00. MILK

It’s an unusually chilly May. Students wrap scarves around their necks as they walk out to school, filling the streets with hues of cream, blue, black and brown. They all look more or less the same. Luhan is no different. He shoves his hands in his pockets, turning into his local mart. It’s small and cheap, artificial lighting bright despite being in the wakes of sunlight. It’s all white when he enters. Everything is white.

 

An automated voice welcomes him into the store. There are three other people in there, excluding a worker and the cashier. The worker holds a mop, as if preparing for an accident. Luhan ignores them all and works methodically to the back aisle. This is where they kept all their cold drinks. It’s a cold morning, but he can’t help getting his regular soy milk. His friends, especially Sehun, joke that he’s addicted to it. He doesn’t think so. Luhan just wants to look forward to something in the morning.

 

He finds his favourite brand, frowning as he takes the bottle. It’s the last one. He finds it strange that they’ve run out of soy milk at seven-thirty AM. He doesn’t wonder long though, grabbing the bottle as he periodically does every day. It slips from his fingers and falls with a crash. Glass sprays across the floor. A girl looks over to him. Luhan is surprised.

 

“Oh, sorry,” he finds himself saying.

 

The worker with the mop appears almost immediately. He begins mopping up the mess, as if he was planning for this all along. It doesn’t seem to bother him that the glass is getting entangled with the cloth; he simply continues on, moving it back and forth, back and worth.

 

“You know the rules,” the worker says. He doesn’t look up. “You break it, you buy it.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luhan looks surprised, before he nods dumbly.

 

“Alright,” he says. He walks towards the counter. There, he finds the coins he had prepared for his soy milk, sliding them over to the cashier.

 

This is the start of his ty day.

 

 

 

 

 

01. HABIT

Kai is complicated.

 

Or not really, he kind of thinks he is. He looks complicated outwardly. He’s some scrawny boy with a lot of strength and a mixture of awkwardness and charisma which is half-endearing, half-strange. He doesn’t look like it, but he’s a er for routines. That morning, just as he always does, he went to the local mart to grab a lollipop before school. Baekhyun never understood why Kai had to buy one every single day, without fail.

 

“Just buy a packet,” he suggested once, but Kai ignored him and continued his ritual.

 

Today he’s debating between the apple and watermelon flavour when he hears a loud crash. He looks over his shoulder, and finds a boy from his neighbouring high school standing in front of cracked glass, soy milk seeping across the floor. He looks at his watch. If he buys a lollipop now and runs for it, he’ll make it to school in time. He’s never been that good at planning. It seems like he’s always pressed for time. 

 

He walks towards the counter, correct change already in hand, but then the boy who spilt the milk cuts him off.

 

“Sorry,” He apologises, “I just need to pay this real quick.”

 

Kai opens his mouth to object, but the boy’s already paying the cashier, explaining the issue. Kai wants to roll his eyes. It seems that the boy in front of him feels the need to narrate every detail of how the milk was spilled. He needs to speak about the soy milk, the glass, the abundance of soy milk, how it had all happened – this boy really didn’t understand how much time he was wasting. When he finally pays the cashier and leaves, the school bell had already run.

 

“Not again,” Kai curses, and he threw his change onto the counter and made a sprint.

 

Kai runs through the streets, lollipop in one hand and bag falling off his shoulders. He hates how small the sidewalks are; how they only leave space for three people and everyone seemed to have a habit of walking in an obstructive way. Kai gets more frustrated as his laptop pokes him in the back, and eventually throws a few quick apologies behind him as gives an encouraging push to a few too many bystanders. They stare at him, and some grumble, but his bigger fear is his period one chemistry teacher.

 

Kai pants as he bursts through the doorway.

 

“Lovely seeing you awake, Mr Kim,” his chemistry teachers claps. The whole class snickers as Kai hopes this is the least of his problems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

02. SUNFLOWERS

Suho is just looking for flowers for his girlfriend when he feels a harsh shove against his back, causing him to fall into a bouquet of fresh sunflowers. He sighs.

 

“I’ll just buy them,” he says. He knows he has to anyway.

 

His shirt smells like flowers. He thinks it’s sort of romantic, so he buys her chocolates on the way. He goes to the expensive, fancy chocolate shop; the one imported from somewhere exotic and European, choosing a few chocolate hearts. He’s always been a blatant romantic. He can’t help it.

 

Suho looks at his watch. He’s early. Perhaps it was because he felt compelled to buy the flowers he’d trampled on – usually he takes a lot longer to pick the right bouquet. He looks at them again. Sunflowers – he never knew why he’d never been really interested in sunflowers. They were always a little too big and awkward for him, he supposes. Sunflowers are too genuine, too sincere – they’re all about shallow first-loves between young children rather than any delicate romance that he imagines himself in. He walks past an alley and he remembers the smell of sunflowers. He starts to think about how many times he’s overlooked sunflowers, and why he’s never really given a girl sunflowers since he was six. He wonders if he has some sort of fear of being too simple; of being nothing complex and mature and just being a little kid. He’s only nineteen, but he treats his girlfriend like they’re twenty-seven and going to start a family.

 

He shakes his head. These are too many thoughts.

 

He walks around the streets near their designated location, imagining himself to be a romantic protagonist in a novel. Suho had always thought he was destined to be one. He dressed immaculately, had a politeness and chivalry of the 1960s and had the quiet, honest looks of a boy in love. He supposes it is who he is.

 

“You shouldn’t be here,” someone says.

 

Suho looks up. He had been so entangled in his own monologue that he’d paid very little attention to where he was. He doesn’t see the owner of the voice. He doesn’t see anything really. He simply feels someone bump his shoulder, stab a knife into his heart, releasing it and then walking away. Suho drops the flowers. The expensive chocolates fall to the ground and so does he. He wonders why no one looks for him. He wonders briefly if he did something wrong. Suho never really thought about dying. The idea of any day being his last wasn’t really on his mind much. Life and death were things a little too abstract to think about. Suho falls and dies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

03. BODY COUNT: 1

“Well aren’t you an idiot,” Jongdae remarks dryly. He picks up the sunflowers which had been thrown to the ground previously, picking off a bit of the dirt on one of the petals.

 

Minseok shrugs. “What was I meant to do?” He looks a little rattled, face pale as they stand awkwardly around the dead body. The alley they hide in, like all criminals do, is dark, but here they are exposed, vibrant, noticeable and definitely on the run. Jongdae inspects the flowers like they’re a clue to where they’re heading.

 

“I don’t know,” Jongdae frowns. “Don’t shot the man with flowers?”

 

“I thought he saw,” Minseok defends.

 

“I don’t think he did,” Jongdae raises his eyebrows in some kind of disgust, but he recovers quickly. He throws the bouquet of sunflowers into the bin. “They’re too bright. They’ll draw attention to him.”

 

Minseok nods. He looks at his hands and feels empty. He can’t help himself. He forces himself to look at the body. He forces himself to understand the gravity of what he’s just done. For Minseok, morality never came easily. As he stands in front of the dead, well-dressed man, he tries to remember that this man had a home, a family, friends and possibly even a partner. His death wasn’t just a singular event. It was part of something bigger. It had a ripple effect on his inner circles; things would not be the same.

 

People like Minseok weren’t put on Earth to play god. People shouldn’t have another person’s lives in their hands.

 

With careful hands he steps back while Jongdae inspects the body, eventually slinging the dead man’s arm over his. Minseok looks at him sceptically.

 

“We’ll pretend he’s drunk,” Jongdae says. “Make yourself useful, won’t you?”

 

 

 

 

04. MISTAKE

Eunji leans over to Luhan’s desk. “Can we talk after lunch?”

 

Luhan nods. “Sure.”

 

 

 

 

 

05. DELICATE

Yixing has acute senses.

 

It was something he was born with, he thinks. At the yearly eye tests he always gets told his eyesight is ‘something extraordinary’, and his ability to pick up sounds is remarkable. It’s a curse and a blessing really. It distinguishes him; makes him feel like he has some power over his fellow classmates, but sometimes there are things he wishes he really could never hear.

 

He’s walked out for lunch when he hears a soft thud, then the ruffle of something delicate. It wrecks his world completely. His previous thought pattern gets carried away as he looks across the street, albeit discretely, and sees a man fall to the floor, yellow sunflowers next to him. Yixing turns around. Things like that don’t just happen every day. He pretends to be looking into a shop window as he watches two guys surround the figure. His eyes avert away, as if he knows it’s something he shouldn’t see.

 

Yixing walks into the café, phone out as if ready to call the police. He stops himself though. Or perhaps he is stopped by what he sees.

 

His sister’s boyfriend is kissing another girl.

 

Yixing says his name loud enough for him to hear, and walks out the café without another thought.

 

 

 

 

06. FOLLOW-UP

“Detention, Mr Kim,” Mrs Lee reminds him as he packs his bag. Kai’s eyes narrow, but he doesn’t say a word.

 

It wasn’t even his fault this time.

 

“Told you,” Baekhyun says as he passes him. Baekhyun probably thinks it’s hilarious. He doesn’t hide it from his face, after all.

 

“It was that stupid kid with soy milk,” Kai tries again. “I told you! He was so ing slow.”

 

 

 

 

07. DISAPPOINTMENT

Yixing thinks about her again. He thinks about her boyfriend, and then he gets angry.

 

Sometimes Yixing thinks he hates confrontation. Perhaps he does. But now, walking out of the café with a feeling of betrayal makes him wish he never saw that. He always liked Wufan. Wufan was polite, funny and very nice to his parents. His sister loved the guts out of Wufan, and now Yixing wishes she didn’t. He loves his family; he loves everyone in his life, and now he just feels betrayed. He wonders if he could simply go back to being blissfully unaware.

 

Why did people disappoint him like this?

 

He hears Wufan calling out his name; he hears some kind of feeble attempt to explain himself; something irrelevant and passing. Yixing sighs.

 

Stupid sunflowers.

 

 

 

 

 

08. THE TYPICAL BEGINNING

They do something really childish, standing near the lower floor’s stairway as Eunji crosses her hands behind her back, words at the back of her tongue. The hallways are relatively quiet now – fifteen minutes of lunch has passed, and most students have found a room to settle in and are loudly chatting. Luhan can hear the muffle of their voices from where he stands. In their positions, they look like they’re about to confess.

 

“Luhan,” she says carefully. “Do you remember what day it is?”

 

He’s ed from the very beginning.

 

 

 

 

 

Of course he tries to explain himself. Tries to narrate his long story about the spilt milk and his distractedness and how all he wanted was soy milk to start the day. It doesn’t change anything though.

 

“We should break up,” she suggests, and he doesn’t say no.

 

 

 

 

 

09. YIXING RETURNS

Chorong feels someone bump against her shoulder. She turns around, but the figure is already retreating in the opposite direction. She hears someone call out a name, but the runner doesn’t stop. They just keep running and running – she wonders what they’re running from.

 

Its then that she looks forward. Her eyes squint into the distance, where she sees three men, two of them supporting their friend. Chorong walks a little faster. There’s something strange about the three. Was he running away from them? She doubts it. Nevertheless, she quickens her pace slightly. Something doesn’t sit well with her – two men propping up their friend in the city on a Tuesday doesn’t seem likely. Chorong knows the area. There are no bars here.

 

She frowns, getting closer. She thinks she recognises the jacket of the boy in the middle.

 

It’s her boyfriend.

 

“Suho?” She calls. No one answers her. She gets closer. “Suho, is that you?”

 

They still don’t answer. She waits at the sidewalk, watching for cars, before she runs across the road.

 

“Suho, I can see you!”

 

It’s then the two boys turn. Suho still doesn’t though. They look surprised at seeing her; almost flustered. Chorong’s eyes make for her boyfriend.

 

There are a few short seconds exchanged between them, silent on the street. The two boys then abruptly drop the other, sprinting in the opposite direction. Suho falls to the ground and Chorong runs up to him. She looks at his face, and then at his chest.

 

He’s bleeding.

 

She screams and one of the store owners comes out and calls the police.

 

 

 

 

10. BAD DAYS

Kai grumbles as he walks out of the school. This is the first time he’s been in detention, and he doesn’t really fancy going back. Kai isn’t a bad kid; he’s a little late and usually manages to get everywhere with about two seconds to spare, but he’s not the kind of kid in detention. Now, he thinks he’ll never be.

 

He walks with his hands in his pockets, taking his usual route. Baekhyun waits for him at the ice-cream shop, sitting next to a cup of melted ice-cream. He grins when he sees Kai, getting up immediately.

 

“Took you awhile,” Baekhyun says.

 

“Detention tends to do that,” Kai remarks wryly. He groans. “This has to be one of my worst days.”

 

“Well,” Baekhyun says, “There are about 10.1 million people in Seoul. If there’s 365 days, you can bet about 27 700 people are having a bad day as well.”

 

“That’s assuming we all have one bad day each year,” Kai frowns. “I think it’s good to say that this is my ty day of May.”

 

While they’re walking, they see the footpath closed. Yellow police tape restricts them, and the two boys look up curiously. Their eyes scan the area – what could happen on their quiet street? The two boys take a detour, eyes glued on the scene. There are too many curious residents for them to see clearly, but they think they make out the face of a crying woman. She can’t be anything older than twenty-three.

 

“See what I mean?” Baekhyun asks. Kai nods, and then bumps into a man with coffee. The hot liquid spills all over his blazer and white shirt.

 

“Oi,” the man says. His thin eyebrows make a furrowed, practiced line, as if they’re gotten so used to being angry. “Watch where you’re going kid. That stuff costs money you know.”

 

Kai scowls, “So does my shirt, .”

 

Baekhyun guides him away, hand firmly on his shoulder as the angry man continues yelling. Kai’s face is locked in a permanent scowl as they walk on the other side of the footpath.

 

“Talk about a ty day,” Kai says. “Who the did that man think he was?”

 

“Ignore him,” Baekhyun says. “Some old people are like that.”

 

But then they come across a sight they can’t brush away.

 

 

 

 

 

11. WORSE

“Dad?” Baekhyun says.

 

Baekhyun’s dad looks up. His hands, almost instinctively, withdraw from the woman he’s holding. She looks betrayed, confused. Kai can’t help but stare at his hands. He took off his wedding ring.

 

“You’re unbelievable,” Baekhyun splutters. There are no more words he can say. His whole body quivers with anger as he stalks off. Kai sends a purposeful look at his father before following his friend. He hears Baekhyun’s father calling in the background, but it blends with the confused chatters across the street til it becomes nothing more.

 

“Baek,” Kai tries to say, but Baekhyun cuts him off.

 

“Not the time,” he says.

 

Talk about a bad day, Kai stops himself from saying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

12. DELUSION

“I’m not a murderer,” Minseok says.

 

The sit in a café in the local mall, dressed in new clothing which they’ve just bought, drinking water and sharing a small cake between them. The staff sends them glares as they watch the two men take up unnecessary space with their limited purchases. Jongdae picks at the cake. He’s pretty hungry, but if they finish it too fast, they’ll have to leave.

 

“I know,” Jongdae says. “You were just in the wrong place, that’s all.”

 

“This is terrible,” Minseok says for the fifth time. “I can’t believe that just happened.”

 

“Yeah, well,” Jongdae says. “It just happened. We all have our days. Let’s go back. Maybe tomorrow will be better.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t think it works like that; Minseok tries to sound out his thoughts in his head. He doesn’t doubt their legitimacy – of course he’s right; it’s never going to end up well. But maybe Jongdae knows how to go from here. Minseok doesn’t need realism now. He needs something more fantastical and hopeful. Maybe he’ll go to sleep and tomorrow things will be better. It’s a nice thought.

 

Minseok could use some nice thoughts.

 

 

 

 

 

13. BREAKING THE CYCLE

Chanyeol thinks he’s seen it all. In his time at the local mart he’s seen druggies, students, hippies and freeloaders; the intoxicated, the depressed, the ecstatic and the mad.  But there’s one thing he hasn’t quite seen, and that’s a man putting on a cap and acting as a worker at the convenient store. Chanyeol doesn’t notice it at first. He’s busy with things – busy with the students who come in for their morning shots of cheap caffeine and busy keeping half an eye on the door to see if anyone wants to have a go at shoplifting. It’s ridiculous. He doesn’t even charge that much.

 

Around midday the business starts to slow. It’s methodical, practiced and expected – it happens without fail and with no proper reason. Transactions at local marts just don’t peak when everyone’s eating lunch. Chanyeol usually uses this time to read his novel for his literature class, or catch up on some homework, but he doesn’t feel comfortable doing that. It doesn’t feel right with the weird mart janitor roaming around the aisles. Chanyeol watches him with one of the store’s inbuilt cameras. He frowns.

 

Maybe he should go talk to him. He’s accustomed to the strange, but there’s only so much time he can kill before he has to kick them out. It’s not right for people to assume roles that don’t exist. It goes against even Chanyeol’s normal daily schedule.

 

“Hey,” he calls. The worker just continues mopping the floors. “Hey you!”

 

He doesn’t answer immediately, but Chanyeol somehow knows that he’s heard him. With a slow, deliberate turn of the head, Chanyeol gets a good look at the worker. He looks like a young boy. Not masculine, but not feminine either – the face of a twenty-something boy, full of youth and unusual knowledge. Chanyeol frowns. His expressions look predetermined, practised. Nothing can come good out of this.

 

The worker smiles at him. Chanyeol looks at the tag under his uniform. He frowns. It’s just like his. Chanyeol reads the name only once.

 

Hello. My name is Jongin.

 

Chanyeol gets shot.

 

 

 

 

 

14. BODY COUNT: 2

He’s cold. Very cold. He holds his stomach where the bullet has penetrated, looking down at the blood, and then back up at the worker. Jongin, Chanyeol thinks he’s called, smiles. There’s no gun in his hand, yet Chanyeol is still shot. He steadies himself against the back counter of the mart. He feels light-headed; dizzy. He’s losing a lot of blood. But he’s only been shot once. He frowns.

 

“Who are you?” Chanyeol asks.

 

Jongin peers over the counter, his eyes staring blankly at Chanyeol. It’s hard to explain. Chanyeol can’t think right now; he can’t really assume anything too big, but it really is quite hard to explain how someone can stare blankly but with purpose into your eyes. He smiles.

 

“I’m just the cleaner,” he says.

 

His eyes smile kindly at Chanyeol, and he dies for sure this time.

 

 

 

 

15. MILK.

Luhan grumbles as he walks across the street. His day hasn’t been the best. He lost his girlfriend because he forgot their anniversary, and he wouldn’t have if he simply hadn’t spilt that bottle of soy milk. He sighs. This isn’t the way he thought his day would pan out when he woke up that morning. He thinks about the shattering glass. He would’ve had some soy milk now if his fingers hadn’t slipped.

 

He wonders briefly if the local mart had any left. He walks past it. Uncharacteristically, the doors do not slide open for him. He frowns, leaning forward. The sign on the door says:

 

CLOSED.

 

Luhan frowns. Since when did the local mart close at seven PM? He makes a face. They’re really losing business if they’re thinking of closing at seven. It’s absolutely unthinkable. Seoul is a night city. The business doesn’t come til nine anyway.

 

Luhan decides to make a detour. Since the morning he’s been craving soy milk. It’s like a ritual he can’t live without. Luhan shakes his head. He should’ve known his day was going to be ty from the moment his hands clasped around the last bottle of soy milk and it fell to the ground. No one’s day can start that bad and expect to get better. He shakes his head. Maybe a bottle of soy milk will turn his luck around. He’s sure the other mart will have some.

 

 

 

(A/N: DIVVY I'M ACTUALLY SUPER SORRY THIS IS REALLY LATE AND REALLY RIDICULOUS AND THE BAD CHARACTERISATION IS SO SO REAL I CRY SO MUCH ;;A;; but hAPPY ANNIVERSARY AND I HOPE WE WILL CONTINUE TO LOVE MORE AND I WILL WRITE LESS TY IN THE UPCOMING YEARS! also i'm sorry for being inactive here and being a prick generally. i have a silly got7 story in apologies? anyway irrelevant here pls ignore any spelling/grammar/narrative errors i didn't really edit this but at one point!! i will!! anyway thank you for reading! <3 )