Wednesday

By the next morning, the idea seemed ludicrous. What had totally made sense in the middle of the night now seemed so far gone, I just put it out of my thoughts.

That notion parked for the time being, my day went pretty smoothly. Onew helped me with Chem again at lunchtime. Of course, he wasn’t by himself—Amber and Luna were there too. Seriously, flies to honey. And even gym class went OK. I managed not to get hit in the head during dodge ball, and anytime I get through that class unscathed, it’s a good day.

After school, I made my way back to the gym to watch the soccer scrimmage. Key came in a few moments after me and wordlessly sat beside me on the bleachers. I watched as he opened his satchel and pulled out his book. He carefully opened it and placed his bookmark on his lap. He looked up slightly and paused for a minute, and I thought maybe he was going to say something, but he seemed to change his mind and put his nose back in his book.

The change room door opened and players began to emerge: Minho was first, with Taemin right behind him. Tae gave me a nod and then began kicking the ball back and forth with Minho, warming up. Soon Amber and Krystal were out there as well, along with Leo again and a few other kids whose faces are familiar but who I don’t really know.

I anxiously watched the door, waiting for Eunhyuk to appear. Just as the players were wrapping up their warm-up and organizing themselves into teams, he came sauntering through the main doors. As he walked in, I could feel my heart galloping stupidly, echoes of last night’s imaginings still running through my veins. Eunhyuk greeted his friends and disappeared into the change room.

I took that as an opportunity to work on breathing again and berate myself for always being so ridiculous.

Before long, Eunhyuk was back and the match started. I watched as players ran back and forth, dribbling the ball (something my feet have never successfully accomplished). The sound of a page turning reminded me that Key was beside me.

“What are you reading?”

Key pursed his lips and turned his gaze to the game without seeming to see it. Eventually he marked his page and closed his book, swivelling to face me. “Why are you talking to me all of a sudden?” he asked, eyebrow raised.

“Minho,” I replied. “He said you’re a good guy and that I should give you a chance.”

“Hmm.” Key chewed on his bottom lip. The players got louder in their excitement over something, and Key had to raise his voice. “He said something similar about you. Told me I should stop being so snarky.”

I laughed. “Snarky? He said that?”

“You know Minho—he’s too polite to tell me to stop being such a .” Key smiled. It kind of caught me off guard; I’d never seen him smile before. But Key has a really beautiful face when he’s not scowling, and when he smiles his eyes light up and the cynicism that’s usually present drops away.

We momentarily ran out of things to say, so we turned our attention to the soccer match. Good timing too because just at that moment, Taemin broke away from Eunhyuk, who had been covering him, and scored on Leo.

“Alright Taemin!” I cheered. Running back to centre field, Taemin beamed up at me and waved enthusiastically with both hands.

“He’s cute,” noted Key.

“Yeah, he is. And how does he look that nice while playing sports? You should see me when I have to run around—definitely a hot mess.”

Key snorted. “So...you guys are...?”

I tilted my head, puzzled, and then I realized where Key was going. “Oh! Geez, no, it’s not like that. We’re friends.”

Key raised his eyebrow again. “You’re sure?”

I laughed. “Yes, I’m sure!”

Key pursed his lips again. Seems to be a thing with him when he’s contemplating something. “Well, if you say so,” he stated, but with a tone that suggested he wasn’t buying it at all.

It occurred to me that perhaps I should mention... “Well, while we’re sort of on the topic...” I paused, wondering if I was about to blow this “budding friendship” to pieces. “Minho...you know he’s...”

“Straight? Yeah, I know. He’s got that annoying straight-guy vibe about him. It’s fine.” Key dismissed it with a wave of his delicate hand. “He’s not really my type, anyway. Much too pedestrian.”

I snorted.

Then I noticed there was a break in the play for some reason and Minho was watching us chat. When we spotted him, he gave us two proud thumbs-up.

Key shook his head and chuckled. “He’s such a dad.”

“He is, isn’t he?!”

For the rest of the game, Key went back to reading his book, but the awkwardness between us had dissipated. And to my credit, I managed to maintain an outward calm demeanour while watching Eunhyuk run around in shorts that were much too flimsy to leave his god-given gifts to my imagination. So, fairly proud of that.

After the match, a bunch of us decided to walk to a nearby Lotteria and get some food. That’s where my composure started to wane.

At first, everything was fine. Taemin and I sat at a table, and I began nibbling on my fries while he prattled on excitedly about the game. I have to admit, I wasn’t exactly listening. It happens to me sometimes—I get lost watching Taemin talk. There’s just something about him talking that’s mesmerizing. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I find myself watching his little cheeks move and his tongue flicking out to his lips, and suddenly I realize I’m not following what he’s saying at all.

Taemin didn’t seem to notice. I was eating and nodding, and I guess he assumed I was listening. Besides, he glazes over a lot too, so he’s not exactly in a position to fault me.

“Taemin, you gave me the slip out there a couple of times today.” Eunhyuk was approaching with his tray of food, and to my sheer delight, it appeared he was planning to sit with us.

“Yeah, you must be getting past it,” Taemin joked. He hid his grinning mouth behind his hand, but his eyes were full of cheekiness.

Eunhyuk pretended to look shocked as he put his tray down and took a seat beside me. “You’re pushing your luck, little man,” he smiled. “You better hope we don’t get time for a rematch—I might have to put you in your place.”

The two continued their light-hearted teasing, and I swear I tried to pay attention in case the conversation turned to me at some point, but there were just too many distractions: the warmth of Eunhyuk’s thigh against my leg, the veins moving in his forearms as he ripped open a packet of ketchup, the smooth tones of his voice caressing my ears, the fact that his lips were so close...just a few inches away...if I were to lean forward just a bit, I’d be able to press—

I realized the lips had stopped moving. And they were still turned to me, as was the rest of Eunhyuk’s gorgeous face. , I definitely missed something. “I’m sorry, I was busy thinking about...Chemistry. Did you ask me something?”

Eunhyuk flashed a wide smile at me. “Ease up, Jonghyun. You shouldn’t get so stressed about school.”

“He’s usually not,” Taemin interjected, rolling his eyes.

“I was asking about your band.”

Asking about my band. He actually wanted to know about me. I did my best to be cool and carry on a reasonable conversation—which is not that hard for me when it comes to talking about music. Once I got going, I told him about how we started, some of the gigs we’ve played, and even my songwriting. He was particularly interested in that. Apparently his band only did cover tunes, and he thinks people who write music are pretty amazing. How cool is that?

When the topic segued back to sports, I was still feeling a warm glow of pride. Someone this awesome actually liked me, and even admired something about me. I think he winked at me at one point, although he may have had something in his eye.

By the time we all broke up and went our own ways, I was confident he was into me. Pretty confident. Maybe. OK, I have to admit, I don’t have a great track record for reading when people are into me, but this time I felt...it was definitely likely a possibility.

********

Taemin came back to my place afterward, and we played video games. Lately we’ve been really hooked on the online street races in GTA—cars, planes, country, city, you name it. Before we knew it, we’d been playing for hours, so Taemin ended up sleeping over.

He does that a lot—stays at my house until he’s too tired to head home, and then just crashes on my bed. I don’t mind. My bed’s big. It’s funny, though, we always fall asleep on our own sides, but invariably the next morning, I’m curled up around him like he’s a teddy bear. I’m grateful, and a little surprised, that he never teases me about it.

Once Taemin fell asleep, I found myself thinking about Eunhyuk again—about my idea. After the scene at Lotteria, it really didn’t seem that far-fetched.

I made a mental list of pros and cons. Pro: The guy’s super hot. Con: I don’t actually know if we’re compatible…position-wise. Pro: He’s a man, and being with him would make me a man…sort of. Con: He might not go for it. Pro: That wouldn’t matter much because he’d be leaving the next day, and I wouldn’t even have to deal with it. Pro: I’ll bet it would feel amazing. Pro: No more ity—by Saturday morning, that label would be behind me for the rest of my life.

By the time I’d exhausted all possibilities, and myself in the process, it was really looking like this was quite a brilliant idea. So I rolled over to give Taemin more room, and went to sleep.