Minji waited, sitting on the steps, hugging her knees and letting her mind wander. His smile, the clothes he wore, how sweet he was. It stayed in her mind. She hadn’t seen him around as much as she wanted and any kind of physical contact she had with him was never as passionate as she wanted, meant as much as she wanted it to mean. She got this strange feeling that he was taken, that his mind couldn’t even compute her as an option no matter how close they got or what they did with each other… which was the worst part. To her, he was the only option.

            “Are you waiting for a ride?” Daesung interrupted her thoughts.  She let her line of sight rise from his skinny jeans to his shirt that hung on his shoulders and chest, draping over his torso that was slim and solid. The shirt fit rather nicely she had to admit, as if it wasn’t just a t-shirt. She opened her eyes widely and spoke before she could stop herself as she raised her head up, seeing his hair was dyed bleach blonde, her eyes open wide.

            “Your hair!”

            Daesung laughed nervously. “Yeah…My hair…” Jiyong had talked him into it. Make her notice you then… He had said, slipping cellophane gloves on his hands and wiggling them, impersonating an evil surgeon. That’s what it had felt like anyway. The dyeing, grooming and clothes, a huge monumental effort led by Jiyong as Seungri became a highly amused spectator started to feel like some sick surgery to make him some kind of robot. Even so, it felt good to laugh with them, despite it being at his expense, in his opinion anyway. Eventually they had settled on a pair of chucks, designer jeans that Daesung shelled out four months of allowance on, and a white t-shirt from Seunghyun’s closet, a little looser than most of his shirts so that it would hang on his belt buckle, borrowed from Seungri, who had in turn borrowed the opulent belt from Youngbae. Minji had soccer practice that day, so he knew she would be there waiting for the belt’s true owner but all the preening and grooming had made him late and he was surprised Minji was still waiting.

            “What are you doing here still?” Daesung asked after Minji sat there, inspecting his appearance twice over.

            “Oh,” she said as if remembering her predicament, “Youngbae was supposed to be here but…” Her voice trailed off as she looked to the ground.

            “I could-“ Daesung didn’t finish, as if the nervousness he felt in his heart had traveled up, choking him until he settled on a shy smile, much smaller than his usual toothy grin.

            “That’s okay,” Minji said. She grabbed her bag with a sigh and began to stand up.

            Daesung pushed himself to say something, causing him to speak louder than he needed to. “I- I want to. Walk you home, I mean.” He reiterated the words lower, “I would like to walk you home, is what I meant.”

            Minji stopped for a minute as she looked to Daesung, who stood next to his bike, his hand clenched in fists anxiously. He gulped in response to her stare. She didn’t have the kind of face you could read easily. She knew that her stare made an uneasy feeling grow in him. He was definitely different than he was before, the boy who followed around Seunghyun all day, his shoulders broad and his jaw strong and defined. Still, there was something the same, the way he smiled, or his nervous laugh and she found herself smiling at the thought of him before she caught herself.

            “Okay.” She said, her shy smile still intact.

********************           

            “ the police!”

            Jiyong didn’t even know Seungri knew those words in English but there the high schooler was standing on a park bench screaming it. Giving him drinks had been a bad idea. It felt good to see everyone’s little angel being ridiculous at the house party they had been at earlier. Trying to take off his shirt –and other people’s, doing body shots with girls and screaming obscenities in English had all been things Seungri had done before he had even been at the party an hour. Then again, there was a raw anguish in the boy's voice the more he drank. He was really torn up over this Youngbae thing.  For once, Jiyong felt really bad. For being such a poor influence, just to prove a point to Seunghyun who wasn’t even there.

           His jealousy had gone too far. He knew that. He was just tired of Seunghyun doting on Seungri all the time, as if they both didn’t have boyfriends of their own. He was trying to sully this innocent image of Seungri both his boyfriend and best friend had adopted for him but instead he ended up selling the image to himself, immediately seeing how naïve Seungri could be, not seeing through his own friendly facade…and what a lightweight the boy was when it came to drinking.

           “Come on, hyung! Let’s find some hot guys!”

           “Seungri,” Jiyong said pulling him down from the table, “You can’t say stuff like that!” Being out-ed wasn’t the goal of the night but it seemed like it was bound to happen with Seungri’s loud drunken mouth.

           “Oh, right,” Seungri whispered, “Let’s go get some hot guys,” he repeated quieter before kissing Jiyong on the cheek.

           “Stop it.” Jiyong said as Seungri draped himself over him. He was lucky to be strong for his build; otherwise he would’ve buckled under the younger boy’s dead weight with Seungri being barely lucid.

           “You said we should get him back! We should!” Seungri was yelling in Jiyong’s ear. This was a mistake.

           “Cut it out!” he shrugged Seungri off of him, “I say a lot of things. At any rate, I called Youngbae to come get you.”

           “Why? Why would you do that?” Seungri pouted his finger tracing the ground.

           “I don’t even know why I brought you in the first place!...I guess I just wanted to start trouble.”

           “Why would you want that?” Seungri asked the questions like a child, hugging his knees, a subtle pout on his face, his eyes bloodshot, red from alcohol and smoke.

           “Because he’s an idiot,” a third voice said. Youngbae held an extra jacket that he tossed towards Seungri, who wore just a polo. A chill had set in his body from the breezy night but he’d be damned if he let Youngbae know, a stubborn anger setting over him. “I don’t need it,” Seungri tried to keep his voice steady as he tossed the jacket back.

           “Seungri…”

           There it was again. That infamous warning of his: Seungri… He was positively sick of hearing his own name.

           “Youngbae…” he mocked before scoffing and getting off of the ground.

           “I’m going to meet Seunghyun at his place, so if you could walk him home…” Jiyong started.

           “Why was he with you in the first place, Jiyong?” Youngbae asked, a frown set in his brow.

           “I don’t know. We just…Youngbae...” Jiyong hadn’t thought of Youngbae being angry with him and he didn’t have a plan for this. What had been a plea for attention from Seunghyun had become an offense against Youngbae.

           “Why wouldn’t you tell me about making out with him, either? Making out with him and taking him out in the middle of the night, getting him wasted… You’re really the best friend ever.” Youngbae didn’t usually talk this way and Jiyong didn’t really know how to respond.

           “That’s not how it is,” Jiyong could hear his own guilt laced in his voice.

           “How is it, Jiyong?” Anger started to build up in Youngbae, his body amped, his breathing rapid and his voice unsettlingly low, “How is it then?”

           Jiyong stuttered for a minute before failing to explain. He didn’t even know. He had become a ridiculous person, causing trouble just to cause it. He stuffed his hands in his pockets only to take them out to steady himself after receiving a shove from Youngbae.

           “No, Jiyong, really. Tell me how it is. How is it? How is it!?” He shoved the slimmer boy again and again with each sentence. Youngbae had grabbed Jiyong by the collar, his other fist balled up to land a punch on him before he felt Seungri pull on his arm.

           “Stop it. Stop!”

           Youngbae let go immediately, realizing he had lost it. He hadn’t gotten that angry in a while. It was weird to feel his own heart beat so fast, his own skin get so hot.

           “I don’t know how it is but it wouldn’t be that way at all if you hadn’t been doing what you were doing. What you did when you did it on that day and other days made me feel how I feel.” Seungri’s wording was awkward and round about, confused by his inebriated state. “You’re so mean, Youngbae,” Seungri said, his voice reverting right back to its default pout. “I got drunk and I kissed him back before we even got together and I chose to go with him tonight,” Seungri’s steadiness wavered as he stepped forward. “So hit me. Hit me then, if you want to hurt somebody so bad.”

           Youngbae clenched his jaw, refusing to look at Jiyong who leaned against a pole of the park’s swing, choosing instead to stare at Seungri whose face was pale and clammy from drinking so much. The way they had been lately was starting to confuse him. He just wanted to make things right again. He had been lying to Seungri and he knew it was wrong but it didn’t mean he didn’t care. He cared more than anything. He sighed before grabbing Seungri’s hand speaking lowly, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

           Seungri thought about it, wanting to cry. He probably held Minji’s hand the same way, pacified her with the same tone of voice.

            “If you don’t want to hurt me, then stop doing it,” he finally said before pulling his wrist away and stumbling out of the park, Jiyong following quietly behind him, shooting Youngbae, who he hoped was still his best friend, an apologetic look.

****************************

            “Why is Seungri sleeping in my bed?” Seunghyun had come home to see him splayed out over the entire perimeter of the bed, leaving no room for its original owner.

            “He got wasted and he crashed over here.” Jiyong was painting his toenails a dark purple, sporting Seunghyun’s reading glasses and a shower cap.

            “Did he get wasted or did you get him wasted?” Seunghyun set his paper bag filled with home goods and ramyun on the kitchen counter before beginning to shed his jacket off.

            “…Isn’t it the same thing?”

            “It’s not at all but I’m going to let it go.” Seunghyun began unpacking the bag after hanging up his coat before stopping, smiling to himself about how silly Jiyong looked in that shower cap.

            “Are you dying your hair?”

            “Brown…” Jiyong paused to adjust “his” glasses before continuing to paint his nails. “Seunghyun?”

            “Yes.”

            “I’m going to change. Like for real. I’m going to leave Seungri alone.”

            Seunghyun didn’t say anything for a while, finding the single banana he had bought for himself and beginning to peel it.

            “You’re a good person, Kwon Jiyong. You should act accordingly.”

            Jiyong scoffed before cursing loudly after mucking up his toenail and painting over his skin. “ you, ing nail.”

            “See, look. You’re becoming a better person already.” Seunghyun said, his mouth full of banana.