#lmlele

Easily said, Lele isn’t in particular very good at making friends, and he never really has been. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t really want to make friends, maybe it’s because he doesn’t talk a lot or maybe it’s simply because he sometimes can come off as cold, but either way he doesn’t have a lot of friends and he has trouble making more friends. Lele's dad however always gets so happy whenever Lele makes friends, so hence Lele therefore does sometimes try to make friends, for example today he had left the house to go out with a “group of friends” to an arcade, some of the faces he were familiar with, other faces he had never seen before

And Lele swore he only was in the bathroom to wash his hands for a second, yet when he came out suddenly everybody he knew were gone, and right at that moment he realized why he hated hanging out with people so much. Immediately he looked around to see if they were anywhere nearby, but when he didn’t find anyone of them at first glance he spotted another familiar face, not someone he knew, not at all, but someone he knew had also come with them to this arcade.

“Mark... right? Where did everyone go?”

starter for @lmlele !

caramel apples are a bad idea, xuxi reminds himself far too late, when his fingers are covered in the sticky substance, and he’s got it all over his cheeks. with a sigh, his stick now free from its appley prison, which now resides in his stomach, he throws the stick in the bin nearby, and takes a napkin from a nearby stall, trying to wipe up his hands and cheeks. 

but, as he does so, he spots a familiar face - chenle, a somewhat scary young lad that xuxi met a while back, but still hasn’t figured out. he’s a wild one, and xuxi’s still learning how to understand him. still, a fellow chinese boy makes xuxi feel more at home. 

Stupid. This whole thing was stupid, just like all of the many other events Lele’s dad had taken him to, this event was stupid. Don’t get Lele wrong, he loves his dad very very much, however his dad gets some pretty stupid ideas, while Lele’s mom was alive he never acted like this, he would of course make Lele do things he didn’t want to, but back then that was stuff like learning how to treat a wound or how to cook. Now? Now he’s suddenly forced to go out of his house to make friends, how stupid, Lele has been in Korea for years now and still doesn't have many friends, can’t his dad just accept that Lele isn’t good at making friends? 

Who even makes friend’s at events like these? Like who would actually speak to a stranger, how stupid, nobody speaks to strangers… That’s what Lele thought until he saw a stranger, yet a face he recognized, someone who had fallen asleep on his shoulder earlier this year. And when Lele’s dad figured out Lele knew this stranger suddenly he was stuck with this stranger because he ‘’needed to make friends’’. And at the food stalls? Lele doesn’t even eat that much. “Do you… want me to buy you something?” Lele asked the half-stranger.

Sometimes Lele just wonders, why the hell is making friends so damn important? Why does his dad get so happy whenever he sees Lele hanging out with people? In the past Lele could use time as an excuse, that he didn't have enough time to make friends, but ever since moving to Korea and taking a hiatus from fencing he has had way too much time, and has been forced to make friends, and perhaps that's what had gotten him in this terrible situation?

Currently he sits together with another male with what seems to be poison in front of them. Lele has always had food made for him, and the few times he hasn't he has cooked something for himself, however neither himself nor other people he knows of has used so little time on food, and this food doesn't even look that good? Lele looks at the other male in front of him, would they really notice it if Lele just walked away? Lele understands by now that if you want to have friends then everything can't go as you want it to go, however oh my,oh my not in a million years would Lele dream of getting this close to those weird looking things in front of them.

Lele wonders how often this other dude eats this stuff, this 'junk food' looks weird, and Lele is pretty sure it's unhealthy and if you eat too much of it then you'll get weird. Does this dude eat this often? So there's something wrong with his head now? Because... Lele takes this so-called junk food as an insult, an insult in the form of the other male really thinking Lele would be willing to eat it.

"Gege... Don't you think it's getting a little late? Maybe... M-Maybe we should just head home?"

Not that Lele has ever in particular wanted to cook, it never much interested him, Lele was given food and he wasn’t sure where it came from, what exactly it was or who had made it, but he was happy with it. Cooking was never a necessity for Lele, it never has been, still isn’t, but like all things in Lele’s life, he needs to learn it even if it’s not necessary. Lele’s parents have always been very fond of the word ‘if’, what if they suddenly became poor? What if there suddenly came a zombie apocalypse? What if Lele suddenly had to move back to China? And thus Lele has been taught many things he doesn’t find absolutely necessary, like how to make a fire, how to clean water, how to treat a wound, how to cook. Lele thinks it’s stupid, but perhaps his parents do know better.

Lele started to learn how to cook when he was twelve, before that his dad had been able to convince his mom it wasn’t necessary, when Lele’s dad died Lele learned how to cook despite still having a million people cook for him. The things he cooked he often couldn’t even eat because of his endless diets, and why cook when you can’t even eat it? Lele thinks it’s stupid, but he does find cooking calming, and hence he does sometimes voluntarily cook. But when Lele cooks he needs somebody to cook for.

Lele has been in Korea for close to a year, yet the young boy still hasn’t been very well at this ‘friend-making’ thing, however a few friends he has gathered, most of them unbelievably irritating, or uninteresting for Lele, and Lele only hangs out with them to make his dad happy, however a few of them, he actually kind of considers friends. One he does not entirely hate is; Yoorim. And by inviting her over, he could both convince his dad he had friends and he could get the chance to cook, and therefore he had invited the female over, something which he did not do a lot, because his home was his calm place, the place where his ‘friends’ weren’t allowed.

‘Dong Gua Tang’, he repeats the word in his head, he has only tasted it once before, when someone made it for him, it was delicious, and he had wanted to make it himself for quite a while, this being finally his chance. “Noona. Have you ever tasted Winter Melon Soup before?”, for once, a question he asks out of curiousness instead of politeness. He places the bowl of soup in front of her, and then turns his look to her.

For Lele’s whole life he had been taught that violence wasn’t the answer, that murder was a bad thing, that murder was an unforgiveable act, and that he would never become anything if he started using violence. But right now, right now as Lele stood in front of this girl, he felt like all of those word, every single one was untrue, not a single one of those words made sense right now, because currently violence seemed to be the only answer. Lele could do it, Lele could do it right? For sure Lele could murder somebody without getting caught, right?

Alright, deep breaths, no murdering tonight.

However the female in front of him did deserve punishment (and for the moment being, death seemed to be the only punishment that made sense to Lele), because she had said some very hurtful words, she had told Lele that he was not a good figure skater.

Lele knows there are people out there better than him, that he absolutely not is as good as his dad ever was, and that his figure skating career ended many years ago, however… Lele isn’t a bad figure skater, right? Right?!

“Well, I’m certainly not as good as my dad however… I really don’t think you should be the one calling me a bad figure skater, by seeing your face I can tell you’ve fallen a lot on your face, so you obviously can’t even stand on land? I’m imagining you falling the moment you just touch ice then.”

TW: mention of death

One thing is for sure, and that is that Lele is one big hater of basically everything. Lele finds basically everything annoying, almost every person he knows is annoying, almost everything outside his home is annoying, almost everything is annoying.  Lele is one big hater of the world and he dislikes most things. One thing, one thing however he for sure does not dislike, and that is; figure skating.

Both of Lele’s parents were figure skaters, Lele’s dad even won gold medals in the Olympics, and Lele started figure skating when he was two years. Lele didn’t get to spend much time with his dad, Lele’s dad was always busy with his figure skating career, and when Lele was mere nine years old his dad died, so Lele never had the opportunity to spend much time with his father. One thing that connected them however was figure skating, the two would always do it together and Lele’s dad was the one who taught Lele figure skating. For a short while Lele even had a figure skating career himself, and when he was 10 he managed to win gold in CS Asian Trophy junior men’s competition, his biggest achievement in his short-lasting figure skating career.

Lele stopped figure skating a while ago, he turned to fencing, something which he convinced himself he loved more, and while figure skating was still something he loved, he only did it as a hobby. And now due to his hiatus from fencing Lele found himself in that he had surprisingly much time to either practice his fencing skills or to do figure skating. And when one or the other had gotten the idea of Lele learning Donghyuck figure skating, Lele did not at all turn down the idea. While Lele usually hates hanging out with people, figure skating? That can make anything and everything better.

Lele sits quietly looking at the other as he has finished tying his figure skates, and then he can’t help it, help but let his curiosity run lose.

“Hyung? Do you know how to tie your figure skates? Have you ever been on the ice before? Who’s your favorite figure skater? Do you think I’ll be a good teacher? Have you wanted to go on the ice before? Are you sure I can teach you?”