I'm Fine | Lee Daehwi

Fit

We walked in and took off our shoes, replacing them with house slippers instead. He led us to his music room and I was speechless. The room was filled with so many instruments, I couldn't even count them all. Right in the middle, was the most elegant grand piano I had ever seen. I didn't go to play it though because that would be very rude of me.

"Just put your bags over there." he gestured at the empty corner. We shuffled over and dropped our stuff off, digging out anything we might need. Then, we went into our two groups and started working. Jaehwan had a computer which made it easier to compose our ideas.

Halfway through, a maid came in to serve us food. It felt weird to have all these maids right at your service. However, the food looked good. There was kimbap for all of us; two rolls each. I drooled at the sight of the food but for some reason, the others weren't going to the table to eat it. I didn't want to look like the odd one out (although I was desperately hungry) so I held my stomach in and continued to play music into the computer.

Even after an hour, none of the others chose to touch their food, it was almost as if they were forbidden or something. I still refused to give in and look weird so I didn't say a word. My stomach was completely empty and I really wanted food. Just to make the situation worse, my belly made a loud grumbling noise, which made me cringe in disappointment.

Why now? Couldn't you have just held it in till we got home? It was already eight in the evening and we would be leaving soon.

"Who was that?" Guanlin decided to bring this situation to light. As much as I wanted to shrink and hide at this very moment, my body wouldn't let me. Everyone looked at each other, shrugging with no expression to indicate it wasn't them.

Then they looked at me, in one go. Nine pairs of eyes stared at me and I could do nothing but sheepishly smile at them- though it might have seemed a bit painful.

"Uh... I didn't really eat much during lunch hehe..." I rubbed the nape of my neck in awkwardness but then Jaehwan spoke.

"If you're hungry you should've just eaten some of the kimbap- let's eat now before the rice goes stale." He crawled into the floor towards the table and the others followed. I also took a seat on the floor and began to eat, but I felt like he pitied me more than anything else.

The food was good though, so good that I sped through all the work afterwards and finished it in under an hour. It could have also been because everyone else talked to one another, but not to me. Even though they were really loud, it all seemed to filter out in this small personal bubble of mine.

It was past nine at night and Jaehwan's house was still filled with busy chattering. I didn't want to kill the happy mood or anything so I didn't speak, even though I was already completely worn out and ready to retire to my beautiful bed.