LUNCH II

Minseok drops her thermos of tea and cleanly wrapped onto the lunch table, offering a small smile to Sehun and Chanyeol as she sits next to the taller of the two. “How was class?” she asks, beginning to peel the plastic wrap from around her ham and cheese melt.

“Stupid,” Sehun answers without a beat. She breaks in half one of the McDonalds fries she smuggled in this morning and squashes it between her fingers, imagining it to be Jongin’s head. “I regret the day I chose Kim Jongin as my lab partner.”

“You say that every time you two get assigned a new lab and take it back every time you get higher than a B minus.” Chanyeol laughs around the straw stuck inside her carton of strawberry milk.

“Because for some reason Jongin doesn’t know how to follow the instructions on the lab sheet. I don’t know what to do since he makes up but somehow we still finish it,” Sehun rambles exasperatedly, throwing her hands up in resignation. There’s no point in trying to understand how Jongin’s pea-sized brain works.

Chanyeol only smiles because she knows how difficult it can be to work with Jongin. Even though she’s a grade higher than him and doesn’t know what he’s like in class, she’s offered to help him put together gundam models before and she is very familiar with Jongin’s magic ability to do the exact opposite of what he’s told to do and still get something right.

“How was your date with Pretty Boy?” Sehun asks and bites through half a fry.

“Sehun, you know Han hates being called pretty,” Chanyeol reminds.

Washing his hands, Han sneezes hard enough that he knocks his forehead against the mirror above the sink. Some freshman kid he doesn’t know washing his own hands two sinks down laughs at him and he snarls, angry at being mocked. Ripping his hands from beneath the automatic stream, he grabs a handful of paper towels from the dispenser and dries his hands off. Throwing them into the trashcan and yanking the door open, Han grits his teeth. He tries to breathe deeply through his nose to calm himself down as he returns to the cafeteria.

He’s not pretty.

Sehun raises an eyebrow in mild sass. “You say that as if I care about his feelings.”

Shaking her head, Minseok takes a bite out of her sandwich. Hand covering as she finishes chewing, she says, “I don’t really want to talk about it.” And by that she means she doesn’t want to talk about it all. Firstly, because it wasn’t a date and secondly, because she’s still trying to erase Han’s sweet words from her memory.

Of course, the girls take her words the wrong way and look at her with concerned (Chanyeol) and murderous (Sehun) expressions.

“Did something happen?” Chanyeol worries, sounding like she’s ready to get up and give Minseok a hug if she needs to.

“No, no, nothing happened.” Minseok quickly waves off. “I just…” She shrugs. “Don’t want to talk about it. It was pretty normal.”

“You’re blushing,” Sehun deadpans.

Eyes wide, Minseok presses her hands to her cheeks but they’re cold. She does, though, feel the flare of warmth under her collar. “No, I’m not!” Because that would mean she was affected by what Han said to her and she definitely was not.

“You weren’t,” Chanyeol sips at her milk. “But you are now.” She glances at Sehun who meets her gaze. “Something totally happened.”

Sehun narrows her eyes at the eldest girl. “Spill.”

“There’s nothing to spill!” Minseok emphasizes, reaching for her tea so she can hide behind it. “I’m only like this because you guys are trying to make something out of nothing.”

Lightening up the glare, Sehun smacks her lips and goes back to her fries. “If you say so.”

Both Jongin and Yixing look at Han strangely when the eldest boy returns to the table, slightly pink in the face and pouting. Having an idea of what happened in the bathroom without needing to ask, they ignore Han when he starts mumbling to himself.

Suddenly remembering something, Jongin turns to Yixing who raises both his brows with inquisition at the look.

“What?”

“How do you feel about Sehun?” Jongin props his arms on the table and cups his chin in his palm. He’s sounds everything like a father interrogating his daughter’s prom date but he really does think of Sehun as the little sister he’s never wanted and he doesn’t want to see her hurt like she was last year. He knows Sehun’s weak against attractive boys and Yixing is oddly charming without even trying.

Picking the cheese off his cafeteria-bought pizza, Yixing side-eyes the youngest boy. He’s a little off-put by how serious Jongin is and how random his question is.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Han throws his hands in the air, finally over the bathroom incident. He squints at Yixing. “You’re not into the she-devil, are you?”

Looking between the two of them, Yixing sighs and wipes his oily fingers on a napkin. “Guys…”

Han gasps and leans back as far as he can without falling off his seat. “, you dig Sehun. I thought you had better taste than that.”

“I don’t—”

Jongin snaps his head in Han’s direction. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Rolling his eyes at being interrupted, Yixing stands. “I’m gonna get some chips,” he mumbles as he walks away from the table. He isn’t interested in whatever stupid argument the two of them are going to get into.

“Hello ladies.” A boy with a wicked grin slides into the seat next to Sehun and plants a square cardboard box in the center of the table.

“I didn’t know roaches evolved and gained the ability to speak,” Sehun gags.

“Hi, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol greets.

Minseok nods her own greeting, in the middle of sipping at her tea.

Baekhyun sneers at Sehun before flashing a smile. “The musical is fundraising for our spring production of Les Mis in which I will probably be the lead. It would be most appreciated if one of you beautiful girls b—”

A girl powerhouses into Baekhyun, knocking him off the seat and onto the floor. Sehun flinches at his fall and moves down a seat as she eyes the newcomer sticking her tongue out at Baekhyun.

She whips around, her long, black ponytail almost slapping Sehun in the face. She grins at them cheekily. “Please disregard that idiot.” She shakes her bangs out of her face and slides her own box onto the table, knocking Baekhyun’s out of the way. “Would you like to buy some candy for a dollar? The musical team could really use the help.”

Baekhyun kicks at her back. He ignores how she turns to him with a mean glare and threatens to make chicken nuggets out of his toes if he left a shoe print on the back of her shirt as he stands. “ out of here, Jongdae. This is my sell,” he says, brushing dirt off his black sweater.

Jongdae flips him the finger. “They weren’t going to buy from you anyway.”

“Sure as hell weren’t,” Sehun pipes up, finally pulling out her cold cheeseburger and unwrapping it.

“I’ll buy from you, Baek,” Chanyeol reassures. She pulls out a dollar from her pocket and slides it over to him.

He takes it before Jongdae can steal it, a bright grin on his face at beating his rival. “Better luck next time, sweetheart.” He winks at Jongdae. Opening his box of assorted candy he lets Chanyeol pick out a chocolate bar. “This’ll be two years in a row that I sell more than you.”

Minseok thoroughly amused at the drama duo’s rivalry, taps the table to get their attention. “I’ll buy something, uh, Jongdae,” she offers, even though she doesn’t know either of them. She just feels like she should.

Jongdae looks at her surprised before the corners of her lips twitch into a broad smile. “Thanks,” she says sweetly. As Minseok grabs her purse to find a dollar, Jongdae sticks her tongue out at Baekhyun again.

Anger flashes across Baekhyun’s face before he settles for a look of indifference. “We’re tied again, so what. I’m still gonna win.”

“In your dreams, Byun,” Jongdae returns as she opens the box and lets Minseok take a bag of gummy worms. Smiling once more at the pink-haired girl, she closes the box and picks it up. With her other hand, she tugs at the band in her hair, pulling out her ponytail. “Good luck with getting another sale before next period. That kid who keeps eying me in literature class is sitting over there. He’ll probably buy from me.” She waves at the three girls and winks at Baekhyun before taking off.

Baekhyun stares at her dumbly, mouth opening and closing. “K-Kim Jongdae! That’s not fair!” Hurriedly grabbing his own goods, he follows after her.

Chanyeol and Minseok watch him for a second before returning their attention to their lunch.

“That was interesting,” Minseok notes, playing with her crumpled up ball of plastic wrap.

“They like each other but they hate each other at the same time,” Chanyeol explains. “They’re like the definition of teenage .”

“It’s disgusting,” Sehun adds, full of cheeseburger.

“You’re disgusting.” Minseok laughs. “But why were you so mean to him?”

Sehun finishes chewing before she frowns. “His existence makes me mad.”

“Is that code for you think he’s cute?” Minseok wiggles her eyebrows.

Sehun rolls her eyes. “No, that’s code for he lives in the apartment next to mine and if he starts singing at five in the morning like he’s ing Cinderella one more time, I’m gonna slash his vocal cords.”