Kyungsoo had been at the soup kitchen since 7 a.m., helping Choi Yoongjin ahjussi with the fresh ingredients from the market, and hopefully they would be able to cook about 200 servings of ramen before noon.  He didn’t even check the time.  For Kyungsoo, efficiency was always key.  Since the senior cooks weren’t stressing about the big pots simultaneously cooking over the multiple stoves, then he knew he shouldn’t too.

He kept himself busy and helped with chopping the spring onions and other vegetables.  He was the youngest in their small crew of 20 people.  

Him... and if they counted Park Chanyeol-ssi, who spent the whole time sulking and mopping the same square inch in the kitchen for nearly an hour.  

The chairwoman’s son had liberties of taking a break every 10 minutes or so.  Kyungsoo pretended not to see anything.  The senior cooks would only look at each other and shake their heads, but nonetheless kept quiet as well.  

Around 11 in the morning, some of the servers were getting ready to open up the dining area.  There was already a long line outside of people wanting to partake the food.  Kyungsoo was assigned to clean up, just before the kitchen crew would go out and start giving out bowls of ramen.  

Kyungsoo packed the extra-large trash bags securely and headed for the back door, almost jumping when he heard someone pacing around and cursing.

“I ing hate it here!” 

Kyungsoo cringed, wanting to finish his task as soon as possible, before Park Chanyeol-ssi discovered he was there.  He was relieved that the chairwoman’s son’s back was at him, but was conflicted at the same time, because Chanyeol appeared to be talking on the phone to someone in front of the garbage dump, where he needed to dispose of the trash, so stray animals wouldn’t get to them and spill rubbish all over and...

“Jongdae-yah, you have to lend me money!” Chanyeol was ranting on desperately.  “I’ll buy a ticket to fly myself back to L.A.  I’ll pay you back, I just...”

Chanyeol took one last drag of a cigarette, and the tall guy threw the exhausted stub on the icy floor, quickly extinguishing it with his shoe.  

Kyungsoo held his breath, as Chanyeol turned around and saw him, his face immediately scowling.  He turned to his phone in a hushed, hurried tone,  “I’ve got to go, Jongdae-yah.  I’ll talk to you later.”

Kyungsoo automatically lowered his eyes, didn’t mean to make eye-contact.  He murmured an almost inaudible, “Excuse me,” as the taller one grudgingly stepped back to make way for him.  

While Kyungsoo was able to reach the door of the garbage dump, he lacked the strength to actually push it open.  Chanyeol saw this and clucked his tongue irritably.  The smaller guy was indeed way too scrawny.   He wondered why his mother even entertained the idea of having someone that young and puny-looking to be volunteering like this.

The next thing Kyungsoo knew, Chanyeol pushed the garbage dump door for him and Kyungsoo was able to haul the two garbage bags over.  

“Uh, kamsa-hamnida,” Kyungsoo told him, just a little breathless from the exertion.

Chanyeol didn’t say anything and closed the garbage dump door, only he didn’t realize that he was standing too close to Kyungsoo and his bony elbow had knocked the side of the smaller guy’s eye inadvertently. 

Kyungsoo staggered a bit, his hand flying to his stinging right eye, as the smaller guy’s wallet fell from his pocket, some of his cards scattering on the ground.

Chanyeol’s eyes grew wide, although his first instinct was to blame the undersized volunteer for not moving aside.  He huffed and indignantly picked up the smaller guy’s wallet, unintentionally seeing that this Do Kyungsoo carried a card that indicated he was a person with disability.

What kind of disability? Chanyeol thought at once.  While Do Kyungsoo-ssi seemed to lacking the height and perhaps the body mass of a young adult, he didn’t seem to manifest any disability physically.  

Maybe some kind of mental affliction?  Chanyeol guessed next, since he hadn’t exchanged more than a couple of words with him since meeting each other for the first time two weeks ago.  

Nevertheless, he found the smaller guy peering at him strangely, with his good eye, since the one he’d accidentally hit was still closed.  Chanyeol straightened up to his feet and handed Kyungsoo his wallet and his cards, and his eyes suddenly caught on Kyungsoo’s identity card which displayed his birthdate.

Do Kyungsoo-ssi... was his age.

He turned 21... today.

Chanyeol started to feel... just a little bit...