I let out an airy laugh that sounds so unlike me that I almost choke. “What makes you think that?”

“Someone told me.”

Reluctant to admit that a person I don’t know is aware of something that I have only recently come to terms with, I answer, “We’re just friends.”

“But you wish you weren’t. You’re partners, but not in the way you want.”

“Chanyeol and I are friends,” I force myself to repeat.

“You don’t have to hide it, Junah,” he assures me as he takes the triangle rack and arranges the pool balls inside of it once more. “I already know.”

I’m curious as to how he knows, but since he’s already set on his beliefs, there are very few things I can do to change them. Like I said; I hate confrontation, and I try to avoid it. This is a situation where I have to think on my feet and hope I don’t say something that reveals the very things I’m trying to hide. How can I stay levelheaded while my heart is everything but calm?

“If you’re feeling defensive, then I know I’m right. It’s an expected reaction.” He picks up his cue stick and tosses the triangle rack onto the other pool table. “If you can’t figure out your own life, then perhaps you aren’t qualified to figure out someone else’s.”

“Then why did you come to us?”

“I didn’t come for the both of you,” he says. “I came for you.” Perplexed, I watch him position the cue ball. “The girl exists, but I’ve talked to her already, and we’re steady friends. I’m like Chanyeol, in a way. He pairs people up because – I’m sure he’s told you his spiel – he wasn’t able to experience that ‘love’ for himself, so he wants others to have what he couldn’t. But he deprives himself, too. He thinks he doesn’t deserve it because he wasn’t able to see that the girl he liked, was in love with someone else. Which isn’t his fault,” he continues as he breaks the formation and sinks two balls in the process. “But he doesn’t know that, or can’t admit to it. It’s easier to blame yourself in a situation of loss rather than the person you’ve lost. What’s the point of blaming something that isn’t there? You can’t change that. But you can change yourself. Unfortunately, Chanyeol’s perspective of change has to do with restricting himself from it. Which is backwards, but understandable in a way only he can comprehend.”

Suho is telling me so much information that I can barely keep up. I sit down on a bench and watch as he sinks yet another ball. Twice, Chanyeol has had to see the girl he likes, like someone else. I can’t imagine what kind of courage it takes to even consider trying to like someone again.

“He’s stubborn, so I thought I’d approach his better half and try to fix things.”

Am I really Chanyeol’s better half? “How do you know all this?” I question.

Suho half smiles. “You have to research to get a good grade on a paper, right?” He aims for the blue pool ball and sinks it into a corner pocket. “If you dig far enough, you can find everything.”

“But why? Why do all that, why be … what do you even mean, you’re like Chanyeol?”

“Unlike him, I don’t call myself anything,” he replies. “Labels can be restricting. I’m a free lance. I have my own reasons, too.” He offers me his cue stick and says, “You’re a great girl, Junah. You’re attractive. You have motivation. But where’s the action? Why let an opportunity slip away?” He stands there and waits for me to take the cue stick, but I shake my head. He resumes his game. “You can only grab an opportunity while it’s coming to you. When it’s past, you can’t have it anymore. Greek mythology. Caerus.”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” I argue, too irritated to care about Greek mythology. “You just told me you don’t need help with getting the girl, and that you needed to talk to me instead of Chanyeol, whom you apparently know everything about, and now you’re telling me to ‘grab an opportunity’.”

“You like Chanyeol,” he states so easily again. “So tell him.”

“I can’t do that!” I object, thereby verifying the contents of my heart.

“Why not?”

I search for all the reasons why I can’t, but suddenly the excuses aren’t coming. “Because. I can’t.”

“Every time you’re with him is an opportunity to tell him.”

“That’s not an opportunity, that’s suicide.”

“He already knows you like him.”

My thoughts stop chasing each other around at Suho’s r