Sweet Tooth

"You miss her?"

"No… why would I?"

"Hey, who are you fooling here, huh?"

"I am not fooling anyone. I don't think she even remembers me now, Adam."

Sadness was overflowing through his voice. What can he do about it? She totally wasn't into him, though he didn't think she would be in this short time. But Ayan thought briefly at that time, they could start with being friends at least.

However, the way she left the car that day; it made sure that she doesn't even think of him at least as a good person by now. There was really something stopping her to be carefree and trust him. What was it actually? Why was it so hard for her to just make friends? At least he believed this far that he doesn't look like an untrustworthy man.

Ayan was all over sulking these days and often visited Adam's house whenever he felt lonely and sad. Somehow playing with Asher made his days though. Then again, Asher reminds him of Abby. This is just a vicious circle. Going round and round. No matter what happens, he just starts to think about her for no reason.

Adam was in grief to see his only little brother be all gloomy like this for a girl. He wanted to tell his little brother something but kept quiet as he made a promise to someone not to tell him anything. Though seeing him like this every day makes his patience run thin.

"Oy... why don't you visit Alex for a few days? It will give you a clean head for some time, wadda say?" Adam suddenly suggested.

Go see Alex? In the US? Not so interesting proposal. He has already become bored seeing his face.

As Ayan grew up and completed his graduation in the US, he had a lot of friends there. After graduation, he decided to stay close to his family but he still kept contact with his friends.

Sometimes, he would visit those friends of his and have a party or two like in the old days. Flying for 11 hours didn't matter to him much, as he genuinely cared about his friends and equally valued them in his life.

Right now, he did need a refreshing trip but his schedule became tight as he skipped his work for some days. First, because of Abby and now also the reason is Abby. What can a man do when he falls this hard for a girl? A one-sided crush is actually hard to handle. Though Ayan never was this conscious and serious for his other past relations. If he tried only half as he was trying in this one, those wouldn't have been a failure.

Thinking about those girls he dated before, they weren't like Abby. After she came into his life, his ideal type also changed automatically. It was quite reasonable as she was different, different from every girl he had met before.

**** **** **** **** ****

Anna was scrolling through her mobile when she saw a new post from her favorite pastry shop. She didn't like eating sweet things that much but she just liked this specific shop as they maintain hygiene there and also make their cakes and pastries less sweet which are amazingly delicious. Back then, whenever her concerts were held in Korea, she would just visit that shop as soon as she landed there.

Kiera would always nag about her not being careful of her public image as that shop was way more popular. But they have such an assembled system for regular and VIP customers that they never faced a problem there. There was a rumor saying that this shop is run by a handsome bachelor English man with mixed blood but they never got the chance to see him. So, they didn't know if it was true or just a baseless rumor.

Both of them were not that curious about the owner as long as they got to eat those delicious pastries. Suddenly Anna felt like eating those. But she can't do anything; they don't ship their pastries to other countries. Come to think of it, Kiera went to Korea but didn't actually come with any souvenirs.

When Annabelle was almost ready to curse Kiera, her doorbell rang.

"I am not gonna let you in!" seeing Kiera outside the door she blocked the entrance with her legs so that she can't come in.

Kiera pinched her nose bridge in irritation preparing herself for another drama of Annabelle. She has to switch into the manager character of hers, she thought.

"So, what is it this time?"

"You didn't bring anything with you this time. Where is my souvenir, you idiot?" Anna said, puffing her cheeks.

"I didn't go to Korea for this, Anna," Kiera said, pressing her forehead with utter depression. "And you were there so many times, what is there that you still need as a souvenir, huh?"

"Eh? What do you mean by that, huh? I was talking about the pastries of 'AD's shop. How could you forget about those creamy juicy pastries? Do you not like them anymore?"

Anna almost started to weep as her eyes were all over the new pastries the shop's page posted. They looked so delicious and juicy. Urgh… this depression can't be just solved until she tastes those.

Kiera was taken aback for a while. That's right! How can she forget about that?

Kiera surprisingly has a sweet tooth and she likes sweet foods like hell which was a bit uncommon of her character. After eating the pastries of that specific shop, her love for sweets became deeper as they made such fine cakes and pastries. She even thought to bring all the pastries of each flavor. But how come she forgot this most important thing?

When Kiera tried to recall the reason for forgetting this, all she could remember was a grinning face of a certain someone. These days, she doesn't think about her boring life or her family. Not even Owen. All her thoughts are filled with just this one guy. Ayan. And why is it happening, she didn't know, there is no one to answer her. Even the shop name somehow sounded like him to her.

Ayanious Door. What was the meaning of this shop name by the way? She googled it before too, but couldn't find any meaning of this word. Somehow for this mere reason, she wants to meet the owner of the shop and ask him or her the meaning. Looks like whenever she will hear this name, she would be reminded of a certain person. Her mind will again fill up with many questions about him. Such as is he okay? How was he doing? Did he miss her just for once at least? How was his life going and all…?

Anna was waiting for Kiera to come back to earth though she lowkey lost her hope in it. She could see her friend was becoming weirder day by day. She is such a brat, never sharing her problems with Anna but putting this long face in front of her shamelessly which made her feel more guilty.

"Hey! You..."

No response.

"Back to earth, Kiera!"

Still no response.

What the shit is going on? Did she become deaf somehow?

Anna pinched the soft skin of Kiera's leg to get a response and then, this time, she was kinda successful. Kiera moved.

"Why are you pinching me so hard all of a sudden? It hurts." Kiera winched in pain as she rubbed that part of her leg.

"Oh, I see. I didn't know. Hehhe!"

Anna said with stiffness on her face. She wasn't in the mood for jokes. Suddenly she thought something.

"Hey, I thought that I won't forgive you as you did something really unforgettable. But as you can see, I can't just punish you for this, I will let you bribe me." Anna smirked as if she had said something very clever.

"Bribe?" Kiera twitched her brows.

"Yeah, a bribe. I want some information which can only be gained from you."

"Information? From me? What about it?" Kiera wondered.

"You have to fill me with some information about your cousin. Like what type of person he is, what does he like, what he doesn't..." Anna couldn't finish as Kiera interrupted her.

"Wait, wait, why would you need these?" Kiera was confused.

"Eh? Why are you so dumb? Don't you know I am thinking about writing a romance novel?" Annabelle stated innocently.

"I know. But how is it related to this?" Kiera looked more confused.

"Aigho... my dumb friend! I need some character individuals to write a novel. It is normal to ask about this and that of a specific character as I am thinking to portray my ML's character matching it with Theodore. What do you think? it's not that of a bad idea, is it?" Anna explained.

"Yeah… not bad. But why Theo?"

"Why? Simple! He is just too cool to be in real life. All I need to do is make some strokes of my pen on the character and then I can make a perfect ML of my romance story from it. Don't you have your trust in my writing?" Anna blabbered and finished with a wink.

Yes, of course, Kiera believes in her skills. But why Theodore of all people? There are so many guys out there except him. Urghh... why is she taking it so seriously? These days she is acting too seriously about everything happening around her. She needs to stop it. Maybe his character matched Anna's plot well. All she needs to do is help her a little bit. She can at least do that much, right?

"You are gonna help me or not? Hurry up before I change my mind! Or else you have to go to the pastry shop to buy those pastries, huh!"

"Okay, I will help. Happy? Just don't forget your promise."

"Of course!" Anna said cheerily.

Kiera sighed inwardly. At least it was way better to agree to this deal than flying to Korea just for those pastries again.