-
You woke to your alarm clock, just like every day.
Hmm, something's not right about today. It's not bad, but it's not good. Something is off.
You do the usual, shower, brush hair and teeth, and then get your laptop and head out. Today was different though. The weather, the whole vibe, kinda.
-
"How ya doing today, chi?" The boy on the bus asks you, just like every other day. You never got his name and he never really got yours, but he was quite cute.
He always sat opposite of you unintentionally.
I always forget to ask him how he knows my nickname; kimchi, kim, or chi. But hey, I'm not complaining.
"I'm good, how bout yourself, busboy?"
He thinks for a second, then continues with his reply.
"Good too, I guess." He replies plainly. He flicks his left wrist to move his sweater sleeve up to look at his watch.
You have had this conversation a million times before, but each time is kind of like, something gets added to the mix, you know? Something small, like a smile, or a chuckle. Even a hair flip once. This boy has been using this bus for about 2 months now, and you 3 . You couldn't help but feel...what's the word? Comforted? Or, attached, maybe. You always spot him and his colored hair that is always a brown color that was a bit long. It was so original, you couldn't help but fall in love with the texture when he let you touch it.
You frown when you notice his new haircut. Dyes white with an undercut.
"Heey, what happened to your hair? I was just getting used to your old cut."
He laughs, "I dyed it and cut it. I liked my old one as well, but I thought the girl I like didn't like the length. How long it was" he smiles, touching the back of his head.
"Well, whoever that girl is probably loved it. I know I loved it." He smiles.
"oh- here you go, since you told me yesterday that you have a test today." He hands you a big thermos of coffee, black. "Creamer, since I don't know how you like your coffee," he adds, handing you a bag of different types of creamer. You laugh.
Aw, how considerate. What a pure soul.
"Thank you so much! I don't think I could go the day without this" you lift the thermos up and put the french vanilla creamer in, along with a packet of sugar. He pulls a thermos of his own out and opens it.
"You mind pouring some of that in here?" He notions it towards you.
"sure" you pour some in until he tells you to stop. You ask him if he wants sugar.
"yeah, but only a little. I already have a creamer." He makes a face.
"Hmm, I see" you nod, understanding. "I know what you mean; I don't like my coffee exploding with flavor. Especially in the morning. Like now, I'm talking to you, but if I were fully awake, I would be unnecessarily awkward and probably embarrass myself to an extent where I couldn't face you anymore."
his face screwed up in confusion. "wait- what does that have to do with the coffee thing though?" he asks.
"Oh!- If my coffee is too sweet or something. it'll wake me up and i'll be in a bad mood or i don't want to talk to anyone." you explain.
He hums in response. "You can keep the thermos, by the way. My mom sends me way too many. I don't mind giving a couple to you." He offers
"Your mom sends you stuff?" He nods, "From where?"
"Gwang-ju. It's where I grew up when I came to Korea."
"Oh, nice." You look down in disappointment. Your mother went MIA a couple of months ago. She undoubtedly changed her phone number and everything you knew about her. You still don't know why she left, but you couldn't help but blame yourself.
"Your mom,- is she okay?" What the fuck?
You look up, shocked.
"I can read you. You're worried about your mom." He gets up to sit in the seat next to you. "She'll come back, don't worry, it wasn't your fault." Your eyes widen.
"I said I could read you." He shrugs and smiles at you, showing his teeth this time.
You smile back for a moment. Then the bus stops. "See you, busboy. This is my stop" you say over your shoulder. He nods his head to you, telling you to go before the doors close. But, something possesses you to look back and say "Thank you."
He throws a finger heart, oh my god.
You actually don't know where his stop is, you're not even sure if he goes to school at all. But nevertheless, it's none of your business. You guys don't even know each other's names, let alone your occupations, or schools.
When you stepped off the bus, you got that feeling you get every time; Warmness. Today was a little chilly, but this warm is different. You already know what it means though. He makes you feel like you're needed. He gives you what your mom never gave you, he gives it through little comments. Comments like, "You look nice today,", or "Sunny today, huh?". Sometimes "Did you eat yet?" and will pull out a granola bar out of his bag. Little things, simple things. It's things like that that make you happy.
You continue walking to the block the university is on. It's about 3 blocks away from where you are right now. You haven't really got the chance to find a shortcut since you're still a little new to Seoul, but it's something that you could do later.
Today really was weird, I don't know how he was able to get that from me. I mean, no one really knows that piece of information about me, besides my best friend, but that goes unsaid. Where is he, actually?
"YA, KIMCHI! WAIT UP"
Well, speak of the devil, I guess.
"What were you doing walking all alone? You look, no offence, boring and sad." The boy tells.
Now, Taeyong has been your friend from first grade. It's cliche, I know, but he really has. He's been through what you've been through and vise versa. One thing you can't understand about him is the fact that he's still here, and he's so persistent. He's gotten mad at you before, and you've gotten mad at him before. Sometimes you guys get into arguments so bad one of you leaves with clothes and a bag. SOMETIMES you guys get so mad at each other to the point of saying "I can't even look at you", "Get out of my sight before I do something that will get me in jail.", "You're not my best friend anymore, don't try to text me, call me, EMAIL me, snap me, dm me, nothing. You're out of my life."
But, none of those worked for departure. He always came back to you and you always came back to him.
"I'm still tired. That's all." You respond
He nods in understanding. "Wanna let it out?"
You groan loudly. "UGH! Where should I start? I had so much homework, I wasn't able to take a shower, I woke up this morning late, I didn't even make myself my coffee, and to end it, I forgot to put a sock on" You hold up your ankle to show him your sockless right foot.
"Hhm, I'm sorry. But if you weren't able to make your coffee, what's that?" He points to the thermos in your hand.
Ah, that.
"The boy on the bus gave it to me this morning since I told him I had a test today."
"Oooh, a boy. What's his name?" He asks
"I don't know"
"Oh. Oh wow." He says, shocked.
"Yeah, but he knows my nickname. Not sure how though." You say going into thought again.
"Does he go to our school?" He asks, a little worried now.
"I'm not sure, I call him busboy though, since I don't know his name either."
"Ah, I see. He probably goes to our school and someone called you Kimchi in front of him. Maybe."
You shake your head. "We don't know each other, and I know what he looks like, so if someone had said my nickname in front of him, I would've noticed he was there."
He nods again. "Maybe he knows someone that goes to school with us." He suggests.
"I don't know, but why are we going so deep into thought about this? Like,"
"It's not that deep", He finishes your sentence.
You guys do this thing that when you're walking together, you look ahead, but don't pay attention to what's actually in front of you. Mostly because you guys are too busy talking about nothing.
Well, that happened right now, since you guys just walked right into the front door of the main building.
This is the part that makes you sad. Taeyong has classes in the historical building, and you have all of your classes in the main building. You haven't really been in the other buildings besides that one time when you had to go get Taeyong out of trouble from this one group that thought they looked cool. They ended up actually being dumb and needed some tutoring for AP Bio. So I tutored them for a couple of months. Real nice guys. Some transferred to a different college in Seoul. Some stayed behind with us. They're our friends actually. Not BEST friends, but they're our close friends.
"Alright, bye kim, see you at your house." He waves heading off to the historical building.
"Yea bye- wait why are we meeting at my place?" you ask confused.
"Because," He whines. "I don't know some of the assignments' answers." He pouts after.
"Alright, I mean I guess. I haven't cleaned since I don't want to." You warn him
"Fine with me. ALRIGHT BYE!" He runs off this time.
This is the time where you usually go to the bathroom before school, so that's what you do.
After some time, you run into your friends that you were talking about earlier.
"Hey Jungwoo" you greet them as the rest start to walk up. He nods his head towards you.
"Man, today was hard," Haechan yawns
"But it's morning still?" Doyoung asks him.
"And?" Haechan replies
"Why is everyone here?" Mark asks
"Hey Mark" You greet again.
"OH! Hey Cina." He smiles at you.
"OKay, well I have AP Science right now, I got to go, but I'll see you guys later" you say walking away. They all wave bye to you and head off to their classes.
-
"Hey Nakamoto!" my AP Bio buddy says.
"Yo, TY, hey dude!"
"So," He continues on, I nod, letting him continue. "I didn't do the assignment last night." He smiles at me. "Help a buddy out?" he pouts.
This is my fault for trying to help everyone."Sure. But you're gonna have to treat me to lunch when we get off." I tell him, trying to make a win-win offer.
"Ah, sorry, I can't today, I have to go over to my best friend's house and she's gonna help me with my bio homework" he says smiling.
Ah, that sucks. I was looking forward to eating after I got off, but that's okay too, I guess.
"Can I come with? Then buy after?" I ask with big eyes
He scoffs. "I'll have to check in with Cina" he says, taking out his phone and texting the person in question.
I wait, walking alongside him to our bio class. He squeaks out of excitement.
"She said okay, but bring Hot Cheetos and aloe water." He laughs and texts her back.
-
If im getting ur hot cheetos, get me my sugar free Chobani yogurt
Okay wth?😒
Okay😩
I chuckle at how easily she can be persuaded. Man Cina, some men take advantage of that.
We arrived a little bit after we got off of our last class. I take my key out and put it in her door to open it. Yuta watches me as I set my bag down on the coffee table, still standing at the door.
I laugh. "Come in, she said you could come." I motion my hand for him to come in. He smiles a shy smile. My god, what a twink.
"I don't feel comfortable coming in if she's not here." He says, looking out in the hallways on both sides, looking for Cina.
"She's coming, she's just getting my sugar free yogurt. That's pretty hard to find. Saved us some time." I smile at him and throw a pillow at him. "Come on, let's fix this place up for some studying." He finally comes in and starts rearranging the couch and gets some blankets from the side table by the window.
"Okay, now what do I do? I already did the fort and inside." He points out, pointing towards the table where the chairs are placed in a semi-big rectangle. He placed a couple of blankets on top of the chairs with some books to act as weights so the blankets wouldn't fall. Classic childhood memory.
"Just do whatever you think this study should need. I mean, you kinda did everything already." I say scratching my head. He chuckles.
"I guess you can say that. But, I don't know. I feel like there's so much more you can do here." He says, putting his finger on his chin.
Wow, he really IS an architect student. A little impressive.
"Okay, be my guest" I gesture my hand towards the entire room. "While you do that Nakamoto, Imma go to the bathroom really quick." He nods. "If the door opens, it's going to Cina, and just introduce yourself, don't be awkward, she doesn't like awkward people. It makes her uncomfy." He nods again.
I don't think I'll take that long to take a little pee, but time goes by fast.
-
I start taking some pillows and make a mental blueprint of where I'm gonna put the chairs in order for there to be enough space for the 3 of us and our supplies, since we ARE going to be studying. It's that weird feeling again, like, I'm thinking too much and I'm getting overwhelmed with the possibilities of so many things. I think I'm going too deep when it's not that deep.
I ended up just taking the chairs and some hair clips and expanding the fort by a yard, or 3 feet, or 36 inches. I make sure there's no light peeking through so when we want to turn the lights off and turn on my little dinosaur I brought.
"Damn Nakamoto, you did all this in 5 minutes?" Taeyong asks, wiping his hands on his pants.
"I mean I-" I get cut off by the door handle jiggling from the keys entering it.
Enters is a girl with red tips and brown hair for the majority of her hair color. She's very thin. But she seems...familiar?
I don't think much of it and turn around to go to the bathroom. I turn and I hear Taeyong speak.
"Thanks Kimchi. AH! AND YOU GOT THE FIPS! I LOVE THESE!" he fangirls over a type of yogurt.
The thing that caught my attention was the nickname he called the girl. "Kimchi" Isn't that the bus girl's name I call her? At this point, my heart is racing and I dash into the bathroom. I wait a couple of minutes until I don't hear anything anymore. I also waited to prepare myself for what's about to happen if the girl is in fact who i think it is.
-
"Is the guy who you invited here?" You ask Taeyong.
""Oh Nakamoto? Yeah, he's using the bathroom." He replies plainly.
Hmm, I look at my dining room and see that it's decorated with a fort and pillows and blankets. "Did you make this?" I ask in awe of how much work was put into this. There was a little dinosaur that looks like it's an LED one on a little wooden table, along with some rose pillows from my couch and my wool comforter as a throw for the pillows that were placed horizontally, there was also a little fuzzy pillow with a flat and thick carpet. In the far left corner of the fort, there was a little dresser with a whole bunch of pens and pencils, with some textbooks and notebooks and our laptops.
"No, Nakamoto did. Pretty good, huh?" he says, taking a spoonful of his yogurt. I make a face at the unfamiliar name.
"The guy I invited over," he explains. I nod my head.
"It's pretty good. BUt why?" I ask. He cocks his head to the side. "We're only going over answers and studying, why all this when we could've just sat at the table." I gesture to the dining room. He shrugs.
"I agree with what Nakamoto did, I think this would be much more fun than just 'sitting at the table at studying'" He puts air quotes around my words, making a mocking face.
Damn ma, it aint that deep.
"Hey where IS Ishamoto?" I ask, wondering where the person in question is.
"It's Nakamoto, but he's still in the bathroom. I think?" He goes over to the bathroom door and knocks on it a couple times.
"Yeah?" a voice inside answers.
"Nakamoto, hurry up please" Taeyong asks through the door.
The door opens revealing a too familiar head of white hair.
I gasp as I notice who it is. "BUSBOY!" I yell in surprise.
"Hey chi," he says awkwardly.
"You two know each other?" Taeyong butts in
"That's the one who gave me the coffee this morning." I answer.
He 'ohs' in realization.
"I didn't know you went to SNU busboy?" I ask in shock.
He chuckles before answering. "I have all of my classes in the historical building. I'm an architecture student, so I do most of my work there. I haven't been to any other buildings than that ever since I transferred here." I nod, understanding.
"Me neither, I have all my classes in the main building and I'm majoring in arts, so I do most of my work in the auditorium, too." I answer relating to him.
"I have classes everywhere, it's so tiring." Taeyongs complains.
"You kinda chose your classes though, TY" busboy answers.
Taeyong scowls at him and he laughs.
"Well, lets get down to business, shall we boys?" I ask, getting my supplies out of my bag and putting them on the floor in the fort.
They both agree and start doing the same as well.
"So, what do you need help with?"
-
Hey guys! I decided to end this chapter here, since it's over 3000 words and don't want to strain your eyes, or your time since we are doing distance learning and those schedules are so fucking annoying! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I worked really hard on it and yeah, my update schedule will be wonky even more now since school, and these chapters are pretty long.
bye bye lovelies <33