How did I end up like this?

I was standing in the hallway of Taeyoon’s apartment. On either side of me two animals were hanging. Two big animals that didn’t really seem to know the definition of ‘personal space’. The animals that were also known as Seulgi and Taeyoon. I looked at them and they both looked up at me with weird faces. I sighed. My eyes wandered to other things in the hallway and I noticed a guy standing there, with an expression that looked like he was both confused and impressed at the same time. He had orange hair and a rectangular smile. Wasn’t it the guy, or rather, the kid from the grocery store? Was he just everywhere? At least it seemed like he had calmed down a bit compared to just a few hours before. I tried to wiggle myself out of the embrace I was caught in, but failed miserably. They had always been so strong, even though I was the tallest and therefore the biggest one of us. I ended up just patting their heads, as I didn’t know what else to do. The two of them were still holding onto me tightly.

“Miss awkward, I presume?” the orange-haired guy said with a smile.

Really? Had they really told him that name? I hated being called that, because it honestly just made me act much more awkwardly. I moved my shoulders, once again trying to break the embrace. Oh god, these guys…

“Ahn Mali” I ended up just answering the guy, since it didn’t seem like I was going to get out of this tight hug anytime soon. I just hoped he wouldn’t begin calling me ‘miss awkward’.

“Kim Taehyung” he replied and made a small bow. I could suddenly feel the grip loosen on one of my arms. Seulgi had turned her attention towards Taehyung.

“Don’t you dare hurt our baby girl..” she muttered, while looking at Taehyung with a scary expression.

I was younger than both of them, but not enough for them to call me a “baby girl”.

“Eonni….” I sighed and tried to take advantage of the loosened grip. Third time’s the charm and all that.

Seulgi just tightened her arms around me again. Actually, the grip was even tighter now.

“Taehyung-ah, can you please take the bags and bring them into the kitchen?” I asked the boy who was just standing there, still looking a bit scared, after Seulgi had told him off. Who could blame him? Seulgi was sometimes like a character from a horror movie, just a much prettier version with her long wavy hair and beautiful face. I dragged the two girls with me into the kitchen. It kinda felt like wearing a heavy work-out vest or something. Maybe I should begin doing push-ups? If I knew how to do them. In the end I could understand them. We hadn’t seen each other for so long and we used to hang out together all the time. I had missed them a lot too and it was nice knowing they had felt the same.

Still, if I was going to make breakfast, I couldn’t have these two hanging on to me…

“Eonnis… let go” I mumbled, “please, it’s not like I’ll disappear”

Seulgi shook her head. She really looked like a little kid. Who was the baby girl again? Because, honestly, I didn’t feel like it was me at the moment.

Taeyoon finally decided to let go, but Seulgi was still being stubborn.

She kept hanging on to me for so long, I was wondering whether we would even get to eat today or not and if I should try to instruct Taeyoon and Taehyung how to make the food, because it wasn’t extremely hard to make. Just some eggs and cereal and other stuff. I doubted Taehyung would be able to make a decent meal though. It just didn’t seem like that was one of his talents. My stomach was rumbling. I was really hungry. When was the last time I ate? Well I ate the candies, but before that….? It must have been when I ate dinner yesterday. I suddenly felt like it was kinda naïve to not eat breakfast when I woke up. In the end I gave up and just sat down on Taeyoon’s couch with Seulgi. I began her beautiful hair softly while humming random melodies. Taeyoon had begun making some of the food and Taehyung was helping her out, even though it seemed like he actually just screwed everything up. He did seem excited about it though.

After sitting with Seulgi for a while, she fell asleep. I carefully slipped away and joined the two others in the kitchen. I had heard that they were having a conversation, which was obviously about me and Seulgi.

“She haven’t seen Mali for ages… so… she acts like that” Taeyoon grinned, as I came up to them from behind.

Taeyoon looked towards the sleeping Seulgi in the couch. Seulgi looked so beautiful sleeping, it was not fair. I looked at Taehyung who just looked as confused as always. It seemed like he only had two emotions; excitement and confusion.

“I’ve been travelling around with my mom…” I explained, making Taehyung almost jump several meters into the air from being shocked.

Oh right, normal people didn’t creep up on people from behind. That was another bad habit of mine. I took four eggs from one of the bags I’d brought and cracked them open, dropping their contents softly onto the frying pan. The key to making good fried eggs was to not drop them too hard on the frying pan, because the best fried eggs had a liquid center. If they were dropped too hard the yolk would break and the yellow insides would be everywhere and get fried too and that would be sad. Where was I going with this? I didn’t know.

“Eggs?” I asked, turning my attention to the other two, while pointing at the frying pan. We ate a lot of eggs, back when we were together all the time. Fried eggs.

“Two” Taeyoon replied casually. I looked at Taehyung who had once again gotten a confused expression on his face.

“Ehm… same” Taehyung said. “You’re really going to eat all that?” he asked. I looked at Taeyoon for a short moment, before I looked at Taehyung again, confused. Of course we were going to eat it all? It was food after all, and it shouldn’t go anywhere but our stomachs. Taeyoon went to wake up Seulgi and soon the four of us were sitting around the dinner table.

I was sitting with a spoon filled with rice and egg mixed together in one hand and a piece of napkin in the other. I had kept an eye on Seulgi, making sure she wouldn’t suddenly embrace me in her irongrip. Seulgi’s attention wasn’t on me though. She kept eyeing Taehyung for some reason, and I didn’t know whether it was because she was still suspicious of him or if she was just spacing out. I exchanged a quick look with Taeyoon. We were both thinking the same, Seulgi was acting a bit weird and there was a reason behind it. She seemed so restless. Seulgi noticed me looking at her at smiled at me. Wow, I had really missed her and Taeyoon a lot.

“You’re just as strange as always..” I grinned and threw the piece of napkin, which was completely crumbled, at Seulgi.

“No… It’s you who make me act strange” she replied, just after taking a big spoonful of rice. She always looked so beautiful, but now… Well, it was not charming to say the least.

“How’s your mom?” she asked after having swallowed her food.

“She’s okay, she’s back in New York” I replied and ate a piece of my egg.

“So she’s back with that journalist guy?” Taeyoon looked at me.

“No no. This time she’s there for actual work” I said.

It was well known that one of the reasons we had travelled around so much was because of this journalist my mom had been seeing. It wasn’t like it was a bad thing and I guess I was happy that she had found someone else, especially since they shared the same hobby. My mom was a freelance journalist after all. I’d just wished she had thought about me a bit more though, since all the travelling interfered with both my school and social life. I suddenly noticed Taehyung who looked like he was trying to do gymnastics with his arms while also trying to make the weirdest facial expressions I had ever seen. How could he even get his mouth to look like that, and his eyes? What were his eyes doing? I couldn’t help but smile. Soon, both Taeyoon and Seulgi were looking at him too.

“Is he always like that?” I asked them.

“As far as I know, yes…” Seulgi replied and returned her attention to the food in front of her.

I continued to look at the boy, and thought about earlier today at the grocery store. He had lost most of his calmness, he had had when I had arrived at Taeyoon’s place.

“I think I met him earlier today...” I said thoughtfully. Honestly, it wasn’t just a ‘think’, I knew I had met him earlier at the grocery store – you couldn’t just forget his orange hair and rectangular smile. He wasn’t bad looking either. On the other hand it didn’t seem like he remembered me and I felt like it would be awkward to act as I remembered him. I was the type of person to act like I had forgotten people’s name, just because I didn’t want make them think that I stalked them or something. In reality I was just really good at remembering faces and names.

“Where?” Taeyoon asked, looking at me and then looking at Taehyung.

“At the store you told me had lot of different things....” I said while still looking at Taehyung, who had now decided to put his chopsticks in his nose. How old was he anyways? Putting chopsticks in his nose and riding the cart at the grocery store.

“He was clinging to a cart and crashed into one of his friends...” I smiled at the memory. It had looked really funny, though I still felt sorry for the blonde guy.

Taehyung looked at me. He had finished doing whatever weird things he was doing just moments before and now stared at me with a surprised and overly happy expression.

“So it was you! You're the rap monster!” he suddenly yelled, standing up from his chair and pointing at me. Well, at least he hadn’t completely forgotten about me.

“Rap Monster....? You mean... that hoodie we gave you years ago?” Seulgi asked, removing her attention from the food.

“I wore it here...” I answered and looked at Seulgi, who were looking at me, obviously confused.

“Really...? She did...?” Seulgi asked. Both Taeyoon and I nodded. At least Taeyoon had noticed.

“How come I didn't notice?” Seulgi once again asked.

“Because you were too busy clinging to me to notice anything...” I said and couldn’t help but laugh a bit. It was her own fault, she could have just let me go sooner and she might’ve noticed.

“I didn't notice either....” the orange-haired kid said.

“It's okay, but Seulgi should at least recognize something she chose herself....” Taeyoon patted his back, while grinning.

Seulgi stuck out her tongue at Taeyoon, looking very much like a kid.

“Anyway.... I think we should clean this up... people will soon arrive...” Taeyoon sighed as she got up from her chair.

Oh right, we were having a party at Taeyoon’s place this evening.