I started cleaning up Paula's apartment for her as she prepares food for both of us. She has surprisingly a large amount of instant food such as cup noodles, instant ramen, or even canned food.

I didn't expect her to eat such stuff. She seemed like a gourmet eater.

I bent over to pick up the scattered pieces of trash on the floor and place it inside a garbage bag.

"Where do you put your trash?" I ask her as she cooks some instant ramen.

"Anywhere," she jokes and I just look at her with a serious face. "Okay, kidding, there's a dumpster behind the apartment."

I gather all the trash in the trash bag and sweep the floor.

Soon, the garbage bag was filled with, according to Paula, a week-worth of mess and trash. I grab the garbage bag and headed out. I carefully descend the stairs and went around the building to find the dumpster.

That's where I saw a guy with dark long hair, wearing a beanie. I didn't notice the cigarette he was smoking until I smelled it. I tossed the garbage bag inside the dumpster before turning to leave when the guy called me out.

"Hey, you," he says.

I was about to pretend I didn't hear him when he suddenly stands up and walks behind me. My heart started beating so fast and I can feel cold sweat come out of my body.

"I called you, didn't I?" he says, placing his hand over my head, his breath smelled like cigarettes.

I nod slowly, trying to escape from his touch. He backs away and my brain told me to run away as fast as I can but then for some reason, the tension around us disappeared. I turn to look at him. He was leaning on the wall as he dropped his used-up cigarette and stepped on it.

"Sorry if I scared you, you can go now," he says, shooing me away.

"Why did you call out?" I ask, ever so curious.

When I saw his face, I immediately noticed how pretty it was. I just wasn't able to notice it before since her hair was on the way.

He realized that I was staring at him so he looks down and hides his face behind his hair.

"I just wanted to ask if you're a new resident here," he says, raising one of his legs and placing his foot against the wall.

"I'm not," I say.

"Yeah, I can see," he says quietly.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" I ask and that's when he raises his face and looks at me.

"Name?" he says and I just furrow my eyebrows at him.

"What do you mean?" I say as he chuckles.

I can't help but notice the dimple on his right cheek. I checked if he has another one, but to my surprise, he only has one.

"What's your name?" he says and that's when I suddenly became ashamed of myself for being such a slow-thinker.

"Oh," I just say. "It's Amelia," I tell him.

I was about to extend my arm so that we could shake hands when he grabs a box of cigarettes from his pocket along with a lighter.

"I tell people to call me Kite," he casually says, lighting another cigarette.

He looks at me as he lights his cigarette.

"If you no longer want to smell the intoxicating smell, you may now leave," he says and I just stare at him.

"Uh, yeah, sure," I say but then my body didn't move an inch.

"You're not going anywhere. Are you fine?" he says, placing the lighter in his pocket.

"How many cigarettes do you smoke in a day?" I ask out of curiosity.

"Why do you ask?" he says, his voice quite surprised.

"I'm just curious," I say.

"My record is only ten in one day," he says, blowing off some smoke.

"Wow," I found myself saying and he just looks at me with a smirk.

"Yeah?" he says, before looking away.

I just continue to look at him as he smokes his cigarette when he turns his head to look at me once again.

"You want to try it?" he says, offering me the box of cigarettes.

"I don't know how to," I admit and he just laughed so loud he ends up coughing.

I approach him as he gets one for me.

"I'll teach you then," he says.

"Okay," I say and I can't believe I'm actually agreeing to do this.

"Is it fine, though?" he asks before giving me the cigarette.

"Yeah," I say without hesitation.

I'm definitely going to regret this later.

"Okay, so this is how you light it," he says, going behind me. "First, place the top around your lips, but remember not to inhale right away."

He carefully places the cigarette between my lips before covering the end with one of his hands and opening the lighter with his other.

"You just place the fire on the end of your cigarette, and, voila, you've finally lit your cigarette," he says, removing his arms around me and going in front of me.

"How do you smoke it?" I ask, the cigarette still around my lips.

"Use your fingers to hold it," he says and I do as he says. "Then, just inhale a small amount, you might end up not being able to take in so much."

I inhale softly as he holds out his hand as if to say to pause for a while.

"Let it just rest in your lungs before finally blowing it out," he says.

I exhale the smoke out and that's when I realized how enjoying it is to actually smoke a cigarette.

"Do you get it now?" he says and I just nod my head.

I place the cigarette around my lips again before inhaling. This time inhaled quite a lot and when I was about to exhale, I ended up coughing.

"I told you to inhale just small amounts!" he says before patting me on the back as I cough.

My coughing soon subsided and that's when I found myself laughing so hard. Kite looked at me with confused eyes before finally laughing along with me.

"Practice and you'll soon become a certified chain smoker," he says and I just smiled at him.

For some reason, I suddenly became so happy. My mood changed from -1 to 10 real quick.

Is it because of the nicotine? Or is it because of Kite?

I don't know, but I'm sure this happiness would soon fade away.