☼ Lemon Bars and Pills ☼

  It was past noon when Min decided to take out her phone to check the time.   She had been sitting on the brick wall in the middle of the summer heat for approximately 12 minutes and her ride was no where in sight. She pushed up her sunglasses to the bridge of her nose and scrolled down her contact list. As her toned legs dangled over the wall and her music blared from one of her earphones, the petite girl waited to hear a voice on the other end. After no luck, she released a quiet frustrated sigh before stuffing her phone back in the deep pocket of her denim shorts. Normally she would be angrier, complaining out loud for anyone passing by to hear, but her trip had left her drain of emotions. She was exhausted, both physically and emotionally.    “You got up, but the question is, can you get down?” Min’s attention went from her ipod screen to the handsome boy with the mixture of white and blue hair looking up at her through sunglasses. Min wrapped her earphones around her ipod and grabbed her suitcase next to her. “Catch” She said, throwing it to the young man, who just barely had time to take his hands out of his jean’s pockets to catch her luggage. “Dude!” He complained as Min jumped down from the wall, adjusting her light blue backpack. “I gave you a head’s up” She defended herself, pulling down her shorts a bit.    Seungri rolled his eyes as he set down the suitcase. “The thanks I get for picking you up” He mumbled, lifting the handle. Min smiled and stepped forward, wrapping an arm through his. “Thank you, even if you were late”    “I’m only late because your roommate sent me back to the store after I accidentally brought home almond milk instead of soy” “Seo is allergic to almonds, so technically she had every right to be mad at you since you could’ve killed her” Seungri stopped walking and dug into his pockets then took out a piece of folded paper. He unfolded it with his hand and squinted at the words, “I wrote down everything she told me to get and here it specifically says, ‘healthy milk’, how the hell was I supposed to know it was soy? There are many types of healthy milk these days” Min took the paper from him and they continued to walk.    “You wrote down healthy milk stuff and other colored apples. You probably weren’t even listening to her! Did you at least get the green apples?” Seungri furrowed his eyebrows, “I got like, half and half” “Of what?” “You know, green, red, yellow...” “Then you got a third of each?” Seungri let out a breath, “Whatever. All I’m saying is that I would go crazy living with her. She’s so….” “Organized, careful, controlling?” Seungri snapped his fingers, “Exactly! How do you put up with that?”   Min laughed as she thought about her sweet roommate “I thought exactly like you at first, but Seo isn’t selfish. She’s like that with her life, but would never do try to control yours. She’s pretty good at adapting and making herself comfortable in her own way. You two could be good friends if you hadn’t been an idiot and tried to get her into bed when you met up with her after high school” Seungri gritted his teeth, remembering all too well the way Seohyun splashed him with her drink at the club Min had spent the whole day trying to convince her to go. “I didn’t know she was your roommate at the time. If I did then I probably wouldn’t have hit on her knowing I would have to see her almost every day” “That’s not an excuse” Min said in a sing song voice as they reached Seungri’s Mazna convertible.    “Whatever. Anyway, she has this big feast prepared for you. She even invited your cousin and TOP, so I hope you didn’t eat crappy train food” “I didn’t. I knew all too well Seo would be a doll and cook me something. I lucked out with that girl” “Well that makes one of us” Seungri mumbled, making Min laugh hard as she got into the passenger side. Seungri gave her a small smile and shook his head as he started the car.   You might’ve lucked out on Seo, but I lucked out on you.      “Thats it, Tae!”    The shout echoed inside the two bedroom apartment, startling the body hunched over the kitchen island to a sitting position.    “What?” Taeyang’s light hair fell over his eyes looking around for the owner of deep angry voice. When his eyesight cleared, he saw his tall, dark haired roommate standing in the hallway with his arms crossed over his chest and a glare in his eyes. “Its summer break. Go get some fresh air or something” Seunghyun mumbled, walking over to the refrigerator and taking out a cold water bottle, his gym bag still dangling on his shoulder. Tae rubbed his eyes and yawned as he turned to look down at the scattered papers in front of him. “I’m good”   “If you actually got something done then I wouldn’t be saying anything, but did you?” Tae kept his sleepy stare on his papers in front of him.   A lot of them, if not all, had a few lines of music notes and/or lyrics, but not one was even half way full. There were also a pile of papers underneath him, ripped, balled up or with black X’s across them. “I’m getting there” Tae mumbled, picking up his empty mug and hoping off the stool. Seunghyun took a step back to allow him to get to the sink. “At this rate all you’re going to release is crap songs” At this, Tae dropped his mug in frustration and turned to walk away.  “Writers block is normal for a while, but It’s been like a year and half now, Tae, and you’re getting worse. Your dancing is even starting to ” “Thanks, TOP” Taeyang sighed, shooting him a glare.    Seunghyun, or TOP, a nickname he acquired after becoming the top student throughout his scholastic life, held up his hands in defense, his water bottle hanging in between his fingers. “As a friend I owe you the truth” At this Tae rolled his eyes and began gathering his papers. Though the comments were stabs to his pride, he couldn’t blame TOP for speaking the harsh reality.   College had started out good for him. He liked his classes and his ambition of becoming a successful musical producer was at an all time high. But as the months continued, he began to stress out. In High School he was never forced to write or to dance. He did it happily and when inspiration hit. Now, it felt as if he had a a gun to his head and deep down he knew that he himself was holding it. He was strict with himself, even if his professors weren’t and he wouldn’t give himself a break until he created something he was satisfied with.    He had deadlines now and even though he hated being rushed, he knew they were necessary. How was he going to make a living writing music or choreographing dances when he failed at delivering the product? He had confidence in his songs and dance, but he wasn’t going to start at the top. He had to make his way up and that required following rules until he was successful and experienced enough to make them himself. Getting to the top wasn’t going to be easy, and if it was, it was rarely worth it.    So he began staying up late, slamming his head on the desk when he wasn’t able to add to his current chorus. He began rushing home from his last class in order to get head start on his assignment. He began to lock himself in his room and not allow himself to come out until he at least finished half of a song. It wasn’t troubling at first, but recently TOP had found out that Tae had begun taking speed in order to get bursts of energy in order to get more done. He had confronted him about it as soon as he made the discovery, but Tae reassured him it was just for the big assignments. Since Tae was still seemingly okay, he believed him, but when TOP walked in and saw the zip lock bag with the familiar pills sticking out of his hoodie pocket, he was not going to let it slide again.    “At this rate you’re going to be checking into rehab instead of graduating” TOP snatched the bag from his pocket when Taeyang went to throw the paper balls in the trash. “What the ?” He yelled, lurching forward as TOP held them back. “We’re getting out of here. You need a change of scenery” TOP said calmly, turning and pushing Tae back with one hand as he dumped the pills down the sink. “Seunghyun what the !” Tae yelled out angrily, then shoved him forward when TOP the grinder. “It’s for your own good. Go pack for a week and I suggest you get rid of any other bags before I report you to the school” TOP shoved him back and stalked over to