It was still three hours away from dinner time when I decided to stop by at my favorite restaurant who sell the best tasting steamed-bun in this whole neighborhood. I live in a suburban area where everyone knows each other, it’s like living surrounded by families. Every time we pass someone we know in this neighborhood, we have to greet them with at least a smile or a simple “Hello”. I quoted it from my mom, I’m not that nice actually.

“My dear Baozi!”

The owner of this restaurant, Zhang Yixing called the moment I stepped inside while transferring some moon-cakes into a white takeaway box. He’s a young man with warm smile and fatherly aura, at some times he could be really really generous that he gives me some discounts or free foods.

I joined in the queue that has formed behind the order table, plugged in my earphones and waited patiently in the line. After a few minutes of waiting, finally the last costumer in front of me stepped forward and ordered.

“I’ll have five steamed buns.”

She is a girl probably around the same age as me with petite frame and long dark brown wavy hair. She was practically standing on her tip-toes with her hands clutching the edge of the table and head tilted high as if trying to peek inside the kitchen.

“Are you meeting some friends?” I asked out of curiosity.

She turned her head and standing back with her heels again, facing me with a reluctance shading her face. “No.”

“Relatives?”

“Why do you think that I’m meeting someone?” she tilts her head to the side, studying me.

“Well you did order five steamed buns,” I shrugged.

“It’s all for me.”

Yixing’s head popped from the glass door separating the back kitchen and the order area, holding a huge plate of steaming hot buns. I looked down at the girl in front of me who is now practically drooling at the sight of the piling steamed buns. She’s going to eat five buns all by herself and I find it pretty interesting. She pull out some cash and hugged the brown paper-bang full of buns the moment Yixing handed it to her.

I stepped forward and found Yixing is now staring down at me with a huge grin on his face that it’s a miracle that his cheeks haven’t tore yet. “I’m going to have three steamed buns.” 

“Making your first move there, I see,” the goofy grin seemed to be permanent whenever he caught me talking to some girls, which is only happens probably once in a decade. He transferred some white pillowy steaming bread into the brown bag carefully.

I leaned forward and whispered. “She’s eating five buns in one go. That’s nearly abnormal.”

He just chuckled, and shot me a sceptical look as if saying "I know better than that, son." I could see the girl with the corner of my eye, she's sitting there by the window with stuffed to its maximum capacity and both of her hands holding one bun each. Where she storaged all those food inside her miniature body, I have no idea.

“Here,” he offered a paper-bag to me and then added, "This is free if you sit there with the lady." 

A loud sigh escaped my mouth and I gave up. The only reason I'm doing this is because of my strictly limited allowance, so yes I need to save the littlest money I could save due to stay alive and well feed for the rest of the month. I walked towards her table with Yixing's amused stare boring the back of my head. As I placed my paper-bag down in front of her she looked up as if I have popped her little bubble of happiness.

"Do you mind if I uhm?" I pointed at the chair and she nodded after studying me from head to toe back to head again.

After gluing my down, we both eat in silence. Not the awkward or deafening kind of silence, more like the silence of two people enjoying their own alone-time but happens to sit at the same table. I'm sitting here just two paper-bags away from frankly the most amazing creature God has ever invented, and I can feel the steamed buns is a little softer and the filling is a little sweeter than usual.

She jolted to her feet abruptly after popping the last piece of bun into . She bowed a little before saying, "I need to go now."

I looked at her helplessly, I really want to ask her something but my mouth is still full with food and like my mom said, rule number one, don't talk when you're mouth is full. She was about to walk away when I unconsciously grabbed her wrist, startling her a little. I gestured her to wait a little while I tried to swallow a big lump of food down my throat. "Can I know your name?"

She looked a little hesitant at first. "Ha Seyeon," she finally answered after deciding that I looked way too harmless to be some kind of serial killer. She bolted away quickly, probably scared I'll hold her back again.

Later on, I drove back home with this weird feeling clinging in my chest.

That night my mom called me to come down half an hour before our usual dinner time, I did as instructed went down and found my mom stacking dozens of plastic containers filled with any kind of side dishes into a big basket. The whole house smells like broiling fish broth that I started to wonder why people didn't make perfume or aromatic candles with the scent of Fish Broth instead of flowers and fruits.

"Deliver this to Ms. Hwang, her daughter from the City is paying a visit and I'm not sure if she could cook a decent meal for her."

Ms. Hwang has gotten herself into a car accident a few days ago and now she's using wheel-chair to transport herself around, and it's a tricky deed. Lately my mom has been cooking dinner and lunch for her as well. I've heard a lot about her daughter but I've never met her in person before. My mom used to tell me stories about how we could've been good friends if she didn't move to the City with her dad after her parents' divorce. But I have never thought her as a real person before, like she was not more than a myth all along.

The ringing sound of the doorbell echoed behind the big white wooden door, I can hear a growing sound of footsteps nearing the door and I'm pretty sure that it's Ms. Hwang's daughter's because wheel-chair doesn't make tapping noises. The handle clicked open, revealing a familiar girl standing at the other side of the door-frame. Petite and gorgeous. Ha Seyeon.

"You're uhm Ha Seyeon, right?" my voice is filled with uncertainty.

"The one and only," she chanted. "And you must be..."

"Kim Minseok." I extended a hand and she welcomed it.

She arched her pointy brows, forming a knot. "But the man back at the restaurant called you Baozi."

"That's my second name."

"What should I call you then?"

"Either or."

"Okay Either Or, what brings you here?" a small laugh slipped out from , light and cheerful. It's amazing how this shy and rigid girl could turn into this sun-bright person laughing in front of me.

"It's either Minseok or Baozi, not literally Either Or," I pinched her nose playfully.

Her laugh ebbed into a small chuckle as her eyes spotted the basket I'm holding. "Oh here, it's from my mother."

She took over the basket and take a peek, her eyes intantly light up in joy. "You're godsend, you know that?" she patted my shoulder firmly. I smiled at the pleasant feeling rushing along with my blood as I watch her hand fall back to her sides.

"Can I have your number?" Something must've been hacking my brain because Kim Minseok usually don't go around asking for stranger's phone number, let a lone a girl's phone number. But she's not like any other girl I've known in my whole life, she did eat 5 steamed buns in one go right? Maybe that's the reason I want to keep in touch with this magical human-being. And anyway she's not a complete stanger anymore.

"What for?"

"I'm not a serial killer," a little smile blossomed on her face. The way I look at it, swapping number with her won't get us into any bloody trouble because I'm just a walking, talking and breathing baozi while she's pretty much the girl version of me (just a bit more attractive, but there's no way I'm going to say that out loud). 

She dictated a set of number while I saved it in my contact list. "Sorry for being so rigid earlier, you know with all that rules about strangers and stuff. I just don't want to be the next Littel Red Riding Hood," she showed me a clear view of her straight teeth that looked more like little pearls in this dim lightling. "But now that we're neighbours, I guess we could be friends."

I nodded, can't trust myself to speak because I might blurted out something out of place or sounded overly ecstatic. We bid each other good night a moment later and I walked home with lighter steps.

That night I saved her number in speed dial. Number 5.

A loud banging on the front door snapped me out from my dreamless sleep early in the morning. No one in my family is a morning person, so I decided to just go down stairs and answer it myself wondering why the newspaper delivery guy has to be rumbustious today. Turns out it's not the newspaper guy at all, it's Ha Seyeon who is standing here at my doorstep with a big basket in her hands.

She shov