Still A_Stray: Living With Stray Kids (ot8 fanfic)

Chapter 27

TW: mention of physical abuse

Monday

Break free from the voices in my head

"C'mon, Yeji," Changbin whined, drawing out the last syllable of my name. I frowned at him in irritation.

"No."

"Noonaaaa," Jisung protested, extending my name in the exact same annoying way Changbin had, and I shot him a full-on glare. They really did share a brain cell.

"I'm sorry, but there's no way I'm eating that."

"Just try it," Hyunjin encouraged. "I bet it tastes like chicken."

"Hyunjin, it's samgyeopsal." I poked at the plate before me gingerly. "Or it's supposed to be."

No less than thirty seconds after the members had arrived home from their dance practice, Jisung had announced that he was hungry and wanted pork belly. I'd expected the others to nod along but stay sprawled on the couch like they usually did, but of course today Hyunjin sat straight up and said that he was craving it, too, and then of course Changbin had mentioned that he'd seen some in the freezer a day ago and it was probably still there, and now here we were.

"Please, Yeji?" Changbin asked, looking at me with puppy eyes that probably got him whatever he wanted with the others. "We need you to tell us if it's good or not. You're the cook here."

"All the more reason why I should've been the one to make this," I muttered, frowning down at the samgyeopsal so I wouldn't be swayed by my brother's guilt-trip. "Look, you guys, I know you tried your hardest, but I'm really not hungry right now so nothing looks appetizing..."

"You can just tell us you don't like our cooking," Hyunjin said quietly. "You don't have to try to be nice about it."

I blinked, then spluttered, "No, that's not—I do, I just ... I—"

"We might as well just throw it away," Jisung said sadly.

I looked at their faces, my protests dying on my tongue. Hyunjin's eyes were watering, Jisung's gaze focused on the piece of dirt by his shoe.

I groaned and shoved a piece of the pork into my mouth before I could think twice. It was way too salty, and a bit overcooked for me, but ... it was edible. Much more than I'd expected from Changbin's cooking combined with Hyunjin and Jisung's tendency to bicker and/or get distracted by the nearest shiny thing instead of doing what they were supposed to.

My smile was only slightly forced as I gave the three boys looking at me earnestly a thumbs-up.

Changbin grinned, Jisung outright beaming, Hyunjin's tears suspiciously gone. "Thank you, noona," Jisung said emphatically, grabbing my chopsticks from my hand and digging in. "We had to make sure Hyunjinnie didn't accidentally poison it."

"If anyone messed it up, it would've been you," Hyunjin retorted, stealing Jisung's chopsticks and taking a bite himself. "You mistook the sugar for salt."

"I thought you said you were confident that this was going to be the best samgyeopsal I'd ever had," I said, crossing my arms.

Changbin coughed and quickly turned away to grab his own chopsticks. "Weeeell," Hyunjin said, and I almost hit him because that was the exact same way Jisung and Changbin had drawn out my name five minutes ago and I would be damned if I let every irritable thing happen three times over in this dorm. "We had to get you to try it first somehow."

"And when hyping it up didn't work, you turned to guilt-tripping me?" I demanded.

Jisung smiled apologetically at me around a mouthful of samgyeopsal. "I mean, it worked..."