𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 [nctxmale]

1 - ᴅᴀʏ ᴡɪᴛʜ ꜱʜᴏᴛᴀʀᴏ: ᴘᴀʀᴛ ᴏɴᴇ

"CHUNNIE!"

An ear-splitting screech rang throughout the room, a regular occurrence in the San household. I knew my siblings to be loud, screaming and yelling whenever they deemed appropriate. 

Dohyun and Jihyun were twins, boy and girl respectively, and were a few years younger than me. They were both in their last year of middle school and were currently on break, during which they had been tearing up the house. In complete contrast to nearly every other sibling on planet Earth, Dohyun and Jihyun never fought. They were the best of friends, and always took each other's back no matter what. They reminded me of Fred and George Weasley.

"CHUNSEO GET DOWN HERE!!" 

Deciding now was as good a time as ever to get up and out of bed, I pulled the covers off and quickly got dressed. My outfit was simple, a baggy white shirt and black skinny jeans. I quickly rushed out of my room and down the stairs into the kitchen, where a letter sat on the counter. 

My mother, Dohyun and Jihyun, were all in the kitchen looking at me. Dohyun and Jihyun were rubbing the tops of their heads where it was safe to assume mum had whacked them with the newspaper in her hand, probably because of the extremely loud screeches they'd just produced. 

Mum picked up the letter sitting on the counter and handed it to me, smiling fondly, "It's for you, honey, from SM." I vaguely wondered why it wasn't in an envelope, it was SM Entertainment, after all, the biggest entertainment company in Korea. That was before I saw the envelope laying on the floor, torn to shreds by who I could only assume to be Dohyun and Jihyun. 

Jihyun caught my gaze towards the floor, "We decided to be helpful and open it for you." she said. "Um, I don't think it's actually lega-" "YOU'RE DEBUTING, CHUNSEO!" Dohyun impulsively screamed as mum grabbed him by the ear.

I felt a wide smile spread across my face at his words, and I quickly and clumsily opened the letter. It was true, SM had informed me that I was debuting in the popular group 'NCT' in less than two months. By the end of the letter, I was grinning uncontrollably and quickly pulled out my phone to call my best friend, Osaki Shotaro. 

Shotaro and I had met just under a year ago on a Japanese dance forum, as we'd both been dancing from a young age. I had been taught Japanese from a young age and was studying it in school so communication wasn't an issue. We began chatting over social media before he became a trainee at SM Entertainment. After that, I was also selected by SM at the next audition I could get to. A few months later, Shotaro moved to Korea, which meant we were able to talk and hang out in person. Since Shotaro didn't know much Korean at all then, I helped teach him whenever we weren't training or he wasn't forcing me to dance in his tiktoks with him. 

"What's up, Chunnie?" He said, through the phone. "Taro! I'm- I'm debuting, Shotaro! In NCT!" I said excitedly, the grin still on my face. "Yeah, same! Just got the letter now, we gotta celebrate this! Come over when you can, I'll talk to you soon." The call ended, and I looked up at mum. "I'm going to hang with Shotaro for today."

She looked taken aback for only a moment before the fond, and a little forced, smile was on her face again. "Alright honey. Come on, you two troublemakers, we've got to get a gift for Chunseo. Don't forget to call your father! Oh, this is great!" she said happily as she walked out the front door, followed by the twins. I showered, grabbed my wallet, and then left for the bus station. 

The bus ride was boring as ever, and I spent it listening to SuperM's new album Super One, which had dropped only a few days prior. My stop was still a few blocks from Shotaro's apartment, so I walked the rest of the way. It was a warm day, not too hot that it made wearing jeans uncomfortable, but not so cold that you'd have to wear a jacket. Soon enough I had arrived at and entered the apartment building and was taking the elevator up. 

I got to his door and knocked before he let me in. Immediately, the aroma of cinnamon and maple syrup hit me, and I took a great sniff. Shotaro was wearing a black cap, a white shirt under his opened denim jacket, and black shorts. We were clearly feeling very uncreative today. 

"Have you had breakfast yet?" He asked. I shook my head, and he grinned that iconic eye smile, "I have something for you." He beckoned me into the kitchen, and on the table sat a platter with a stack of about 10 slices of french toast. On the top slice of toast sat a pool of maple syrup that drizzled down the sides of the french toast tower and pooled again on the platter.

"SHOTARO! You made this for me!?" I grabbed his chin and turned his head a bit to kiss him on the cheek. I did this a lot to him, it always made him embarrassed. His cheeks and ears flared red, "U-um well- no- th- they're for us to share." 

"Alrighty, then, let's dig in." And dig in we did, to the point where I ended feeling nauseous and had to lay down on his kitchen floor. "We should go out today." He said, once I was feeling well again and we'd migrated to his living room. "Where are you thinking?" Shotaro grinned excitedly, "The COEX mall." 

"Isn't that a bit far, don't you think?" I asked. "The subway station down the road stops right outside. And plus, I've been wanting to go there since I got to Korea. You know there's an aquarium there and this big skyscraper there."

"Isn't it expensive there anyway?" I asked skeptically. "Chunseo, we're about to become idols. We can surely afford to spend a bit of money, we're gonna be millionaires in a few years, after all." 

After convincing me, he dragged me out of the apartment building and down the road to the subway station. It was only a 5-minute walk, and before I knew it, we were on the subway heading to Gangnam. My dad had taken me to the aquarium once before, back when I was 6 or 7. I don't remember much about the trip, only that I had played with some of the seals through the glass barrier. I had always liked animals, and I had a pet dog when I was little, his name was tiny because he was tiny. He ended up getting run over though when I was 10. I was too traumatized to get another dog, and I hadn't owned a pet since. 

My train of thought was interrupted when the train stopped. I had been leaning on Shotaro, who didn't seem to mind as he had his arm around me. We both stood up got off the train. The train station exited directly into the underground. "What do you want to do first?" I asked. "We should see the aquarium first. That way we won't be carrying bags around the entire day." 

So we rode the nearest escalator to the surface level and walked over to the aquarium, which was fortunately on the same side of the block as the subway station. Entering the foyer, I looked up at the screen above the counter. Tickets were 20,000 won each for adults. We walked up to the receptionist, who was a pretty lady, probably in her early 20's with her hair up in a bun. When she looked up from her monitor, she smiled cheerfully,  "Two tickets, please," Shotaro said happily. "Of course. That'll be 40,000 won. You two are a very beautiful couple, by the way. The COEX Aquarium was a great choice for your date." Shotaro's cheeks flared up once more, and I smirked, "Thanks. Do we get a discount for that?" I asked, and the lady let out a hearty laugh, "No, unfortunately. There is a discount for students, though."

"Oh, really? That's great!" I said as Shotaro and I both got out our wallets for our cards. I presented my student card, which saved me 5,000 won. "I hope you enjoy your visit to the COEX Aquarium!" The lady said as we walked away towards the first exhibition. 

-

How was it? Was it too long or boring? I don't have heaps of experience writing, but I hope this is okay! Please give me your feedback <<<33333