BANGING THINGS 

He called me. 

It was a Wednesday night and Chorong and I were about to go out and get some pizza with Joonmyun when my phone rang. 

"Can you get that?" I yelled at Chorong as I tugged on a blouse. I didn't know who was calling me but I had no problems with someone else answering. I was still pretty spooked about the whole phone thing. 

I heard muffled voices from the other room when Chorong replied to me, "It's Kyungsoo." She was obviously confused. I was confused. Why would he be calling me? "It's Kyungsoo," Chorong repeated, sounding even more confused. "And I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that it's Kyungsoo, as in Minah's boyfriend Kyungsoo." 

I froze. 

"Why is Minah's boyfriend calling you?" Chorong demanded. 

She was being overdramatic. It was not as sketchy as it sounded. I mean, it was pretty strange, but it wasn't that weird. Just because he has a girlfriend didn't mean that he couldn't be friends with me. 

"I don't know why he's calling me," I answered truthfully, buttoning up my blouse. "What did he say?" 

Chorong walked into my room, covering my phone's receiver with her hand. "He said hi and that it was Kyungsoo and then asked if you remembered him," she whispered. Oh, whispering. That was probably a smart idea before I managed to say anything too stupid. 

"Did he say why he was calling?" I hissed. 

"I'm guessing he wants to talk. That's why I call people on the phone." I had forgotten how much of a smartass Chorong was. She dropped my phone into my hands. "Talk to him." 

I shook my head frantically. "No, I don't want to. I don't know what to say!" 

"Say whatever you said to him that made him want to call you in the first place! Apparently, you're better at getting people's attention than you thought. Don't tell Minah." 

What the hell was that supposed to mean? "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I whispered. I didn't know how Chorong could just drop a bomb like that and leave the room. "Why would I not tell Minah that I'm memorable- which I'm not, by the way. The only reason Kyungsoo remembers me is because I have a way of saying the filthiest things around him. I don't think that Minah would be threatened by her boyfriend calling me." 

My roommate rolled her eyes. "Avery. Get real. This is Minah we're talking about. She got mad at Joonmyun for hanging out with her last boyfriend," she reminded me. 

Oh, yeah, I remember that. Joonmyun (who is Chorong's boyfriend, in case you forgot and also the head of the 'Avery Needs More Social Interactions Committee happened to run into Minah's boyfriend of the time at some bar, and then Minah found out and flipped for a good three days. And to this day, I still don't know what Minah was freaking out about. 

"Maybe she thought that Joonmyun was going to steal him from her?" I tried to make sense of the situation and was instead met with an annoyed glare from Chorong. 

"Avery, get real. And answer the phone. Kyungsoo is still on the line," she said and then left my room again. 

Squash. 

"Hello?" It had been a good two minutes and it wouldn't have surprised me if Kyungsoo had already hung up. 

"Hello Avery!" Yep, he was still on the line. I wonder if he had heard any of our conversation. 

"Um. Hi." You already said hello, Avery. 

"I was kind of hoping that you would answer in your phone voice. Instead it wasn't even you who answered." He didn't sound all that disappointed, though. I couldn't blame him, Chorong is much better at conversing than I am. 

"Oh, yeah, sorry. That was my roommate," I apologised. 

"Meth?" 

"No, not Meth." 

Kyungsoo just laughed. "Anyways, I just called to say that I was in the area and I wanted to know if you wanted to do something." 

What? Why would he be in the area? Was it for Minah? Did she bail on him? No, that was impossible. Minah had to work that night, which was why she wasn't coming with us in the first place. He must just have an abundance amount of free time to just want to 'do something.' Minah said he didn't work, so he probably did. 

Oh squash, Avery, don't forget he's still on the line and you actually have to answer. "Why?" And that was my answer. "I mean, yes. Sure. That sounds great," I corrected myself quickly as Chorong popped back in again and began waving her arms frantically in the air. "My friends and I are already meeting at the pizza place that's right off campus. You can meet us there." 

Chorong dramatically slapped her hands against her forehead and collapsed to the ground. Now she was just being a diva. 

"That sounds great. I'll be there in a few minutes," Kyungsoo exclaimed happily before hanging up the phone. 

"What?" I asked my roommate who was miming a mental breakdown and was sprawled out across my floor. "We're eating pizza together. Minah won't mind that. It's social! And fun! And we're going as a group. If she's going to be that upset I'll just call her and tell her afterwards. Besides, the entire world knows that Kyungsoo and I are just friends, if we're even that. I'm not threat to her." If any of you find yourself in the presence of Minah you'll know exactly what I mean. She's the girl that always managed to have that model head shot in a yearbook photo while your eyes were closed in yours. 

"That's the problem. I'm not opposed to you having friends, Avery," Chorong sighed from the ground. I really wanted to know what the hell she was doing. It was kind of freaking me out. "Minah's not working tonight anymore." 

"And that is worthy of your breakdown why?" 

"Because Minah just re-invited herself to dinner. And she's going to flip if she sees her boyfriend there without her," she pulled herself up into a sitting position and played with the hem of her top. 

Ah, squash. 

Now I was going to have to watch one of my best friends turn into a jealous in a public venue. 

"Well," Chorong said dryly. "This should be fun." 

***

Before I explain everything that happens next, I would like to say that Minah truly is one of the best friends that I have ever had, and I'm sure that she had very good reasoning for the stunts that she pulled that night. After all, we do go to Hanyang so we have to have some degree of brain function. 

But even though I love Minah, and I really do, I have never loved her less than on that night. 

Chorong, Joonmyun and I somehow managed to make it to the restaurant at the same time as Kyungsoo showed up. Kyungsoo a black leather bomber jacket over a black tee and black rinsed jeans with knee cuts. Not judging his fashion choices, but the kid really had a thing for black. Or maybe it was just a coincidence, besides it wasn't like he looked awful. 

Chorong, as well as Joonmyun, possessed social abilities and non-awkwardly introduced themselves to Kyungsoo (even though I'm still holding on to the idea that he and Chorong already somehow knew each other) and then we all moved inside and got a table. Chorong and Joonmyun were sat on one side whereas Kyungsoo and I were sat on the other. I've always hated sitting in booths because sometimes if you're wearing shorts the back of your legs stick and make this really awkward (and painful) ripping sound when you stand up to leave. For some reason that was the only thing I could think of as we sat there even though I wasn't wearing shorts and Minah was going to show up and ruin everything. 

And then, to make things better, Joonmyun and Kyungsoo started talking about giraffes. 

"Avery just has this weird obsession with giraffes," Joonmyun was saying. Again, because it's Joonmyun, I didn't think that he was trying to be rude. He probably just really wanted to talk about giraffes. 

Kyungsoo said something back in response and then all of them laughed, and then they all started talking about Korean stuff. And by that I mean that they started talking about their childhood and which area they were from whilst using an overwhelming amount of dialect that I couldn't really understand. I would have almost rather had them speak in Chinese or something. At least I could understand that. No, they were speaking Korean and I had no idea what was going on. 

We made some civil discussion when the unfortunate happened: Minah showed up. 

Kyungsoo looked genuinely surprised, Chorong looked annoyed, I looked horrified, and Joonmyun looked disappointed because I believe that he wasn’t a very big fan of Minah since the whole 'hanging out with her boyfriend' incident. 

"Hi!" She exclaimed brightly, looking at all of us with a confused look on her face. "What are all of you doing here?" And by that she meant what was Kyungsoo doing here. It didn't take a genius to decode that one. 

"It's my girlfriend!" Kyungsoo hopped up and wrapped his arms around Minah, planting a kiss on her forehead. 

Chorong and I exchanged looks. Oh. I guess they were dating after all. And apparently he was quite fond of her. I don't know why she was accusing him of cheating. 

"What are you doing here?" he asked her, leaving one arm casually draped around her waist. It was cute to see Minah dating such a nice guy for a change. Normally she stuck to s that didn't even bother taking her on proper dates. Not that I would know anything about proper dates. 

"I came to eat dinner with my friends," Minah still had her smile plastered on her face as she looked at Chorong, Joonmyun and me. It looked like it was becoming more forced with each passing second. "What are you doing here?" 

Alright, Kyungsoo, don't blow this one. Just give a good, vague answer. He had to have known how naturally jealous Minah was of everyone. They had been dating for a while. 

"I'm having dinner with my friend, Avery," he said and gestured to me. Only he said my name