Safety in numbers

Chapter 1. What he said

"Hyung! Suhoon-sshi, hey why aren´t you eating anything? It´s not your taste, isn´t it? "
The voice of my neighbor’s table gets louder and I look to him irritated.
"No, it´s delicious. “ I shake my head and look at him apologetically. It is not my intention to leave his food untouched because if I know one thing for sure then that Hyunchul is very sensitive when it comes to his food. If anyone here dares to refuse the food or not even try a bite of it our Kitchen Fairy turns into an angry bull. Not a very nice comparison, but it´s aptly.
"I've just phoned again with Jae Hwa. She is really pissing me off. ", continues Hyunmin and I would be happy if I just drift back into my world of thoughts but unfortunately it doesn´t work anymore.
Now I look from my barely touched food to him like the rest of us. Injoon is already hanging on Hyunmin´s lips to hear the story better.
"Yesterday I was out with her because she wanted to go shopping, so we went from one shop to another and I had been tired of it. In a shop we spent almost half an hour in the locker room and in the meantime I was just otherwise occupied by the other ladies.  One was really cute, and promptly when I started talking with Jae Hwa was coming out and slapped me right in front of the eyes of her.",  he ends his story for which he still expect sympathy because his girlfriend has beat him. I feel no pity for him. I know him. He deserved it after all, he has a girlfriend so he doesn´t need to flirt with other girls.
"Oh my God ... you're so stupid. You should know that you better be careful with her. "Injoon laughs out loud and with a giant grin Jihwan was sitting at the table. His smile had only disappears when he put a big mountain of noodles into his mouth.

"I haven´t expected that she would come out and beat me to death.”,  defend Hyunmin himself laughing and doing the same just like Jihwan before, he eats his noodles of which is not much left.
"I find this just too funny. But then did you've also found something suitable? ", asks Injoon after only slowly recovering from his laughter attack.
"Seriously, do you really think that she would have let me go if I hadn´t bought her something, at least the half shop? The best thing for me was that the shop almost sells only exclusively small sizes clothes into it and therefore they aren´t her size."
Hyunmin didn´t even bother to hide his dirty grin. His manner as he deals with Jae Hwa is horrible. Certainly he is only dating her because his parents wanted it that way but he has chosen for it. He should deal with it differently and just because she isn´t quite as thin as at the beginning of their relationship, he mustn’t offend her. This only shows he is superficial and rating people according to their appearance.  They must be very pretty, their personality doesn´t count.
Again the loud laughing starts at the table and Hyunmin and Injoon have their fun to make fun of the poor girl.
"You are stupid, really stupid, so shut your mouth now!. If I were Jae Hwa I would wring your neck!", distributed Hyunchul and gave Hyunmin a hard hit on the head. Hyunmin glanced at Hyunchul caressed his head.
"And what about them? Why don´t you hit them? They also ed about Jae Hwa!"
At these words Hyunchul looks with a frown on Injoon who shows his best sheepishly innocent smile reassuringly to him and takes a big spoonful of food from Hyunchul.
Little bastard, he knows what he needs to do to calm Hyunchul down.
"It is not his girlfriend but yours. Treat her better or I'm thinking I really need to put something into your dinner next time. ", said Hyunchul and rises from his chair and takes the first two empty plates. His own plate and the one of Jihwan. The youngest starts to stretch extensively.
"It´s not a big deal, okay. I've already arranged to meet with her to make up for it nonetheless I think that she's gotten fat. I hope that it decreases again otherwise it´s disgusting. ", emptied his plate Hyunmin hand it over to Hyunchul.
So far I have not yet taken another bite of my food. I'm not really hungry because I Hyunmins words are hard to digest.
" I will eat in my room. I have to finish some lyrics… ", I say and ignore the glance from Hyunchul that´s located on top of me. If I wouldn´t say that I forgot to eat and give him my full plate it would be the same as if I would offend him. So I'm taking my plate and left the others at the table. Pretty fast I disappear into my room where I drop the plate on my desk and drop down with a sigh on my chair.
People love the beautiful things in life, in every way, no matter in what area. A very good example of this is Hyunmin. If he doesn´t like someone he makes that clear and not always as friendly as he should.  At the beginning of his relationship with Jae Hwa, he was happy with it.  She was thin, had long dark hair and she had a very pretty face. Her hair remained the same only her face has become more round just like a few other parts of her body. It would be a lie if I would say that she is ugly now because she isn´t. She has a regular size but in Hyunmins eyes she is too fat and if he really let her feel that than I feel sorry for her.
I wouldn´t like to imagine how it is to be called fat and that of the person you love. And she does.  She loves Hyunmin. I knew better than anyone else. She barely talks with her friends about the problems of the relationship with Hyunmin but talks to me.
If I'm honest, I would love to change this fact. I reluctantly help her when it comes to their relationship with Hyunmin.  I've known him for many years and his personality. He is not an easy partner and sometimes I really think he only cares about the look of other people and not their personality.
There was a time with my ex-boyfriend, it was something like that. To my amazement, Hyunmin had never liked him even though they had much in common.
Most of the time I try to avoid any thoughts of my old relationship.
My ex-boyfriend was the same as Hyunmin. He always wanted me to look perfect.
It has not always been easy for me to comply. Pretty clothes have never been my problem but what if you don´t feel like the pretty things suits you because you have too much on your ribs?
They can´t help you looking better and that ´s the reason why I can´t abandon Jae Hwa but continue to support her. I understand it because it´s hurtful to constantly adapt a beauty ideal. No one should have to do that. Hyunchul is right, I should talk with Hyunmin so he could realize how it feels to be constantly making an effort for a man to be pretty. In the end you did it all the time for nothing. He never loved me more. He left me for a beautiful girl with the face of an angel.
"What a nonsense ...",  I shake my head and trying to shake off the many thoughts, and especially the uncomfortable feeling in my stomach.
"Hey Hyung I thought I come over and see if I could help you.
You still haven´t eat."
Injoon wobbled into my room and looks at my plate which I haven´t touched.
"I'm not hungry.“,  I say it calmly and I'm actually grateful that he is here. When he is with me I won´t lose myself into thoughts again.
This is not my problems, it´s Jae Hwa and Hyunmin´s thing.  As long as no one asks for my opinion either of them wants me to help, I'm not going to interfere. This mistake I wouldn´t do again.
"Hard to imagine... Well, did you want to play with us? You haven´t worked on your lyrics so it´s better for you to take a break. ", he takes my plate and the chopsticks and starts eating. The fact that he eats my food doesn´t bothers me. It surprises me more that he wants to eat it. The food is already cold, and he has just eaten. Nevertheless, we are talking about Injoon. He loves to eat but you can´t see it. He´s thin that lucky guy.
 I wish I would be the same as him. If I eat as much as he does I would feel the food on my hip. "Maybe you're right. Let´s go to the others but you better warm the food otherwise you´ll get stomach aches. ", I get up and poke against his full cheek.
"Why?", He eat noisily and I´m not sure if I should smile or feel disgusted.
"Because it is so, believe me."
I take the plate away from him and leave the room. He follows me out into the kitchen where I put the plate for a few minutes in the microwave. Already, the others loudly virtually kill each other. In fact I expect Hyunmin and Hyunchul to do that it in real life too. Now and then they are like cat and mouse which is exhausting.
"Here, now you can eat it. Did your mother never told you to warm up your food? ", I ask him and give him back his plate. If he eats my food, I don´t need to be afraid of Hyunchul which would be mad at me just because I didn´t try his food.
"No, but if you want to call yourself my mother I have.”,  he smiles cheerfully and headed to the others when he settles on the couch and I sit down to him and Hyunmin.  Hyunchul and Jihwan share the chair next to the couch that looks not very comfortable.
"Suhoon-ah please kill that ."
Jihwan throws the controller against me. The so called- looks to me now too and I returned his look.
"As if you could do that."

So he wants a challenge. Well, he should have one because as often as he does, he doesn´t win. It's usually Jihwan who wins most of the time. This time I take up his role and beat Hyunmin. It's Tekken and I´m good at this game.
While we play I didn´t notice how Hyunmin even fidgeting around and begins to hum again Injoon.
"If you keep jumping the food will be spread all over my lap.”, he complains now and the other gave him a short glance. He shouldn´t have done that because in this moment I put his game character K.O.
"What is that?! That´s unfair!  Just because you've distracted me! ", now he also begins to complain and Hyunchul and Jihwan started to laugh at the same time.
 "I haven´t distracted you. You've almost thrown my food down. ", pointed Injoon out and pulls out a small pout.
"This is not even your food. It´s Suhoon´s.", it comes from Hyunmin which has placed the controller on the coffee table and takes the Coke from which he drinks.
"It doesn´t matter.  He wasn´t hungry so I can eat it well. You don´t need to throw good food away.” , he stuffed more noodles into his mouth and Hyunchuls nods in agreement.
Hyunmin however, rolls his eyes and looks at me. For a split of a second I return his gaze.
"You're not hungry?", he asks me and I stop looking at him  as he stretches out his hand to touch my belly.  Roughly he pinches me with a big smile on his face.
"I see why you're not hungry.  You´ve gain some weight. Maybe you should do sports again. ", he put his hand away before I could slap it away. I don’t know what he´s thinking in that moment but my face must have spoken, before I could do something Hyunmin once again get a hit on his head.
Without saying any words I choose a character and let the others go on like nothing had ever happen. The rest of it does the same as me. The evening was just like before. All talk to each other and I was sitting quietly on the couch and playing every now and then for a short round with them.  As much as I want to forget those words, they bring something up that I don´t want. Especially Hyunmin should have known the impact in his words. But somehow I doubt that he knows neither that nor that I´m aware if he had been serious with his words.
Whatever…his words didn´t let me find my sleep when I tried to sleep a few hours later.
They bother me more than I´ve thought.

tbc