tastebuds//lee donghyuck.

nineteen

    "Eunji, your chips taste kind of we-"
Donghyuck turns to me, and I contemplate ways as to how I can casually fling myself out of the window and never return to the planet Earth again.
Instead though, I decide keep chewing my candy, which is distinctly strawberry flavored. And last time I checked, honey butter chips don't taste like strawberries. This is it....
The bowl of chips that had been previously resting in Donghyuck's hands swiftly falls to the ground, causing the said snack to scatter across the floor. Lucky for me, the bowl is plastic, and doesn't break at the hard impact.
"Oh my gosh..." The boy in front of me is completely speechless and is only able to utter out those three words to express his shock. "It's not the chips that you're tasting, Donghyuck." I slowly raise up the bright pink wrapper of my Hi-Chew, indicating that it is indeed the flavor that he is tasting. He slowly nods his head. "I-I think I know now."
After a moment, the teenage boy breaks out of his trance, and grabs the matcha choco pie that I had already pulled out. He fumbles with the task of opening it due to his rushing, bit is able to do so. Then, he proceeds to shove part of it in my mouth. Yeah, I'm serious. "Quickly eat this." Donghyuck instructs me. I do as I'm told, knowing that he is just trying to prove to himself that this is all real. The delicious matcha and chocolate taste fills my mouth, satisfying my tastebuds. Donghyuck, on the other hand, just gulps after a moment. "I must just be smelling it. There's no way..." His eyes continue to stay widened, and tears well up in them. We make eye contact, and I can see the disbelief and shock in his eyes. I don't miss the look of sorrow though, as he must be thinking about his parents. All of the pain he must feel; his parents were actually soulmates, and yet were able to so easily end it all, despite having a young child and all. The term 'soulmates' means nothing to the boy in front of me, it's all fake to him, and yet he found his?
   And then, a tear falls. Then another, and another, and soon they're gushing out of his eyes like a storm, all of his emotions pouring out at once. Donghyuck stumbles forward a bit, and clutches me. His body thrashes with his violent sobs, as I stroke his hair with one hand, and hold his back with the other. My heart breaks at every sound that comes out of his mouth, his loud sobbing hardly muffled even against my shoulder. The latter getting significantly more damp with each passing moment, as the waterfall of tears only increases as time goes on.
   I am unable to catch unto the incoherent words that fall out of his mouth, but they only cause the ache in my heart to further more. I gently shush him, rubbing his back, as an attempt to comfort the boy. A couple of minutes pass, and Donghyuck's loud cries turn into soft sniffles. His grip around me tightens. "Eunji, even if we're soulmates, how do we know we are going to last?" He croaks out, voice hoarse. I lean my head on his shoulder and reply. "It depends on us."