“Monbeeeeebe~”

I rubbed my eyes, mumbling under my breath.

“Don’t call me that.”

I heard Hoseok laugh, and the blankets next to me shook a little bit.

“Wake up monbebe. As much as I know you want to stay in my bed, appa says you have to go home.”

I groaned and stretched out my limbs. Sticking my head up I looked around blinking. The television was off, and the room was dark. The only sources of light were a thin line coming under the door and the screen of Hoseok’s phone.

“Where’s Jooheon? What time is it?”

“Ah, good thing I’m not the jealous type,” Hoseok shifted around until he was leaning over me, “how can you wake up in bed next to me and start asking about some other guy?”

I tried sitting up, but he pulled me back down. Positioning the both of us so that my head rested on his chest, he started winding his fingers through my hair.

“He’s not some other guy. He’s Jooheon.”

“Jooheon left after you fell asleep. Aish,” he tugged lightly on a lock of hair, “what was with you two today?”

I pulled the blanket up and over my face, groaning again.

“Oppa~! Why did you ruin it?”

The blanket shifted, Hoseok tugging it down to free my face.

“What did I ruin?”

Since he had a grip on the blanket, I resorted to clasping my hands over my face.

“He was going to kiss me,” I mumbled between my fingers.

A soft hand wound around my wrist, shifting it, exposing my face once more.

“Was I supposed to just let him? I don’t much fancy having two of my best friends get to third base on my lap.”

“Third… Hoseokie! It was just going to be a kiss!” I pushed myself up, looking down at my betrayer.

“Thanks to you, he’ll probably never try again. Now I’m going to die old and alone!” I wailed, slumping back onto the bed. Hoseok laughed, tugging me back onto his chest.

“Perfect. I like when you’re alone,” he squeezed me tightly, “if I have to be alone, so do you.”

“Oppa…”

“Yah, I don’t make the rules. That’s just how being best friends works.”

“Oppa… My ribs…”

“Oh,” he loosened his arms enough to give me breathing space, “but I’m serious. You can’t start dating before me.”

“You’re such a baby. Besides,” I tried, and failed, to wriggle out of his arms, “you’ve dated loads of people before, and you always left me in the dust. You owe me!”

“Nope.”

“Oppa…”

“No.”

“Please oppa? Just help me! I don’t want die without knowing what it’s like to be in a real relationship!”

Hoseok finally released the entirety of his grip. Sitting up, he looked down at me. Well, I assumed he looked down at me. I still couldn’t see much of anything.

“You’ve been in relationships before. What about Kwangseok?”

“We were twelve. We barely even held hands.”

“Seokwon?”

“He never even kissed me. And you promised to never talk about that!”

He ignored me.

“Donggeun?”

“He turned out to be gay.”

“Really?”

“Big time. He was only dating me to get his parents off his back, and to get closer to you.”

“Huh, can’t say I blame him. Then how about Kitae?”

“He actually liked my lab partner.”

“Jesus! You’ve seriously never really dated someone? Anyone?”

“Not seriously. Guys always got jealous of you, and so it never went that far.”

“That far… Wait!”

He swooped, kneeling over me, his hands on either side of my head.

“Am I…? Was I really the first guy who…? I mean…” he looked uncomfortable, “you know?”

“I told you that Hoseok.”

“I thought you were lying! I thought you only said that to make me feel cool or something! Aish!”

He pushed himself up again, this time kneeling between my legs. I could see the outline of his arms, hands dug into his hair. His voice sounded panicked.

“I can’t believe I… I can’t believe you let me! If I had known that you were serious I would have… I don’t know… I would have, like, bought you dinner first at least!”

“You brought me pizza and beer.”

“I mean a real dinner!” He snapped.

The outline of his arms moved. His voice was muffled now, forcing it’s way through his hands.

“Oh my gooodddddd… Fine,” his hands dropped, “I ing owe you. Go home. I’ll figure out a way to fix this.”

“Just remember the plan, okay?”

Hoseok had his scheming face on. I thought his plan was juvenile to the extreme, but I had asked for his help. I couldn’t exactly turn it down now.

“Yeah, yeah. Just don’t it up.”

“I won’t. If anything,” he poked my ribs, “you’ll chicken out.”

“When have I ever chickened out?”

“The graveyard.”

“When have I chickened out that wasn’t due to the cops showing up?”

“The swimming pool.”

“Or because of the risk of expulsion?”

“High school at Hwang Solbi’s summer vacation party.”

“Excuse me but I’m pretty sure that it was you that chickened out on that one.”

“Only because I knew that you didn’t want to go through with it.”

“Come on! It’s not like we actually had to do anything. We could have just hung out in the closet for seven minutes and both saved face. But no,” I bumped my hip into his, “somebody had to make a big deal about it.”

“We were fifteen! No way was I going into a closet with a girl and not going to try to kiss her.”

“So instead you told Solbi that you’d rather kiss an eel. Of course I backed out after you said that. Good job.”

“You know what, this is a pointless discussion. Back on topic, don’t chicken out.”

“I told you I won’t.”

We arranged ourselves on the sofa and waited. There was only a marginally excessive amount of skinship. Nothing over the top. One of his hands was on the curve of my hip instead of the relatively safer territory of my shoulder. My own hand rested just an inch or two higher on his thigh than usual. Honestly, considering how much we hung out, it probably wouldn’t even be a noticeable difference to most people.

We waited, watching cartoons. We waited, we waited, and we waited. I must have fallen asleep because before I knew it the door was blasting open and six boys were getting urgently hushed by Hoseok.

“Shut up you guys,