metal straw | ast. cha eunwoo

two

Just like how his day always starts, Eunwoo made a quick stop at a nearby small café before heading to school. And just like every day, he ordered the same smoothie as yesterday.

Running hurriedly, Eunwoo managed to slip into the last bus heading to school. He leaned his head against the window and looked through it, ignoring the vibration shaking his head and calmly drank the cold refreshing smoothie.

"I'm sorry, can I just..."

Suddenly, a hand appeared reaching out right beside his face from behind and travelled towards his smoothie. At first, Eunwoo thought it might've been someone trying to push the button in front of him to inform the driver to stop the bus. But when the hand suddenly grabbed ahold of his straw, he was confused as ever.

"Say no to plastic straws."

That voice was just too familiar to Eunwoo. The girl was back with her pink metallic straw. And as expected, a metal straw was placed in his smoothie.

"You're welcome."

He could feel her smiling from behind before leaning right back to her seat.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, turning his head slightly enough to see her.

"I always take the bus to school," she replied bluntly.

Eunwoo had been taking the bus for the whole semester and he was sure this was the first time he had seen her. Parts of him kept telling him she wasn't telling the truth. But he ignored his thoughts, agreeing to his thought that he probably just didn't notice her.

"My name's Kim Soyeon," she introduced.

Eunwoo jumped slightly when he suddenly found the girl's head poking right beside his face like before.

"Cha Eunwoo..."

She gave him a quick smile before bringing her head back and sat right back up. Eunwoo let out a sigh, after having to hold his breath when her face was directly in front of his with little space between.

They finally reached their stop and climbed off together, with a few others climbing after them. Eunwoo gave the metal straw back to her before turning to head for a nearby trash bin.

"Wait! Don't!"

Soyeon suddenly grabbed his wrist only to find the drink was gone and down the bin. Along with the plastic straw. Eunwoo then noticed how her grip around his wrist started to tighten and her eyes immediately shut closed. Eunwoo suddenly felt an impact smacking his shoulder. It took him a moment to realise where it came from. Soyeon stood annoyingly in front of him.

"What's the point of using a metal straw when you're just going to throw away the plastic one?"

"What am I supposed to do?" he questioned.

"You keep it! Recycle it! Or make something useful out of it! You don't just throw it away!"

Though a small-figured girl, her voice screamed louder than a megaphone. Her outburst caught the attention of many strangers passing by. But she didn't care about how many people were staring at her, she was too upset with the boy in front of her. Too upset of the plastic straw had met its fate in the trash.

"Never mind, just don't do it again, okay? Let's just go."