o1.
Eunsook gasped when she turned around to see her brother flipping a man who was dressed decently in a suit down onto the ground ruthlessly with one swift moment - it didn't make sense, why would her brother even do that? Pushing all thoughts aside, Eunsook quickly scuttled over to where her brother was after noticing those glances that the people passing by were casting at them. She could see her brother cracking his knuckles as he frowned, almost prepared to send a punch - oh wait, this was not good.


"Taemin, what are you doing!"


Eunsook heaved out a breath of relief when she managed to catch her brother's fist on time before he really punched the man whose face was all pale and was running away for his dear life desperately after seeing that Taemin's fist was halted. She sighed when a frown made it's way to her brother's face, and released her hand when she knew he noticed how far the frightened man had gotten.


"I'm sure you weren't sent to learn Taekwondo just so that you can flip people around like they are meat patties-" Eunsook paused her words when Taemin suddenly wrapped his jacket around her waist, and tied a butterfly knot at the sight so that it wouldn't look ugly. Eunsook had to stifle a smile immediately. "What are you really doing, Taemin?"


"You should've looked at how that guy was staring at your..." Taemin rolled his eyes and knew he had to be careful with his words. Eunsook would definitely freak out if she knew she was on the verge on getting molested - the man's hands were disgustingly near his sister earlier. "Just stop wearing all those fitting skirts-"


He stopped when Eunsook started to turn around and looked at where her brother's jacket was covering her at - her lower curves, and her smile faltered immediately as her face visibly blanched. She immediately stared at the direction where the man had previously ran to, and had a miserable face as she turned to look at her brother.


"That's just gross, Taemin!"





o2.
"Oh - Jinki you didn't oversleep today!"


"Jonghyun and Gwiboon just hopped onto my bed just when I was having this dream with lots of delicious looking chicken wings. I haven't even got a chance to-"


"Both of you woke him up?"


Kibum turned his chair away from Jinki, and had to stifle a laughter when Jinki kicked his chair lightly in return for his ignoring. Both Jonghyun and Gwiboon nodded their heads as they made their way to the seats, and Kibum sighed when he saw Jinki bringing his bag onto the table so just to make it a pillow for him to sleep on.


Kibum silently wondered why he was a friend of Jinki who only made an effort to sleep.


"Tragically speaking, the three of us are neighbors." Gwiboon rolled her eyes at Jonghyun's words. "So to prevent my dear friend over here from getting into detention ever again due to being late - Gwiboon and I just decided to be his alarm clock from now onwards."


Jinki buried his face deeper into his soft bag that contained almost nothing.


Kibum just shook his head in sympathy for the other - he just earned himself an alarm clock that definitely didn't have a snooze button, which meant that he would constantly be separated from his lover; chicken. But honestly, it wasn't as if he disagreed with what Jonghyun and Gwiboon were doing - and yes, he approved the forceful separation of Jinki's marriage with chickens. One of the most popular guys in school and yet he favored chickens more than girls - this wasn't logical.


He looked over to where Jonghyun was, and saw him reading a book that was even thicker than his wrist - who could possibly read them without surviving sleepy spells? Perhaps only Jonghyun - this guy actually loved books more than anything else.


Maybe birds of a feather really do flock together, because Jonghyun preferred books over women too and not to forget Gwiboon, who obviously would rather give all her attention to her expensive manicure and pigtails than to any living men on earth.


"Why am I stuck here with the three of you?"


"Because your best-friend Taemin isn't in school yet."


"Go back to sleep."







o3.
"It's different from running on the tracks, Junghee. Cooking is not all about the speed,"


Kibum laughed when Junghee responded by lowering her head so that he wouldn't see her embarrassed face. Earlier, she was stirring the dumpling soup at such a speed that water was spilling everywhere and some of the dumplings were completely disfigured. Kibum had to hurry over to stop her before what's left in the pot was just some miserable water that probably only tasted like salt with the remains of some unfortunate dumplings.


"Track and field doesn't teach me how to cook, apparently."


"Apparently, art club doesn't teach me how to cook too." Kibum broke into a small smile when Junghee elbowed him lightly at her own defense. "Did you try to learn cooking from anyone?"


Junghee scratched her nape awkwardly as she shook her head. Cooking was never her forte, her mother knew that clearly and didn't even try to teach her. She wasn't Kibum, who seemed to excel in it greatly - he was even better than Taeyeon. But it wasn't as if she didn't like cooking though, she found it interesting. Furthermore Kibum seemed to-


"I can teach you if you want to-"


"Oh sure, sure!"


Junghee put on her best grin at the thought of the great Kim Kibum of this school teaching her how to cook - she wasn't being lovesick, really. She just couldn't help it; she had been crushing on Kibum ever since three years ago and they only spoke - finally - when they became classmates this year. Junghee could still remember how she was jumping around after their conversation and ran three kilometers straight afterwards.


"That's just, scary."


Taemin stated flatly to himself after seeing how sweet Junghee's smile actually turned with Kibum around and he noticed how his best-friend was actually smiling in such a different way than usual - they were both obviously in love with each other and yet were so oblivious. And about his comment of this was being scary, he would still continue holding his stand.


No one would ever expect the tomboy Junghee to turn so sweet and small when standing beside Kibum who was suddenly smiling in a gentle way rather than his usual mocking and sarcastic way - it was just all so scary. Taemin couldn't imagine how he would turn into when it was his turn to be in love.


Would he be flipping fried eggs and sausages instead of humans then?


Oh no, just no.


"Taemin, what's with that face?"







o4.
"Maybe you will want to borrow some books on how to cure your broken heart."


Jonghyun frowned. Maybe he really should, his heart just felt like it weighed a lot and Jonghyun hadn't read enough science books to get a logical explanation for the reason. Jinki seemed to understand after he told him and insisted that it was a broken heart - what did his best-friend knew except for sleeping and chickens anyway?


"I heard it cracking so stop doubting me." Jinki muttered sleepily in annoyance as his cheek found it's way to the cooling surface of the table. Jonghyun adjusted his glasses upon getting surprised at how his best-friend managed to know what he was thinking. "But there's really nothing, Jonghyun. Eunsook is only sitting beside Minho, it's not as if she is going to lean on his shoulder or something-"


"What if she really did?"


Jinki sighed.


"She definitely won't, alright?" Jonghyun found Jinki's textbook being shoved into his hands with a light strength. "Even if she needs a shoulder to lean on, it's going to be another person instead of Minho so just study now."


Who?


Jonghyun wasn't in time to ask all of the questions that had just came into his mind; the teacher called Jinki out to his table for some reasons that he missed. Jonghyun sighed loudly in exasperation as he watched his best-friend reluctantly tore his face away from the table and lifted himself off the chair to walk sloppily to where the teacher's table was-


Jonghyun's eyes widened when he saw Eunsook slipping a small pink note into Jinki's hands with one swift movement when his best-friend passed her table.



"Even if she needs a shoulder to lean on, it's going to be another person instead of Minho so just study now."


Jonghyun felt his lips parting in great surprise as he saw Jinki's flushed look as soon as he opened the note to look at it's content when the teacher was still speaking to him - were Jinki and Eunsook dating? Wasn't that be the most evil betrayal on earth, even worse than all the dramas that Gwiboon had watched?







o5.
Minjung found herself a seat at an isolated stairway that people rarely went to, and leaned back comfortably onto the wall as she looked at the crowded canteen through the window. This high school was always bustling with people and noise; she definitely wouldn't be surprised if someone suddenly shrieked or screamed, it was just so common over here. But Minjung wasn't one to enjoy herself in the crowd and hence she found herself at this stairway a week ago-


She snapped out of her thoughts when her phone's screen lighted up as it vibrated, alerting the badminton-player that she had a message received. Picking it up with her piano fingers, she smiled when she read the message that was from her twin-brother, Minho.



"I'm coming up with your favorite fruit sandwich and lemon tea ^^"


Her brother knew that she didn't like to be in a noisy environment and understood why she always came up here during recess-time nowadays but he just wouldn't stop worrying about the fact that she was alone here instead of having meals with Taeyeon. She was thankful that her brother always accompanied her when he could have been with his other friends; he never lacked of any since he was the star player of the school basketball team-


"Oh, you are here today too."


Minjung quickly spun around to see Taemin taking slow steps down the stairway, closer to where she was sitting at.


"I don't like how noisy the canteen will always be and decided that this place is so much better to be in," Minjung muttered softly as she moved her fingers on the keypads of the phone, pressing at them lightly as she typed out the reply to her brother's message. "Nobody comes here anyway - not that I mind, I can have this breezy place all to myself."


Minjung looked up when Taemin stopped as he reached her side, and noticed the small keychain that was attached to his phone with his sister - Eunsook had exactly the same keychain too. Taemin was really close to Eunsook, just like how close she was with Minho.


"Someone does come here, but not anymore now that you're here often."


Taemin shrugged as he hopped off the last step, and to the ground level. He had his red hair covered with a base-ball cap that she recognized to be Kibum's one - Junghee just couldn't stop telling her how good her crush looked good in it. Minjung raised her eyebrow at Taemin's words, but her question just died on the tip of her tongue when Taemin just made his way away from the stairway-


"I didn't mean it in a negative way. At least that someone knew somebody else shares the same thought as him like finally - this place is really good, isn't it?"


It was minutes later when Minho came up with sandwiches and bottles of lemon tea that Minjung realized that Taemin always came here to have his meals until she became a regular here - maybe much to his displeasure, Minjung wasn't sure.







o6.
Lots of things were happening in the canteen and Jonghyun found his listless-self unable to pay even the slightest attention to any of those events occurring except for something disturbing. The school's eye-catcher Taeyeon was performing with her cheerleading-club's members to promote for the upcoming regional basketball competition, Taemin actually came to the canteen which he rarely did with Kibum who was casting occasional glances over to where Junghee was; the poor girl was standing totally awkward beside Gwiboon who was chatting with Minho which spiked many girls' jealousy - none of these caught his attention.


He could only stare at how Eunsook and Jinki were chatting happily, cheerfully and sweetly at a corner.


Jonghyun wouldn't believe that his best-friend would actually do this but everything was just properly laid out in front of him - the pink note and the sweet chat at the corner. A frown made it's way to his face when he saw Jinki finally ending the conversation with Eunsook and walking over to his table with a small smile; so that chicken-lover still could smile - what was Eunsook giving him?


A yellow lunchbox?


Jonghyun's face visibly blanched.


"I bought your share so let's eat!" Gwiboon's cheerful voice was suddenly heard and he just sighed as the drama club's president took the seat right opposite of his - and of course she noticed his glum look right away since it was just so obvious. "... What happened? Where's Jinki?"


Jonghyun's frown worsened at the mention of his best-friend's name.


"Eunsook gave him slipped him a note of confession and gave him a lunchbox." Jonghyun looked at Gwiboon whose face was immediately painted with shock and surprise. "I know right? And Jinki seemed to be happy with that too, he couldn't even take off his grin for a short moment."


Gwiboon turned around to search for where Jinki was, but quickly cleared in awkwardness when she saw Jinki walking over to their table with that unmistakably yellow lunchbox in his hands that clearly belonged to Eunsook - Gwiboon could recognize it - and his grin was really bright.


"I'm really going to borrow books on how to cure a broken heart and come to terms with betrayal." Jonghyun muttered softly and got off his chair as soon as he noticed Jinki was nearing the table with the lunchbox that was so eye-striking - he left the table with his head hung low.


Gwiboon could only shake her head and stared at Jonghyun with sympathy.


"Did Jonghyun tell you anything?" Jinki was suddenly seated beside her, hugging the lunchbox close to his chest - could what Jonghyun was saying be true? "He ignored me for hours ever since he saw Minho sitting with Eunsook - My face don't even share any resemblance to Minho."


Gwiboon didn't think it would be possible for Jinki to be secretly dating Eunsook since he expressed no interest when Jonghyun spoke to them about Eunsook - but the student council's president did captured almost all of the school boys' hearts and Gwiboon wouldn't be surprised if Jinki was added on to it. Then again, Jinki really wasn't one to do this.


Wait, so whose side should she take?


"Nice lunchbox you have there," Gwiboon ignored Jinki's question and looked at the deserted plate of food that she had bought for Jonghyun. Jinki's stare softened immediately at the sight of the yellow lunchbox. "Someone made it for you?"


Jinki nodded his head and had this smile that was so sweet - Gwiboon thought that she was going to faint.


"Lee Jinki, how could you!"







o7.
Kibum turned around when he heard the door that he was sitting beside opening, and choked on his drink when he saw who it was. Taemin woke up from his nap when he heard the coughing from his best-friend.


"... Jinki? Why are you here - oh my god, did you just skipped class?" Kibum blinked in surprise as Jinki flopped onto the seat opposite of him with a small frown, only to replace it with a small smile when his eyes met with Taemin's ones - his best-friend nodded in response, and it just proved that his eyes weren't playing tricks. Jinki was indeed here. "Where's Jonghyun-"


"The rooftop is really nice, no wonder you are always here." Jinki looked around the rooftop which was definitely breezy and chilling, ignoring the look on Kibum. "So this is how it feels to skip class, pretty good."


Kibum raised an eyebrow questioningly as he and Taemin exchanged glances that just ruled Jinki as suspicious.


"What happened, Jinki?"


"Jonghyun has been giving me the silent treatment ever since this morning." Jinki cleared his throat awkwardly afterwards, seeing how Taemin and Kibum practically had no reactions. "... Gwiboon too, she suddenly looked at me like I'm a sinner and stormed away angrily - I was left alone in the canteen suddenly. The feeling is really awful."


Taemin made a disapproving face afterwards while Kibum just stared at Jinki.


"I don't even know what I've done, Kibum. That's just unfair." Jinki heaved out a deep breath of annoyance as he picked at the cheap fabrics on his bag. "I didn't even sit with Jonghyun after recess; I sat with Minho throughout all the lessons until earlier, when Minho told me that I'm supposed to go back to Jonghyun since pair-work was going to start. Jonghyun is obviously, my partner for it."


And that was a weird piece of news to Kibum. He had known Jinki since elementary school, and he knew the relationship between the three neighbors was really good. Bickers and arguments did occurred, but Kibum knew all of them were friendly ones and none would take it to their hearts but - this seemed like the first, the awful silent treatment.


Jinki felt a buzz in his bag and his eyes lightened up immediately like a child - Kibum didn't need to think to know the Science club's president was pinning hopes on the message he had just gotten to be from Jonghyun.


Kibum watched as Jinki ped his bag with a frantic speed, taking his phone out the moment he saw it and flipped it open to have the crestfallen look on his face again - Kibum cleared his throat worriedly at the sight of that. He shifted over to Jinki's side to look at whose message was that from and instead of the name of "Jjong :B" appearing, it was "Eunsook".



"Are you feeling unwell? I don't see you in the class ><"


Jinki smiled slightly at her goodwill-concern and quickly proceeded to reply her, while Kibum just gave a comforting pat on his close-friend's shoulder before shifting back to beside Taemin - what was his best-friend staring at? Kibum followed the direction of Taemin's stare and found the yellow lunchbox revealed through the ped bag of Jinki to be what his best-friend was looking at.


Kibum immediately leaned forward to pull the leather bag into his laps, and got the yellow lunchbox out the next moment which had Taemin raising an eyebrow questioningly immediately. Perhaps his best-friend shared the same thoughts exactly as him since the next moment he found Taemin's hands flipping the lunchbox over to check if there were anything there - they found a star-sticker.


"Oh."


Taemin nodded and removed his hands from the yellow lunchbox, slipping it back into his jacket's pockets to keep his cold hands warm. Kibum then chuckled silently as he handed the bag back to Jinki; helping him to zip it incase this precious lunchbox fell off.


"Lucky guy we have here, hm?" Jinki blinked, obviously not getting what Kibum was trying to get at. "Mr. Yellow lunchbox?"


Taemin shook his head at how flustered Jinki got afterwards.







o8.
Minho stood at the bus-stop with her sister, and noticed two of his classmates sitting on the bench looking down. It was Gwiboon and Jonghyun - Minho immediately noticed that one of the usual trio was missing, and no wonder it looked really odd. He knew something was wrong ever since Jinki went to sit beside him, but he guessed he was no one to ask further.


He noticed how Gwiboon was staring at her phone with a hesitant look on her face while Jonghyun was having a small frown on his face with his earphones plugged in, both of them weren't speaking but Gwiboon was hugging the other's arm lightly - tightening the hug whenever Jonghyun sighed.


Something really did happened.


"The bus is here," Minjung tugged at his sleeve and he looked over to see their usual bus approaching. Minho nodded his head in response as he pulled his leather wallet out of his pocket and made sure that his sister got up the bus first before him since there was a time when she was too busy searching for her wallet and forgot to board the bus-


"Things aren't the same without Jinki, Jonghyun."


Minho paused in his steps for a brief moment; he had never heard Gwiboon that upset before. He quickly took a glance at Gwiboon who was still staring at the phone before boarding into the bus - she looked more than just upset.





o9.
"Noona? Are you there-" Taemin paused as soon as he entered the kitchen - his sister was standing on the chair, her head poked into the tallest section of the drawer to search for something. Taemin definitely didn't feel safe regarding this - Eunsook was one of the world's most clumsy person. "What are you doing there? It's dangerous,"




"I'm searching for the bags of tea leaves that Dad kept in a container, but I can't seem to find it."




Her muffled voice was heard as she continued searching. Taemin raised an eyebrow questioningly as he recalled the container to be in a different place; he walked to the other drawer where their father would always keep the seasonings at and pulled it open to reveal a green box that he knew contained the tea leaves.




"... Noona, don't search anymore, I've found it."




Taemin sighed silently as his sister finally pulled her face out of the drawer and her eyes just lit up the moment she saw the container in her brother's hands - the red-haired panicked for a short while when his sister suddenly hopped off the chair recklessly. He sighed silently as she thanked him softly and took over the green container, scuttling to where the mugs were the next moment. Taemin's eyes went to where the mugs were neatly arranged at, and saw Eunsook's collections of lunchboxes.




"Noona, where's your favorite yellow lunchbox?"




"Hm? I haven't used it for awhile... I think it's just around here,"




Eunsook rested the blue mug aside, and took some of the lunchboxes out to reveal the one that Taemin was asking for - he heaved out a breath of relief immediately at that. That just meant the one that Jinki got belonged to-




"Why? Do you want noona to make you lunch for tomorrow's recess?" Eunsook returned to scooping spoonfuls of sugar into the mug that already had a bag of tea leaves in, and smiled brightly at Taemin who swallowed nervously. "Dad taught me how to prepare pancakes! I can do it very well now-"




Taemin rested his arm around his sister's shoulder as he stared at where the yellow lunchbox was - he could see black marker drawings on it and remembered seeing none when he checked the lunchbox on the rooftop this afternoon. And he heaved out another soft breath of relief - he couldn't imagine what would be his reaction if he found out that his clumsy and gullible sister was attached.




"It's fine, I'm just asking since I haven't seen you using for a long while and it's your favorite,"




Taemin quickly made up a reason as he watched his sister pouring warm water into the blue mug carefully enough to not spill any drops. He remembered the last time Eunsook made breakfast was when their father was ill, and his sister put sugar into porridge which had their father's face scrunching up afterwards with distaste. Taemin was surprised at how he managed to finish the whole bowl of porridge-




"Here, you have some difficulties sleeping lately right?" Eunsook smiled sweetly as she pushed the mug into his hand gently. "Someone told me that drinking tea will enable a good night's sleep!"




Taemin blinked for a short moment before breaking into a small thankful smile. He waited until the tea's temperature had gotten down before taking a huge gulp of it only to realize that the tea was definitely too sweet for anyone's good and Taemin had to quickly swallow it to prevent him from spitting it out - it was tea that he was drinking, he had to look at it again to confirm.




"How's it?"




Taemin found himself standing in his father's shoes just like two months ago, when Eunsook was asking their father with the exactly same question and the exactly same hopeful eyes that were almost sparkling that made it so hard for them to even say that it tasted a little bit less than awful.




"My sister made tea for me," Taemin ruffled his sister's long and straight hair that was still slightly wet from the shower she had gotten into earlier. "Of course it's sweet."




Eunsook looked really happy at that answer, and kissed him goodnight on the forehead before scuttling back to her room with joy. Taemin could only sigh as his vision was back onto the mug of tea that he certainly wouldn't pour away since it was his sister who made it - it was really sweet.




Taemin wasn't lying.




"Dad, do you want some tea to drink...?" Taemin yelled to his father that was most probably in the study room.