He's got the whole world in his hands | Jeongin

Chapter twelve

"That's the dumbest shit that I've ever heard in my entire life." 

"Seungmin!" Felix cried. 

"Well, it's true!" Seungmin reached over and grabbed another slice of pizza. "She's a college student and no offense to them, but they do dumb shit. I think her mother sounds like a cunt and if I were in Minsi's position, I'd run far away and never look back." 

After the meeting with Nari at the church, Jeongin found a text from Felix asking if he could come over. Apparently, Seungmin spent the night at Felix's apartment. It had been about a week since the last time all three of them caught up. It was nice to go somewhere and unleash your worries. 

Felix lived in some nice place right in the center of town. It was about the most active part of the small town. One road ran right through the center and businesses were stacked together here. Everyone wanted the chance to appease and catch the eyes of passing by cars as they passed by and went to more pressing matters in larger towns. 

"At some point, you have to realize that your kids are their own people. You can try to shape them in whatever way you want, but they tend to morph into their own person. Isn't that the point of having kids? You try to raise them the best that you can, but they'll still evolve into their own mindsets and thoughts." 

"Minsi's mother is a psycho if she thinks Minsi is going to do what she wants for the rest of her life. In fact, I hope you tell her that she's allowed to do what she wants. Don't try to tag team her mother and peer pressure her into following a faith that she doesn't believe in." His dark eyes narrowed at Jeongin. "I understand that you're a priest and all, but be realistic for once." 

"I'm not an idiot. I've been doing this for a while and-" 

"It hasn't even been a year yet," Seungmin corrected him. 

Jeongin shut his eyes, sucked in a deep breath, and shook his head. "The point is that I get it. I know not everyone is meant to follow God. I'm not going to stress the poor girl out. She already has a lot on her plate." 

He reopened his eyes and pulled an olive off his pizza. Seungmin ordered a pizza with nearly every topping from the only pizza place in town. He either forgot that Jeongin hated them, didn't care, or just wanted to piss him off. 

On paper plates, the pizza sat in a pool of its own grease. You were either a grease enjoyer or a hater and Jeongin loved it. He tried to stay clear of the pizza place when he could, but today he caved. It was a good thing he didn't have any more plans to meet up with anyone. This amount of grease messed with his stomach and he could already imagine how the rest of the day would go with gas building up in his gut. 

"Her mom threatened to cut her off from college funding and threatened to kick her out." 

"Like I said, a total bitch," Seungmin mumbled beneath his breath. 

"Well, yeah it sucks, but Nari is concerned about her daughter, right? If I had a kid, I wouldn't want them playing with a ouija board either. I don't think she's going about it the right way, but she's worried about her daughter." 

"Then she should explain that to her instead of blindsiding her with the priest when she gets out of bed! Who does that? Man, if I was butt-ass-naked and my mother woke me up to the priest, I would ki-" 

Jeongin's face scrunched up in disgust. Felix gagged and the piece of pizza he was chewing fell back onto the plate. The wadded up crust was soaked in his saliva. 

"Ew!" Seungmin cried out. 

"I don't want to picture your naked self over my pizza!" 

"If you wanna picture my ass, more power to you, but I don't wanna see your chewed food! You're going to ruin my appetite! You already ruined my sleep last night because you were up half the night screaming at your stupid TV." 

"So I forgot you were spending the night and sleeping on the couch, so sue me!" Felix rolled his eyes, dropped the half-eaten crust, and crossed his arms over his chest. "You could have told me to shut up or something!" 

"I might take you up on that. Suing you for emotional distress and for physical damage to my ear drums. You're lucky that you rent a house and don't live in a complex. They'd boot your sorry ass to the curb!" 

"Would not!" 

"Would too!" 

Jeongin listened to his friends bicker and went back to chewing his pizza. He couldn't lie, it was amusing to see the two of them fall into a tangent like this. It was a nice break from the conversation he had just had with Nari Park not that long ago. 

While they complained, he put down his piece of pizza and got up to get a paper towel. Felix's kitchen was kept nice and tidy. Magnets sat on his stainless steel fridge and held up important papers. All of his snacks were neatly arranged in cupboards. 

A square window sat above the empty sink and a few glass mugs were perched upside down along the plastic drainer. The place was a lot better kept than Jeongin's apartment. His dirty dishes had been sitting in the sink for nearly a week. He already knew the hassle it'd be to try and scrape off the dried cereal on his plastic bowls. 

Once upon a time, soaked with milk, he was in a hurry and didn't get a chance to eat the remaining cereal. The little bit of remaining milk likely curdled by now and he might just end up tossing the entire bowl. Thinking about it made a sigh exit his nose. 

Felix's paper towels were on a metal roll along a back counter. Jeongin reached over, grabbed one with his non-greasy hand, and began to wipe his fingers along it. The orange grease soaked into the soft padding instantly. He wiped it along his lips and spun around to head back to the table, but suddenly paused. 

Sitting there along his half-eaten pizza, tiny legs soaking into the grease, a black housefly stood. It walked along the crust and stopped on a puddle of melted mozzarella cheese. All he could do was watch as it brought its front legs together and began to rub them together like it was scheming something. 

Felix and Seungmin paid no attention. The two were still bickering and threatening one another. Jeongin watched as it continued to walk up to the crust. The beady amber eyes darted around the room, searching for another place to land. At some point, he swore their eyes met. 

Being more than a hundred times the size of the small pest, he didn't know why, but a chill slithered down his spine.