Stereotypes | Lee Minho

2

The next two days were kinda boring. I went to school without really talking to anyone. During the breaks, I sat alone. I used this time to draw a little bit. The boy on the seat next to me disappeared and hadn't shown up for the last few days. I found out that his name is Lee Minho. It seemed like the other students did not like him very much. Definitely, a thing the two of us had in common.

I had to work after school today. The little café, I was working at wasn't far away from my old school and students often went there to study or buy a coffee on their way home. So far I didn't see any of my old classmates, luckily.

"Heyy, Minseo!" My best and probably only friend, Ha-eun ran towards me as soon as I entered the café. "I haven't seen you in such a long time" she hugged me tightly. I chuckled. The last time we saw each other was four days ago.

Ha-Eun is the most adorable person I had ever met. She was kind, loved to help others and everyone loved her. I had never met a person who didn't like her. I wasn't sure if this was even possible. She had long black hair, cute freckles, was a year younger than me, and was a little bit shorter than me. You could probably compare her with a little fairy.

"Welcome, what can I get you?"

"One iced americano," the customer said. I looked up and saw a familiar face. Lee Minho stood in front of me. I wasn't sure if he recognized me, I didn't know if he even remembered me. His brown hair almost hung into his eyes, which were fixated on the phone in his hands, why do I even care if he remembered me? We only saw each other once so far but there is something about him that mesmerized me.

"Okay, your order will be finished in a second" I answered him with a professional smile placed on my face. I hurried to finish his order and gave the iced americano to him three minutes later. The moment Minho took it from me he raised his head and looked at me for the first time. He froze in his movement when our eyes met. I felt his eyes wandering over me. Minho then mumbled a thank you and left quickly. ...Well at least he did say something this time. I shrugged and continued working.

When I arrived home four hours later, neither my parents nor my siblings were there. I took my phone out of my bag to send my mother a message.

Me
Are you still at the restaurant?

Mom
No, I'm at the hospital with your siblings

I sighed. I was actually a bit worried because of my siblings. It's not the first time that something like that has happened. The two of them always fight about the dumbest things and every once in a while it ends with one of them at the hospital.

Mom
You have to buy some food for dinner by yourself
Mom
I forgot

This is something I'm used to as well. I put my bag into my room, took my phone, and left the apartment again. I can't even count the times I had to buy food for our family because my mother forgot or was too busy with "more important" things. My father also wasn't home that often. He had another job besides managing the restaurant and was even working when he came home once in a while. By now I was pretty good at taking care of myself.

It was already 9:30 pm when I entered the grocery store.

I took some ramen out of a shelf and went to the cashier. Beside me were only two or three other people in the store. The woman behind the counter glanced at me. She looked as if she would want to be everywhere but here. I reached for my wallet in my pocket. But I couldn't find it anywhere.

"Uhm, I'm sorry I guess I forgot my wallet," I said quietly. God this is embarrassing. The woman rolled her eyes.

"We are closing in five minutes. Seems like you have to go somewhere else." Exactly at that moment, my stomach started growling. Perfect timing. The only thing I ate that day was my lunch at school. The cashier raised one eyebrow and looked at me with an annoyed look on her face. I left the store again, feeling a bit embarrassed.

On my way home I thought about something I could cook but not many things came to my mind. I'm surprisingly bad at cooking, even though my parents are owning a restaurant. My thoughts got interrupted when I suddenly heard someone shouting behind me.

"Hey, you! Wait!" I turned around and saw a person with a bag in each hand running towards me.

"Here" The boy stopped right in front of me and held one of the bags out to me. I froze when I realized who he was.

"Lee Minho?" I couldn't really hide my surprise.

"Yeah, I heard your conversation with the cashier in the grocery store. And... I bought your things for you since you seemed very hungry" I just blinked two times. I didn't know what to say. Did he really buy food for me?

"So are you going to take it or do I have to eat it?" He looked directly into my eyes. It took a second for my brain to start working again.

"Yes, of course. Thank you." I took the bag from him. "I'll give you the money for the Ramen tomorrow at school."

"Oh, yeah no, you don't have to." He flashed a smile at me. Before I could say something else he turned around and left me alone. What did just happen?

I was still alone when I arrived at home again. But I had one missed call from my mother. I don't really like calling other people so I just wrote her a message.

Me
Is everything ok?
Me
Why did you call?

No answer. I laid my phone on my desk and went to the kitchen, where I had placed the bag with the food before. I stopped for a moment when I saw that Minho had added some other things like chocolate to the bag as well. A smile slowly crept onto my face.

I went back to my room, together with my ramen and a glass of cola. My room was very small. There was just place for my bed, a desk, and my closet. Sometimes it was really hard to even walk in it. I wasn't a messy person at all but often I had no time for cleaning up. Okay, that's a lie. I am a messy person.

I took some comfortable-looking clothes that were laying on the floor and changed.

The moment I started doing my homework, the front door of our apartment swung open and my mother arrived together with my siblings. I took my glasses from my desk and walked into the living room but I froze when I saw my siblings.

"What happened to you?" I was completely shocked. My sister had a bandage around her arm. My brother on the other side had some bruises on his face. The two of them stared at their feet as I glared at them. As soon as my mother entered, they both ran into their shared room.

"Your brother gets bullied at school. Well and your sister punched the kid who was threatening him" at this point, I wasn't sure what shocked me more, the fact that my brother got bullied or that my sister was the one who stood up for him. My mother sighed. Suddenly she looked very exhausted. "You should go and sleep now" I nodded and went back to my room to continue doing my homework before actually going to sleep.

It was already 1 am when I had finally finished all my homework. While laying down in bed my thoughts went back to Minho. He really bought me food. I still can't believe it. The other students at school described him as cold and reserved. But that was far away from how he acted today. His voice was also different from what I had expected. It sounded calm and soft and I really wanted to hear it again.