“Chan-ah,” his mother spoke to him during his, and Soul’s, shift at the restaurant, “can you please get Soul and eat lunch with her? You two have been working for long.

Maybe it was due to the sisterhood bond that the two mothers share– his mother adores Soul, so much so, to a point that he sometimes wondered whether she loves Soul more or him more. Vice versa, her mother adores him mostly due to the fact that they lacked the blessing of a son in the family. ‘I wanted a boy first and then a girl,’ Mrs.Kang spoke longingly during one tea session at Chanyeol’s place.

Chanyeol sometimes wondered how Soul could be like if she had an older brother. Would she still be this uptight and socially awkward? Would she have turn out to be a completely different person? Then, he remembered that he was essentially playing the role of her older brother.

“Soul-ah, let’s go have lunch together!” he took off his apron and talked to Soul, who was busy cleaning the silverware, her favourite job in the entire restaurant. He found it amusing that Soul has a thing for sparkling silverware, which led her to polish the cutlery again and again until she was happy with the sparkle from it. He just found it very endearing and child-like in a way.

“CHANYEOL!!!” a loud voice appeared at the door to the restaurant. Soul slightly jumped in fright and turned around to look at the customer at the door. Chanyeol, too, looked in the same direction.

“JAE HWAN!!!” Chanyeol’s voice almost cracked from the excitement as he boomed back. The entrée was no other than Chanyeol’s close friend Jae Hwan, or Ken as how most people call him. Jae Hwan was studying abroad in Japan last year. “You didn’t even tell me when you were coming back!” Chanyeol chided at the guy as the two entered in a handshake and a shoulder bump.

Ken laughed, “I wanted to surprise you,” His smile is endearing and gentle as always, “Plus, I didn’t know when I’d be arriving since there’s all the moving and all.” The two guys walked over and swiftly sat at a table.

“Who is this?” Ken eyed at the girl standing near them. He looked at Chanyeol with questioning eyes.

Chanyeol smiled heartedly as he walked over to Soul’s side and put his hand on her shoulder, “Jae Hwan, this is Kang So Eul. My deskmate from school and major competitor.”

Ken laughed, “Chanyeol-ah, call me Ken. It’s so awkward to hear the name Jae Hwan after hearing people calling me Ken for so long.” He continued, “Hello, my name is Lee Jae Hwan, or Ken. I’m Chanyeol’s friend...” he paused and looked at Chanyeol,  “What type of friends are we?”

“Hometown friend,” Chanyeol answered for him with a grin.

Soul smiled slightly, “Nice to meet you, Ken-ssi.” She did a small bow and greeted the guy as she took her place in front of the two boys across the table – in her usual polite manners.

Chanyeol’s mother noticed that Ken had arrived so she brought out extra servings of food. She told them to have a feast and they did. The three of them started feasting on all the deliciousness Mrs.Park brought out.

“How was the high school life in Tokyo?” Chanyeol asked in curiosity as they all started to eat their meals.

Ken put a spoonful of rice into his mouth and replied, “It was really fun. I made a lot of new friends. One of the students I know moved to our town actually,” Ken swallowed his rice, “I’ll introduce you guys.”

“Great!” Chanyeol replied gleefully. It is always great to have new friends. Then he wondered about who the new friend might be since they live in the same town. Chanyeol and Ken, despite being friends, went to different high school. Ken went to an all boys school, while Chanyeol attended the co-ed that he was currently attending. They met each other by chance during one football match and ended up spending their weekends together during elementary school years. The friendship went way back and Chanyeol treats Ken like a brother he never had, since he did not have any brother – other than his annoying, yet loveable sister, Yoora.

“Oh,” Ken’s exclaimed suddenly, “So Eul-ah, why aren’t you eating much? Here,” he put a ladle full of seafood stew, laden with crab and prawns, into Soul’s soup bowl. Soul’s head jerked up and looked at Ken. Chanyeol, too, looked at his friend, who was smiling until his eyes turned crescent, and wondered since when Ken decided to drop the honorifics against Soul, the one who is crazy about honorifics.

Soul beamed, quite timidly, “Thank you, Ken-ssi. You should eat too.”

“I always eat here that this is like my house, right, Chanyeol?” Chanyeol nodded at the question. Throughout the meal, Chanyeol noticed that Ken was being extra attentive towards Soul. He knew Ken. Even though Ken is generally a nice person, he had never seen him acting like this – being extremely attentive around another person during meal times. The way he looked at Soul was also different from how he had seen Ken all these years – it was as if Ken’s eyes were sparkling. Chanyeol smiled at the potential of a budding high school crush.

Once their meals were over, they all helped clean the table. Mrs.Park dismissed Chanyeol early, saying he should go and hang out with Ken. The dismissal of the former boy mean no work for Soul too since Chanyeol was in charge of training Soul. The frail-looking girl smiled and did a huge bow before she excused herself.

“Chanyeol-ah,” Ken asked just as they sat on the sofa in Chanyeol’s house. Chanyeol hummed as he switched on the Wii – their favourite activity. “Where did So Eul come from?”

“Seoul.”

“I know but where did she come from?”

Chanyeol almost rolled his eyes at his friend’s aloofness, “Seoul! So Eul is from Seoul!” he explained and threw a controller in Ken’s direction.

The tanned boy caught it swiftly and looped the wristband on his wrist, “Why are you so interested in So Eul all of a sudden?” Ken smiled, quite shyly so.

“I think she’s really, really cute,” Ken beamed again as he looked at the screen, his eyes dazed. “Dammit, I should have gone to your school,” he laughed at himself afterwards.

Chanyeol shook his head from side to side slowly at his friend’s sudden giddiness. So Eul? Cute? Chanyeol supposed she’s cute but in a way that one wanted to help her because she sometimes looked so helpless like a little puppy abandoned in the rain.