벚꽃 엔딩 CHERRY BLOSSOM ENDING | lee jihoon

i - kwon squared

그대여, 그대여, 그대여, 그대여, 그대여
you, you, you, you, you

"God, they totally skimped on the scallions here," Seungkwan muttered to himself, earning a few of his members' speculative and confused eyes. "I mean, it's good but a bit more scallions would've been nice. Besides that, Minghao! you have great taste."

All the boys heads lopped in sync towards the corner where Minghao sat, blowing profusely at the tangle of noodles he held in his chopsticks. Upon their attention, he merely grinned sheepishly, mumbling his thanks. Soonyoung, to his right, was already slurping down the sauced noodles.

They'd been allowed a day off in between their schedule, which had been eating away at them for the entire year, with barely a day to breathe and they chose to eat out since Minghao's birthday was nearing. Plus, Jeonghan had mentioned at least seven times that he wanted to go.

Junhui sipped his Coke through a straw, angling his phone towards Seokmin and Chan to show them a meme from his Weibo account. A few giggles ensued and Chan, who'd found it altogether hilarious, gripped his elder's shoulder with a frenzy of laughter. A domino effect caused Chan to show Seungcheol and Jisoo, who both blinked after the first viewing before snickering at the replay. Mingyu shoved his head in to see the meme, which caused a playful fight, with Cheol and Mingyu to steal pieces from each other's plates.

In the midst of the moderate chatter, bursts of rhythmic chuckles, slurping, and barbecue sizzles from a few tables over, Jihoon sat at the opposite end of the table, where the light didn't really touch since two tables and three extra chairs had to be improvised for their large group. He absentmindedly swirled his noodles round in the bowl, waiting for them to cool down, but lost himself in thought. Maybe if we get home early from this lunch, I can get started on a demo or I can take a nap to double the producti—

"Oh, guys!" Soonyoung exclaimed suddenly, causing Jeonghan to drop his chunk of pork onto the table. "Hey, really?" The elder uttered, cleaning the mess as he scolded him under his breath.

Jihoon glanced up, leaning his chin on his left fist, furrowing his eyebrows to try and make sense of what Soonyoung was saying among all the noise. Half of him wanted to ignore him since most of the stuff spewing from his mouth was either spit or screams, which gave him way too many headaches, but the other knew it'd be wrong of him to do so. How did one person manage to produce enough noise, volume, and energy for six?

"I almost forgot to tell you!" he squeaked, pitch elevating in excitement. ("Quiet down..." Cheol had interjected.) "My bestest friend from my childhood is coming to visit us!"

An involuntary groan erupted from Jihoon's lips, which fortunately fell silent to the other's ears although he was positive that Wonwoo and Hansol had caught it since they looked up from their bowls towards him.

"Have you ever told us about him?" Jeonghan asked, having to yell from across the table, which managed to hit Minghao at all volume. Soonyoung cackled, swatting Jeonghan's chopsticks playfully, causing yet another innocent piece of pork to fall again.

"About her, actually! We've been friends since primary and we've moved away but we still talk all the time and now, she's coming here tomorrow!" He explained, shaking his shoulders and bouncing his head ecstatically.

Jihoon shuddered. Kwon squared plus the power of twelve....

"Wait, tomorrow?" Seungcheol choked, now having all other pair of eyes on him. His hair swept to the side as he coughed away the misguided beverage that had affected his epiglottis. "Are we the first people you've told...the day before your friend visits?"

Jihoon checked his phone since the back of his mind had suggested, Maybe maybe tomorrow would just be another day off. Maybe Soonyoung's plans won't go through.

"No, I told you and Joshua last week, silly. I also told the managers so now, our week off is secured and we get to spend it with my best friend!" He waved his arms around and at that, Seungcheol leaned back, relaxing his shoulders. It was rare for him to forget things and this mistake didn't sit well with him despite it being minuscule.

"Are you sure that she'll survive an ocean of living with 13 boys? It seems a little too much... Are you and is she okay with this or are you forcing her to go through this punishment?" Seokmin asked, pointing at him with a chopstick and earning a few giggles but Soonyoung shook his head with a delicate smile.

"She is okay. I don't want to get too into things. It's just best that she stays with us. I miss her so much, you heartless jerks!" Soonyoung tossed a dumpling at his plate, spreading some commotion.

No one decided to interrogate else except Seungkwan and maybe Mingyu. Jihoon tried to recompose that one demo he'd come up with from a dream because it was on the tip of his tongue.

"Hey, hyung, are you going to try catching up on sleep with this break?" Hansol asked, sobering Jihoon from his thoughts. The latter shifted his eyes in the same dim light swimmingly with the same color it lacked. His freshly platinum hair didn't have its usual sophisticated rigidness or flexibility so half of it fell over his brow, obscuring the invisible empathy his eyes held.

"Those chances are low, as always, but I'll try." His answer remained concise especially since he intentionally didn't want to ask him back.

"I'll try, for the most of us since you know, Soonyoung hyung probably won't even let us catch an hour." With that awkward joke said, Hansol patted his arm before continuing his conversation with Wonwoo.

But it was true.

It wasn't entirely all Soonyoung's fault, as Seokmin and Seungkwan were inexplicably rambunctious with the occasional hollerings of Jeonghan and they were in no way debilitating human beings. He loved them. They were his brothers but it wasn't a lie when they were often much louder than they had to be; it wasn't a lie when they sometimes made him sleep less than he had to; it wasn't a lie when it all become a little too much.

But it wasn't their fault.

With Minghao saying his thanks despite his birthday still half a week ahead, they all returned to their dorm. Jihoon had attempted to 'blink' away his headache which had threatened to appear several times before but it was no use. Soonyoung had decided to shout his conversation with Wonwoo. Seungkwan argued with the driver loudly. His headphones weren't functioning so he couldn't listen to his music and make it go away.

He'd get over it though.

At least, he hoped he would.