Chapter Three:

Introduction

A/N: Hello again! Sorry for taking longer that the last time. I'm on spring break but the homework I have is killing me DX This chapter is longer than the other chappies and introduce two other characters. I hope you enjoy~

Anonymous Dream: Thankie very much~~

IKhandoZatman: Thank you! I hope she's not a Mary Sue.

TiraLu: Thanks! That's the first thing I did when I came home after I watched it lol

Military-SweetHeart: Thank you! Yes, life is stopping me from writing as much as I want to. Although I'm on spring break, the homework is killing me. And I have to study for my AP World History Exam DX Oh my goodness I'm making excuses I'm sorry!

Disclaimer: Only the OCs are mine

Stella jogged through a trail, passing by several people who were trying to accomplish the same thing she was trying to: exercise. It was 6:30Monday morning, the day after her little shopping spree with Bucky, and she was out on her morning jog, contemplating on things as she ran. She was wearing black yoga pants and a light blue hoodie jacket that read "I Hate Running" on the back. She had her earphones plugged in and was playing "Kiss From a Rose" by Seal, however, her attention was on something else rather than her favorite song.

Bucky, or James as she likes to call him, was a man shrouded in mystery. She knew hardly anything about him, and yet, they were roomies. Her mind was telling her that keeping him with her was a bad idea that could bring trouble to her and her friends, but her heart was telling her that she was doing the right thing by keeping someone in her care that didn't even know who he was.

"What if he's lying?" she thought. "What if he does remember who he is? He could be a serial killer..." with all of these questions and thoughts in her head, she kept running.

Even if she decided to kick her new roommate out of her house, there was no guarantee that he would comply to her wishes. For all she knew, he could just snap her neck with the bionic arm of his, dump her body, and continue to use her house. Stella shuddered at that idea.

"So I'm stuck with a possible serial killer in my house with no safe way to get him out..." the brunette internally groaned. "But, what if all he said was true?"

Although she had only known Bucky for two days, she had an inner gut feeling that he was just a lost puppy with nowhere to go. Sometimes she would catch him with a slightly pained and lost expression, but of course, that expression would disappear as quickly as it came once Bucky realized that she was looking at him.

"Ugh," she groaned aloud this time and started to jog even faster, wanting to escape her frustration.

Riiinnggg~riiinnggg

Bucky slowly opened his eyes, awakened by a horrible ringing sound outside his room.

Riiinnngg~riiinnggg

"What the hell is that?" he mentally groaned

Riiinnggg~riiinnggg

He had enough. Frustrated and enraged by the cacophonous noise that had awakened him, Bucky abruptly got up and headed toward where the uproar was.

Riiinnggg~riiinnggg

When he saw what was making all the racket, he sighed; it was a phone. He was about to reach for it but he hesitated; it wasn't his phone to answer.

Riiinnggg~riiinnggg

In a split second, his hesitation was gone and was replaced by irritation and he grasped the phone and gruffly answered it, "Who is this?"

The other end of the line was silent until a surprised feminine voice answered back, "U-um, is this Stella Kim's home phone? I think I might ha-"

Bucky swiftly cut her off, "This is Stella Kim's home phone. Who is this?" he asked again with a hint of annoyance.

Sensing the attitude in his voice, the woman retorted, "Well sorry I asked. I just wasn't expecting Stella Kim's home phone to be answered by someone who isn't Stella Kim!"

At that moment he snapped, "What the hell do you want at 6:00 in the morning?!"

"It's 6:55 actually."

He could practically hear the smirk in her voice.

"But I didn't call to tell Stella or you, whoever you are, what time it is. I called to see if Stella was okay. She told me she was gonna call me 'later' but that was two days ago. So if you can tell her I called, it'd be much appreciated."

"And who is this 'I' I'm speaking to?" this was the third time he'd asked and if she didn't answer this time, he was just going to hang up on her.

"Jeez, why do you wanna know what my name is so much, mister? Are you interested in me? Sorry, I don't date grumpy assholes. But tell Shayla called, 'kay?"

As soon as he heard the irritating woman's name, he hung up.

Shayla? He had heard Stella say that name before. That's right! Shayla was the high school senior that worked part time for her at her ceramics shop. She was also the one Stella was talking to the night she ran him over.

"What a nuisance." he muttered before calling for his roomie, "Stella!"

No answer.

He groaned before walking towards her room and knocking on the door, "Stella, wakeup."

No answer.

"Stella," he called out once more and slowly opened the door to her room.

She wasn't there.

Slight panic filled inside him.

"Where the hell did she go?" he thought and he rushed back out into the living room and paced around.

It was then he noticed a neon pink sticky note on the coffee table. He picked up the small squared paper and read it.

"I'm out jogging right in front of the apartment building. I'll be back in a jiff. -Stella"

Bucky paced towards the large window and looked down. Several people of all ages were out and about walking, jogging, and even riding their bikes on a wide trail that went around a small lake. He then spotted a brunette with a long ponytail that bounced up and down to the rhythm of her jogging; it was Stella. He turned around and headed to his room to get dressed to go and join Stella on her morning jog.

"I already bought him $150 worth of clothes, I can't just kick him out after that..." thirty minutes had past and Stella was still pondering over Bucky while jogging down the trail.

"This is absolutely ridiculous. All I've been thinking about is James. I need to stop or I won't be able to concentrate at work today. Stop, Stella. Stop, Stella, stop." she repeated mentally.

However, completely oblivious to her surroundings, the running brunette didn't realize there was a tall figure standing about ten meters in front of her, observing her with their arms crossed. Stella, filled with frustration, started to run faster, and was too, focused on her thoughts on Bucky to stop herself from ramming into the standing individual.

"Eeep!" she yelped as her small body collided with tall individual.

As she bounced back from the impact of collision with the tall and surprisingly firm figure, she was about to fall on her bottom until two strong hands grabbed her shoulders and set her up standing.

"Oh, I am so sorry! I wasn't loo-" she started in Korean but stopped her apology mid-sentence as she looked up and saw who the figure was. "James, w-what are you doing here?" she switched back into English, bewildered that her roommate was standing in front of her.

"I don't get a 'thank you' for preventing you from falling gracefully on your bottom?" Bucky smirked at her bewilderment.

"No, you don't. You ran into me in the first place." she replied.

"No, you ran into me. I was just standing here. You too busy thinking about something to notice a person blockading your way." his smirk grew wider as he corrected her.

"You know what, just drop it." she groaned.

Bucky raised his in mock surrender.

"C'mon, let's go back to the apartment. I'll wash up and make breakfast if you didn't eat yet." she started walking towards the entrance of their apartment building with Bucky following beside her.

"Sounds good," he replied. "And, I actually came here to tell you that Shayla called."

"Shay? What for?"

"She wanted to see if you were okay, but she was quite the nuisance."

Stella caught the frustration in his voice and chuckled, "Did she give you a hard time?"

"You could say that"

She laughed at his reply and glanced at him, noticing that he was wearing a red long sleeve t-shirt and jeans she bought him, "Hey, you look good in that."

"Thanks," he said as he glanced over her; the yoga pants and the tank top underneath her hoodie showed off her slight curves. "You look good in that, too, doll."

Stella playfully whacked him on his right shoulder, "Quit staring, there's nothing to look at anyway."

"Can't take a compliment, can you?" he muttered and shook his head.

"I forgot to tell you, Eunji doesn't speak English, so if she doesn't respond to you if you ask her something or whatever, she's not trying to be rude, she just doesn't know how to respond." Stella explained as she drove her sedan through the city streets with both hands on the wheel.

It was 11:00 and Stella and Bucky were driving to Stella's ceramic store. She decided that it would be best to take him to work and not leave him at home with almost nothing to do.

"As long as she's not like Shayla, I think I can manage." Bucky expressed his clear dislike for the high school senior as he looked out the passenger seat window.

"Shay's not that bad. She's just a little spunky. Besides, she doesn't come to the shop until 5:00, after school ends." she assured him as she parked on the side of the road in front of her shop.

They both got out of the car simultaneously, and Stella unlocked the door of the shop. They entered the humble shop, and Bucky looked around in awe at all the ceramic pieces from coffee cups to vases and plates to flower pots.

"Did you make all of this?" he asked gesturing to all the pots and bowls on the display shelves and tables.

"Half of them I made and the other half Eunji and Shay made. I have some more commissions in the back I'm working on." she answered while tying her dark brown locks in a high bun. "C'mon, follow me to the back room. That's where we make all this stuff. Eunji's probably working in there right now."

Bucky followed her into a slightly larger room the was filled with interesting contraptions and at the end of the room was a young woman with her hair tied in a short ponytail, molding clay on one of the contraptions while in spun.

"Eunji, whatcha doin?" she called out to her friend in Korean.

Eunji didn't look up from her work and replied back in Korean, "Just making more teacups. Did you finish your commission for Mr. Baik, the vase with the flowers on it?"

"No, I'm going to draw the last few flowers and leave to dry so I can put it in the kiln later today. Eunji, let me introduce you to James. He's my new roomie."

Eunji finally looked up and glanced up at Bucky and a look of shock appeared on her face, "A man? Your new roomie's a man?"

Bucky noticed the look of disapproval on Eunji's face, "Someone doesn't like me."

"She's just making a fuss because I'm a girl and you're a guy and we live under the same roof. She's just worried." Stella explained to him in English before turning to Eunji and reassured her in Korean, "I'll be fine, honest. He's not so bad."

Eunji shook her head and sighed, "Just remember to bring your pepper spray around everywhere you go. Does he speak Korean?"

"No, but you got me. I can translate for you."

Eunji sighed again. She walked towards the man and stopped right in front of him and extended her hand that was covered in clay out to him, "My name is Eunji Lee."

Bucky glanced at Stella who slight smirk on her face and then returned his gaze to the short Korean woman in front of him and slowly clasped his right hand around hers, "I'm Bucky Barnes."

Stella saw Bucky's hand become smothered in clay and laughed, "Pfft, let's get to work, shall we?"

"Stella? Eunji? I'm here." a feminine voice called out.

Hours had passed since Eunji and Bucky were acquainted and Bucky had spent his time watching the two ceramic artists mold a glob of clay into a beautiful vase or cup, while helping a customer pick out what they want once in a while.

Bucky looked out of the studio doorway to see who had entered the shop. His eyebrows shot up in surprise. Standing by the counter putting her backpack down on a chair was a blue haired woman. Her hair was completely neon blue.

The woman turned around and saw the man giving her a shocked expression, "What are you doing in the studio? Who are you? Where's Stella and Eunji?"

He instantly recognized her voice; it was Shayla.

"It's you." Bucky sneered.

"Excuse me, do I know y-" Shayla started to question but stopped and pointed an accusing finger to the man that was now standing outside the studio, "You're the rude ass that picked up Stella's phone."

"And you're the high schooler with an attitude who doesn't know how to introduce herself." he countered back.

Before Shayla could say anything back, Stella popped out of the studio with clay-covered hands, "Shayla, you're here; that's good. I need you to make some more bowls so that I can glaze the pieces that are out of the kiln."

"Stella, are you okay? You haven't picked up your phone, so I had to deal with him." Shayla gestured to Bucky as she tied her bright blue hair in a messy bun.

"Yeah, I was busy dealing with my new roomie, James. Be nice to him." Stella replied.

"You have a roomie?" Shayla asked, dumbfounded.

"Yes, I do." the brunette answered once more. "Stop asking questions and go to work."

Shayla gave Bucky a questioning glance before walking into the studio.

Bucky copied Shayla and gave Stella a questioning glance, and Stella laughed, "She's always like that. You get used to it." and then brunette walked into the kiln room with Bucky following behind her.

Please review guys! I love it when you guys do and I would love it if you guys gave me some advice or ways to improve!