STRANGER; 낯선 사람 - taekook; vmin

4. junk jungle pt. 2

"You lied to me, Park Jimin."

I did not hide the dissatisfaction in my voice towards the new guy the next morning. I had been led to think that there would be sexy things in the new chapter, but there wasn't anything other than the usual women cyborgs showing off their bodies, and I was displeased.

"About what exactly?" His tiny eyes widened and his plump lips pouted, his defensiveness mixed with confusion showing off in his entire expression.

"There's no sex", I scoffed.

Jimin let go of his pencil to cover his mouth and reveal his laugh for the first time since we've met. I laughed a little bit too, not taking my disappointment too seriously, and feeling a bit satisfied that I made him laugh. Although he was still very much contained, making efforts not to be loud and call attention to himself, there was something in me that felt good to crack his walls like this - and it made me want to do it more, push it even further.

"There is, though", he said.

Without a second thought, I took the vacant seat next to him and to Hell with Han being my partner for the semester. There was someone in that class who was willing to spend the entire morning whisper-arguing with me that a cyborg having sex with her mind is the same thing as the physical act, and I was ferverously prepared to counter-argue that no, Park Jimin, it is most definitely not the same as real sex.

"I'm glad you're best friends now, but could you like, shut up?" Han briefly turned around to scold me and my partner, and it was enough to settle the argument for the morning.

At lunchtime, I had omma's bibimbap to share with Han and Hyun-jin in front of me. Han brought sausage omelet with dry seaweed and Hyun-jin, kimchi and dry anchovies stir fry. The two youngsters turned around without hiding their excitement to be finally eating after a long set or morning classes, and we revealed our lunch boxes as though they were pots of gold. To our surprise, Jimin also opened his own lunch box with us, and it revealed a spicy braised tofu that smelled as good as the scent of a thousand barbecues. My stomach roared at the sight of that beautiful plate in front of me, and I exchanged looks with the lads, silently praying that he'd let us take a bite. To my surprise, Jimin was the first one to reach out to the pork belly meat on my bibimbap with his chopsticks and take a bite.

"Hmmm", his big cheeks chewed like a hamster. "Seoul ommas' cooking is better than I expected."

With a smile, the three of us dove into Jimin's tofu, understanding that we would properly share our meals from then on. We were not disappointed with the taste of it, just the right amount of spiciness and stickiness to the texture, we made our best efforts to thank Jimin for the food - which was a new experience to eat the Busan style of cooking.

"Jimin-ah, let's go outside", I got up from the seat that practically had my butt mark in it, eager to get some fresh air and talk Ghost in the Shell without Han's judgemental looks towards us.

He got up as well and put the manga I had given him back that morning under his armpit to take it with us. "Ah, I was 'gonna ask you to do that", we exchanged sassy looks as though we had read each other's minds.

Our skinny little legs, his slightly smaller than mine, walked towards the same tree we sat the day before, looking for some fresh air but also to protect our acneic skin from the sun. We weren't the only ones there, as teens were yelling under the trees and on the bleachers close to where we sat, a bit too passionate about an informal football match going on among freshmen. It brought both of our attention to the game, where a chubby fella made the skinny ones look malnourished and run for their dignity. When the smallest of them all got a hold of the ball, it was so cartoonish I couldn't believe what my eyes saw - the dude stomped on the ball and fell butt first like a sack of potatoes on the field. Everyone around fell into laughter, Jimin and I included.