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“Sweetheart, stop fidgeting with your shirt!”, Kyungsoo hears his mom laughing. He pouts as she holds his hand, when she smothers him with kisses and says “Don't be nervous, sweetheart. You will be fine!!”, he looks at his mom's assuring eyes. Although nervous, his mom still makes it possible for him to not breakdown in fear a minute longer.
But Kyungsoo is already on the verge of tears. During his whole lifetime of 5 years, never ever, even in his tiny little sweet unicorn and sweaty firedragon dreams, he did not stay away from his mother. He lets out a shaky sob and tries to pout aggressively, as much as possible, trying to make the tears in his eyes to fall down so that his ever so kind mother takes mercy on him, excuses him from going to school, forever.
But his mom just responds with a hearty chuckle, like the one she does when he wears that penguin onesie.
“Honey! See how cute he looks!!”, she shows her sweetest grin as she calls his father who was already recording the moment and smiling along.
Kyungsoo just whines louder in response. Having to go to school is not funny, not when today is the first day that he has to take this courageous step, he doesn't know why his parents are looking at him and laughing, as if some circus is going on.
“Soo listen to me”, his father speaks up with his usual adoring and commanding tone, “If you stop crying and let us take you to school like a good boy then I will buy you lots of ice cream today, how about that?”
Hearing the offer he looks up with widening eyes. Somehow this promise is soothing his dreadful heart. Slowly the fear of going to school erases from his head as he starts daydreaming about an ice cream tub, as large as their rice-cooker pot, he eats ice cream, hugging the tub of ice cream, while it is carefully held in his lap. Normally his mom doesn't let him have too many ice creams at once but if for this he has to go to school then so be it! Anything for ice cream.
“Promise? Those toothpaste chocolate ones??”, he lifts up his pinky fingers with a serious face and awaits for confirmation. His mother even promised him to bring a pet unicorn if he eats broccoli, but did she ever keep that promise? No. They rather tried to convince him that unicorns are not real. Who are they fooling?
His mother laughs again, she is having too much fun today, “Sweetie that is mint, not toothpaste!”
“I promise! We will give you bigger share and Seungsoo will get less this time”, his father extends the offer and promises him while pinching his round cheeks. Kyungsoo's face breaks into a happy grin as he cheers happily, sealing the ice cream deal.
So his mom successfully takes him to the car while he is busy mentally patting himself, trying to believe that he can do it. Oh the things he has to do for ice cream!
And the horrible-horrible moment came at last. His parents eventually brought him to school. He looks around in distaste. The room is pretty, all sorts of cartoon pictures, some of his favorites, some he has never known of. He longingly stares at his parents who are talking to the teacher. There are many other unknown faces of his age and most of them are crying horribly. He supposes their parents didn't promise them of ice cream. Tsk!
A few moments later his parents come to him, let him know that its time for them to leave him there, all alone with those kids. And that triggers his fear again. He grabs his mom's skirt and starts crying with all the strength he could gather. He makes an extra effort to make the screams louder than his usual ones. Some other kids start looking at him with a weird face, probably getting inspiration, or maybe judging him. And his mom said before that this is supposed to be embarrassing and he should act like a good boy in this kind of situation. But as he imagines his parents not being with him, he can't help the screams that are getting out of his mouth, nor he could control the fountain of his tears.
“Shh baby! We will come back soon! Promise! Good kids don't cry like this, baby!”, his mom tries to shush him, calm him down and he only cries harder. He can't stop crying and that must mean he is not even a good kid anymore. He only stops when his throat starts hurting and when the teacher came to him, trying to calm him down by talking sweetly (and bribing him two candies).
As his exhausting session of crying and screaming ends, his parents stayed few more minutes with him with the teacher's permission. After some more of their pacifying, he comes to term with the fact that he has to be brave and let his parents go for the time being.
He bids them goodbye finally and the teacher advices him to sit beside anyone he wants. As he looks around, he sees other kids are wiping their cheeks after their own crying session. Although he understands the feeling, he doesn't want to sit beside a crybaby (!). So he finally spots a kid, not crying, not wiping tears, whose face expression is like he is the second teacher in this room. This kid is wearing a round glass and has a bit long and weird ears (but his mom said not to make fun of anyone so shush!). He quietly goes and sits beside him.
The kid side-eyes him but says nothing. And Kyungsoo feels out of place. Not knowing what to really do. When the teacher tells that she needs someone's help, this kid stands up before everyone else and ran to her. He distributes the papers the teacher gave to him, as if he knows very well what to do. Kyungsoo observes him closely. This kid really acts like the elders. And so he decides he wants to befriend him. Having a know-it-all kid as a friend should be helpful, no? And he knows just how to make friends with him. He has already learned a little bit of the art of manipulation – don't underestimate him just because of his age.
So whats the first step?
Bribing.
Kyungsoo kept both of his candies on the desk. When the kid came back to the seat, he slowly pushes one of the candies to his side while side-eyeing him. Side-eyeing doesn't help much in case of observing someone's face, but the kid has his eyebrows raised, thats all Kyungsoo understands for now.
“Is this for me?”, he hears the kid say.
“Yeah, I have two, you can have one”, Kyungsoo replies shyly. He feels himself smiling when the kid's lips curved into a big smile and his eyes crinkle. So it is going smoothly, he guesses.
“My name is Kyungsoo. What is yours?”, he asks eagerly.
“I am Park Chanyeol! This my favorite candy!”, the kid, Park Chanyeol, replies as he is bursting with enthusiasm.
“Really?”, Kyungsoo grins, and slowly reaches for his remaining candy and hides it before the other notices.
“Yes! What is your full name?”
Kyungsoo realizes that the kid is not exactly like the elders. The elders, his parents, this teacher in the classroom and every elder he has seen, talks calmly. And this kid will possibly will be out of energy soon if he keeps talking with this much force and this huge smile.
“Do Kyungsoo. Can I call you Chanyeol?”
“Sure! Can I call you Kyungsoo? I saw you crying! Your eyes are really big, you know? When you were crying I thought your tears will fill all the buckets in this town!!”, the kid laughs, much to Kyungsoo's annoyance. It hasn't been one minute and this Chanyeol kid is already mocking him.
He starts to feel embarrassed just because he had a not-so-short crying session, which was not for nothing, mind you. His parents were leaving him! Its already a big reason to shed tears. And eyes? Everyone calls his eyes beautiful. And this kid, from who knows where, came to him, and had the guts to joke about it! But he couldn't find any retort. Maybe because the embarrassment of crying is starting to grow in his mind. He pouts in despair. But Kyungsoo still manages to speak, “You... Talk a lot”
The motive was to make this Chanyeol kid upset, even if a little bit. How dare he mock him? But when the kid lets out a goofy chuckle, totally not minding what he had just said, not saying anything back, Kyungsoo ends up smiling too, with his frowning eyebrows.
Mom says we should always forgive. Maybe I'll forgive him this time for making fun of me.
“You are my first friend, you know? There is no other kid of my age near where I live, only me and my brother”, Kyungsoo informs him. Already feeling giddy about making a friend.
And Kyungsoo didn't know it is possible for someone to put on a wider smile than the one Chanyeol is showing after what he said. It is adorable. He almost wants to step close and pet his hair, like how he pets his neighbor uncle's puppy.
“Am I really your friend?”, Chanyeol asks with widened eyes, grinning from ear to ear, and his ears are weird so Kyungsoo laughs a bit.
Chanyeol doesn't mind at that, “Then you are my friend too!! I also have no other friend! Do you like candies?”, he almost offers Kyungsoo the same candy he received from him.
So Kyungsoo ends up giggling, “Hey! I just gave you this! You are so dumb!”
Chanyeol shows his toothy grin again. “I will give you another candy tomorrow, promise! Which one do you like?”
“Me? I like orange candies! The one that has unicorn picture on its wrapper! I like ice-creams too! Have you eaten those toothpaste ice-creams? Mom told me its called milt! But I don't like this name, I will call it toothpaste ice-cream!”
Chanyeol scratches his head, thinking, “Are you sure? I never heard of anything called milt”
Kyungsooo nods, “Very sure. Mom told me today.”
“Okay! I haven't ever had those but tomorrow I will surely bring a milt ice-cream for you! And those orange candies too!”
Kyungsoo beams hearing that. If friends are like this then he is surely happy that he made a friend. He is pretty sure that he is also smiling as wide as Chanyeol by now.
When the school ends and everyone waits for their parents at the gate, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo still can't stop talking. They basically talked about everything – puppys, meows, ferrets, unicorns, dragons, mermaids, favorite cartoons, legos, broccolis, candys, ice creams – everything.
It feels nice. He can't wait to go home and share this news of his new friend to his parents. Then he will also flaunt about having a friend in front of his brother, just like he has been doing and making Kyungsoo jealous. And now he will get to have more ice cream then Seungsoo hyungs too, double win!
“Hey Kyungsoo”, Kyungsoo jolts from his ice cream thoughts and turned to his friend, “Why is your voice so loud? I got scared!”. He whines with furrowed eyebrows, lips tightened in a straight line, almost ready to launch his fist when Chanyeol falls over laughing at him.
“You look so funny when you are scared! Your eyes were this big, you know?” Chanyeol illustrates with his two hands, curling his little fingers, “as big as those big big avocado seeds” and still on with his annoying cackling.
And Kyungsoo gets offended. This is the second time Chanyeol is mocking him for his eyes. And he already forgave him the first time. “What about you? Elephant ear? Yoda ear? Shrek ear? My eyes are at least pretty! And-”, he could go on. He really could, only if this Chanyeol was not standing still in front of him with a very dejected face, lips trembling, eyes glistening with tears and Kyungsoo's shoulder drops. He really scolded too much, right? He feels even more bad when Chanyeol blinks away his tears, looking away- trying not to cry and only settle to sniffle continuously.
Kyungsoo wants to take his words back, he doesn't know how to. Nevertheless he approaches the other, his first step to apologize is to tug Chanyeol's pinky finger faintly, it usually works on his brother. But it didn't really work on Chanyeol. The later quietly draws his hand back and faces away from him.
“I'm sorry? Please? Your ears are pretty too, just like my eyes, I was just joking!”, Kyungsoo tries, softly.
Chanyeol glances for a moment at Kyungsoo before looking away again, “But your eyes aren't pretty, they are just big. And you just called me names”, he spoke quietly, but whine is still clear in his tone.
Kyungsoo would huff now if he didn't almost make this kid cry just a minute ago, but his mom taught him to be better, to forgive and apologize. And he regrets too, for making him sad and also for what-if-mom-finds-out-and-doesn't-let-me-eat-ice-cream. So here he is, being the sweet little patient kid he is, “I didn't mean those names. Your ears are pretty, you are pretty too. I'm sorry!”
When Chanyeol slowly looks at him with his still pouting face, Kyungsoo knows he almost did it. Now he just need to sacrifice a little bit more to close the case. “Here, take it”, he offers his remaining candy to Chanyeol, who is hesitantly biting his lips, but a hidden smile is still peeking through. And Chanyeol eventually said that its okay, after taking the candy. Kyungsoo unknowingly pouts, eying the candy in its new owner's hand. But the case isn't dismissed yet.
“Also, my eyes are definitely pretty. You won't understand now because you are a kid. You will realize when you grow up”, he speaks, determined. Good that Chanyeol didn't quite oppose his opinion, if he did, Kyungsoo would consider taking away both of his candy from his hand and bolt out.
“How will I realize when I grow up? I'll be the same person”, Chanyeol asks, thoughtfully. The argument of few minutes ago has already vanished from the kid's memory.
“When you grow up, you'll grow a brain too. Drink lots of milk, okay?” Kyungsoo replies patting his shoulder, like the wise kid he is. Chanyeol was about to ask another question when a car honks nearby.
“Soo!! Baby!”, his mom calls from inside the car.
“Oh thats my mom, see you tomorrow, okay? Friend !”, Kyungsoo giddily remarks, with a happy face, smiling and eyes crinkling.
In reply, Chanyeol beams instantly, “Bye, friend!”, he says too, watching his new friend running towards the car. And then he realizes something. Maybe Kyungsoo's big eyes are a bit pretty, when he smiles.