Saturday, 12:25 AM

we’ve been shouting song lyrics for so long that both of our throats are killing us, so i say that we stop and drink our cold sources of caffeine so we can actually talk later on. wonwoo agrees, so i take off my seatbelt and reach into the cooler in the back seat.

“absolutely zero, ultra red, ultra sunrise, or assault?”

“ultra red and a sandwich, please.”

“which type of sandwich? we have ham n’ cheese, turkey, and this one rib thing that looked pretty tasty.”

“...jihoon, doesn’t the rib sandwich need to be microwaved?” he asks and sighs when i don’t reply.

i didn’t think that one through.

“we can just eat those at our next gas stop. gimme a ham n’ cheese.”

i hand him his monster and, since he’s driving and i don’t want to die, i unwrap the sandwich for him before handing it to him and grabbing myself more coffee and some candy.

“so, when do you think we’ll be getting to atlanta? you said if we just went there we could be getting home at 1, but it’s like 12:30 and we still haven’t even gotten there,” i say and eat a gummy worm.

gummy worms are good.

“oh, about that…” he scratched the back of his head with the hand that should have been on the wheel and the car swerved a little, but he got us back in our own lane without hitting anyone, “you wouldn’t happen to have a gps on your phone, would you? ‘cause, i mean, i thought i knew where we were going, but i still haven’t seen the exit i thought we were getting off at.”

i sigh and laugh a little. i don’t mind spending longer than i thought i would in the car with him. this is actually pretty nice.

“i’ll put it in my gps, but get off at the next gas exit so i can run inside and buy a car charger because my phone battery won’t last more than another hour if i use the gps.”

“we have to gas up again soon anyway, so that works,” he says and takes a sip of his drink,” i’m surprised you didn’t get mad that i got us lost.”

“the longer we’re gone, the better. i love being on the road.”

“why did you ask me to take you, though? if you wanted to go on a roadtrip i would think you’d ask joshua or, you know, one of the people you talk to at school,” he asks and looks away from the road for a minute to look at me.

we make eye contact for a second because i had already been staring at him, then he looked back to the road.

i swallow the gummy worm i was chewing very slowly while trying to think of an answer that wasn’t a lie, but not exactly the truth either.

“like i said when i got to your house, you live right by me and you have a car.”

“doesn’t seungcheol live on our street too, though? i’m not complaining, you’re pretty fun to be around, but it’s just weird that you wanted me to drive you around when you have friends that can do it.”

it’s cause you’re kind of really beautiful and i finally came to terms with that fact and wanted to actually take a chance to spend time with you since i hadn’t before.

“i dunno,” i say, trying not to blush, “i guess i wanted to finally take you up on your offer from when i moved in.”

“what offer?”

“that maybe we could be friends.”

and as soon as i say that, i mentally slap myself in the face. why would he remember something he said to me four years ago? it was no big deal to him, that wouldn’t stick with him all this time. i look out the window and bite my lip as the painful sound that is taylor swift and nothing but taylor swift forces it’s way into my ears, suddenly sounding much louder than it actually is. i’m so stupid. i see his hand moving toward the volume for the radio and think he’s going to turn it up, but instead he just turns it off. great. now the silence is even louder than the music was. his hand is sitting on the center console now and i can hear him clearing his throat.

“there’s an exit up here, we can gas up and get your charger,” he puts his hand back on the wheel, “do you want to heat up those rib sandwiches while we’re there?”

“i’m not really hungry, but you can heat one up for yourself if you want,” i reply, still looking out of the window.

“you should at least have half of one, all you’ve been eating is candy.”

i turn and look at him. he doesn’t look the last bit awkward right now.

“i guess you’re right. do you want to split one?”

“we could do that,” he says as we turn into a gas station.

when he pulls up to a pump, we both get out of the car. he starts to put gas in the car and i head inside to the convenience-store-like-place and start looking around for car chargers. it doesn’t take long to find one for my phone and, of course, it’s right next to the gum. i can never turn down gum. i mentally apologize to my mother again while i grab a pack of classic bubble gum, my favorite, and bring it and the charger up to the register. while the cashier is ringing it up, i hear the bell at the door ring and wonwoo walks in.

“you forgot the sandwich,” he says and holds it up.

“oh, right. you probably need my card to pay for the gas, too,” i say before swiping said card and entering my mom’s pin.

“i paid for it with my card, don’t worry about it,” he says as he opens up the sandwich to break it in half before it’s heated.

“i said i would pay for everything, why’d you pay?” i ask, walking up to him.

“i feel bad making a small person pay for everything. i can help you out a bit. we are friends, aren’t we?”