Neoguri…  Jjinjja Jjinjja… Jjajjangmyeon… Chapagetti…

Yongguk had one hand lazily going over the many packages of plastic that held together the dried-up, curly, compact noodles together with their corresponding packets of artificial flavouring. It created a crispy white noise that somehow went together with the squeaking of his Nike’s on the just-mopped vinyl floor of the supermarket. His other hand was pushing the cart that had yet to be filled with food.

Cheese Ramyun… Kimchi Ramyun…

Brown eyes squinted.

Eyebrows furrowed.

 Where was it?

His fingers travelled south, gently caressing the shiny plastic, pointing at the labels and eyeing them carefully, looking for his one and only.

Aha! Found it.

His Shin Ramyun, dwindling in population, had been wedged in the space between the shelf and the cup Shin Ramyun. Yongguk thinks for a moment, debating on whether to clear everything out, or leave a few (or maybe just one) for the next customer. He was compassionate, and understood how it felt to have a part of him (that belonged either on his tongue or in his stomach) out of stock.

Carefully, he tried to pull one pack out of the gap. He could hear the crunching sound of the noodles breaking under the plastic, and with each tug, he could feel his heart crumble.

Ramyun was good if the noodles were long and eaten in slurps. (Not that the short noodles were bad. They’re just a bit more difficult, with chopsticks.)

Yongguk decided to just give the packet one strong tug and get it over with. He pulled a bit too hard, and by some laws of physics, sent the adjacent packets flying through the air.

Ah, two birds with one stone.

It would have been a bit embarrassing that a grown man like himself was making a huge racket in the supermarket. But it was around 9 in the morning, and there weren’t a lot of people there to witness anything, so it was ok.

The noodles stayed inside their safety plastic.

Cue relieved sigh. No need for clean-up in aisle one.

Yongguk abandons his cart for a moment, leaving his one baby inside, and goes to retrieve the other three sprawled on the floor, hoping for zero casualties.

He picks up one, gently rubs his fingers on the smooth surface of the plastic, making sure his noodles are fine (which they surprisingly are, together in one piece), and proceeds to pick up the second and inspects it in a similar fashion. The third packet somehow gravitated towards him.

Oh wait, someone was holding it.

Yongguk chuckled to himself, highly amused at the uncommon courtesy. It wasn’t every morning strangers would help him pick up runaway groceries.

“Here ya go, mister,” a voice croaked, a bit husky from sleep.

It sounded familiar.

Yongguk reached the packet from the two hands that held it to him, and he can’t help but notice the fingernails that are painted a blinding cyan.

It looked familiar.

For the second time that day, he squinted and furrowed his eyebrows.

As she let go of the ramyun, her fingers brushed against his knuckles. They were a bit cold.

It felt familiar.

A chill went down his back. He wasn’t sure if it was from the cold hands or the odd sense of nostalgia that suddenly hit him straight at the heart.

Well, he was about to find out.

He looked up to thank the kind stranger, but the words somehow blew up airbags in his throat when he saw a similarly stunned face: wide eyes, raised eyebrows, parted lips and all.

“…Bbang?” The stranger, now identified as a magenta-haired, fair-skinned girl, whispered. One eyebrow raised, she looked at him from a different angle. “Oh wow, it is you,” she confirmed her guess.

Meanwhile, the now identified Yongguk just stood there holding on to his ramen, still stunned, still trying to deflate internal airbags.

The girl let out an amused laugh. The sound somehow tugged at the ends of plump lips and revealed a gummy smile.

“Man, don’t tell me you don’t remember who I am… Gosh, Bbang,” she turned to face the wall of ramen instead, hiding her face, just in case her assumptions were wrong.

But she wasn’t.

Of course Yongguk remembered her.

Of course he did.

“Minjoo-yah, don’t insult my good memory.”

She, Minjoo, turned back to face Yongguk. A grin spread across her face, and Yongguk gave a soft chuckle, seeing the smile he hasn’t seen in a while.

A very long while.

“Huwaa, it really is you! And... You remember me!” Her sleepiness from earlier had left, leaving her with newfound excitement. Minjoo bounced around Yongguk like a rubber ball. “Wow, look at you…” He had gotten even taller from their highschool days. His hair reminded her of chocolate chip cookies, nice warm browns, cut short. It had been different from the dark coffee colour or the sunny blonde that the Yongguk in her class photos sported. The school uniform that they had once matched in was traded for a pair of jeans, a loose shirt, and sneakers.

“Well, look at you,” Yongguk parroted her words. Thick black frames, dark magenta hair, last season’s FIFA champion jersey, loose denim shorts, colourful patterned socks, and red high-top sneakers. Still dressed like she was from Harajuku.

Minjoo went ahead and pushed Yongguk’s cart forward, so he could deposit the ramyun that had gone astray. “You’re still eating this stuff, huh?” She eyed the four red packets in the cart, “Gift from the gods…Nong Shim Shin Ramyun.”

Another four went into the cart. Minjoo moved aside, giving the cart owner space to push his own cart. In the process, Yongguk noticed that Minjoo had shopped for some instant noodles herself, too.

“Still with your Nissin,” just like old times, only eating Japanese noodles, this girl… He smirked “Still can’t cook?”

“Wow, you still know me so well,” she shot him an insulted look, obviously fake and overly dramatic, which got Yongguk to chuckle again.

“Actually,” Minjoo stated, wanting to prove herself, “I have a rice cooker at home, and make fairly good pasta…”

“But?”

The girl giggled childishly, “these are more convenient,” she held the packets of noodles close to her face and smiled.

Yongguk held on to a yellow sheet of paper with both hands. On it was a picture of a rubber duck.

Perplexing.

The teacher had them all draw these small cards that would dictate your project partner. Himchan looked over from his seat, “Haha that’s cute,” he commented, “Ssaem is so weird sometimes.” The ulzzang merely shrugs and just calls out to the class, “Hey! Anyone else got the pink ice cream let me know alright!”

Highschool. It was just the first week of the school year and faces were still unfamiliar and the atmosphere was cool like the weather March. Well, for kids like Yongguk at least, who usually kept to themselves.

On the other hand, kids like Kim Himchan, walking social networking site and resident loudmouth, had no problem. He knew everyone and everyone knew him, and it was easy peasy, these kind of things.

Yongguk still sat and stared into the beady eyes of the rubber duck drawing. Himchan was busying himself looking for his partner and busying himself matching people up. Class ended just about five minutes ago, and the room had already been in chaos as the students hunted for their partners.

 From his periphery, Yongguk could see two other students making a fuss somewhere at the back of the class.

“Come on, let me have your card. It’s the pink ice cream right? Besides you don’t particularly like Kim Himchan anyways,” the girl said.

The boy looked at the card he was shown, “But I don’t know who’s the other blue rabbit… I’d rather Himchan than some slacker I’ve never talked to…”

“Please please please…” the girl begged, grabbing on to the boy’s jacket sleeve and started making cutesy sounds.

The boy yanked his arm away, “Aish, okay okay. Let’s make a deal. I’ll only change with you if you can manage to get…” he thought for a while, looking around, pursed lips, “the rubber duck card.”

Mwoh??

Yongguk was not sure if he should be flattered or not.

“Yah! Bang Yongguk!” Himchan’s loud voice drew him from his confused thoughts. He looked up to see his friend, who was somewhere in the centre of the room. “I think I found your partner! Yeah he’s that one over there,” he said the last part to… that person… Yongguk couldn’t really see.

“Too bad,” the boy at the back of the class and gave desperate girl a pat on the head. “Yah, Kim Himchan! Over here!” He called and waved.

“Mwoh? Ahn Jaehyo? We’re partners?” Himchan walked to the tall boy who was leaning on the lockers. “Man, we’re gonna be the most good looking pair. Ssaem has got to give us full marks.” They high-fived and exchanged laughs.

Yongguk chuckled at the logic of his classmates. He turned back to his desk and realised a shadow over it.

“Umm, hi, “He looked up to see a girl who held out the rubber duck card with two hands. She gave him a smile and he returned it. She was that girl whose brown hair was tied into a bun at the top of her head. She wore a different ribbon every day and sometimes he’d look at the back of her head when the monotony of classes had been overwhelming.

“Minjoo, by the way,” she said, leaning her hip on his desk, “Yong…guk ssi?”

He nodded.

“Err,” she placed one palm at the back of her neck, “We’re given the weekend to do this… when are you free?”

“I’ve got nothing after school today,” Minjoo visibly was taken aback by the unexpectedly deep tone of his voice, and the reaction drew another chuckle from Yongguk, “So I don’t mind if you want to do it later?”

“Mm!” She nodded cutely, “Sounds good to me. My classes end at…” she paused to think, “four?”

“Alright. I’m already done for the day. I’ll wait for you at the library?” He suggested.

Minjoo nodded again and gave an ‘ok’ sign, “Okay catch you later, I’ve got classes soon.” Yongguk’s eye followed her back to her seat, where she packed her things into her bag and left the classroom. Once Minjoo left his line of sight, he busied himself with the two duck cards on his desk.

“Sooooo…” Himchan’s head popped right on Yongguk’s shoulder, “Nice catch! Did you get her number?”

He just rolled his eyes in response and gave his friend’s cheek a loving slap.

The ulzzang shot up at the impact on his cheek, “Hey! No touching the face.”

“Get it insured then,” Yongguk replied as he packed his belongings.

Himchan huffed and placed his hands gently on his cheeks, “Maybe I should. With a friend like you... Aish,” he sighed.

“Anyway~” the singsong tone of voice warned that Himchan was back into his nosy bugger mode, “So you got Kim Minjoo~”

“So?” Yongguk raised an eyebrow at his friend’s statement.

A mischievous smile spread on Himchan’s lips, “Sooo?” he wiggled eyebrows, “I see you looking at her during class.”

Yongguk just shook his head and shrugged the comment off. He stood up and turned to face Himchan’s seat, which was right behind his. “Pack your bag, let’s get some snacks,” he patted his friend’s flawless white cheek again.

“GUKKIE DON’T TOUCH MY FACE.”

“Sorry for making you wait!” Minjoo said in a hushed tone as she gave an apologetic bow. She immediately set her bag on the chair next to hers as she sat down on the seat opposite her partner’s.

Yongguk set aside his earphones and his notebook, “It’s fine, it’s fine,” he reassured. “I mean, you had class and all.”

Minjoo settled down in her seat and they decided to talk about the project. They had to make a collage of absolutely topic under the sun, but the difficult part was that it had to be presented entirely in English. It could be in simple sentences that just talked about images or photos collected. The point was public speaking in English, and not much the content.

Team rubber duck decided that they should pick something familiar and simple, and that they should stray away from big, difficult words as much as possible.

“Maybe something American?” Minjoo suggested, “I’m afraid we might get a penalty for saying Korean things like kimchi.”

“Sounds good,” Yongguk replied in English, and they both smiled.

MacDonalds? Hotdogs? Fries? Basketball? Independence? Civil war? Batman?

The two went down a list of things that was potentially a presentation topic.

“How about hip hop?” Minjoo twirled her pen.

Ding ding ding. Yellow lightbulb.

Yongguk’s whole face lightened up and his gummy smile showed, “As in, hip hop music?” He tried to clarify.

“Yeah, you know, hip hop, rap, Eminem, grfitti” Minjoo did a few poses that vaguely referenced b-boys, “I actually really like that stuff, umm… it’s totally cool though if you don’t… really wanna…”

“No, no, no,” Yongguk waved his hands, “I’m good, let’s do that.”

The afternoon passed quickly as the two discussed their project. Picking key phrases, key icons, and double checked the information and grammar with reference books in the library. Minjoo did all the cutting and Yongguk carried the heavy flagged books that needed photocopying. They were halfway through colouring some cut-outs when—

“Excuse me students, the library closes early today because it’s Friday. Go on home, you can work on these tomorrow in the public library,” The librarian said. The two nodded and bowed, promising to leave as soon as they’ve finished cleaning up.

“Do you want to come to my house to finish up?” Minjoo asked while picking up some of cut-up paper that had been scattered on the floor.

Did Yongguk just hear that right?

Minjoo heard the silence and decided to insist, “I just live a few blocks from here, and we don’t have much work left anyway. And I want to sleep in tomorrow hehehe…” she shyly whispered that last part.

A deep chuckle escaped his lips. “Well, why didn’t you say so?” Yongguk stacked up the books that needed to be returned, “Let me put this back and we’re good to go.”

“You live alone?” Yongguk asked curiously. He followed Minjoo who took her shoes off and left them near a rack. She went up a step to the elevated wooden platform.

“Yeah, my family lives about two hours away from school, so they decided that this was the best way,” she shrugged. Minjoo carefully laid the collage on the square coffee table on the middle of the room and sat down on one of the cushions on the floor. She patted the one next to her, motioning her guest to go over and sit.

Sticking things down didn’t take long, as expected. They were going through the script of the presentation when—

GGggagRrrRGggrRlLllNNnghHgG

Oops.

“Oh gosh, I’m such a horrible person, how could I forget” Minjoo panicked and immediately shot up from her seat and ran to the makeshift kitchen on one side of her little flat. “Please call your umma and tell her you’re having dinner here!” she hollered.

Yongguk’s red face was buried in his hands. “Betrayer,” he whispered to his stomach.

He got up from the cushion and decided that he should help with whatever dinner his project partner was going to prepare. She had already filled up the pot, set the induction cooker on, and was in the process of tearing open a pack of ramyun.

Minjoo looked down to hide her. She felt embarrassed inviting someone over, forgetting to offer refreshments, and dinner was just instant ramyun. “Ehe, I’m really sorry but—“

“No, it’s totally fine. Don’t worry alright? I like ramyun a lot. It’s cool,” He gave her shoulder a quick reassuring pat and  helped open the other packet that was on the counter.

Minjoo’s stared right at Yongguk, “Honestly? Really? You’re not just saying that?”

“No,” came the reply, “Ramen is a gift from the gods.” Minjoo chuckled in response, “Though, I think Shin Ramyun’s better than this.”

“Mwo?” Minjoo asked in disbelief, “I like Japanese ramen more. I think the noodles are nicer. More… chewy?” Yongguk shrugged and placed the compressed square of noodles into the pot.

“You know what’s good though?” He asked, while they were waiting for the water to boil.

Minjoo shook her head, “What?”

“Uncooked ramen.”

Minjoo’s mouth dropped, but soon turned into a grin. “High five. You’ve got great taste,” she raised a palm up. Yongguk’s palm met hers as he smiled and muttered a thanks.

Three minutes didn’t take long, and they were having ramyun dinner on the square table. They talked about this and that, ramyun brands, cooking methods, adding eggs or not, or about rappers, singers, hiphop, or even about sneakers, shoe sizes, and how Nike was involved with illegal child labour.

Bzzt bzzt.

Vibrating phones kind of defeat the purpose of a silent mode when they buzz so loudly anyway.

“You didn’t tell your umma you weren’t going home for dinner?” Minjoo asked, and took another chopstick-ful of ramyun.

Yongguk just shook his head and gave her a look that said “nah, but its fine.” He looked at the screen of his phone and it was blinking: Channie.

Aish, that little nosy bugger…

Yongguk just threw it back into his bag and continued to eat.

Minjoo raised her eyebrows, but Yongguk just shook his head again.

“You didn’t answer my call!” Himchan complained through his mobile phone.

“Well… I was having dinner with—“

“WITH? WITH? Who?? Minjoo? Minjooooo??” Yongguk had to draw his phone away to save his ears from excited screams.

There was some noise from the other line and he could roughly make out “Haha you lose” accompanied by Himchan’s insulting laughter and “Sshhh, we’re in a coffee shop!”

“Hello? Channie?” Once again Yongguk was confused. “I didn’t even—“

“I took your silence and absence of denial as a yes.” He could hear the smile on his friend’s face.

Bzzt. Bzzt.

Yongguk took his phone out of his back pocket to read the SMS.

[9:18 AM] Channie: Please add cherry tomatoes and cheesecake to shopping list. The kids want to come over this weekend. ^^

[9:19 AM] Me: Roger. Guess who I met at the supermarket.

[9:19 AM] Channie: Who? Jieun noona? O:

[9:20 AM] Me: Joojoo

Yongguk’s eyes fell on Minjoo again, who was reading the table of ingredients on the things she picked up while waiting for him to finish texting. He sighed. Definitely, he was happy to see her, but somehow he felt his heart take a hit. Or was it his gut. Maybe it was some of the memories... some of the bad ones, or maybe it was some questions that were left unanswered.

They were still alive. They still knew each other. Just maybe they were still—

Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzzt.

Incoming call from Channie.

Monday came soon. The presentations were all short and all the groups did well, just that some were more amusing than others. At the end of the day, they had definitely picked the right topic, hip hop: a common ground that both members didn’t mind talking about, and was English. (One group got a penalty for every time they said “bibimbap,” because it was technically not English) Other presentations were similar to Team Rubber Duck's, where they just gave facts and trivia, but there were also groups like Team Pink Ice Cream that delivered skits. (On the topic of BB Cream, it was a scene where Jaehyo was awkwardly promoting the product to Himchan, and the latter merely shrugged it off, claiming that he was “flawless.”)

At the end of the week, result slips were given out. The atmosphere had been tense, being the first event of its kind of the year.

The slip of paper had been passed to Minjoo, because she was closer to the teachers’ table. She turned back to give her partner a thumbs up. The gesture was returned with a gummy smile.

The moment the teacher left the room, partners looked for their pairs to find out their results.

“Aww yeah!” Himchan’s loud voice could be heard within a 10 metre radius, “I told you ssaem would fall for our charms!” He hooked one arm on Jaehyo’s shoulder and proudly raised the snatched result slip in the other.

“Can’t you just acknowledge that we did a good job?” Jaehyo asked.

“No we’re just too good-looking,” Himchan beamed, “We should be partners more often.” He just watched his partner face-palm.

Yongguk shuffled his way to Minjoo’s seat, avoiding spazzy classmates and waving hands on the way. He raised his eyebrows and gave his partner a questioning look. She turned to him with the sheet of paper that read “A+” in red.

“Ramyun?” Minjoo suggested.

“Ramyun.”

A/N: That came out a bit wordier and finger-tied (you know, like tongue-tied, but my fingers, because i'm typing?) than expected. Seemed a bit dry but I hope it's not too bad for an introductory chapter. Let me know how you think or feel! I'll update as soon as I can.

On a separate note, what are labels? It's right under the tags, and I don't really know what it's about.

Thank you again to readers who commented and subscribed (and one upvote??? omg) based on the description and foreword! I hope the first installation of this fic doesn't disappoint too much.

(also what are upvotes... i know they're good but idk what they're about ;;)

Please do comment. It really motivates me, whether it's praise or constructive criticism. I really want to give my best! Please do anticipate. :)