My Baker's Dozen

32

Jeonghannie's POV

"So, where do you want to end up after high school?" My friend asked me in study hall, and I paused. Since we were currently in eleventh grade, the looming thought of college and work was over everyone.

"I'm not sure. I definitely don't want to end up in college, and I'll probably end up staying at home to help with my brothers. I really don't want to leave." He laughed, but I couldn't tell what was funny.

"See I want to get away from my family as fast as I can. I'm going to try and get into a culinary school and be a chef." I nodded, but I still didn't understand how he could want to leave so fast. I mean, I know he has two younger siblings, but how could you want to leave them? I wouldn't give up my family for anything.

"That sounds fun. I could see you being really good at that." He smiled and I tried to go back to my homework since I had work tonight, but apparently my friend just wanted to talk with me today. Which I was okay with since we've been friends since he moved here.

"If you don't want to go to college, do you have plans for work?"

"Not really. I'll probably stay where I am for a while and try to figure out where I want to go from there. Going out into the world kind of scares me."

"It's the scariness that propels me out, but I guess we've always really been surrounded by people." The last part was definitely true. I know there was no point in my life in which I didn't have a sibling, and I know he doesn't remember even though he's the oldest.

"Yeah, we really have. I like that though." He hummed, and I couldn't tell if it was because he didn't have anything else to say or he just agreed with me.

"No matter how much they may drive you crazy, you know you love them." I teased, and my friend smiled.

"That's true. But when you get woken up at four in the morning by a nerf bullet to the head, you don't want to stick around." I laughed, but he didn't seem to happy about that.

"At one point we all convinced Jihoon that he was adopted. Appa had to step in after a good month and a half and show him actual proof that he wasn't adopted." I smiled at the memory, and he just laughed.

"I bet I could convince my younger brother that he's adopted again. It really wouldn't be that hard."

"Is he that gullible?"

"A few years ago I convinced him that if he didn't stop screaming he wouldn't grow at all. It still works." 

My eyes widened, and my mind started racing at the things I could probably get Samchan to believe. But Samuel already has enough trust issues and I don't want to make them worse. Last month he went into full shut down mode because a cashier tried to give him a sucker at the store. By full shut down I mean we had to stop him from running, and when we got home it took a little bit to convince him that he was okay.

"You have so much power over those kids, it's insane." He nodded with an evil smile, and I couldn't help but wonder how many pranks him and his siblings pull on each other. I know for a fact that Appa would go insane if we did that all the time to each other.

"I try not too abuse that power, but it's very tempting."

"I could see that happening. But now I want to see who I can mess with." My friend held out his hand for me to shake, and I took it.

"Welcome to the dark side, my friend."