Author's babbles: To all my dear readers. I am sooooo sorry for having been M.I.A for a very long time. I'm so sorry I just uploaded this chapter now even though it had been sitting in my computer for a month or so. To be honest, I couldn't stop editing and revising this chapter because I think this chapter lacks of something. Something big that I couldn't ignore, or maybe it was just my author's block messing with me. Either way, I've decided to upload this chapter now. I'm sorry for the really long wait and I hope this chapter is worth it. Thank you for your patience. And to be honest, I'm very encouraged by your comments, so keep commenting! Hehehe alright I'm done with my babbles. Here's a long chapter for you. :)

Happy reading! Have a nice day!

Ten.

Kissing an angel.

Seyoon stood there with her hand still on the door knob, an apron still glued to her front, gaping at him for what felt like an eternity. None of his words seemed to have invaded her brain, though. She was too preoccupied with his mere presence in front of her to acknowledge that neighbor statement.

“Hi,” she let out a small squeak after a minute of staring.

“Hi,” one of his eyebrows was now raised in mild amusement.

The fact that just that one little movement had her flustered and blushing didn’t go unnoticed by him, and it made him smile – while Seyoon was trying desperately to focus, clearing .

Would she ever stop being such a nervous wreck every time he so much as flashed a smile at her?

Seyoon sighed to herself, immediately figuring out the answer to that question. “No, maybe not.”

“Maybe not?”

That snapped her out of her little trance. She groaned.

And when would she stop saying her thoughts out loud? “Ah, um, nothing. Please come in.”

She heard a silent chuckle escape him. She closed her eyes as he walked past her, willing her heart to stop – no, maybe not stop, but at least slow the beats down – because she wasn’t sure that hearts were supposed to beat a mile a minute like what hers was doing now.

When the door clicked shut, she waited a moment there before turning around, expecting him to have walked further into her living room. But he didn’t. Instead he stayed there facing her, calla lilies still in his hand.

Not to mention their proximity had been so close it took her breath away.

“U-um,” Seyoon bit her lip as that familiar blush spread on her cheeks.

Kyuhyun lifted a hand to her face and out of reflex she squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself – it was so unexpected that she didn’t know what he was going to do – but then she felt his thumb wipe something from her left cheek. She had almost stopped breathing altogether when his warm finger touched her skin.

When she opened her eyes again Kyuhyun had melted chocolate on his thumb, and he was smiling a gentle, yet amused smile at her.

“What were you doing?”

Seyoon blinked probably a million times in that second, flustered. She was closing her eyes just now. Because she thought he was going to tuck her hair behind her ear, cup her cheek, stare at her with those dark brown eyes and close the gap between their faces-

Not a chance. She mentally shook her head to herself in shame.

“Uh, I... It’s not... I thought-”

“No,” he laughed, motioning to her cooking attire.

Seyoon blinked up at him. Was she only conjuring up that misery she saw in his eyes a moment ago when he stood at her door? Because now he didn’t even seem off. He looked completely at ease. In his eyes were those sparks that always made appearance every time he laughed with her.

“I mean, what were you doing before I came?”

“Uh,” it took her a full ten seconds to understand what he was trying to say, and another five seconds to find her voice again. “Oh. I, um, baking.”

Seyoon eyed the calla lilies, wondering why he was holding a bunch of her favorite flowers. After a moment of staring at them, she heard him sigh and his hand entered her line of sight to take her wrist while his other hand made her fingers close around the stems of the calla lilies.

She looked up at him with wide eyes. “This is for me?”

He nodded quietly. “My apology.”

Seyoon couldn’t tear her gaze from his for a few seconds, horrified.

Was this an apology for last night’s kiss? Did he remember it and think it was a mistake, hence he felt sorry for her?

The thought of him considering their kiss as a mistake made her insides twist. In a really, really bad way she almost physically winced.

 “Hmm. It smells so good in here. What are you baking?” Kyuhyun’s voice flew from the direction of her living room, apparently he had walked further into her enormous flat.

Swallowing as she came back to reality, she walked inside to catch up with him, hugging the flowers close to her. The faint scent of calla lilies somehow helped dulling the small ache in her chest. How could the little things he did affect her this much?

“Chocolate éclair.” She answered, standing in the middle of her living room with him.

She saw him peer over the breakfast counter. “Are you planning a party?”

“What?”

He nodded at the trays of chocolate éclairs. “What are you going to do with those?”

“Oh,” she faltered slightly. Mentioning that he was actually the reason behind her making tons of éclairs like a mad man seemed to be a bad idea. “Um, I don’t know. I just like making them. It’s just a...” a distraction, “It’s just a hobby.”

He turned to her, flashing a boyish grin. “To make this many chocolate éclairs?”

She reddened. “Yeah, uh. I guess.”

A moment of silence passed them. They both knew that small talk wasn’t going to last long enough for them to avoid talking about the real issue, so Kyuhyun didn’t bother beating around the bush any longer.

“Listen, Seyoon-ah,” Kyuhyun said, and when Seyoon looked up, suddenly he was right in front of her looking straight into her eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t pick you up from the hospital on Friday. I won’t lie to you; I was so preoccupied with so many things that I...” he sighed and looked away for a moment, looking embarrassed and guilty. “I kind of... sort of... er, forgot to pick you up.”

Seyoon inhaled slowly. So he really did forget to pick her up. Was it supposed to make her feel better that he was being honest about it? She didn’t know what to say to that.

“Um, it’s o-”

“No, no, it’s not okay. I’m not usually like that, I swear.” His eyes drifted back to hers. “And about yesterday. I was wasted. Two bottles of wine usually weren’t strong enough to knock me out, but yesterday, for some miracle, they did. So thank you... for taking me here.”

Seyoon stared at him a second longer. Not because she was touched by his words, but because she was waiting for him to mention something else; something more important that had been messing with her mind.

But it didn’t come. A small frown made way to her face.

That’s it? No discussion about the kiss?

She was hoping he would remember their kiss, because if he did, that means their kiss was important enough for him to remember. Turns out that he was kissing her just because he was clouded in the haze of alcohol.

She looked down and counted to ten, trying to pacify herself.

“It’s okay, really.” She finally said quietly, a small pang of disappointment running through her.

“Hey,” he grabbed her by the elbow when she tried to walk around him, looking at her warily. “Did I say or do something wrong when I was drunk?”

“No.” She answered a bit too quickly, choking out a nervous laugh as she looked at his nose bridge so it would seem like she was looking at his eyes. She could never look anyone straight in the eyes whenever she was lying. “No. No, you didn’t. How would you? You were drunk. Knocked out. Unconscious. So no, you did nothing wrong.”

Kyuhyun frowned, searching her eyes. It didn’t take a genius to notice the absence of truth in her words.

“Has anyone told you that you’re a horrible liar, Seyoon-ah?” He observed, almost amused at how easily he could read her. “I did something last night, didn’t I?”

“It wasn’t anything you should remember,” she forced a smile, running her shaky fingers through her hair. God please help her, something in her chest was squeezing the life out of her. “It’s not important enough... And... and you have a beautiful girlfriend anyway.”

Suddenly she was reminded about the girlfriend part. Great. She had been forgetting about that all day. Now her stomach was dropping even further down to her feet.

Kyuhyun stared at her, his eyebrows furrowed. The last part of her little speech was whispered and it was barely audible, but he could hear each word clearly. He couldn’t miss the bitterness that she barely covered, but it was her words that caught him off guard.

“I have a girlfriend?”

That question set her off. Was he going to try to deny it like some jerk she met before?

“Yes, you do. I saw you with her last night.” She tried meeting his eyes with a stern glare, but when those brilliant orbs finally got into her sight, the scowl on her face weakened and her voice turned exasperated. “You’ve never told me you have a girlfriend.”

He only stared at her, clearly confused. “But I-”

“Kyuhyun, l clearly saw you with her last night.” She said tiredly. “I was in the bar, but you didn’t see me. And she was... Oh,” her eyes widened as if understanding something before softening considerably, a look of simpathy appearing in her face. “It’s an ex then?” she whispered.

Suddenly everything made sense. That would explain everything. Why he was drunk, why the girl went home alone without him.

Her hands flew to , and she looked down, feeling ashamed of herself. “Oh my God Kyuhyun, I’m so sorry.”

“About what?” he asked, now really exasperated. “What are you talking about, Seyoon-ah? A girlfriend? An ex? Of mine? Please enlighten me. Because as far as I remember I don’t have a girlfriend at the moment. I haven’t been having one for the past three years.”

That made her look up so quickly she almost hurt her neck, her eyes abruptly shimmering with uncovered hope. “You don’t?”

“I don’t.” He shook his head.

Seyoon blinked, dropped, “But... but what about the girl from last night? Didn’t you just go through a bad breakup?”

“A bad break up?” Kyuhyun asked incredulously, looking like he was trying to contain his laughter. When he saw that Seyoon was genuinely confused though, he decided to take pity on the poor girl and explained patiently. “Seyoon-ah, the girl from last night is Jinhee. And she is definitely not an ex or a girlfriend. She’s practically my sister.”

Blinking rapidly for a few more times and making sure she didn’t mishear, she let out a small, “Oh.”

She really didn’t know what to say. An enormous feeling of relief surged through her so suddenly she was left speechless. Then, before she knew it, a wide, goofy smile took its place at her lips. It felt like tons of bricks were lifted off her chest and she could finally breathe again. She was that relieved and happy.

Kyuhyun actually grinned at this. She looked so adorable, so innocent.

And for God’s sake, that smile. She was just so, so distracting.

He went out on a mission to buy a bunch of roses for Nana earlier this morning. But somehow, when he was looking at the various flowers in the flower shop, his thoughts drifted to Seyoon, and he ended up buying a bunch of calla lilies. Only in the middle of driving towards Nana’s house did he realize he had bought Seyoon’s calla lilies instead of Nana’s favorite white roses, so he had to keep them behind the driver’s seat of his car all day long.

He went out with the intention to let Nana go, to keep their relationship stay platonic because he didn’t want to ruin their friendship with his stupid feelings for her, but he ended up buying her a necklace and generally confessing to her that he loved her and had no intention of letting her go with that damned ex-boyfriend of hers.

He held her hand the entire day, stupidly deceiving himself that they were actually on a date, and even almost kissed her when he drove her back home. Almost. Nana, looking shocked and absolutely confused, just had to turn her head to the side just before their lips brushed, so he ended up kissing her cheek.

It was beyond stupid and embarrassing, but earlier, for some reason, he felt this desperate need to kiss her. He dreamed of kissing an angel last night. It felt so real. Her face was a little blurred, his surrounding seemed dark, but he knew it was Nana. Because, who else could that be unless Nana herself, right?

He told Nana that she was actually in love with him, too, and that she just hadn’t realized it yet.

Oh, but who was he kidding? He knew better. Nana had never fallen in love with him. Nana had always been seeing him as a mere best friend.

Then again, maybe he just loved deceiving himself...

Kyuhyun pulled himself out of his reverie, back to the reality. Seyoon was still staring up at him. He flashed a smile at her.

And there was this little distraction in front of him. Dangling herself so close to his reach, smiling that bright, breath-taking smile after generally finding out that he was single.

Cho Kyuhyun was anything but stupid. Just one look at those gorgeous hazel eyes he could tell that this girl had a huge crush on him, though the reason why she was crushing on him was completely beyond him.

Im Seyoon was a wonderful girl. She was funny, easy to talk to, rich, talented, and undeniably gorgeous. She could get any guy she wanted. Sometimes she could be such a nervous wreck though. But that only made her all the more adorable.

And this wonderful girl was crushing on him, constantly distracting him from his broken heart with her smiles and cute stutters.

So what was he going to do with that? He didn’t think he could move on that easily. He wasn’t even interested in Seyoon that way.

But... he was upset from Nana’s rejection.

And maybe, just maybe, a small distraction wouldn’t hurt.

After all, it wasn't like Im Seyoon had fallen hopelessly in love with him. She was only crushing on him.

This game of distraction should be harmless. It shouldn’t be anything complicated.

“Seyoon-ah,” he called her name softly when she remained there, in his reach and staring up at him.

He knew his intention was wrong. But that didn’t make him stop his eyes from openly drifting to her lips. The hand he had on her elbow slowly s around her waist, and he noted the widening of her eyes with a small smile. Then he stared at her defiantly and said,

“I’m going to kiss you.”

A small gasp escaped her. The statement he uttered was enough to take her aback, and apparently it wasn’t meant to be answered because before she could react, he was dipping his head and gently placing his lips on hers.