Paris, France.

In the beautiful city of lights, Lee Changsun found himself wondering the streets at night. Families, friends and lovers were passing by him while he was walking alone, not really caring where he was going. Through his walk, he find himself looking at a poster of a woman dancing. Scanning the image, his eyes landed on the words at the bottom realizing that a ballet show was going on not far from where he was standing at the moment. He was always curious about what ballet was like and now that he had an opportunity in front of him, he decided to take it.

He started walking towards the theater and once he was inside, he bought his ticket.

The show had already started so he quickly walked inside the venue and went to his seat. He looked around and noticed that he was the only one that wasn’t wearing a suit and felt stupid for a split second until his gaze landed on the main dancer of the night.

Cut off breath, heart skipping a beat, he found himself staring at the lady as she danced from one side of the stage to other. He wasn’t capable of looking away and couldn’t care less about his surrounding.

With the hour passing by, he was so caught up into watching her, he didn’t realize that the show was over. The loud applause of the public brought him out of his daze and just like the others, he got up from his seat and clapped his hands together all the while sporting a smile on his face.

With the people leaving the theater, Changsun followed the crowd until he found himself outside. Looking at the time he noticed how late it was and decided to call out for a cab to return to his apartment. The moment he stepped in and closed the door, seconds later, it re-opened again only to have a young woman hastily climbing inside the car while asking the driver to quickly drive away, in her native tongue.

Changsun was to phased to realize that the young woman was none other than the ballerina from earlier. It only took one look from her with a small smile to bring him back to reality. “I’m sorry about hogging your cab, I was in a hurry to get out…”

He couldn’t get a word out of his mouth. Once again, he found himself staring at her, completely blanked out. She waved her hand in front of his face to get a reaction and lightly giggled when she saw him blinking while stumbling in his words. “N-no worr-ries.”

“I’m Stefanie, by the way.”

“H-hi, I’m Ch-Changsun.”

“It’s nice to meet you Changsun.” She softly smiled at him while placing her hand up front to greet him with a hand shake. The moment he took his hand in hers, a tingly sensation was felt in the pit of his stomach as he felt his skin burning up. She noticed the sudden blush on his cheeks and couldn’t help but smile even wider, finding the young man quite charming.

From there, her eyes landed on the ticket that he was holding in his other hand. She bit the inner side of her bottom lip and looked back up at him. “I guess you went to see the show?”

“Huh?”

“Your ticket…” She chuckled once again and pointed towards the paper that he was holding. He looked down and then back up at her while complimenting her. “Oh, y-yea. It was really beautiful. You w-were great.”

“Well, thank you Changsun.” She lightly bowed her head and their moment soon got interrupted with the driver pulling by the sidewalk to where the dancer told him to. “Well that’s me…” She took a deep breath and looked back at the boy who hasn’t looked away still. “I hope to see you around Changsun. Thanks for the company.” One last smile and she was out of the cab as she tipped the driver and walked away.

Before the driver was able to leave, Changsun asked him to wait and sped out of the car and ran towards the girl who was climbing the stairs as she looked through her purse for her keys. She heard him jump up the steps until he was standing behind her, breathing heavily. She looked at him with her eyes a little wider and waited to see what he wanted.

“H-how about coffee? I m-mean if you want…”

She giggled and looked behind him seeing that the cab driver was still waiting for the man. She looked back at him and simply spilled out a sudden thought out of .

“I don’t know if it’s going to be the most stupid mistake or the best decision but… would you like to come in? We could still have coffee if you want to.”

She didn’t know what took over her, but she felt something good about the boy and it got her intrigued. Usually, her instincts were never wrong and she hoped it wasn’t playing her tricks tonight. As for him, it took him a moment before registering what she just said. He looked behind him towards the cab and quickly jumped down the stairs to where he paid the driver and told him he could leave. He ran back up and accepted the girl’s offer making her smile.

Once they stepped inside her apartment, she made her way to the kitchen to which he was following her right behind. “I’m sorry for the small mess. I don’t usually have company over so I don’t really clean up.” She bit her bottom lip in worry and all he could think of was how cute she looked at that moment.

“Don’t worry, it’s still looks great.”

“Thanks… Make yourself comfortable. I’ll go and make us some coffee. Do you want anything in particular?”

“Oh, hmm not really. Anything is fine.”

“Okay.”

She started on her task while Changsun took the liberty to walk around the little studio apartment, taking his time to admire her home. When he arrived in the bedroom, he noticed a pair of those pink dancing shoes ballerina usually wears. He gently picks them up to have a close look at them before placing them back on the bed. As he turned around to walk out, he found the girl leaning by the side of the entrance with her arms across her chest while smirking at the boy.

“S-sorry… I didn’t mean to snoop -”

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it.” She chuckled and smiled at him before standing straight and walking back to the main room where he followed her. “I made you a cup of French vanilla, hope you like it.”

“Thank you.”

From there, they spent the night chatting and knowing each other more, to which Changsun found out that Stefanie could speak Korean, making it easier on him for the language barrier. Laughter and faint smitten looks were exchanged helping lighting up the atmosphere between two new friends.

They were both comfortably sitting on her couch and got so carried away by each other they weren’t even paying attention to the sun that was slowly rising for a new day until a ring cut them off in the middle of their conversation. She looked behind her to where the phone was and saw the familiar number across the small screen. Turning her head back and holding her cup of coffee tightly between her hands, she looked down into it hesitating on answering or not. Changsun noticed her reluctance and out of respect didn’t talk.

She looked back up at him and noticed something different in her eyes. “I’m sorry for that…”

“It’s okay. You’re not the only one that ignores call.” He tried to make it sound as if it wasn’t a big deal by showing her one of his smile and he earned a giggle from her lips, warming his heart. “I guess you’re right…”

“Do you… maybe want to… talk about it?”

She looked at him straight in the eyes while tilting her head to the side. She felt like she could do anything in front of this man and he still wouldn’t judge her. She didn’t know why but she already feels really close to him as she felt her heat beat increase every time he would talk or simply smile at her. “Well, let’s see. I’m an eighteen years old woman who lives alone in the middle of Paris without any family pictures hanging out on my walls except for a single photo of my deceased mom in my wallet. Now, who do you think might be calling?”

She smirked as she finished her sentence while taking a sip of her fourth cup of coffee while the boy tried to gather the information he caught during the night. “Mhmm… I guess it’s family calling and you’re not close to them.”

“How do you know?”

“By the way you spoke about them just now and not even mentioned once about either your parents until now. My condolences by the way… I know how it’s hard to lose a parent…”

“Thank you, I appreciate it… but yea you’re right… I guess my father found out where I live…”

“How long have been living here?”

“Actually, two years. Today marks the second anniversary.” She smiled a little as she was reminiscing of her first day she came into the city after having running away from her family back in Seoul, which left Changsun to look at her and admire her the way he has ever since he laid eyes on her just hours ago.

“How about you? How long have you been in Paris?”

“Just a couple of months…”

“Oh and how do you like it so far?”

“They don’t call it the city of lights for nothing~”

She lightly laughs while nodding her head, agreeing to his words, which made him smile once again.

“I really like you Changsun. You’re really charming.”

He blushes at her words but didn’t let her see as she placed the mug back on the coffee table in front of them and got up from her seat. “I’ll be right back.” She ran out of his sight and only took a few seconds before coming back holding something behind her back. He placed his mug on the table while she made her way back to the couch, sitting in front of him.

She placed what she was holding in front of him while shyly smiling. “I want you to have them… see them as a gift. Hmm, a welcome gift.”

He gently took the dancing shoes in his hands and looked at them in disbelief before looking back up at her. “I can’t have them, they’re yours -”

“Don’t worry, I have a whole mountain of them. You can have these.”

“I’m still not -”

“For me? You know… it could be something to remember me by…” She didn’t know where these words were coming from but she felt her cheeks blush and shyly looked down at the shoes, not noticing the boy that was lovingly looking at her, in complete awe. “Thank you. I’ll take good care of them, I promise.”

They spent another couple of hours talking before she had to leave for practice at her dance studio.

As they made their way to the main entrance, she opened her door to which he walked passed and stood in the hallway where he was biding goodbye to her.

“Thank you for the coffee.”

“Thank you for offering…” They smiled as they looked at each other not really knowing where to go from here. “Do you want to… maybe comeback tonight? I can cook you diner or something…”

“I’d love too.”

She nodded and looked down for a split second before looking back up to a pair of lips that were softly placed against hers, taking her by surprise. He didn’t know what got into him but felt like he would regret it if he didn’t make his move now. Luckily for him, she didn’t push him away. She quickly kissed back as she placed her hands by his side and lightly pulled him towards her to which she found herself backing up against the frame of her door.

The barking of a dog coming from the hallway cut their kiss short as they both jumped to the sudden intrusion while looking into the hallway seeing a small dog with an old lady passing by giving a disapproval look towards the young couple. The ballerina lightly chuckled while hiding her face with her hands suddenly feeling a little bit embarrassed. She looked back at Changsun who had a cheeky smile on his face.

“I’ll see you tonight then?”

“Sure!”

He placed a last kiss on her forehead and walked away holding onto the dancing shoes he received while the dancer looked at him while holding her hand over her chest feeling the quicken pace of her beating heart, completely love struck over the boy.