Work Text:
Hyunjin was livid. Not only did his bestest friend ever knock down his super cool tower during playtime, but now he was refusing to give him his apple juice as compensation for his clumsiness.
“Minnie, just give me the juice box!” Hyunjin whined, reaching over the table yet again in an attempt to snatch it from Seungmin’s tiny hands.
“No! Mommy said this was the last one and she’s not gonna go shopping ‘til 2 days from now.” Seungmin said, holding the juice box higher in the air.
“Minnie,” Hyunjin whined again, crawling onto the table to get more leverage. “Give it to me! I’ll even give you my hummus and crackers!”
“I don’t want your gross hummus.” Seungmin replied sticking his tongue out at the pouting 4 year old. “I’m going to sit by Jeongin. He’s more fun than you.”
With that, Seungmin zipped up his lunch box and scurried over to the table Jeongin was sitting at, leaving Hyunjin all alone.
“Fine, be like that.” Hyunjin muttered, slumping against his seat with a humph.
After a few minutes of sulking, Hyunjin’s teacher, Mr. Youngjae, came up to his table and rapped his knuckles against the table.
“Hey buddy, what’s wrong?” Mr. Youngjae asked.
“Seungminnie wouldn’t give me his juice.” Hyunjin mumbled into his hand, narrowing his eyebrows slightly.
“Why would he need to do that?” Mr. Youngjae asked, pulling out a ridiculously small chair out from underneath the table, taking a seat next to the upset boy.
“He knocked down my tower during playtime and he’s just so mean.” Hyunjin whined, throwing his head back in exasperation.
“I can hear you from over here you know.” Seungmin says cooly, munching on his peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
“Well then apologize you dummy head!” Hyunjin said louder than socially acceptable, standing up from his seat.
“Shhh, we need to be a little quieter. Some kids have already finished lunch and are over by the sleeping mats.” Mr. Youngjae said, patting Hyunjin’s arm lightly, prompting him to sit down.
“I’m not gonna apologize, I didn’t even do anything!” Seungmin shouted, ignoring Mr. Youngjae’s previous statement.
“I’m not talking to you until you do!” Hyunjin shouted, turning his back on both Mr. Youngjae and Seungmin, storming off to the mini library located in the back of the room.
Finding the book his mother read to him every night, the kissing hand, he plopped into the bean bag chair next to the tiny shelf and began reading.
“Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do.” Hyunjin mutters under his breath, his index finger moving across the page as he read. Yeah Seungmin, sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do. Like give your best friend your apple juice. Hyunjin thought crossly, remembering what had happened just moments ago.
“You’ll make new friends and play with new toys and read new books and swing on new swings.” Wow, this book really reminded Hyunjin of Seungmin.
When it was his first day of pre-school Seungmin was the first friend he made. He always played house with Seungmin. Hyunjin would be the cook while Seungmin took care of their child while he beat up the faux food with his plastic fork, flipping the food in the play frying pan. It landed on the floor half the time but Seungmin and their little baby girl didn’t need to know that as they ‘ate’ their dinner.
It was there in that playhouse that they made new kissing hands. Both their right hands were reserved for their mothers kiss of course, but in that tiny playhouse, Hyunjin lightly took Seungmin’s left hand in his and slowly brought it to his lips, pressing a tender kiss to the palm.
“Whenever you miss me just put your hand against your cheek and then it’ll be like I never left!” Hyunjin said excitedly, pressing his right hand against Seungmin’s warm cheek to demonstrate.
“I know the story dummy.” Seungmin replies, flicking Hyunjin’s forehead lightly, turning his gaze away from Hyunjin’s. “Now give me your hand.” Seungmin said, making grabby hands towards Hyunjin.
Hyunjin held out his left hand, wiggling his fingers playfully as Seungmin lifted his hand towards his face.
“Stop it.” Seungmin whined, closing his tiny hand around Hyunjin’s fingers, pressing a featherlight kiss to his palm before quickly releasing his hand.
“There. Now I’ll always be with you no matter what.” Seungmin said shyly, turning his attention to the baby doll in the high chair next to him.
“I love you, Seungminnie.” Hyunjin said, tackling Seungmin with a hug as he fixed the doll’s hair piece.
“Mommy says that I can only say ‘I love you’ to people I care about the most and I care about Soojin more than you.” Seungmin mutters into Hyunjin’s hair.
“I care about our daughter too but I care about you more.” Hyunjin said with a pout. “You don’t feel the same?” He asked, looking like a kicked puppy.
Seeing Hyunjin so sad made Seungmin feel sad. He instantly regretted saying that their baby was more important than his best friend.
“I was just kidding. I love you the most.” Seungmin answered, finally returning Hyunjin’s hug.
“Even more than Mrs. Kim?” Hyunjin asked with a giggle.
“Just a little bit. Don’t tell her I said that though. She might not let me watch TV tonight.” Seungmin said with a small giggle of his own.
Mr. Youngjae had entered the small, plastic cabin to find the two boys giggling with the biggest smiles on their faces as they swayed back and forth in their comfortable hug.
“It’s time for snack boys.” Mr. Youngjae had said with a fond smile.
Hyunjin was startled out of his reverie when he heard the small plonk of a tear drop landing on the page of the book he was reading. He looked up with a sniffle, quickly wiping his eyes before anyone realized he was crying. Mama said that big boys don’t cry and he was a big boy now.
“Reading is stupid.” He grumbled to himself, shoving the book back on the shelf before heading over to where his other friend Felix was playing with the same building blocks that his fallen tower was constructed of.
Hyunjin would never admit to himself that he didn’t want to read anymore because it was too challenging to do so without Seungmin there to walk him through the words he couldn’t understand or pronounced wrong.
“Hey, Lixie.” Hyunjin said, plopping down next to the tiny Australian. Felix looked up in surprise, his wide, earnest eyes fixing themselves onto Hyunjin’s slightly puffy face.
“Why aren’t you with Seungminnie? I mean it’s fine that you’re here because I love playing with you but you’re usually with Seungminnie all the time so I’m just confused. Please don’t leave though, I really want you to stay.” Felix said with a pout.
Hyunjin knew he was sad that he couldn’t be with his older brother Chris who was a grade above them and he didn’t really have the heart to leave the little boy alone even if he wanted to play with Seungmin. He would probably drag the latter over to play with Felix as well.
“Minnie and I aren’t talking right now because I’m mad at him.” Hyunjin answers with a huff, resting his head on his hand.
“Why?” Felix asked, looking genuinely confused as he halted his construction of- whatever the heck he was building. It looked like a pile of blocks haphazardly thrown onto the floor but hey, Hyunjin wasn’t one to judge.
“He was being a meanie so I’m not talking to him until he says sorry.” Hyunjin answered.
“But don’t you still have your stash of goldfish in your guys’ house?” The small boy asked in his squeaky voice.
“I do. I’m gonna go get those. I’ll be right back Lixie.” Hyunjin said, standing up and ruffling the younger boy’s hair.
“I’ll be waiting here!” Felix said, flashing a toothy grin.
Hyunjin made his way over to the small cabin, hearing voices as he got closer. Who could be in his cabin at this time? It was Hyunjin and Seungmin’s cabin. It has been that way ever since the beginning of the year. It was like an unspoken rule in that small classroom.
Hyunjin slowly opened the door to see Han Jisung standing in the kitchen, expertly flipping a piece of plastic lettuce in the frying pan and landing it in the pan.
Hyunjin had been trying to do that for months! How is it that Han Jisung could so quickly take his place, and do a better job than he ever did?
Hyunjin was livid. He’s never felt as angry as he does right now.
Slamming the door shut, he stormed into the kitchen pushing Jisung away from the stove.
“What are you doing in my kitchen?” Hyunjin seethed, gritting his teeth so hard it began to hurt.
“I don’t see your name on it.” Jisung said snottily, turning up his nose.
Hyunjin growled, pushing Jisung once more before noticing a little plastic baggie sticking out of the front pocket of his shirt. It wasn’t just any baggie. Oh no, it was Hyunjin’s baggie, the one that once contained his goldfish.
Hyunjin reached into Jisung’s shirt pocket and grabbed the baggie, only to discover that there was just a bunch of crushed up goldfish that remains.
“You come into my house, eat my food, hang out with my best friend and my daughter and you have the nerve to stand here with that stupid little smirk on your face?” Hyunjin seethed.
“Ooh, you said stupid! I’m telling Mr. Youngjae.” Jisung said then bolted out of the cabin calling for their teacher.
“I hate you.” Hyunjin said, turning to Seungmin. He almost felt bad when Seungmin’s shocked face morphed into one of hurt, eyes beginning to water.
“This was our special place Seungmin.” Hyunjin yelled, feeling his own eyes begin to water. “How could you?” he said brokenly.
“I’m sorry.” Seungmin said quietly, looking down at his hands in his lap as his tears began to flow down his face. Hyunjin wanted nothing more than to run over to Seungmin and cup his face, wiping away his tears, comforting him like a best friend should. But they’re not best friends anymore. They’re best friends that aren’t talking to each other.
Hyunjin walked out of the cabin, ignoring the sounds of Seungmin’s sniffles as he braced himself for the lecture Mr. Youngjae was sure to give him for using the ‘s’ word and pushing Jisung.
“Hey, champ, how was school?” Hyunjin’s older brother asked him when school ended.
“Not good.” Hyunjin mumbled, kicking at a rock that was sitting on the ground.
“What happened?” Jinyoung asked, taking ahold of Hyunjin’s hand as they started their journey home.
“You’re a 4th grader. What do you do when you fight with your best friend?” Hyunjin asked, looking up at Jinyoung.
“I usually wait for them to come to me and apologize. But in your case I think you should be the one to apologize, even if it’s not your fault. You know how shy Seungmin can be.” Jinyoung said, swinging their hands together as they walked.
“But it’s Minnie’s fault.” Hyunjin grumbled.
“But you gotta be the bigger man.” Jinyoung said, booping Hyunjin on the nose.
“Be the bigger man?” Hyunjin echoed.
“Did you feel sad when you were ignoring Seungmin?” Jinyoung asked.
“Yes. I miss him a lot.” Hyunjin answered.
“Sometimes you gotta talk things out when you have disagreements. Some people are just too precious to lose. I think Seungmin is one of those people for you.” Jinyoung said thoughtfully.
“Yeah, he is.” Hyunjin said.
The two continued in silence for a while, idly swinging their hands as they continued on their way.
“I made Seungmin cry today.” Hyunjin whispered.
Jinyoung hummed, prompting Hyunjin to continue.
“I didn’t mean to. I hate seeing Minnie cry. I was just so mad because he was playing with Jisung and doing all the things that I would do with him when we play together and… it just made me feel so... not special. Like Seungmin could be perfectly fine without me in his life. That really hurt because I don’t think I could ever live without Seungminnie.” Hyunjin confessed, feeling his throat close up and his eyes water.
“Seungmin has a different way of handling things. He likes to ignore things and process what happened later. You like to express your feelings, whether it be by lashing out in anger, crying, showing physical affection…” Jinyoung trailed off. “You’re not understanding a word I’m saying are you?” He asked, looking down at a confused Hyunjin.
Hyunjin slowly shook his head.
“Seungmin is probably crying now that you can’t see him. He doesn’t want to break down in front of you because he doesn’t want how he feels to affect you.” Jinyoung explains.
“But he always helps me why can’t I help him?” Hyunjin asked.
“You’ll have to ask him that. When you go to school tomorrow you guys need to talk about whatever happened and make sure that Seungmin feels comfortable enough to tell you how he’s feeling.”
“Okay.” Hyunjin answers, thinking of ways he could make things right with Seungmin as Jinyoung pulls the keys to the house out of his pocket and opens the door.
“Mama, we’re home!” Jinyoung shouts, throwing the keys on the coffee table.
“I’m in the kitchen!” Their mother calls back.
In the kitchen. Hyunjin was thinking about Seungmin again. Gosh, when was he not? Without Seungmin, it felt like a piece of him was missing.
Hyunjin ran up to his room, ignoring his mother’s calls behind him telling him not to run up the stairs.
Once he was in his room he scurried over to his desk and pulled out a sheet of paper and a crayon, starting to draw out his plan of how he was going to fix things with Seungmin.
About 30 minutes passed before Hyunjin’s mother called from the bottom of the stairwell that dinner was ready.
“I’m coming, Mama!” Hyunjin said, dropping his crayon and running down to the dining room.
Once dinner was on the table and everyone dug in, Hyunjin’s mother gently put her fork down and fixed Hyunjin with a stern look.
Uh oh.
“Hyunjin, why did I get a call from Mr. Youngjae saying that you got into a fight with Jisung? I thought you guys were friends.” Hyunjin’s mom said.
“I was never friends with him. He thinks he’s better than everybody and I don’t like him. But I really don’t like him after today.” Hyunjin answered, passive aggressively shoving a dinosaur-shaped chicken nugget in his mouth. Seungmin’s favorite. Whenever Seungmin came over for a playdate, his mom would make them dinosaur chicken nuggets and Seungmin’s eyes would light up whenever his mother set the food down on the table. Perhaps Hyunjin was slightly enamored with Seungmin and his odd dino nugget obsession.
Hyunjin’s mom hummed, “So what was so different about today?”
“He was playing with Minnie in our playhouse and he ate my goldfish.” Hyunjin said angrily.
“Hyunjin, Seungmin isn’t just your friend. He has other friends too. You can’t just keep Seungmin to yourself.” Hyunjin’s mom said.
“But it’s always been that way.” Hyunjin grumbled.
“I know honey, but you need to learn to share. Not just your toys, but your time with Seungmin as well. Can you work on that?” Hyunjin’s mom asked.
“It’s not like it matters anyway. Minnie hates me now.” Hyunjin mumbled, taking a sip of his chocolate milk.
“Sweetie, Minnie could never hate you. I get into arguments with your father sometimes but that doesn’t mean I hate him.” Hyunjin’s mom answered.
“I came up with this plan to say sorry to Minnie for making him cry but I don’t know if it’s good enough.” Hyunjin muttered miserably.
“As long as it’s heartfelt, it’ll be enough.” Hyunjin’s mom answered, standing up and ruffling Hyunjin’s hair. “Now go get ready for bed munchkin, you’ve got to wake up early for school tomorrow.”
“M’kay, Mama. Can you read me the kissing hand tonight?” Hyunjin asks.
“Of course, baby.” Hyunjin’s mom answered, sending a fond smile Hyunjin’s way.
Hyunjin giggled and ran up the stairs, getting ready for bed.
As he lay in his bed later that night, listening to his mother’s voice, he lifted his left hand to his cheek, smiling softly as he drifted off to sleep.
“Seungminnie!” Hyunjin shouted the next day, ripping his hand away from his older brother’s as he ran towards his best friend, feeling tears well in his eyes because he missed Seungmin so, so much. Tackling Seungmin with a hug, he forgot everything about the plan he made yesterday to make Seungmin forgive him.
“Minnie, Minnie I’m so sorry for making you cry I love you so much please forgive me I was being a jerk yesterday and I miss you so much please don’t leave me again I love you.” Hyunjin rambled, burying his face in the crook of Seungmin’s neck.
He felt gentle hands carding through his hair and he looked up to see Seungmin smiling softly back at him with glassy eyes.
“Don’t cry Jinnie, it’s my fault in the first place. I’m sorry for knocking your tower down, I didn’t mean to. I was just so excited to see you. Yesterday wasn’t really any fun without you, Jisung is too bossy. Soojin misses you too.” Seungmin said, rocking Hyunjin back and forth.
“Tell Soojin I miss her too.” Hyunjin mutters into Seungmin’s shirt.
“You can tell her that yourself dummy head.” Seungmin said.
“Really?” Hyunjin asked, looking up at Seungmin with blossoming grin.
“Of course dummy. She’s your daughter too.” Seungmin answered with a roll of his eyes.
Hyunjin giggled and squeezed Seungmin, pulling him impossibly closer.
“Let me tell you a little secret.” Seungmin whispered into Hyunjin’s ear.
“What?” Hyunjin whispered back.
“I told Mommy to go to the store yesterday instead of two days from now and I brought 2 apple juices with me this time.” Seungmin said, breaking out in a grin.
“Is the other one for me?” Hyunjin asked, bouncing excitedly on the balls of his feet, jostling Seungmin in the process.
“Duh.” Seungmin said, flicking Hyunjin’s forehead.
After that, the whistle blew and Mr. Youngjae stood outside the door, waving the children over to the building.
Seungmin and Hyunjin finally broke apart, opting instead to intertwine their hands as they made their way over to the rest of the kids.
“Hey Minnie, I’ve got a secret to tell you too.” Hyunjin whispered.
“What is it?” Seungmin whispered back, albeit loudly.
“I love you the mostest.” Hyunjin said, turning to Seungmin with a big smile, squeezing his hand.
“That’s not a secret, silly.” Seungmin said with a giggle. “I love you the mostest too.”