Plastic Bugs and Snakes
Smultronstället
The sounds of boisterous voices from men and women alike as they chattered excitedly about everything from the weather to their plans for the future swam in and out of a bored Jongup’s ears, sounds that would make any normal person’s head throb as it combined with a rather heavy string accompaniment. Jongup was, fortunately, a teenager used to music with a lot more bass and a high school student so the sounds weren’t all that bothersome to him. What was bothersome, however, was the state of boredom he’d found himself in right then.
Being that he was at a party that his parents had dragged him and his brother along to, the boredom he felt right now was to be expected. As he’d ranted to Junhong earlier that week, this was some sort of reunion party for his father and some of his friends from when he’d been in the army and Jongup could still not figure out for the life of him why he’d been dragged along when he’d never even heard of any of these people - at best, his brother Jay probably knew a couple from their father’s stories.
Needless to say he’d much rather be at home right now playing online with his friends and getting to know more of the mysterious Keke’s personality now that they’d become decent enough friends.
But no, he couldn’t do that because he was here at this stupid party.
Turns out Jongup’s only salvation had been the snack table where Junhong had recommended he stay near. Even if he’d probably never hear the end of it from the snarky freshman for the next few weeks, he made a mental note to thank his friend.
Sighing heavily, Jongup looked out over the crowd formally dressed men and women to locate his parents and brother, pausing when he finally spotted them. A small frown worked its way onto his lips at the sight of the three of them laughing and chattering happily with another man and woman about his parents’ ages.
A bit of envy rose within him as he watched them but he squashed down the feeling as quickly as possible. What did he really need to feel jealous of? He didn’t want to be here so it shouldn’t matter to him that his parents and brother seemed to be having a terrific time while he sat wallowing in his own misery, right? It shouldn’t matter to him that his absence obviously wasn’t affecting them, right?
“Riight…” Jongup sighed under his breath, busying himself with fiddling with the cufflinks of his very uncomfortable shirt and really wishing his father hadn’t prevented him from taking his phone with him at that moment.
Rubbing his hands together and staring at his handiwork, the young man with blonde hair exited the women’s bathroom carefully, removing the ‘out of service’ sign from the door. He returned to the main room, greeted by the strong music from the string section that had been hired to do the accompaniment for the night, and slowly made his way to the banquet table. He helped himself to some of the sweet desserts scattered here and there, feeling quite accomplished with himself for his lovely placement of pranks for the night.
He was sure once the pranks went down, he would be in major trouble, but he was sure he could get out of it with promises to do chores and such. He always did anyways - tonight wouldn’t be the first time he’d pulled pranks… though it would be the first time he did it to impress someone.
He looked up from his dessert and watched the boy across the table from him fiddle with his cufflinks, a smile working it’s way onto his lips. The other was interesting - he was just like him in the fact that he really didn’t care too much for the party itself. He stuck to the food tables like they were a lifeline and, from his own reckoning, it probably was.
“Daehyun! Get over here!” A booming voice called out, prompting the blonde boy to place his plate aside and rush over to his father, a little annoyed that he was interrupted from his staring contest with the side of the other boy’s head.
“Oh my! Daehyun-ah, you’ve grown so much since the last time we saw you!” Jongup’s mother, Ha-nui, cooed sweetly, a bright smile on her lips.
Sangwoo, Jongup’s father, gave the teen a smile as he looked him up and down, “He’s grown to be a very handsome young man, Dojin. You two must be proud.”
“Is it that easy to tell?” Dojin chuckled, patting his son on the shoulder. “He had his own fan club back in Busan; I can’t tell you how many times we went outside to find love proclamations spread all over the front lawn.” He shook his head at this.
“He doesn’t let it interfere with his studies though. He keeps good grades and even better conduct, right sweetie?” Hyejin, Daehyun’s mother, asked her son, subtlely squeezing her son’s shoulder for him to agree with her despite both of them knowing his prankster ways. When he did, the woman relaxed and continued smiling at the other two adults.
“I believe there’s someone who hasn’t been introduced to us yet, Sangwoo…” Dojin pointed out then, gesturing to Jaebum, Jongup’s brother, who had been standing off to the side silently while his parents chattered with their friends.
“Ah! How terrible of me! I’m so sorry…” The man apologized, slightly red in the face as he gestured for Jaebum to walk over. “Dojin, Hyejin and Daehyun, this is our son Jaebum. Jaebum, these are our good friends.”
Jaebum gave a polite smile to the family of three and a bow of respect, “It’s nice to finally meet you. Dad’s told us a lot of stories about you two when you were in the army together. He didn’t mention that you had a pretty wife though.” His smile widened when he looked at Hyejin who just stifled a flattered giggle behind her hand.
He looked at Daehyun then, nodding slightly to him, “You were pretty good during practice the other day. We should do pretty good beating that prep school this year with your help.”
Daehyun looked between the slightly taller adults as they spoke about him, giving a slight smile and nod when his mother squeezed his shoulder. He had to pretend to be on his best behavior for his parents; he knew they didn’t like to be embarrassed, but oh boy, were they in for a nice shock. He did his best not to grin deviously and was glad when Jaebum distracted him with talk of soccer.
“I’ll be the best player you’ve ever met,” He boasted, though he wasn’t being cocky - he truly planned on working hard to be the best.
As the four adults began talking about how good it was for their sons to be on the soccer team together, Ha-nui began looking around, tugging on her husband’s sleeve gently and asking about their youngest son. Dojin gave a sheepish smile and looked around the room, noticing their youngest son at the snack table.
“Ah, my other son Jongup is over at the snack table - he’s pretty shy, he won’t come up if we called out, we’ll introduce you to him later on,” Dojin explained, chuckling softly. Daehyun gave the man a brief look before looking back at Jongup pleased that he now knew the other’s name.
‘Suits him...’ He thought to himself, smiling brightly.
Jongup sighed softly around a bite of a sandwich triangle he’d picked up a moment ago, eyes on the clock as he watched the seconds tick by. He’d hoped that the time would have gone by faster and that it would be time to go soon but if anything, time seemed to be moving even slower. He gave the clock another mournful sigh and returned his attention back to the little triangle of sandwich in his hand, seemingly contemplating it before shoving the rest of it into his mouth.
‘I’ll probably be too fat to fit through the door by the time we’re ready to leave...’ He grumbled inwardly. His previous relief at finding salvation with the food table had begun to fade as time went on, and it had all but dissipated when he noticed that his parents and brother had struck up excited conversation when a boy about Jaebum’s age wandered over towards them.
It had taken him all of two seconds to figure out that he was the son of the couple his parents had been talking to before and just a few seconds longer than that to realize the man was the best friend his father had told them stories about.
But had they bothered to come and find him to introduce him? No. They’d given him a glance and that was it. The whole reason he was here in the first place and they hadn’t even tried to introduce him properly to the man he and Jaebum had grown up hearing stories about.
He supposed he couldn’t really put all of the blame on them though seeing as it was his own fault for being over here and not even trying to enjoy the night his brother had. Jaebum had stuck by their parents the whole time and let them introduce him to this person or that one, while he had hidden himself. Jaebum was probably just as bored as he was on the inside but he hadn’t let that daunt him from having a good time - not like Jongup had. He couldn’t even blame it on his usual case of shyness either as he just didn’t want to be here right now.
Heaving another soft sigh and figuring he should at least try to make the most of the night, Jongup glanced around the room to locate his parents only to see not his parents but the boy that was Jaebum’s age. Looking, no, staring at him.
He blinked once and then a second time to see if he’d just been imagining it; the boy was still staring at him. Jongup touched his face then, thinking he had some food or something on his lips or something and wished he had a mirror to check himself with. Worry over his appearance was quickly dashed away by the multiple shrill screams, cries of disgust and a rather irritating metallic tapping sound similar to that of tap shoes that suddenly broke out.
“Sn-snakes! Snakes in the bathroom!”
“EW! BUGS!!!”
As soon as the screeches of fear and shouts of annoyance began, Daehyun couldn’t keep the grin off of his face. He didn’t dare look at his parents, he knew they were pissed and probably glaring flaming daggers at him, inwardly promising him punishment as soon as they got home. He didn’t care though - the look on Jongup’s face was worth it. He seemed confused - it was cute; Daehyun liked that cute look on him. He only hoped he lived long enough to see it again.
While his parents were distracted with the people whining and complaining about the snakes in the bathroom and the bugs that had finally been revealed in their drinks, Daehyun snuck away and back to the snack table to finish his dessert. He ate in silence as the ladies lost their cool over their drinks, some even flinging them up in the air, making punch and glass go everywhere. Well — he hadn’t intended for that, honestly, but it was still funny as hell. He snorted as he took a sip of his own bug infested punch.
“You’d think they’d never seen plastic bugs and snakes before…” He snickered softly, his eyes on one of the army men who was walking, a metallic clicking sounding with every step he took. He coughed into his drink as he laughed at the guy, the look of irritation on his face quite comical. Who knew quarters with glue dots could be so funny?
“Daehyun!” He froze as his father shouted his name over the shrieking, obviously pissed off. He quickly got down and hid under the snack table, not really interested in getting a lecture in front of everyone - least of all Jongup.
Jongup pressed close to the buffet table as the resulting chaos of someone’s apparent prankster ways continued on, having nearly been trampled on by several angry, screeching women as they ran by. It wasn’t the women themselves he was scared of - it was their shoes. He could remember in vivid detail the day his mother had accidentally stepped on his foot while she’d been wearing a pair of stilettos; the feeling of a knife being dug into his foot was not his idea of a good time.
Shivering a little at the memory, Jongup looked up and promptly saw his father’s friend’s son dart through the crowd and up under the table. He frowned at the odd behaviour, wondering what the hell was going with him, and then it hit him like a sack of bricks. The son (didn’t the man shout Daehyun?) must have been the mastermind behind all of the pranks. Why else would he practically dive underneath a table?
“Excuse me…”
Jongup looked away from the table only to see his father’s friend standing in front of him, red in the face from fury at his son’s actions. He stood up quickly, bowing respectively to the older man. “Um.. yes, sir?” He answered.
“Did you happen to-- ah! You’re Dojin’s youngest son, Jongup, are you not?” Sangwoo questioned, momentarily forgetting his anger in favor of pleasant surprise.
Jongup nodded shyly, “Y-yes sir. My name is Jongup.”
Sangwoo smiled warmly at the teen upon hearing the boy’s introduction, unfazed by his shyness, “It’s nice to meet you, Jongup-ah. My name is Sangwoo. I’m glad I finally have the chance to introduce myself to you. If I wasn’t so busy trying to find that rascal of a son of mine, I’d stay longer to chat but I’m afraid I must go.” He sighed, gaze growing curious. “Have you seen him by chance? He’s got blonde hair, black suit with a white tie, thick lips and a mixture of satisfaction and terror on his face?”
Jongup gnawed heavily on his bottom lip as his eyebrows furrowed, hoping he was giving off the expression of thinking if he’d seen a person with that description, when in reality he was trying to hold back in his laughter. The combination of everyone panicking because of some plastic bugs and snakes and picturing Daehyun up under the table with that same look his father had just described to him on his face was beginning to get too much for him.
Luckily, he was able to hold his composure and though he really didn’t want to lie to his father’s best friend, he wasn’t about to throw the person who had just made coming to this party worth the boredom to the wolves.
“I think… he might’ve gone in that direction…” He pointed to the direction just past the buffet table; it wasn’t the truth but it wasn’t lying because Daehyun was in that general direction. Sangwoo thanked him and a mumble of ‘it was nice to meet you’ before hurrying off in the direction that had been pointed out to him.
“Jongup! We’re leaving!”
Jongup looked over to see his parents bidding goodbye to Daehyun’s mother, the woman looking extremely apologetic as she stared at the red stain on the front of his father’s shirt. “C-coming!” He called out, just barely keeping himself from bursting out into a fit of giggles.
Once he was sure his mother had heard him he turned to table behind him, grabbed a napkin and pulled a pen out of his pocket, hurriedly writing on it. Once done, he made a point to walk where he’d seen Daehyun dive under the table and quickly balled it up before crouching down to gently toss it under the table.
Jongup stood just in time to hear his father call out for him and wasted no time in heading over to them, unable to wipe the small smile off of his face as he thought about the pleasant turn of events tonight.
Daehyun had tensed as soon as he’d heard his father talking just a few feet from him, but watched underneath the tablecloth as his dad wandered off right past him, calling out over the loud chatter. He heaved a deep sigh and wiped at his forehead.
He knew he’d be in trouble, but he also knew his dad would punish him in front of the entire crowd of people and he wasn’t subjecting himself to that if he could avoid it. Specifically because he didn’t want Jongup to see it - because, hey, he wanted to make an impression and getting punished in front of everyone was not the way to do it.
In getting lost in his thoughts, he hadn’t noticed there was a shadow right in front of where he sat under the table. His eyes widened when a napkin was tossed underneath with him. He blinked and picked it up, uncrumpling it cautiously and looking at the quickly scribbled note: “Coast is clear for now, best find another hiding spot though - your dad’s really mad. Nice pranks by the way! ^_^ J-U.”
He couldn’t stop the grin from spreading on his face, feeling like it was about to split in two because he was so happy that Jongup had written him a note and was impressed with his pranks.
While he was gloating inwardly, he let his guard down and soon his father found him under the table, still looking quite pleased with himself. He got a stern lecture and was made to apologize to everyone in the room (who was left anyways) and his mother made him promise to write a long apology letter to Jongup’s mother. Along with that embarrassing moment, he was also going to be on dish duty and mopping duty for the next three weeks and that was because he chose that over having his computer taken from him.
‘Still,’ Daehyun thought as he mopped the areas where there was spilled drink from his prank, ‘It was worth it.’
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