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Some time after my toilet encounter with Donghyuck that birthed his "Peach" nickname for me, I was extremely late to lunch and the queue had dissipated by the time I arrived. I was alone until another boy joined me; it didn't take me long to realize who that boy was and I could only pray he wouldn't recognize me. Unfortunately, Donghyuck had immediately made his recognition heard, having pointed at me with a hard expression.
"You're that pervert from the toilets," was how he put it. I remember feeling so embarrassed that I couldn't say anything in response, my nails digging into my metal tray because of how tightly I was gripping it.
Then the supervising lunch lady said the one thing that shaped my relationship with Donghyuck until this very day: "I'm sorry, kids, there's only one bowl of kimchi stew left." Apparently someone knocked a tray full of bowls of stew earlier, causing the shortage. Kimchi stew. My most precious side dish at that age. I wanted to have it, of course.
"I'll have it." Donghyuck had quickly answered before I could say anything.
I looked at him weirdly. "But I got here first."
"But you falsely accused me when you were in the wrong and threw a bottle at me." he picked up the bowl carefully. At the extra reminder of my shameful incident, I felt my blood begin to boil.
"That doesn't count for anything—I got here first!"
And I don't know what I was thinking. I attempted to grab the bowl from his hands, for him to jerk back in retaliation, and the next thing I knew I felt warm liquid drenching the hem of my sleeves. At least it wasn't bad for me. Can't say the same about Donghyuck, who took most of the fall, with stew now all over his blazer, white shirt and the top of his pants.
We both stood there for a moment in the silence of shock, with the lunch lady gasping and half of the cafeteria sneaking glances at us. Donghyuck slowly looked up at me, a single stern gaze that had me gulping in fear. I knew that I really fucked up.
"You're so lucky that wasn't hot, Peach." he set his tray aside and took off his blazer. I wanted to apologize, I wanted to apologize profusely like I always would because I was raised to have manners, but the words couldn't leave my mouth. Before I could mutter my apology out, he stormed off, presumably to the restrooms to wash up.
I lost my appetite after that and got Renjun, my new best friend, to get me bread from the convenience store instead. Ever since, Donghyuck decided to make my life a living hell. He'd spark competition with me over any little thing he could find (he especially loved to mock me by saying shit like "I did this first!") and the fact that we were both in the running for top two in grades didn't help. And I thought: alright, fine. I'll play with this asshole until we graduate. Then we'll never have to see each other again.
Yet for some reason, the universe clearly laughed at me and said "Sike!", because during college orientation I had tripped over my untied shoelace and literally fell into someone. In another world, maybe that could've been the start of a romance, but when I realized it was Donghyuck's face only inches away from mine, I wished I was never born. Then, right when I was feeling gratitude for being in a different department than him, I met him during our first club meeting.
