"Woah, woah," I began, food bunched in my cheek as I tried to reach across the wooden picnic table for the soy sauce packet Taehyung had snatched from right in front of me. I stood up, leaning across the table. "Give it, I need my sodium, bud."
Taehyung let out a snicker, passing the packet quickly to his right where Jungkook sat. The youngest definitely didn't want to be responsible for it either, nearly shoving it into Jimin's possession. I couldn't reach that many seats over from my side of the table, so I simply gave Jimin a pleading expression. It must've worked, since Jimin seemed to wary in their previously formed assembly line for the soy sauce.
"Should we just give it back to her?" He asked with a hint of guilt as he held the prized possession. He was replied back with a rushed storm of "No!"s that came from all around the table. Suho, who sat to my left, soon received the packet after a few seconds of convincing Jimin via kicks under the table.
"Suho," I began carefully, as if reasoning with a dangerous dog, "give me the soy sauce, please."
"Nah," he replied simply, tossing the packet to Suho, who sat on my right. I tried to grab it as it flew next to me, but I ended up simply clapping air (which resulted in the others' small laughs).
"Suga," I quickly turned, using the same calm and careful tone as if I was reasoning with a child. "Can I have my food back?" I asked, pointing somewhat matter-of-factly at the item in his hand.
Almost condescendingly, he shook his head. "I don't think so, sorry~" Now he was speaking to the child who definitely couldn't have another cookie from the cookie jar.
I glanced around, which caught his attention as he looked around too. When he did, I nearly jumped forward to snatch the packet out of his hands, turning towards my food quickly. I didn't expect them all to be so dedicated, struggling when Suho tried to grab it back from me. It became some sort of growing, team-effort bombardment.
After a few seconds, somehow both Suga and I had ended up standing. He held the packet as high as he could, though our heights were similar, so a few jumps could've sufficed but also left me looking stupid. He was the one challenging me, and I raised my eyebrows at his continuous persistence.
"You asked for it," I sighed, shaking my head sarcastically. Perhaps he was afraid or had expected worse, because when I simply stood on both of his feet to gain an extra half inch taller and reach for his hand, he gave a small flinch.
When Suga realized what I was doing he leaned back a bit to bring his arm behind him, tempting me to jump without thinking and slip off the top of his shoes. Somehow Suho had the reflexes and held out his arms to catch me from falling entirely back-first into the ground or wooden table seat. However it wasn't the most planned out catch since I still fell on my butt after my attempt of retaining balance and shifting around.
"Wow Suga," Suho sighed, shaking his head with his funniest jokingly judgmental voice. He looked like a teacher, gesturing towards me while looking at him. "You really need to get your act together."
"Hey, it's not my fault I need my soy sauce and you're against basic necessities." I retorted, Suho quickly replying, "No, not you."
I was a bit confused, glancing up towards Suga. When the silence was broken by Suho's laugh, Suga let out a "pfft" of annoyance. "Shut up,"
With that, they suddenly gave up on their mission, Suga sitting back down and setting the soy sauce back on the table in between us. I still wasn't sure whether I was supposed to take it once we sat down. Suga had already started eating his sushi earlier, now simply eating quietly much like he always has. The other side of the table kept their conversations going after the "brief" interruption from our entertaining conflict.
I decided to take the risk, reaching out to take the clear packet, and luckily Suga didn't seem to pay it any mind. Once I had it in my hand, I glanced over to Suho, who was eagerly engaged in the nearby conversation between the older members of Bangtan. Right as I was about to open the packet, Suga's voice appeared and made me jump in slight guilt, as if I was doing something wrong.
"Do you want one of these? I'm kinda tired of them." he offered, giving his box a little scoot towards me. I had to force an awkward smile; I was way more focused on the issue of the soy sauce that he no longer mentioned. Then again, I was kinda in the mood for trying something new...
"Sure, we can trade," I replied, picking up my box as well and placing it next to him. He gave a little smile, probably happy to have something different and not be starving for the rest of the day. Of course, the performers worked the hardest today and deserve it, right?
"You performed too, eat up," Suga said quietly after I simply watched him eat a piece. I shook my head to snap me back into reality, slight confused on how he had thought of what I was thinking moments earlier.
Suga must've taken my head shake as a "no" as he let out a "Yah, eat something, please?"
"Oh, right," I began slowly, still processing a few things before moving on. I probably moved too slowly for Suga's (suddenly) fast-paced lifestyle. He picked up one of the pieces off of his box, dropping it on the soy sauce before glancing at me and flipping it over, letting it soak some more. When I noticed his elaborate and exaggerated plan, I let out a laugh.
"You won't be laughing that much," Suga nearly whispered, putting a wad of wasabi on the single mouthful of food. When he did, I gave an indifferent shrug.
"I can handle that," I replied, not too scared of the excessive amount. Suga raised his eyebrows, seeing my unwavering expression. He added the slightest bit more wasabi with a humored smile, picking it up and attempting to feed it to me. I put my hand up to stop him.
"You don't need to do all that, I have my own food that I can pick up with my own chopsticks-"
"I think you're just afraid of the wasabi." Suga said with an apathetic shrug. I thought he was joking, though his face was somewhat expressionless, definitely challenging me.
Without another word, I simply opened my mouth and he popped the soon-to-be-my-doom sushi in. Someone behind us from the table let out a small "aw" that I wanted to argue against, though the intensity of the wasabi got to me too soon. Usually I could play off the strong numbing of the sinuses, yet for some reason I definitely failed this time.
As I chewed, Suga gave an awkward laugh-apology that I simply smiled at.
"Hey, I don't think I'll have a stuffy nose for a while now." I said weakly, picking up another piece. As we continued eating I found myself listening in on the younger members of Bangtan and their conversation with their recently found friends of EXO. The topic changed quickly from food to performing, then somehow jumping to their most embarrassing moments. It ended up being either a competition of who could reveal the most entertaining thing or a battle to getting someone to speak up. I mean, I didn't really need to know about Hoseok doing handstands in an elevator, but sure, it was a pretty funny story.
I felt a little tap from my side, honestly happy that someone else wanted to talk to me. I gave a smile at Suga, who had been staring off into space moments earlier, probably ignoring the younger's conversation. He smiled back, pointing towards Namjoon and Jin.
"If you want to listen in on their conversation we can switch seats." He said, implying it more as a request than an offer. I didn't have a reason not to change, and I could easily draw the conclusion that Suga wanted to join the older group's conversation. I simply nodded, scooting over as he stood up and sat on the other side of me.
No one in the younger group seemed to notice our switch except Jungkook, who also happened to be rather passive in the conversation as well. He gave me a little smile when I finally looked towards him and realized he had noticed the change. I turned to see what he was referring to with his small head gesture, noticing Suga suddenly talking in their conversation. I smiled a bit, glad he was enjoying himself.
"They seem a bit closer," Jungkook whispered, though I simply read his lips to figure out what he was saying. I gave a slow nod, noticing Suga's shared laughter with the other three.
When the table got a bit louder, Jungkook finally started speaking a bit louder. "So how's your brother been?" he asked, tilting his head a little to his right. My brain ran in circles, not quite sure what he meant. I didn't have a brother, so did he mean my cousin Jinyoung?
"Pretty good I guess, I think he's somewhere around here..." I trailed off, looking around and giving a general point towards the stage, then to the food booths. "He might be getting food with the rest of his group."
Jungkook let me finish, then let out a little laugh. Jimin noticed, joining the conversation as well with interest. "I meant Suho - you actually have a brother?"
"Ah," I began, pointing behind me at nothing in particular. "No, I thought you meant my cousin." I laughed awkwardly.
Jungkook made another small laugh, which was a bit comforting to my misunderstood answer. Jimin made a little smile, still listening in.
"Yeah, I mean he's probably doing alright," I reanswered, now leaning forward and turning my head to see Suho reaching across the table at Namjoon, almost like a child, while Namjoon gripped his wrists and shook his hands around a bit.
"Not quite sure what he's doing, but it seems like what he'd usually do." I shrugging with a laugh.
Jimin seemed to stand up a bit to look over a few heads, then sat back down and turned towards Jungkook. "Hey, let Namjoon I think Soon's coming over." he said, pointing over towards the others. Jungkook passed the message to Jin, who sat between Namjoon and him, but as soon as Jin was about to warn Namjoon, the leader suddenly stood up. I was a bit confused, but soon understood that Suho had once again gone on his rampage of stealing things, this time holding a cookie hostage in his front hoodie pocket.
"Yah, Hyung!" Namjoon shouted, still grabbing one of Suho's wrists to prevent his escape as he tried to stand up too. There was some whispering from Jimin and Jungkook about Namjoon's word choice, and as I thought more about it I realized that I hadn't noticed Namjoon call anyone outside of the older members of Bangtan "hyung" either.
Namjoon seemed serious about this cookie, but not like a life-or-death situation since he was laughing with Suho too. The older held both his hands in his front pocket and curled forward, protecting the cookie at all costs. In fact, when trying to grab him from behind failed multiple times, Namjoon poked the other in the side and Suho nearly collapsed, still laughing. Once the older was on the ground, he held out a hand for the other to stop for a moment as he caught his breath and pulled the cookie out of his pocket, still laughing. Namjoon accepted it quickly, laughing as well as he pulled the other up. As Namjoon dusted off the back of the other's hoodie, I finally noticed Soon standing right behind me.
Jimin gave an entertained laugh, making a large gesture towards the other side of the table. "There's your brother if you need him."
Soon gave a simple laugh, unfazed by the event that she quickly explained she watched most of. She made a little gesture to scoot over and I shifted over to my left to leave a bit of room for her at the end of the bench chair. I ended up bumping into Suga and turning around to apologize, yet he either didn't notice or didn't care. His back was almost completely facing me, so I turned as well to be able to face Soon. When I did, I felt him lean back onto me. I moved a bit to push back at him, but he simply shifted over a bit more to the side and rested his head on top of my shoulder.
Suga turned more towards my neck closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened his eyes he let out a small whisper.
"You kinda smell like cherry blossoms." he breathed, immediately sitting back up and going back to his conversation behind me. I raised my eyebrows, a bit confused and flustered while the others in front of me made interested or surprised expressions.
"Hah, anyways..." I continued, not sure of whether I should turn around and comment on his sudden statement. I felt a little kick at the back of my heel.
I gave a small kick back.
a/n: WHEW got this update done in a flash because I've been super busy! (aka it's unedited again) It's kinda filler-y but hopefully it was interesting! Thanks for your support y'all <3