WE WERE BOTH GIVING ORAL

I had been talking to Bongie for the last five hours. 

Not continuously, of course, but there had definitely been some intense conversation taking place. Mainly about Kyungsoo. Because it really wasn't like I had anyone else in Seoul to talk to and my friends back home were on a different schedule and they weren't all as accepting to my impromptu phone calls as my mom was. Besides, even though I hate to admit it, Bongie was decent to talk to.

I'd like to never speak to her again because of the Kim Minseok thing, but still.

Well, I'd never speak to her after that day.

"But you really can't blame me, right?" I asked her as I spread my books all over the floor to the apartment so that I could actually get some sort of studying done. The Romanian anti­love spells were fun and all, but I didn't think that they were working. "I mean, it's kind of Kyungsoo's fault for being such a nice person towards me. He should have just called me a freak and walked off the night when I grabbed his wontons."

Bongie didn't ­ well, you understand now that Bongie is a dog and isn't going to do anything exciting. Or helpful. Or judgmental, which was why I was talking to her.

"And I don't even know what it is about him that makes me so attracted to him in the first place. I mean, yeah, he's attractive, but there are a ton of attractive people here. And Kyungsoo is funny but there are also funny people at Hanyang, like Sehun, and I don't want to date Sehun!" That was true. Nothing against Sehun or anything, but I had no intention of ever dating him. "It's just something about Kyungsoo that just draws me to him!" I moaned, collapsing backward and pressing a pillow over my face.

I couldn't see Bongie but I'm pretty sure that she didn't do anything different.

"I just wish that I knew what it was about him that makes him so appealing. There's got to be just one thing that he has that no one else does," I let out a frustrated sigh. "Maybe it's his long eyelashes. Or how even though he makes fun of me he always makes sure that he doesn't hurt my feelings."

Bongie made a gagging noise so I lifted the pillow to make sure that she wasn't dying. She wasn't. She was just choking on the cookie that I had given her. And she wasn't actually choking choking, in case you were concerned. There was no immediate danger.

But her gagging did snap me back to my senses.

"That's it!" I exclaimed, shooting upright. "I'm just going to go and find whatever it is about Kyungsoo and make myself immune to it. That way I won't have to like him anymore. God, I am so brilliant."

The dog gave me her signature y look. Okay, so maybe Bongie was judging me. 

I was not about to let a dog bring my mood down. "This is perfect. And now that I have a valid reason to leave my apartment and avoid 99.9 percent of humanity, I can solve so many problems. Maybe I'll even go and apologize to Minseok for what you did to him," I waved a finger at the toy poodle.

"So you can give me that smug little look all you want, Bongie, but I just solved all of my problems, so you can it."

"Am I interrupting something?" Of course, that was the moment that Chorong decided to return home. The moment that I was talking to an animal.

"No, nothing," I replied since I really didn't want to get into why I was talking to Bongie and, more importantly, what I was talking to her about in the first place. Even though Chorong had toned down her ‘someone's gonna get hurt' speech from the night that I had first purposefully met Kyungsoo, I knew that she would whip it out and wave it in my face the first chance that she got.

Chorong didn't bother asking me anyway. "So, you actually went to class today? I knew that your mouth didn't hurt that bad."

Um, my mouth really did hurt. My non­herpes infected mouth. But I hadn't actually gone to class that day. And I really didn't want to have to ‘think quick!' again. Too bad I didn't have that many other options. "So I didn't know that Minah and Kyungsoo were getting married so soon." Hey. That was a good one. And it wasn't even a lie.

"I know, right? Three weeks. I don't know how Minah expects for all of us to be so focused on her wedding with exams coming up and all. I don't even know how she's focusing on it," Chorong groaned on her way to the fridge. "Well, wait. I bet that her parents are planning this entire freaking thing. Good. The more they do, the less I have to."

Is it bad that I just wanted Chorong to admit that she didn't want for Kyungsoo and Minah to get married either? Probably.

"But they're getting married so soon," I dragged on, hoping for my desired response. 

"It's three weeks. It's not like they're going to that - what's that place called in your country that people get married at when they're really drunk?"

Yes, everyone, this is what pops into people's minds when they think of the United States. "Las Vegas," I answered dryly.

Chorong nodded. "Yeah. It's not like they're going to Vegas." Please be on my side. "Oh," she added on suddenly. Sweet squash, was this really about to happen? If Chorong didn't want for them to get married then there was a good chance that she would be able to talk them out of it. "This is about school ending in two weeks, right?" No. It wasn't. My hope had been shattered. "Don't worry, you can spend the time before the wedding at my house."

"Thanks?" I replied because that really was nice of her and solved so many problems but also since I didn't want to go to the wedding in the first place. "I'll have to call my parents first." That also wasn't a lie because I needed to ask my parents if they had bought my plane ticket home yet. They probably hadn't because they were too busy bailing Luhan out of jail.

"No problem. Hey, where did you get Bongie from?" Chorong asked, finally noticing the other living thing in the room.

And look, I was back to lying. "I volunteered to watch her."

My roommate made a face. "Why? That dog is a ."

Oh, gee, guys, thanks for telling me that now.

"She wasn't that bad," I lied because I also didn't want to talk about the Kim Minseok Incident. "I mean, she has her moments. She's a great listener."

Chorong rolled her eyes, taking a cup of yogurt out of the fridge. "You know what else is a great listener? A houseplant." She did have a point there. She the yogurt stuck to the foil top. "I hope that when Kyungsoo and Minah have a baby it's nowhere near as annoying as that stupid animal is."

My face went white.

Really, why did Chorong have to bring up the future procreation of Kyungsoo and Minah? That was gross. And she had just implied that Kyungsoo and Minah would be together long enough to pop out some form of life which also meant that she was in favor of the two of them having a baby and being married and that totally on my end of selfish bitterness.

Seriously. She might as well have just punched me in my (non-herpes­ inflicted) face.

I'm sure that I said something out loud but was thankfully distracted by my phone going off. Maybe someone was on my side after all. Oh, wait, never mind. The person calling me was Minah.

"Hello?" I choked out. Why was I choking? And why could I never give anyone a decent greeting? It was like my own vocal cords didn't want me to succeed. Also, I really didn't even need to say hello because it was Minah and Minah never just called to say hi. She called because she needed to say something, usually about something that she wanted.

"Hey, , where's my dog?" she greeted me. See? She wanted something. Although I was happy to oblige that request. And it should have been the other way around; it was the dog that was the .

Let's just not bring up the part about me pining for her fiancé. That makes me look bad.

"Bongie's in my room," I answered happily because it was the first time in a while that I didn't feel pressured (by myself) to lie. "Do you want her?" Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes.

"Yeah." Thank squash! "But can you bring her over to my room, though? One of my wedding planners is here and I'd feel quite rude if I just got up and left ­ no, not floral. This is not my grandmother's wedding that you're planning!" Obviously that last part was not directed at me. And Minah had just said ‘planners' with a plural. Exactly just how many did she have?

I looked down at Bongie. I really didn't want to have to walk (run) in public with her again. But judging by the look that Chorong was giving me, it didn't seem like I had much of a choice.

"Yeah, sure," I said because I was cornered. "I'll­ I'll be there in a few minutes." Oh, hey, stuttering. Glad to see you made such an unwelcome return.

There was a bit of mild shuffling on the other end before Minah replied to me. "Oh my god, Avery, thank you so much. You are saving me so much time. Just come over now. And don't bother knocking, alright? The door's unlocked. I just told you that I don't want floral! Can you not understand simple­!" And then the line went dead.

"You love me, right?" I gave Chorong the most innocent look that I could muster up.

"Psh," Chorong snorted, grabbing a plastic spoon from one of the drawers. "I don't love anyone that much."

***

Even though I had only been with Bongie for a day, I had become a pro at walking her. She didn't even try to hump anything that time or run away. Maybe she had finally comprehended about how complex my life was and felt bad for me. Not that I was desperate enough to want sympathy from a dog.

I had just fallen into my walking rhythm when I heard someone scream my name from across the campus.

"Avery!" It was Jongin. And my life had gone back to . "Avery, STOP WALKING SO FAST." He actually had that wrong. I was barely even moving. It had taken him all of three steps to reach me.

The reason I believe that Jongin is a child is because he doesn't understand that I generally never want to talk to him. He had acted like a total douche towards me that morning and I knew that he didn't have the capability to understand that he needed to apologize.

"What are you even doing here?" I asked him. Really, though, because he lived in Cheongdam and that was a good hour ­bus ride away. Although I'm pretty sure that Jongin doesn't take the bus. He should because he's twelve and all, but I get the feeling that he's spoiled and has some fancy car to drive around him with his ... cats. 

"Why didn't you tell me that Naeun had a boyfriend?" he whined, completely ignoring my question. Child.

And really? It was about that? No need to apologize, Jongin. "I did tell you that Naeun had a boyfriend. I told you the night that you fin-­" Oops, no, not going down that road again. "I told you the night of Kyungsoo and Minah's engagement party." And that was true. I remembered just about every second of that day.

Jongin made a face, obviously thinking it over. "Oh. Maybe you did. You're just so uninteresting that I forgot that you were even there." Jerk.

"I'm going to walk away now," I threatened. I wasn't kidding, either. Just because Bongie and I weren't screaming (well, I wasn't screaming) at each other it didn't mean that I still wanted her around.

To continue on with my ‘Jongin Styles Is A Child' theory, Jongin straightened up because he was that desperate for attention. "Why didn't you tell me that Naeun has a boyfriend?" he repeated. Are you serious?<