05 – Ramen

(it was the last one)

He was hungry, but he didn’t feel like cooking for himself or waking up one of his hyungs to make him something to eat. He sighed and pressed random buttons on his phone before the screen flashed a bright light. He squinted and stared at the time.

9:40 PM

If his stomach didn’t grumble, he wouldn’t bother—but it did.

He stood up from his mattress and grabbed the nearest hooded jacket he could find. He poked his hyung next to him and the latter groaned. Myungsoo snickered. He wanted to try and prank the older boy, but he’d have to do that next time. Right now, his stomach said it wanted ramen.

He took out a few bills from his wallet and headed out of the room, careful not to wake anyone else that was living with him. When he heard the entrance door click shut, he started to jog to the mini-mart just a block away.

He bowed at the cashier once he entered the place, accompanied with a faint smile. He yawned once, heading to the place where he would usually go in a grocery store—the noodles section.

Every time his dorm mates would about his ‘noodle-obsession’, he would always answer back by asking if Sungyeol’s caffeine craving wasn’t an obsession too. They’d shut up after that.

He stopped straddling mid-way when he saw a petite figure reach for the last cup of his favourite flavour: kimchi ramen. He amusingly watched as her hair bounced every jump she made. When it looked like she gave up, he smiled to himself and tiptoed, taking the cup noodle with ease.

She gasped in horror and tried to snatch the object from his grasp. Her height failed her.

“Hey, old man, get your own. I laid my eyes on it first,” she grunted, leaping at the direction of the food. Myungsoo raised his arms further upwards so that she wouldn’t reach it.

“Excuse me, but who are you calling an ‘old man’? I believe that it would suit you more, shorty. Look at those wrinkles on your forehead!” he irritatingly commented, but chuckled at his own last few words. He didn’t even think before he said anything.

She stopped her actions and the expression on her face gave her away. “Are you insulting me?”

“Well, you insulted me first!”

The bickering continued for a good ten minutes, before the cashier had to stop their childish antics.

“Okay, I’m ready,” she snapped her chopsticks in half, inhaling the smell of the steaming, mouth-watering ramen placed in the middle of a table outside the mini-mart.

They’d both agreed to one conclusion: play for a bite. It was actually suggested by a late night costumer; even he became annoyed at the two stranger’s bickering between a cup of noodle, so he mentioned that they should just play rock-paper-scissors for one chopstick bite.

“The amount doesn’t matter as long as we only get to scoop once, right?” he asked, making sure the rules between them were clear.

“Yeah, yeah,” she waved off. “Now let’s get started.

In a not-so-surprising result, Myungsoo won the first round. He did a little victory dance before slurping almost half of the amount in one go. She bit her lip and her brows knitted together.

“Rock, paper, scissors!” she sighed in defeat; he won once again. It was her in paper against him in scissors.

She winced at the sound of him drinking the soup. Her stomach grumbled quite loudly. She peered at the cup. It was three-quarters empty. She gulped at the sight. There was one more round before the noodles were finished.

In the end, the victory—and the rest of the noodles—went to Myungsoo. That night was definitely his night. To be honest, he found the game easy.

“You can have this one if you want,” he stifled a laugh. He had heard the rumbling for her stomach earlier.

“Really?” her eyes twinkled in hope as her lips curled upwards.

“Just kidding,” he winked before dashing out into the night, holding onto the cup as if his life depended on it. She clenched her teeth and went after him, determined to get the last sip of ramen noodle no matter what. 

This oneshot was like every cliche idea packed in one story ToT But nonetheless, here's another update.

About the sequel requests, I might do it, but the reason I don't continue fics and leave them as one shots is because I'm afraid that I'll completely abandon it and not update, or I'll run out of ideas and it'll end up being a sappy, overly-cliched story. But like I said, I might do it.