platonic. | park woojin

five

"Woojin, I don't know." Hyungseob whines and throws his pen down onto the table "This one's too hard." Woojin passes him his pen.

"It's not that hard Hyungseob, you're just not trying." Woojin sighs and proceeds to help Hyungseob with the question. There is a knock on the door, Woojin stands up and opens it, "Who is it?"

"You're mother, Woojin. I was just wondering if you three would like any snacks." Hyungseob nods vigorously.

"If you don't mind getting them for us, then yes." He grins and Woojin nods in agreement.

"Sure why not?" I look down nervously, I wasn't sure what to say.

"Okay then, I'll go and get you all something to eat. Don't worry, Minjung, I've gotten something low fat and practically sugar free for you - so you're mother won't be angry at you when you go home." She smiles at me warmly.

"Thank you so much." I smile back, this is the type of mother I would adore to have. Sadly that's not the reality. She swiftly returns with two bowls, one much larger than the other, she places the larger bowl in front of Woojin and Hyungseob.

"You two can share that one and Minjung," she places the smaller bowl in front of me "this is for you."

"Thank you." We all chorus, and Woojin's mother smiles and exits the room.

"Why do those look like they taste like paper?" Hyungseob looks into my bowl and pulls a face of disgust,

"I'm sure they don't taste that bad, Hyungseob. They look nice to me." Woojin says, taking one from my bowl "They taste good. Not at all like paper. Try one, Hyungseob they aren't bad." Hyungseob cautiously takes one

"You aren't doing this to watch me pull faces, are you?" Woojin shakes his head "Okay..." he places in carefully in his mouth and slowly chews it "Its not that bad, a little too bland for my liking but it doesn't taste like paper." Woojin passes me two of the chips from their bowl.

"Because we stole yours." He smiles at me and I take the chips. 

"What flavour are they?" I sniff them trying to figure out what they are,

"They're the ones we both really like, I know you probably haven't had them in years but the ones we really liked when we were kids. Those ones." My eyes light up and I immediately eat them, it's been way too long since I've eaten these chips - I don't even know if I'll like them now that I'm older "Do they still taste good?" I nod, they taste wonderful. Woojin laughs and ruffles my hair "That's great."

"Woojin is this right?" Hyungseob shoves his book into Woojin's face.

"Sure. I think that's right." Hyungseob grins and grabs a handful of chips, stuffing all of them into his mouth at once

"Question," Hyungseob says through a mouthful of chips "how long have you guys know each other?"

"Um." I ponder it for a moment "Basically as long as Woojin's been alive. Keeping in mind he's only three days younger than me. Our fathers are best friends so naturally, so are we." 

"I see."

"Did you have fun at Woojin's house?" My mother asks, she didn't really care she was just asking.

"Yeah, we did a lot of studying." I tell her, mentioning Hyungseob could be dangerous so I'm going to refrain from doing so.

"Did Woojin teach you a lot? Make you less stupid?"

"No, not really. I'm not stupid anyway mum, you just think I am." She turns around to face me, there was a glare on her face

"Shut up, thinking that your not stupid is what stupid people do."

"My report card says otherwise." I mumble to myself, quiet enough so that my mother doesn't hear "If I may ask, where are we going?"

"A dinner, your father was invited but since he isn't in the country I've offered to go in his place." Wonderful, time for my mother to mess up dad's relationships with important people and make our family look bad by talking trash about me. The car turns into a car park for a fancy restaurant and we both step out of the car. My mother is dressed like she's the queen or some else just as important and me; I look like I was dragged through the trash in comparison to her. We were greeted at the front and ushered towards a table where a man was sitting there by himself sipping a rather large glass of red wine. You can tell he's rich because he doesn't care how much he drinks, since he knows he's not going to be driving himself home. We both sit down, he looks much younger than my mother but certainly older than me. 

"So, you here instead?" He asks,

"Clearly." My mother replies, she's snaps her fingers and she's swiftly presented with a glass of white wine. I have nothing, surprise surprise. 

"So, shall we get down to business?" He raises his eyebrows, my mother nods and he then produces a large black file and pushes it towards her. She opens the file and begins to read through the documents in the file, I glance at the documents but I can't seem to read much. "So, miss, what's your name?" The man grabs my attention and begins talking to me, I don't really think he wants me to be reading whatever those documents contain.

"Jung Minjung." I say,

"Interesting, and I'm assuming you're still in high school." I nod.

"I'm in my final year." He smiles, a little creepily, maybe that's just how he smiles though. 

"You seem like a very smart girl." 

"She's not that smart." My mother mumbles.

"Mum, I'm the top of the school."

"No you aren't, Woojin is." She hisses,

"He's second." I retort "I'm first, you just never pay attention to that." 

"Calm down, I'm sure you're very smart Minjung." My mother snorts and both myself and the man look at her.

"What? I'm reading, keep talking don't mind me." 

"Do you have many friends, Minjung?"

"No not really." I shrug, he leans back in his chair. I didn't really want to be here, I kept glancing around the restaurant trying to find a way to get out of here. 

"Hey, Minjung!" My escape. I turn around and spot Hyungseob waving wildly at me, I give him a small wave back, he beckons for me to come over and I glance at my mother nervously.
"Mum, can I go over to my friend."

"What friend?" She turns around and stares at Hyungseob "Him? What family?"

"Um, the Ahn Electronics company that literally all our appliances come from." My mother smiles,

"Okay, that's fine. Go and have fun, I'll come and collect you when we're done. Make sure to eat something, but not too much. This is a fancy place so I'll let you off this time." I stand up

"Thank you."

"Goodbye, Minjung, I look forward to getting to know you better." I bow at the man and run over to Hyungseob.

"You, my good friend, are a lifesaver." I grin at him.

"You're welcome."