Mickey was in homeroom reading through his textbook. Meanwhile, Jungha stuck his head out from the hallway to see if Mickey was in class. After spotting him, Jungha walked over and placed his hand on the backrest of Mickey's chair. He leaned over to peak at what his friend was doing.
"What are you reading? You look really focused."
Not surprised to see Jungha, Mickey casually replied, "Literature. I haven't read the chapter for the upcoming lecture yet."
Jungha yawned, "You don't have to read it you know. It's supplementary stuff the teacher's going to talk about anyway. Why bother."
Mickey closed his book and glared at Jungha, "Did you come here just to bother me?"
"Heheh, of course not. I wanted to ask if you could come over to my house later. I washed the sweater you let me borrow, but I forgot to bring it to school today," Jungha said with bits of sweat running down his forehead.
"Why don't you bring it tomorrow? I'm not in a rush to get it back."
Jungha was persistent and would not take no as an answer. He assertively spoke out, "Come over please! There's something else I want to give you."
Astonished, Mickey faintly blushed seeing how serious Jungha was, "A…alright, I'll come over. I would have agreed if you told me that first."
Jungha humorously pouted, "I wanted it to be a surprise, that's all. Why are you so difficult? Can't you just say yes to anything I ask."
Mickey amusingly smiled and tsked. He began hitting Jungha with his textbook, shooing him away, "Go back to your class, you're going to get in trouble! I'll see you after school."
Jungha let out a playful shriek as he dodged the second swing and dashed out of the room.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Later that day, the two boys reached the apartment complex. This was the second time Mickey had been here. The image of Jungha's mother was the first thing that came up in his mind.
As they walked up the staircase to Jungha's apartment, Mickey brought up the question, "So, how's it with you and your mom? What's the situation now?"
"I don't know really. I told my brother I didn't want to see or to talk to her yet." Jungha said, staring straight ahead.
"Don't you think it's best to sort it all out at least? Without her, you wouldn't be able to live here or afford the tuition you have now…"
Jungha stopped in place and softly gazed at Mickey with a smile, "Don't worry about it, Mickey. I just want to avoid that issue and forget about it for the moment. I'll figure everything out sooner or later, but right now all I can think about is showing you your gift."
They entered into the apartment and Jungha gestured Mickey to follow him, "My room is down the hallway."
Mickey had only seen the living space, and the small dining room that connected to the kitchen. He wondered how Jungha's room would look like, perhaps a bit unkept and filled with sports and anime posters. Once they got in the room, Mickey was a bit surprised at what he saw. Jungha's room was very simple, with the décor of kid-like furniture.
Jungha chuckled, "Don't judge, but my room hasn't changed since I was in middle school. We didn't have a lot growing up, so I never cared to redecorate or anything."
Mickey shook his head, "No, It's fine. You saw how Jiang and my room was, there's barely anything in there. It's nice how you kept all this kind of stuff. Why replace something that can still be used, right?"
"Exactly! Well, make yourself at home. Let me go get your sweater, I think I left it somewhere over here," Jungha said, while pulling out clothes through his laundry basket.
Mickey leisurely walked around the room, looking at the photos of Jungha when he was a kid. The boy in the photo looked timid and scrawny. He would not have guessed that the little boy in the picture would have become the outgoing Jungha he knew today.
"Is this really you, Jungha?" He questioned, while holding the frame.
"Yeah, that's me back in middle school. I wasn't lying to you when I said I was a shy kid back then," Jungha replied, still looking for the sweater, "Where did it go? I had it somewhere here last night."
Mickey proceeded to go through a wooden bookshelf. It was filled with some manga comics and schoolbooks. While looking through them, there was a worn-out book at the end of the shelf. Mickey pulled it out and carefully examined it. On the front cover it read Jungha's name.
"Jungha, what's this book?" Mickey asked, his voice full of curiosity.
At that moment, Jungha had found the sweater, "Finally, I found it! It was actually by the side of my bed!" Jungha then looked over to Mickey, "Which book?"
"This one, with the green cover," Mickey showed, as he was about to open and read it.
Jungha's eyes widened with shock, and ran across the room in two quick strides. He swiftly snatched the book before Mickey could have seen what was written inside.
"Uh…Don't read that! It's just an old journal I wrote for school. It's embarrassing…"
A wide expression appeared on Mickey's face, "Huh?! It's not like you to be secretive like that. Don't worry if it's actually your 'adult' books, I won't judge," Mickey teased.
Jungha raised his brows at Mickey and handed the sweater over, "Here, thanks for letting me borrow it," then he pulled something out of his pocket, "And… this is also for you," stretching out the syllables of his last sentence.
It was a small white radish charm that had roots protruding out of it, resembling that of a human figure. Amazed, Mickey's eyes sparkled at how funny and neat the trinket was. He grabbed the figure by the braided string attached to it and thoroughly inspected the details.
"This is so awesome, Jungha. Thank you."
Jungha saw how much Mickey liked the gift and could not help but let out a big grin, "I thought you would like it! On the day we worked at your family's store, I saw it when I was with Ai. It reminded me of you since you like to hit me on the head with radishes. The owner also said it will bring you good luck and wealth."
Mickey jokingly scoffed, "I only hit you once, and do you really believe that?! Those shop owners will say anything to get you to buy their stuff, but I really do like it, Jungha. Thanks again, I really mean it."
"I knew you would appreciate it ha-ha!"
"Well, I should get going," Mickey stated.
Jungha nodded and walked him out the door. Before leaving Jungha had one more request to make, "Uh, Mickey!"
"Yeah?" he replied.
"The fireworks festival is coming up soon. Ai won't be able to make it to the festival because she'll be visiting her extended family that weekend. She wanted to eat out together with some friends before leaving, to make up for missing the fireworks. Ai asked me to invite people, but I don't think my other friends will match her crowd. So, you should come and invite some of your friends. I feel that you will have the better judgement of who to bring," Jungha explained.
Mickey agreed, he could not turn down the favor after what Jungha had already done, "Of course, it'll be fun to hanging out together! I'll come up with an idea of who to bring along."
After leaving, Mickey realized he did not have many close friends outside of Jungha.
What am I going to do and who am I going to bring?! Mickey anxiously thought to himself.