fluid: haobin

34

"has anyone seen ricky? i haven't seen him for the past 10 minutes," gunwook asks the others in the room.

"i think he said he went to the bathroom?" one of their teammates says. "but, he's been gone for a while."

"i was about to go use the bathroom. i can check if he's still there or not," gyuvin gets up, hoping no one catches on to how quickly he offered. luckily, besides the usual teasing from his cousin and yujin, it looks like no one did.

"don't think i don't know," gunwook squints at gyuvin, almost like he's looking at him with suspicion.

"hey, you're the one who asked about his whereabouts," the taller puts his hands in the air to feign innocence.

"just a coincidence that you needed to go use the bathroom now," yujin joins in. "mhm, sure."

"nature calls, and it's saying that it's an emergency. bye!"

the student runs out of the room to avoid hearing anything else the other two have to say, and also to get a start on his mission to find his best friend. however, turns out he didn't need to look far because ricky was telling the truth. he's standing where the bathrooms are, but with his phone to his ear and furrowed eyebrows. gyuvin recognized that look whenever they studied for an exam or during competition prep; it's one that came out whenever he's stressed and frustrated about the situation at hand.

"i told you i'd be gone until tomorrow evening. i sent both of you a long text about it, left a copy of the permission slip on the kitchen table, and even told ms. chen that i'd be out of the house," ricky explains to his parents on the other side of the line.

"shen quan rui, you know that's not the issue here," his mom sighs exasperatedly. "we've told you repeatedly that if dance gets in the way of your personal responsibilities, then-"

"you would have me leave so i could reflect on my priorities," the teenager finishes while rolling his eyes. "and yet, i still can't think of what's warranting this kind of behavior. i'm consistently scoring in the top 5 for exams, attend basically every company event, and even make the time to come into the office almost every other day."

"today's banquet is the most important one for this quarter. if you ask me, seems like you took the first opportunity you saw to skip it."

"the date for this tournament was set long before i even knew about tonight. by that point, it was too late for me to pull out and have the team reorganize to accommodate that."

"i'm sure they could've done without you. it's only one person missing, that shouldn't cause so much trouble."

"mom, please don't talk like you know exactly what's happening with everything," ricky rubs his nose bridge at the woman's attitude. "you don't understand the amount of effort everyone had to put in for this, and it would be irresponsible for me to throw all that away. whether you like it or not, i am a member of this team, and i intend to follow through with every expectation that comes with the position."

he doesn't even give his mother a chance to answer before cutting the call off, frustrated at how this argument seems to come up every single time anything dance-related comes up.

"did she threaten to pull you out again?"

ricky doesn't have to look behind him to know gyuvin is approaching with a concerned look. he closes his eyes, not wanting to see the pity he's seen numerous times before whenever the other catches him in this spot.