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“Hey, Hoodie, can I join you?”
People who ask permission while performing the action are the reason I dislike people. Can I come in? they say while coming in. Like what if I don’t want you here? Why do you assume I’m going to say yes?
“Y-yeah, sure,” I just about stutter out, twirling a noodle around my chopsticks. I want to slap myself as I begin to regret my ‘choice.’ Though judging by how forward and intruding his nature is, it’s not like I have any choice anyway. He does what he likes.
“Ooh, chicken! I also have chicken today,” the entire table shakes as he shifts his chair forward, snapping the chopsticks apart with his teeth and peeling off the top of his steaming chicken flavoured ramyeon, grinning with anticipation in that goofy way of his.
I just stare at him as he noisily slurps, smacking his lips and groaning in satisfaction, his knee jiggling slightly under the table. I then watch in horror as he wipes his mouth with his sleeve and then proceeds to wipe his sleeve on my arm, as if I am a napkin.
“What the heck?” I exclaim, but he just laughs out, “Sorry!“
I scowl, retracting my arm away from him. This table is way too small for two people, and that’s why it’s perfect for me and only me.
“What’s wrong with this boy?” I mutter, forgetting that he can understand me, or even hear me, and the slurping sounds come to a halt.
“I’m not a boy,” I am horrified at the noodles that dangle from his mouth, his chopsticks barely supporting them, and the fact that he is speaking in that state. I look away, disgusted.
“Oh, so you’re a girl then?” we are both amazed by the salty sarcastic tone that layers those words, before he breaks into a hearty chuckle, the noodles safely tucked inside his mouth.
“Ah, you’re funny, Aria!” he points at me with his chopsticks. “I like you.“
I feel my eyes widen slightly at the casual way he says this, at the casual way he treats me, and I almost want to ask him how old are you because surely he can’t be older than me, and surely I need to be treated with some sort of respect.
Why is he so open and shameless like this?
“Yah!”
He looks up, noodle quickly disappearing between his lips, eyes large and innocent, his expression blank. I hesitate under his vacant gaze.
“Uh…”
He blinks at me expectantly, like a puppy waiting for a signal.
“You! Why are you so casual? How old are you?”
His expression remains unreadable as he says, “20.”
Crap. He’s older than me.
As if he can read my mind, or judge by my lack of response, his face illuminates with a smile, like a child who has just been told they will be going to a theme park for their birthday.
“I’m older than you, aren’t I? I knew it!” he celebrates with a strange dance, and then looks at me with a cheeky smile. “You have to call me oppa.”
“I will do no such thing!” I almost scream. He then breaches my personal space once more by tapping my cheek with his empty hand, cooing at me, “Aigoo, you’re cute when you’re angry.”
I practically huff at him, leaning away from his touch, even if his hands are surprisingly soft. I don’t like this. This is exactly what I was afraid of.
“Why are you here? Can’t you see that I was enjoying myself – alone?” I can’t contain my annoyance any longer, and his face falls, like a child that has just been told that there’s no more ice-cream left in the freezer.
“But we’re friends, aren’t we, Ari-Ah?”
I fume. “How can we be friends when you don’t even know me? And I don’t know you!”
“You know my name…” he mumbles, idly stirring his noodle soup, which is half empty.
“That doesn’t mean we’re friends! I know the prime minister’s name, but I’m not friends with him!”
He flinches slightly at my harsh tone, and I instantly feel bad, remembering when I saw him two nights ago with those big men who also used harsh words on him, teasing him in a menacing way. I wish I could ask him about that, but we aren’t friends, as I have just established, and I have no right to know anything about him other than his name at this point.
“Tell me about you, then,” he says, clasping his hands together and letting his chin sit atop them, peering at me. “Let’s know each other.“
I am taken aback by how sincere and calm he sounds, as if I didn’t just blow up on him like a ticking time bomb. “O-okay. Um…” I wasn’t good at this.
“Start with your degree. What are you studying?”
“Science,” I reply quite forlornly.
“You don’t like it?” he picks up on my tone quite quickly.
“It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, it’s just that I…don’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.” I am astounded at how naturally the answer rolls out, something that has been on my mind lately, but I never dared to speak aloud. But it’s a weight I cannot bear to take anymore, and maybe it’s okay if I vent a bit to this random strange boy. “I’m only doing it because the careers that come out of it are supposed to pay well, and my mother wants me to do it because it’s the only way I’ll have a future. I don’t mind, but…it’s not easy, you know?”
“I know exactly how you feel,” he says slowly, quietly. I raise my eyebrows, surprised that a boy so seemingly carefree could relate to someone as down-spirited as I.
“What are you studying?” I ask gently.
He sinks onto his forearms which rest atop the table, his hooded head tilted to one side as he responds, “I wanted to study Arts but…my parents are making me study Agricultural Business.”
I wrinkle my nose. Agricultural business? What the heck is that?
“I know, it sounds stupid, but they want me to take over the farms we own back in Korea and continue the business, since I am the oldest in the family. My younger brother and sister are too young to even be considered as ‘heirs’ or whatever, and besides, it’s family tradition for the oldest to adopt the business, right?”
He sounds so burdened, so deflated, I wonder where the annoying hyperactive puppy boy is, until he makes a sudden reappearance.
“Are you going to finish that?”
He eyes my half eaten cup of noodles, and I realize that I forgot to eat amidst all the talk. I shrug, sliding it over to him, and he grins gleefully, immediately taking my chopsticks and plunging them into the cup. I gape, watching him shovel noodles into his mouth as well as my chopsticks, not seeming to mind that it has my…
He really doesn’t care, does he?
However there’s something about the way he confessed his troubles, his head cradled into his elbow and face devoid of any emotion, speaking quietly and monotonously, that gives the indication that he does care, but he hides it. Or maybe if he starts caring too much about little things, the big things will start bringing him down.
He finishes my cup of noodles with a loud content sigh, shooting me a wide boxy grin. “Ah, I ate well!“
I can’t help but reflect his grin as I realize that maybe being his friend won’t be the worst thing that has happened to me.
★
I had so much fun writing this! Tae really is an adorable big puppy!
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