We all cheered as Mrs. Lee brought over the chicken. Gyeong-su and Cheong-san were sitting on one side of the table while I-sak and On-jo were on the other side with me in between Cheong-san and On-jo at the end of the table. We all thanked Mrs. Lee as we began eating.
"Eat up Gyeong-su, On-jo," began Mrs. Lee, "You to Ga-ram, A-sak." She said, getting I-sak's name wrong.
"It's I-sak, not A-sak," I-sak confronted her nicely.
"Did you change your name?" Mrs. Lee replied with as I-sak began awkwardly laughing, Mrs. Lee joining her soon after while Cheong-san began complaining about the shop name again.
I let out a soft giggle before saying, "I like it Mrs. Lee!" Gyeong-su then added, "Yeah, it's like a tradition!"
"Right!" On-jo and I-sak both said with their mouths full as Gyeong-su taunted Cheong-san.
"This is a new recipe we came up with.. one's a little spicy and the others really hot. What do you think?" Mrs. Lee asked us. "You can be totally honest with me." She said at the end while smiling.
"It's super crazy mad good!" Gyeong-su said first. "If you ever need a delivery boy, I'll work for cheap!" He said after making us all laugh. We laughed even more after Mrs. Lee declined his offer, saying we 'need to focus on studying.'
I was enjoying the chicken that Cheong-san kept adding onto my plate when On-jo began going on about the chicken being salty. Mrs. Lee went to check with Mr. Lee about the chicken while we all gave our opinions on the chicken.
"I don't think it's salty," I said first.
"It's not salty at all," I-sak followed after me.
"It tastes good to me!" Gyeong-su said excitedly, stuffing his mouth with chicken afterwards.
While Cheong-san refilled his cup of soda and mine, ignoring Gyeong-su's cup requesting to also be filled, he saw On-jo still eating and said to her, "Stop eating. It's salty."
"It still tastes good though," She replied back while smiling.
Their small interaction made my heart tingle a bit, and not in a good way. Why was this suddenly happening now? They've always had interactions like these. My thoughts were interrupted when I-sak began talking.
"Did you hear about our science teacher?" She said while looking around us all.
"What about him?" I questioned with a confused face.
"Well, he smells like a rotting corpse."
"Na-yeon spread that rumor right?" Cheong-san said, joining our conversation.
It's true!" On-jo said directly to Cheong-san. "He went absent after his son went missing.. but then he came into class." She added to our discussion while we waited for her to continue.
"She said he smelled like a corpse," On-jo said while she thought back to that day.
"How does she know what a corpse smells like?" Cheong-san added, still not knowing wether to believe the rumor or not.
"Has she smelled one before?" I questioned, also curious about the current topic we were discussing.
"I swear she knows every other smell except that one," On-jo spoke again. "She never smelled it before so it has to be a rotten corpse," She said with confidence. "When his son went missing, he started acting weird," She ended her statement with.
"He was an outcast.." I-sak began with. "I heard he got bullied all the time."
I looked down when she said that, knowing my brother was one of the bullies.
"Mhm.. it sucks." On-jo replied.
"I feel really bad for Mr. Lee," I said still looking down. "Remember last week when he just left class?" I questioned, finally looking up directly in On-jo and I-sak's direction.
I thought back to the day, Mr. Lee was writing on the board about our lesson when he suddenly stopped and began writing crazy fast. Our lesson wasn't even based on what he was writing. He stormed out of class soon after.
"He's never done that before," On-jo stated.
"They say he was a genius.. lots of geniuses go crazy." I-sak said.
"Well at least you won't have to worry about going crazy." Cheong-san said, referring to On-jo.
I began laughing first, then Cheong-san, then Gyeong-su, then I-sak. All of us knowing how On-jo's grades were.
-
We were all running back to school as we had already finished eating.
"Hey, hurry up!" I-sak shouted at us.
"We're late anyway." Gyeong-su casually said back, already knowing we would get in trouble.
I ran up next to him, hitting him lightly on the shoulder and saying, "That doesn't mean we can't try to be less late!" Emphasizing on the word 'try.' He only smiled back at me, shrugging slightly as we kept running.
I couldn't help but notice how On-jo stopped Cheong-san for a moment. It wasn't my business though, so I pushed the small feeling of jealousy aside and kept running along with Gyeong-su.
-
-
[cheong-san pov]
We were running back to school after eating at my parents shop. I was trying to catch up to Ga-ram so I could at least try to have a small conversation with her when On-jo suddenly stopped me.
"Cheong-san, hold on!" She called out to me.
"Why? We're late and I have a music test." I replied, trying to get this over with so I could catch up to Ga-ram.
"I just need to ask you something.. actually two things."
"What is it?" I asked, growing impatient.
"Never mind." She suddenly said.
"What?"
"Nothing, don't worry about it." She said, beginning to walk away before she stopped. "Actually.. I have another question."
"What is it?" I asked. I was curious, but also growing more impatient.
"You didn't give me an answer this morning.." She began saying while I tried to remember what she was referring to. "Do you like Ga-ram?"
I froze again, just like how I did earlier today. This time it was worse though. My eyes grew wide open, my cheeks grew red, and my mouth parted slightly.
"I knew it! You do don't you?" She said excitedly while I turned around, trying to cover my red face.
"Get lost." I said to her while beginning to walk away while she came along behind me singing.
"Cheong-san likes Ga-ram~! Cheong-san likes Ga-ram~!"
I guess she already knew the answer to her question without me having to tell her.