“Are you free Friday night?” Gongchan asked as we walked along the jetty one afternoon. The sun was heavy on the horizon, it shone bright into our eyes and reflected on the water. The old wooden boards creaked under our feet.

"Why?"

“There's this film I really wanna see. It's open air. I think it would be pretty cool.”

"I can't. I promised Ken I'd have a drink with him." I gave him an apologetic look, before wiping my nose with my sleeve in a very undignified way. It was starting to itch from the heat. The weather was punishing that day, searing sun that got under your skin. It was near evening and it was still yet to dissipate.

"Ken? Who's Ken?" 

I had an odd sense of deja-vu.

"He's a friend from school who lives around these parts too," I told him, flopping down on the jetty, exhausted and cringing from the heat of the day. Gongchan gracefully took a seat beside me. His hands occupied themselves with the barnacles on growing up the wooden polls of the jetty.

"What's he like?” 

Why did I feel like I was undergoing police questioning?

“I don’t know. He’s a good friend… he’s got a big nose…” I chuckled to myself at this last part.

I looked up to see Gongchan was facing away from me now, eyes fixed on the sea.

“I see,” he said, very dully. “Well, I suppose I’ll just have to find someone else.” 

Feeling guilty, I tried to re-assure him.

"You should find a girl to go with you instead!" I told him enthusiastically. "They like these kinds of things. And when it's dark and everyone's watching the screen, you'll have all the opportunities in the world." I grinned, nudging him suggestively. "Anyway, two guys going together... That's just sad."

"What's sad about it?" Gongchan asked, looking rather haughty. 

"It's like two men riding a ferris wheel or something." I laughed. "Isn't that pathetic?"

"I don't think so."

Before I could say anything, he stood up very briskly and bid me good bye. I sighed, putting my hands on my knees in silent defeat. 

Gongchan was  increasingly moody in those days. I suppose it had started since we'd spent so much time apart. Sometimes, we’d be fine, just like old times. Other days, well, I almost felt as though I was walking on eggshells with him. 

He was growing up. Realising, for the first time, that things weren’t always going to be like they used to. And I think the thought of that made him anxious.

I know it did for me. 

“So, did you end up going to the movie?” I asked Gongchan later. 

“Yeah, I went with Jinyoung-hyung,” Gongchan told me, arms full of a large basket of corn cobs. He was wearing work pants, bright pink ones, with little blue flowers, lemon-coloured rubber gloves and a large straw hat, but somehow he still managed to look effortlessly elegant. 

I raised my eyebrows. So Jung Jinyoung was ‘Hyung’ to him now? What had I missed? 

“He said the girl he was meant to go with bailed on him, so he had a spare ticket.”

“So?” I prodded, after putting another cob in his basket, “how was it?”

“It was one of those French films. It was alright,” he said. “Jinyoung-hyung drove me there. Did you know he has a European sports car? It went so fast like —” he made the sound effect of the car zooming down the road. After I didn’t reply for a while, his brows furrowed and he tried to re-gain my attention. “Hyung?”

“Argh!” I yelled, scrunching up my eyes. “There are flies all of over me!”

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