MIND GAMES

@umsoyi

he’s by no means on time, but as it turns out, 5 minutes late is still earlier than anyone else. should have learnt from past experience, but he ended work early and he didn’t have an excuse to stay longer or he’d never leave.

it’s nothing special, just an old high school hangout they’d found as sophomores, but the cafe’s been losing customers and the once-seventeen, now-twenty-something year olds that they are are probably the only regular customers the cafe sees. the staff are understanding enough, and they let him sit there and wait for his friends before he orders; he already knows what he wants, he’s come here for seven years and his order’s only been the same three drinks, rotated.

he sees her face before she comes in, through the clear glass of the door. it goes as teenage romances can: date, a whirlwind, break up. then, as adult friendships go: rekindle a friendship, through shared classes and gradual maturity they’ve come to appreciate. he’s not eighteen anymore, and now seeing soyi’s face just brings a familiar feeling of friendship and closeness that he’d missed in the interim years when they’d been on the outs.

there’s nothing special about them, now. he grins and waves soyi over.

top of the list of things im soyi doesn’t want to do: take a trip down memory lane. not because of anything in particular that pertained to the group today. but the association of it. nostalgia it brings. all too tactless and prodding questions of old acquaintances. what happened? why did you give up on KNUA? where did you go instead then? those kinds of bullshit questions she had no interested in answering.

don’t get her wrong, she loves her friends. thinks back to the memories shared fondly. but? end of the day? she didn’t owe them a damn thing. she barely gave her parents anything in explanation as is.

nevertheless, the open invitation in the group’s kkt didn’t go unnoticed. or rather, soon as she realized the +1 number of read messages indicated she's slipped up, locked herself into a commitment on a night she’d rather spend curled up on the couch. but what can you do? cut everyone off?

the route to the cafe is—reminiscent. the same beat up path, pot hole included, same shops, same faces (but pack on a couple years). it’s, quaint. nice. momentarily, it takes her back to easier days in high school. easier, only in the sense that she lived arguably comfortably under the weight of her parents expectations.

but, let’s not dwell on the specifics. not when she had much more to note, the cheery faces of age old friends that greets her when she steps in with a matching grin of her own. and, singled out whether she’d like to admit it or not, the boy she’s spent days in high school head over heels for. still cute.

“hey,” soyi greets readily, slipping into the closest empty seat with a small playful nudge to her seat mate. “i wasn’t too late was i?” it’s comfortable, so it’s not too bad. sitting here, playing catch up, shouldn’t be too bad.

you ask so many questions. ( ` uttered like that of an annoyed parent ) ( ` seeing as how soyi’s riding the whole “You’re A Whole Clown” wave, she takes the nearest pillow she can find and hurls it at her, not caring if she knocks that stupid beer bottle out of her hand. ) i’m serious, stop. ( ` furrows her brows, directing her attention on toto for a brief second just to have him in her arms once more. he’s immediate comfort just if you look at him, but no one ever complains about that extra oomph. ) but okay, you know what though? ( ` scoops toto up in her arms, cradling him out of self-indulgence more than protection ) i’ll get to the point. ( ` omg….. he’s so fucking cute ) do you wanna like. ( ` chooses her next words carefully, petting the cat’s head, briefly distracted at how he eases into her touch so willingly. god, she’s melting ) co-own this little fella together? ( ` looks at soyi expectantly, like ‘yes’ is the only answer she’ll accept, totally not ignoring that she hasn’t specified the fine print just yet. the catch isn’t too huge anyway, but time will only tell. )

@umsoyi

it all starts with him having nothing but exactly eight bottles of chamisul on the shelf part of his mini fridge. there’s also a can of beer lazily swathed up with saran wrap and a half-eaten convenience store sausage, including a sad excuse of a dosirak box in the way back (probably expired by now– wait, is that mold?). aiden briefly considers making a series just on pictures of his fridge at this point, naming it ‘whatever fills the void.’

hey, that’s kind of edgy.

okay, he’s not starving for food, though, that’s the thing. he’s snagged some leftover from hyebin’s place just a few hours ago, and while he wouldn’t mind grabbing something more to snack on– he’s mostly starving for another one of those drunk antics with the girl next door. so upon soyi’s request, he lazily swipes through the delivery app to complete an order of fried chicken before making a quick stroll to the nearest CU, balancing out the exceedingly large amount of soju with an armful of beer cans. foolproof.

by 7PM, he’s already beeped himself into soyi’s one-room. it’s all routine at this point: grabs a lift-top table by the wall to lazily prop it open with a foot, lays everything down, then offers himself hospitality on her couch all too comfortably.

“you’re late. you cheating on me, babe?”

7pm. by the time she is nearly the end, aiden texts. up to no good as per usual and yet—exactly what she needed. what? when did you ever know her to be one to turn down a night of drinking? and free food. fucking free food. it is with fried chicken on her mind that she sends in her piece, clocks out and makes her way to the nearest mart to pick up snacks as requested.

seoul is hot, completely unforgiving in the way summer rolls into the days. heat seeping through each and every air-conless place of the metropolitan city. literally hell on earth. satan’s fucking asshole is what it is. 

supposedly, it’s a short stop to the mart. though soyi lingers anyhow, taking care to browse through multiple selections as well as finding a bit of shelter in the air conditioned aisles. but not too long. if not in fear of aiden eating all her chicken ( 😠) as if she bought it to begin with. and without any further delay (more than the fifteen extra minutes spent loitering), she was en route with an assortment of chips and candy. making it back to her apartment in record time.

“yeah.” she retorts without missing a beat, dropping her things and kicking the door shut. “i saw this real hottie at the mart, y’know, had to shoot my shot,” snorts, wasting no time to peel off her outer layers. “you get it.” 

he might not. she doesn’t care. simply walking past with little else but a playful ruffle of his hair en route to her room to change. “did you order yet? i’m fucking starving.” soyi calls out from her room, taking a couple minutes to change into a simple top and shorts before she pads back out, chestnut locks messily tied back.