A Caged Bird | Minjoon

12

"don't forget, guys, the homework tonight is posted online in the syllabus," mr. kim said, shouting up to the class as the bell began to ring.

everyone, including jimin and namjoon, began packing up.

"oh- and one last thing!" their teacher said, "submissions for the school-wide poetry contest will be due next monday. the winner gets five hundred dollars. their poem will also be posted all over the school and submitted into a national contest! don't forget, you guys! i know i've got some great writers in this class."

jimin immediately stopped packing up his things, turning to namjoon.

"joon, did you hear that?" jimin asked, excitement laced in his voice, "a poetry contest!"

namjoon just shook his head, picking his bag up from the floor.

"not interested," he said.

"what? why?" jimin asked, "you write great poetry! i'm sure you would win!"

namjoon shook his head again.

"it's not that, jimin. it's just... it's... private, you know?"

"joon, you want a do this for a career, right? do you know how amazing it would be for you if you won... if you got submitted for a national contest? you could get whatever writing job you wanted!"

namjoon just sighed.

"i know. i'm just... i'm not ready yet."

namjoon stood up, flinging his bag over his shoulder, jimin following.

"at least think about it."

and, without another word, areum was walking over to the two, immediately stealing all namjoon's attention away.

-

namjoon wouldn't usually ever let areum intrude on jimin and his little café routine, but he just didn't know how to turn her down.

jimin was pretty quiet, sipping on his hot chocolate and scrolling through his phone.

"so... you guys do this every day?" aruem asked, drinking some sort of smoothie.

"...yeah," namjoon said, a little hesitantly.

areum looked over at namjoon.

"then how come i've never been invited?"

namjoon just sat there, not really knowing what to say, watching jimin's head shoot up from his phone to look at him.

namjoon started to panic a little before he heard aruem break out in a little laugh.

"i'm just kidding, joon. i get it. time with your friends is important."

namjoon internally sighed, relieved that he didn't have to deal with her.

the three fell quiet, jimin finishing up his hot chocolate and standing up.

"well... we should probably get to class, joon."

namjoon nodded, quickly standing up and pulling his hand away from aruem.

"yeah, you're right."

areum stood up with them, figuring she should head to her own class.

"well, i'll see you boys later then," she said, smiling up at joon, and pecking him on the cheek, "bye, baby."

jimin just gave her a half-smile, doing a little wave, while namjoon ran to be by his side, after saying a quick goodbye to areum.

the two boys immediately turned and started heading to their class, areum watching them walk away.

jimin had said something and namjoon immediately burst out laughing.