Cigarette | Song Mino |

| 2 |

Thursday, May 18th 2017.

It was two days later and like always he was leaning against the same wall, along with a cigarette in his hand and in the other he was guarding the half empty pack of cigarettes. After what that girl did to him he had some trust issues when it came to his cigarettes.

He told his roommate about what the girl had done to him- that she secretly stole his cigarettes after ranting about the effects. His roommate on the other hand saw the humor in the situation as he couldn't stop laughing at what had happened to his friend. After five minutes of listening to his friend laugh, Mino gave up hope and hid in his room for the rest of the night.

Just like two days ago it was cold, only this time there was a lot of noise. Cars passing by, honking when it didn't go fast enough, birds chirping, kids playing and screaming. He had wished it could be as quiet as that night again.

After his cigarette was burned down to the filter, he dropped on the stones and put it out with his shoe. He was aware of the dangers of not putting out his cigarette.

Mino stretched his body before entering the convenience store, grabbing his apron from the counter. He was not looking forward to working- that's mostly because of all the lifting he has to do in the store. Since he's the strongest of the employees, he was in charge of stocking the heavy products. At his first day, he was just showing off his muscles to hit on some of the female employees, only they didn't fall for it, his boss however quickly gave him the title 'muscle' and the job to do the stocking.

There were moments where he didn't mind the lifting, after all it was a great free work out. But sometimes he wished that he could just stand behind the counter and work the register, even if it was just for a day. He didn't care, he just needed a little change in his life.

That's where the mysterious girl came in. He just met her but in those few minutes she showed the kind of person she is, and that was something completely different from what he is used to.

"Song Mino-ssi, could you stock the soda isle" one of his co-workers called out to him.

He sighed softly, "yes noona".

Unfortunate for him they had realized he was back from his smoking break.

"Oh and please spray some cologne or deodorant because you stink" she added.

He simply raised his thumb as he retrieved to the hygiene isle- Mino was too lazy to go to the staff room to grab his own deodorant, that why he secretly used the ones laying around in the store. Not that anyone ever caught him- maybe they didn't even care because that way customers would come back quicker to buy more.

After making sure he didn't reek of cigarettes he went back to work. Grabbing a shopping cart with the six-packs he needed to stock in the store. As he was pushing the cart through the store he was looking around, in the hope that mysterious girl would visit again. Maybe she was new in town, and then there was the possibility that she came often to the store but he never noticed her.

When he reached the soda isle he had realized that she wasn't in the store at this moment, so with a sigh he grabbed the first pack to stack, his black tee was accentuating his muscles were tighten because of his grip on the sixpack.

"He's even a show off, lol figures" he suddenly heard a familiar voice say beside him.

He placed the sixpack in the rack before looking beside him, his eyes meeting her. Only this time she looks a little taller. He takes the opportunity to study her looks. This time she is dressed black ripped jeans with a simple white crop top and a pair of black vans.

"Right back at ya, you're the one standing on her toes" he shot back.

She looks offended before looking the other way, maybe it was his imagination but he could swear he saw her cheeks turn pink.

"I'm just trying to reach something, no need to get so sassy at a customer".

Mino shook his head as he was chuckling at her remark, knowing that she's right about the customer part. But he didn't believe that she was actually trying to reach a sixpack of Heineken beer.

Although he was wondering if maybe she was trying to grab it.

Trying to be friendly he grabbed the sixpack of beer before holding it in front of her face, "I didn't know a girl like you would be into a Dutch brand of beer" he told her.

Her facial expression turned blank when her brain finally processed what he was holding in front of her face. She finally realized why he was holding that in front of her when she looked up and saw what she had tried to pretend to grab.

The truth was that she was wondering if he would recognize her after what she had done to him. She did pickpocket him and walked away with his cigarettes.

"Do you want these or should I put them back" Mino asked as he kept his eyes on the girl, who was still frozen on the spot. Almost as if she felt caught by him, as if she knew he was onto her.

She cleared her throat before facing him with a smile, if it was an real one or not was hard to tell for Mino- although a part of him wasn't expecting her to smile genuine at him. "No I don't drink alcohol, but thanks I suppose" she replies as she wants to walk away from him, all until he calls out to her.

"Yah, I don't know your name or what your deal is but" he said as he paused for dramatic effect, "but you owe me a full pack of cigarettes. Speaking of that incident, why did you even steal my cigarettes, if you just asked I would have given you one".

She turned around with an disgusted look on her face. "Smoking is the last thing I would do, it's disgusting and it kills people".

Mino chuckled as he watched her get all defensive, putting her hands on her hips as she gave him the same look she gave him that night.

"Then why steal mine" he asked again.

She rolled her eyes, wanting to get out of the situation but not knowing how. If she would run our of the store the people inside might think she was trying to steal something, and just walking away wasn't going to help either because of that guy.

"They fell into my bag after I bumped into you" she tell him, knowing that he wouldn't believe her. Even though it was the truth, the pockets of the jacket he was wearing that day weren't deep enough to keep the pack secure inside. That's how they ended up in her bag.

Mino rolled his eyes, not believing her at all. It all sounded like a good excuse. "Fine, then what did you do with them".

She shrugged, "I threw them in the trashcan, I wasn't expecting to meet you again. Besides I don't want disgusting things like that in my house".

There was a moment of silence, Mino being too flabbergasted to respond to her. She had thrown away his cigarettes, his cigarette, the ones he bought with his own money. Does she not know how expensive cigarettes are- he thought to himself.

"Anyway I got to go now".

"You're not going anywhere" Mino called out to her, "you owe me a new pack of cigarettes and your number".

She squeezed her eyes into slits, "no way am I going to give some random guy my phone number".

"Then you owe me your name".

That sounded reasonable, "fine, it's Sohye", and with that she quickly walked away before he would ask for her number again.

Mino on the other hand was smirking, now he knew her name and she knows where he works. It was only going to be a matter of time before they would meet again.