Streetrat <Jeongcheol>

4

It came around to lunch time and Jeonghan found himself sitting alone. He took the box from his backpack and opened it. The sweet aroma of rice cakes and fresh kimchi, along with small cuts of beef flooded his senses.

He took his chopsticks and took in a mouthful. His mothers cooking never ceased to amaze him. And on a day like this, it was best thing to happen to him.

Right before he took another bite, the plastic box was snatched away from him. Jeonghan looked up to see the boy that he accidentally tripped earlier. He stood tall above him with the blue box in his hands.

He threw down another tray infront of Jeonghan and leaned down, getting close in his face.

"School food," he said, "the shit you get to eat now instead of me."

Then the boy got up and walked away.

Jeonghan looked down at the new food before him and curiously but carefully took bites.

The rice was undercooked. The vegetables were flavorless. The meat was processed. And the kimchi looked like rotting intestines.

It was disgusting. Inedible. Jeonghan pushed the tray away from him and stood up to find the boy from earlier.

He wasn't sitting too far away. It seemed like he was sitting with 5 other friends. Jeonghan strode over to the group of boys who looked obviously much less fortunate than him. T-shirts and jeans were all they wore. Un styled hair sat on top of their heads. And a tray of that god forsaken school lunch sat in front of them all. Except him.

"Excuse me," Jeonghan spoke, gathering the attention of the 6, but he was really only talking to the one who held his lunch box, "I came to apologize for tripping you earlier. And to ask for my lunch box back."

The table was silent and it seemed like the rest of the cafeteria was growing quiet as well. Jeonghan nervously looked around to see all eyes on him and he shifted uneasily.

"You're... Apologizing?" The boy said with an annoyed look on his face.

Jeonghans face suddenly became red as he felt hundreds of pairs of eyes burning holes into his back.

"Y-yes," he stuttered. He then reached out to the little blue box, "now if you'll excuse me-"

But his hand was batted away with such a force that he was pushed backwards and his bottom roughly collided with the linoleum floor.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" The boy said harshly, standing over Jeonghan, "This isn't your preppy boy school anymore. Know your place."

And with that. The boy picked the lunch box off of the table and dumped it I the trashcan, letting the plastic fall in behind the food. He then walked away with the 5 others he sat with. Leaving him sitting on the dirty floor, more embarrassed than he had ever been in his whole life.