Fish Bread
Fix You“Alright, alright, settle down children.” Mr. Cho tapped the blackboard loudly with a ruler. “I’ve got some news.” He took a slammed a stack of papers on the desk of the person in the very front, who jumped in surprise. “Every year, you seniors get to go on a school trip, and let us teachers take a break from teaching you nasty kids. This year it’s been decided that we are going to Sapporo Japan, blah blah blah you guys can read the form.” Mr. Cho counted stacks of forms and handed them to the student at the front of each row. “Room sign up will start next Tuesday, at 8:30 am. 4 people to a room.”
The class buzzed excitedly about the school trip. Kris turned to Yixing and Baekhyun. “So we’re rooming together right?”
Baekhyun laughed awkwardly. “Sorry, I’m already rooming with Chen, Minseok and Kyungsoo.”
The tall blonde boy pouted. “Aww no, that’s not fair. I wanted us to room together.”
Yixing coughed, glancing behind him. Tao was sitting in the back, staring blankly into space. “What about Tao, Kris? I think Luhan wanted to four of us to room together.”
Kris’s face darkened. “Oh… okay.” He suddenly became quiet.
Yixing wanted to slap himself; the rift between him and his friends were killing him. Luhan was trying his best to keep everyone together, but Yixing could tell he was starting to crack as well. Luhan had started spending more time with Sehun, likely to escape the tension between Tao, Kris and Baekhyun. Yixing knew it was cheesy but he wanted everyone to be friends for life; he thought that their friendship would be able to overcome things like relationships and disagreements.
I guess it’s different when someone likes someone else within the group, he thought.
“It’s fine,” Yixing patted Kris’s back reassuringly. “There’s still many days to decide.”
Mr. Cho tapped the blackboard again. “Alright, kids, let’s get this party started.” He began writing math formulas on the board as the students quieted down. “So Taylor series…”
Yixing turned around again, and saw Tao reading something on his phone. There was no emotion in his face, as usual, but Yixing knew on the inside, he was filled with turmoil. He knew what happened between Kris and Tao. Even though the both of them refused to talk about it or give details, which was perfectly acceptable, Yixing and Luhan knew what happened. After being friends since childhood, they became very in tune with the feelings of the other three.
The brown haired boy sighed, turning his attention to the teacher. Maybe the school trip will change the way things are now.
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The last bell for class rang, and all the students hurriedly rushed out of class. Baekhyun sluggishly dragged himself to his locker, where his friends Chen and Kyungsoo were waiting. Even Joonmyun was there, standing next to Kyungsoo.
Chen greeted him with a pat on the back. “Hey, what’s gotten you down?” Chen’s eyes were dark, which only happened on rare occasions when something terrible happened. Minseok and Chen were rarely seen apart, and today was one of those occasions.
Baekhyun shrugged. “Meh. Life kind of , I guess.” He opened his locker and looked in the mirror, gingerly touching the cut on his lip. He was physically healing quicker than he thought, but on the inside, his emotional injuries hadn’t faded one bit.
Kyungsoo looked at his two friends with worry. “Everything’s gonna be fine guys, we’ll get through this.” He knew his words weren’t much encouragement when the other two glanced at him and shrugged. He wanted to help his friends in some way, but there wasn’t anything he could do, other than perhaps offer advice if they ever asked. Joonmyun briefly brushed his hand against Kyungsoo’s arm and gave him a little shake of the head.
“Let’s go get some fish bread,” Kyungsoo suggested. “Today was a pretty long day, something sweet would be good.”
They all mumbled in agreement and began to head outside. The air was still cold, and there was a thin layer of snow on the ground even though it was almost February. The four boys headed towards their favourite food cart, the delicious smell of fish bread and ddubokki guiding their way.
“Ah, looks good,” Chen remarked, his face lighting up as he gazed at the platters of steaming food before him. Baekhyun began fishing for his wallet, sticking his arm all the way to the bottom of his bag.
The elderly lady behind the counter smiled gently at the boys. “Hello, children,” she said. “You boys have a good day at school? How can I help you today?”
Chen pointed at the ddukbokki, and asked, “Can I get a medium please?”
“Me too,” Baekhyun added.
Kyungsoo and Joonmyun opted for fish bread, and soon they were happily munching on their food, momentarily forgetting their woes. The elderly lady smiled. “Life can be tough for you youngsters, eh?” she said.
They turned to look at her, wondering what made her make that comment. Generally, adults would say that teens had it easy, and that others had it worse than them. “It must be hard for you,” the woman continued. “You’re growing, learning about yourselves, changing, falling in and out of love. It can be very scary. Even when it seems like it is the end of the world, it will get better. I promise.” She smiled knowingly again.
The boys looked at each other and thanked the elderly woman before leaving. None of them commented on her words, but her words had indeed hit home.
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“I’m home.” Tao took off his shoes and placed them neatly on the shoe rack. Then, he removed his jacket and hung it in the closet, smoothing out the crinkles.
He walked around the house until he found his father in the dojo, practicing his martial arts . “You’re home quite late today,” he remarked. “You have martial arts class in less than an hour.” His father did not look at Tao as he spoke.
Tao bowed before he began to speak. “Yes, father. I was studying with my friends.” He took the school trip form out of his bag. “May I request that you allow me to attend the school trip?” He held the form out.
His father frowned slightly, and walked toward Tao. He took the form and read it over, the frown deepening as he read on. Tao stood stock still as he watched his father’s reaction.
“Its 5 days long,” his father said. “How will you catch up with your studies?”
“There are make-up classes before and after the trip,” Tao answered.
“What about your martial arts?”
“I will practice and stay fit while I am there.”
“How can I be sure you are doing that?”
“I—“
Tao’s father crumpled the form and tossed it aside. “You don’t need to go. It will interfere with your studies and martial arts.” His father resumed attacking the practice dummy.
The black haired boy flinched. His father had never let him have any fun. It was surprising he wasn’t beat for coming home late. Tao was used to this though, and usually he would never talk back to his father. However, today, something was different.
“Father, my friends are going,” Tao protested. “I would like if I was able to go with them as well.”
“This conversation is over, Tao.”
“Father, I--”
With lightning fast speed, his father leaped toward his son, his arm extended. With the flick of a wrist, he launched an attack. Tao barely had any time to react, but managed to block the attack in time. However, he still stumbled backward from the surprise and force of the attack.
His father’s face was grim and angry. “This conversation is over.” His voice was cold and hard as steel. “You will not be attending the trip.”
What courage Tao had earlier had now dissipated, and he reverted to the obedient son he always was. “Yes father,” he said, bowing. He backed out of the dojo, turned, and ran to his room. Suddenly, his phone buzzed, revealing a text from Yixing. You’re going on the trip right?
Tao clenched his phone in frustration, and texted his friend back. No, I’m not.
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A/N: Hello friends, it has indeed been forever since I last updated. Unfortunately, since I have just started university, I'm still trying to get used to the workload, and moving away from my friends and family, so I've been really busy. But since I finally have a break, I really want to finish the fanfic too, I'm giving you an update :D
Also I know I say I will update often but I never do I'm sorry T_T I will try to update more often but there are no guarentees honestly I'm not even sure who still reads this fanfic but those of you who do, thank you so so so so so much you guys are really the best I appreciate each and every one of your comments and I do try to reply to all of them.
Thanks for reading, and I will see you in the next update! (Whenever that may be LOL)
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