I GRABBED HIS WONTONS

For the record, it was never my idea to make Kyungsoo fall in love with me. It wasn't even my idea to make Kyungsoo even like me. And believe me, I was surprised that he did. The entire plan was my friend, Minah's. She and Kyungsoo had been dating for a little while and she was for some reason convinced that he was cheating on her. 

"He has to be cheating on me!" She had wailed one Thursday evening at my apartment, tugging at her hair. We were both students at Hanyang University, which meant that we had to do some serious to keep up with our studies. That pretty much meant that I spent the majority of my time studying. I loved partying as much as the next person (even though my idea of partying was probably nothing compared to the average college student's) but my mother would destroy me if I didn't get good grades. It was bad enough that my older brother, Luhan, was as dumb as bricks and my oldest sister, Cara, had no intention in getting a high-paying job but rather was convinced on seducing a millionaire.

I had never met Kyungsoo before, meaning that I was in no position to either confirm or deny those rumours. Minah would always rage on and on about how he had a super busy schedule and that girls were always flinging themselves at him, which made me believe it may have been true, but everyone else (meaning Minah's other friends) said that Kyungsoo was the greatest guy they had ever met. Apparently, he was a big deal to many people who lived in Seoul. 

"Why would he be cheating on you?" My real roommate, Chorong, asked. Chorong wasn't a big fan of Minah, which was easy to understand. Minah was one of those girls that always had to have the focus on her, no matter what the topic was. It wasn't that Minah was a bad person, but she was sometimes difficult to be around. 

Kind of like now, when she was trying to convince us that her boyfriend was cheating on her. Not that I'm an expert on boyfriends or anything, but I'm pretty sure that the conversation should have been going the other way around. 

"How could he not be cheating on me?" She scowled, whirling around to face Chorong and I. The two of us were trying to study for one of our tests the next day, and nothing was going to get done with Minah around. "Everything adds up to him having an affair!" 

"Technically it's not an affair if he's not married," I pointed out. 

Minah shot me a glacier-melting glare. "He's ing cheating on me, Avery. It doesn't matter what you want to call it, but it means the same thing!" 

And Minah is kind of a . 

I didn't say anything and went back to reading my Software Engineering book. Yes, my goal to become the next Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates and yes you can get tested on it. But that's college for you; nothing had to make sense for you to be tested on it. 

Minah continued stomping around our tiny apartment in her five-inch heels, opening and slamming cabinets and doors. We get your point, Min. You wanted for all of us to stop what we were doing and look at you. But it wasn't going to work. Chorong is one of the most stubborn people on the planet. 

"He hasn't texted me back in three hours!" She moaned, clomping around some more. "Three ing hours! What the hell could he possibly be doing that involves him not texting me back for three hours?" 

"Oh, gee, I don't know, anything?" Chorong responded from her seat at the table. 

"How about hooking up with some random in a nightclub?" Minah spoke over her. 

"Min, it's ten o'clock on a Thursday night," I reminded her. "Be reasonable. Maybe he had to work or something." 

She threw her head back and laughed. "Work?" She cracked up. "Do you know what Kyungsoo does for a living?" 

Uh. No. I didn't. 

"The last thing that Kyungsoo is ever going to need to do is work," Minah vaguely answered my questions. "Him and those friends of his probably went out to some club and are now living it up without me!" 

Really, I was not seeing how him not texting her in three hours equaled to him cheating on her. I was lucky if I even texted someone back within three hours. I lose my phone all the time and I barely even have time to look for it. "Why didn't you just go with them?" I asked. Even though I had never met Kyungsoo before, Minah talked about him like he was the kindest man on the planet. I was sure that he wouldn't have minded if she wanted to tag along with him and his friends. 

"Avery! He's cheating on me! What part of that do you not understand?" 

Well, any of it. 

I had never even suspected any of my past boyfriends of cheating on me. Which is actually pretty hard to believe. Not to bash myself or anything, but between Minah, Chorong and I, I was the ugly step-child of the three. 

It starts with the name. 

Avery isn't a Korean name. It's never been a Korean name and it will never be a Korean name. And it didn't matter how many times my mother told me that people are used to European names in Korea, it was a lie. It always led to them pronouncing it wrong and ending up with me not even understanding my own name and to them thinking I was rude because I didn't respond if asked a question. Maybe if my mother married a Korean man, that way I could have at least been named Haejin or something like that. The fact that I'm American leads everyone to expect a large ed, long legged blonde when my friends tried to set me up on dates. And once the date begins, the other person is already disappointed and it only proceeds on becoming worse. 

Not only am I an American, but I am awkward as hell. No matter what the situation is, I can make it ridiculously uncomfortable in ten seconds flat. And I know that being American technically isn't a flaw, but it is to me. It leads everyone to think that I can't speak Korean properly and that I'm an invalid. 

And I'm not. My dear mother made sure that I was able to speak Korean fluently the second I was introduced into the world. My first word was 'Umma' for god's sake. I'm from a ridiculously traditional family living in New York until college rolled around and I got accepted to Hanyang. 

And then it came down to appearance, as most things do. 

Minah had the faultlessly styled hair and makeup look perfected. Chorong was the preppy but effortless beauty. And I looked like a baby giraffe. Although we were all approximately the same height, I possessed an unnatural and unproportionate amount of leg. But it all stopped there. My hair, although a mix of dark brown and blonde, was impossible to tame. All this and my uncomfortably skinny body all added to my awkwardness. Chorong and Minah both had model like bodies, and I looked like a wounded deer. I'm not joking, if it wasn't for my hair, I could easily pass as a boy. 

Which was probably why I had only had two boyfriends, both of whom had dumped me within four months. 

So, Minah, to answer your question, I didn't understand anything about Kyungsoo possibly cheating on you. Because you were perfect and had no problems and weren't going to study for this test and still manage to get a decent grade out of it while I studied all night and failed miserably. 

"I need for one of you to check and make sure that he's remaining faithful," Minah stated,  tapping her heel impatiently on our hardwood floors. What was she even talking about? Couldn’t she just ask Kyungsoo for herself and see what he had to say? That was a stupid idea, even for Minah. "Avery?" Wait, why was she singling me out? "Will you do it?" 

My eyes widened in fear. "M-me?" I managed to stammer out. 

Minah nodded eagerly. "We both know that Chorong isn't going to do it and all of my other friends have met Kyungsoo before." Then why hadn't I? Even though Minah and I weren't roommates, I still considered the two of us to be close friends. But apparently, we weren't that close if the rest of Seoul had already met Kyungsoo. 

"Finally, we've agreed on something," Chorong mumbled. 

Minah ignored her. "Come on. It'll be so much fun. All you have to do is flirt a little and see if he takes the bait." And now this was just offensive to Kyungsoo. If she really thought that he was going to hop in th