Something didn’t feel right. I had set my alarm clock at eight in the morning, but the piece of crap woke me up at seven for some reason. Worst part: I couldn’t fall back asleep and I couldn’t see properly. I ended up squinting my eyes and reading those stupid books Woohyun had given me and it’s was a waste of time. I highly doubt he bought those at original price, it had to be some buy one, get three free special.

I texted the cheapest living thing on earth:

“Your books are .”  (7:09 am)

“What?” (7:10 am)

“Those books you bought me, are .” (7:11 am)

“Sungyeol, can we not talk about this at 7 in the morning?” (7:11 am)             

“No, I can’t sleep and therefore I’m going to ruin your morning as well.” (7:12am)

“I’m going to ignore you now.” (7:13 am)

“I’ve been looking in the mirror a lot for the past 12 hours.”  (7:14 am)

“Key did one hell of a job right?” (7:14 am)

“I thought you said you were going to sleep.”

“But here you are texting me back within a minute.” (7:15 am)

I waited for another minute, but there was no reply. And then another one, but there still wasn’t a reply. Did the really fall back asleep?

“TALK TO ME, .” (7:17 am)

“I don’t think that’s how you say thank you.”

“I can’t sleep now that I’m awake.”

“Yeah, the hair look looks nice on you.”(7:18 am)

“I know.” (7: 19 am)

“Ill-mannered child.” (7:19am)

“Thank. You.” (7:20 am)

“What did your parents say?” (7:21 am)

“About?” (7:21 am)

“Your Hair.” (7:22 am)

“Nothing.”

“They didn’t even see me yet.” (7:22 am)

“Are they traditional Asians?”
 “Will they highly get a heart attack if their son turned into some punk?” (7:23 am)

“Not sure.”

“I’m old enough to do whatever I want anyway.” (7:24 am)

“Yeah, right.”

“Your dad seems a bit intense though.” (7:25 am)

“Whatever, it’s too late now.” (7:26 am)

“How is Myungsoo going to react?” (7:26 am)

“I don’t give a damn.” (7:27 am)

“I’m sure.”

“But you know, we’ve still got a lot to work on.” (7:28 am)

“Like?” (7:29 am)

I wasn’t prepared for the longest spam of text messages.

“THE FACE, OBVIOUSLY.”

“Skin”

“Contacts”

“TEETH”

“HAIRS”

“And man, you have no eyebrow.”

“God must have really hated you.” (7:35 am)

“I hope you a flock of birds on you.” (7:36 am)

“Harsh, no?” (7:37 am)

“Says, you.” (7:37 am)

“I don’t believe Cinderella said things like this to her fairy godmother.” (7:39 am)

“Disney princesses are lies.”

“They will only shatter the hopes of little girls.”

“When those chicks grow up, they’ll realize that prince charming doesn’t exist.”

“IT’S. A. SCAM.” (7:43 am)

“Chill.”

“Listen to your fairy godmother.” (7:44 am)

“Who’s non-existent.” (7:45 am)

“All right, good luck on your future, Sungyeol.” (7:46 am)

He actually stop texting me. I think I actually managed to piss him off.

“Knock, knock.” (7:50 am)

Nope, no reply.

“Fairy godfather…”

“Anyone home?” (7:52 am)

“No one wants to be your fairy godfather.”

“Even though I have to admit, it’s better than fairy godmother.” (7:53 am)

“^^” (7: 54 am)

“Get me a coffee and I’ll think about helping you.” (7: 55 am)

“Canned coffee will do?” (7: 56 am)

“No.”

“I change my mind. Make that a breakfast set.”

“Coffee and something to eat.” (7:59 am)

I rubbed my tired eyes from looking at the screen too close. I kicked off the covers and slipped on my shoes and headed for the kitchen. He didn’t say anything about instant coffee, so…I suppose that’s a pass.

“Sungyeol?” My mother called me with in a questioning tone.

“Yeah?”

“What happened to you honey?” She placed her hands on my face and turned my heads towards her. “What happened to your hair? Who told you to do this?”

“Umm, I thought a change would be good.” I shrugged. “Don’t you think this looks nice?”

“It’s acceptable, I guess. What about your glasses?”

“Broken.”

“What happened to those?”

“I-”

“Honey…” My mom switched into a serious tone, “are you getting bullied?”

“MOM. I’m a university student, finishing his last year. Can you not look so lowly of me?”

“Sorry, I just thought my one and only was going through some tough times. I even thought Myugnsoo was the one who broke them. You know you two haven’t been getting along well these days and-”

“We’re fine mom.”

“OH REALLY?” She sounded really excited for some reason.
“Yeah, we just don’t talk anymore.”

“Awww, honey-”

“Mom, I don’t need a friend like Myungsoo, I can always make new ones.”

“Did you confess to him yet?”

“That’s not the point.”

“It is.” She insisted.

“Well, I did and he rejected me and that’s the end of the story, so can I please have my time alone and not look like a loser talking to his mom about his fail love life?”

My mom wrapped me in her arms and my back. “It’s all good honey. Just remember, I believe in you.”

So there I was, left in the kitchen alone, half blind, trying to crack an egg without getting any shells into it and somehow I manage to pull it off without burning the whole house down and my dad walks in.

“What’s up, rock star?” He nods his head up and down holding up a peace sign in the air.

“Not cool, dad.”

“Just tryin’ fit in with my hip-hop son, you know what I’m sayin’ man?” He offers me a fist pump.

“No thank you.” I politely reject it.

“Loss the glasses too huh? Too cool for school, as those kids would say.”

“Dad, you’re so behind and lame. Can’t you just cut it out?”

“Too cool for me now, huh bro?”

I almost wanted to shoot myself.

“Okay, thanks for the entertainment and you may leave now.”

“It’s the first time you’ve made breakfast for me, so I won’t smack you today for disrespecting your elders.”

“Uhh, this isn’t for you, old man.”

“What?”

My phone suddenly lit up on the kitchen counter top.

“How’s my food coming along?” (8:20 am)

“I’m sorry, but this wasn’t made for you and I’m in a rush so do me a favor and wash the frying pan for me, please dad?”

I grabbed my phone and the packed lunch box up to my room, and quickly changed into the first thing I found the ground. It was a gray sweatshirt. Nothing nice, nothing bad, except Myungsoo also bought the same one, but in a different color. He called it, “friendship hoodies”.

Yet, another sound rang from my phone, giving me no time to rethink about my choice of apparel.

“What do you want?” I picked up the call and had it on speaker.

“Where’s my food? You woke me up so early and you wasted my sleeping time. Get your skinny out the door,” the jerk rushed me.

“I’m coming out, just shut up and give me another twenty seconds.”

 
I ran out with my laces untied, back pack ped and my bangs still tied into a tiny ponytail.

“Nice hair,” he pointed out my childish looking hairstyle.

“SHUT UP, jerk. “

“What did you say?”

“Here,” I chucked a warm plastic box at him along with a plastic spoon.

“You actually made me food?” I guess he wasn’t looking forward to it after all.

“Yeah, so appreciate it.”

“Rice, kimchi, ham, is that a fried egg I see? Or is it…”

“It’s a fried egg.”

“Questionable,” he replied back, but continued opening the box.

“Don’t eat it then,” I had one of my hands on the box, “I’ll eat it.”

 “No,” he snatched it away from me.

“Just saying, if you get a stomach ache, or if you end up going to the hospital , I’m not paying for those operation fees and meds.”

He stopped walking and stared at me with a blank face, holding the box still in his hands.

“I’m not even sure if I’m joking myself right now. Eat at your own risk,” I reminded him.

“Is this your first time cooking?”

“No, second.”

“You’re lying.”

“I am,” I admitted, “but there was a time I cooked Myungsoo instant noodles once when he came over to my house and somehow he actually got really sick.”

”Maybe the noodles expired.”

“Or maybe I’m just bad at cooking and whoever eats it, dies.”

“Forget it, I’m not hungry.”

“See-” I turned over to Woohyun, the box that was just in his hands was gone, “where’s that box?”

“I threw it out.”

“WHAT!”

“I. THREW. IT. OUT.” He broke the words down one by one.

“MY BOX! THAT WAS MY LUNCH BOX!”

“I’ll get you another one.”

“YOU BETTER YOU-”

“Shhhhh!” He suddenly covered me with my hood.

“Why-”

He pulled my head down to his, “Keep quiet, Myungsoo is across the street behind us.”

“Why can’t I let him see me?”

“Because, now’s not the time.”

“What do you mean, now’s not the time? You just complimented on my hair yesterday!”

“Will you calm down? Like I said, we still have to work on that list I talked about this morning. And does your shirt happen to be the gray version of his?”

“Yeah, he has a black-” NO. There was no way Myungsoo was wearing the same hoodie as me. “Kill me now.”

“I want to, but I think I’d rather watch.”

Myungsoo picked up his steps and it was so obvious that he was making his way over to us. “Nice shirt, he said as he walked between the both of us, bumping into my shoulder and Woohyun’s.

“I’m surprised you’d wear it when we’re not friends anymore,” I told the person ahead of us.

“I don’t recall it having anything to do with the word friend,” he turned his head back.

I glared at him from the response. He was asking for a slap, but I had a better idea.

“That lunch box better be that garbage can,” I said as I walked a few meters back to the trash bin beside a bus stop.

“It is,” Woohyun confirmed.

“Good.”

The garbage can was surprisingly clean considering it had a new plastic bag over it and the only thing in it was indeed, my lunch box. I took it out and sprinted my way up to Myungsoo. I removed the lid from my box and launched the rest of it towards his face as he looked back at me. The whole dish landed in on him, his face covered in kimchi and hand fried rice.

“DIE ! DIEEE!!!!!”

“WHAT THE HELL, LEE SUNGYEOL!”

“WOOO! Serves you right!”

“High five!” Woohyun caught up and cheered me on.

“I’m so sorry Myungsoo, I just accidently loss my footing.”

He death glared at me and Woohyun, “Very, funny.”

“Indeed. I’ll see you around on campus later on then.” We walked away from him and continued our way to our classes.

_________________________________________________________________________________

“You must have really big balls to do that to him.” (10:23 am)

“Well, someone had to do it.” (10:24 am)

“He might get you later on” (10:25 am)

“He won’t” (10:26 am)

“You know for sure, because?” (10:27 am)

“Childhood friends.”

“He’s not the type to take revenge.”

“At least physically.” (10:30 am)

“Why?” (10:32 am)

“He knows I’ve always been weaker than him” (10:35 am)

“But you’re taller.” (10:36 am)

“But I’m small boned.” (10:38 am)