« day two »

Myungsoo always took the train to school and that day was no exception. He got up in the morning fifteen minutes earlier than usual, had a bowl of cereal, and took off. Because it would be another ten minutes before his train arrived, Myungsoo settled down on one of the metal benches inside the train station to wait.

Nothing spectacular happened, but he did see a pair of elementary-aged siblings walk by. The little boy was stumbling slightly after his older sister, and when he veered off dangerously near the train tracks, his sister pulled him back with a sharp tug. Then she placed his hand in hers and had him walk beside her the rest of the way.

Myungsoo remembered the little notebook in his pocket and pulled it out.

Love is making sure those you cherish are safe.

-----

He arrived at school to see Sungyeol leaning against his locker, waiting for him.

“I decided not to ask Mr. Lee to change my prompt,” he said, stepping out of the way so that Myungsoo could get his things.

“Why not?”

“Because…” Sungyeol laughed a little. “Because I want to be able to learn new things about myself. About family, too. And it might really to have to think about my own family, but I think I need to grow up.”

Myungsoo looked at his friend, surprised. Then he grinned widely and pushed Sungyeol’s shoulder good-naturedly. “You know, you may be the most annoying guy I know,” began Myungsoo, breaking off his sentence to laugh at the offended look on Sungyeol’s face. He took a breath and continued, “But there are times when I really admire you.”

“I feel really insulted and really flattered at the same time.”

Myungsoo grinned again. “Good, that’s what I was going for.”

Sungyeol scoffed. Then, after a few seconds of silence, he spoke again. “Knowing you, Myungsoo, you’ve probably already started yours.”

“I have, actually,” said Myungsoo, pulling out his physics book. He slung his backpack over his shoulders again and closed his locker. The leather journal felt like a secret, like a treasure, sitting there in his pocket.

Sungyeol simply smiled and shook his head in response.

“Myungsoo! Sungyeol!” a voice called out from behind them.

They both turned back, craning their necks to see who it was.

Jiyeon stepped out of the crowded hallway and appeared in front of them, her cheeks as rosy as her usual red lips. “Hi,” she greeted.

“Hi Jiyeon,” replied Sungyeol, giving Myungsoo an imperceptible nudge.

Myungsoo just as imperceptibly shook his friend off. “Do you need something?” he asked Jiyeon.

From the way he saw Sungyeol’s jaw drop and Jiyeon’s eyes widen slightly, Myungsoo realized he’d been rude.

“Um, I have a question about my chemistry homework,” she said, biting her lip. “Do you maybe have five minutes to spare?”

Before Myungsoo even had a chance to open his mouth, Sungyeol answered for him. “Of course he does!” he told Jiyeon enthusiastically. “Look, I’ll just leave you two to that chemistry problem, okay?” And with that, his friend turned and walked away, a slight skip in his step that could only have come from annoying his best friend.

Myungsoo rolled his eyes at Sungyeol’s retreating back before turning back to Jiyeon. It wasn’t as if he was going to say no to helping her.

“Which one is it?”

Jiyeon flipped open her notebook and handed it to Myungsoo, indicating a blank space next to where she had written the number fifteen in her signature loopy handwriting. “I just can’t seem to get stoichiometry down.”

Myungsoo looked at the problem before quickly jotting down a few equations and the answer. He handed the notebook back to her. “We’ll focus on stoichiometry tomorrow during our usual tutoring session. For now, just copy down what I wrote. Is that okay?”

She nodded.

Myungsoo gave her an obligatory smile and turned to go.

“Wait!”

He turned back. “Yeah?”

Jiyeon blushed slightly and fiddled with the ends of her dark hair. “I-it’s nothing. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yes, you’ll see me tomorrow.” He smiled at her again.

She nodded and shot him a small smile in return before hurrying back down the hallway the way she had come.

Myungsoo stared after her for a few seconds, Sungyeol’s words echoing in his mind. There’s obviously something going on between you two. He scoffed. If that twenty-second exchange between them counted as ‘something,’ Myungsoo shuddered to think what Sungyeol considered actual attraction.

He shook his head and made his way down the hallway and into his first class, physics.

Sungjong was already in his seat at the lab table the two of them shared. It had been by a of pure luck that they had been put together as partners. Myungsoo dumped his books down onto the hard black surface of the table and pulled his chair out to sit down.

Sungjong took one look at his expression and smirked. “Sungyeol’s at it again, huh?”

The younger male was, thankfully, the only one of Myungsoo’s friends who didn’t about the whole tutoring thing. Even Hoya, who was the most sympathetic to Myungsoo’s plight, still sometimes couldn’t resist a sneaky remark or two.

Myungsoo flipped open his book to get started on the homework written on the board at the front of the room. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay,” said Sungjong amicably with a small laugh. He dug around in his backpack and pulled out a pile of paper. “Can you help me with something?”

Setting down his pencil, Myungsoo fixed his gaze on his friend. “Yeah, of course.”

Sungjong passed the stapled papers over. “Can you read it over for me and point out my mistakes? Or anything that I could do better?”

Myungsoo nodded, rather honored that his friend valued his opinion so much.

Upon seeing his reaction, Sungjong grinned. “Don’t get a big head, Myungsoo, but you do know that you have a way with words, right?”

“Good grammar hardly counts as a way with words,” dismissed Myungsoo.

“No, it’s more than that,” he said decisively. Then, with laughter in his voice, he added, “On paper, at least. In person…”

“Oh, shut up.” Myungsoo shoved Sungjong with a grin of his own and settled down to read the essay in front of him.

-----

Later that day, Myungsoo and his friends sat seated around a rectangular table inside a new Japanese restaurant they’d all heard good things about. They had decided to order a seven-person serving of sashimi and an even bigger serving of salmon and tuna rolls. As they waited for the food to arrive, they chatted amongst themselves.

Myungsoo knew some people who didn’t care much about their friendships, and some people who kept to themselves. He had been one of the latter, until one day Sungyeol burst into his life in their first year of middle school. Before that, he hadn’t had much luck or interest in making friends. At the elementary school age, so much of friendship was based on trading video games back and forth and showing off cool things. Back then, Myungsoo had preferred the company of the fictional characters in his books to the company of real people.

To this day, Myungsoo had no idea how Sungyeol had managed to draw him out of his shell. He had been – and still was – a rather cold person, the kind who pushes people away both intentionally and unintentionally.

But now he held his friends dear in his heart, more dear than he’d ever be willing to admit out loud. Even in spite of all the silly teasing they’d put him through as of late.

At the other end of the table, Sunggyu and Woohyun were squabbling about something as usual. Hoya and Dongwoo were deep in discussion, most likely talking about the latest routine in the dance class they shared together. Sungyeol was looking at his phone and laughing, probably at something dumb, and Sungjong was reading over the comments Myungsoo had written on his essay earlier.

Sitting there, surrounded by his friends and his stomach filled with delicious food, Myungsoo felt an indescribable kind of happiness wash over him.

He silently pulled out his pen and little notebook.

Love is that feeling of being complete.

« day five »

That day didn’t follow the routine that Myungsoo had settled into.

He was seated in his usual place in the back right corner of the library for his independent study hour. He studied his English vocabulary cards dutifully as usual. And when he finished those, he moved on to his physics homework. As usual.

But when the bell rang and Myungsoo gathered up his things to go, he noticed a black drawing pad or something of the sort left behind two tables away.

He thought about it for a few seconds before picking it up. It was clearly something special and most likely private. Myungsoo decided that he would find a way to return it to its owner.