Youngjae picks a still frozen pea out of his lunch tray, rolling it between his thumb and forefinger to study the miniscule lumpy grooves along its surface, before promptly sticking it up his nose.

“Hey Kyungsoo, look!” Youngjae squeals, poking his best friend’s side for attention as Kyungsoo tries to wheedle the extra chocolate chip cookie out of Jiho’s hands. Kyungsoo jumps, startled by the sudden jab to his rib, and Jiho takes the opportunity to shove the cookie into his mouth. Kyungsoo silently watches him chew with much noise and gusto, giving his classmate a disgruntled look before turning to face Youngjae.

“What?” Kyungsoo huffs, crossing his arms petulantly as Youngjae points to his nose.

“Look, I have a booger!” Youngjae pushes up the tip of his nose to show Kyungsoo the green vegetable lodged up his nose.

“Ew!” Kyungsoo laughs as his irritation quickly dissolves into nothing, shoving Youngjae’s cheek away from his face. “Gross! Taozi look!”

“No,” Zitao rolls his eyes from across the table, choosing to ignore his brother and his immature best friend. He stares pointedly away from the table, taking a few bites of his peas and carrots, when Jongup begins to rise from the table.

“Where you going?” Zitao asks, quickly getting up and following after as Jongup makes his way towards one of the student aides on lunch duty.

“Bathroom,” Jongup replies as the two disappear around the corner of a big kid’s lunch table.

“Whatever,” Kyungsoo sniffs, crossing his arms in a haughty manner. “Taozi is lame anyways.” He turns his attention back to Jiho, glancing around the other boy to see if Kyung still has any cookies left. Spying a single oatmeal cookie on Kyung’s lunch tray, Kyungsoo is about to try to convince or barter the cookie into his own hands, when Youngjae taps him on the shoulder.

“Hey Kyungsoo.”

“What?” Kyungsoo whips his head around, ready to tell Youngjae that it better be important because he’s in the middle of a very crucial task right now. “What do you…”

“I think it’s stuck,” Youngjae interrupts, going cross-eyed as he tries to stare at the tip of his noise. “It won’t come out.”

“What won’t come out?” Kyungsoo asks in confusion, glancing around Youngjae’s body to see what he’s talking about. “I don’t see anything.”

“The pea! The pea!” Youngjae wails urgently, still trying very hard to peer into his own nose.

“What?” Kyungsoo shouts, grabbing Youngjae by the forehead and tipping his head back to examine his nostrils. “Oh no! Oh, look! Oh, I see it!” Kyungsoo stares inside Youngjae’s nose, a little green blockade covering up one of his nose holes. “Do you want me to get it?”

Without waiting for an answer, Kyungsoo lifts the tip of Youngjae’s nose with one finger, then using his other hand, Kyungsoo sticks his finger up Youngjae’s nose.

“Ew,” Jiho and Kyung moan in unison, sticking out their tongues. “That’s gross!”

Ignoring their friends, Kyungsoo curves his little finger, trying to scrape at the now melted pea stuck inside. But it’s just so far in, Kyungsoo can’t even feel it anymore.

“Stop, stop, stop!” Youngjae shoves Kyungsoo’s hand away from his face, scooting a few inches away from him. “You’re making it go in more!”

“No I’m not!” Kyungsoo argues back, trying to grab Youngjae’s shirt to drag him back so that he can take another look. “Come here, I’ll get it out!”

“No!” Youngjae yelps, flailing his arms to keep Kyungsoo’s hands away from him.

“I said I’ll help!”

“NO!!”

“What are you two squawking about?” Chanyeol asks as he and Jongdae pass their table with empty lunch trays in their hands.

“Youngjae stuck a pea in his nose,” Kyungsoo quickly informs his brother, still grappling with his struggling best friend.

“Oh no,” Chanyeol whispers dramatically, eyes going comically round with surprise.

“What?” Youngjae asks in alarm, shoving Kyungsoo off the bench and turning around to listen to what Chanyeol has to say. “Tell me!”

Chanyeol shares an amused grin with Jongdae before drawing his head close to Youngjae’s, whispering into his ear as Kyungsoo shuffles onto his knees to hear too. “You know,” Chanyeol begins slowly, watching as Youngjae listens with rapt attention. “If you don’t get that out soon, the pea will dig in, and in, and in until it plants inside your brain.”

“Ooh,” Jiho says, quickly clapping his hands on his mouth and looking away to pretend that he hadn’t been eavesdropping.

“What?” Youngjae’s eyes go wide, leaning back away from Chanyeol.

“Yeah,” the older boy continues, maintaining a straight face. “It’ll plant inside your brain, and grow into a pea tree, and when it gets too big, your head will explode!”

Stunned, Youngjae remains silent as Chanyeol and Jongdae resume their course towards the trash bins to stack their trays, cackling like hyenas on the way.

Kyungsoo climbs back onto the bench, and Youngjae turns to stare at him in horror.

“I don’t want my head to explode,” Youngjae whines, tears collecting at the corners of his eyes.

“You’re not gonna explode,” Kyungsoo says firmly, glancing around the table to see if there’s anything he can use to dig the offending vegetable out of Youngjae’s nose. “Nobody’s exploding.”

“I can’t get it out,” Youngjae begins to whimper, tears now sliding down his cheeks. Kyungsoo briefly glances at his crying best friend before yanking the straw out of his orange juice and turning back to Youngjae with a resolute look in his eyes.

“I’ll stab it out!” Kyungsoo suggests, bringing the straw closer to Youngjae’s nose. And the other boy bursts into tears, swatting Kyungsoo’s hand away from his face.

“No!” Youngjae sobs, dropping his head into his arms on the table. Feeling a little putout, Kyungsoo breathes heavily through his nose. Not really knowing what to do to help, he opts for picking up a napkin and commands Youngjae to raise his head so he can clean the tears.

“Don’t cry,” Kyungsoo says soothingly as he wipes the wet streaks away from Youngjae’s cheeks. “We’ll think of something.”

Youngjae nods, grabbing the napkin and blowing his nose. “Okay,” he sniffles, glancing down dejectedly at the soiled napkin before exclaiming, “hey! It came out!”

“What?” Kyungsoo peers into the napkin to see a mushy green blob smeared across the white surface.

“Stupid,” Youngjae crumples the tissue and tosses it across the table. “I’m never eating peas again.”

a/n: im sorry :( this ones kinda lame. but i was at work and one of my kids (i work with children) totally stuck a pea in her nose and couldnt get it out and yeah it was a mess. TuT kids <3 they amuse me. also, i apologize for the lack of updates TuT im working on a longfic and a shortfic and i think im biting off more than i can chew and im also in the midst of a writers block and yeah everything is just chaos in my head. i dont even know when those will finish ㅠㅜ someone save me.