apartment block 17

[ 023 ]

apartment #211
lee seokmin, lee chan

"hey chan, aren't you going to eat breakfast?" seokmin poked his head through the door of his younger brother's room. chan had his laptop open in front of him, his head buried in his arms in a look of utter defeat. "what's wrong?"

seeing that his brother wasn't going to move anytime soon, seokmin walked over and peeked at his laptop screen. it displayed an official looking email from pledis performing arts high school, along with a bunch of intimidating looking numbers and red text.

"they just mailed us our exam results from last semester," chan mumbled through the cover of his arms, "i did well in most of my subjects, like i thought i would've... but i failed maths."

seokmin pulled a face of sympathy and patted his brother soothingly. he definitely understood how it felt to fail a test you studied so hard for. seokmin reasoned that it must've been the countless hours into the morning studying that overworked him a little too much.

chan lifted his head up and looked at seokmin. his eyes were sunken with tiredness and stress. "should i get a tutor?"

"i can ask around, if you want. i would try tutor you myself, but we both know i'm not the best at maths," seokmin laughed sheepishly.

"yeah, i'll look around as well. i just really want to keep my grades up," chan sighed. "oh, and do you mind not telling mum and dad about this?"

seokmin knew that news of a failed exam wouldn't sit well with their parents. it had taken much begging and assurance they would keep up with their education to convince their parents to let them move to seoul. seokmin had also been trying his best to keep up with schoolwork and idol training, since he wanted to be a good role model for his younger brother. but it seemed like the stress from the previous semester was finally catching up with both of them.

"of course i won't. i know you'll get those grades back up in no time! it's just one exam, anyway," seokmin said encouragingly. if anyone was diligent enough to pull through this, it was chan. "no use moping around. go eat breakfast."

dragging chan from his desk and into the living room, seokmin plopped down a bowl of hot porridge in front of him. they both ate in silence, while seokmin scrolled through the daily news on his phone.

Mewtwo makes its second appearance in New York; a stampede of desperate PokéHunters disrupts traffic in order to capture the legendary Pokémon

ever since the mewtwo fiasco a few days ago, seokmin and chan had lost the will to play the game as obsessively as they did. they had occasionally opened the app during training breaks, but otherwise, they had relapsed into their usual routine of eat, sleep, train, repeat. seokmin continued scrolling, eyes catching another recent news article.

Popular arcade chain "Mansae" opens up a new branch in the Shining Diamond Mall

"hey, a new arcade just opened up at the mall!" seokmin said excitedly. chan raised an eyebrow. "it's called 'mansae'. sounds pretty cool! i haven't been to an arcade in years. since we don't have training today, wanna go check it out?"

"i don't really feel like going out," chan said dejectedly, "maybe next week. you should go and check it out though. tell me how it is!"

seokmin knew that chan was pretty stubborn sometimes and preferred to be left alone to figure things out himself. "alright, then. call me if you need anything. i'll be back to cook dinner."

"cool. thanks, hyung," chan collected up the dishes and proceeded to wash them in the kitchenette. seokmin grabbed his bag and left the apartment.

upon reaching the lobby, seokmin saw junhui and minghao walking in at the same time. they were both carrying bags overflowing with groceries. "hey, guys!" seokmin waved.

"oh, hey seokmin!" junhui smiled, waving the hand holding the grocery bag, as the other was holding minghao's hand. "we were just going to call and ask if you wanted to come over today and play something."

"oh, i'm actually heading out to the new arcade that apparently opened at the mall," seokmin said. "wanna come?"

"there's a new arcade?" minghao asked.

"yeah! it's called 'mansae'. i read about it in the news just now, so i thought i'd check it out since i have nothing better to do anyway."

"oh, we'll pass. minghao wanted to have a chill day today," junhui said.

"aw, alright. you better come with me next time, though!" seokmin said. waving goodbye to them, seokmin exited the apartment block and crossed the road to the shining diamond mall.