TAKE IT SLOW - RED VELVET

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oFn0Bunijc

With all that had been going on these past few weeks, Mingyu’s mind had not made any mental note of the following day ahead. If he hadn’t spent so much of his time thinking about Hari, Kai, and the problem that  he now faced knowing that Kai was a dope boy, he would have remembered that today was in fact, Valentine’s day. Mingyu had told himself that by all means, he would not attend school on Valentine’s day in fear of all the Earthling girls that were going to surround him.

By the time Mingyu had remembered about the dreaded dooms day, it was far too late to walk back out. He was on his way to Vernon’s locker when a group of girls crowded around him. In hand, they each held onto a heart shaped box that seemed to contain some sort of candy or chocolate. His eyes flickered to and fro between each girl that was smiling his way. He cleared his throat uncomfortably, running a hand through his blue hair all the while as he asked, “What can I do for you guys… er, I mean girls?”

“Oppa, happy Valentine’s day!” belched out one eager girl from behind.

“We made you chocolates! Please accept our heartfelt confessions!”

Mingyu’s expressed tightened, trying to understand the importance of this day. It never really made sense why Valentine’s day existed. Why wait a certain day to tell somebody you liked them? Couldn’t you have asked them any other day, instead of today? It didn’t seem all that special to have an anniversary on the same day as many others around the world, at least not in Mingyu’s eyes. Although it didn’t really matter to Mingyu because he didn’t fancy any of the girls in his school, not even Sooyoung, who was considered the Beyonce of the school with her radiant smile and thick thighs. All the guys wanted to have a go with her, but it seems only her eyes along with Hara, Jina and Kaitlyn’s eyes were on Mingyu.

They tried to shove the containers into Mingyu’s arm, but he wasn’t budging. “That’s really nice of you guys,” he tried to say as he pushed back their offers with his own hands, “But I can’t accept it. I don’t really like sweets.”

A girl with perfectly threaded eyebrows and small face, frowned. “What do you mean you can’t accept it, oppa?! We spent all night making this for you.”

The girl beside her nodded in agreement, huffing, “Even if you don’t like us, the least you can do is take what we made for you.”

“Yeah! Be appreciative, not many get as much gifts as you do!”

Mingyu in his breath. It wasn’t because he wasn’t appreciative of their kindness, because in fact, he was deeply flattered by their action. However, the idea of accepting gifts from people he didn’t really know seemed outrageous to him. He may be a free loader at times, but that’s only for Hari. “I don’t think I can, I’m sorry… and to be frank, I honestly don’t even know who half of you are…” was his best reply. At times like this, he wished Hoshi, Vernon and S.Coupe were by his side. At least then he wouldn’t be trapped in this hallway, crowded by girls, while the rest of the male students passed by sending daggers his way.

Before any of the girls could say anymore, someone cleared their throat rather loudly. A normal person would have simply just did a tiny, ahem, and went on with their way. That would have been the right to do, isn’t it? Instead, once the person cleared their throat, three other ahems were heard following in it’s tow. Mingyu had been the first person to look back, his eyes widening widely now as he noticed that the four witches, each had a large basket of goodies in their arms.

“Oh no, unnies…” one girl cowered away. Seeing their gifts in their hands and comparing it to hers, it was trash.

“What do you girls think you are doing??” Hara asked, with one eyebrow raised up. She was not pleased to see all these nobodies trying to get Mingyu’s attention.

Kaitlyn stepped over to one girl with braids and circular glasses, yanking out the small heart shaped tin that was in the young girls hand and shaking it to her ear. She scoffed when she heard the sounds of the cookies breaking in there, “You think is real gift worthy? These cookies aren’t even going to last a day if they are that powdery. Can you even bake?” She looked at her friends and started laughing, “I’m so embarrassed, these girls think they have a chance with him.”

Hearing her words, the girl started to cry from the embarrassment. She wanted to leave, flee as far as possible from the scene as possible, but seeing as she the center of attention between the four witches she had no choice but to stand there as they ridiculed her in front of Mingyu.

“You want to know what a real confession looks like?” asked Sooyoung, smiling at all the girls with her lips a shade too red for her complexion. She pushed past the girls and walked over to Mingyu, who had been watching them with a dark look in his eyes. She plastered on her most seductive smile, holding out her basket of goodies that included freshly baked sugar cookies, some white chocolate dipped strawberries and a hand written letter of her confession. “Kim Mingyu, this is for you. I trust that you’ll read my letter later on.”

Mingyu tilted his head slightly, taking a curious glance inside the basket. He could see that she had put a lot of work into the basket, and seeing the bags under her eyes was enough confirmation that this had taken her possibly all night to do and that it meant a great deal to her.

Sooyoung’s heart lifted with joy when she saw him reach out for it. “Thank—” Her sentence was cut short when she felt his arm brushed her aside. Her heart dropped like an anvil when she saw him snatch the heart shaped tin away from Kaitlyn.

Eyeing all the girls that Mingyu was surrounded by gave him a headache, but he had to do it before the teachers came. There were enough eyes coming from nosy students, he didn’t need to deal with the adults too. He glared crossly at the four witches, holding up the tin that was made for him by the crying girl, “What right do any of you have to heckle someone like this? To put her on blast and ruin her cookies as if you had any right in the first place. It makes me sick that people like you think it’s okay to do this to anyone, especially to a fellow peer…” his eyes burning holes into Sooyoung’s head. “Take your baskets and please, I insist, feed them to those who are less fortunate than us. Thanks.”

With that, Mingyu strode off without taking a glance back at the stunned faces of the girls who adored him. Glancing down, he still had the tin in his hands. Seeing the girl cry made Mingyu sad, even if he hadn’t known her well. By accepting this tin, he wanted the four witches to realize that they were in the wrong for what had happened. When you like someone, it shouldn’t matter how big or small your gift was, as long as it came from the heart is what makes it most indubitably important. As he rounded the corner, he nearly bumped into Hoshi if not for the blonde hair that had caught his attention.

Hoshi’s eyes widened in recognition, before grinning widely at his pal, “Mingyu!” His grin faded slowly as he noticed the look of irritation on his friends face. Instead of greeting him with the usual cheerful, happy smile that was plastered on Mingyu’s face, Hoshi could see the evident frown that was taking shape on his friends face.

“Here, take this, you look like you need some cookies in your life,” mumbled Mingyu, tossing the heart shaped tin over to Hoshi.

Surprised by the gift, Hoshi glanced around before whispering, “Did Hari give you this?”

*If Hari had given that to me, do you think I would have given it to you, fool?* thought Mingyu. Instead of saying what he had thought, Mingyu just shook his head and went about his way without waiting for Hoshi’s response. Seeing that his friend was in no mood to talk this morning, Hoshi shrugged and then jogged after Mingyu as they made their way to Vernon’s locker for their usual early morning banters with the heart shaped tin held securely in his hands.

Thank goodness Mingyu had loved sharing his food else Hoshi might have fainted from the lack of food that was present in his belly! Having cookies for breakfast was a lot better than eating nothing at all, that’s for sure.

---

By the third quarter of his last class, Mingyu had had enough. No more treats, no more staring, no more confessions and no more GIRLS! The confessions came in letters, candy, sticky notes and even a water bottle, all of which was somehow planted in his locker. When he opened it, everything came spilling down like an avalanche.

Once break came, he dragged Hoshi by the neck and yanked his friend out of the room.

“Where are we going?!” yelped Hoshi, almost losing his footing as he was dragged by his friend.

“It seems like Cupid has an agenda plan for me today and I am trying my best to avoid being shot by the wrong arrow,” replied Mingyu curtly. Apparently word had spread around the school that Mingyu had accepted one person, which meant he had room to accept more. It seems his act of generosity towards the crying girl led other’s to become delusional over him. One girl had the gall to say she was in love with him. LOVE! For god’s sake, he didn’t know a single thing about her. Sure she was cute, and he could have easily scanned her, but he didn’t because he simply wasn’t interested. Why was the concept of being uninterested so damn hard to understand?

Instead of being so focused on dating, shouldn’t these people learn how to prioritize education first? Isn’t that how things were taught around here?

Mingyu had no idea where his feet was leading him, but he was hauling his friend behind him as if he was not a human body, but a log that could be effortlessly thrown back and forth.

“If you keep dragging me like this, my arm just might rip off,” cried Hoshi, trying his best to pull back. He had never realized how strong Mingyu was, but now that the taller male had his steel grip on him, Hoshi found himself both awe-struck and slightly afraid. He wasn't afraid of Mingyu per se, but to feel his friend's crazy inhuman strength was kind of terrifying. No teenager should ever be this strong, unless they did deadlifting daily.

“Oh,” said Mingyu, as if finally the last ten mintues of Hoshi howling had finally caught up to him. The vibrant, cramped streets of Hongdae finally came into view, making him halt in his steps and let go of Hoshi. Running a hand through his hair, Mingyu expelled a sigh that he had been holding. “Sorry about that, I didn’t realize… what I was doing. I was just trying to get out of school as quickly as possible.”

Hoshi placed a sympathetic hand on his friends shoulder. “I mean… at least it’s a good ego-boost? Every girl wants you, every guy hates you. Shouldn’t you at least be happy about that?”

No, because they don’t like me for who I am. They like me for my looks, and no good will ever come out of that, Mingyu had wanted to say. Instead, Mingyu lets out an annoyed growl, that instantly made Hoshi shut up.

Studying the vicinity around them, Mingyu wondered what they could do. This had been his first time actually skipping school since he started, and to be completely honest, it wasn’t as exhilarating as he expected it to be. He looked at Hoshi, frowning, “I had a determination to get here, but now that we are here, I don’t know what to do.” Right after he said that, Mingyu spotted an internet café to which he pointed out to Hoshi.

After being surrounded by so much chit-chatting and recycled conversations of how to confess, Mingyu’s brain had grown tired. He wanted nothing more than to zone out the buzzing of conversations, which is why he chose to go to the internet café. At least there he could put on a set of headphones over his head and tune out the world as he gamed. Beside him, Hoshi was having the time of his life trolling on the forums for League while Mingyu sat quietly next to him, listening to some mandarin songs. He hadn’t understood a thing, and that made him very happy. Sometimes, not understanding what people were saying was a good thing. At least then you wouldn’t have to worry whether or not you were part of the discussion.

As he fell away from reality, his mind began to map out the situation with Kai, Hari and Wongeun. After that uneventful meeting with the other male, he had concluded ultimately that both Kai and Wongeun were people he wanted to keep a keen eye on. Aside from the Hayoung problem, Kai, seems to