seoul boy~ minsung

o n e

lee minhos life, as he'd known it.was over. judge and jury in the form of his parents had not been swayed by pleas,reasons,temper,threats but instead had sentenced him and shipped him off, away from everything he knew and cared about to a world without computer café or mcdonalds. The only thing that kept him from completely dying of boredom, or just going wacko, was his nintendo switch. as far as he could see, it would be him and mario karts for the duration of his "prison term", two horrible, stupid months in the freaking countryside.

he knew damn well the game, which his father had gotten pretty much right off the assembly line in korea, was a kind of bribe.

practically nobody in the whole of korea had the game, and that was definetly cool. but what was the point in having something everybody else wanted if you couldnt show it off to your friends?

all his friends were back, a zillion miles back, in seoul. they'd be hanging out for summer, taking trips to the beaches or dancing in his own studio.

his parents were off to italy and france and other stupid places on a second honeymoon. which was code for last-ditch effort to save the marriage.

no,minho was nobodys fool.

having their 16 year old son around wasnt romantic or whatever, so they shipped him off to his grandparents in jeonju

godforsaken jeonju. he'd heard his mother call it that plenty of times, except when she'd smiled and smiled telling him he was gonna have an adventure, get to know his "roots". godforsaken turned into pristine and pure and exciting. like he did know she'd run off from her parents and their crappy little farm the minute she'd turned eighteen?

so he was stuck back where she'd run from, and he hadnt done anything to deserve it. it wasnt his fault his father couldnt keep his dick in his pants, or his mother compensated by buying up madison avenue. information minho had learned from expert and regular eavesdropping. they screwed things up and he was sentenced to a summer on a horse shit farm with grandparents he barely knew.

and they were really old.

he was supposed to help with the horses, who smelled and looked like they wanted to bite you. with the chickens who smelled and did bite.

they didnt have a house keeper who cooked egg white omelets and picked up his action figures. and they drove trucks instead of cars. even his ancient grandmother.

he hadnt seen a cab in days.

he had chores, and had to eat home-cooked meals with food he'd never seen in his life. and maybe the food was pretty good, but that wasnt the point.

the one TV in the whole house barely got anything. and there was no mcdonalds, no chinese or pizza place that delivered. no friends. no park. no movie theatres, no arcades.

he glanced up from his nintendo switch to look out of the car window at what he considered a lot of nothing. stupid mountains,stupid trees. the same view, as far as he could tell, that had been outside the window since they'd left the farm. at least his grandparents had stopped interupting his game to tell him stuff about what was outside the window.like he cared about a lot of settlers and indians and soldiers who hung around here before he was even born.

the way minho looked at it, the fact that the closest town to the farm was called deadwood said it all.

he didnt care about cowboys and horses and buffalo.he cared about dance and video games.he might as well be dead too.

he spotted a bunch of what looked like mutant deer clomping across the high grass, and a lot of trees and stupid hills that were really green.

his grandmother shifted in her seat to look back at him. "do you see the elk, minho?"

"i guess"

"we'll be getting to the Han farm soon" she told him. "it was nice of them to have us all over for supper. your going to like jisung. hes nearly your age."

he knew the rules. " yes ma'am" as if he'd pal around with some boy. some dumb farm boy who probably smelled like horse. and looked like one.

he bent his head and went back to mario karts so his grandmother would leave him alone. she sort of looked like his mother. if his mother was old and didnt get her hair done blond and wavy, and didnt wear makeup. but he could see his mother in this strange old woman with the lines around her blue eyes.

it was a little spooky.

her name was lucy, and he was supposed to call her grandma.

she cooked and baked.alot. and hung sheets and stuff out on a line in back of the farmhouse. she sewed and scrubbed, and sang when she did. her voice was pretty, if you liked that sort of thing.

she helped with the horses, and minho could admit, he'd been surprised and impressed when he'd seen her jump right on one without using a saddle or anything.

she was old-probably at least 50, for gods sake. but she wasnt creaky.

mostly she wore boots and jeans and plaid shirts. except for today she'd put a dress on and left the brown hair she usually braided loose.

he didnt notice when they turned off the endless stretch of road, not until the ride turned bumpier. when he glanced out he saw more trees, less flat land, and the mountains roughed up behind them. mostly, it looked like a lot of bumpy green hills topped over with bare rock.

he knew his grandparents raised horses and rented them at trail heads to tourists who wanted to ride them. he didnt get it. he didnt get it. he just didnt get why anybody would want to sit on a horse and ride around rocks and trees.

his grandfather drove along the more dirt than gravel road, and minho saw cattle grazing on either side. he hoped it meant the drive was nearly over. he didnt care about having dinner at the han farm or meeting dumb jisung.

but he had to pee.

his grandfather had to stop so his grandmother could hop out to open a cattle gate, then close it again when they'd gone through. as they bumped along his bladder began to protest.

he saw sheds and barns and stables, whatever they were didnt matter. it was, as far as it went out here, a sign of civilization.

something was growing in some fields, and horses were running around in others like they didnt have anything better to do.

the house, when it came into view, didnt look that different from the ones his grandparents lived in. two floors, windows, a big porch. except the house was blue and his grandparents house might think were okay to look at.

a woman came out on the porch and waved. she wore a dress too. a long one that made him think of the pictures of hippies he'd seen. her hair was really dark and pulled back in a ponytail. outside the house sat two trucks and an old car.