philophobia | j.hoseok

17

we both came upon a small korean restuarant that served all kinds of meat. hoseok was the first to enter as i followed in afterwards. i wathed as hoseok went ahead to find a table to sit at as i was forced to follow behind. once he sat down, i made sure to sit in the farthest seat away from him. but he ended up scooting himself next to me.

"yah, go sit back in your seat," i said to him.

"i want to sit next to you," he replied back to me. i sat there criss-crossed on the floor sighing to myself, wondering how did i ever get into this situation.

a lady, probably in her 60s, came over handing us two menus with a smile on her face. "aigoo, look at you two. are you two perhaps on a date right now?" the lady asked. instantly, i shook my head to the woman as hoseok did the same. hoseok and i looked at each other in slight surprise before we looked back to our menus.

"oh, well, do you both need time before you order?"

"actually, i know what i want now," i said suddenly. hoseok looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "already?"

i ignored him and showed the nice lady what i wanted. samgyeobsal.

"and what about you young man?"
"we'll have two servings of those. and some bulgogi. and then maybe some kimchi soup," he smiled brightly. i stared at him eyeing him.

"will that be all for you two?"

"yes ma'am," he said still smiling. the lady took the menus and smiled bowing before she left. i sat there silent looking around the restuarant until hoseok cleared his throat.

"so i hope this counts a date," hoseok said grinning. i rolled my eyes. "no. it's not."

at that moment, one of the waiters gave us two glasses of water. after that, he didn't say anything for a moment. i cleared my throat awkwardly. "your sister... does she have a hard time sleeping at night?" i asked her. "oh.. uh, yeah. she's been working sleepless nights and she complains how tired she is but she can't sleep easily. so she takes medication."

"i can totally see the similarities now... between you and your sister," i softly said. hoseok gave a cheerful smile. "yeah, we get that sometimes."

"so how much is the gap between you two?"
"4 years apart."

i raised an eyebrow. "how old is your sister?"

"she's 27." i choked and started coughing violently from drinking my glass of water. hoseok started patting my back suddenly but i slightly pushed his hand away.

"i'm fine." i calmed myself giving another cough. "so... you're 23 years old..."

hoseok nodded his head and at that moment, he looked small before me. i didn't even notice but i started to laugh, earning a confused expression from him. "what's so funny?"

"you're actually younger than me. so i was right calling you kid," i chuckled.

"but i'm not a kid. how old are you anyways???"
"25."
"so i get to call you noona?" he grinned.

"please don't."
"alright, alright. so does this mean we're friends now?" he asked.

i looked him and didn't say a word at first for i was still thinking about it. should i really allow him in just like this?

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girl yes!