chapter eight;

It was after dinner. Usually I’d spend it doing my homework, but I had none that day. Not knowing what to do, I ended up in Jongin’s room, playing his DS on his bed while he watched DVD on his laptop. I gave up playing, though, after dying for the fourth time.

Rolling sideway, I placed the gadget on the bedside table and tried to peek at Jongin’s laptop screen, but I could see nothing. “What are you watching?” I asked.

I thought he didn’t hear me as he had his headphone on, but he did. “A medical drama,” he mumbled. “ER,”

I frowned. “Why are you watching a medical drama?”

“Because it’s fun,” he replied, eyes not straying off the screen.

“Are you planning to be a doctor?”

“No, not really,” he shook his head lightly.

“What do you want to be then?”

He hit a button and cocked his head to one side, thinking. “I haven’t decided it yet,” he shrugged. “Why do you ask?”

“Can’t I?”

He glanced at me then and smiled. “Of course you can,” he said, before returning his attention on his laptop. “What about you?”

I raised a brow, not catching what he asked. “Hm?”

“What do you wanna be?”

I stared at the ceiling of Jongin’s room which had been covered with sky-like papers. For a second, I thought I saw a rainbow, but it was gone the moment I blinked, so I assumed that I was just imagining it. I glanced at Jongin and studied his focused expression. “I don’t know,” I finally answered.

He nodded once, and we stayed in silence as I continued to watch him. “Oppa,” I called out at last.

“Hm?”

“Can I sleep here tonight?” I asked.

“Why?”

“Your bed,” I said, “is comfortable,”

“And yours is not?”

“Yours feels better right now,”

“If you sleep in my bed,” he hit the button again and looked at me. “Where do I sleep?”

“On the floor,” I answered matter-of-factly. When he neither smiled nor said anything in return, I added, “You can sleep in my room if you like,”

“Your room,” he began, crinkling his nose and making a face, “has nothing pink in it,”

“So?”

“You’re a girl,” he pointed out. “And you don’t like pink,”

“You’re a boy,” I parroted his tone. “Do you like blue?”

He shook his head no.

“Black?”

Again, he shook his head. “Nope,”

“Then it’s settled,”

He chuckled at me.

I didn’t remember falling asleep. The next thing I remembered was almost falling out of the bed, only to be blocked by a pillow. I glanced at the other side of the bed and noticed another pillow there. Seeing Jongin dozing off peacefully on a futon he laid down by the bed, I smiled at him. “Thanks,” I mumbled, before returning to dreamland.

-

Minho came to my class again the next day, just minutes after the final bell rang which made me wonder how on earth could he be so fast, given that his class was a building away. I was still packing my stuff; practically shoving everything into my bag without much care when he arrived at the door. Since my seat was near the entrance, he approached me first.

“Can you tell the coach I’ll be late today?” he asked.

“Where are you going?” I shot back.

“Somewhere,” he said. “Dropping off a friend,”

I nodded and stared at him, hesitating whether or not should I ask about the picture in my phone. But before I could open my mouth, I heard a voice behind him.

“Oppa!” Riah called, appearing almost out of nowhere, running towards Minho. His face immediately broke into a broad smile, I noticed. “Sorry, did you wait long? Let me go grab my bag,”

I continued to gaze at him as he watched Riah hurrying to her seat and took her bag before hurrying back to him. His smile never left his lips. I realized then that I never that kind of genuine smile of his before.

“Let’s go,” she told him. They both stole a quick glance at me before leaving.

“See you later, Suji,” he said.

Soojung came in just as the two of them left. “Was that Minho with Riah I just saw?” she asked, forehead creased.

I nodded. “Yup,”

“Wow, is he fast,”

I looked at her. “What do you mean?”

“Minho’s had a crush on Riah since forever,” she muttered.

Hearing that, I felt something tugging my heartstring. There was this unpleasant feeling inside of me, but I wasn’t sure why. I looked away. “So?”

“Riah has a boyfriend, and he’s also Minho’s friend,” explained her. “If I have a crush on your boyfriend and you know it, would you like seeing me around him?”

“No,” I croaked, still avoiding her eyes.

“There, that’s my point,”

I glanced at the window, and then at the hallway where Minho and Riah disappeared to. I turned to Soojung, picking up my bag. “You know what? I think I’ll skip practice for today,” I mumbled, before heading off.

Without realizing it, my pace eventually quickened with every step I took. By the time I arrived at Jongin’s classroom, I was breathless. His class wasn’t even that far.

He frowned the second he saw me. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Hey,” I said, trying my best to control my voice. “Let’s skip practice,”

He studied me for a while. He then dropped his ball he was holding and kicked it towards his friend. “Alright,” he replied. Approaching me, he put a hand on my head and patted it gently as we started to walk away. “Let’s have some patbingsoo,” he smiled.