Mission Wall-E || Jakehoon

Three: Red

Tan fingers tapped against the black leather of a steering wheel to the beat of the music coming through the stereo to his side.

"CHEER UP BABY. CHEER UP BABY."

He laughed, shaking his head at the sound of his two friends screaming behind him. They were impossibly loud... all of the time. But it was somehow comforting and reminded him of home. The home that was Australia. That's where he'd met them and their stupid school bus they all lived in together.

"Jake, Jakey." Laughed a voice as hands slid over his shoulders from over the driver's seat, playing with the skin on his neck.

"What?"

"We should go to Seoul!!"

Jake momentarily looked behind him, meeting a leopard-print beanie and dangly chain necklaces over a loose black shirt.

"We just went last week didn't we?"

"But there is some figure skating competition and I wanna live my lifelong dream of falling on ice in front of professionals!"

"Figure skating?"

"Yeah."

"Okay sure, just change google maps for me." He said, eyes on the highway, pointing to the phone.

"Yes!"

Through his peripheral vision, he saw the baby pink nail polish decorating Heeseung's hands as he typed on the phone.

"New color?"

"Yep! Jay did it. Jay get over here and show him your nails!"

Jake could feel the bus shake against the road as the last male on the vehicle rumbled down the crowded path between beds, cabinets, and sinks probably (definitely) falling over his own feet on the way. Then he saw hands directly in front of him, blocking his vision of the cars driving before him, colored in navy and black polish.

"I can't see the road!"

"Heeseung's fault!"

"No, it isn't!"

"Yes, it is!"

Jake turned the knob of the radio up to full volume and pushed Jay away, trying not to swerve the bus.

This is exactly why he ended up as the designated driver. The two were chaotic and had trouble focusing and paying attention to what was right in front of them. The only reason they had even met in the first place was because Jay crashed the bus into a tree in front of Jake's house back in Brisbane, Australia because he and Heeseung were fighting over whether God was to be considered an extraterrestrial or not. So yeah, Jake was now the driver on most days.

He remembered that day very clearly. The day they met. He heard the door ringing and his mom yelling at him to go open it, just to be met by two boys, one with blonde hair pulled into a ridiculous ponytail on the center of the top of his head, with bright pink sweatpants, and one with a leopard-print beanie and overalls painted with little cartoon aliens, ufos, and rainbows, along with several paint splatters and smudges on top of a white t-shirt.

"Hello?" Jake had asked, taken in their looks.

"Hi! Do you think God is an extraterrestrial- ow!"

"That's not what we are here for Jay!" Said the boy in overalls, in a foreign language that surprised Jake.

"You know Korean?"

"What- yes. You do?"

"Yeah, I've lived here my whole life though."

Jay had shaken his head and raised his arms above his head laughing with a stupid grin, the several beaded bracelets and rings on his wrists clinking. The sound still seemed so present in Jake's head several months later.