Hope, 92-liners Squad [C]

Chapter 3 (Here We Are)

"Ken, Hani, Baro, Sandeul, and Jin," Moonbyul said while passing cute mushroom keychains to each of them. She smiled seeing how her friends were cooing over the things.

"You made it?" Sandeul was the first to ask. Moonbyul gave him a nod as a reply. Then, she brought out another mushroom keychain that has a different colour from the rest and put it on the round table.

"This is mine," she said.

"Why mushroom?" Ken inquired.

"I honestly don't know, but recently I watched a cartoon with mushrooms as the characters and I thought maybe I could make something as a gift for you guys. So, as a result, I decided to make you guys those cute colourful mushrooms." Moonbyul explained.

"You got talents, you know? If you continue your study to a higher level, I guarantee you will be one of the famous woodcarvers in the world," said Hani with a pleasant voice that was slowly becoming sad by itself.

Everyone at the table suddenly quiet, buried in their own thoughts.

"Guys, loosen up. We have a party to attend tonight." Ken said, breaking the silence. The others smiled and started to cheer.

That night, all of them went to a club to celebrate one of their friends' birthday. They enjoyed the party and ended up getting drunk.

All of them, except Ken who have a higher tolerance for alcohol than the others. He is the one who always brings them home. Well not to theirs but to his apartment which they considered as theirs too.

The next day at Ken's apartment, Hani was the first to wake up. She washed her face and brushed her teeth (don't get it wrong, they don't share the toothbrush, they all have their belongings at the apartment) before stepping to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for all of them.

Not long after that, Moonbyul and Jin came out from the rooms and helped Hani who was out of hands. The three are the ones who rarely get hangovers.

40 minutes had passed and the breakfast was ready. Jin went back to his room which he shared with Ken to wake the boy up. Ken yawned and shuffled on the bed when Jin came in contact with him.

"Yah, wake up, sleepyhead!" Jin playfully slapped the other's cheek.

"5 minutes." Jin shook his head and rolled his eyes. He left the room and walked to the next one. He opened to see the empty room.

"Sandeul? Baro?" he called out. A moment later, he heard weird sounds came from the bathroom. He approached the toilet and saw the stepsiblings on the floor, catching their breath.

He let out a sigh. "Get ready and join us at the dining table. We prepared tomato juice," he said and walked out.

"Where are they?" Hani asked as Jin sat on the chair. She and Moonbyul already waited at the table.

"Sandeul and Baro are getting ready. Ken," he shrugged before continuing, "you know that he'll come out when we're having lunch later."

Sandeul and his brother joined them and they started to dig in their food.

As Jin had predicted, Ken walked out of his room after lunch was served. He casually sat beside Moonbyul and ate his food.

Since it was a day off for everyone, they decided to spend time playing games in the living room. At first, they were divided into two groups where the boys were playing video games while the girls were having a staring contest.

Soon, the boys joined them and after a few rounds of losing Sandeul, Ken brought out a deck of UNO cards. Even though it was a simple game but it's really fun for them since they got to roast each other while playing.

The game ended and it was Hani who won. The others groaned in frustration while the winner smirked in triumph.

"I protest! She cheated!" Baro complained.

"I agree. She won because she's violating the rules." Jin chimed in.

"I request for a second round!" Sandeul added.

"I didn't cheat. It's my talent to win this kind of game." Hani said as she dramatically showed her innocent face. Ken stared at her with his burning gaze.

"Alright, calm down! The court will decide!" they all turned silent as Moonbyul spoke. They eyed each other for a moment before bursting into a laugh.

"I can't believe we're acting like kids just now." Hani wiped her tears because of too much laughing.

"Hey, guys, to think about it, we never know about each others' childhood or other things besides that. It's been two years now and I still have no idea how we became like this. I mean, we all are very different." Jin unexpectedly said his thoughts.

"Maybe fate is the key?" Baro blinked his eyes. "That's cheesy." his stepbrother nudged him on his chest.

"Maybe we're here with each other because of the future?" Moonbyul tilted her head. "What do you mean?" Ken asked.

"What if the future is made for us to go through it together?"

"So, what you want to say is that we don't have to have the same past but we are here with each others' company to face the future. Am I right?" Hani said.

"Yes, that's exactly what I thought." Moonbyul replied.

"Okay, enough with the future shts, I still want to know about your childhood memories." Jin interrupted. "Starting with you." he pointed at Ken.

****

Yo, I'm back! Sorry for the not-so-long hiatus though. I got so many things to do and I'm now clearing all of them.

I'm so sorry if you waited for a chapter and I hope this will make it. (I know this chapter is shtty but I really hope you enjoyed it.)

To my fellow Starlights, cheer up! Let's stay together for a long time :)))

Have a nice day and stay safe everyone! And don't forget to smile even though it's hard! You can do it!

(votes and comments would be amazing hehe)

Signing off, jaetiff14