Thursday

Thursday morning was distinctly different from Wednesday. This time, I awoke to find that my idea still seemed like a good one. It seemed my mind was made up.

The only problem left was a distinct lack of time. I was going to have to act fast to make this happen. The morning was busy, though, and before I knew it, Taemin and I were in the caf for lunch, and I still hadn’t made any headway on a plan.

Minho and Key came and joined us, Minho beside Tae and Key beside Minho. It was pretty quiet because I don’t know Key that well yet, and Taemin doesn’t know him at all. Taemin was totally out of it anyway. He mostly sat there staring into space, as he does, and occasionally rubbing his eyes.

At one point, while Minho was talking, a big yawn snuck up on Taemin.

“Yah!” Minho jostled him. “Am I boring you?” He picked up his milk carton and took a swig.

“No, sorry, Minho. I didn’t get much sleep. Jonghyun’s was poking me in the half the night.”

“Tae—” I began to protest but was halted by a spray of milk hitting me in the face.

Startled, I looked up to see Minho half-laughing, half-choking. Beside him, Key began cackling, loud and with abandon. His head was thrown back and he was slapping his knee.

Turns out, Key’s laugh is completely infectious. It was only moments before Taemin and I were overtaken with it too. So the four of us sat there, lunches abandoned, clutching our stomachs and gasping for air. I wasn’t even sure what each of us was laughing about—my lack of self-control, Taemin’s bluntness, Minho having ejected milk out of his nose (and the fact that I was wearing it), or even Key himself. But every time we started to wind down and wipe our eyes, one of us would peel off again and we’d all lose it.

Half an hour later in math class, my stomach was aching and I was still chortling to myself.

For much of the afternoon, I was focused on the usual stuff, but every now and then, my system was shocked into a nervous state as I remembered that by tomorrow night, I might be sleeping with Eunhyuk. On more than one occasion, I considered abandoning the idea. However, I chalked that up to sheer nerves, not anything that deserved much consideration. Nonetheless, by the time school ended, I still hadn’t thought of a way to get Eunhyuk over to my house.

I was more than distracted after school as Taemin and I headed to the store for snacks. In fact, I didn’t even notice Key at the bus stop until he called out.

“Hey! Are you back to ignoring me?”

I followed the voice and spotted him within the Plexiglas shelter only a few feet away. “Oh , sorry Key. No, I’m just lost in my own world, I guess. Hey, where are you heading?”

“Home, where else?”

I checked the sign. “Isn’t this the cross-town bus?”

“Yeah, I live in the east end.” The breeze picked up and snuck its way into the shelter, coercing a strand of Key’s hair to stand at attention. He immediately smoothed it down, but a moment later, it was wafting about in the air again.

Taemin, meanwhile, was keeping his eye on a bug that was crawling its way up the shelter wall.

“Damn, that’s a long way to come just for school,” I commiserated. “I assumed you’d moved here. Why are you bothering to come all the way to this dump of a school?”

Key’s hand was glued to the side of his head now in an effort to keep his hair looking nice. I guess he figured it looked less dumb than strands of his hair dancing the samba. I wasn’t convinced.

“My last school . Full of jerks—I just didn’t feel like putting up with their antics anymore.”

Even standing there with his hand propped on his head, Key had an air of dignity. I decided not to dig. If Key didn’t want to get into details, I was OK with that.  

“There are definitely jerks here too,” I admitted, recalling the abuse I took over the “Barbie Girl” incident. “But if you have a solid group of friends, you’ll survive.”  

“Yeah? Do you think I’ll have a solid group of friends?” he asked, his voice almost a whisper.

“You’re getting there.” I patted his shoulder. “Right, Taemin?”

“Huh?” Taemin asked, not taking his eye off the bug.

Key laughed. “Definitely cute,” he said with a wink in my direction. “Oh, here it comes.” Key gestured down the road with his free hand. He threw his satchel over his shoulder and moved out of the shelter into the wind. Both hands clamped on his head now, he approached the bus as it slowed to a stop in front of him. “See you tomorrow,” he called out as the bus door opened and he climbed inside.

********

I couldn’t believe my good fortune when we got to the store. Taemin and I were busy debating between seaweed and potato snacks when, out of nowhere, Eunhyuk appeared. “Hey little man,” he said, mussing up Taemin’s hair. Taemin laughed and ducked away from him. “Hi Jonghyun,” Eunhyuk said, giving me a nod. “Can’t decide?”

“I think we might need both. I’m having a party,” I blurted out.

“Wha—?” Taemin turned to look at me, mouth hanging open.

“Tomorrow night,” I pretended to remind him. “What did you think we were buying these for?” I teased.

“I’m hungry,” Taemin replied, completely baffled.

“Well, eat the food you have at home,” I stated, grabbing several bags off the shelf and piling them up in Taemin’s arms. “These are for tomorrow.”

“Here, put them in my buggy,” Eunhyuk offered, relieving his neighbour of the balancing act with the chips. “I don’t have much to get.” Then to me, “Tomorrow night, huh?”

I suppressed my excitement. The guy was practically inviting himself! “Yeah,” I answered as casually as possible. “I’ve been hoping I’d get a chance to let you know. Everyone’s coming.”

Taemin, mouth still agape, looked back and forth between Eunhyuk and me like he was watching a tennis match.

We began moving through the aisles, picking up items on Eunhyuk’s list. “Do you need pop?” he asked as we approached the cases of cans. “Um...” I suddenly realized that I’d be lucky if I had enough money for the chips, let alone drinks. And now that everything was in Eunhyuk’s buggy, I couldn’t stall and put them back after he left. I scratched my head absentmindedly, scouring my mind for an excuse. “Um...the others are going to bring some drinks.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, let me get some of the chips then,” he offered.

Luck was with me today, I realized as we got to the register. I had just enough money to buy my share of the food after Eunhyuk had paid for his and half of mine. Not to mention just running into him like this. I was starting to think this was going to be easy.

We parted ways with Eunhyuk at the store, and Taemin helped me carry the snacks home. For some reason, I kept up the charade that I had told him about the party and he had just forgotten. I don’t know why. In retrospect it was pretty dumb, and I don’t think Taemin bought it. I guess I just figured that if I came clean, he’d tell me I was rushing things and try to talk me out of it.

And I really did not want to be talked out of it. I knew much of what I do ends up going badly, but I had to try. I was sure if I kept putting myself out there, good things would eventually happen.

Of course, after I sent Taemin home, I was left scrambling to throw together an actual party. I asked as many people as I could think of, and I hoped to god it didn’t snowball out of control. My mom would kill me if she came home to a huge mess and kids draped all over the house at two in the morning.

By the time I gave up and dropped into bed, I had seven yesses, five nos, three maybes, and a promise from Onew that he’d invite more people. It was starting to look like I’d have a decent turnout, after all. Not bad for a party that didn’t exist just a few hours ago.