"Thanks.."

A smile appeared on Donghae's lips as he took the glass of water from Mi Ra's hands.

“Most welcome,” she cheekily replied and left him to check on the stew. He gazed at her from the door of kitchen. She was sipping the jjikgae from a spoon and smiled to herself, perhaps happy that the stew turned out well. Donghae, too, smiled seeing her like that. He loved that. He loved how she looks and how she was just being alive and doing stuff.

A pair of eyes almost flipped itself, because the pupils were at the far end corner of the eyes, whilst the head was not facing where the eyes wanted to see.

She's clearly fallen  for Hae ..Cho Kyuhyun assumed and sulked at the same time. He looked at the clock on the wall. She'll be leaving in 15 minutes. Leeteuk made it clear to everyone yesterday that if she has prepared dinner by six in the evening, she can leave as early as that.

Kyuhyun thought that he was about to get dizzy from the diverted glance, so he relaxed and looked to what was in front of him, the television, but as soon as he heard Mi Ra's glorious giggles from the kitchen, he decided that his ears should be doing the spying work now.

“Noooo. Don't! It's not even dark yet.”

Kyuhyun's eyes rounded.

“Aww common.. I want to.”

His breathing started to get heavy.

“You let me last night.. Please?”

He believed he was breathing fire by now.

“Sunbae, no, please. I can go home by myself. Really.”

He released the air and tension in his chest through his nostrils, with a frown on his face, resembling much like Puff the magic dragon. The thought of them probably getting intimate made him feel sick and furious at the same time.

"You okay, man?" Ryeowook asked as he sat himself beside Kyuhyun.

"Ohh," he replied simple. Then he realized that he hadn't talked to his roommate the whole day. "Yah. Did you have an important appointment today?" he asked, forgetting about his sunshine being robbed from him for a moment.

Ryeowook didn't look at him as his eyes were fixed on the television, but he was grinning from ear to ear, and immediately, Kyuhyun knew where he went.

"Oh my- so you accepted their offer?!" he hissed, partially whispering,  partially screaming. He now remembered that he hadn't talked to Ryeowook about the offer S.M. made. So, he was in no position to share his opinion regarding his decision.

"I'm not sure if it's a good thing though.." Ryeowook's tone reflected how he felt inside.

Kyuhyun patted his roommate's thigh and told him that if he has thought about the matter through, and he feels happy about it, then that was all that mattered.

The grin returned to Ryeowook's lips as he nodded. He knew he could count on Kyuhyun as a friend to talk to, and he knew that Kyuhyun wasn't the kind to say things just to please people.

Just then, Kyuhyun's phone rang.

Seulpeohaji ma no no no~ Honjaga anya no no no~

He let it ring by itself.

"Please hurry up and answer." Ryeowook said, giving him a look, judging Kyuhyun in his choice of ringtones. 

"It’s Sora. That’s the ringtone she assigned for herself,” Kyuhyun explained himself, eyes still firmly on the TV screen. 

Ryeowook grunted in irritation and answered it.

 “What do you want, woman?” he asked and Sora on the other side knew it was Ryeowook who answered.

“Please tell Kyuhyunnie that I’m downstairs and that I have a surprise for him,” Sora cooed.

“Ergh,” Ryeowook held the phone away from his ears and said, “Kyuhyunnie.. I’m downstairs and I have a surprise for you.” He bats his short lashes, making Kyuhyun cringe in horror.

“Fine,” he said as he got up and grabbed Ryeowook’s muffler, which was conveniently lying on the table, because it was windy and chilly outside.

“He said ff-,” Ryeowook didn’t get to finish his sentence as Kyuhyun grabbed his phone away from the guy.

Baaam.. the door slammed behind him.

Mi Ra turned to look at the door.

He left..

***

Kyuhyun heaved a long and heavy sigh as he waited inside the elevator. It wasn’t that he wanted to see Sora or the surprise she prepared. It was because he felt that he had stayed at home too long today, and also because his heart couldn’t take the throbbing anymore.

He wasn’t going to deny it. There is no use in denying and he was fully aware of that. He was angry. Seeing Donghae being all nice and mushy towards Mi Ra made him feel angry. What made him feel worse was that Mi Ra seemed to like Hae’s company, whereby he was just being a total jerk towards her for almost the whole day. That was what made him angry. He was angry with himself.

If only he had told them all earlier that he has feelings for Mi Ra, perhaps things wouldn't turn out to be this way. 

Ever since Donghae made the official confession that he was in love with Mi Ra, he felt that he should’ve just backed-off and let his hyung court her instead. Plus, wouldn't it be weird that he confessed he likes Mi Ra too, after Donghae?

And it's Donghae, by the way. Kyuhyun doesn’t think he could recall another moment where Hae seemed to be so in love. Nope. Never ever in the years they shared the apartment. Hae has always been the kind to study hard and wasn’t very social. There were girls who would just surrender to him, but he said he wasn’t interested, which made Leeteuk question his uality. “Are you gay?" the elderly directly asked with his foul mouth.

Donghae laughed it off, making his eyes form a crescent shape, saying that he just hasn’t found the right one.

Kyuhyun heaved another heavy sigh. Is Mi Ra his right one? What if she is my right one? Right?

He spotted Oh Sora waving at him from a distance.

“I feel like it we haven’t met in ,like, forever, Kyuhyunnie!” she shrieked.

Kyuhyun looked at her, unbelievably. She was wearing a button-up blouse with a cute short skirt and leggings underneath. Her hair was tied up into a so-called Korean bun, and Kyuhyun admitted she looked stunning and slightly y because of the short skirt.

“Aren’t you cold dressed like that?” he asked blatantly, not even complementing her looks.

She frowned and pouted.

“I have my coat in the car. That’s why I can’t go upstairs. I just parked it by the road, can’t leave it there for long,” she quietly answered, looking down to the pavement as she spoke. “I just wanted to see you for a bit..”. The light breeze blew and made some strands of her hair fluster on the side of her cheeks.

He took off Ryeowooks muffler and placed it around her neck in one swift motion.

Congratulations, Oh Sora. For making me feel sorry for you.

“So where’s my surprise?” he forced a cheeky smile as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt, making Sora melt at the sight of that deviant smile and his little act of kindness just now.

As Kyuhyun took the paperbag with the initials QQ on it from Sora’s hands and was silently ‘ugh-ing’ in his mind, he caught sight of Mi Ra crossing the road.

“Errr thanks for the quiche, Sora. Better get back in your car, I think I saw the traffic officer just now,” he was desperate to get rid of her, he just had to lie.

“Oh. Okay. Can I hold on to this?” she motioned to the muffler with a dash of aegyo-ness as she swayed her body, probably thinking that it belonged to Kyuhyun.

“Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Get going. Bye,” he gave her a little push and lifted a hand as he waved, and off Sora drove.

Mi Ra squinted her eyes as she tried to read the small writings on the bus schedule fixed on the notice board inside of the bus stop. It was the kind of bus stop which had tempered glass walls surrounding it, perfect for sheltering from the cold wind.

With her arms folded, she rubbed her hands against her cardigan repeatedly. Kyuhyun, who was talking her from behind the bus stop, felt like slapping himself for wanting to just hug her from the back. He unconsciously touched his neck and then looked down to it.

Ahh. Sora took it. He cancelled his plan to offer Mi Ra the muffler he was wearing. Instead, he manned up and went to sit beside her.

Mi Ra was facing the road while he was facing the other way.

“Hey..”

She quickly turned. A small smile appeared on her lips, which quickly faded away.

“Hey..” she replied, contemplating within herself whether she should sound excited or not, when she really is. “Ehhurrmm..” she cleared . “Where’s Sora? She went back already?”

“Ohh? You saw her?”

“Yeah. She was with you just now, right? Wasn’t she?” she said as she turned away, facing the streets again. She fumbled with the buttons of her cardigan, thinking that Sora and Kyuhyun just met for, like, five minutes. They must be this cool, awesome couple. Kyuhyun observed her and couldn’t decipher what she was thinking. “Where are you going? Wait- why are you here?” she tilted her head a little, making Kyuhyun think ..what. Is that aegyo?

“Me? Uhh. I thought I should get some fresh air,” he nodded without looking at her. Avoiding eye contact with her seemed legit to him. That was his rendition of refraining from falling harder for her. “You know.. I was in the house the whole day,” he faked a chuckle and rubbed his nape. “Umm.. why don’t we uhh.. I’ll get going then,” he stammered and got up hastily. At first he spontaneously thought about asking her to get a cup of coffee together, but then quickly remembered that Donghae likes this girl, and that it wouldn’t be that nice of him.

“Wait!”

He looked back to her and saw her getting up too, picking her satchel along. She got to him and stood there awkwardly.

“What?” he asked her, confused. Why did she want him to wait? Wasn’t she catching a bus?

***

Mi Ra handed him a covered-plastic cup, filled with hot latte. She had one in her hands as well. Kyuhyun gave her one look before he unfolded his arms and took the cup, hesitantly.

“This really wasn’t necessary, you know. I-“

“I just want to thank you, by buying you a drink. Can’t I?” she raised her brows, looking into his eyes. Confusion started to swell her thoughts. Kyuhyun wasn’t this cold before this. In fact, he made her feel rather special, despite him already being in a relationship, she thought. She was beginning to think of reasons for the sudden change of attitude.

Kyuhyun himself couldn’t comprehend her action. From the way Donghae described their rendezvous last night and by the way she acted and spoke in front of him, he thought she had the hots for Donghae. And he was unwillingly ready to accept and respect that. Why are you doing this? You think donghae would like this if he knows?

“Yes.. you can. I’m just saying you didn’t need to,” he started to walk away and she followed him and caught up. They walked for a bit before he started to speak again. “Can you please just go home?” he asked her in a soft voice.

“I am,” she blinked her eyes a few times as she looked at him. “I want to walk home. My house’s this way,” she pointed her hands to the direction they were walking to.

The sad truth behind what she said was that she had spent all the cash she had with her that day on the coffee she bought for them. The sum of change she had left was barely enough for the bus fare. 

“Really?” he questioned her. You’re going to hate me after this.. and he turned around to walk to the direct opposite of the direction she was pointing to, leaving her standing there with the coffee still in her hands.

She looked at him walking away until she couldn’t see him anymore. Her heart was thumping hard, but slowly. Each beating of her heart hurt so much. The heat forming in her eyes made her blink quickly before she nodded to herself, trying to understand what the heck was happening.

Of course. I am nothing to you.

I forgot.

..and turned to walk home, tossing the still full cup of coffee into a nearby bin and cursing herself for wasting such an amount of money when she didn’t have enough to spare. I hate myself. She choked a sob.

*****

a/n:

I decided to reduce the amount of SJ members in this fic. Sadly, I don’t think I could cover them all. So, changes have been made to the previous chapters.

That’s all.