THE NIGHT BUS || SEVENTEEN FF

Wen Junhui's Origin

Ever since he was a child, Junhui was exposed to numerous dishes from sweet, sour, bland, salty, and spicy. But even so, one particular taste reached out to him at all times.

Spicy. Thus, his obsession with the culinary world of chilies. He gradually saw the people around him either enjoying the taste or refraining from it. But in the end, there was a limit to how much they could take, unlike him. He could eat and eat and continue eating, but the others stopped panted, wiped their beeds of sweat off, and gulped watter down hastily.

He began to question their actions, wondering why they were acting in such a manner when it was normal to be able to eat and continue eating spicy food.

He asked his parents, who just told him that he was born with a special tongue that could take all the spicy food and then flirted with each other with chillies in their hand teasing to feed each other. He would laugh watching them not feeling odd that he was special and not normal like the others were.

But as he grew up, his obsession with spicies grew drastically, and he observed that the people around him began to distance themselves from him every time it was time to sit and eat. He would eat in silence all alone in the corner of the cafeteria. Time passed quickly, and he began the one distancing himself from others as he turned corners and hid from the people's sight.

But that all stopped when he entered the school kitchen in his last year of high school, where he met his first friend in a long time. He seemed to enjoy the same things as him even though he wasn't as free-spirited and all over the place rowdy as Junhui he was still one meticulous creature with his set own of rules. They got close together quickly and exchanged their opinions and ideas on different kids of food, but most of it circulated around spices.

Their days turned into weeks and eventually the hour came when they were almost caught in the school kitchen after school sneaking around with a few others to torture them and test how much of spicy food they could take. They laughed together and had fun eventually returning home.

But when the end of the school year came around, Junhui's new friend had to say goodbye. He needed to travel with his family because of his father's job transfer to South Korea and could no longer see Junhui but still contact him whenever he wanted. Junhui was sad and a little broken to see his friend leave, but deep down, he knew it would have happened sooner or later.

Yet, that was not all. In the coming weeks of his mother's job transferred to the Korean brach, and he too had to move. Just the absolute excitement and thrill that corsed through his veins at the thought of moving to the same place as his friend that he had kept daily contact with was beyond what words could describe.

They were fast to meet up and begin their college life in their prime, taking the culinary path. But as time stretched, Junhui saw that his friend wasn't any longer overly obsessed with spices as he was and had rather adopted several different tastes and worked on hightenting them together to create the perfect palet for his customer be whoever it is.

Junhui felt himself distanced once again as he enrolled into a science major to not get into his friend's way of spreading his wings. He did not want him to pay attention to what he did as he himself decided to find his own way and purpose with his obsession.

Yet what he did not realize was that his friend did not think of Junhui as a person who got in his way for if it wasn't for Junhui he himself wouldn't have been able to do what he wanted. All that was different with him now was that he followed rules strictly and kept Junhui out of trouble since he was his close friend.

Junhui had one very important reason for the beginning of his research and experiment on others. One of them being that if he could find and make the spicest dish in existence, then he could consume it and understand what others did when they reached their spice intake level, unlike him.

His research and experimentation was his own way of creating a safe bubble around him that gave him hope that maybe and just maybe he could become... Normal and feel that the others did...

So he began going out and pulling people around to help him as he slowly and steadily got engulfed and entangled into his experiments learimg from the sinceis of the human brains function and reaction effects of things around them.

Because of this, he was able to justify their actions when they ditched him or came along with him. He would pick the girls with his flitting skills and the boys with falls hopes and then use them, making sure to give them a good flaming hot dinner that burned their tongue.

In the end, Junhui was after to create the spicest dish for himself so that he could fit in with the others. So that he could say that the food was spicy like the others and feel his tongue burn and his stomach turn wanting to gulp chunks of water or stuff down tons of sweets to subdue the raging fames of spice in his mouth--for he had never experienced that.

Spicy food was like a drug to Junhui that isolated him, making him wish to just be like the others and find someone who could understand his desire.

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"Yeah, let's go!" Junhui turned to the three males around him and blinked, feeling a little shy that he blurted that out of nowhere.

Carat laughed, happy that Junhui was the first one that willinging almost accepted getting on the bus right away with no struggle.

She sat and began driving away with a big grin. "I found you, Wen Junhui!"

Once again, silence fell as they stared at Junhui, and Junhui stared at them, becoming the first to speak in the wakard silence. "Hello, my name is Junhui, and I'm 24 years old. I'm from China. Nice to meet you! Would you like something to eat?"

Junhui asked with sparkling eyes as he stretched his hand out for Jisoo to take hold of and introduce himself to Junhui. With a nervous chuckle, Jisoo introduced himself to Junhui and stook his hand slightly, surprised by his unusually cheerful aura that made him crack a smile, thinking he was a cute younger one.

Seungcheol, on the other hand, got quickly acquainted with Jeonghan as if they were long-lost best friends of the same age. They turned to Junhui, who greeted them with a bright smile, offering them the food he had this time not thinking of experimenting or researching but just becoming friends.

Junhui's laughter and playful personality saved them from the previous still and awkward silence between them. The only problem was that the second they ate what Junhui had offered them their tongues were set on fire and the almost dies looking for water that Carat told them they could find iit in he bag under their seat while Junhui laughed his heart out.

They opened up to each other quickly with just a few words as their laughter filled the bus with their exchange of embarrassing moments. With each word, they felt as though the world was lifting off their shoulders and taking them somewhere where they would never have to go through what each of them had in the past.

Carat watched them from the rear view mirror, smiling to herself, happy that they were finally beginning to be themselves and letting go of the shackles they had locked themselves into and the holes they'd digged for protection not realizing that there would never be a way to get out if they didn't stop.

Just as the minutes passed the the night continued, and the bus came to a screeching halt in front of a dojo.

The four looked out of the and thought the glass windows covering the dojo at the single male with black hair all alone punching and mainly kicking a sandbag while dealing with the wooden close to hand to hand combat simulator. To watch this, their skin crawled as they recognized who he was.

Level 10 Black Belt. 3 Year Consecutive Winner Of Taekwondo National Championship. Kwon Soonyoung. South Korea's Last Tiger.

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~ Arata
Carat_Official ~