Written in Code | FRACTIONS • Seungmin #1

'Hello' Can Be Hard

12:37PM

"Oh I really hope they have sushi today, I've been craving it for like 3 weeks," a little pout settled into the young boy's face, his ginger hair partially covering his face before he blew it back. Yongbok sped through the crowd, not minding in the slightest at a small hand holding his. He took a second to look back and gave Jeongin a smile when he saw his younger friend struggling to get through the crowd, tightening his grip on their hands. "Come on, we're nearly there."

A few grunts could be heard and Seungmin groaned when a sharp elbow stuck into his side, hunching over and holding the area he turned to see that it was Hyunjin who had been shoved into him. "Well that's gonna bruise," the mumble was not lost on his friend, who turned to him with a raised eyebrow and Seungmin frowned, "you did that on purpose didn't you?" He never got any response and huffed a sigh watching his friend walk on towards the cafeteria.

He made a final push forward as the white double doors opened up to a large area filled with long blue tables and chairs, swinging closed before another person caught it to walk in themselves. All along the left side of the area were filled to the brim with windows, allowing you to see a few extra brown benches sitting outside. Voices echoed across each side, people speaking louder than necessary to be heard over everyone else shouting next to them. He stood on the balls of his feet, look above the many heads to look for one of the only red-head's in the whole school, and once he locked onto his head he walked to the right side of the room to the food counters.

The second he lifted a the white tray, many different scents hit him all at once taking him by surprise. Sliding along next to Yongbok, who was bouncing like a bunny trying to see further up the glass casings of food. They each grabbed their favourite snacks along the way in the first sections; drinks, sweets and the cutlery they'd need in advance. The calm warmth that radiated from the cooked food made Seungmin's stomach rumble loudly, Jeongin turned to him and giggled, "someone's hungry."

"Shush, who wouldn't feel hungry at this smell?" The three friends nodded in agreement, feeling their mouths water and the sight of fresh food. They grabbed what they wanted, Yongbok having to be pulled away from a conversation on baking cookies with the lunch-lady, and walked to their designated window seat. Unanimously, they all agreed in their minds for the last year that they'd ignore how empty the table felt and instead turned to stealing each other's foods.

"Hey!" Yongbok whined at the brunett in front of him stealing some of his rice, Seungmin chuckling at the familiar sight. "You have rice on your own tray, if you're gonna steal at least make sense of it."

Hyunjun shrugged with a bored look, continuing to eat his own chicken and rice dish, "you're always tastes better. It's like you can smell when the food portion you get is actually good." The baby of the group raised an eyebrow, not sure whether it was a compliment but didn't say anything to not see Yongbok's gleeful smile drop.

While Seungmin savoured the Chap Chae he'd grabbed, barely registering his friends' conversation at all while he slowly got stuck in his own mind. The sudden tinge of garlic hit his mouth and it brought him back to a fond memory of the first time he tried the dish. He'd been a picky eater so his friends got different dishes each to let him try them during lunch, but Yongbok's birthday twin had been late.

Flashback - Wednesday, March 2nd 2016
12:55PM

The familiar blue table next to the window was filled with too much food for how many of them there were, the 6 boys sitting around the table shouted around each other as if they were too far away to be heard. One of them, a soft featured boy with curly brown hair shook his head, "guys, I can't eat THIS much food. And what is that green stuff?" He pointed at a dish with white radishes chopped up in a bowl of water, with some green stouts.