ugly duckling
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
"i hope you don't feel obligated to hang out with us." beomgyu says as they trail far behind the others.
taehyun turns towards him, moving his eyes away from an ecstatic huening kai who is having a full on conversation with the truck driver.
"the guys just think you're really fun to be around. and because we've seen that you walk around alone, they want.. -we want to include you in our group." he continues, taehyun feels a woosh of hapiness in his stomach. he hasn't felt this way in a while.
"thanks. i like that you ask me to hang out." taehyun answers, biting his lip as they continue after the others.
huening kai is jumping around pointing at all the different flavours. whilst soobin and yeonjun are quietly pondering what to choose for themselves.
they all stand in line behind the youngest as he chatters away about how cool the truck is. the driver, hoseok, smiles. huening kai has apparently bought ice cream in the park so often all the usual drivers know him.
huening kai buys a musketeer lolly, that is shaped like mickey mouse. soobin buys a rocket lolly, yeonjun can't decide if he wants a toasted almond lolly or a chocolate eclair lolly, so he gets both. and taehyun and beomgyu both decide they want a flake 99 each.
huening kai says goodbye to hoseok and they walk off. children's laughter and joyful screaming fill their ears as they walk around. benches are filled with people, prams, parents watching their kids play and elderly, enjoying the nice weather.
the ground is strewn with picnic blankets and people in love. high school students are jumping rope and chatting amongst themselves. the group make their way to a less populated area. which is the large pond filled with ducks and swans.
they sit down on a patch of grass. eating their ice cream as the ducks fight over the bread crumbs people are throwing out for them. beomgyu breaks off a piece of his ice cream cone, tossing it towards a nearby duck. taehyun wants him to stop.
but beomgyu continues to toss pieces of his cone at the ducks. he has devoured his ice cream in about two minutes, but isn't eating the cone. taehyun has a stomach ache, ducks shouldn't be fed human food.
"hyung, you shouldn't do that." taehyun says in a small voice, looking over at the grey haired boy. beomgyu raises his brows.
"ducks can't eat ice cream cones. it's dangerous for their tummies and they can get addicted to the sugar." taehyun says matter-of-factly. beomgyu stops tossing the cone pieces at the birds, nodding his head.
"how do you know all this random stuff?" huening kai asks.
"know what kind of random stuff?" taehyun turns towards the youngest, licking his ice cream.
"you know all these random things. like the duck thing, how do you even know that?" huening kai says, biting his wooden popsicle stick. taehyun shrugs his shoulder. he just knows stuff like that. don't all people know stuff like this?
"yeah! and you knew the thing about tilting your head backwards when you have a nosebleed."
"you shouldn't do that." taehyun whispers under his breath.
"do you just know stuff like this? do you read up on it or what?" beomgyu continues to pester him with questions.
"i don't know, i just remember things like that. is this an interrogation or what?" taehyun says,
"is this an interrogation or what?" soobin says in a mocking voice, "no, dummy, they're just fascinated by someone who can read for leisure."
"beomgyu reads! i do too!" huening kai says.
"beomgyu only reads because he has to, to get good grades. maybe if you tried harder ning ning you'd do that too. and your grades would be better."
"sassy soobin has entered the building." yeonjun says with a cocky grin on his face. soobin hits him on the shoulder and he coughs.
"leave me and ning ning alone won't you? we didn't do anything to you." yeonjun adds, glaring at the black haired boy.
"i know, you two just get on my nerves." soobin says, pushing up his glasses. twisting his rocket lolly between his lips, sending a dimpled smile towards the two.
taehyun feels like there's some drama or unreleased tension between them. soobin is definetly holding some grudge or something. and huening kai looks hurt.
"you know i can't read well. why would you even say that?" huening kai asks, pearly eyed. yeonjun wraps an arm around the younger, patting his head carefully.
"i hope you know we can kick you out of our friend group if we want to right?" yeonjun says, soobin looks at the ground.
"i was mean on accident. sorry." the black-haired boy says, pulling at the grass with his spare hand.
"on accident?" huening kai asks, "it's always on accident, hyung. think about what you're saying."
"it just slips out, sorry.." soobin says again, looking up with a apologetic look on his face.
was soobin saying hurtful things as a defence mechanism? that was odd.
soobin stays silent, displaying all the different kinds of sadness on his face, all at once. yeonjun is wiping grass stains off his humongous boots and huening kai snatches the ice cream cone out of beomgyu's hand. shoving it in his mouth whole, all at once.
taehyun turns towards beomgyu, who right now seems to be the most normal person in the group. beomgyu moves closer to whisper something to the younger, taehyun moves closer to listen.
"soobin used to be the ugly duckling." beomgyu whispers in taehyun's ear. the younger doesn't really understand and sends the other a confused look.
"so if he thinks someone is mocking him, he'll be mean back immediately. he can't help it."
"gyu! i can hear you shit-talking me to taehyun." soobin says, knitting his eyebrows together.
"i was just saying it how it is." beomgyu defends himself, leaning backwards, looking at the pond.
quacking fills the area around the dam. loud flapping of wings woosh through the air as a few kids chase the ducks.
"you're making me sound horrible." soobin says suddenly with a pout. yeonjung scoffs quietly, looking off at the pond too.
"you're not, hyung." taehyun says, smiling at soobin. he wasn't really that bad. and like beomgyu said, he can't really help it.
"and if you used to be the ugly duckling, aren't your friends the swans who accept you in the end?"
☁️
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🩹scared | taegyu
Romance"hyung, i don't want to do this! i'm scared." "it's okay, i'll hold you hand." In which the introverted kang taehyun transfers to a new school, because he suffers from bad anxiety. and choi beomgyu just really wants to make him feel safe. and little...
