THIRD BASE

"Do you want to do something today?"

Of course, Chorong was basically talking to a corpse at that point. Really, ‘door closed, lights off, in bed' means that I am dead asleep. Either Chorong was oblivious to the fact that I was conked out or she had just chosen to ignore it. Knowing Chorong, it was more than likely the latter.

Actually, it was the latter, because she then made a big deal of climbing up on top my bed and trying to brush my hair with her foot. I don't know which is grosser, her trying to do my hair with her feet or my hair in general.

"I was thinking that we could study and then start packing up the apartment," she said. "That is, unless you have other plans."

Oh, squash. I did have plans. Plans that involved me, a bunch of guys, and America's Favorite Pastime. Which is baseball, in case you aren't American. Or if you're American and just don't know a lot about sports.

But packing and studying sounded a lot better. "That sounds great," I grumbled from under my mound of pillows. "Let's do that when I wake up."

More petting of my hair. People really like not letting me sleep. Mainly just Jongin and Chorong. But it made sense knowing them. Jongin was a child and did anything for attention and Chorong just liked pissing people off. And she was really good at it. And she was stronger than me so if I knocked her off my bed she would easily be able to fling me out of the window.

"Avery, aren't you going to that baseball game today?" She knew. Why do I even try to keep secrets? It's not like people don't know in the first place.

"I think that I should give Joonmyeon my ticket," I pushed the pillows off of my face. It was hot and they were making it harder for me to breathe. "I feel like it would be a nice way for all of them to bond with each other, you know? Like a masculine version of a girls’ day." It still sounded lame when I said it out loud.

Chorong made a face similar to the one that Sehun had made when I had told him about giving my ticket to Joonmyeon. "Why would you do that?"

Even though I was half­asleep, I was pretty sure that I had just explained that to her. "So that they could bond?" I repeated uncertainly.

Chorong snorted. "Minah and Joonmyeon hate each other. I'm not trying to get her to hate me even more than she already does."

"Why does she hate Joonmyeon?" It was a long shot, but it was worth it.

"Ugh, it's stupid. A few years ago Joonmyeon told Minah's then­current boyfriend that she was cheating on him. It was all very bloody juvenile, really," Chorong shrugged, hopping down off of my bed. Wait, that was all? That was so ... normal. "And you know how Minah can hold a grudge. She'll get over it one day."

I sat up, knocking quite a few pillows to the floor. "Wait a minute? That's why her and Joonmyeon hate each other? It's not some kind of bitter romance thing or whatever?"

My best friend/roommate gave me a weird look. Okay, so it was a dumb question. "Ew? Minah and Joonmyeon?" she snorted. "Avery, they hated each other before that happened. They just don't have compatible personalities. Joonmyeon's logical and Minah isn't. Even a baby could tell that they wouldn't work out."

Huh? It was too early for all of this. "So that means that Joonmyeon isn't going to take my ticket?" Really, Avery? That was all that you got out of that?

"Joonmyeon's studying for his exams." Studying. I used to be so good at that. "You should get up now. Sehun will probably be here soon," Chorong said before she turned and walked out of my room.

Sehun was coming because we were going to drive down to the baseball game together. He had told me that Minseok said that he was going to drive himself. That may have been a lie, but it wasn't like I could blame Minseok. I didn't have a good record of saying normal things around him. And a dog humped his foot once.

Which was why I found myself in Chorong's car with Sehun, dreading every moment that was bound to happen that day. Remember how the last words that I had said to Kyungsoo were about him not being happy with Minah? Well, I mean, that wasn't my exact quote or anything, but you get the idea. I hate you, Joonmyeon. You could have easily taken my place in this and all would've been well. But no, you just had to get a quality education. Your parents would be ashamed.

"You don't look excited for this," Sehun observed. I'm pretty sure that he had been laughing at nothing for the last five minutes. I believe that because neither of us had said anything and he suddenly started cracking up and didn't stop. But it was Sehun, so it didn't come as a shock to me. "I thought you liked baseball."

"I do like baseball," I confirmed. "And I am excited." Liar liar pants on fire. I was basically setting myself up to fail. Liars never win.

"You're lying," he responded, but not in an accusatory tone. He said it like he understood. Although I'm pretty sure that he had no idea what was going on. Before I had a chance to lie about not lying, Sehun started up again. "Is it because of exams? Because you're really smart, Avery. You'll do fine."

I was not in the position to be denying reassurance. "Thanks, Sehun. You'll do great, too."

Sehun went back to laughing at something as I pulled into the parking area of the stadium. I really had no idea what was going on. This was a bad idea. This had to have been a bad idea. I couldn't think of a way that this could possibly be a good idea. Well, maybe if I wasn't in love with Kyungsoo it could've been fun.

Wait, no. If I wasn't paranoid and didn't over­think everything, then it may have been fun.

At least Sehun was having a good time. I was going to channel my energy so that I could live vicariously through him. He told me that Kyungsoo, Jongin, Yixing and Minseok were already waiting in the seats.

It was a decent sized turnout for the baseball game. I mean, considering that the five guys that I was with had no idea what was going on. We were technically at a soccer stadium, but whatever. My hopes hadn't been set that high. And we were in the middle of nowhere. 

On the brighter side, it wasn't raining. I mean, it was still cloudy, but it wasn't raining. And my hair had cooperated enough to be pulled back into a ponytail. I hadn't even broken any elastics trying to get it there.

"Is there going to be food here?" Sehun asked me, adjusting his baseball cap as we showed the people behind the counter our tickets.

He had been deprived. "Yeah," I nodded at him. "There should be a lot of food here."

"Yes! Oh, it's Jongin. Jongin, we're here!" Sehun shouted suddenly, waving his hands in the air to attract Jongin's attention.

Jongin was on the phone. Was he always on the phone? He was like a girl. Wait, that made me seem like I had no friends because I almost never spoke on the telephone. He also didn't look all that happy to see me. That was fair, though, since I wasn't all that happy to see him.

"You're here," he greeted me with a frown. Actually, it was more of a backhanded comment because he was also doing some kind of man handshake with Sehun and wasn't even looking in my direction.

"Um, yeah," I said awkwardly. I didn't know what else to do. It wasn't like I was going to interrupt their handshake. That would have been rude. "Is that bad that I'm here?"

Jongin and Sehun finished their handshake so that Jongin could look at me. "Yeah," he said in that same disappointed voice. "I bet Minseok ten won that you wouldn't show up."

It was my turn to frown. "Why would you make a bet?"

"Because I wanted ten won?" he answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And thanks to you, I just lost ten."

I didn't understand this. "Why did you think that I wouldn't show up?"

"I thought that you didn't do social gatherings," he looked at me smugly. Ugh. That sounded like something that Joonmyeon would say. Only I'm sure that Jongin and Joonmyeon have never met each other before. Jongin's twelve and Joonmyeon is going to be a doctor and the fates never seem to align for the two of them, so they really have no reason for their paths to ever cross.

Besides, I did do social gatherings. Jongin had only been in my apartment once and I saw him all of the time. Clearly I had to be in public at least some of the time. "I go to social gatherings all of the time!" Hey, look at that! I didn't even stutter!

"If that's what you call your multiple trips to the hospital and wedding outings with Minah, then go for it," he responded evenly.

Hey! That wasn't fair! "How do you even know about my multiple trips to the hospital?" I demanded. Also, Avery, way to confirm that you had taken multiple trips to the hospital.

"Kyungsoo's my roommate. We tell each other everything," he gave me that ‘duh' look again. Everything­ everything? I was screwed. Wait, no I wasn't. Hopefully, Kyungsoo had enough sense to not listen to anything that Jongin said.

"Then he should've told you about how much I love baseball." That was lame, even for me.

It was also too lame for Jongin because he turned away from me and led Sehun and I to where everyone else was sitting. "Great news, men, I found Sehun. And Giraffe Girl showed up as well," he mumbled the last part.

I'll give Minseok props for not immediately shouting out how Jongin owed him ten won. Actually, I wouldn't have cared if he had said that Jongin owed him ten won because it would prove that both Jongin was wrong about something and had to pay and it would also mean that Kim Minseok would have to say my name and take precious seconds out of his life to talk about me. So talk all you want, Minseok.

But Minseok didn't say anything. Well, I'm sure that he said ‘hi' or whatever (which was still flattering considering as how Kim Minseok was the most popular guy on campus) and so did Yixing (I'm still convinced that they were giving me weird looks) but I didn't hear any of that because Kyungsoo was screaming my name.

So I guess that there was no awkwardness between us after that dreadfully uncomfortable dog­ conversation? Because I would take that hands down.

"Avery, you came!" he exclaimed gleefully, hopping up to give me a big hug. I could see Jongin rolling his eyes behind him. Whatever. And why did everyone think that I wasn't going to show up? Did I really come off as that anti­social?

"Uh, yeah. I'm here," I gave everyone a tight smile. "I, uh, do like baseball." Wow. Could I get any lamer than that? Wait a minute, Avery, don't put yourself up to that challenge.

I had never even heard of the two teams that were playing. Probably because they were Korean. I was from New York, so obviously I was all about the Mets. I wasn't even sure if the team playing then was a professional team. Hopefully they didn't think that I knew everything about the players and just wanted some help on the rules. Although it's really not that hard to understand baseball. If Junior could do it, anyone could do it.

Because we had an abundance of space, I sat between Sehun and Kyungsoo. That wasn't really my choice though. I was just following Sehun. Yixing and Minseok apparently knew other people there (of course they did. Minseok was too perfect to not be friends with and it seemed like everyone in Seoul knew who Yixing was) and were sitting with them in the row in front of us. Jongin was being a weird outcast and was sitting in the row behind us all. He's so bizarre.

Well, this was turning into a sufficiently awkward event. Then again, it was kind of like any event that I was at was bound to tu