What came to your mind when you thought about strawberry? A plump, full red heart shape fruit with a burst of yellow seeds covered the outer surface and an addition of green color on top giving a lively color to it. The luscious looking strawberry with seductive fruity scent make you eager to shove it into your mouth and being indulged with it great taste. The moment your teeth crushed it, the squishiness and juiciness of the sweet and sour flavor explode in your mouth hitting your taste buds sending you to your strawberry fantasy. The level of sweetness makes you craved for more. You kept on eating to fulfill your desire. Human creativity enlarged the addictive flavor empire by adding it to many types of delicious dessert, giving life to them.

Those were what would crossed most of strawberry lover mind but Jongin had a different way of thinking. He felt that strawberry shouldn’t be love by the world. Those filthy fruit shouldn’t be added to any types of desserts or snacks. Strawberry was not that delicious for Jongin. It tasted horrible. The first time he had his strawberry, he throw up. The moment the sour flavor burst in his mouth, his eyes automatically closed. Too bad for him, he couldn’t handle the sourness well resulting him puking strawberry. It’s not his entirely fault for hating strawberry. He was just unlucky enough for having a non sweet strawberry the first time he tried it.

 

Two months ago he was enrolled in an art college in Seoul. The college provided accommodation and he got to stay in a room of two. The moment he opened his room door, he saw a large strawberry plush on one of the bed in the room. His mouth was widely opened with a shocked expression on his face. He was too disturbed with the huge plush that he didn’t realize there was a small figure with huge eyes wearing glasses in front of him giving a concerned look while waving at his face.

“Are you okay? Why do you seem shocked? Is something bothering you?” Kyungsoo carefully asked the boy in front of him. He was sure the boy was his new roommate.

“Yes. I’m bothered by those. I hate them,” Jongin said while pointing to the large strawberry plush on the bed and five packets of strawberries on Kyungsoo’s study table.

He walked straight to his partition without a glance at his new roommate. Kyungsoo was dumbfounded. Kyungsoo who was being considerate to his new roommate decided to take the five packets of his new bought strawberries and his most loved favourite strawberry plushie out of his room. He planned to keep them in Baekhyun room. Baekhyun wouldn’t mind for he loves strawberry as much as Kyungsoo do. Chanyeol, Baekhyun roommate wouldn’t mind either. They are lover afterall. What Baekhyun loves, Chanyeol would love it as well. What a cute couple. Kyungsoo smiled at the thought of Baekyeol couple.

 

 

One night, about one o’clock in the morning, Jongin was stirred from his deep sleep. He could hear a slow heavy breathing from the bed opposite to him. He slowly woke up from his bed and walked to his roommate bed. He could see his roommate was shaking tremendously and his teeth chattered together uncontrollably. His lips cracked and very pale just like white alpine strawberry colour.

Jongin place his hand on Kyungsoo’s forehead and he could feel his hand burnt from the heat.

“You have high fever. I’ll get some medicine okay. Do you want anything else?”

“S-s-st-straw-b-e-rry”

“P-p-ple-a-se”

Jongin grabbed his pullover and rushed to a nearby 24hours pharmacy. On his way, he bought instant rice porridge, some strawberries and a packet of ice. He kept telling himself, he was just desperate. He hated strawberry. He just bought it for his sick roommate. That’s it.

Kyungsoo could feel his lips being parted and a bitter liquid entered his mouth, passed through his gastrointestinal tract and went straight to his stomach. Then he felt a cold feeling on his forehead, on his cheek, down to his neck, chest and then on his back. He felt a bit comforted and fall in a deep slumber after that.

Jongin’s mother always do this whenever he have a fever. His mother would soak the towel in ice water, squeezed it and then placed it on his forehead. He did the same to Kyungsoo. He placed the wet towel on Kyungsoo’s forehead. He used another wet towel and rubbed it all over Kyungsoo’s body to remove the heat. He changed the wet towel on Kyungsoo’s forehead every one hour.

 

Jongin woke up from the feeling of someone patted his head softly. He fell asleep that night on a chair with his head buried on Kyungsoo’s bed. The first thing he did the moment he woke up was placing his hand on Kyungsoo’s forehead. His eyes met Kyungsoo’s big one and he was frozen. He was mesmerized to the smiling face in front of him. Kyungsoo’s smile was so bright with his beautiful red lips forming a heart shape.

“Thank you for taking care of me last night. By the way the strawberries were juicy! I love it,” Kyungsoo said with a bright tone and his doe eyes sparkling for he was moved by those delicious strawberries.

Kyungsoo told him that he have low antibody. So, he needed his daily dose of vitamin C and he got most of it from strawberries. Since Jongin hated strawberries, Kyungsoo didn’t get enough vitamin C for he couldn’t eat those sweet fruit in the room.

Jongin eyed the premium strawberries packet he bought last night. Only half of it left. When did this guy woke up and eat half of the strawberries?

 

After that incident, Jongin tried to tolerate Kyungsoo’s love for strawberries. He suppressed his hatred for strawberries deep down inside. Kyungsoo now could munch strawberries freely in the room and his large strawberry plush was back on his bed.

 

 

“Kyungsoooooo! Happy birthdayyyyy babyyyy!” Chanyeol and Baekhyun said in unison after breaking into Kyungsoo’s room.

“Byun Baekhyun! How many times do I have to tell you to knock the door before entering my room?” Kyungsoo hit Baekhyun back playfully.

“Please don’t get mad Kyungieee. Look, I brought you strawberry shortcake. Your favourite!” Baekhyun said while opening the cake box as an attempt to lure Kyungsoo from getting mad at him. He knew it will work everytime.

“You sure know how to bribe me, don’t you Baekkie?” Kyungsoo smiled and went to hug both of his best friends.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun smiling sheepishly sharing a knowing thought while glancing at Jongin.

“Hey Kyungie. Your handsome roommate should join us too, right Baekkie?”

 

Jongin eventually joined them as well after being forced by Chanyeol and Baekhyun. He just looked at them eating and flashed a smile once in a while.

“Yeollie, say aahhhhh,” Baekhyun said as cutely as possible to Chanyeol as he wanted to feed Chanyeol with cake. Both of them end up feeding each other.

“Hey love bird. If you want to be lovey dovey, please go to your own room. I’m getting sick here,” Kyungsoo said playfully while giving a stern look to the lovely couple.

Baekhyun stuck his tongue out, grabbed Chanyeol hands and dragged him out of Kyungsoo’s room.

“We will give you both your privacy. Byeeee Kyungie~~”

He could hear a burst of laughter which belongs to Baekhyun and Chanyeol. He recognized their voice even from a far.

Jongin felt much more comfortable after Chanyeol and Baekhyun left. He had been awkward since they came in two hours ago.

“Hey, Kyungsoo. E-eemm happy birthday. I’m sorry, I have nothing to give you as birthday present,” Jongin stuttered a bit.

“It’s okay. Would you mind telling me why you hated strawberry? Is there any story behind it?” Kyungsoo asked with an interested look on his face.

 

 

Jongin could still remember the incident and the sole reason why he hated strawberry so much. He was five years old at that time. He had a naughty friend named Sehun. They were like best friend even though Sehunnie loved to pull prank on Jongin. They get along very well and sometimes they both joined forces pulling prank on others. The permanent victim was an older boy named Suho. He was so easy and the boys love to see Suho flustered face.

On Jongin’s birthday, he received a small box of strawberries. The strawberries look juicy and delicious. Jongin ate them but end up throwing up because of its sour taste. He found a letter under the strawberries on the surface of the box.

 

Hey Jongin

You have eaten the strawberries right? I know you would eat it right away! I know very well you couldn’t handle sourness.

Hahahahahahhahahahah

This would be the last time I teased you. I hope we will get to meet each other when we got older.

From,

Fabulous Sehun

 

Jongin felt devastated for he lost his best friend. People told him that Sehun moved abroad with his parents but they were not sure why and where. He hated Sehun for leaving him. He took out all his hatred on strawberries, the last item he received from Sehun.

 

 

The sun was so bright. The smile on Kyungsoo lips was brighter. He had a great idea on his mind. He was holding a glass jar filled with strawberries in it. He wanted Jongin to try it. He will insist Jongin if he refused. This plan shouldn’t fail.

“Hey Jongin. Are you busy right now? I want you to try something,” Kyungsoo smiled sheepishly to hide his ulterior motive. He carefully hid the glass jar behind his back.

“I’m not busy at the moment. How can I help you cutie?” Jongin answered him and his lips curved upwards.

“First, you have to close your eyes. Trust me okay? I won’t do anything funny. Hihi. Okay now say a-aahhhh,” Kyungsoo waited Jongin to close his eyes before picking up a slice of strawberry using a fork from the glass jar and fed Jongin.

 

Total silent.

Has his plan gone failed?

Will he gone berserk if he knew Kyungsoo fed him strawberry?

 

“What did you feed me, Do kyungsoo?” Jongin asked Kyungsoo with monotonous tone.

 

Gulpp.

He was mad wasn’t he?

 

“Why you didn’t answer me, Soo? Don’t be afraid. It is very sweet. I’m just teasing you, Kyungsoo-yah,” Jongin burst into laughter and opened his eyes just to see Kyungsoo holding a glass jar filled with strawberry.

“Wait. Don’t say I ate that just now,” Jongin said in disbelief.

“E-err yes? I’m sorry Jongin. Please don’t get mad. Please, please please,” Kyungsoo begged Jongin with his puppy eyes and pouted.

“It’s sweet and the strawberry taste is not very strong. How did you do that?” Jongin asked curiously.

Kyungsoo let out a sighed, felt relieved.

“I mix it with sugar and keep it in the refrigerator overnight. Do you like it? I made it especially for you,” Kyungsoo shyly said the last part and his cheek turned light pink.

“Thank you cutie. I think I can learn eating strawberries from this one. I called this Soo starter pack,” Jongin said with a smile forming on his lips.

 

 

It’s finally summer holiday. Kyungsoo and Jongin who had became a lover for the past few weeks decided to spend quality time together. Kyungsoo chose to visit a strawberry farm. He was so excited to pluck strawberry, eating fresh strawberry ice cream, chocolate strawberry and all strawberry-based food he could found.

They were too tired from touring the strawberry farm and decided to settle down for a moment. They found a spot under a shady tree with a soothing wind blow and beautiful scenery of huge mountain.

Jongin rested his head on Kyungsoo’s lap. Kyungsoo was munching his favourite strawberry while gently running his hand through Jongin’s hair lovingly. Jongin who felt sleepy with Kyungsoo‘s touch closed his eyes slowly. Kyungsoo playfully poked Jongin cheek and softly pinched it to prevent Jongin from sleeping. He chuckled seeing his lover frowned face for he was being disturbed from his favorite hobby (sleeping).

 

“Soo”

“Hmm?”

“Which one do you like better, strawberry or me?”

“Strawberry!”

 

Jongin crossed his arms and pouted to show he protested to Kyungsoo’s answer. He changed his lying position and turned his head to the right with his left ear facing Kyungsoo now. How could he choose strawberry over him? He just can’t accept that.

Kyungsoo smiled, leaned closer to Jongin’s ear and whispered.

 

“I like strawberry. Very much. But- the one I love is you.”

 

A smile creeps on Jongin’s sulking face. He sat up with his face facing Kyungsoo’s. He cupped Kyungsoo’s cheek bringing their faces closer and their nose started to touch each other. Kyungsoo’s eyes met Jongin’s and he can felt the love and longing in his eyes. He could felt the hot breath on his face. The warmth from Jongin spread all over his body as Jongin pressed his soft lips on Kyungsoo’s luscious one.

Jongin could felt a familiar taste. The one he used to hate. The one that was registered to his brain was a filthy sour taste. This one was different. The sweet taste was addictive and those tender feeling on his lips was so delicious. Jongin leaned closer and deepen the kiss. They parted their lips and both were gasping for air.

“Jonginnie”

“Hmm?”

“I would like to change my answer. E-emm you taste better than strawberry.”

“How much?”

“T  H  I  S  MUCH!” Kyungsoo giggled happily while spreading both of his arms.

“E-emm, can I have more Jonginnie?”

 

Their lips connected once again and both of them fall into their own world.