“Say WHAT?” I asked in annoyance. 

For some weird reason, hearing that corny pick up line from this HyukJae guy sent shivers down my spine. I could feel the hair at the nape of my neck stood up.

Yes, it was that lame.

MinHo burst out laughing while DaeSung’s eyes shot wide open in surprise. YeJin just groaned loudly, shaking her head.

“Yah!” DaeSung said as he slapped HyukJae’s arm, “Stop it, HyukJae! You’re embarrassing yourself.”
HyukJae continued to grin cheekily at me, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. 
I fought hard the urge to kick his balls.

“Girl, you gotta be tired because you’ve been running through my mind all day,” he said, his voice husky.

That does it!

“Say creepy things like that again and I swear I’ll break your neck,” I warned through gritted teeth.
“And I’ll break both of your legs,” YeJin added.

HyukJae remained his composure, as if the threats that we made meant nothing to him. “There’s nothing creepy in the name of love, ladies.”

“Argh!!! DAESUNGGG!!!” YeJin and I yelled in unison at DaeSung, like he was the one at fault for HyukJae’s creepiness.

“Yah, HyukJae! Stop it!! Now you’re embarrassing me too!” DaeSung yelled, putting a hand to cover HyukJae’s mouth to stop him from embarrassing himself some more.

MinHo continued to laugh happily, like it was the funniest thing on earth, seeing us being wooed by HyukJae. “That’s funny, man,” he chuckled.

“Hey, hey! At least someone with a sense of humor,” HyukJae slapped DaeSung’s hand away from his mouth and grinned as he high-fived MinHo. Then, he turned towards DaeSung. “How have you been, man?”

They did this whole bromance thing where they hugged each other tightly, like lovers just reunited after being separated for a long time. When they finally let go of each other, I swear I could see the tears in their eyes.

Bromance!

“I thought you said that you’re only coming this weekend?” DaeSung said, wiping the tears from the edges of his eyes.
“I wanted to but GwiSoon kept bugging me at home so I sneakily left. She wanted to follow me here. You know how much she likes you.”

DaeSung blushed to a deep shade of crimson.

“Who’s GwiSoon?” I asked. From what I understand, this GwiSoon likes DaeSung or something.
“My sister, love. Or should I say, your future sister-in-law?” HyukJae winked.
“Oh, you mean the one who’s going to give a talk at your funeral?” I replied.

DaeSung and MinHo burst out laughing.

“Let me guess,” HyukJae said, putting a finger on his chin as he scanned me up and down with his eyes, “You must be ChaeRin. I’ve heard so much about you from DaeSungie.”
“You got that right.”
“Man, she’s nothing like what you’ve said.”
“What exactly did he say about me?”

I was curious to find out about that but HyukJae just gave me a wry smile as he moved his attention to YeJin. “And you must be YeJin. He’s right, you’re as pretty as a flower.”
“Ewww, stop talking to me you psycho!” YeJin looked utterly disgusted by HyukJae.

So DaeSung said YeJin is as pretty as a flower?

I couldn’t believe at how annoyed I was by that. I mean, I know YeJin is pretty but to hear that comment coming from DaeSung just annoyed the hell out of me.

No, I wasn’t jealous. Don’t be silly.

“And you must be MinHo, the one who sleeps like a bear,” HyukJae said to MinHo as he extended his hand.
MinHo shook it. “Nice to meet you, man,” he said and glanced down at his watch. “Listen, I’ve got to go. I’ll see you around.”

MinHo gave a slight wave and put a hand in his pocket as he walked away.

“Yah, wait for me nerd!” YeJin yelled at him as she hurriedly went after him. “Bye, ChaeRin! Beware of the creep!” she pouted towards HyukJae.
“Goodbye, love!” HyukJae waved to her.

YeJin held up her fist at him and gave me a slight wave before disappearing into the crowd with MinHo.

“Yah!” I yelled.
How dare she leave me with the psycho and DaeSung?
YeJin is sooo going to get it from me tomorrow.

“So I guess, it’s just the three of us, love. Or, should I get rid of DaeSung so that’ll just be the two of us?” HyukJae put a hand around my shoulder.
“Yah!” DaeSung yelled as I yanked myself free from HyukJae’s hand. “Stop bothering her, HyukJae!”
“You should call me EunHyuk now.”
“Why EunHyuk?”
“It means silver. It’s cooler that way.”

DaeSung and I groaned loudly. This guy is seriously a douchebag. If I had it my way, I would have slapped his head hard.

“Come, let’s go home,” DaeSung said as he took HyukJae/EunHyuk’s duffel bag that was lying on the street.
“Aww.. Home already? We should go and hang out,” EunHyuk said as he wiggled his eyebrows at me. “What about it, baby? You and me, to some place quiet, where we can get to know each other better, if you know what I mean.”
I groaned loudly. “Call me 'baby' one more time and I swear I’ll kill you.”

DaeSung chuckled to himself. EunHyuk’s smile left his face. I guess he finally realized that I wasn’t kidding.

“Okay, let’s take the bus and then we’ll walk you home,” DaeSung said.

We walked to the bus stop in front of the school.

“I’m so hungry,” EunHyuk whined, rubbing his stomach.
“Don’t worry, Umma will cook you some food. Halmoni will be so excited to see you too,” DaeSung said.
“Owh, I miss your Umma’s cooking. She’s the best in the world!” EunHyuk chirped before he turned to look at me, “Would you like to join us, ChaeRin?”

That took me by surprise.

DaeSung had never invited me to come over to his house. I was not sure whether I should accept the invitation or not. Technically, DaeSung didn’t invite me; EunHyuk did.

“Err..” I said, looking at DaeSung.
“You should come, ChaeRin. My Umma is the best cook,” DaeSung grinned.
“Okay,” I shrugged.

Now that I was officially invited, I guess it was okay to agree. Besides, who doesn’t like free food? I was also curious of how DaeSung’s house looked like.

“Hooray!!” EunHyuk cheered as he and DaeSung began to dance dorkily together. Now I know why they were the best of friends. They matched each other so well.

While on the bus, the two of them talked non-stop. It was like I wasn’t even there. I just sat there listening to their every story.

I found out that EunHyuk found a new friend in GwangJu but it’s a she. At first, he said it was awkward to have a girl as his best friend but this girl, Goo HaRa, was very cool. Then, I found out that GwiSoon was still head over heels in love with DaeSung, to which DaeSung just smiled shyly upon hearing that.

“He’s a heartbreaker, this one,” EunHyuk said as he patted DaeSung’s shoulder.
“Heartbreaker??” I scoffed. Just the thought sounded funny to me.
“He made my sister go crazy with love but still doesn’t accept her, that poor thing,” EunHyuk shook his head and turned to look at DaeSung, “Yah! What more do you want? My sister is gorgeous, intelligent and popular. Why don’t you like her?”

Gorgeous, intelligent and popular?
Man, this GwiSoon girl sounded too good to be true. She sounded nothing like me!
I can’t believe how curious I was to see her at that time. I felt a tight knot in my stomach but figured that it must be due to hunger.

DaeSung blushed. “Yah! Stop talking about her! There’s nothing between me and her,” DaeSung said, his eyes looking anywhere but at me. For some weird reason, he seemed to be averting my gaze.

“That’s what I’m saying!” EunHyuk apparently didn’t notice DaeSung’s pleading gaze to change the topic, “We would have been brothers if you guys marry.”
“Mm-ma-marry?” DaeSung stuttered.
“Yes, you know, the thing where two people walked down the aisle in a church with the stupid music in the background?”

Wow, only EunHyuk can make a wedding sound so simple.

“They’re getting married?” I asked, stupified.
“Of course! I’ll be the best man,” EunHyuk grinned.

“STOP IT, LEE HYUKJAE!” DaeSung said sternly.
EunHyuk was startled by this and just looked at DaeSung.

The subject was immediately dropped.

I didn’t know why DaeSung was acting defensive about the whole GwiSoon thing. I thought EunHyuk was only kidding around but DaeSung was definitely annoyed.