Meeting Jung Taekwoon and Lee Hongbin
Natural Enemies"Hongbin Oppa!! Get him! Get him!" The girls seated on the bleachers cheered.
There was a home game today after school and Minah just came from detention. It wasn't her fault she fell asleep in class, half the students in that class fall asleep.
She asked Taekwoon to stay and wait for her but...she really wanted to watch the game. She hesitated but went to sit down at the edge of the bleachers by herself, setting her backpack down beside her.
She then immediately turned her attention to Hongbin and Hongbin only because he moved like her favorite basketball star,
Park Hyoshin.
The original reason as to why she wanted to play basketball was because of Hyoshin. She was a foster child for three years before they could find her a family that wanted her.
She made Hyoshin her inspiration and worked harder to improve herself so someone would adopt her.
That day eventually came with Jung Taekwoon and Lee Hongbin.
*Flashback*
It was a cold and snowy night four years ago.
"Stop pestering me!" Minah's mother screamed as she pushed Minah out the front door of their small home.
Minah was ten at that time and didn't know what to do but cry as her mother slammed the door on her. She remained on the doorstep for hours in the cold and hugged her knees. She began counting her breath every time she saw the fog come out of it in order to distract herself from the cold.
Her tears had frozen and no more came.
"Psst. Pssst!" She heard. She peered around, left and right. "Hey! Over here!" The voice grew louder.
It came from a bush to her right. She could see two pairs of round innocent eyes looking right at her.
"What are you doing out there? Get in here." The voice of a young boy continued.
She tore away from the door and forced her tiny frozen legs to move. She stumbled onto the ground in numbness and started coughing.
Taekwoon and Hongbin immediately darted out from the large bush and grabbed each one of her arms.
"Are you sick?" The boy with a dimple asked as he put her arm over his shoulder.
Minah coudn't speak as mustered all her strength to stand and wobble over to the bush the two were in earlier.
They got in the bush and it was dark but warm. There were three blankets, two pillows, and a lantern in the center.
The three were so small that it fit all of them if they squeezed. Taekwoon escaped from under her and grabbed his green blanket.
"You can borrow my blanket." He said, as he threw it over her. Hongbin formed a cute pout and grabbed his blue blanket.
"You can have mine too." He suggested, glancing at Taekwoon with a smirk. She smiled thankfully and wrapped herself in more comfortably. "We slept here last night and heard some lady yelling from your house." Hongbin said with a smile. "Is she your mom?" Minah nodded.
"Yes, she is." She answered.
"She didn't seem very nice." Taekwoon jumped in.
"Yes, she's not." She answered. Taekwoon linked an arm around Hongbin's neck.
"I'm Jung Taekwoon and he's Pabo." Taekwoon introduced. Hongbin ducked out of his grasp and pushed him away.
"I'm Lee Hongbin. You can call me Binnie for short." He suggested.
"Yes." Minah replied. Taekwoon and Hongbin exchanged glances.
"You don't have to say yes every time you talk." Taekwoon said, the other boy nodding beside him.
"That's what my mom told me to always say to strangers." She said. The two boys raised their eyebrows in confusion.
"Really? Our parents tell us to NEVER EVER EVER!! Talk to strangers." Taekwoon said with enthusiasm as he crossed his arms; Hongbin nodding again in agreement.
"Yes, our moms are different." She said.
"My dad told me that." Hongbin said.
"Yes, I don't have a dad." Minah pointed out. The two went "oh" at the same time and looked to one another.
"So THAT'S why we didn't hear a guy's voice from the house..." Taekwoon said as if he had just been through something mind blowing. "Oh well!" He leaned in closer to Minah's face as Hongbin fluffed his pillow. "You can sleep with us tonight!" He said, enthusiastically.
Minah quickly shook her head and let the blankets fall as she stood on her bare feet.
"I think my mom will be mad and hit me if I stay here." She said. Hongbin and Taekwoon nodded and waved as she walked out onto the snow again.
"She's so pretty." Taekwoon and Hongbin sighed at the same time then made angry faces at each other.
Minah ran back to the door and sat there till dark. She could barely see anything anymore and coughed even harder now. She had knocked on the door multiple times but there was always no answer. Her mom probably fell asleep on the couch hugging a bottle of nasty water again.
"Shut it, Binnie!" She heard a familiar voice from her right and looked over at the huge bush with a dim light emitting from it. "Soccer is waayyyy better than basketball!" The voice continued in a loud manner, then there was a loud smack.
"Soccer isn't as fun as basketball!" A different voice replied.
There was a silence then Minah could hear slapping and thudding from the shaking bush. She got up as quickly as she could and rushed across the icy patch of snow. She accidentally slipped and fell into the bush.
Just her luck, she fell smack dab in-between them.
Taekwoon got her right in the side with his dominant foot and his jaw dropped. Hongbin punched her right in the side of the head and his eyes widened.
Minah rubbed the areas where she had just been hit in pain and luckily she had two arms.
"Are you alright?!" Hongbin asked, dusting her clothes as she got up into a sitting position.
"Yes." She said unconvincingly.
"No you're not. Stop saying yes." Hongbin said. She nodded and then immediately shook her head with wide eyes.
"No, I'm not fine." She said through coughs. Hongbin quickly grabbed his blue blanket and wrapped it around her tiny body.
He looked over at Taekwoon and motioned to his green blanket with his eyes. Taekwoon's jaw was still dropped and he closed it with his palm before grabbing his blanket and wrapping it two times around Minah.
"There we go~ Nice and comfy,..What's your name?" He asked, just now realizing that he didn't know her name; Hongbin too. Minah opened to say yes but closed it and started anew.
"My name's Minah. Bang Minah." She said. Hongbin nodded and smiled softly, dimple showing.
"That's a pretty name." Hongbin complimented.
"You're not related to Bang Yongukk, are you?" He asked. She shook her head and knitted her brows.
"No." She answered. Taekwoon put his hand to his chest and sighed in relief.
"Whoo. Good, because he's Hyoshin's arch enemy!" He said dramatically. "He's also really good at soccer though. There was this one time in a game that..." Taekwoon blabbered on about his favorite sports star as Hongbin secretly scooted closer to Minah.
"My favorite star of all time is Park Hyoshin too, Minah." Hongbin said in a whisper, trying not to disturb Taekwoon's inspiring story. Minah nodded and Hongbin smiled again. "You should smile more, Minah." He said, poking her cheek.
She managed a small smile and looked to the sheet below her.
"Minah!" Hongbin exclaimed alarmingly. She jumped and eyed him. "You're just like Leo. You have no dent in your face." He said. Minah stopped eyeing him and looked back to the ground. "Minah, look here." Minah turned her face just as Hongbin poked her cheek, creating a dimple. "You're like me now!" He exclaimed cutely.
"AND THEN THE CROWD GOES WILD!!!!" Taekwoon finished, literally yelling his lungs out to the point where you could hear birds flying away. Hongbin smacked his arm.
"Shut it, Loudmouth." He growled in a low whisper.
"Sorry." Taekwoon apologized in the same tone then turned his attention to Minah. "So are you deciding to sleep with us, Minah?" He asked. Minah nodded.
"Yeah."
"Ok then. Call me Leo since we're friends now." He said, putting out a hand. She nodded again and shook his hand.
"Say it. Leo." He said, not letting go of her hand.
"Leo." She repeated as he let go of her hand and grabbed the lantern in the center.
"You can sleep in the middle, Minah." He said, patting the center of the spread out bright red blanket.
Minah looked back at her house and could see that the lights were off through the broken curtains.
Maybe her mom might come out to get her but won't be able to find her.
Maybe her mom will beat her then leave her on the doorstep like she did two weeks earlier.
Or will her mother be nice to her like when her dad was still here?
She could feel her legs twitch, wanting that to be true. Her torso slowly leaned toward her house and she wanted to get up. She wanted to peek through the window and-
"Minah? It's time to go to sleep." Hongbin broke her train of thought as he touched her shoulder blade.
Minah blinked and glanced at her home once more then plopped down in between the two boys.
Sleep took them into the dream world, Taekwoon hugging the lantern and Hongbin at her right.
Morning came and Minah awoke to weight on her body. She brought her fists up to her eyelids and rubbed them with a yawn then looked down.
Both Taekwoon had one leg and one arm over her meanwhile Hongbin slept curled up right beside her waist.
The two had gotten cold in the middle of the night and shifted next and over her.
Minah suddenly felt a pinch and then another and another.
She looked down to her legs and her face filled with shock. She shook both of the young boys awake.
"Leo. Binnie. Leo. Binnie." She called in a loud-whisper.
Hongbin woke up and groaned but the other didn't budge.
"Leo. Leo. Leo! Leo!" She called louder. Hongbin reached an arm over and smacked Taekwoon in the face.
"Move. She can't breathe with your fat, heavy arm and leg on her!" Hongbin yelled in a groggy voice. Taekwoon winced in pain and put a hand up to his red cheek.
"Why did you hit me~" He asked, half asleep.
"Get your arm and leg off of Minah." Hongbin demanded. Minah pulled her legs up to her face and held them tight, making Taekwoon's limbs slide off of her.
"Ants. There are red ants!" She finally warned, not used to it because her mother always yelled at her not to yell or scream. Although her mother did it to her all the time and she thought that maybe only adults were allowed to yell. She was proven wrong once again by Taekwoon and Hongbin last night of course.
The two boys that had just noticed the bites on their legs screamed along with her.
An old man walking past heard their screams and escorted the children to the police station where their parents were contacted.
The two got in big trouble and Minah was sent back home to her mother.
They played with each other almost everyday afterwards for a year until Taekwoon's parents noticed Minah's bruises and got her mother locked up in jail.
She was sent to the foster home in Busan and never saw Taekwoon nor Hongbin again for three years.
Taekwoon's parents adopted her, joking that they needed a new child but Minah knew that Taekwoon had some say in it.
She knew he begged them night and day for three years to adopt her and she was very thankful for that, but Hongbin was off limits.
She still doesn't know what happened between the two because Taekwoon never let her bring it up.
*Present*
"What are you doing here!?" Taekwoon asked rhetorically as he dragged Minah off her seat in the bleachers and onto the street angrily.
Minah put her head down like she always did when she disobeys Taekwoon and gets caught.
They already arrived home when Minah remembers that she left her backpack at school and runs out to get it in a hurry, forgetting to tell anyone.
Comments