(an excerpt from The Lunch Box)

II

Yook Sungjae was busy trying to get busy over something that should not be even paid attention to, but nonetheless for that day he had quite forgotten about his friend Lee Bo Mi and was too absorbed in his personal affairs to think of no one but himself. It wasn’t his fault; of course, everyone had a life of his, and Lee Bo Mi understood that, unbeknownst to the boy; but truly at this hour the girl needed him so, but could not even find him.

After a few hours brooding over a certain matter that occupied his mind for the entire day, Sungjae remembered he had a friend. Ever since the announcement of yesterday he was already too busy wallowing over the worry on how to cook; that was a stupid idea of the principal, really, but it is law already, so what is there to complain about? Everything, absolutely; but nothing at the same time. Shaking his head vigorously he rose from his seat and set to look for his friend. Maybe she could help him.

It was a fair quits, yes, when Sungjae could not find Bo Mi, and after half an hour of search he gave up, making up his mind to go home. But just when he was walking across the school grounds he saw the girl with red hair marching out of the school, and he ran to meet her.

“Bo Mi-ya!” he interjected, at the top of his lungs. The girl turned her head and he stopped at a pace close to her, regaining his breath.

“I was looking for you.” she frowned.

“Me too.”

“Oh shut up.”

“I was busy!”

“What do you want?” she grumpily replied with a scowl, rooted to her post.

“Well, don’t be mad!” he whined, stomping his feet on the ground like a child. “Come on; I’ll walk you home; I’ll tell you,”

“Good,” she smirked, tugging his sleeve. “But treat me with ramnyun first. I’m hungry,”

“Fine…” the boy snorted, while they walked out of the school.

“So what were you going to say?” Bo Mi queried, eyeing him with curiosity, through the thick smoke of steaming-hot ramyun.

“I’m having some trouble…” the boy sighed bleakly, looking down on the bowl.

“With the lunch box?” she guessed. Bo Mi knew Sungjae too well she could say what was on his mind before his mouth could even do. They’ve been the cronies of three long years now, or make it four, to round up, and they’re very close. Though inside Bo Mi, she knew someone came before Sungjae, but he was a different person…

He bobbed his head twice.

With a slight ‘tsk’ sound, the girl threw her head to one side in contempt, and agreed, “I know right. Don’t worry; you’re not alone,”

Gaping at her he elevated his brows in surprise to ask, “You don’t know how to cook?”

“Well, I do,”  she jerked her shoulders up. “Minhyuk-oppa says all girls should learn how to cook, to be fully equipped when they get married, but…ugh, Minhyuk-oppa takes the cooking job mostly in the house that’s why I’m a little spoiled,”

“What dishes do you know how to make?”

“Omurice,” she folded her arms in dignity with a nod of the head, in utter pride.

Sungjae face-palmed at this. “Bo Mi, everyone knows how to make Omurice,”

“Hey it’s not as easy as you think!” she protested, but Sungjae waved his hand once in front of her face to dismiss any further argument. The boy took a big sip from his bowl and inquired,

“Can you tell Minhyuk-hyung I want to learn with you?”

Bo Mi took this thought into account for a while, which was wrong, since the answer was Yes from the very start. “Of course. Let’s start tomorrow.”

“Sure.”

“By the way, Jae, I have something to tell you.” after Bo Mi chewed on her noodles she said, in a much calmer voice, it was serious.

“Hm?”

It took a hesitant moment for Bo Mi to continue this. But Sungjae didn’t notice, which was strange. “I met someone at the library today,”

“Who?”

“His name’s Peniel Shin. The new student, do you know him?”

Sungjae tried to remember. “I think he was in one of my classes…”

“Oh.” And Bo Mi desired to close , the urge to speak more strong in her, but it put her in discomfort. To talk about it, specifically. She wanted to tell her friend more, really, but she felt she wasn’t ready yet. Maybe it wasn’t today. Maybe when she’d been completely fine with it, which was close to never.

The resolution that she and Sungjae were to learn how to cook together with the guidance of Minhyuk was immediately put into execution, in fact, Sungjae had to stay a little later at the Lee residence to learn how to cook. Such great fun the two best friends had while learning, and a week of tutorial was already enough to have them prepared for the school project called “The Lunch Box”, the most ridiculous idea ever installed in an academic institution.

A swarm of students arranged themselves in an orderly fashion in the school auditorium, and, minutes later, the principal climbed up the stage to speak. Listening carefully, the students were informed of how the school project would go: under the pseudonym that would shield their true identity, they were to exchange lunch boxes with another student which was at the same time should be a total mystery to them. Whilst the lunch box was to be a vessel of support from each of the students, they were obliged not only to cook, but to offer solace to their fellow. Since the issue of several of the institution’s students dropping out because of massive cases of bullying the board knew they had to do some action.

On a strip of paper, the students were made to write what they wanted as their false name. Lee Bo Mi put in ‘s-bm’ which seemed really nonsensical, but who cares? Bo Mi was free to do whatever she wanted. Having put the small roll of paper in the giant glass bowl did she only realize that she was still affected, after all these years. She had the strongest urge to change back her pseudonym, but that couldn’t be done now. So she decided to just shut up about it and wait who would be her partner.

The school project was immediately effective on the morrow. This morning Bo Mi cooked her specialty Omurice for her partner who went by the alias of ‘peminator’, and, loading it into the lunch box, her brothers Changsub and Minhyuk rooted for her as she left home.

Lee Bo Mi put the lunch box in the school’s giant storage room, with the promise within her that she would get her lunch box later also. The principal said that to avoid any unwanted discovery of who their partner was, the students were to place the lunch boxes for their partners in the said storage room and the school staff themselves would distribute it into their lockers during class hours.

Bo Mi couldn’t deny the fact that she was excited. Never did she deem that she’d like the idea. She was already preparing on how she could comfort the Peminator in need, and how that stranger would help her in her times of trouble. She barely knew what trouble was, actually. That was, if she were not to count the hidden damage in her which she’d been carrying for many years now. Was now the time to open it up? Wait, no. Maybe no. Even Sungjae barely knew how she felt toward the issue. What right did this Peminator person have, then, that he or she would know of it? Bo Mi cannot allow someone to see through her. Even if that someone was going to be unknown to her.

Alas, lunch time came. Bo Mi, hurriedly trotting to where her locker should be, opened it up, and indeed, there was the lunch box from Peminator.

With a smile she gracefully read the note that came along with it.

‘I’m still learning how to cook. I was afraid it would taste horrible, with my skills now,

But I promise I will offer you decent, cooked food next time.

So I hope you like dark chocolates?

I look forward to being friends with you! ^^

-          Peminator’

***

세나: “Oh that is stupid,” I mumble to myself, with a laugh, while I am proofreading my work for the fifth chapter. Being a hundred percent sure that there are no errors with my writing, I submit it to the site, already planning out what I would do for the rest of the day. Hang out with the boys? Nah. I see them every day I’m starting to get sick of them. Just kidding. I just miss the times when I would be alone by myself—it’s one of the best times of my life, and the second best is when I could be alone with Sungjae.

I rise from my seat and shut my laptop, and head to the bathroom to check on my eyes.

My head is very close to the mirror while my finger is on my eye, trying to get something sticky, which is, by the way, my contact lenses, and, after an excruciating cavalcade, I blink my eyes while shaking my head a little, seeing a blurred scope of the world.

“Well this is hard,” I laugh, having to hold on to the edge of the sink while my head spins. I’ve memorized how my home looks like so there’s no problem looking for my hidden glasses.

I walk out of the bathroom and walk straight to my bed-side table, opening the compartment where I keep my glasses. I sigh contentedly while putting them on, and once again see a clear view of my surroundings. I abhor the idea of wearing glasses (which is actually really unfortunate because the stylists thought Bo Mi had glasses and I have to suffer for it) but wearing contacts every living second isn’t as nice either.

That mini cardiac arrest. The fortunately-well-concealed greying of my hair. And my sense of sight.

I hope these won’t win over me any time soon. I pray to God, not now; not yet.

The mere thought of it aggravates me, so before I could overthink I make the train of thought stop.

It’s a hot afternoon right now and estivating is the best option I could think of. Instead of going out and find something worthwhile to do, I lie on my bed, thinking of what to do next for The Lunch Box. And thinking of how the kiss-scene with the Peniel guy would go. Am I really even ready for it? I frown darkly at this thought. What do I do?

Suddenly, the ringing of my phone echoes across the room. In fact, it startles me. I pick it up and answer, “Yobosseyo?”

“HELLOOOOOO SE NA-SSI!!!!!!” with a lot of raucous sounds in the background.

“Changsub-oppa?” I guess, with the raising of my brow.

“Right you are, dongsaengie! How are you?”

“Uh…I’m fine…thanks. Why is it so noisy?”

I hear him telling whoever were behind him to shush, which is quite effective, that the noise dies down a little. “I’m with the guys. Wanna come over?”

“Eh…nope; I’m fine, really. No thanks. Thanks, but no.”

“Open your door!” he suddenly exclaims.

“What?”

“Open your door, Se Na-ssi!” he laughs.

“Door? What door?” I stand up from my bed and quickly take a look at the door, and now do I just realize that the doorbell is ringing furiously. I find this amusing that I walk there, with a stupid grin on my face, and when I swing the door open three boys meet me and they raise their arms, cheering,

“Surprise!”

I laugh. “Surprise what?”

“It’s a surprise visit, Se Na-ssi,” Eunkwang-oppa admits, his focus inside, and I gesture them to come in. Their train comes in and I close the door behind them.

“What now?” I ask. “You guys are bored, aren’t you? Where are the others?”

The three of them just sheepishly chuckle, making me dubious all of a sudden, and Hyunsik-oppa takes out something from this bag he happened to be carrying around. It’s a paper, or to say accurately papers, and they make this tragedy of an excuse that goes as, “We want you to teach us how to do our lines.”

I roll my eyes and sit on my bed, facing them with a bored expression. “Alright, what do you want?”

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

to the new reader:

(this AN was posted 13/05/05; several months after this chap was posted)

what, you're still here? XD jk. so how has it been going on so far? I'm sorry if I'm a bit dragging in telling the story. as to how it goes--better or worse, it's up to you to judge. I'm still on 40+ chap now so yeah. 

here's your star (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ☆

happy reading!

(I hope this author's note didn't bother you that much)

-b