Junhong thought if he had to eat Yongguk’s ty ramen one more time he might ask Daehyun to skateboard over his stomach so he could puke it all out, but that was improbable and he was hungry. He looked in the fridge, then the pantry, and when nothing seemed to catch his eye, he lowered his standards and tried again. This time, in the pantry, he saw some Easy Mac, and if it said it was easy, he might as well try it, and since no one was home, he was allowed to use the microwave.

                (Last time he tried using the microwave, he kept the foil on his corn cob and it sparked up and caught on fire. They had to evacuate the dorm while the fire department came and Himchan literally spanked him in front of everyone.)

                He read the directions and it was simple enough. He removed the cheese packet and filled it up with water to the line, popped it in the microwave and sat back, watching it spin around in a neat circle until he heard something pop, and then he jumped and opened the microwave so fast he could have sworn he broke the handle. Instead, Junhong called up his mom and asked her sheepishly what do to, and she just said he needed to stir it and put it back in, so Junhong did. About a minute later, his Easy Mac was ready and he pulled it out, cursing when it was too hot and singed his fingers. He snapped it out though and put it on the counter, opening the cheese packet and dumping in all of the powder in one go.

                He mixed it, and the sound it made vaguely reminded him of what happens when you flap your cheeks and Daehyun would always whisper something into Youngjae’s ear and they’d laugh and Jongup would too but Junhong was left out every time.            

                (“It sounds like a wet .” Daehyun would tell Youngjae, even though the farthest he had ever gone was kissing another girl. Hell, he got nervous when it came to holding hands, but he watched a lot of .)

                When he found it as good as done, he took a bite, and it was okay. It was better than Yongguk’s ramen, that’s for sure. But the only problem was that when he got to the bottom, the powder hadn’t spread out evenly and it was just a mass of unflavored noodles at the bottom, and Junhong tried to swallow it, but he ended up gagging and spitting it out, but not before knocking the rest on the container on the floor in the process. He looked down at it, sighed, and scooped up the wet noodles in his hands, collecting bits of dirt and dust along with it too and discarding it into the trash. Easy Mac wasn’t easy at all, Junhong thought, but it would suffice.