Chapter One: No One Ever Said It Was Easy
Everyone thinks that money is the answer to everything. Happiness? Sure. Debt? Of course. But in Kim Mingyu’s situation, money is his biggest enemy. All it’s ever caused is stress in his life. Whether it be with his parents, his friends, or just himself. Money just wasn’t the answer for him. His parents always bought him the high end technology to keep him “happy.” They were always at work and never at home, but that only got so far with him. His grades started going down, his moods became all over the place, he just wasn’t the happy person everyone thought he was.
But there was one shed of light that he got happiness from. And that was from a boy that goes by the username “joohoney.” Mingyu joined social media just to keep him entertained when he was bored. He even went as far as making a kpop twitter dedicated to the subunit from Monsta X called “2Chain.” And that’s where he met the only person that listened to him, that knew how to brighten his day up, and honestly knew him better than he knew himself. If Mingyu could have it his way, he’d stay home every single day and talk to this boy hours on end. But life isn’t that easy, is it?
After a long day of school and work, Mingyu gets home and immediately goes to the kitchen to get a snack. What feels like hours, he finally decides to make a sandwich and call it a day. Until he looks out the window and sees an unfamiliar man cleaning his pool. He moves closer to the window and peers out, thinking to himself “whoever he is, wow he’s gorgeous like the sun.” Mingyu returns to his sandwich and continues to put all the fixings on there, then grabs a glass of lemonade and walks outside, sitting on his outdoor patio and not breaking his stare towards this unfamiliar man. As this man was about to leave, Mingyu immediately stands up and runs over to him to catch his name. As he approaches him,he suddenly hears his mothers voice “Mingyu!! Can you come help me in the kitchen?” Mingyu takes a long deep sigh, watching the boy walk away as fast he came, hoping to meet him once again the next day.
As Mingyu walks into the kitchen to help his mother, he pulls out his phone, sending his best friend Xu Minghao a text about the cute new pool boy he’s encountered. “So Gyu, did you meet the new pool boy? I think his name is…let me think….Jeon Wonwoo?” So that was his name…Mingyu had so many thoughts rushing through his head as they were interrupted faster than they even started. “Gyu, hunny, we see your grades have been dropping…is what we do for you not enough? Everything we buy you? And you can’t return the solid favor of keeping your grades up?” Mingyu sighed heavily, looking his mom in the eyes and sitting down at the counter, “Mom, I’m sorry. I just haven’t been focusing lately and not getting enough sleep.” Mingyu’s mother rolled her eyes at him, returning to the stove and cooking their dinner, “Mingyu, stop disappointing your father and I. We didn’t work this hard for you to fail your education. We expect better from you..” Mingyu felt his heart sink to his stomach as he sat up from his chair, leaving his mom alone in the kitchen and walking up to his room.
Upon entering his room, he slammed his door behind him and slowly slid his back down the door, placing his head in his hands and letting out a choked out sigh. Was he really that big of a disappointment? Were his grades really that bad? How was he supposed to tell his parents about how depressed he’s been feeling lately? Or how when he takes tests at school, anxiety overrides him and everything in his mind goes completely blank. Mingyu’s mind was going haywire and he needed to let the stress out. He slowly got up from the door and walked over to his computer, opening his kpop twitter up to see that his “person” he liked to call him had just come online. As an hour went by, Gyu vented all his frustrations out to joohoney, and god, when he told him that he could move in with him, jokingly of course, he got those weird butterflies people get when they have a crush. Is this a crush? Is it possible to have a crush on someone you’ve never met before? Who knows what the future has in store for these two…..
