Lunch time makes me sick. It’s not because I’m bulimic or anorexic. Just no, I would never go down that road. I don’t have a eating problem, or phobia of seeing people eat or watching me eat or eating around me, or whatever. It’s just that our lunch food, to put it kindly, . I know it’s rude to say that, but honestly, it’s typical.

    Our cafeteria consists of one big room, almost the size of a basketball gymnasium. With long stainless steel tables and plastic seats attached, our cafeteria is the perfect place for people either to come together or diverge into separate cliques. The kitchen’s big, and in a separate rectangular area, serving the thousand kids that attend our school. You would think that going to one of Seoul’s best schools one would have better food that the rest. But you don’t, you really don’t, over ten million won our parents pay to attend this institution and what to we get? Stainless steel trays and chopsticks, a week’s worth of old kimchi, beef that shouldn’t even be edible, spudgy potatoes, soup that’s 99.9% of water, and rice that’s just come from the fields, dirty and dry. Can you just imagine all of the germs in this place? How easily we can get sick? It’s ridiculous! I might even petition for a better food menu because how are the brightest children of Korea able to function if we aren’t able to get proper nutrition? We should at least, at least, have edible rice to eat. Rice is one of the most important foods of mankind. Not to mention to the children and people of Asia!

    I demand a mutiny, this school is absolutely ridiculous, and this food, if you can even call it this, is complete garbage. G A R B A G E.

Okay, maybe I’m being too spoiled and arrogant. And maybe you’re thinking, “oh GOD, this , she’s being such a BRAT because she doesn’t have her half-vegan-all-organic-made-in-the-egypt sushi or something.” Well, guess what? you are so wrong. This crap is literally bull.

Don’t believe me? Talk to the kids who have to buy lunch because they don’t have time to make their own.

But, there is a salvation within the mess halls of this “prestigious” institution, chicken wraps. Chicken wraps brought in from the best of the best recipes from the USA. They are truly glorious and no one, no one, misses out on chicken wraps at this school. Not even me. The one who can’t stand the germs and the grease and the fat and the disgustingness of this lunch hall. Chicken wraps are just too good to pass up. Therefore, sometimes when things look absolutely horrendous you just gotta find something good within it, just like the chicken wraps.

So since there are chicken wraps in the cafeteria, it calls for me not only running to the cafeteria to be one of the first in line, but also being dragged but Kyung Soon and sprinting to the cafeteria. Kyung soon not only lives for chicken wraps, she adores them by calling them her “precious little chickadees”. Freaky, but adorable. In addition, her sprinting to the cafeteria is truly one of the only times I get to see her do any physical activity.  

“Jee,” she gasps once we burst into the cafeteria and get in line, “Can you get our food? I’m gonna sit down.”

I laugh, she’s still struggling to catch her breath. We do this every week and she still can’t find the sense to slow down so she doesn’t keep dying before lunch. I can’t blame her though, I would sprint all the time to lunch if I weren’t so exhausted everyday.

“Yes Kyungie, sit down in the courtyard and I’ll find you.”

She nods and slowly walks outside. I chuckle as she makes her way out and turn towards the line. I wonder why she doesn’t go out for track, she’s actually quite the speed demon.

I don’t actually despise the lunch line, despite moving at a snail's pace. Why? It’s because of the gossip. After being holed up, in silent and focused classrooms the lunchroom is the place where everyone can let their energy out that they’ve been meaning to ever since 10 o'clock this morning, when our brains are actually awake.

As I grab some fruit, I can overhear Kim Dahyun talking to Park Jihyo about what else? Boys.

“Did you see that new boy in the halls today?” asked Jihyo.

“Yes, he was in my class last period! He was talking to a bunch of boys and they asked him to sit with them at lunch today” replied Dahyun.

Oh that’s right, I thought. Dahyun is in my small study hall before lunch.

Jihyo squealed. “Omo! Where is he? I want to get a better look at him. He’s barely in any of my classes!”

Dahyun turned her head towards the eating areas. “I don’t know,” she said, “But I think they’re eating outside, let’s hurry before any of the other girls get close to him.”

They quickly finish up getting their lunch, which basically consists of only a chicken wrap, because they have to “keep up their figures”, that or because everything else is lowkey disgusting. I sigh, as I push my way out of the lunch line after thanking the lunch ladies.

“Before any of the other girls get close to him?” So all the gossip is surrounding the new kid? Interesting. I can always count on lunchroom gossip to figure out what everyone’s on in this school.

Besides being one of the top, if not the best schools in Seoul, in academics and athletics, we also thrive on politics and current events, in other words- gossip.

I see Kyungie under one of the huge trees in the courtyard and hand her her lunch. “Tysm bae,” she says and she dives into her chicken wrap with a full mouth she says, “I love you.”

“Aw, I love you too Kyung.”

“Not you, I was talking to the chicken wrap.”

I laugh and look around the courtyard. It’s packed, with benches for lunch and tall oak trees for shade, students love to inhabit the courtyard during lunch and free time, especially with such nice weather this week, although…

“It’s so ing hot” I say, as i take off my sweater and wrap it around my waist. “It’s only noon, as well. I thought it was supposed to be cool all this week!” I scoff. Apparently not.

I bite my apple and lean against the tree as Kyungie sits and finishes her chicken wrap. Seeing my untouched one, she points and asks, “You gonna eat that Jee?”

I sigh and look down, she’s got a bit of ranch on the side of . Kyungie is so amusing sometimes, even though she’s the more practical one out of the both of us. Looking at my chicken wrap, in it's semi-greasy-ness, I realize I’m actually sick of the chicken wraps even only after being in this institution for three months.

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