Tick. Tick. Tick. 

I tried to bury my head further into my folded arms on the table. Why am I so tired?

Tick. Tick. Tick.

My stomach growled.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Squinting at the harsh flourescent classroom lights, I looked up at the clock. 15 minutes til lunch. The sound of the clock drowned out the English teacher who spoke at the front of the class, bleakly going on about a reading we were assigned last week. I put my head back down into my arms and thought about what I was going to eat for lunch. I could almost smell the beauty of a perfectly cooked cheese pizza, and my stomach howled loudly enough I was sure the entire class heard. I jumped suddenly at the sound of students packing up and leaving. Finally. I stood up into a stretch, quickly packed up my things and made my way to the stone building adjacent to the central lawn. Brown leaves hung lifelessly from the huge maple trees and the wind skewed the fallen across the freshly trimmed grass. The sky was starting to grey, the air was crisp and cool. The large wooden entrance doors felt welcoming as I entered the large dining hall where many students had already lined up, waiting their turn for lunch. I scanned the line, trying to find my friends. Minhyuk's bright blonde hair was nowhere to be seen. Hmm, I wonder where they- . My thoughts were interrupted by the rambunctious laughter and yelling of two familiar voices. People turned to glare at the two loud mouths making their way up the line towards me. I couldn't help but roll my eyes and laugh.

"TAE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Minhyuk and Chanyeol yelled in unison as they ran in for a group hug.

"Guys really. Must you always make a scene?" I said as I punched Chanyeol. They looked at the people glaring at them behind me in line, but they simply turned their chins up and continued to bicker.

Several minutes go by when its finally our turn. I ordered a simple cheese pizza with rootbeer, I almost always order the same sandwhich and juice lunch, but today I was tired and really feeling some comfort food. I walked through the lunch room, looking for an empty table away from the majority of people. Minhyuk and Chanyeol slide into two chairs at the table, still arguing about everything while they powered through their bowls of spaghetti. 

 

"No dude I'm telling you, there is no way you'd be able to meet someone half decent on there. Everyone knows its just for hooking up." Chanyeol mumbled, mouthful of spaghetti.

"How would you know? You've never even use it for anything. "

Chanyeol looked hurt. "Not true. You've seen how many girls I've matched with."

"Yeah, and how many of those have actually talked to you?"

Chanyeol looked down to his empty spaghetti bowl. "None." Minhyuk laughed. 

"What are you guys talking about?" I looked at them half curiously. Chanyeol smirked.

Well that was a mistake. "Oh its this really cool, FUN, app to meet girls. Tae you should try- "

"No." I took a huge bite of pizza. He knew I wasn't into social media and has been trying for years to get me to join any social networking site available. The most I had was an app store account and a couple games, and an email. I was a bit paranoid about putting my information on the internet for anybody to see. I'm pretty sure I sparked some raging hormonal fire within because he would not leave me alone for the next 20 minutes. He was a very....passionate individual. If I even mention the word girl around him, I would have singlehandedly started the newest revolutionary war. Apprently this was a huge deal, even Minhyuk joined in and he admitted defeat in attempting to convert me to social media last year.

"What could it hurt? You don't have to do anything, just look at people? Everyone is using the app, it's normal." 

"Yeah what if some hot girl is interested in you, wouldn't you want to talk to her?" I didn't even want to know what dark thoughts Chanyeol was imagining in his head. He must've seen my scowl because he continued on. "That's one thing I really don't understand Tae. Why are you so admant about having nothing to do with social media? You have a nice, updated iPhone, just begging you to download one app that isn't Solitaire." 

"I'll take solitaire over your hookup app that was a sad attempt at online dating. At least I don't lose brain cells when I play it." Chanyeol put his hand to his chest and acted as if he was extremely offended which earned a laugh from me. Boy was he a drama queen.

This time Minhyuk chimed in. "Bro, we are college juniors and you have not even looked in the direction of a woman. Don't you want to date? I know you aren't the hookup type, so wouldn't it be nice to have someone to call your own? Don't most people marry the people they fall in love with in college? You don't have to meet up with anyone, but just try it. You never know dude."

I massaged my temples. I loved them to death but sometimes they literally gave me a headache. I guess they were somewhat right though. I haven't dated anyone since I was an immature freshman in high school. Things are different now, I've never even really thought about dating. I figured the right person would come to me when the time was right. Guess I can't always sit around waiting for things to find me. "FINE. I'll try it out when we get home. HAppy?!" 

They both looked at each other with an evil sparkle in their eye and right back at me. I immediately regretted agreeing to something I already knew I didn't want to be apart of. I really couldn't understand the excitement, it was just an app. After we had finished our lunch, we head out back to the secret parking lot behind the dining hall. You had to drive up a gravel alley to get to it, but nobody ever parked here except the delivery truck on the weekends. We'd been doing it the entire time we've been at this school. While I fiddled with my seat belt, the two of them were glued to their phones, trying to pick songs for the trip home. I was thankful that they could actually decide on something for once. They have always been such good friends, even way before they met me. At first I didn't understand how they could stand to be around each other when they fought often. But I think they enjoy it, they never leave an arguement unsettled and always let the other win sometimes. 

"Thanks for driving Tae!" Minhyuk smiled as the loud music started to fill the car, bass booming with the tinted windows slightly cracked. We never spoke much on the ride home, Chanyeol and Minhyuk would much rather sing every word to every song than hold a conversation, even though the ride is short. We lived in an awesome house a little less than 10 minutes away from our school. We all got full ride scholarships to the school based on our academic performance, or in Chanyeol's case, musical talent, and as long as we continued to receive good grades, we were able to keep the scholarships. So, all of our parents decided us to help with living costs in Minhyuk's family's second house in town. They normally rent it out, but gratefully allowed us to live in it through college. I have no idea how, but we were lucky enough to convince the faculty and board to let us keep our scholarships but live off campus instead. The summer before college, Minhyuk and I always questioned Chanyeol about how we would do it and that the board would never allow it, but he always said "Don't worry about it". I think Chanyeol's uncle knew someone inside that helped swing the deal.

I pulled my car up to the big garage dor and turned off the engine. 

"HEY!"

"ThE sOnG wAsN't DoNe!!!!!1" Chanyeol and Minhyuk both pouted.

"Sorry, but there is one ice cream sandwhich left and I was not about to let you both have it." I grab my backpack, race out of the car and up the stairs with Chanyeol and Minhyuk still struggling to get out of their seatbelts. I snickered as I open the freezer and unwrap the last ice cream bar. I sprawled out on the couch slowly taking bites from the sandwhich, making sure to look like I'm really enjoying it as Chanyeol and Minhyuk come bursting through the front door.

"You Bastard!!!!" Chanyeol lunged for me as I manaically laughed and shoved the last half of the sandwich into my mouth.

"Damn you Tae! I am not about to go back out and buy more ice cream either!" Minhyuk shouted as he scanned the cabinents for anything remotely sweet. He grabbed a bag of caramel and cheddar cheese popcorn and brought it over to where Chanyeol had made himself comfy on the opposite couch clicking through the TV channels.

"Yes! Wheel of Fortune is on!" Minhyuk leaps onto the couch and they both hunker down in a trance. Wheel of Fortune is a fan favorite of theirs, sometimes even over the football or baseball games, I shook my head as I made my way upstairs. And they were teasing ME about playing Solitaire!! I closed the door to my room and pulled on my favorite black sweatpant joggers and a white t-shirt. I hung my hat on the back of the door and flopped on the bed, already feeling my eyelids drooping.

 

---

 

I could hear clinking and sounds of people stumbling around and prayed it was just a dream. I was way too tired lately to be woken up from a nap.

"SHHH! YOU'RE GOING TO WAKE HIM UP." Chanyeols loudly whispered. Yup, definitely not a dream.

I lifted my head and turned around squinting my eyes at the two idiots ridigly standing, staring doe eyed at me. 

"We-we-we just thought we'd bring dinner up to you, we could tell you were tired." Minhyuk sat a bowl of mac and cheese down on my desk. I sat up and peered at myself in the mirror on the closet door next to my bed, my brown hair was ruffled, standing on end in every direction. I groaned and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes as I got up off the bed. I stared at the delicious looking noodles staring up at me and started to chow down.

"Sooo, were you going to download that app?" Chanyeol looked up at me from his phone. I knew there was something up, they wouldn't just bring me mac and cheese to be nice.

"Yeah, yeah, what was it called again?" I mumbled as I finished my mac and cheese and scrolled through the app store. 

"Ember. You have to create a profile once you download it. Add a bio and photos and stuff." 

"What kind of photos?"

"Anything but nudes. You'll get banned for those."

"Personal experience?" I sneered.

"NO. It's part of the rules."

"Oh look Chan actually read the rules!" Minhyuk grinned. 

"SHut uP!" We both burst into laughter as he grumbled away.

"So I add some nice photos of myself, then what? What should I say in my bio?" I could definitely write a personal narrative, but a creative bio on a dating application was on a whole other level. 

"Just write some simple basics. I know most guys don't want to read long bios girls write, I'm sure its the same for them. I just wrote a couple things I liked and simple facts about me. Age, height, and the like. Some people write funny jokes in their bios, but it never worked for me any better than a normal bio so I just left mine simple." Chanyeol handed me his phone where he had pulled up his Ember profile.

'21. 6'1". Occasional partier.

I play guitar in a slow r&b/rock band. I like cheesburgers and my favorite movie is Top Gun'

 

"Nice Chanyeol. I'd be mad in love with you if I was a chick." Chanyeol took a swing at the hysterical Minhyuk, then turned back to me.

"So have any ideas for what you are going to write? It looks like you already put some really nice pictures of you in there!" He said as I looked at the cursor blinking at back at me in the empty bio section. 

 

** Author Note ** Taehyung's Ember Profile Photos:

         

 

 

"WOw Tae, you look so good in those photos! You're definitely going to get a ton of matches." Minhyuk looked over my shoulder at my phone.

"I still feel weird about this, someone could take my pictures and do bad things with them." 

"Oh please, it's going to be alright. Don't worry, we won't let anything happen to our little Tae Tae." Chanyeol made kissy faces at me as I looked at him with doubt.

"Okay, fine. How does this look for a bio?" I handed my phone over to them. 

My Name is Taehyung and I'm 21. I like animals and I'm studying graphic design.

 

"Oh, yeah...it's...good...I guess." Chanyeol shrugged and I furrowed my brow.

"What? You wanted a short, simple bio. Here it is."

"I guess he did write one that was short and simple, to the point." Minhyuk laughed.

"Plus, I'm not really going to use this app seriously, I'll play with it for a little while but I'm probably going to delete it later."

"Alright, Alright. Let 's just start looking at the girls. Here, I'll set your area range to wherever you want and fix the rest of your settings." Chanyeol took my phone and quickly went through everything and handed it back. I looked at a girl's photo staring back at me.

"So what do I do?"

"Swipe the photo left if you don't like them, swipe right if you do. If you click on the photo, you can see more photos of them, their bio, and location." While Minhyuk and I looked on, Chanyeol clicked on the girl's photo and started swiping through the photos and then scrolled down to see an empty bio.

"Awh no bio, I always skip the boring people with empty bio's. Usually means they're only looking for hookups. Since, I'm part of the minoritry using Ember to try and find decent girl, I usually end up swiping left." Minhyuk said as he pulled out his phone.

Chanyeol, Minhyuk, and I swiped all night long until about 11pm when they were too tired to keep their eyes open any longer. Surprisingly, I was on Ember even after they had went to bed. I carefully looked through each person before swiping left or right, generally swiping left. There were a lot of people who I just couldn't see myself with, people who weren't really my type. By the time I was about to pass out, I had already got several matches. Each time I got one, I was surprised all over again. Wow! Somebody actually likes me back! No one had messaged yet, but Chanyeol told me to not be surprised if I never get a message, most girls don't message first and most don't actually respond even if you message first. Right as my eyes were about to close, I had one last look at my screen. There was a picture of the prettiest girl I had ever seen in my life.

I looked through the rest of her pictures, each mirrored the same pure beauty. 

Sage. 21. 

Hopefully you like puppies and cheeseburgers as much as I do.

I love food and music.

"Woah, how is she even real. She is so beauitful." I smiled as I looked through her pictures again and swiped right. The words Match popped up over the screen. What?!  I couldn't believe it, she swiped right on me first? Why though? She is way too pretty for me. I couldn't believe it and smiled as I fell asleep. I'll have to show the guys tomorrow, they won't believe it!