High Teen Society

Chapter 25: My Dear Readers

Jake sat across from me at the dining table. He went on and on about the Theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein in a funny accent as I sat there comfortably, making sure to catch every word he was saying. It had been almost an hour, and his bowl of galbi-jjim was still barely touched. It was six thirty o'clock on a Monday morning.

"Sorry to interrupt, hyung, but are you going to eat that?" Riki asked, pointing at Jake's bowl of galbi with his chopsticks.

"You can have all of it!"

I grimaced, watching intently as Jake passed his bowl to the younger. "Why does it feel like this already happened?"

"I mean, we do eat breakfast in this same table every single day." Jake told me.

"You're having a deja vu." Riki offered a different explanation, chewing thoughtfully.

I rested my chin on my palm. "Probably. Hm. Weird."

"So, when is Jay coming to pick you up?" Jake asked the youngest of us.

"The driver's coming to pick up my stuff in the afternoon so they want the luggage in the front yard already." Riki replied. "As for me, I'll be riding home with Jay hyung after school."

I studied Riki's face. He was sitting next to me in front of the dining room window. His sunlit eyes were warm and affectionate, entirely unlike the first time I laid my own on them. His hair was long and tousled, hand running through them every few minutes to push them out of his eyes. Riki was sitting back coolly, wearing Gwanglim Academy's uniform as incorrectly as ever. It was hard to imagine he'd just lost his virginity the evening before.

The boy caught me staring at him. "What are you looking at?" He asked in amusement, effortlessly pulling my chair from under with one hand so that we were at even closer quarters. He then proceeded to rest his arm around the backrest of my chair, making me press my legs against each other, blushing involuntarily as flashes from last night played back in my head.

After brushing our teeth and getting ready, Jake, Riki, and I kissed Mom goodbye. Riki in particular received a lot of smooches as a farewell.

Jaejoon was waiting for us in front of the house, just like the first day. What's more, the ride to school felt heavy for some odd reason I couldn't quite pinpoint. I looked out of the car window, contemplating as Jaejoon drove through the exact same route for the nth time, with Riki's hand resting above my own. The light pink petals of the cherry blossom trees were confetti as it enfolded the path we were taking. And all the same my heart felt heavy.

I was taking much longer than the other two to put my backpack on when we were stepping out of the car, and Jaejoon seized that opportunity to call me over. "Sunoo?"

My eyes were glued to Jake and Riki's back as they continued to walk farther and farther. "Hm?" I answered distractedly.

"One of your teachers... Mr. Kwon, was it?" Jaejoon mused. "We met at the tailor shop the other day. He'd told me about your dream. About the restaurant."

I blinked at him. "What about it?"

"You should tell me more about it over dinner. A public establishment sounds like a good source of profit to me. Start thinking of a good name, while you're at it." Jaejoon winked. The middle-aged gentleman then drove away before I could completely internalize what he'd just said.

"A good name... for a restaurant." My heart thumped loudly against my chest. I whirled around, beaming, and began to run so I could catch up with my two companions.

Riki and I entered our classroom together, the small gathering in front of the door dispersing automatically to give way to the intimidating teenager next to me.