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As he finished sweeping the curb of the barbershop, he looked out across the parking lot at how the pavement beyond that seemed to shimmer from the heat radiating off of its surface: 'Maybe some rain can bring this heat down?' he pondered to himself, wiping the sweat off of his brow off using the back of his arm, before picking up the metal dustpan he had been using to collect whatever cigarette butts, broken glass or any other debris that collected near the raised edge...
When the contents slipped out of sight into the trashcan stationed outside, his eyes noticed a flattened purple bottle cap near his tennis shoe. He smiled to himself as he carefully picked it up, tucking it into the pocket of his jeans, before turning to get the broom leaning against the door and went back inside. Pulling the door open with his free hand, as the tiny bell rang on his arrival.
The last two regulars were getting their usual done... one getting a 'proper shave' via a straight razor, carefully wielded by a newer higher who was skilled for that reason, and the other getting a haircut from his former friend from high school where they spend most of their time reminiscing about their past and what they've been up to lately. As he set the broom and dustpan in their designated corner, he spotted a pair of leather gloves he had received on his birthday a couple years back from a girl he wishes he could forget about, laying across the lip of the back sink.
Things had been going well at first, but between her possessiveness and the way she wanted him to stay away from his friends made him think twice: her trying to start an argument with his mother was the tipping point. He told her to leave his parents home in no uncertain terms, and when she started swinging at him, he pushed her out of the door, locking it quickly and telling her he'd be calling the police if she didn't leave; but thankfully she did leave, and he hadn't heard from or seen her since that horrible day.
And yet, the few good things about her lingered in his mind... the way she bought a newspaper just for the funnies, the smell of cigarettes and perfume that were as much a part of her as her blue eyes, and how she liked her coffee in the morning, 'black as night, and as sweet as a stolen kiss', and now these gloves.
He wanted to just drop them into a trash can to be rid of them, but she did spend a lot of money on them... after looking around the shop as if someone was going to walk through the door needing assistance, he quickly pulled them on, right hand first and then his left. The soft lining felt nice on his palms, and they did fit him beautifully...
... a familiar bell ringing stopped his train of thought, as he looked up to see a young woman standing in the doorway holding what looked like a black garbage bag full of clothes, wearing a black ribbed cotton tank top and dark blue cut off jean shorts: a jade and silver pendant hung on a black cord around her neck, and her curly hair framed her face.
After she looked around, she finally spoke, her voice tinged with embarrassment. "Um, hi... I can clearly see this isn't the consignment shop, so I'll just leave now, and-" she started to awkwardly back out of the doorway with the bag, but he called out to her so she'd stay for at least a moment.
"Yeah, we've gotten that a few times. It's at the plaza across the street from us. It's alright." He answered with a smile as he yanked the gloves off and stuffed them deep into the pockets of his jeans.
"Oh.. thanks, I guess." She looked around the shop once again, then back at him, her hazel eyes nearly catching him off guard. "Anyway, I don't want to take up anymore of your time here, so I'll just..."
"We're going to be closing up in like half an hour, so I can easily walk up there with you. I mean, if you want."
Her eyes now gave him a once over, and he felt a little self-conscious by the way he had dressed yourself that morning, and how intimidating he could look to someone unfamiliar with the kind of person you are despite that, only for her to say, "Sure, I could use a little help: this bag is kind of heavy and I also have something in my car I should get as well, so... if you can, I'd really appreciate it."
"It's no trouble at all, um-" he stopped speaking since he didn't get an introduction from her, but she looked down shyly for a couple of seconds before telling him...
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"My name's Laura." I answered back, surprised at the awkward way he seemed to carry himself despite the bravado you'd expect out of a guy like him.
"Okay Laura, my name's Seonghwa... it's nice to meet you." He then took a couple steps over towards me and held out his hand. Hesitantly I shook his hand, feeling a bit of sweat on his palm, before letting it go. He then took the garbage bag of clothes from my left hand and was about to follow me outside until the voice of the barber stopped Seonghwa halfway out of the entrance.
"Remember, Song... fifteen minutes." He called out to him with a sly grin on his face before he let the door swing shut behind him.
You felt an odd mix of bemusment and mild insult by what the barber alluded to in his comment, but Seonghwa seemed a little tense, so she thanked him again for offering to help adding, "My car is this way," as you walked along the concrete path before your tennis shoes touched down onto the hot pavement and across to your red Chevy.
As you unlocked the car, you reached across to the passenger's seat to retrieve a denim tote bag, leaving your phone in the glove box so you wouldn't have to deal with any sudden texts or her blowing up your phone... once you close the driver's side door and lock it, Seonghwa's voice calls out to you, heavy with apologies and uncertainty. "Just ignore what that guy said earlier, he likes making jokes at my expense: especially since I've been dealing with a break up recently."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Seonghwa." You answer back plainly. "Funny... I'm going through one of my own at the moment."
"Oh, wow..." he answered stunned at the sudden familiarity, his dark eyes widened in response making him almost look childlike, despite being way taller then her. "I hope he wasn't-" Seonghwa attempted to make a comment to cheer you up, you could tell, but you stopped him before it got that far.
"She was a manipulative, controlling, attention seeking nightmare who thought that I had problems." Handing the garbage bag to Seonghwa, you continued. "She kept saying that despite being together for ten months that we were a 'phase' she wanted to 'try out', but got clingy and bitched at me if I wanted to spend any time with my family. And then, she spent two months whinging about her ex from college, asking me if she had 'made a mistake' and I told her to just go back to his annoying ass, but she dragged her feet... like she always fucking does, until I woke up this morning to find her gone, only taking one suitcase with her and a note that basically said, 'It's not you, it's me,' stuck to the fridge under my Din Djarin magnet."
Once she stopped to catch her breath, she noticed that while Seonghwa looked both concerned and very confused by this sudden avalanche of words that she dumped onto him, his eyes had a brief glint of recognition that she was unsure of.
"So, to make a long story shorter then I did: she left a ton of her shit behind at my place, and I don't want any of it, so I'm selling it for whatever I can get."
"I'm so sorry you've had to deal with somebody that toxic, Laura." Seonghwa shoved his hands into his pockets as he and her continued their trek to her original destination... a small boutique and consignment shop called Treasure Trove Consignment. Once they entered the building, Seonghwa froze at the entrance.
"Uhhh, Seonghwa... are you alright?" Laura asked, looking up at him.
"Yeah, yeah I'm alright. It's just that- the smell of this store reminds me of her." He looked down and kicked at the linoleum tile floor.
"You can wait outside, or head back to the shop to help the barber close, I should be fine." She offered, but Seonghwa shook his head.
"I'll just wait outside..." he answered, settng the trash bag onto the floor. ""He gave me fifteen minutes, so I might as well use them."
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As he made his way out of the store he let the humid air outside fill his lungs as his eyes turned upward to the sky, counting the fluffy clouds scattered about the light blue sky, and he noticed a few of them farther away had a darker underbelly then the ones closer to where he stood.
'Maybe we'll be getting some rain, after all." Seonghwa thought to himself as he glanced to the right spotting a small, tangled bundle of chickory flowers growing out of a crack in the asphalt.
Withdrawing his phone from his back pocket, he snaps a couple pictures of the flowers until he hears a voice calling his name. Shoving his phone back into his pocket, he turned to see her walking over to him.
"Well, the teenager behind the counter was close to ripping me off on that entire bag of clothes, but I did have some of her jewelry in a smaller bag in here," Laura gestured to her tote bag, "so the store manager noticed and took over... she gave it a once over, along with everything else, and she decided to give me thirty five bucks for the lot, and I said sold!" She chuckled as she hunted through her bag for a minute or two, withdrawing a green cardboard package of gum.
"Want one?" Laura asked, holding out the box towards him. He nodded with a smile, and opened the box, took a silver wrapped piece, unwrapped it and popped the minty flavored gum into his mouth.
"Thank you, Laura." He said, covering his mouth with his hand.
"It's no trouble... it's the least I can do to say thanks for the help. The last time I treated a friend to lunch, I just made something for us at my place while my now ex was at work, because going out is too expensive!" Laura shook her head, her dark reddish brown curls bounced against her shoulders: Seonghwa forced his eyes to move back up to her face before he spoke next.
"Well, I know this isn't exactly how this usually works, but..." Seonghwa yawned and stretched a bit before he continued, "I was planning on going to that Mexican restaurant not far from here, and I didn't really want to go there by myself, so if you were interested... maybe?"
"That would depend on if you were looking for a friend, or for another girlfriend." Laura looked at him, her hazel eyes filled with questions.
"I just wanted a little company with someone I can talk to. If anything else was to happen, I mean-" He shrugged in an attempt to be innocent but she saw right through him.
"You're cute, don't get me wrong... but aren't we both a little too vulnerable a spot to be trying to get over our exes by getting under someone else, especially when that someone else is a stranger." She started to walk away, but he caught up to her quickly.
"I already know my ex hasn't taken long to find another guy to keep her bed warm, and from what you've told me, Laura-" Seonghwa's voice softened considerably "your ex, well... she just might have already done that by now, too."
Laura wrapped her arms around herself as if she caught a sudden chill before she sat on a nearby curb, Seonghwa following suit sitting so close to her that his right knee touched her left, the heat of her skin radiating through the fabric of his jeans.
"No... it'll be tonight. She's probably still giving 'Mr. Jackhammer' her sob story about how things used to be so good with her and I, and how she's 'so confused' and beg him to give her one more chance. And once she wears him down, she'll want to celebrate, so he'll take her to the little Italian place his Dad and big brother work at so he can at least get a discount on their meal: that and she can get a few glasses of Chardonnay before he can tip one in back at his place. And by next morning, she'll be sitting on his back porch, crying into her vanilla almond tea wondering where the hell she went wrong..."
Laura sighed and looked at Seonghwa for what felt like ten minutes, his heart beating out of his chest. "You're not only cute, but you're pretty damn convincing, too. And, it isn't often that I get treated to an actual restaurant date. Why not? What's the worst that could happen?"
No sooner had those words came from her lips, the sky opened up above them and a steady rain began to pour.
Laura quickly yanked her bag off her shoulder... "Keys, where the hell are my keys?!" She booked it back across the lot towards the plaza he works at, Seonghwa grabbing her hand.
"My car's right here, we can wait the rain out in there." He grabbed the key-ring holder on his belt loop, pushing the button twice to unlock it. Opening the back seat passenger door she entered it and slid to one side and he followed her, locking the doors behind him.
They sat in silence for a moment as Laura finally retrieved her keys, letting them dangle between her thumb and forefinger before dropping them back into her soggy tote bag. "Well, what's the universe trying to tell us now with this downpour?" She leaned against the car door and looked him up and down.
"Maybe, the universe wanted us to meet each other... and, it tried to speed things up by getting us wet?" He answered in a hopeful tone, getting a laugh from Laura.
"Shut up!" Laura snickered as she gave his shoulder a playful shove, as the bag slipped off her shoulder and down to the floorboard.
"Make me." Seonghwa ribbed her giving her a little shove back.
"Do you want that?" Laura asked, her eyes narrowed slightly, but he noticed her looking him over once again a little slower then last time.
"Yes: the only question is... do you want it?" He leaned toward her, his breath becoming shaky as he got closer until her lips met his: their kisses starting slowly, almost cautiously until they become better acquainted. Seonghwa's hands moved down the damp fabric of her tank top, and he starts to tug it up and off of Laura until she stops him.
"Shit... what if somebody sees us?" Laura attempts to fix the half rolled tank back down around her waist.
As if the universe decided to answer Laura in that moment a rumble of thunder rang through the sky and the rain came down harder then it had been.
Seonghwa glanced over her shoulder at the barely visible street around them, and says, "If anyone is out in this rain, I doubt that they'd be able to see us... there's only one issue. I don't have any condoms in here, they're at my place."
"Well, shit... I mean, here you are getting my hopes up, only to get me in your backseat high and dry. Well, outside of the rain that attacked us." Laura played it cool as she situated herself back to sitting on her side of the car, moving her tote bag to the front passenger side to give her legs some room.
"Oh, so that's the only way you've gotten wet after what we've been up to?" Seonghwa's scoots a little closer to Laura, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her into him.
"What are you trying to do?!" Laura laughed as she grabbed his hands to release herself from his grip, to little success.
"I want to find out for myself if you are wet or not." Seonghwa whispered into her ear, as his hands untangled themselves from hers as they get halfway down the waist of her shorts before he realizes they needed to be unbuttoned and unzipped first.
"Seonghwa, you are unbelievable... what are you so eager to prove?" She touched his face with her right hand and turned him to look at her, while his hands continued to work on her shorts uninterrupted.
"Just trying to prove that I'm right, baby." Seeing the way Laura's face and body responded to those words were all he needed to continue. "And to prove that I can handle touching you, and ultimately getting you off while waiting until you and I get back to my place to become better acquainted. Do you think you can wait for it, baby?"
Laura said nothing, but merely adjusted herself on their backseat as her breath tickled his neck. With a shift of her hips, his right hand easily found its way between her thighs beneath the soft cotton of her underwear to find her soaked for him. As their lips met once more, he savored her slick folds and the sounds she made from what he was doing, to how she became undone in his backseat in the pouring rain, and how his name sounded so damn beautiful when she said it...
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You were completely thrown off balance at this point by Seonghwa: from the way he had you like putty in his hands in his car, to now handing you one of the towels from the barbershop's dryer so you could dry off to an extent while you waited for him to finish up what was left of his tasks before locking up the shop at around four-fifteen.
Setting the towel back in the washing machine to worry about tomorrow, he took you by the hand and asked if you wanted to follow him in your car to his apartment, so you and he could pick up where the two of you had left off earlier... and honestly, how could anyone say no to that?
Thankfully, you didn't have any issues with visibility on the road as you followed his dark blue Sedan on its route to his apartment, and the two of you stayed perfectly civil in the elevator and down the two hallways until he locked his door and you and Seonghwa spent the better part of an hour eagerly learning about the little physical things that made each of you avid to commit them to memory.
And now, here you were: tangled up with him in his bedsheets, your cheek against his toned chest, feeling his fingers running through your slightly damp hair and... was he humming something?
You slowly opened an eye to peek up at him only to see him looking out his bedroom window, watching the steady rain tap against the glass, and yes, he was humming a song softly to himself almost like he didn't want to wake you from this post sexual slumber. 'This man almost feels too good to be true...' you thought as your cheek brushed against his skin causing him to stop humming and look down at you.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you, Laura." He started to apologize, but you stopped him by sitting up next to him.
"You're alright, I'm just... you are nothing like what I expect on first glance. I mean, next to you, I feel pretty ordinary."
"You are absolutely not ordinary. I may have only known you for a short time, but I'm certain that you and I were meant to find each other today, and I hope to learn more about you. I mean... if you would like that."
As your eyes saw the hope and sincerity in his face you gave him a small sweet kiss on his full lips and say, "I would like that, after the hell Melanie put me through for ten months, it'd be nice to have someone I can have fun with who's actually interested in me."
Seonghwa smiled brightly, kissing you in return only to stop and reach for the phone he accidentally left in the back pocket of his jeans that were laying on the floor, checking the time.
"Oops... I forgot that Mexican place closes at five p.m. on Saturday." He sat back down on the bed, and showed you his phone screen that flashed 5:27 p.m. "I'm sorry, baby... we can always just do pizza today and have a proper date tomorrow." He set his phone on his endtable before wrapping his arms around you, pulling you close to him once more.
"You really are full of surprises, Seonghwa." You wrapped your arms around him in return. "I would appreciate that, and I should at least make myself look presentable tomorrow, since you're willing to put in this much effort in someone you've only known for a day."
"Well, after what Hannah put me through," Seonghwa answered honestly, pressing a kiss onto your forehead, "you've inspired me to see what could be possible if I'm willing to take risks. And again, there's a lot I'd like to know about you, like... what do you usually get on your pizza?"
You purse your lips to keep from giggling at the sincere way he asked you such a simple question, but you couldn't help it. "I've always been a pepperoni and mushroom type when it comes to pizza." You shrugged with a smile.
"Thank God!" Seonghwa sighed in relief, "I was scared you were about to say pineapple."
"No way: pineapple doesn't belong on pizza." You shut that thought down completely, as Seonghwa shook his head briefly before looking back at you in awe.
"Wow... where have you been all my life, baby?" Hearing those seven words almost had you starstruck.
"Hold up a minute, cutie! Let's just enjoy each day for what it brings us. I think there's a lot that can be appreciated in that kind of... well, dynamic for lack of a better word." As you look up at him, he looks away, giving you a moments pause before you reach out to touch his face. "Did I... say something wrong, Seonghwa?"
"No..." Seonghwa said quietly before turning back to look at you. "Just that you think I'm cute." He then pounced on you with a giggle as he kissed your cheek.
"What the hell, dude! You had me thinking I did something wrong, you dick!" You pinched his side making him yelp before he let go of you.
"Hey, I thought you liked me and my dick." Seonghwa smirked, as he got up and went to his dresser to get a pair of gray flannel pajamas pants, putting them on.
"You'd better be nice to me, Seonghwa... you may have lowered some of my defenses down after what happened in your car, but be warned: I could make you beg for me if you pull something slick like that again."
"I'm certain you could, baby." Seonghwa answered nonchalantly, as he made his way back to retrieve his phone, leaning towards you. "But I'm willing to wait until we've had pizza before we can fully explore that side of you..."