Comfort Me || STRAY KIDS

You Win Some, You Lose Some

✧

Changbin watches with disgust as Jisung slurps a rather large spoonful of his jjambbong—it smells positively revolting, even across the table. His own bowl of pork ramyeon is nowhere near as olfactory, though much safer in terms of ingredients.

Chan leans across the table, reaching for a napkin. "You going to eat, Bin?"

"All I can smell is Sungie's soup," he complains, scrunching his nose up. "Did you both seriously have to order seafood?"

Chan's own plate is filled to the brim with haemul pajeon. Changbin thoroughly believes whoever thought Korean pancakes and seafood would be a good combination deserves a special place in hell.

"It's a seafood restaurant, what else did you expect?" Jisung scoffs.

"I didn't expect anything," Changbin reminds him, "you sent me an ominous address and told me to be here at six."

"Chan offered to buy," Jisung shrugs, "this is what I chose."

Chan rolls his eyes, "Just eat your soup, guys."

With one last horrified glance at his friend's meals, Changbin dips his chopsticks into the broth and finds a harmless looking piece of pork. It's no secret he has a distaste for seafood, Changbin has always preferred red meats or chicken, there's just something repulsive to him about eating slimy ocean creatures.

"You know, seafood is an aphrodisiac." Jisung muses to no one in particular.

And then, "Maybe if you ate it you could finally get laid."

Changbin just glowers at him, whereas Chan snickers around a bite of pancake. "Binnie doesn't need to get laid, right?"

"Shut up."

"Felix likes seafood," Jisung adds.

"Well maybe you should have invited Felix instead," Changbin says sulkily.

Jisung quickly holds up a small finger heart—an appeasement, and as usual, Changbin can't help softening for his dongsaeng and his stupid little smile. Sungie is cute, it's hard to stay mad at him.

Chan elbows Changbin, nearly causing him to drop a chopstick into his soup. "Come on, how long has it been since it was just us three? 3racha?"

"Like, last week."

"A week is a long time." Chan defends weakly.

Changbin just shakes his head and focuses on his soup. Somewhere around the halfway mark, he begins to notice a strange fuzziness on his tongue. It's hardly noticeable at first, until it begins to spread throughout his mouth. He takes a sip of water—and proceeds to cough wetly.

Chan thumps his back helpfully, "Okay?"

"Yeah—" Changbin chokes out, waving him off. "Just thought I'd try out drowning, see if I like it."

Jisung snorts, soup almost coming out of his nose. "And?"

"Wouldn't recommend," Changbin replies, licking his lips. He's uncomfortable, the fuzziness growing heavier and heavier in his mouth but he ignores it and tries to focus in on the conversation around the table. His soup is mostly untouched now, he focuses instead on sipping his water slowly and the pounding of his heart.

"Oh, did you see that new movie? The one with—"

Jisung is interrupted by the small but audible wheeze of Changbin's throat. He clears it, feigning normalcy but it's too late.

Chan eyes him suspiciously, "Are you feeling okay, Bin? Your face is red and you're sweating."

"Actually—" he coughs. Once. Twice. Again. And then he's no longer coughing, he's just flat out choking. His tongue feels thick, like it's obstructing his airway and making it difficult to take in a healthy amount of oxygen. Chan stands abruptly, coming to stand behind Changbin.