[4019]

It was summer, the day before the start of your senior year, and here you were, in the crappy parking lot of your neighborhood diner with all of your friends, trying to scrape enough money for one dish to split between seven... eight people. It was tragic, but it wasn't anything new.

"God, you know, being the only one with a job is actually a huge pain in the ," Hanbin groaned as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a bunch of crumpled bills and miscellaneous receipts all bundled into one. It looked like a lot when you eyeballed it from afar but all it was in reality was all bunch of small bills and some receipts. In any case, it was a lot more than any of you had to offer. He rolled his eyes. "I feel like I support all of you more than your own damn parents do."

Well... he wasn't wrong. You all leaned on Hanbin more than you should've in the finance department, more than your parents, even, for things like this, but it was just like that. Everyone had something to give and something to take. For instance, everyone, including Hanbin, leaned on Donghyuk when it came to homework. Everyone leaned on Yunhyeong for rides since he was the only one with a driver's license. For you, it was your house. It went on and on down the roster. All of you had something to bring to the table. Hanbin didn't really mind that you all leaned on him for money, since he took as much as he gave, but every once in a while, he reminded you all about it just to keep you from borrowing more than you needed. He was also good at complaining. 

"Well, okay," Donghyuk said as he grabbed the bundle of cash from Hanbin and straightened the bills out in his hands. Donghyuk always handled the money since he was good at that sort of thing. From the condition of the money when he received it, you could tell Hanbin wasn't. "Well, it's enough for those ribs Yunhyeong likes to get, but is that what everyone feels like eating?"

"I'm on a diet," you said with a plain expression. "If you're willing to switch out the rice for a salad then I'm in."

Bobby's face crumpled in a half confused half irritated look as you said that. It was strange how his face worked; he always looked handsome, even when he was making expressions that'd look horribly ugly on anyone else. His eyes jumped down from your face to the rest of your body with that scrunched up handsome-ugly look of his. "And why are you on a diet? You look fine the way you are."

One would think his statement was a compliment, but it was just a blunt observation, with his tone it sounded like an insult. There was nothing sweet or flattering about it and you didn't receive it like there had been. 

"It's none of your business why I'm on a diet only that I'm on one," you countered, giving him a just as unpleasant look. "Now are you willing to give me a salad or not?"

"Now, now, Mom and Dad, there's no need to fight in front of the kids," Jinhwan said dryly as he stuck his hands in his pockets and took the situation into his own thoughts. He always hated when things got more complicated than they needed to be. "Okay, why don't we just get the extra big ramen? Ahyeon, you can just eat the broth and the leafy things."

"Sodium makes your face bloat, Jinhwan," you replied and Bobby rolled his eyes, looking like he couldn't take a minute more of your diet jargon. Bobby was a simple guy with a simple view on life... mostly; things like diets made his head explode. 

"I think I have a few bills to spare," Junhoe added as he reached deep in his pockets. He always had random crap stuffed in them. "It was supposed to be for my bus fare to my dad's but if Yunhyeong's willing to give me a ride there then I have no problem parting with it."

"Your dad lives all the way across town!" Yunhyeong blurted, looking offended that Junhoe had even brought it up. "I have enough gas, sure, but my car might die on me straying so far from civilization."

This was way more complex than it should've been, now even you were getting irritated by it. Not to mention, Donghyuk always set aside more money than necessary to generously tip that one waitress he'd had his eye on for ages now. He was too shy to say anything to her, so this was his own way of flirting, you guessed. You were a little heartbroken by that; if you were to choose among the guys, Donghyuk would be the guy you'd see yourself falling for if you ever allowed yourself to. Donghyuk was handsome, he was smart, and he was an overall good guy who was good at a lot of things: a rare breed in that crummy town of yours. It was for this reason, though, that you realized he probably deserved someone of his par, which, as it turned out, wasn't you. Since this was more obvious than a revelation, however, it was only worth a slight shrug and then that was that. 

"I mean, I can just stay at your place then if it's like that," Junhoe casually said. He was always shameless when it came to asking for favors. The guy had a good way of casually doing it, though, making it not seem like a burden. You had to respect him for it. "I didn't feel like seeing my dad anyway. He's been an lately, bothering me about college all the time as if he's even going help me get through it."

"Yeah, okay, my mom's gone anyway," Yunhyeong said, gesturing for Junhoe to hand over the bills to Donghyuk. The amount of small bills you'd end up paying with was embarrassing, but who cared.

"Okay, so Ahyeon gets her salad and ramen's for dinner for the rest of us," Donghyuk said as he folded over the bills and shoved it in his back pocket. "Everyone agree on it?"

Everyone nodded and that was that.

Chanwoo pulled open the door and was the first one to walk into the diner. The group had been kicked out of this diner several times in the span of your high school career, and you weren't supposed to come back in all honesty, but you all noticed that whenever Chanwoo entered in first, it helped from getting kicked out right at the door. Chanwoo had a special kind of face that everyone -- really, everyone-- seemed to like and no one could really say no to. He was the babyfaced, angelic type with a personality that matched up pretty well. That was probably what he offered to the group; he sure as hell didn't have anything else to give.

Donghyuk walked in next, already looking over Chanwoo's shoulder for that waitress he was so fond of. Next in line was Junhoe, who had his arm slung around Yunhyeong, and was telling some lame joke to him; Yunhyeong wasn't laughing at all, but that didn't slow Junhoe down. Hanbin had his hands shoved in his pockets when he stalked in after them, and then Jinhwan was close behind him trying to get him to take them out (when Hanbin had a naturally intense face like his, people got nervous seeing his hands in his pockets, and Jinhwan thought it was something that needed to be prevented). You were next in after Hanbin, and then Bobby was last, as usual.

"Oh, no," the receiving waitress, not the one Donghyuk liked, mumbled as she saw you all line up by the door. She sighed with a dry roll to her words. "Not all of you again."

Yunhyeong gave a nice smile as he chomped on a wad of bubblegum. 

---

It was well into the night by the time you all left the diner, but the time didn't matter much to anyone. None of your parents really cared if you stayed out late as long as they weren't going to be bothered to pick you up somewhere or bail you out of jail in the middle of the night. You probably could've stayed out much later than you had that night, but it was a good idea to get heading home seeing as school started tomorrow. 

You were lying on your bed -- it was 12 am or so -- when you heard a light tap on your window. You knew who it was before you even looked up. Without even realizing it, the guys all had developed their own identifying knocks. Two polite taps on the glass was Donghyuk's -- this wasn't his. Hanbin had one firm knock (any harder he could've made a crack) and it wasn't his either. Yunhyeong liked to tap to a beat of a jingle that often played on the radio -- thank God it wasn't that. No, it was three heavy taps and that belonged to none other than Bobby. That should've known you weren't in the mood to see him, not after him giving you such a rough time today, but you opened the window for him anyway. In the same way that you all used Hanbin for money, everyone used you for your home to escape their families. It was empty most of the time. It wasn't fair to turn him away seeing as you'd probably need him for a favor later on. He was also your friend. Well... sort of. He fell into the category.

"What is it?" you said as he crawled through your window and onto the ground. His jet black bangs were now down, which softened his appearance dramatically from how he usually looked. He wasn't so easy to be irritated with now.

"My parents are fighting and I didn't feel like showing up to school tomorrow with a black eye," he said in that casual way of his whenever he talked about his problems. He always spoke so coarsely about anything else, but when it came to the serious things, he always liked to speak casually to trivialize them. "Anyway, I saw your light on so I thought I'd spend my night here."

You nodded and then fell back against your pillow. Your dad wasn't home (who knew where he was) and you didn't have any siblings, so now it was just you and Bobby. You had only been wearing a T-sh