for your friendly information, this is not the real story. it'll be posted as scheduled, however, this story is up as my thank you present for you all for the subscribes and votes. i hope you'll be patient and keep anticipating Endlessly Sweet because i myself really love the plot. enough from me, i hope you all enjoy this small gift!

He doesn't know why he exists, for what reason he was born, heck, he's not even sure that he's born at all. He even got his name from his friends in the same package —yes, they live in a card box, lying prettily on each small box with different size and shape— and they all call him Xiumin.

"Why Xiumin?" asks him to the bow shaped one named Tao.

"Because we're made in China."

They live on the shelf in a big supermarket, long enough to gain knowledge as much as a normal human being from the people passing by. Today's different, though, because one of the mothers picks their package into the cart and brings them to the cashier. The cashier girl knows the mother and asks her about their package, which she later explains that "my sick son wants bean curd soup".

What is a son? Xiumin wonders.

Their package is put into a transparent bag along with other things and soon the mother places the bag onto the back seat as she drives home. When she pulls over, she takes the bag again and gets into a metal room that brings her upstairs and soon they arrive in a warm, comfy room.

"Kyungsoo?" the mother calls, still having the bag in her hand. Xiumin watches the scene outside through the transparent plastic and sees them getting closer to a little human lying on a fluffy square thing. That human is covered by a quite thick layer and when he opens his eyes, they look red and watery.

"Eomma," the little human croacks, his voice sounds painful. So this must be the 'son' and he must be 'sick', Xiumin notes. "My throat hurts."

"My son," the mother caresses the son's head softly. "Eomma just bought the dried bean curds for you. Look," she rummages into the plastic bag and shows him Xiumin's package. "Which one do you want?"

The son, Xiumin remembers his name as Kyungsoo, thinks for a while before pointing at Xiumin. "This," he pokes. "I want this."

Tao only looks at Xiumin in horror.

"Not this pretty bow shaped one?" asks the mother, but Kyungsoo shakes his head. "Alright. Eomma's going to make the soup, you try taking the nap again okay?"

Kyungsoo nods twice before closing his eyes and exhales. The mother brings the bean curd package along with the transparent bag. Tao looks at Xiumin with big, watery eyes and the latter only chuckles.

"Hey hey, it's okay. It's our fate, after all."

Xiumin watches as the mother boils water in a pot and puts a cut of ginger into the water. He once again questions the reason of his existence, why does the boy want him? He knows his own self, he knows his body is hard rock and stiff that he's not even sure that little human called Kyungsoo will be able to chew him much less gulp him down his little and sick throat. What's his value?

The mother finally turns off the fire and picks two of the bean curds (the other one is called Yifan, they bid farewell to Tao and Yixing the bow shaped ones, and Xiaolong and Dalong the random cut ones) before she dumps them into the boiling water. Xiumin closes his eyes to bear the hotness because, god, is this the hell people often say when the weather is hot?

But slowly Xiumin opens his eyes and sees his body softens and he can finally move. He swims, yes, he moves around in the water and finally meets something that's not Yifan.

"Hello!" Xiumin greets the ginger. "I'm Xiumin."

"You have name, too? Cool!" the ginger says excitedly. "My name's Luhan."

"Luhan," he echoes, tasting the strange name with his tongue. "I'm so happy that finally I can move around after being stiff for so long!"

"Yes," Luhan chuckles over the excited bean curd. "It's because the water and nutrition from my body that your body got softened. So later the poor boy can eat you and your friend easily."

That sentence brings Xiumin to the brink of breakdown. "Oh right," he mutters. "I'm going to die."

"But you'll die to be a hero," Luhan swims closer to pat Xiumin's back. "After he eats you he'll get better the mother will be happy. You're gonna bring them health and happiness! Meanwhile they'll dump me to the trash pin and I don't know where I'll end up to."

Luhan turns around and sees Xiumin's crestfallen expression. He quickly grins and continues, "But I also have my own value! The nutrition from my body will heal the boy's throat. He'll be getting better because of me! The thing is," Luhan takes the wandering Yifan and gets the three of them closer. "It doesn't matter what we are and how we'll end up later, but how we affect our surrounding does. We can be small, insignificant things and we might die today, but we'll save one life and bring happiness to one family today. Aren't we great?" Luhan feels satisfied when he sees smiles attached on Xiumin and Yifan’s faces. "So, are you ready to die today?"

Xiumin has heard the word 'die' countless time in the supermarket and it always follows with horrible, sad things, but now he's about to face one, he doesn't feel sad at all. He might be a product from a factory, small and insignificant, but he's needed. He brings the real reason why he exists, and he's ready to show it to the world. Specifically, to Kyungsoo and his family.

"The boy who's going to eat us is called Kyungsoo," says Xiumin to his two friends while the mother transfers them into a small bowl. "Do you think he'll be happy if we greet him beforehand?"

When the mother place the bowl onto the table, they chirp "get well soon, Kyungsoo!" in their own way. Xiumin isn't sure if the tiny human understands their language, but after he sees his chapped lips stretched to form a wide smile, he thinks that's more than enough.

[the end.]