outlet', or the 'do I have to see him like this, with this Crayon Pop helmet?', or the quickly become her favourite 'did he just-- did they just- kissed?".

"Uhh-Mi--"

She fled. As soon as the boxes of fried chicken left her hands, she fled- forgetting about the payment and opted for the staircase.

Whatever. She just . wanted . to . leave.

If she had Kris EXO's flying superpower, she’d fly, without the slightest doubt. 

"Wookie!" he shouted.  "Catch!".

The next thing Ryeowook realized, two medium sized boxes of fried chicken were flying his way and the door closed with a thump, as Kyuhyun was nowhere to be seen.

Hearing Kyuhyun’s sneakers squeaked as he quickly moved down the staircase made Mi Ra quicken her pace.  Mi Ra swore it was exactly like the scene of Running Man- except, of course, there weren’t any bells tied to Kyuhyun’s sneakers.

She made it outside.

All she had to do was recklessly cross the road like a headless chicken. Kyuhyun was just in time when he pulled her wrist as quickly and as tightly as he could before a superbike screeched, avoiding her and then giving the finger, as a caring sign that she should be careful. How thoughtful.

So close..

Kyuhyun thought he pulled her in towards him a little bit too close. He was holding onto her wrist, as another hand scooped her by the waist, close to his own, to secure her

What is that-- so sweet..so inviting.. so..-

He let her go, abruptly.

“ice cream, vanilla, cupcake, sugar, spice..” he murmured as he closed his eyes- a special mantra he learnt from his hyung, Eunhyuk, when feelings get a little steamy and out of control.

"Yahh!" she screamed as her angry eyes shot death glares to Kyuhyun. It also looked as if she was about to cry. "What are you doing, ert!"

“- Aren’t you going to thank me?!” Wow.. Not too sweet after all, Kyuhyun thought. 

"Trying to kill me?!" she rubbed her now flushed wrist and Kyuhyun swallowed hard seeing the unintentional violent marks he left on her hands (definitely not in a ual kind of way though). There was the deep purple mark from the pinch, and now the quickly becoming red mark on her wrist. If there was just one thing he didn’t want to do in this wholes world, it would be hurting her.

But seriously though, did you have to scream at me like that?

He looked at her, unbelievably and scoffed.

"Was today's paper too hard for you? Did you really wanted to kill yourself before the last paper tomorrow?!" he felt irritated, unknowingly. "I saved your life there!" he pointed to the curbs where she was almost knocked by the superbike.

She had an annoyed look in her almost innocent face but nonetheless uttered a bitter 'thank you' and said that she really has to go.

 “I—uh- thank you,” she bowed her head a little.

“What- you owe me, okay?!,” he crossed his arms, looking like a five year old rebelling.

“me?” Mi Ra glared at Kyuhyun, not because she’s angry, but because she was making mental calculations on the cash in her pockets. How much does he wants for saving me from a motorbike?

“Give me... ten,” Kyuhyun stated and already was she reaching for her purse in the pockets of her jeans. “Ten minutes of your time,” and she turned to look at him.

“You owe me,” he shrugged. “I just want ten minutes of your precious time,” he said. Ten minutes would be a record breaker, he thought.

She gave him a careless nod.

“So you agree? Okay. First, why the heck did you run away? You’re not on a ‘WANTED’ list are you? Prisoner? Stripper?”

“I wasn’t running away,” stupidest lie ever, she thought and kept a poker face.  

“I haven’t even paid,” he smiled at her as he held the ten dollar note in his hand. “and yes, you did run away,” he laughed, forcing the idea onto her.

“I—was surprised to see you,” she stammered, her eyes were definitely not on Kyuhyun’s.

“Well. Yeah. I guess we did run into each other quite a lot today,” he rubbed his nape, clearly ecstatic by the series of unplanned rendezvous. “What’s your name?” he asked, already knowing the answer to the question, but not her full name. So, he was a bit anxious.

“My name? Suzy Sunshine,” she flashed him an innocent smile. “Just call me Suzy.”

“Really? Suzy? Suzy freaking Sunshine,” Kyuhyun rolled his eyes as he his inner mouth in annoyance, huffing his breath. All you’re doing is making me more and more interested in you, Mi Ra ssi.

“How many part time jobs do you have?”

It hit her. Asking about her part time jobs has always been something she hated to deal with.

“Wae? Can’t I work? It’s my freaking hobby to wash people’s clothes, to stack books in a hallowed library, to deliver chicken to hungry people! Why do you care?!”

She’s just probably tired and I’m adding to that, Kyuhyun thought. He just kept his eyes on her, silently.

Mi Ra looked away and then looked down to her shoes, thinking why did things have to turn out this way.

“You should go back. Your girl—your friend must be waiting,” she hurriedly said and took the money from an enthralled Kyuhyun. “and time’s up. Thanks for wasting my precious time,” she nodded and scowled. She crossed the road, like a good Samaritan this time- looking to the right and left, and right again.

Kyuhyun turned around, heading for his apartment once the sound of her scooter was unheard.

He smirked to himself, recalculating every that had happen right from the point he opened the door to see her in that fried chicken outlet uniform. He wasn’t smart, if not a genius, for no reason.

“She’s jealous.”

After taking off her coat and scarf, Mi Ra sat on the floor with a thump. Sehun, the three year old boy, just had to come squabbling by and sat on her laps with an ABC book. Mi Ra forced a smile to one corner of her lips before she wrapped her arms around him and took his little chubby fingers and guided them as she pointed them to the pictures. 

"How was the paper today, dear? It was tough, wasn't it?" the old woman asked after observing her granddaughter acting so worn out like she just harvested a field of red chili peppers. 

"Not exactly, halmeoni. I actually think I might do well," she flashed a bright smile to her, instantly infected her as she too was smiling. 

"Get some rest. You've been working too hard. Studying, then doing your part-time-"

"I have to, halmeoni..."

"But-"

"Let me continue my work, please halmeoni. At least starting from tomorrow, I can come back home at night and rest, not study as always... Gurae, halmeoni? "

The old lady just smiled as she nodded, not knowing how to respond to her only granddaughter. Deep in her heart, she had already cried, thinking why a girl like Mi Ra had to go through all this hardship, when other girls her age are enjoying their lives, doing whatever the heck they feel like.

Mi Ra adjusted herself on the thin mattress- the one she had been sleeping on for as long as she remembered. She glanced towards her grandmother and Sehun, sleeping peacefully.

Finding it difficult to sleep, she shut her eyes tightly and scrunched her nose.

So he has a girlfriend. She finally relaxed her facial features. She had wanted to ignore the feeling of irritation since her short but brief encounter with Kyuhyun earlier that night, but the longer she held it in, the more she felt suffocated.  

So, admitting it loudly, albeit in her mind, she felt somewhat relieved.

Boy.. Was I rude. Why was I rude to him? What is with all these feelings. Heartfelt? She recalled the side notes she read the other day and sighed. A hint of guilt started to accumulate within her.

She got up and reached for a book from her study table.

“Emergencies in Cardiology”

..But today’s paper was cardiology, she thought to herself. And tomorrow’s Biomedical. Why did he want to borrow this book from the library then? She shrugged, making an assumption that it wasn’t important anyways.

She opened the hard cover book and took out Kyuhyun’s student card, which she securely kept inside of it. Observing the display picture of Kyuhyun, she how was it exactly that things got to where they were now.

Mi Ra thought of the number of boys she had shun off, directly telling them that she wasn’t the least interested in relationships and even to the extent of claiming she was a forgiven lesbian. Of course that scared the boys away, but apparently, she didn’t use those lame excuses with Kyuhyun.

What gives.. She shrugged to herself. He has a girlfriend anyway, so, yeah.. She thought reasoning it out to her own self was a good idea.

A deep, deep breath was inhaled before she grabbed her phone and punched in Kyuhyun’s number from the student card and head outside of the house.

Wait. What am i-

“hello?” Kyuhyun answered, his soothing voice making Mi Ra a lot more nervous than she already was.

“…”

“Nugu?” Kyuhyun asked when all he heard were sounds of breath.

“Ahmm.. Kyuhyun ssi?”

“Ne. that’s me speaking. Who is this?”

“I—it’s me. Umm.. Mi Ra,” her eyes squint, as she bit her lips, realizing she didn’t introduce herself as Mi Ra, but in fact …

“Ah. Suzy Sunshine..” Kyuhyun said teasingly. He could imagine her rolling her gorgeous eyes on the other end of the phone. “What can I do for you, sunshine?”

“Sun-? urgh..” she felt like ending the call already, but then remembered that she actually wanted to apologize to him for being rude, because she’s just the kind who isn’t used to fight with people like that. 

“Wait. How did you get my number?”

“In case if you haven’t realized, you carelessly left the book you wanted to borrow and your student card in the library. So, here I am-“

“You didn’t have to call just to tell me that, you know. Just give it to me back tomorrow,” Kyuhyun landed himself on his bed, not really believing he was on the phone with her, the one that caused his heart to stir.

“No. actually I.. I.. uhmm.. ”

“You what, sunshine? Hmm?” Kyuhyun asked, feeling as happy as a hippo, able to call her that. And what was even more electrifying him was that she was the one who asked him to call her that. So, it really wasn’t meant as a tease.

“…”

“Suzy? Sunshine?? Hello?” he panicked when he didn’t hear her voice.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry. For being rude to you. I just—I shouldn’t have shouted and called you a ert, and said that you wasted my time, I --,” she sighed as she didn’t know what to say anymore. She felt bad acting like a distressed earlier, when she really was the softest of creature.

But hearing Kyuhyun’s voice, however, made her feel at peace. She admitted that she kind of liked talking to him.

Kyuhyun kept quiet for a while as he took in what she just said.

It was really nothing. She didn’t hurt his feelings or anything like that.

“No-- why are you apologizing? It’s cool. It’s all good,” his voice changed, mellow. All he wanted to do was crawl into his phone so that he can be by her side and place his big warm hand on the small of her back, telling her that it wasn’t a big deal and she didn’t have to apologize.

“Okay… then… I guess that’s all I-”

“Sunshine?” Kyuhyun cut her words, in the most romantic way of pronouncing that word you could ever imagine.

“Hmm?” she hummed, making Kyuhyun smile not just because of how cute her voice sounded, but also because the way she unknowingly accepted to be called ‘sunshine’.

“Can I see you tomorrow? After the exam is over?”

110/180..115/175..

Her heart was beating faster than it did just now.

“Oh, uhhmm..” she put her hands on her chest and tried to sound cool, as if it were nothing. “Sure, I have to give your book and student card back anyways.”

“Ok. I’ll see you tomorrow then”

“Alright. Bye”

“Good night, sunshine..”

“wha-“

Beep…beep…beep..