YOUTH

one

   Hey Jimin, sorry for keeping you up till this early in the morning but I just pulled into your apartment complex. Text me when you get down and I'll get out to properly meet you.

  Minseok sighed and rubbed his bare face, trying to hopefully rub the stress and exhaustion that clearly stained his young face. It took him several hours of driving through traffic just to get to Seoul with the ocassional rest stops to use the restroom, eat, do what he wanted. He sits in silence, his car turned off to conserve gas and the cold outside seeping in slowly. His phone beams bright, the faint sound of his text tone disturbing the quietness rudely. He glances down at it, reading the text message.

  Kim Jim (SEOUL): Hey! I'm on my way down! I'm wearing a green hoodie just so you'll know! 

  His phone screen dulled and eventually turned off, leaving Minseok back in the darkness that surrounded him before. He sighs, settling his forehead against the steering wheel, closing his eyes and groaning at the sting that erupts behind his eyelids. He stays there for a minute, taking in the now crisp, cool air in his car and the dull cricket sounds outside of his car, rustling in the bushes on the other side of the parking lot. Minseok inhales sharply, sitting up and staring at the apartment wall in the distance. As much as he had wanted to leave his stuffy house and the small city where he had been born and grew up, Minseok still loves everyone he had met there. His parents, his dog, his friends, hell even his almost monstrous college professors; he misses them all. He hadn't even moved in yet, but the home sickness already has settled in, making his heart heavy with an emotion close to regret and his stomach empty yet sick. A dull knock placed on his car window pulled him out of his thoughts, his eyes dragging from the off white wall to a boy outside of his car, clad in a comfortable, forest green sweater with tuffs of soft pink hair peeking through the hood. Jimin smiles brightly through the slightly tinted window despite his weary face, stepping away from the car door. Minseok gets out, stretching his limbs, "Hey, sorry. It's been a long day." Minseok excuses himself, smiling down at Jimin. The pink haired boy smiles back, "Oh no problem, I understand. Let's get some of your stuff upstairs first and let's introduce ourselves over some late dinner, is that okay?" Jimin asks. Minseok nods, "Yeah, that's actually great." 

   Minseok sits on one of the four chairs that are tucked under the glass dinner table, keeping his limbs as close to his body out of fear that he might mess things up. "It's just simple ramyeon, but I hope that's enough for you." Jimin shuffles out of the kitchen, a boiling pot of the midnight meal in one hand and bowls with utensils inside in the other. Minseok reacts quickly, sitting up straighter to receive the bowls with both hands, setting them down in front of him as Jimin piles the place mats on each side of the table in the middle. "Oh no, this is more than enough. Thank you." Jimin smiles, scooping some food in each bowl. The two devour the simple meal, Minseok ravenous from travel, Jimin starving from moving boxes and suitcases up the stairs. It's silent for a moment, just the sounds of eating filling the empty space.
   "So, let me formally and properly reintroduce myself. I'm Kim Jimin, nineteen, and an Art History major. Which, if you told the old me, like seventh grade me, I'd probably laugh hysterically in your face." Minseok chuckles, "Why's that?" Jimin reciprocates with his own airy laugh, setting down a spoon of soup back in the bowl. "I was so sure I was going to be a professional ballet dancer, was in ballet school even. Then I got in an accident that permanently damaged my knee, so now I just dance as an elective and sometimes at this local studio to keep the flexibility." Minseok nods solemnly, tracing random lines in his food absentmindedly at the almost depressing fact.
   Jimin snorts in amusement, "Don't get bummed about it. I actually enjoy art history and they apparently found, and fixed, something in my leg that I damaged while dancing ballet. Totally didn't even know it or feel it, but they said if I had kept dancing, I would've broken my knee and I wouldn't be able to walk or dance properly ever again. The accident was a blessing in disguise, if you will." Minseok nods, eyes meeting Jimin's across the table.