In a quiet corner of a lone street was a very ordinary-looking candy shop. The exterior was old, with walls built from red bricks left unpainted. There was a small sign to the right end of the shop with the word “Memory”.

        Inside the shop, however, was completely different. The room was quite dark, considering the little amount of sunlight cast into the room. It was painted a pale sky blue color, with yellow stars imprinted all around the room. The ceiling had a single chandelier glowing a soft orange, despite the curtains letting in a considerable amount of light. Rows and rows of jars containing various flavors and shapes of candies were arranged neatly on polished wooden cupboards. It looked very much as if to attract young children into the shop.

        Right behind the sliding glass door was a small cashier behind which a young lady in her mid-twenties was sitting. She was beautiful; with her wide hazel orbs, a straight button-down nose and full pink lips. Her skin was very pale and her elbow-length brown hair looked so soft it was almost as if it was floating right off her shoulders. She was quite tall but looked very nimble and fragile, as if she would shatter into a million pieces with a single touch. Her features were soft but had certain grimness. She was not shy, no, but more afraid. She rarely spoke to her customers apart from a few words of ‘welcome’, and ‘goodbye’ and ‘thank you’. Her face betrayed no emotions; she was quiet and reserved. Although she may be captivating at first sight, she had no one to called friends and no one to talk to. Such loneliness brought to her undeniable pain, but she stayed strong at is was the life she chose. Trusting a person was easy, but losing that trust was the quite the opposite.

        7:35 p.m.

        Yura sighed. Only twenty-five minutes until it will be time for the shop to close for the night. Outside the cozy shop, a strong gale was stirring up and rain was falling slightly making pitter-patter sounds on the windows of her lone shop. At times like this, Yura wanted nothing more but to lie down in her warm bed at home to a cup of hot cocoa and maybe, watch a movie or two if she felt like it. But there was still a whole 25 minutes left until it was time for the shop to close, and she felt a great responsibility to wait until the time was up. ‘Although the rain’s getting quite bad and I doubt anyone will want candies in this weather.’ Yura thought.

Suddenly the bell chained to the sliding glass door chimed and in came a tall, young man, shaking his wet umbrella furiously. Yura stood up slowly and eyed the man. Surely, he was older then her but only by a few years. He was dressed in a black shirt, black tight jeans and a black coat. Why, even his umbrella was black!

        The man was, however, undeniably good-looking, with fair white skin and a manly demeanor. He had full pink lips, a straight and sharp nose and his chocolate brown eyes looking too wide and round for his face. He was very tall, but definitely not lanky. His light brown, slightly-wavy hair was tousled badly from the wind and was slightly wet from the rain. Yura realized with a jolt that, perhaps, she had stared too long.

        Finally having shaken all the droplets of water off of his clothes, the stranger turned towards her direction to glance at her. Upon seeing her, the stranger’s eyes doubled in size, looking as if it was ready to pop out of his head. If it was under different circumstances, Yura would have laughed at the stranger’s uncanny resemblance to a frog but unfortunately, Yura prefers her personality to be seen as a straightforward one. Her mind, though, refused to obey her and she found herself imagining the handsome stranger as a frog prince and she as the princess who had to kiss the frog. Shaking the thoughts away, she saw that the stranger had recovered from the shock he got from seeing her and was looking at her with a warm expression as silence effulged them. Finally letting out a chuckle, the stranger shifted his gaze away from Yura and towards the heavy rain outside the window. “Nice weather isn’t it?” he asked. Puzzled, Yura muttered “It’s raining cats and dogs out there.” Surely, such a good-looking stranger couldn’t possibly be blind. The stranger let out a laugh and Yura marveled at how on earth a person’s voice can be so deep, so full of emotions.

        “When it rains, we all get a chance to laze around at home with a mug of coffee and a good book under the heat of your blanket at home.” Before she could stop herself, Yura found herself asking, “And may I ask what you are doing at a candy shop in this kind of weather instead of doing what you stated?” The man stared at her for a moment before letting out a sigh. “I was about to do just that when I tumbled across this candy shop. I couldn’t help it, you see, I just had to come in. I have quite a knack for sweet things. Mind if I look around?” Yura nodded and the stranger began to inspect the rows of cupboards containing candies. After an instance, the stranger seemed to have made his choice and brought a box of mint candies and a packet of liquorices to the cashier.

        All the while she was checking the prizes and sticking the ‘sold’ tags on the candies, she found herself getting hot from the burning stare the stranger was giving her. It wasn’t uncomfortable, just weird considering that they had met just today and the stranger didn’t have the conscience to follow common courtesy. Nonetheless, Yura felt extremely tired when she finally finished and was ready to slap the stranger silly in the face for his inability to stop looking at her. After another moment of staring, the stranger picked up the bag of candies and gave her a heart-warming smile. He turned and walked towards the door but halted and turned. “I’ll come back tomorrow,” he said, in a way which Yura thought he had misunderstood if she had wanted him to come back. “I’ll make sure to come by earlier next time. I’m Minho, by the way. Choi Minho.” With another one of his deadly smiles, he exited the room, making Yura if, indeed, she did want him to come back.