Jin stood in front of her door, preparing to set the little box down on the floor. And wondered where on earth Tae was. He sighed. He needed to be quick if he wasn’t going to get caught. Jungkook, Jimin, and Namjoon had all been caught. Not in the act of leaving the box. But as they walked away.
However, before Jin could move, the door suddenly swung open. Startled, he gazed at a pretty girl with vibrantly blue eyes. A hint of green swirled in their depths.
“Caught you!” she exclaimed.
He blinked. “I just found this box in front of your door. I was going to knock to see if it belongs to you.”
He watched her face fall. “You did?” She sighed. “Yes, it does belong to me. Thank you.” She stared up at the handsome man as she reached out to receive his gift.
He was really beautiful. Almost…worldwide handsome. She bet he’d appeal to girls in every culture. There was something compelling about his eyes. A…sweetness that drew her to him.
She shook herself as she accepted the hefty box. She glanced down in surprise. “It’s quite heavy for such a small box.” She peered up at him. “Don’t you think?”
He shrugged. “I guess.” Then he unleashed the brightness of his smile upon her before turning away with a few more uttered words, “Have a nice day.” Unable to resist the impulse, he pivoted towards her once more and blew her a kiss.
She looked at him like he’d just lost his mind. “You too,” she mumbled before quickly hiding behind her door.
And Jin sighed with relief. He’d been caught in the very act, yet his quick thinking – and slick tongue – had rescued him from his dilemma. She was none the wiser.
April leaned back against the door with a sigh. She’d been so sure that she’d finally caught her secret admirer’s delivery man.
“Is that a gift from me?” came a deep voice from the bed over hers.
She glanced up at her mystery man. “This is really stupid. I need a name to call you by. We’ve spent several days hanging out together, and I still can think of you only as my mystery man.”
His lips quirked upward in a boxy grin. “You think of me as yours, eh?” he teased her.
Her cheeks bloomed with sudden color. And he chuckled.
“What would you like to call me?”
“Hmm. Well, you’re Korean, so I should probably give you a Korean name. Let me think of a common one…”
“A common one? Am I not uncommon then?”
Her eyes collided with his. “You are truly uncommon. A rare one, then? That will be much harder for me. I was planning to call you Kim.”
“Kim, eh? Hmm.” He scratched his chin as his eyes fixed on a point over his head. “All right. You can call me Kim.” He shrugged. “After all, it is pretty common. Maybe it’s my last name,” he joked with a tiny snicker.
He eyeballed her. “So…are you going to find out what I gave you today?”
“All right, Kim.” Her face lit up. “It’s nice to have a name to call you by.”
“If you were a guy, I’d tell you to just call me hyung.”
Her eyes slid over his face. “What makes you so sure you’re older than me?”
“I am clearly older than you,” he laughed.
“Kim Hyung, huh?” She considered him. “It has a certain ring to it.”
It did. But something was missing. He just wasn’t quite sure what that something was.
She glanced down at the white box in her hand. “Where did you find these boxes?”
“I have no idea,” came his quiet response.
“Ah, yes.” She pulled the teal ribbon off the box. “This is new. A blue-green ribbon.”
“It matches your eyes,” he murmured soberly.
Those stunning eyes careened into his.
Did he feel the fire leaping between them? Or was it just her?
She lifted the lid on the box and reached in to pull out an aquamarine candle.
“It looks like the ocean,” he murmured.
“It does.”
“And it matches your eyes.”
“You just said that.”
“Mmhmm. But that is undoubtedly why I chose it. Aquamarine seas.”
She giggled suddenly.
“What is it?” he asked with instant interest.
“This candle is named Ocean.”
“Ah. Fitting.”
She reached into the box and withdrew its notecard.
“Aloha, aqua eyes. I saw this candle and immediately thought of you, of your stunning eyes, and of the ocean you traversed to come to me. I thought maybe this candle embodies home for you. The home that lies on the other side of those blue-green waters. Anyway, I hope it lifts your spirit today as you remember the place that gives you such comfort.”
She glanced up at him in surprise. “Did I tell you that I grew up along the ocean?”
He squinted at her. And shook his head. “No,” he replied in surprise. “You did?”
“Yes.”
“Ah, in sunny California.”
“You couldn’t have picked a more appropriate candle to represent my home than this one.”
“Amazing,” he murmured as his eyes slid along the curves of her pretty face.
She bent her head and sniffed the candle. She sighed with pleasure. “It even smells like the ocean. How do they do that?”
“Miraculous,” he muttered, his gaze still drinking in her countenance.
She smiled up at him. “Thank you, Kim Hyung, for this and for all the other gifts. Do you have any idea how many more I can expect to receive?”
“Nope. Not a clue.”
She laughed. “What an odd situation we find ourselves in, huh?”
He nodded.
Just then, a knock sounded on her door. She crossed the room to answer it. And found Poppy smiling at her.
“Hi, April.” She glanced up and found her other new friend beaming down on them. “Hi, uh…” She stopped.
“Kim,” April informed her.
“Kim?” Poppy’s face lit up. “You remembered your name?”
“No. April dubbed me Kim. Because I’m common,” he teased her with a twist of his lips.
“Hey! That is not why I called you Kim! I already told you. You’re uncommon. But…it could be your name.”
“My surname maybe.”
Poppy laughed. “You two sound like you’ve known each other forever. I, uh,” she was suddenly feeling uncomfortable. “I came by to ask if you guys wanted to hang out. I brought a game.” She held up a box.
“Scrabble?” Tae groaned. “It doesn’t happen to be the Korean version, does it?” he joked.
“We’ll help you.”
“Yeah, come on,” April coaxed him. “It’ll be fun.”
“All right,” he sighed. “I guess I got nothing to lose.”
It seemed to him that he had already lost everything that mattered. When was he going to remember who he was? And why did Kim Hyung ring such a bell with him?
Oooooh scented candle…. I love those