“You’re disgusting and judgmental and pathetic… But most of all you’re an idiot, oppa…” Kim Min Seok’s sister makes the most repulsed face she can make. He’s annoyed by the constant reminder of his stupidity but isn’t this going overboard?

               "Ya! Kim Min Young! I'm still you're older brother don't use that tone on me..."

                "But oppa IS an idiot... Do you know how embarrassing that is? You ruined your first impression, and now that pretty oppa probably hates you, he wouldn't want to see me..." His little sister sulks and dramatically exits upstairs to her room. Since when did Min Young start having  interest in boys?

                He ponders about what happened two days ago at Black Pearl. He IS an idiot. It was an honest mistake, he didn't mean to be all ansty and emo about the entire situation. He should’ve asked around first. But it was a bad case of wrong timing. He sighs, how to make amends? Yi Xing told him everything and seeing as how the guy (he remembers the boy’s name to be Lu Han) has been friends with Yi Xing all their lives, he believes that he was just desperate. Not that he tolerates such things, but he understands it’s because of the  circumstances.

                Yi Xing did say that the guy works at the record store next to his favourite cafe so maybe he can start from there and pray that the guy won't start hurling things at him. If he really was on a tight budget he doubts he'd do damage to the store where he gets his monthly income from, right? Maybe he should wait it out a few more days. Better safe than sorry.

xoxo

                Lu Han eyes his friend suspiciously. Yi Xing doesn't like hanging out here. He's a musician, he says. He dislikes pop trash, he’d complain. Said friend is currently skimming through the new releases. Lu Han's suspicion grows.

                "What do you really want Xing-ah..."

                "Can't I just visit you when I want to? Besides you owe me..."

                "I sent you a message of apology and fyi, again I didn't intend to ditch you... It’s your fault for making friends with an adorable ..."

                "Did I hear you just say adorable?” Yi Xing teased.  “So... Are you interested in my 'adorable ' friend?"

                Lu Han rolls his eyes, trust Yi Xing to delude what's important. "You’ve totally ignored the bit of my tirade. I hate that dumpling boy to death.. I won't forgive him even if he begs..."

                "See, you even have a cute nickname for him… Han-ah, you only give nicknames for things that you absolutely like…” Lu Han makes a face at that statement, he totally does not have any interest in dumpling boy regardless of how squishy he thinks the boy’s cheeks are.  “You really won’t fogive him? Even if dumpling boy does a striptease for you?"’

xoxo

                That nagging feeling of guilt won’t leave Kim Min Seok alone. He did know that he promised himself he’ll let a few more days pass before he makes a move though he can’t shake off the feeling that he’s doing it wrong. The longer he puts this off the move that pink-haired boy would think he’s a hateful person without a conscience.

                Should he visit the record store now he’s since he’s in the neighborhood anyway. Not doing the apologizing now is just prolonging the agony. Besides seeing that person now would maybe shut up another nagging feeling in his head that completely has nothing to do with being guilty.

                The walk to the record store wasn’t supposed to take an hour but he was hesitating (and yeah, he’s a bit nervous), he wanted to rehearse what he would say when he gets there.

                The record store is empty except for a lone highschool student who he thinks is playing hooky. He’d reprimand the kid but he has more pressing matters to worry about. There’s an unfamiliar person manning the counter. But he’s sure that Yi Xing said Lu Han-ssi has a shift today and wouldn’t leave until late. Did he by any chance gotten sick?

                Approaching the counter he was met with an intense glare. He wonders if this person knows him and then it sinked in, what if Lu Han-ssi has warned his co-workers about him. He has a black belt in Taekwondo and is trained in kendo too so he thinks he can take this guy. But the kid looks really dangerous, he’s not scared… well maybe a teeny tiny bit but who wouldn’t if a death glare was your welcome?

                “Can I help you?” the voice sounded a bit… whiney.

                “Ermmm… Lu Han-ssi works here, right?”

                There’s a sound of boxes falling from the back of the store. Min Seok leans in to see what’s happening, but the door was promptly closed shut and he was met by another death glare. “Yes, Lu Han-hyeong works here. But he’s not in today… We switched shifts…”

                “Ah, is that so… Do you—“

                “No, I don’t give away employee details to potential stalkers…”

                “Stalker?” Min Seok’s eyes goes wide at that statement. “I’m not a stalker, I just came here to—“

                There was a muffled squeal and a slamming of a door (suspiciously the same door that was abruptly shut minutes ago), the guy (named Tao as was written on his name tag) kicks the door and everything goes quiet again.

                Min Seok raises an eyebrow, he feels weird about all these.

                “Lu Han-hyeong's not here, so unless you’re buying a record I suggest you go home, I’m busy…”

                This boy is definitely talking down on him. “Fine, I’ll leave…” he peels off a strip of paper from the store’s log book and wrote something on it and gave it to the boy before the latter has time to retaliate. “Give that to Lu Han-ssi, and by the way, I’m older than you… I might not look it but I’m 23 years old. I’ll let you off this time coz you’re unaware, but the next time you use banmal on me I’ll make sure you remember, Annyeonghaseyo…” he bows and exits the store. Yi Xing needs to get his facts right.

xoxo

                “You can come out now, ge…” Tao shakes his head. This ge doesn’t know how to be discrete.

                Lu Han comes out from the backroom, looking around the shop. He lets out a sigh of relief and immediately snatches the strip of paper from Tao and unfolds it. “What is this? This doesn’t make sense…”

                “Were you expecting to get his number, ge?”

                “What?! No! Why would I?”

                “The Nile ain’t just a river in Egypt…”

                “Shut up… I was hiding, didn’t want to see the kid, though he did say he was 23… but I mean who believes that… his face screams fetus…”

                “And yours screams giddy school girl with a crush…”

                “For the nth time I was hiding because I didn’t want to see him…”

                “Ah yeah, the manly squeal that came from the storage room must’ve been someone elses… You’re stupid, ge… You’ve been waiting for that guy to come visit eventhough you obviously don’t ask Yi Xing ge when ‘dumpling boy’ plans to visit so you can make your fake escape… Are you trying to be coy?”

                Lu Han glares at the younger boy and hits him with the ledger. Tao is full of lies. He definitely doesn’t want to be chased. “Go to the backroom and arrange those fallen boxes, I’ll man the counter…”

                Tao emits an indignant sound before he locks himself in the storage room. Lu Han makes sure that there’s no one else in sight before he pulls the strip of paper out again. He smiles at the piece of paper in his hand and thinks, “What the actual is this?”

---------------------------------------------------------

  a/n: i felt the need for an A/N. I usually don't like putting stuff like this on the story, but i felt compelled to, lol. This would be the last chapter, the next one would be an epilogue of sorts. (and for anyone who's looking forward to , I apologize in advance, I can't write ...). So I wish to thank everyone who subscribed, clinked the link and bothered reading this.