The clock was ticking down, with every fifteen minutes that passed the teacher would mark the new time on the board. It was at those times you immediately knew who was done, who was panicking, and who had given up.

I was in the first category, it had only taken me about thirty minutes to finish that pathetic excuse of a final. It didn’t help that it was my last one in high school and I was ready to graduate and get the hell out of this place.

In three months I’ll be packing up and heading off across country starting my first year at Seoul National University, the most prestigious school in all of Korea. I couldn’t wait.

Unfortunately I have three months of nothing to do. Kyuhyun’s family is spending the summer in China at one of his father’s schools. Both my sisters won’t be home; one is taking this summer internship in Japan while the other is spending it with our grandparents out in Busan. My parents will be working the rest of June, then for most of July and the beginning of August they’re going on a second honeymoon trusting the house to me.

So I have nothing to do and no one to hang out with. Well, almost no one.

It has been five days since my neighbor began ‘talking’ to me. If you call writing in huge letters on a notebook talking. After about fifteen minutes of that madness, I cowardly wrote good night and shut the blinds so fast I nearly started a fire with the strings.

I stayed awake the rest of the night praying that I hadn’t freaked him out, or scared him away. I had been panicking so much that I missed all four of my alarms, nearly making me late for school. Which I spent, not worrying about my finals, but thinking about my neighbor whose name I finally knew. Jung Yunho.

All my freaking out had been for not.

When I came, Yunho was playing basketball in the driveway yet upon seeing me he grabbed the ball and headed in my direction. I glanced at the front door of my house, wondering if I could make it if I sprinted. Right when I was about to make a break for it, he was right in front of me with a huge smile on his face.

“Hey Changmin. Sorry if I freaked you out last night, but I wanted to get your attention.” It took me a few moments to process what he was saying as I was too busy staring at his face. He was a lot more handsome up close and not distorted like he was through the window. Wow, that sounded so stalker-ish I couldn’t make it sound even kind of normal. At least I know one thing for sure…my crush on him hasn’t gone away in the least.

“Get my attention…” Then everything he said fully hit me. “How do you know my name?” I hadn’t told it to him last night, even though he had told me his.

He had the decency to look a little ashamed. “Well your parents are going on a trip in July right?” He quickly continued upon me taking a step back. “Mine are going away too, and they want us to keep an eye on each other, just to make sure nothing happens.”

“So you contacted me last night to say that you’re going to be my babysitter?” Fan-ing-tastic. Well at least it wasn’t to call me out for being a complete creep slash for the last some odd years. Small blessings. “I don’t need a babysitter. I’m eighteen, I can take care of myself.” I winced as that came out of my mouth. It made me sound twelve.

“No, I’m not saying you need one.” Yunho was frantically waving his hands back and forth as through it would help in denying. I’m going to pretend I saw a flash in his eyes when I mentioned I was eighteen because I can, and I am technically legal now. “Hell that would like saying I need one, and I’m twenty-one. No what our parents want is just for us to keep an eye out. You know, kinda like I haven’t seen any movement in the house for a few days so I head over to make sure you’re still alive. That kind of thing. But I just thought it would be easier if we hang out with each other, because I at remembering things and I will most likely end up heading over every day, so why not just hang out? I know you’re going to SNU this fall and maybe I can give you some pointers. Not on academics though, you could probably talk circles around me, no I’m talking more about the social aspect. Can’t help much on dorm life as I never went through it but a lot of my friends did…”

When he finally paused to take a breath, I saw my chance to speak. “How do you know about SNU?”

“Ahh…” Now he really looked embarrassed. “My sister, Jihye, is in some of your classes and she was talking about how you were the only person in the school to get in, on a scholarship no less. She said that the teachers wouldn’t shut up about you and how she found it annoying how it was all ‘Changmin-ssi this’ and ‘Changmin-ssi that’ which is how I also got your name.” He mumbled that last part. I was struck with a small surge of annoyance. I mean how unfair is it that he got to ask for my name but I couldn’t. Sure they live together but still…

“Anyway, I know you have finals this week so I’ll let you go study. Oh right, give me your phone number so I can call you up later. Also it won’t hurt if you need help with anything, sure I’m not as smart as you but I’m still pretty damn smart.” He continued on, pulling out his phone.

“You never stop talking do you?” My hand clamped over my mouth when I realized I had said that aloud. I could feel my ears turning red with embarrassment. Yunho looked at me with shocked eyes before he burst out in the laughter that I loved so much. The root of my obsession and I just let myself get lost in hearing it.

The sharp chime of the bell signaling that I was done with my high school career, pulled me out of my trip down memory lane. Packing up my stuff, I recalled that after we had exchanged numbers, he had been texting me random things. From “Eat bananas there good for the brain!^^” to things like, “Did you know that slugs bite off the another’s during reproduction so they don’t have to be the mom? O_o”

It was texts like that which made me realize that Yunho likes watching Animal Planet and Discovery Channel. When I confronted him about it, all he said was that he was bored and that it was no fun watching sports alone. His friends were all working that summer, leaving him all alone.

It was also in the texts that I found out why he had contacted me the way he did. Because one of his friend’s is studying abroad in America and had sent him an MV of some singer who had used the same method. Yunho thought the idea seemed pretty cool. I had replied that while it seemed cool on TV in reality it had scared the out of me when I heard the rocks he had thrown hitting the window to get my attention.

“We are done with high school!” Kyuhyun pounced on me from behind, bouncing up and down like the kindergartener he really is.

“Yes, yes we are almost done.” I reminded him, “After graduation then we are officially done. But instead of spending our last summer before we split ways heading to off to different colleges you are going on a freaking family trip and leaving me to rot.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Kyuhyun moved in front of me with his hands pressed together and his head bowed. I tried to keep up my disinterested face, but when Kyu looked up at me with a small pout I couldn’t help but laugh.

“It’s OK.” I commented, ruffling his hair effectively destroying the style that Kyuhyun had tried out. “I’ll be spending the summer staring at my neighbor like always. But at least this time, it will be up close and personal.”

Kyuhyun’s look of utter shock reminded me that I hadn’t exactly told him about my meeting, yet that’s what he gets when he spends every day and night chasing after his tutor. Walking out of the classroom listening to him yelling out behind me to explain almost made me want to miss high school. Almost.

That night Kyuhyun and I went out to dinner, a bunch of our dongseangs who I would consider friends by association, came along. Most of them I only knew through Kyu, who though may seem like an most of the time is actually a pretty social person, but it wasn’t too bad. Hey, free food.

The next day was graduation practice, because apparently some people are incapable of merely walking across a stage correctly. Then it was the actual thing at night since no one has a life.

If you expect me to share this momentous occasion then prepare to be disappointed. It was one to the most boring-est things I have ever been forced to go to. That includes the time my mom dragged me to see the Korean opera with her. I actually zoned out some time during the second speech (out of six). It was only when the names began being called that I snapped back into attention, which was only because the cheers were deafening.

Honestly it was funny. Most of the names I had never heard of, yet the cheers never stopped. I wondered if the school had hired actors to cheer for every name. Like back in Victorian England you could hire professional mourners for a funeral and every one would seem like they were important, when they actually were hated by everyone in the society. Just another tidbit I learned from Yunho.

When my name was announced, I remember looking out to the crowd and seeing Jihye cheer for me, hell most of the student body was cheering for me. But it was Jihye that caught my attention. I haven’t shared more than a handful of words with her, why would she cheer for me? Since no one has the right to judge me for thinking this, I’m just going to say it’s because she knows that Yunho has a crush on me. Ah the imagination of teenagers is a beautiful thing.

But as for the rest of the student population…

“ ups,” I muttered under my breath. They had ignored me all of high school and now they cheer for me? They just want to be able to say that they knew me back in high school once I get somewhere, cause I am going somewhere with my SNU degree make no doubt about that. I was ready to just flip them off, not caring that my parents were in the crowd. But then I heard my name being called out, instinctively I turned to see Yunho standing by his parents waving at me.

I don’t really remember walking back to my seat, but soon Kyuhyun was back in his seat next to me.

“You okay? You’re bright red…” he whispered poking my burning cheeks. I swatted his hand away.

Without meaning to I glanced back to where Yunho was sitting. Kyuhyun, being the nosy friend that he was, followed my gaze and let out an “Ahh” of understanding.

“So your crush is still in full force, huh. At least you know his name.” I had broken down during graduation practice and told him everything that had happened in the last few days. He wasn’t too happy that I’ll be seeing him for most of the summer, yet he was hoping that my crush will disappear once I spend some time with him. That was my end goal as well, just the way to get there is going to be a lot different than what Kyuhyun is expecting.

“By the end of summer, I plan to know more than that.” I whispered back careful not to let anyone else overhear.

Kyuhyun looked at me with shocked eyes. “What are you planning?”

Smiling at him with more confidence than I felt, I shook my head. Knowing him, if I told him what I was planning on doing he would warn me to stop before my heart was broken. Hell, he might even suggest staying back this summer, or at very least cutting their vacation short.

But there was no way I was going to college without having at least tried to make Yunho mine. It didn’t matter if to him it was just a summer fling. I wanted him, even if it was just for the summer.

I’m only 18 once.

*

Two days after my stunning confession to myself and Kyuhyun, I had ultimately done nothing. It's not like I can go from quiet nerdy guy to someone worth drooling over in a matter of days, but the thing is that I've never really tried to get someone to notice me.

So here I am sitting in a book store abusing their free wifi trying not to feel sorry for myself. Kyuhyun left the country early this morning and my youngest sister is leaving in a few days for Japan which is why I'm not at home. My parents are hovering over her, making sure she has everything she possibly needs, that she won't get home sick all that crap. I had to escape before I was dragged into their circle of worry. My other sister had the right idea, disappearing as soon as the sun goes up.

As I was debating as to whether or not people would notice if I went on to Tumblr an iced American appeared right before my eyes obstructing my view of the screen. In an almost comical fashion I tilted my head back following the arm that was connected to the hand that held the nectar of the gods.

Yunho stood behind me with laughing eyes, his mouth stretched in a wide smile. I could feel my face heating up and I knew that my ears were bright red. My neck snapped back so fast the momentum of the movement made me bonk my head against the ice beverage.

Luckily he had a tight enough grip on it so that it didn't go flying all over my laptop. As he spewed apologies, he set the coffee down on the table, well out of my immediate range then sat next to me at my small table.

"Yunho-ssi, what are you doing here?" I asked reaching for the coffee, Yunho grabbed it before I could and moved it even farther away.

"It's hyung, not ssi." Yunho reprimanded me. I could just feel myself getting redder. But this was only the second time I had actually talked to him in person, it felt like he just got more handsome as time wore on.

"Hyung," I whispered, loving how he light up at that simple word. "Why are you here?"

"I work here. When I came on to my shift I saw you sitting here and decided to get you something to drink on my break." He said this as though there wasn't a care in the world and it suddenly made sense why Kyuhyun recommended the place to me.

"And you knew to get iced American…" Letting to question finish itself, I watched Yunho's facial reaction. Is it just my imagination or did he just turn a slight shade of pink.

"I'm friends with the barista, I just asked what you ordered. You leave quite an impression on people." As I recall the person behind the café was female, and that just left a sour taste in my mouth.

"I know I leave an impression…It's because I look weird." I'm too tall, too skinny, my eyes and ears are too big. I've heard it all. Most of the time it just rolls off me, but sometimes it just hits all the harder. This is one of those times.

"Who told you that?" Yunho demanded, his eyes scanning my face for any sign. "I meant that people are often left admiring your beauty."

"I'm not." It was a small denial, because Jung Yunho just called me beautiful. Sure it was probably said to just get his point across, still he called me beautiful. Though I would have much preferred being called handsome, oh well. Beggars can’t be choosers.

"You are," Yunho quickly assured. "Not just your looks, which make you look like you just stepped out of a magazine. But your presence and the way you walk, all command people to look at you."

"You're wrong," I said shaking my head. While it is nice hearing that I look like a model, I know it’s not true. "I'm not like you."

"You're right, you're not." Yunho said nodding his head, a small knife jabbed at my heart. "I have to smile, talk, really anything to get people to notice me. Otherwise I'm just another handsome face in the crowd, a dime a dozen. But you, all you have to do is walk in a room and all eyes will be on you." Yunho gestured around the sparse bookstore, with his eyes, "I take it you hadn't noticed, but every single person has been staring at you since they came in."

Confused, I followed his gaze around the store, shocked when I saw one girl quickly look away. It wasn't the whole store but it sure made me feel good. Not wanting to say anything to Yunho, I grabbed the coffee before he could take it away again, and mumbled my thanks through the straw trying to hide my blush with my hair.

"Cute," I heard Yunho say not even bothering to whisper. It only caused my red face to grow even hotter. "Say," Yunho continued after giving me a few minutes to calm down, "I get off work in an hour, how about I treat you to some dinner? My graduation present for you."

It took me all of three seconds to agree.

*

The dinner was to say in a nutshell, amazing.

Yunho took me to a simple fast food restaurant that’s known for having larger servings at relatively cheap prices. I wanted to ask if he took all his dates to places like this, but I refrained. Technically, this was not a date. Well not to him, in my mind it was.

Of course it started out horrible when I couldn't even form a single sentence. I'm not, and will never claim to be, a people person. I much rather prefer to watch people from afar and try to figure out their lives.

But Yunho, dear god Yunho.

Is it even possible to fall in love, or lust, even further?

He let forth a constant stream of conversation. He only stopped talking once, and that was when I needed to order. After twenty minutes I realized that I was replying back to him and actually laughing at the lame jokes he gave.

We ended up staying there for three hours, just talking. Yunho asked about my different classes that I took in high school, what I was planning on taking in college. He asked about my friends, to which I almost embarrassing replied that I only really had Kyuhyun.

Instead of mocking me for my lack of friends, or pitying me for being a loner, Yunho merely smiled, "He must mean a lot to you. Having a lot of friends isn't for everyone. God knows that if I could, I would much prefer having a few close friends rather than a bunch of people I barely know."

That led the conversation into another direction about his friends, which lasted for quite a while. But when I tried to ask him about what he did in his alone time, his face turned slightly pink and merely waved off the question.

He probably watches like a normal guy, he probably even es to it… Dirty thoughts be gone. I wonder how good he is in bed? Is he gentle or rough? I almost felt like slamming my head into the table just to get away from my increasingly erted thoughts...at least until I got to the safety of my room.

We hung out at the restaurant for so long, the wait staff actually came and asked us to leave.

Once we had reached our houses, Yunho turned to me, "We should do this again sometime."

He phrased it as a question, merely a suggestion but not really expecting an answer. So I gave him one. "We really should. As long as you keep paying cause you have a job and I don't."

He laughed at that. I could still hear him laughing as I retreated into my house. And acting like the erted stalker I was, later that night I remembered his laugh and his refusal to talk to me and allowed myself to dream.

That dinner turned into a lunch, which later transformed in coffee and a movie. It felt as though he was going out of his way to spend time with me, once when I heard his phone go off all he did was take it out and place it on silent before turning all his attention to me.

The times I had to slap myself from avoiding reading too much into the situation was causing serious damage to my brain cells. It was nice to dream though. Dream that Yunho actually liked me, more than a friend, and that he just didn't know how to show it. Or that he was showing it, and I was just being unromantic and not picking it up.

Almost two weeks into my summer vacation, Yunho and I were going planning to hang out for most of the day. Starting off at the bookstore where he worked part time, then heading off for some food, before finally heading to his house to play some Call of Duty.

It all went according to plan. But after a game my mouth decided that it didn't like me being content.

"Why did you turn red when I mentioned what you did in your free time?" I asked, curled up on the easy chair facing the screen. Yunho was behind be gathering up some more food, the rustling of various packaging stopped when I finished speaking. "It can't be that bad, right?"

"No its not," Yunho said collapsing on the sofa to my right. "Just not really something that I've shared before. I think, not I'm positive that people will judge me when they find out. That you will judge me, and honestly I can't deal with that right now."

Shifting through my memories, I couldn't see anything from the time I started watching Yunho till now that would make him so self-conscious. Yes, I am well aware of how creepy I sound so please don't comment.

"How about you tell me and I'll tell you what I like to do in my spare time?" I bargained, not really knowing why I wanted to know, just needed the answer.

Yunho raised an eyebrow, "I already know what you do. StarCraft and various other video games."

"I may have lied about that…" Will I actually tell him that my favorite pass time until a few months ago was watching him through my window, probably not. Unless his is equally as stalkerish then there isn't a chance in hell that I'll tell him. Most likely.

"Fine," he said after a few minutes, crossing his arms over his chest. It suddenly hit me that Yunho was much older than me, since this was the first time he ever acted his age. "You tell me yours first, and if I deem it good enough then I'll tell you mine."

Ignoring the rush of heat I got from him taking control of the situation, I tried to figure out exactly what I should tell him. Do I tell him the truth and possibly ruin my only chance at even just being his friend, or do I figure out some sort of lie that could blow up in my face?

"Min-ah," Yunho said, drawing my attention back to him. "I expect the truth, don't go lying just so that I'll tell you mine."

Something told me that if I lie, or just affirm to him about the whole video games thing was true, that I would create a line between us. One that neither he nor I could ever cross. I would remain just a dongsang, nothing more, not even a friend. No matter how much I want him, his friendship is worth a hell of a lot more right now.

"I used to watch you…" I began quietly not even looking at his face but rather the controller in my hands. "I liked watching you dance. You would seem so free when you moved and...honestly I hated you for it. I've never felt that free ever, there are always restriction that I placed to keep me in line, things that keep me second guessing myself. My only real chance to be free was in watching you…in liking you."

My knuckles turned white from gripping the controller so hard, waiting for the rejection that would no doubt follow. But minutes passed in total silence. Feeling fed up with the whole thing, because Yunho is just too nice to kick me out, I stood up and made a move to leave.

Yet I was held back.

Before I even left the living room, Yunho's arms were wrapped around me keeping me in place. It would have been a scene straight out of a romance movie, if Yunho hadn't been trying so hard to keep in his laughter.

"Yah!" I struggled to get out of his embrace, wanting to nothing more than to punch the stupid hyung in the face. "Jung Yunho are you laughing at me!?"

His arms merely tightened against my struggling. "Nope, not laughing at you." His voice was lighter than I had ever heard it before. The joy in it made me want to laugh as well.

Fighting hard to keep up my angry tone, "Then what the are you laughing at?"

"Me, Min-ah. I'm laughing at myself." Apparently that sentence caused him to lose the fight, and he let out a loud bark of joyous laughter. "God to think that I could have been doing this for years…"

I never got a chance to ask what it was he was talking about. Yunho spun me around in his arms, and before I could make a sound he kissed me.

Jung Yunho just kissed me.

For those who don't understand the significance of this, I'll repeat it for you. Jung. Yunho. Kissed. Me.

Before I lost my head completely and actually asked him to me, I pulled back from him. My hands clenched into fists, the joke had gone on for too long. Pulling back my fist, ready to swing at any time I looked a joyful Yunho in the eyes. "Explain right now before your parents will have to get you a nose job to fix the damage I caused."

"I will, now just calm down." Reluctantly I lowered my arms and waited for another opportunity to punch him. "It's only fair that since you told me what you did, that I'll share. You see about four years ago, I got new neighbors. The day they moved in I was goofing off in my room when I looked out my window there was a boy watching me through his window. He had such a blissful expression on his face, I couldn't even be mad that he was spying on me."

I winced at the description, but couldn't contradict it. I had been spying. I’m going to just assume that this is me because really how many other neighbors did this guy get with teenage boys that like the stare at people.

"Over the next few months I kept watching him. When he got home he would go straight to his desk and study. His face would scrunch up when he couldn't get a problem right, and he would do a little dance when he got one right. Sometimes he would get the same blissful, carefree expression that I first saw him with. I made up a game to imagine what he was thinking about at those times. It was the only thing that really kept me sane during my final years at high school and my first years at college. I would have a crappy day, come home wanting to kill something then see this boy staring out his window and all my anger would disappear.

"Then one day his window was closed, the blinds drawn. For weeks the window remained closed, I went crazy trying to find out what happened to him to the point where I practically pushed all my friends away. I nearly drove Jihye crazy trying to figure out what happened to you." Yunho looked at me then, confusion in his eyes.

"Why did you close the window? For years no matter how cold it was outside the window would be open." Then he said in a small voice, "Did I do something?"

"That's the real reason you talked to me that night isn't it?" I asked ignoring the question.

"Yes, it was the first time you've opened it in so long. I didn't want to come back the next night and find it closed. Though I will admit that everything else is true. Both our parents are going away, and it is just going to be us in our respective houses."

We fell silent once more, but it was a comfortable silence. Everything that Yunho said came back to me, how is it that in all the times I had been watching him I had never noticed him watching me? The weight of that sentence hit me rather hard and I burst out in laughter.

"Man we make quite a pair. Damn I can hear Kyuhyun now, 'the stalker couple' so horrible at it that they fail to realize that the object they’re watching is stalking them in return. It sounds like some corny shoujo anime."

Yunho joined me in laughing. "Couple, huh?"

That cut off my laughter immediately. "I didn't me-"

"I like it," Yunho placed his finger over my mouth to stop me from talking. "How about it Changmin-ah? Want to be my boyfriend?"

AN: This took a lot longer than I planned to put up... Who knows when the next part will be up, but I do actually have most of that one planned out.