rumble fish #gingerwoo

#21

Gingerboy's sleep was so deep he didn't even wake up when Hyunwoo left for school and only did when he heard loud noises coming from the hall. He opened his eyes, still feeling tired, and noticed that it was already mid-day. He took a can of RedBull from the refrigerator - lately Yongguk had put a lot of them there - and headed out the room, greeted by the yellow fluorescent lamps and a bunch of kids who immediately ran to him while shouting out the word for older brother.

Ginger had to lift the can up so it wouldn't get spilled over as some of the kids clashed against him to hug his lower body. He felt frustrated by this sudden attention but didn't dare to push the kids away.

"Brother, can you show us a trick?" one of the kids pleaded, his chin pressing against Gingerboy's chest.

For a moment he wanted to say something not-so-thoughtful but then decided there was no use being mean to kids. He wasn't going to stay around long for anyways so it was better to leave behind a good image of himself. "Of course I can. Is that my skateboard?" he pointed at a skateboard one of the kids was messing around with.

"We found it on the ground," the kids finally let go of him and rushed to get the board for him. "Do you live here?" the same, apparently most talkative kid asked, handing the board over with both hands.

"I don't."

"Then why did you come out of there?"

"I was... doing homework," Gingerboy said, not smoothly at all. He set the skateboard on the ground and jumped on it, quickly escaping from the situation by starting to go around the hall, wondering what trick should he do.

"Do you even go to school?" another kid asked, almost making Gingerboy laugh.

"You're right. I was so smart I graduated early. You should study hard too," Gingerboy said, feeling amused by his own words. He built up more speed and headed towards a ramp to do a trick on the edge of it. The kids let out satisfied cheers, not knowing how simple the trick had been.

Gingerboy spent few more hours showing off tricks to the kids or just sitting on top of the ramp, playing with his phone as the young boys ran around. Jooheon was the first of his friends to arrive, probably having skipped the extra classes like usual. He ran straight to Ginger, ignoring all the kids who seemed to be almost as happy to see him as they had been to see Gingerboy.

"Did you hear?" he asked with a loud voice, jumping up the ramp to sit next to Gingerboy.

"Hear what?" Ginger asked, moving his can of energy drink - third one already - away from Jooheon so it wouldn't get knocked over.

"Yongguk and Youjin's song! Youjin is singing in it too and rapping a few bars," Jooheon took out his phone to start searching for the song on Soundcloud. "I didn't know he could sing."

"Me too, I thought he only produces," Gingerboy leaned over to see if the song really existed.

"He was rapping about you," Jooheon suddenly said, causing Ginger to snap back away from the other.

"What?!"

"'To my brother Heejun who I missed, I will be good and never leave your side again'," Jooheon rapped along the beat of the song that had started playing, as if he had practiced it already. "I didn't know you knew him from the past already. You keep so many secrets from us."

"This time it's me who will leave," Gingerboy said quietly, his focus on listening to the song playing instead of what Jooheon was saying.

"Huh? Did you say something?" Jooheon asked, interrupting his own monolog.

"No."

-

It was already late into the day and there was no one else at the skate hall except Gingerboy, his best friend Hoseok and Jooheon. Neither of them knew why anyone else hadn't showed up. Hoseok was skateboarding alone while Jooheon and Ginger sat on top of a funbox and slapped each other's wrists, filling up the hall with groans, screams and shouts.