Treasure tales

Short 7: Kim Junkyu

I stood outside the door awkwardly. According to the instructions Jaehyuk passed me, this place was supposed to be Junkyu's house. Well, it did look the same as the last time I came over, but due to my terrible sense of direction and perfectionistic pessimistic thought tendencies(I am, unfortunately very well trained by the asian schooling system) I have learnt to second guess my own abilities at all costs. So I pray with all my might to a non-existent god that this was the right place. It did look like the right place. The door was the same colour(brown). That was where my memory ended.

Cautiously I knocked the door, hoping that the one who answers the door(if anyone answers at all) would be one of the twelve Treasure boys.

I counted under my breath: 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds, and I heard the familiar clinking of keys. A moment later the door opened, and a boy peeked out, rubbing his sleepy eyes. I recognised Junkyu.

"O!...it is you after all," Junkyu said, making a very exaggerated surprised expression. Very meme worthy, even if I wasn't too into the meme subculture thing. "I thought it might be, nobody was confident whether you'd really come or not. What a time to choose to visit, though. Nobody else will drop by today, so it will be just you and I."

Junkyu met eyes with me, and he panicked.  "T-this is rare though, usually they love crashing my house," he said quickly. "We won't be alone next time. For some reason today everybody is preoccupied. As for me..."

"As for you..." I repeated after him, raising an eyebrow.

"I was busy trying to have my precognitive dreams!" Junkyu finished, clapping his hands excitedly. "Important, right? I wish I could earn money just by being a snorlax all day..."

"The pipe dream of a typical slave to an institutional-based capitalist society."

Junkyu frowned at me. "What are you talking about?"

"Anyways your power is having precognitive dreams?" I quickly changed the topic, not wanting my cynicism to dampen the mood too much.

"Yeah," Junkyu nodded. "The most tame superpower of the group, you can say. Unfortunately for me, unlike the others, I can neither control it nor turn it off. Dreams come to me whenever they want. Oh...but first you should come in."

He took a step back, allowing me to enter. I gratefully accepted his invitation, took off my shoes and entered the place. I went straight to his moth eaten sofa.

"Would you like anything?" Junkyu offered. There was a silly smile on his face. "Although you'd do me a favour by not asking for anything. I shall be grateful to you for that."

I noticed that he had rather pleasant features, nicely spaced eyes and a charming smile that instantly caught your eye. In contrast, his shirt was untucked and his hair was very messy. There was a sort of laid back vibe about him that felt welcoming.

"I'd like to leave this place," I smirked, trying to show him that I was joking.

"Come on!" Junkyu grumbled. "Don't say that."

I laughed. "All right. I'll save you the trouble. I shall suffice with water."

"You can eat my half eaten bag of chips with me," Junkyu said, picking a bag of the snack from the coffee table. I politely accepted one piece.

"Do you live alone?" I asked, looking around the place. Other than being a little rundown, the place was rather well kept. Junkyu really was a person of hidden surprises.

"Yes," Junkyu said. "I'm an adult now, I can get used to it. Do you live with your parents?"

I nodded.

The room went quiet for a bit. I looked around awkwardly, not knowing what to say. I looked at Junkyu, who remained quiet, and then proceeded to look everywhere else but him, anxiously searching for a new topic of conversation. I wondered if I should really leave, because I really hate awkward pauses.

"Maybe we should watch some youtube videos," Junkyu said after a while. "Or would you rather play some games? The other guys usually decide the itinerary of the day, but they're not here today..."

"What do you all usually do, besides gaming and sleeping?" I asked.

"The guys like basketball too. Yoshinori likes painting and making art pieces. Oh and Hyunsuk is crazy about soccer, he can literally name every team out there purely based off the shirt," Junkyu listed off. "So! Which one seems more interesting to you?"

"An interesting question to ask someone who wastes her life slaving away at the education system," I muttered.

"Well, I went through it too, hang in there," Junkyu laughed. "In fact, probably still in. I'm preparing to enter university."

"Which course?"

Junkyu flashed a bright smile, showing both his rows of gleaming white teeth. "Good question!"

A small chuckle escaped my throat. "You too, even at your age?" I asked. "I agree, though. The future is so uncertain..."

"Even more so for us, the twelve Treasure boys actually," Junkyu responded glumly. "All I really want right now is for my dreams to go away. It's painful, being forced to carry the burden of the terrible future. At least allow me to enjoy the present rather than worry about a future I can't decode."

"I can see how that could possibly play out," I affirmed him. "I don't have powers like any of you do, but growing up, I just...kind of knew things about others people usually can't pick out."

"Like?" Junkyu asked. He had sat up rather stiffly, and was listening intently to my words.

"Like, sometimes I just automatically knew that a certain person is feeling upset, and I've always been able to understand others to a relatively deeper extent, more so than they realise about themselves, even. Or, to be more accurate, I am able to see parts of a person that they don't want to admit about themselves, or are in denial about. Like you, though, I can't always control it. Sometimes I'm as oblivious as anyone can be, other times I know just a little too much." I looked at Junkyu awkwardly, wondering if I said a little too much. I had gotten too caught up in the moment and allowed my loud mouth to run.

"Ahh..." Junkyu said after a while. "I've heard this word before. E...apeth? Enpeth? Wait...it's empath, right?"

"Don't associate me with that, it's overused, the word meaning has been abused," I said immediately. "I do not believe in anything supernatural whatsoever. I only have my experiences that I cannot explain, but I do have my own theories regarding the matter."

"Woah, calm down," Junkyu said, laughing as he did so. Then he smiled comfortingly. "The label itself doesn't matter. It doesn't make your experiences any less or more real."

I nodded. "I'm sure it's the same for you."

It was time to go. I greeted Junkyu goodbye. Before I left, he told me, "drop by again. The others will probably be here so it'll be loads more fun."

"You're fun too," I said, hesitating just a little. I wasn't one to offer compliments easily.

Junkyu giggled. "Thanks," he nodded. "I'll see you soon?"

"Speaking of which, do the Treasure boys have a group chat?" I asked. "Maybe gatherings can be coordinated that way."

"Group chat," Junkyu widened his eyes, and laughed sheepishly. "I kind of forgot. One of us 12 were supposed to create one. But none of us have done it till now. Alright alright I'll try to remember."

"You don't have a group chat?" I asked suspiciously, turning about so that I can face him fully. "How long have you twelve known each other?"

Junkyu let out a nervous giggle. "Quite a while," he said nervously. "Alright gotta go settle my university applications. See you!" With that, he closed the door in my face before I could answer him, and I stood outside his house, staring into the now sealed space that I was in just a moment ago, feeling endlessly confused.