Caratland [Seventeen FF]

-29-

Soonyoung poV:

The next day was weird. We went to eat lunch at the taco shop and there was certainly a tension between Jihoon and Wonwoo. To my surprise Chan also avoided eye contact, especially mine. It was the first time I saw Seokmin hanging out with Mingyu and Hansol and Seungkwan were as always the unseperal duo. Jisoo talked with Minghao about wine and Junhui tried to convince me that cat and dog people are delusional, because both are cute. Jeonghan fell asleep after eating half of the taco and Seungcheol was probably still working in his office.

The rest of the work time was like always. There was this child, who ran around with his little tiger plush. It reminded me on myself at that age. I annoyed my sister and my mother so much back then. My sister always had to do the things I wanted to do and my mother had to spent so much money on a simple amusement park. I think my mom wasn't so strict with it, because of my father. At that time my father was my favourite friend, a lovely brother, the coolest teacher and the best dad you could ever imagine. He was my everything and I made it obvious. Especially towards my sister since she always showed off her relationship with mom, which was as close as mine with my father. He told no one that he would probably die, because of that sickness. Everyone was clueless until he finally died. I was more than heartbroken. I didn't make any friends in elementary school. I was too jealous. Why do they have fathers and I don't? Why did that happen to me? In 6th grade I realized that it doesn't matter and I still could be happy. After all I still had my sister and my mom.
When I entered middle school I stopped going to the amusement park. As a kid that park was my way out of the sadness and to distract me from the real world. I didn't need it anymore, but I still had that plush tiger. It reminded me on my father and I never want to forget him.
In middle school I got my first friends, which turned out to be bullies. They didn't bully me though. They wanted me to turn into a bully. Honestly back then I had so many emotions build up that I thought I would actually play along. But my mind was strong enough to differentiate between right and wrong. I think I got most of my experiences with people from middle school. I got to experience the people who tried to use you to get expensive gifts from you, I experienced the people who wanted to turn you into bad people just for entertainment, I experienced the weird outsiders who turned out to be the coolest and I experienced the people who ran hopelessly after the stronger with power.
High school was the best time of my school life. Well, aside from puberty everything went smooth. I was that person who got along with everyone and the class clown. I was bad at school, but my mom wasn't angry. She knew I had a passion back then and that was all that mattered in her perspective. I loved dancing. Firstly my mom forced my sister and me to do martial arts. It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't what I wanted. So in second year of middle school she signed me up for some dance classes. I was all over it even in high school. In the last year of high school I suddenly stopped. I don't know why, but I just didn't felt the passion anymore. My mom told me to do something else until I find something new so I started working on that island. Thinking back like that made me realize how time flew by.

At the evening the rest went to their world again. This time Jihoon, Hyungwon the hotelier, Minhyuk and I decided to hang out together. Jihoon was a little annoyed from the amount of words, which came out of Minhyuk's mouth, but it amused me.

We went to the game stands and threw some cans. After a while Minhyuk got us lemonade from the food court so we sat down and chatted.
"So to sum up my actual cousin had a crush on me", Hyungwon finished telling his story about his weird cousin, who didn't know they were cousins and had a crush on him.
"That's... disgusting", Minhyuk commented.
"And cringe", Jihoon murmured.
"I know right? That's so weird", Hyungwon exclaimed.
"But you know what's weirder?", Minhyuk asked.
"What?", we all three questioned at the same time.
"The fact that you still work here", Minhyuk turned to me.
"Right? The last worker stayed for half a day", Hyungwon thought aloud.
"He's the new record holder after Chan", Minhyuk gave me thumbs up.
"You guys are like 24/7 drunk without drinking alcohol. I would obviously escape after half a day too", Jihoon sighed, pinching his nose bridge with two fingers.
"You're still mean", Minhyuk pouted.
"And how's your world?", Hyungwon turned the attention back to me.
"I don't have a world", I shrugged my shoulders.
"What?!", Minhyuk and Hyungwon exclaimed at the same time.
"I thought it's obvious. Why would he stay here if he had one", Jihoon shrugged his shoulders and finished his lemonade.
"I don't know. Maybe his world is boring", Minhyuk lifted his hands.
"The most boring place I've been was your world and you still go there so...", Hyungwon dissed Minhyuk and sipped from his lemonade.
"Ouch, and I thought we were a duo", Minhyuk dramatically fake cried. They chatted about random stuff from their world, while I finished my glass and listened to them.

"Hey, Soonyoung", Jihoon called me. Minhyuk and Hyungwon were still arguing over the perfect ideal type. I turned my head to Jihoon, signaling him to keep talking. "You told me that you want to go visit the city again", he said.
"Yeah, you decided to come with me?", I asked excited.
"I already said yes", he murmured and looked away. "I just wanted to ask you when you want to go", he added.
"How about this weekend?", I suggested, "I think my mom should be free this time too and my sister wants to go party with her friends"
"Okay", he quietly agreed.
"In my childhood I felt excited when I went to caratland. Today I feel excited leaving it", I grinned, making him snort a little.
"I kinda feel excited to", he murmured to himself.
"What's going on between you two?", Minhyuk suddenly asked.
"Hey, you're not supposed to disrupt moments like that", Hyungwon punched Minhyuk in the shoulder.
"That's not a reason for punching me", Minhyuk sulked, making us laugh.

Yeah, this weekend's going to be nice. I could feel it.