"Is that all?" The man behind the cashier asks you.
"Yes, please," you answer politely as Minho took out the right amount of cash.
You were trying to hurry up since you didn't want Felix to be alone for so long. Just thinking of how genuinely sad he may be when he was told he'd be left behind. The boys knew he won't be too bothered by it, but you just wanted to be extra sure since the feeling of being left out was never fun. Out of (minor) worry, you started to play with the pockets in your jacket when you felt a piece of paper inside.
Looking around the small area, you found no bin, and so you had excused yourself from Minho and told him you were going to quickly throw away your trash. And as expected, he told you to be quick since the poor boy couldn't speak fluent English.
Someone help the man.
"Excuse me, sir," the worker calls out to Minho.
Why. Why? Seriously, why now? Minho thought.
"I'm afraid we ran out of tripe. Would you like to change the order?" The kind employee asks, and he earns nothing but a dead look from Minho.
"Uh," Minho hesitates, thinking about the few replies he knew of.
"Yes, Korea. Thank you. Bang Christopher Chan."
"P-Pardon?"
"I'm so sorry. He's socially inept." You come up behind your frozen best friend right on time, and the man instantly leans back and says a quick apology before asking you the same question.
——
"Lix!" You yell at the sullen boy, and his head instantly shoots up at the sound of your voice, running up to the two of you to help you out with the bags of plastic.
"You guys took 17 minutes and 46 seconds precisely. What took you so long?" He asks truthfully, and you couldn't contain your smile any longer.
"Relax, we got you an egg roll," Minho tells him, patting down his back as the three of you take a seat and wait for the others to come back with more bags of food.
"Egg?"
——
"How's the apple juice?" Hyunjin teases you, shoving the action of him sipping from his cup of milk tea right in your face.
You sighed in frustration, turning your head away from the tall boy and driving your focus back to your food. Seungmin and Jeongin bought everyone milk tea, everyone except for you and Minho, at least. Their excuse was because you guys had already had some coffee earlier, and they didn't want you guys to have too much caffeine in your system.
Oh, but they knew dang well how much you loved your milk tea.
"Lix," you whisper to the boy who was sitting in front of you, casually devouring his food.
He slightly rose his head up, still with a string of noodles dangling from his lips. You eyed his drink discreetly (as Seungmin was sitting beside you), signaling him that you wanted to have a taste, but instead of handing you the cup, he handed you a paper towel, seeming to not have caught your hint.
Sighing once more, you laid back in your seat, slouching over the fact that no one was going to give you even a small sip.
But just as you called it, Jisung (who sat beside Felix) slyly slid his drink over to you while Seungmin wasn't looking, telling you to take a quick sip before hurrying to give it back in fear of getting caught.
You gave him a grateful smile, the sweetness of the dairy drink giving you a sense of overwhelming, and your cravings were fulfilled.
Times were great, really. The nine of you had each other, and nothing else felt more complete than that. Seeing how content Chris looked as he scanned through the faces of his loved ones, even though two of them weren't exactly smiling.
——
Changbin had just finished getting ready, and he headed to the living room to take a break, slug around the couch.
There sat Jeongin, peacefully listening to some music on his phone. As he watched the older boy sit opposite of him, the uncomfortable look on Changbin's face didn't fail to be noticed.
Curious about the weird expression, Jeongin stood up, moving up to sit beside Changbin as he unplugged his earphones and kept them away.
"You alright?" He asks, tilting his head to catch the older's sulky look.
But the boy quickly changed face, shooting his head up and forcing a smile.
What was he thinking of? Just something Chris had told him earlier.
Their little conversation was somehow bothering him, and he couldn't stop thinking about how right Chris actually was.
"It's nothing, kid. I'm just a little stuck in writing some lyrics." He pats the younger's hair, letting him rest his head on his lap.
"Are you sure?" Jeongin asks for clarification, adjusting his position while Changbin started to stroke the boy's back.
With the tone of his voice, Jeongin looked genuinely willing to hear what Changbin had to say, and that made Changbin's heart flush. Despite being one of the youngest, Jeongin was always there to lend an ear to any one of his best friends, and that was something Changbin loved so much about him.
His naturally caring attitude was truly a gift as people not only saw him as this lovely kid, but it also gave people a good impression of him.
Whenever someone had a problem and no one else was there, they'd tell Jeongin.
But Changbin didn't want to, feeling as his burden would only bother the boy. Besides, he thought it wasn't appropriate to rant his problems to his younger friend, not this one.
"Yes, Innie. I'm sure."
——
Anyway, you were all on your way back home after having finished seven trays of various foods. 'Full' was an understatement; you were stuffed like a turkey for Thanksgiving, and frankly, you were worried your pants may have felt a little tighter.
Other than that, your full stomach made your body want to rest, even though you mentally longed to continue looking around the city.
But stomach said nope.
The other boys were pretty tired (with the exception of Jisung and Felix), and surprisingly, Jeongin wanted to go home, as well.
He was usually the mood setter of the group, and he had never wanted to go home at such an early time of day. That kid was always on a sugar rush, even without the sugar.
——
"What are you kids doing?" Chris asks after knocking on your door and peeping his head in.
"Nothing much," Seungmin answers.
"Word search," you reply dryly, your eyes glued to the paper on the desk.
Chris chuckles, opening the door wider to bring in the bowls of snacks he prepared for everyone.
You noticed him approaching your table, placing the bowl beside you before leaning in to get a look of what you were doing.
"There's one." He points but as you check, you realized he was simply pointing to a bunch of random letters.
"Shut up, that's not a word." You slap his hand away, taking the cracker in your hand and tossing it in your mouth as he gently ruffles your hair.
hello stranger
that song is bop no one say otherwise