#lookism

Chapter 5: Trouble At The Café

"Mom... I can explain...." Daniel says as he closes the door behind him, and walks further inside, to stand before Seonhui who looks deeply concerned and confused.

"...okay... explain then" she says, trying to make sense of the current situation that she finds herself in. "Who is this young man?"

"He is my roommate. We share the rental payment, mom. His name is Daniel Park too, and we met a few days after I got here..." Daniel begins to explain, hoping his mother will believe his words. Deep down however, he feels guilty to have to lie to his own mother. 'I'm so sorry mom.'

Seonhui listens as Daniel explains, trying to make sense of it all. She looks between Daniel and the sleeping body on the floor mattress. "Oh... You never told me about having a roommate and sharing rent, Daniel. I should work harder to pay for...."

Daniel quickly cuts her off, "No, no, mom! Like I said, you don't need to worry. I let him stay because he has nowhere to go, no family, and he is a good friend. He works too, to pay his half of the rent, and even help with the groceries and stuff."

Seonhui does not look convinced, but it's only been more than a month since her only son moved here and begin his own life. She will trust in his decisions for now, "Alright... But you should tell me whenever you have financial difficulties, okay?"

Daniel smiles internally relieved his mother is believing him. "Okay mom. Sit down, let me handle these" he takes the containers wrapped in a worn-out wrapping cloth from her hands and goes to keep the food she made for him into the small fridge in the kitchen area.

Seonhui sits against the wall, resting her body "Poor young man, to be alone at such a young age. He does look like a nice kid. I hope you two look out after each other well. I'm just so happy to see you have a friend. Oh, I should meet the other two friends you talked about on the phone. What's the names... uh... Jet and Disco or something?"

Daniel burst out into a small laughter "Moom! I told you it's Vasco and Jace."

"Oh, yes... Them. They sound like lovely persons." she smiles, looking slightly sheepish for mispronouncing the names of her son's friends.

Daniel smiles softly, as he sits facing her once he is done with his task in the kitchen, handing his mom a box of chocolate milk he kept in the fridge, which he bought along with some snacks recently as he gets closer with Vasco and Jace. Just in case they visit him, not that he has invited them over yet. His mom thanks him for the drink, taking it from him.

"They are good people, yeah. And they are good friends. I just hope I am as good of a friend to them." he blushes, fidgeting as he worries about it a little. "Oh no! I left them in my hurry to get home..."

"Why don't you introduce me to them?" Seonhui says, smiling at seeing Daniel looking a lot happier here. She is glad to have made the decision to move him out of Seonwokdoo and into central Seoul, away from those evil kids.

Daniel blushes, rubbing his neck "Oh well, I guess. I need to confirm with them first before taking you there" he smiles and texts Vasco asking for forgiveness for leaving in a hurry and asking if he and Jace are still at the cafe. Once getting a reply from Vasco telling him they're still there, he wastes no time in taking his mom there. He takes the chance to talk more with his mom, telling more of his experiences at school and a little about the city as they walk.

Soon they arrive at the café, and Daniel introduces his mom to Vasco and then Jace when he comes over briefly. Daniel leaves his mom with Vasco at the table to get his mom coffee and some pastries. As he waits in line at the counter, he sees a group of familiar faces from class. He recalls only one of the girl’s names, the one who usually show quite the disgust to his mere existence since day 1, Yui Kim. Yui immediately scowls seeing Daniel there, “Of all the place, tch… Why is this pig here? He’s ruining my day already” she murmurs to her group of friends who agrees with her as always.

Daniel simply ignores them, being used with Yui’s antagonism in class and her group of followers. He just looks forward once it’s his turn to order. He quickly orders a cup of iced Americano, a slice of strawberry cream cake and almond croissant. He pays for them once he got the order and quickly walks away to head back to the table Vasco and his mom are seated at. He ignores the words he hears from Yui, “No wonder he’s so fat, eats so much like a pig” to the giggles of the other girls.

Daniel places the tray on the table and serves the cup of iced coffee to his mom, and the plates of cake and croissant, smiling at her. Seonhui smiles back, “Thank you Daniel. Wow, these look so fancy, they must be expensive” she says admiring the treats before her. Daniel freezes as he sits down, suddenly remembering that her mother has probably never set foot to a café before this. “It’s not too expensive mom, but they’re good. Try them.” He smiles softly, holding back his tears as he remembers his own promise to be a better son to his mother.

Seonhui takes a sip of the coffee and gushes about the good taste of the coffee “This coffee tastes really good, better than the instant coffee we had at home.” Daniel smiles as he explains “It’s called an Americano mom, and it’s made from freshly grounded coffee beans. They don’t use instant coffee here. I’m glad you like the taste.” Seonhui nods as she listens, enjoying a few more sips before she starts to try the croissant and cake, praising the well-made pastry and cake. Vasco smiles watching Daniel interact with his mother. Soon the three begins to chat together as they enjoy their own treats, Daniel enjoying the happy moments spend with his mother and his friend.

Daniel excuses himself to go to the toilet, leaving his mom with Vasco at their table as they continue chatting a little. When he exits the toilet, he suddenly bumps into someone which made the coffee the person was holding spilled right onto his head. Before he can say a word, he hears the familiar voice of Yui “You pervert! What do you think you’re doing touching me?” and his cheek feels the sting of the slap she delivered to him. He sways a bit before standing there, frozen with shock, embarrassment, and confusion of the whole situation.

“I did not do anything, I was just coming out of the toilet,” Daniel tries to explain, but Yui simply roars “Don’t lie, you were groping my ass just as I was walking by! You filthy pig!” Daniel is aghast with the accusation, “But I….” he stops himself feeling the stares from other customers and some staffs of the café. The stares full of judgement, disgust and mistrust. “I didn’t….” Jace comes over with Vasco and Seonhui, who checks on him “Daniel, are you okay? What happened?” she begins to try wiping the coffee on his face, checking on the red mark on his cheek.

“So, you’re his mother? Your son is a filthy perverted pig. How do you teach him at home? Huh?” Yui says at Seonhui, crossing her arms. “I’m gonna report this to the police!” Seonhui turns around in panic, “P-please don’t. My son is innocent. I’m sure this is all a misunderstanding” she tries to reason with Yui who glares, “Innocent? Misunderstanding? Hah! No wonder your son is turning out like a pig, you’re a useless hag who never admits to their son’s…”

Daniel breaks out of his stupor, when he hears Yui being so rude to his mother “Shut up!” he glares at Yui, his voice sharp like a knife cutting into the murmur of the café. Everyone is silent watching them, still with judgemental eyes. “You don’t get to speak to my mom like that.” Yui’s eyebrow twitch, “Oh yeah? I can speak however I want to y-“ she was cut off by another familiar voice that Daniel recognizes from class. “Yui Kim, that’s enough from you” Zoe Park, Daniel remembers her name since she’s among those that never showed animosity towards him. Mostly just polite indifference.

Yui turns around to face Zoe, “You stay out of this, it’s none of your concern!” Zoe simply shows her phone to her and plays a video that shows the whole incident that was accidentally recorded when Zoe was trying to record herself enjoying the new menu that the café had introduced. It clearly shows Daniel just coming out of the toilet and Yui being the one that bumped into him before she pours coffee onto the poor soul. Yui is taken aback, as some of the customers begin to doubt Yui’s words after seeing the video. “It’s my concern when you’re trying to frame a fellow classmate with such lies. What’s your problem?”

Yui looks around at the eyes that now shows mistrust and disbelief at her, even her group of friends who initially backs her up now is silent and looking away. “Y-you have no idea what you’re talking about. Whatever! Let’s get out of here guys” she hurriedly walks away, followed reluctantly by the other two girls who was with her. Zoe calls out to her “Hey! You didn’t even apologize!!”

Daniel takes a deep breath, “It’s okay… Thanks for that by the way…” Zoe turns to face Daniel, “Yeah, sorry for what she did. She can be very difficult…” she murmurs. Seonhui continues to dry Daniel’s face with some paper towels that Vasco is giving her. Vasco almost reprimanded Yui Kim, if not for Zoe Park’s coming to the rescue. Daniel shrugs, “It’s fine. I’ve had worse…” he mumbles without thinking. Seonhui looks sad as she keeps on checking on him, while Zoe looks shocked “W-worse…?” Zoe wonders how bad the bullying in his life for him is to just accept what just occurred. “Mom, let’s go... I need to take a bath. And you need rest,” he says, feeling tired and no energy to speak to anyone else. “Sorry Vasco, I’m heading home. Thanks for today. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” he says tiredly, as he leaves with his mother. Vasco nods solemnly watching them leave, as Jace comes over to mop the floor.

“Who’s that b***h? I’m gonna tell the manager about this incident and hopefully they can ban that girl from the café.” Jace grumbles as he mops the floor. He recalls her from school but never knew who she was. Vasco shakes his head “I have no idea, but I’ve seen her around. You too, miss. Thanks for helping Daniel out” he turns to Zoe and thanks her with a small smile. Zoe blushes some, “You don’t need to thank me. What Yui did was disgusting. I couldn’t just stand and watch her bully our fellow classmate.”

Vasco and Jace looks shocked, “She’s in the same classroom as Daniel?” both say at the same time.

Zoe nods sadly, “Y-yeah. I’m in the Fashion Department too with them.”

Vasco shares a look with Jace, they need to keep a close eye on Daniel from now on. No more bullies will ever harm their friend. Zoe as if understanding the looks shared between them speaks up “I can look out for Daniel from now on…” Vasco looks surprised at her before he smiles brightly, “Thank you miss. We’re from the Architecture Department so we can’t be with him all the time.” Zoe giggles softly “Oh I know you two, you’re quite famous among the other students. Vasco and Jace of Burn Knuckles right? Don’t worry, I’ll try and watch out for Daniel from now on.” Vasco looks proud as he grins, while Jace sighs with a smile.

Politician Diego Kang: Absolutely. I fully support women's right to shamelessly thirst over me.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't think Gun is as sex-crazed as we often make him out to be. Why do I think that? It mainly comes down to UI.

UI doesn't just amplify his fighting instincts, it feeds into his emotions, pushing him to fight like a complete maniac. But notice what happens when he loses emotional control after seeing someone close to him die. His UI ruptures, which is what leads to TUI. To me, that suggests Gun is someone who never learned healthy emotional regulation and has a deeply distorted understanding of love, which he does have 🥀

Of course, sex can exist without love. That's not the point I'm making. What I mean is that if Gun were ever in a genuinely healthy relationship, I think he'd be far more focused on building and nurturing that relationship than trying to have sex 24/7. You know that sense of calm and comfort you feel when you're with your favourite person? The way your nerves just settle? I can see Gun craving that far more than people give him credit for.

Part of me also believes that, just like his warped perception of strength and love, his views on sex are probably built on a very unstable foundation. Again, this is just a headcanon based on my own observations.

I simply don't see him as someone with an overwhelmingly high sex drive, unlike Kitae.

So, my point is if and it's a big if Gun were ever to end up in a healthy relationship, I'm not saying sex would be absent. It just wouldn't be the focal point of that relationship.

Anyway shout-out to my cop crushes BYE 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Bro all of them are bad guys except two 😭