PETTING CATS

I'm in Kyungsoo's bed at Kyungsoo's apartment wearing Kyungsoo's clothes. This is normal. 

I'm in Kyungsoo's bed at Kyungsoo's apartment wearing Kyungsoo's clothes. This is normal. 

I'm in Kyungsoo's bed at Kyungsoo's apartment wearing Kyung- 

Oh, who the hell was I trying to kid? There was absolutely nothing normal about the situation, and no matter how many times I repeated it to myself it still didn't sound like some casual comment that you would tell the girlfriend of the guy that you just spent the night with. And you were wearing his clothes and sitting in his bed at his place and it was totally normal. 

I pushed myself up in Kyungsoo's bed and ran my head through my tangled mess of morning-after hair. Only it wasn't the kind of morning-after hair that I got from having a wild night with a random stranger. Although that kind of did happen last night. Just not in the fun way you'd expect. 

Alright, Avery. Kyungsoo is going to come in here eventually and tell you that he was taking you back to campus. Then you would have to explain to Chorong - in vivid detail - about everything that went on that night before devising a plan to make sure that Minah never found out about what happened. That meant that I was going to have to convince Kyungsoo to keep his mouth shut. 

'Oh, hey, Kyungsoo, do you mind not telling your girlfriend that I ever saw you last night?' Yeah, that sounded like a good line. 

I heard the front door to the apartment open. It must have been Kyungsoo. He had attempted to wake me up to tell me something about how he was going to get bread, but I wasn't paying attention. Besides, had he never heard of grocery shopping before? Stocking up once was easier than going to the store every day. 

"Soo! I'm back!" 

Holy squash, that was not Kyungsoo. 

Whoever it was sounded like they were running down the hall. Suddenly, the door to the room swung open and someone jumped on top of me, screaming. "KYUNGSOOOOO I MISSED YOUUUUU!" 

I pulled the duvet over my head and curled into the fetal position. 

"KYUNGSOO! THIS IS NOT THE WAY YOU GREET YOUR LOVER!" the person yelled, jabbing their fingers into me. It was The Roommate. What was his name again? Wow. After Baekhyun/Baek my mind was all jumbled. Apparently, he wore a lot of wool? 

"I'm not Kyungsoo!" I exclaimed from under the sheets, trying to shove whoever it was off of me. 

The person stopped stabbing their fingers into my side but didn't move from their position on top of me. "I should have known, Kyungsoo's a bigger lard than you." Um, thank you? "So, how's it going, Minah?" 

, he thought I was Minah. I wonder how long that was going to last. If he knew Minah's name then he probably knew what she looked like and it's not hard to differentiate me from my gorgeous friend. 

"Oh, you know, pretty well." Maybe if I hid under the covers for long enough then whoever would lose interest and go away. I was trying to draw the least amount of attention to myself as possible. Not to mention, it's highly inappropriate for someone to sit on top of another person, even if whoever it was already knew Minah.

"That's lovely to hear. Why are you hiding from me?" Dear lord, this must have been the roommate from hell. Did he ever go away? He needed to go back to wherever he was the day before. 

"I ... I have a zit?" 

"Oh, nonsense, Minah. You've had much worse than one zit before. Kyungsoo is obviously not into you because of your looks." Damn, this kid was kind of mean. Before I could fully register what he had just said, he yanked the sheets off of my face. 

Then he screamed, realizing that I was not Minah, and toppled off the bed. 

And then I screamed because I didn't really know what else to do. 

"You ... you are not Minah," he stated, popping back up from the ground. Whoever was sitting next to me had tanned skin, thick bee stung lips and just a very nice face. 

However looked like he was twelve. 

I mean, I generally look around fourteen, but he seriously looked like he could have been in middle school. 

"Who are you?" 

"Who the hell are you? You aren't Minah? You aren't Minah!" he shrieked, his eyes widening in fear. "Holy , is Kyungsoo cheating on his girlfriend? With you?" Only he said it like it was impossible for anyone to ever want to cheat on anyone with me. Although it kind of was. I wasn't exactly a smooth talker. 

"No, I'm not sleeping with Kyungsoo. We're just friends, I swear," I gasped, still trying to get my breath back. 

"Then why the are you sleeping in his bed in his clothes?" Which was totally normal just to point out. 

I had more explaining to do than I had anticipated. "Because my of a date last night left me in the middle of Gangnam and Kyungsoo was the only person around and made me sleep here instead of taking the drunk bus back to Hanyang super late at night." Great, 'super' had returned. I was truly incredible at first impressions. "Who the hell are you?" 

Suddenly, his middle-school cockiness returned and he puffed out his chest. "I'm Jongin. Kyungsoo's roommate." 

Wait, what? He was the roommate? That was impossible. He couldn't even have his driver's license. "You're the roommate?" I asked in disbelief. I thought it was him before, but once I saw his face there was no way. "But you're like ... twelve. You can't live on your own." 

Jongin frowned. "I'm twenty." 

My jaw dropped in awe. "Seriously?" 

He gave me a strange look. Too bad it had no effect on me, people gave me strange looks all the time. "Yes, seriously. How old are you, thirteen?" 

That wasn't fair. I was clearly fourteen. I deserved that extra year. I was at least old enough to pass as a high school freshman. "I'm twenty too," I said, brushing some of my hair out of my eyes. Whatever semi-presentable hairstyle I had at one point was now ruined thanks to Jongin's lack of manners. Oh, speaking of manners, it would probably make sense for me to introduce myself. "I'm Avery, by the way," I said, waving awkwardly because god forbid I ever have a normal introduction. 

Jongin's smile returned with excitement. "You're Avery?" 

"Yeah?" 

Jongin bounded back onto the bed, bouncing up and down next to me. "Holy , I can't believe that I finally get to meet you!" He flung his arms around me dramatically. 

I sat there, frozen because I was being hugged by a pre-teen that I had met three minutes ago. "What's that supposed to mean?" 

"You're Giraffe Girl!" 

And that's exactly how he said it. Giraffe Girl. Like it was a title that deserved two capital letters. 

"Can I ask how you know that?" I asked, rubbing my face with my palm before leaning over and plucking his arms from my shoulders. 

"Kyungsoo told me all about you," Jongin chirped, not at all bothered by the fact that I rejected his display of affection. "I've been trying to get him to bring you around for days now. He told me everything about what happened at the club that night. I totally should have gone. It would have been a great time." 

"He talks about me?" I didn't actually mean to say that out loud, but it was too late to take it back. But seriously, he talked about me? And didn't warn his friends to watch out for the crazy girl who knew too many strange facts? 

Jongin bobbed his head up and down enthusiastically. "Yeah. The entire thing about you asking if he knew what else had seven bones? Brilliant. Were you really serious about that?" 

"Um, I wasn't making a pass at him, if that's what you mean," I clarified. I still couldn't believe that Kyungsoo actually talked about me. I wasn't even sure if some of Minah's friends even knew who I was and I had known her for two years. "And yes, giraffes really do have seven bones in their neck." 

"Interesting," Jongin said, falling back on the pillow so that he was officially lying next to me. Apparently, personal space wasn't a big thing to him. Oh well, as long as he kept his clothes on and his hands to himself I guess that I couldn't complain. Anyways, he didn't elaborate on what he found in