Mysterious // YEONBIN ✔️

Chapter 6- Soobin

Soobin's POV

His grandfather was his main inspiration. 

He shaped Soobin into who he is today. Soobin used to look up at him with admiration shining in his eyes. 

His grandfather would always tell him many wise quotes, but his favorite one was this: "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light." This quote was said by Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series. Soobin has seen all the Harry Potter books and movies with his grandfather. It brought back bittersweet memories.

"I miss him so much," Soobin said with tears rolling down his cheek. Hueningkai wiped away the tears with his thumb and flashed Soobin a smile, "At least you have me hyung!" 

Soobin smiled at Hueningkai, I mean who wouldn't smile at Kai. Everything about him was so, cheerful. Soobin immediately forgot about the bad memories of the restaurant and thought about the great memories he shared with Hueningkai. 

After their first encounter, they went to that same restaurant multiple times to hang out and get to know each other better. That is when Soobin's love for bread mainly blossomed. When his grandfather made bread, he didn't appreciate it as much as he could have. When Hueningkai gave him the enormous bread plushie, he realized how much he truly loved bread. From that day onward, Soobin cherished bread and the bread plushie. He still has the plushie, it's on his bed so that he can cuddle with it if he has nightmares.

"Okay hyung, we finally reached the restaurant!" Hueningkai said loudly, cutting into Soobin's thoughts.

"Hehehe okay I'll go order what we usually get! Bye!" Soobin said while walking up to the counter. 

When he got there, he saw that there was a new person behind the counter. The boy was tiny, at least in Soobin's perspective. He had dark tousled hair, sharp features, and big doe eyes. "Hey, what's your name?" Soobin chirped. 

The boy's doe eyes widened, "Me-ohh- I'm Kang Taehyun," he smiled hesitantly. 

"Wow what a pretty name, nice to meet you," Soobin stuck his hand out and Taehyun shook his hand. Taehyun winced when Soobin grabbed onto his hand a bit too hard. Taehyun immediately retracted his hand, Soobin could see that Taehyun was slightly shaking. To remove the awkward tension surrounding them, Soobin asked, "Are you new here because I haven't seen you before?" 

Taehyun glanced up at Soobin and said in a small voice, "Yes, yes I am." Soobin smiled at this, "Then welcome to the palace! I hope you like it so far." Soobin impulsively pulled Taehyun into a hug. Soobin felt the smaller boy flinch at first, but then he slowly relaxed into the hug. He knew what it felt like to be new to everything. Being a servant at the castle isn't a bad thing. The servants were treated well, it wasn't like they were slaves. Servants worked hard for the King and Queen, and in return, got free food and a place to stay at.

 After a few seconds, Soobin pulled away from the hug and said, "Me and my friend are sitting over by the corner of the restaurant, when your shift is over, you can join us if you want." Taehyun nodded at this and gave a shy smile. Soobin ordered and brought the food over to the table where Hueningkai was sitting. 

Hueningkai was staring out the window with an unreadable expression, softly scratching at his arm, leaving faint marks on his skin. "NingNing, I got your favorite, chicken nuggets and mint chocolate ice cream!" Kai jumped up in his seat and smiled at the happy Soobin. "Yess, I finally get my mint chocolate ice cream. I have been craving it for a long time now!" "I have no idea how you even enjoy mint chocolate ice cream, I should just feed you toothpaste and chocolate instead of wasting my money on you buying this," Soobin replied jokingly. 

The two boys continued to eat and joke around, until someone quietly walked up to their table. Soobin and Hueningkai looked up and saw Kang Taehyun standing there, looking at them with those innocent doe eyes. 

"Come join us Taehyun," Soobin said motioning for him to sit at their table. Taehyun sat down and looked at the two, before suddenly burping. 

Hueningkai's eyes widened and then he started laughing out loud. His rich and merry laughter rang through Soobin and Taehyun's ears, and eventually they were all giggling, including Taehyun. 

"I'm so sorry for burping," Taehyun said with a flushed face. "That's okay, everyone does it, so it isn't something we should judge," Hueningkai said with a twinkle in his eye. 

The tense atmosphere surrounding the three quickly dissipated after they got comfortable with each other. They were still sitting there discussing weird stuff after an hour, but they didn't mind. If you ever get the chance to make a new friend, you should take that opportunity that fate gives you.

Me just foreshadowing stuff, seeing if anyone would catch onto it 👀

I'm sorry if it feels like I'm dragging things out. I promise things will get better soon enough. Stay healthy, happy, and safe everyone! Bub bye! :)