chicken noodle soup || sope

one

"Jung Hoseok."

His name was called out over the loud speaker as the auditorium filled with polite applause. Hoseok couldn't help but grin widely as he walked up the small set of stairs onto the stage. At times he thought he wouldn't even make it to this point, but when he stepped onto the stage and saw the dean standing there holding a rolled-up piece of paper tied together with a bright red bow, it finally hit him.

I'm graduating. I'm a graduate of the Seoul Culinary Institute.

Hoseok sprung over to the dean, bowing to him respectfully as he was handed his diploma. In the group of other students seated in the audience, one person's applause thundered above the all the rest. Hoseok searched the crowd, and immediately spotted his best friend, Kim Seokjin, who was snapping pictures of Hoseok on his cell phone. Hoseok beamed at his friend. He didn't have anyone to invite to the graduation ceremony, but Seokjin's support made up for it ten-fold.

The new grad thanked the dean and scurried off the stage as the next name was called. His hands tightly gripped his diploma, as if someone was going to steal it from him. It was his ticket to freedom. His ticket to a better life.

Names continued to be called alphabetically, and Hoseok zoned out a bit until he heard the only other name he cared about.

"Kim Seokjin."

The crowd clapped enthusiastically for the tall dark-haired and wide-shouldered student as he stepped out onto the stage. Unlike Hoseok, Seokjin was a star student, always top of his class, and everyone loved him for it. Without his help, Hoseok wouldn't have even come close to passing his classes. It's not that Hoseok was necessarily bad at cooking. He always tried hard and slowly improved, but he certainly wasn't up to the standards of a chef. His knife skills were sloppy, he tended to overcook things and his tastebuds always seemed to betray him. He suspected that some of the professors just passed him out of pity or kind-heartedness.

Hoseok rose to his feet when Seokjin took his diploma from the dean, hooting and hollering for his best friend. He would have taken pictures as well, but he knew that Seokjin's boyfriend was somewhere in the audience with a professional camera.

When Seokjin walked off the stage he sat down right next to Hoseok in the large group of graduates. Seokjin smiled from ear-to-ear, "We did it Hobi."

"We did it," Hobi repeated, grinning back at his best friend.

-

After the ceremony, Hoseok went over to Seokjin's apartment to celebrate. The apartment wasn't very big, and it filled up quickly with Seokjin's family and some friends from culinary school. Hoseok greeted everyone with a friendly smile, but he didn't know that many people there and he was feeling a bit awkward. It's not that Hoseok didn't want to make friends, but he was just too busy. Between school and his part-time jobs, he never had any time leftover for fun.

Hoseok ended up sitting on the couch alone, scrolling through a job board. Might as well get a head start on the search. He started reading each of them. Cashier. No. Gardner. Nope. Garbage man. Heck no. How could there be not a single open chef job in all of Seoul? Hoseok sighed.

"Hobi?" Seokjin's boyfriend, Kim Namjoon, sat down next to Hoseok on the couch. The tall, muscular man had been dating Seokjin for years, and during that time also became friends with Hoseok. "Are you alright?"

No, not really. "Yup! I'm doing great!" Hobi grinned ear-to-ear. "It was really nice of you to throw a party for Jin."

"Well, it's for you too. You worked so hard to graduate and we're both so proud of you Hobi," Namjoon gushed. Knowing how Hoseok didn't have any parental support, Namjoon always made sure to give him a little extra encouragement when he could.