milk tea

01:40

"What do you want to order? My treat," Yangyang smiled as he passed the menu to the girl. "You'll get your salary in two weeks. It'll be when our ranks are revealed."

"How will I get it? Credit card?", Serene asked as she browsed through the menu, finding a dish that she had been craving for a while.

"No, they're bank books. You'll have to withdraw at the bank but at a particular place," Yangyang revealed. His face grew closer to whisper the succeeding sentence. "Taeyong bribed them so they'll keep our identity safe and give us the money without any problems."

"Wow, how much money do you have?", Serene asked and ultimately found the food that she craved.

"A little over ten billion won," the vast amount was indifferently said while the boy brought his back to hit the chair's back. Serene's eyes enlarged at the large amount, while he laughed at her reaction that he found cute. "Have you picked out your food?"

"Okay, flex I guess," she muttered with a roll of her eyes. "Army stew and bulgogi."

"Wow, let's just share that then since this place serves in big amounts," Yangyang closed the menu and set the two aside. He raised his hand, catching the attention of the waiter. "We'd have one serving of army stew and bulgogi."

"Alright, it'll be served in a few minutes," the waiter responded after noting down their order. He left and it was just the two of them again.

"Do you come here often? You seem to come here often as a couple of them are looking at you," Serene uttered, seeing that preponderance of the customers were staring at him.

"I come here often. It's just that I'm always alone," a dry chuckle came from Yangyang. "I don't really tell anyone about this place. The food here is really good and I want to savor it myself."

"Then why did you bring me here if you wanted it to be a secret?" the question escaped from her mouth, which made him smile at the girl.

"It can be our secret then," Yangyang suggested, playing around with his utensils to keep him from cringing.

"That's cool with me," not being swayed by his words, she shrugged it off. "Oh right, I've been meaning to ask you about this. Why did you join the group? You seem like a regular guy who would go to college. Why this of all options?"

"It's option three, my reason," the constant smile on Yangyang's face dropped after hearing the question he hated to hear. His face was sullen and wasn't as cheerful as it was. "You could say I was sold or something. Maybe a trade. My father's company wasn't doing well and you could say that he had no other choice but to give me up when Taeyong's father went for his business after not paying them back."

"You sound like you were really young when that happened," observing the words of Yangyang, she brought up her conclusion to the situation.

"Yeah, I was probably nine years old that time. I've been in this group for the longest time so I should know about most things that go down. Taeyong and I trained together, but of course, Taeyong was more proficient than I was," Yangyang explained, holding onto his cup. "I was basically a part of his family at that point. I still do wonder what happened to my family but a part of the deal was to not find my family's whereabouts."