CHAPTER THIRTEEN

And we do. One thing that surprises me about his friends is that they just exude this pure, golden joy. All they do is laugh and scream and dance and twerk. Considering how hard most of them have it down here in the capital city, I halfway expected them to be sort of depressed…but the opposite is true. It seems like the gay club is their church, the place where they can come to be safe and rejoice. I have visions in my head of hearing my friends and family ing about gay pride parades and how loud everyone was, but suddenly I perfectly understand it. When half of the world is against you, why not throw up your hands when you’re alone?

But the fun doesn’t last long. His friends are awesome, but he’s all over them, dancing on them and talking up close to their faces and even slapping their asses sometimes. I hate every second of it, even though I take two more shots of something purple to try and chill out. But I can’t relax…I’m crazily jealous of all this. I thought he liked me, but it seems like he likes everyone in the ing room. Is this how being gay works? Are you allowed to just go anybody? When a Katy Perry remix comes on, I pull him over to the booth where we’re sitting.

“Hey. What do you think you’re doing?”

He looks back at his friends.

“What?”

“Dancing, flirting, talking with all these guys? You’re with me. Do not forget that - I place a hand on his , which sends a charge through my whole body - When you are with me, this is mine. Do you understand?”

His eyes roll back into his head.

“, that was so hot. Do it again.”

“Seriously. Stop. I don’t like this.”

His eyes slide open, and soon he’s laughing.

“Siwon. Siwon. There is so much you need to learn. These are my girlfriends.”

“What? But they’re guys.”

He puts a hand on my leg, and I wonder if he knows how excited it makes me. He can light fireworks inside me with just a touch.

“Okay, look at it this way. You went out with your girlfriend and her friends when you guys were dating, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And sometimes she probably got -faced drunk and hung all over her girlfriends and probably got a little flirty with them, right?”

“I mean…yeah. One time she actually made out with this girl Kim, but I didn’t really think much of it.”

“And you shouldn’t. Girls always make out when they’re wasted. Alcohol is like lesbian juice for them. But anyway, these are like my girlfriends. When we hug and dance, it means nothing. There just no boundaries between us...we’re like sisters. Please don’t be mad about this.”

I force out a breath.

“Okay. I guess that makes sense. I’ll try to learn. But Kyuhyun? Let anyone feel you up, and I will ing punch them out.”

He reaches over and adjusts my collar. His movements are so swift and confident, it makes me jealous of him all over again.

“Yes, sir.”

He pulls away and returns to the dance floor, and I lean back and sip my beer and watch, wondering how his body would feel under me right now. Then I feel something on my skin, something pulling me. So I look over to the main bar. And that’s when I see Liu Wen standing there, the unstable millionaire who thinks we are going to get married one day.

I decide to head right over and deal with this before it can get really bad. She’s a zombie bride in a full gown, which is refreshingly bold considering that every other female here is wearing a bandage as an outfit.

“Hey. What are you doing here?”

She giggles and hiccups.

“Huh? - She looks me up and down, then smiles in that haughty way only she knows how to do. I know I’m single, and I’m doing nothing wrong, but still an uncomfortably guilty feeling slides down my back. I’m at a bachelorette, yet another of my girlfriends is attempting to humiliate me by finding happiness before me. But what are you doing here? - she asks, bug-eyed - And why have you been ignoring me?”

“I, um…my cousin is here.”

“Yoona? Really? Where?” - she asks, glancing around.

“She just left. She puked.”

“Okay, then...”

She looks over my shoulder, her long dark hair swaying in the dark.

“Who are your friends back there?”

“I don’t know. Nobody.”

She laughs. Thankfully she doesn’t seem like she cares to