“Hey, you! Don’t move! No, seriously.”

I froze, only turning my head to see a bright flash. I took a startled step back, raising an eyebrow as my gaze snapped to the photographer.

And I gasped.

He was…beautiful.

“Hi there!” he exclaimed, hopping over the fence and striding forward, grabbing my hand from my side and shaking it excitedly. I just stared, taking in his face. “Sorry, the moment was just perfect, I couldn’t resist. You’re kinda hot, has anyone ever told you that before?”

“Uh…not many men,” I replied, finally regaining my voice, but still staring stupidly at him.

“Well, I guess that’s a new thing you can brag about then right?” He winked and finally let my hand go. “Nice taking stalker pictures of you—oh yeah, I’ve been following you for like…a half mile. I hope that’s ok. Oh, good. See you later!” He raised a hand with a grin, and turned on his heel, disappearing into the crowd. I couldn’t help but just stare after him, mouth agape.

--

“So you’re saying to me that this guy just walked up and took a picture of you, or had been for like ages, and then told you you’re hot, almost broke your arm, and walked off without even a name?”

“…Yeah,” I replied, looking at my sister with a raised eyebrow. “Only he didn’t almost break my arm. I’m tougher than that…”

“Shut up, Shin, no you’re not.” She grinned at me. “Was he cute?”

“I told you that already…” I mumbled, making eye contact intently with the floor.

“Describe him.”

“Hanaaaa…” I whined, pawing at her arm. She just laughed.

“Fine, you don’t have to. But I want to meet him if you ever see him again.”

“I doubt it…” I mumbled, taking my class ring off and spinning it on the table. “It was like a one-time thing I guess.”

“You don’t know that!” she said, shaking the can of whipped cream she had in her hand before letting loose a whole spray into her mouth. “Don’t be such a pessimist, little brother,” she said, taking a small swipe of whipped cream and placing it on the end of my nose.

I wiped it off, sending her an annoyed look. She just giggled and took another mouthful of whipped cream.

I stood and stretched, turning to leave the room. “Better ease up on that, you’re gonna get faaaat,” I said, sending a grin over my shoulder. I shrieked as she chucked the cap to the can at me, dodging out of the way. “Bye bye big sister!” I sang, grabbing my keys and running from the house. I’d go downtown, where I’d ran into the photographer…As Hana had said, you never knew, right?

It took me just a little while to drive down there—we lived actually relatively close to downtown. Our house was cute, just my mom, Hana, and I. It was almost too small but we worked with what we had.

I nabbed a parallel parking spot and locked up my junker blue sedan, not that it mattered. If someone stole it off me I’d take it as a blessing getting rid of the thing. Then again…I wouldn’t have transportation then so…I needed it. For now.

I trotted down the street, observing the art we had on every corner or so, mostly sculptures. None of the stores really interested me that much, mostly antique stores and restaurants. I didn’t have money anyway. Last time I’d been down here had been for almost the same reason—I’d just wanted to take a walk.

“OHMYGOD are you serious?!”

I nearly let out a womanly shriek, spinning around to see someone wielding a camera with blonde hair. “Funny running into you here two days in a row, pretty boy!” sang a voice from behind the camera before the shutter clicked. I blinked at the bright light as he stepped forward with a grin. “You know it’s fate when you run into someone twice in a row, at totally random times. Like, why would you be down here at this exact half hour that I’m staying in this part of town? Crazyyy.” He grinned and shook my hand roughly again. “Well, since I’m assuming we’ll now be seeing each other often, I’m Ace! What’s your name or should I make one up?”

“It’s, uh, Shin,” I replied, staring at his face. Again.

“Nice to meet you, uh, Shin,” he said with a large grin. “You’re cuuuute.” He pinched my cheek and I jerked to the side, wincing. “Oh, sorry. Some people don’t like that, guess you’re one of them!” He grinned and suddenly grabbed my arm. “You’re coming with me kay? I’m hungry.”

“Uh, ok,” I managed to get out before he was dragging me into a small café on the corner.

“I’ll pay for both of ours!” he sang as he pushed me into a seat and sat across from me, a red and white checkerboard tablecloth stabbing at my eyes from below. “What do you want? I want a milkshake. And fries!”

“Uh…I don’t want to impo—“

“Mm’kay I’ll pick for you,” he interrupted, surfing through the menu. “You get chicken fingers and a chocolate milkshake, kay?” He grinned and I couldn’t say no. I was still whirling.

He ordered for us as I tried to gain control of my thoughts.

“So, Shin!” he said, suddenly facing me. “Are you dating anyone?”

“Uh…” I replied, staring.

“You sure say that a lot,” he said, one side of his mouth quirking down while one eyebrow was raised. “Uh.”

“Sorry,” I replied, glancing off.

“Oh, don’t apologize. I hate it when people apologize. Unless they did something really bad. But when people apologize for stupid things it just irks me!” He giggled. “Now you know! And don’t apologize for apologizing either. That’s just ridiculous.”

“…Kay.”

I watched as the food was brought to us and he pushed mine across the table to me, him sticking the straw for the strawberry milkshake in his mouth and staring at me. Oh, so he didn’t talk sometimes.

“Soooo…” he said, releasing the straw from his deathly grasp and instead reaching across the table to grab my hand. I tensed up a bit. This kid was…insane. “Shin! Tell me about yourself?”

I couldn’t help but grimace. “…Do I have to?”

“Yes, or I’ll make you pay.”

I decided not to mention the fact that I hadn’t even wanted anything in the first place, not wanting to find out what his reaction would be to that. “Um…my name is Shin, I’m nineteen and getting ready to move out of my family’s house, I drive a junker blue sedan, I just finished my first year of college, I like spicy foods, and I work on cars in my free time, but it’s also my job sooo…”

“Oh wow, you formulated full words!” Ace said, pointing at me epically. “I’m proud of you. Now let’s see…My name is Ace Browns, I’m seventeen, in my junior year of high school, I don’t need a job ‘cause my daddy is rich, I like sweet foods, especially milkshakes and hard candy…” he winked at me here. “…In my free time I wander around and take photos of people or play my piano!” He grinned widely. “See, now we know each other see?”

“Uh…yeah.”

“You said it again!” He giggled, and I couldn’t help but notice the milkshake was already demolished. I picked up a chicken finger and bit into it carefully. Eh, not bad. “Now, you never answered my other question.”

I looked up. “What other question?”

“Are you dating anyone?”

“…Nooo…”

“Oh, alright!” He grinned. “Well, I gotta go, you can take that home, hey waitress!” A woman with blonde hair scampered over, staring at the two of us with owl-like eyes. “I’m ready to pay…here, have a twenty and the rest is tip!” He smiled and hopped up. “Bye Shin! Oh wait, this is for you.” He reached into his breast pocket and produced a small notebook, scribbling something on a page and handing it to me. “Call me sometime!” He waved and disappeared around the corner, leaving me with a lot of chicken fingers and a chocolate milkshake.

--

“That’s…almost awkward,” Hana said, giggling.

“Shut up…” I said, glaring at her from across the table.

“Don’t fight, you two,” my mom said, taking a bite from her japchae. We scowled at each other for another moment before relenting and grinning at each other. “So Shin, who is this boy you’re talking about?’

“His name is Ace,” I said to my mother, smiling. “We met downtown. He’s a little weird.”

“Hmmmn. You take him to meet us sometime.”

“I will if something happens,” I said, nodding and smiling. “Thank you for the food! I’m going to go to my room…”

“You better help with dishes!” Hana yelled after me as I jogged up the stairs.

“I will!” I replied just before closing the door on my room. I reached into my pocket, pulling out the number scribbled on the notebook paper, the paper that had prompted me to tell my sister about running into him downtown. She’d thought the hard candy comment was just as awkward as I thought it was.

I traced my thumb over the scribbled numbers, contemplating. No way, I should never call him the first night. I’d…wait. I mean, it’s not like I was going to ask him out or anything. Right.

I shrugged and set the number on my desk, going over to the boxes that sat in the corner of my room. I was moving in less than a week, I should pack up…I sighed. I’d been here for a few years now, and I’d always been with my mom and my sister. This would be weird for me. But it was time it happened. Hana was twenty-three and hadn’t moved yet, but I needed to. I couldn’t impose on mom anymore.

I opened up my closet. I didn’t own many things, but I could start packing some clothes. I started pulling things off of hangers and folding them up, setting them on my bed to sort. That was when I heard my cell phone ring from the desk.

I blinked, wondering who would be calling me. Maybe Chris, my best friend. I shuffled over, picking up the phone to see ‘Private’ displayed on caller ID. I’d pick up anyway.

“Hello?” I said into the receiver.

“Oh, damn, you sound sexy over the phone,” a familiar voice said in the normal lilting and singsong way. “Mm’mmm! Oh, right, hi Shin! This is Ace.”

“Oh, hi,” I said, as if I hadn’t known who it was instantly or something. “I didn’t give you my number.” I didn’t know how he’d gotten it, saying as it wasn’t listed either, and I hadn’t told him my last name.

“Oh, my dad has connections. It wasn’t that hard to find a Shin that went to the college last year. There aren’t that many Shins in this town, you know.” I could almost hear him grin. “But hi hi! I couldn’t wait for you to call me so I called you! Fate, don’t you think?’

“…Sure…” I replied, blinking and wandering back to my closet, balancing the phone between my ear and shoulder as I took another shirt down from a hanger and folded it.

“Oh, Shin! Stop folding clothes and talk to me.”

I froze. How the hell did he know I was doing that?

“Oh, right, sorry, I just scared the shit out of you, huh? You’re like, frozen. I’m outside your house right now, and your shades are down! I just so happened to see you at the window! Luckyyy!” I dropped the shirt on the bed, walking to the window to indeed, see Ace down below, leaning against a fancy black convertible. He waved excitedly, and I raised an eyebrow, backing away from the window.

“Oh, don’t be like thaaat. How bout you come down?”

“…Do I have to?”

“Heehee, you sure ask that a lot! Of course you do, silly! It would be rude not to, especially since I drove all the way out here.”

I paused for a second before hanging up the phone and trudging down the stairs.

“I have a visitor,” I grumbled to my family, still in the other room, before going through the front door to meet the psychotic rich kid.

He practically tackled me upon sight. “You’re right, that blue sedan really is a junker.” He grinned, attaching himself to my arm. “Take me insiiiide, Shin!” he sang, and I sighed, having no choice but to do so. I walked him up the front lawn, which wasn’t really that much of a lawn, entering through the front door to a waiting sister and mother.

“Mama, Hana, this is Ace…” I said, indicating with my free arm to my attachment. “Ace, my mother, Chun Hei, and my sister, Hana.” He immediately latched himself onto my sister with a large grin, and I held back on rolling my eyes. He let go of the crushing hug he had Hana in to attach himself to my other arm. “Show me your room, Shin!” he smiled widely.

My mother nodded and I led the ecstatic teen up the stairs to my room, first on the right in the narrow hall. I opened the door, revealing the slightly small but not cramped because I barely owned anything room. He made a small ‘oh’ with his mouth and let go of my arm, venturing to explore my room further. He stepped carefully on the wood floors as if they would break, glancing around. All I had was a desk with a laptop, a lamp, and his number on it, a single mirror on the wall, a small wardrobe, and my bed. Not, of course, counting the empty boxes in the corner. The closet held clothes, shoes, and a few books up top.

“Wowww,” he said with wide eyes. “You don’t own much, do you?”

“I don’t really feel the need for possessions,” I said with a shrug, going back over to my closet to pull more clothes down. I heard a click and then a flash hit the left side of my vision. I blinked a few times, staring at him.

“Sorry, I like documenting events,” he said with a sheepish smile. “Hmmm, so I’ve known you a day, right?”

“…Right…”

“Let’s be friends!” he said with a large smile.

“…Right…”

So somehow, on a Thursday evening in June, I made a friend with one of the richest boys in the state, and he helped me pack clothes.

--

“It’s starting to drive me insane, Hana,” I said into the receiver, running a hand through my dark hair. “It’s like he’s taunting me.”

“He’s not meaning to, Shin,” my sister replied, and I could tell she was eating something.

“I know, it’s just…augh!” I’d known Ace for two months now, and my sophomore year of college was starting in two weeks. After that first click of realization when he’d taken that picture of me on a Wednesday in June, the thought that he was attractive had turned into an extreme attraction, then like, and then one day I noticed that, hey, I was in love with him.

Lovely.

“Mom says to relax and things will work out, little brother,” Hana said. Still eating something.

“Hana, if that’s ice cream, you’re gonna get fat.”

“…Shut up, Shin.” Yup, spot on. Score! “That’s not what we’re talking about. If you really do want something to happen with Ace, tell him about it! You’ll accomplish nothing if he doesn’t know your feelings.”

“It’s…not that easy. I don’t even know if he’s gay!”

“Well he does call you sexy and cute all the time…”

“But that’s just the way Ace is! He does that with everyone but his relatives…and even then he sometimes does.”

“Shin, don’t worry about it. Just think it through…and don’t do anything stupid!”

I sighed, clicking the phone shut and staring at the wall of my new, small apartment forlornly. This was frustrating. Ace was so…naïve sometimes. He didn’t notice things.

I mumbled irritable phrases and curses under my breath, shuffling over to my fridge and pulling out a canned chai tea. I knew that it was weird, but I didn’t have patience to make my own chai. I popped it open and took a long swig, glancing at the clock. Ace would probably be stopping in at any moment to just say hi, which translated to Shin speak, meant taunt with amazing cuteness constantly. I slammed my hand down on my counter, angered with my life and myself.

“Now now, don’t take it out on the counter. What did it do to you?”

My head snapped over at lightning speed to see Ace standing in the doorway with his telltale giant grin on. “What’s getting you so worked up, Shin?” he asked, stepping forward with a smile.

“It’s nothing,” I replied. He raised a singular eyebrow but didn’t push me, instead smirking and running from my kitchen to my tiny living room, which fit a small couch and a flat screen my mom had gotten me for a high school graduation present on the wall. He plopped himself down on the couch, grabbing the remote and flipping through the few channels I had. I rolled my eyes and went over to my small bedroom, grabbing a book off my desk and laying down on my bed to start reading it. I heard the expected footsteps and suddenly Ace was straddling me, his face about two inches from mine.

This was what I called torture.

“Now you gonna tell me why you were so angry at your kitchen counter?” Ace asked, laying his head on my chest.

“No,” I replied curtly, but put the book down ‘cause I knew he wasn’t going to let me read to save my life.

“Oh, please?” he begged, tracing a circle by my collarbone. It took all my willpower right then to not flip us over and kiss the hell out of him. I instead carefully stared into his green eyes, thinking slowly. “Ace…”

“Yes?” he said, blinking. I never talked to him like that. Usually I just told him to get off.

I was a second away from just saying it, I’m in love with you, but I caved. “Nevermind, just get off.”

He pouted cutely but pushed himself off of me, like always, and I stared at him, crossing my arms behind my head. “Don’t make that face,” I said. He complied, sending a wide grin at me. I chuckled lightly, but it was lost as his phone suddenly started ringing obnoxiously.

“Hello? Oh hi Dad. Sure! I’ll be there soon!” He clicked the phone shut. “Sorry Shin, I gotta go.”

“It’s ok,” I replied, picking up the book and pretending to read it all nonchalantly. “I’ll see you later.”

“Yup…” I heard footsteps, the door open and close, click. I glanced over at where he had stood a second ago as the silence in my apartment ensued. I got up, tossing the book into a corner irritably. I shuffled to the mirror hanging on my wall, staring at my reflection.

“Idiot,” I said, sighing and kicking the floor.

--

I was just starting my third month of college when the first snow hit. They always hit late around here—everyone was used to it. I always hated the cold though, and the slush that got the hems of my pants all wet. It drove me crazy.

I muttered small curses as I walked home from the store around the corner from my apartment. I hadn’t seen Ace in a while—last time I’d seen him he’d said something about a three-week vacation. I hadn’t been paying attention. I wish I had been.

“This is good for you, Shin,” I muttered to myself. “Obsessing is never any good for you.” I chewed on my lower lip, staring at the wet and dirty sidewalk as my building loomed up in front of me. I dragged my feet up the metal steps slowly and unwillingly, fumbling with the key in the lock and finally swinging the door open. I was surprised to see a vase on my tiny kitchen table, filled with pretty violet flowers I didn’t know the name of. Obviously from somewhere else, ‘cause you definitely couldn’t grow flowers this time of year. A small card sat by the vase with my name printed on it in curvy letters. I raised an eyebrow and picked it up, cutting the top open with a kitchen knife.

Shin, I’m back after three weeks!

Meet me downtown at the café at four on Saturday.

You know which one I’m talking about.

-Ace

I raised an eyebrow. Ace had gotten me flowers? I’d given him a key just after I’d moved so I knew how he had gotten in. But wow…it got me curious, that was for sure.

I made a small ‘hmm’ to myself, glancing at the calendar. Saturday was in two days.

--

I parked the car haphazardly, in a hurry and not really caring. It was cold anyway and I hated cold. I almost sprinted from the corner to the café to avoid the snow. I entered the warm establishment, spying a blonde seated in the corner, sipping at a strawberry milkshake. I shook the snow from my hair, walking over to him and sliding in across, the tablecloth attacking my eyes, as usual.

“Hi Shin!” Ace said, smiling widely at me.

“Ace,” I said, feeling my heart start to run wild. Shut up, stupid organ. You’ve caused enough damage.

“I didn’t get you anything, sorry,” he said. “We’re going somewhere.”

“We are?”

“Yes.”

“…Kay.”

He grinned, finishing off the milkshake and dropping a ten onto the table, grabbing my arm and pulling me from the café. “You’ll like it,” he said, running to his car. “Don’t worry, we’ll come back to get your car.” He ushered me into the passenger’s seat, sprinting around to the driver’s side and starting up the heater.

The ride was pretty much silent, which was really weird. Rarely did Ace not have anything to say. We finally pulled off at what appeared to be an overlook, like a cul-de-sac with a few house behind us. The snow was barely falling now. Ace ran around to my side of the car, pulling me out of it with a wide grin on his face.

“C’mon c’mon,” he urged, pulling me to the edge of the overlook. “Isn’t it pretty?”

I froze, looking out over our town slowly, the snow falling all around us. The small river wound around the edges, and I could see the campus and downtown. “It’s…beautiful,” I said, turning and looking at his green eyes.

“…Shin?” Ace asked, staring at me quietly with those wide, beautiful green eyes. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. With a slight lurch, I sprang forward, pressing my lips against his. I expected him to push me away, or stand in shock for a few seconds before breaking off, but what happened was the opposite.

He instantly kissed me back, and by God he was a good kisser. The kiss lasted for a few minutes, me running my hands through his thick blonde hair. We finally broke for air, breathing heavily and staring at each other.

“I’ve been wanting to say this since you first took a picture of me,” I breathed out slowly. “Ace, I’m in love with you.”

“Oh, good,” Ace said with a small smile. “I’d hate to be alone in this.” And he sprang forward, enveloping me in yet another kiss.

--

Ahahaha! I love it! Oh, yeah, if you want pictures of what the boys look like…check out my profile. Oh, and Hana. I’ve got one of her too.

I might do more one shots of these two. I’m quite taken with them.

Review please!