attraction | meanie

iii. cafeteria corruption

the next day at lunch, dahyun does indeed hang out with both wonwoo and jihoon.

thankfully and also unfortunately, jihoon spent most of lunch leaving dahyun and wonwoo alone as he chatted with soonyoung. the time they spent together revealed a lot of new information about each other.

wonwoo learned that dahyun loves kittens(she loves them despite being afraid of them, which wonwoo finds hilarious because he's the same way with dogs). they're also both exceptionally good at card games and promise to playoff against each other one day. dahyun does most the talking, but wonwoo's comfortable enough around her to talk comfortably when he wants or needs to.

that afternoon, he goes home with a fuzzy, warm feeling going on inside of him. even though dahyun's his first major crush, he's doing well on getting close to her.

today, however, things are a bit different from the past couple of days.

there's corruption in the cafeteria today.

kim mingyu, junior hotshot and a school ditcher, decided to show up at school for once. dahyun's back at her table with her friends, so wonwoo sits with minghao, his chinese friend he met last year. there's no jihoon sitting with them today, as he told wonwoo he got called out of school. soonyoung is right behind mingyu with his two other best friends, seokmin and seungkwan. they call themselves "booseoksoon"; boo for boo seungkwan, seok for lee seokmin, and soon for kwon soonyoung.

almost all the girls in the room—even some guys—scream when kim mingyu walks through the cafeteria doors, fangirling like crazy. mingyu waves at all of his fans, flashing his charming and very iconic smile.

"who does he think he is, some type of kpop idol?" wonwoo spits to minghao, making sure to make it quiet so none of mingyu's fangirls hear him. "i guess. just ignore him, he doesn't need your attention."

that's what wonwoo does. he doesn't understand the whole deal with kim mingyu and his fame. sure, he's handsome, but come on! do girls really want a highschool ditch that makes his friends(booseoksoon) do his homework for him? wonwoo decides to take out his earbuds, putting one in his ear and giving the other to minghao to share.

after a while, wonwoo starts to get irritated. all the noise caused by one stupid junior mixed with his blasting rock music is making his head pound. he decides to look up from his phone, which is a bad mistake.

he locks eyes on dahyun's table, kim mingyu and booseoksoon standing by it and talking to the nine girls. dahyun is smiling up at mingyu, talking to him about something. then she hits him playfully in the chest, scolding him about something.

minghao observes where wonwoo's face is locked and stares at the table too, watching dahyun closely.

what really gets wonwoo jealous is when boo seungkwan takes dahyun's hand, kisses the back of it, and then gives her a sweet smile. "let's go." wonwoo blurts abruptly, speaking just loud enough for minghao to hear over all the corruption. "why?" minghao knows the reason very well, but acts like he doesn't. "just...let's go."

wonwoo pulls minghao along, out of the cafeteria, and out to the school field. when they get there, he turns off his music and after gesturing for minghao to give him his earbud, rips the one in his ear out. he stuffs his phone into his pocket before giving out a loud exhale. they sit in silence for a moment, relieving their ears with the quiet wind and rustling grass after all the commotion in the cafeteria.

"you're jealous." minghao says, breaking the silence between them.

"yeah, i sure am." wonwoo growls. "i just...i have a crush on dahyun. seungkwan kissing her hand made me mad."

"i get it. i used to be that way when i had a crush on tsuyu," minghao sighs, "i didn't cope with my jealousy very well. it didn't get as bad as others could, though. like, i wasn't obsessive or anything. you want to restrain yourself from obsessive as much as possible."

wonwoo nods at this.

"just don't do anything you'd regret. also, try and brush the jealously off. i can tell dahyun really likes you back, wonu."

"hopefully." wonwoo huffs, wrapping his arms around his legs and resting his chin on his knees. "she seems close with mingyu's friend group though. i hate kim mingyu."

"have to agree hard on that one. mingyu might have the looks, but he's an ass." minghao states. they both cross their arms at the thought of kim mingyu. minghao looks at the time on his watch, seeing that they still have twenty minutes left of lunch break.

"hey, wonu!" minghao exclaims, leaning in so he can talk more quietly to wonwoo. "wanna go get ice cream?"

"huh?" wonwoo raises his eyebrows.

"i mean, we still have twenty minutes left of lunch. let's go grab some ice cream, eat it quickly, and then come back to the school!"

"won't like...someone think we're doing drugs instead?"

"oh my gosh. stop worrying, c'mon!" minghao grabs wonwoo's wrist and pulls him up from his sitting position so they can speed walk out of the school and onto the street sidewalks. "i'll pay," minghao says, "what flavor do you want?"

"um...i don't know, just plain chocolate i guess." wonwoo shrugs his shoulders indecisively. minghao nods, "okay. so one plain chocolate and mint chocolate. hopefully my stomach doesn't ache too bad from the cold ice cream..."

"yeah. hopefully it doesn't. if it does, you might have to go home for the rest of the day and with you and jihoon gone, i'm really a loner."

"hey, you always got kim mingyu to hang out with!" minghao teases sarcastically, earning a slap on the shoulder. "kim mingyu is the last person i want to hang out with. i might hang out with soonyoung though."

"soonyoung, really! soonyoung's a bubbly guy. i'm surprised you would hang out with him."

"eh, we're closer than we were when i was in my freshman year. thank jihoon for that and his big fat crush on hyung."

minghao gasps at wonwoo's choice of words to call soonyoung. "hyung? man, you must be closer to him than i thought." wonwoo chuckles. "only getting ready for when soonhoon sails and soonyoung's always around."

wonwoo and minghao walk up to the ice cream truck, ordering their ice cream before walking away to go sit on a bench. they eat in peace, wonwoo thankful minghao had the great idea of getting away from school on lunch break. he really needed this—a quieter area, something cold to cool him down, minghao.

it's an escape from reality; something minghao and only minghao is capable of providing for wonwoo. he doesn't know how he does it. minghao's a unique person, and if he never moved to south korea, wonwoo would've never met him.

"thank you," wonwoo blurts out, gazing down at his ice cream cone. from the corner of his eye he can see minghao turn his head to look at him. "for what?"

"for this." wonwoo gestures to their surroundings. "anytime. you needed it. this is what i do and where i go if i'm stressed or feeling another strong negative emotion," minghao laughs, "except for when i eat ice cream and my stomach starts aching. that isn't the best."

wonwoo laughs too, taking another lick of his chocolate ice cream. a couple minutes later, minghao tells him to hurry up because they only have five minutes to get back to school. they both finish their ice cream in a hurry, then head off to school. wonwoo's only a couple minutes late to his fifth period, but that doesn't mean he won't get scolded by his teacher.

he just gives a deep bow after his teacher is done making a fuss, heading to his seat quietly. but with a smile on his face.