#rkjaebum

It’s been a while since he arrived early enough at Nova to eat breakfast and actually go. For weeks, he’d been content with eating at Jihyun’s place before heading out. His mornings are bright enough the way they’ve been and he had no plans of changing it but he’s up earlier these days for practice, the new evaluation motivating him to come early and stay late. A new song, new choreography, and the constant nagging in the back of his mind to improve on a daily basis make for a chipper Nova trainee with too much energy on his hands for early morning. Scanning the cafeteria for someone to hopefully join in on his excessive exuberance, he catches sight of a person he’s always happy to see but surprises him because it’s Nova. 

There were many stalls behind the ice skating rink, they were affectionately decorated. Bright colors and lights showed the ways to Christmas food, Christmas ornaments or singing stalls. People from all over had come to see the Winter festival. And Gary was right in the middle of the whole mass. 

The atmosphere was good, he liked the scent of baked apples and cinnamon. Candle lights flickered in the light breeze and his cheeks turned red because of the cold. But he kinda liked it. This time he had his scarf with him, a grey one, knitted by his mother. 

His steps lead him past the ice skating. He didn’t felt like tripping and sliding alone. This time he wanted to enjoy the food and the shopping stalls. It was possible to find something to give it to a special someone. Children laughed and run around, looking at the comfy, little huts. A smile hushed across his face as he recognized a new stall. 

The sales associates were calling out for young men to participate in a special event. They wanted them to compete against each other in ice sculpture forming. With their performance and the end result of their forming they would earn money that could be donated for STD/AIDS fondation. Christmas time was a time that showed who was alone and who was not. Those who had enough to live would be aware how lucky they really are. Gary knew both sides of life. Poverty and the ability to afford everything necessary. He wanted to be part of the fondation, so he offered his help. 

“What’s the use of these gigantic straws when you still can’t get them black pearls at the bottom?” Sehun whines as he tries to stab the said pearls rolling around his drink. It’s ridiculous he thinks when you have to take huge sips of the drink and still can’t get at least one pearl. With a huff he finally gives up and begrudgingly continues to sulk as he turns his attention back on the book Jaebum had lent him, frowning at yet another part of the paragraph he couldn’t understand.

“Hey, what’s this part mean?” he asked, nudging the older male’s shoulder to get his attention and pointing at the part he’s confused about, forgetting to use honorifics… again. Why was he reading a book written in Korean again? To be honest he’s been stuck on the same page for a while now and he’s surprised the other male hadn’t noticed yet.

Come to think of it he’d lost the overall plot of the story considering how many confusing lines he had skipped since he first started reading it. But he’s never been patient with reading in the first place so it wasn’t really surprising but Jaebum might ask him questions about it later and he doesn’t want to sound stupid trying to guess answers.

Her shoes squeaked as it hit the pavement, her head bobbing rhythmically to the music playing in her ears as she jogged down the street. Around an hour to her designated training time, usually spent on late lunches or a quick read in the school library –half an hour soccer practice when coach is in a good mood. But Seungmi decided to do something different, jogging a few laps, or blocks, in between her school and kt. Every once in a while she took a sip from her sports bottle, checking the time on her phone to calculate just how much more she can stall before walking in for training.

Taking off her earbuds to sit on a nearby chair (of which belonged to a random cafe) her gaze wandered aimlessly. There was no one that she knew, chances of meeting people are slim on hours like those. Rolling the earphone carefully, she slipped it inside her bag and leaned against the chair. Breathe in, breathe out.