This Friend | Yeonbin

46

Soobin P.O.V

It’s been a day, and I’ve decided Taehyun is my best shot at getting Dad to let me go on the LA trip with Yeonjun.

I knock on his door. I knock hard, because I know a lot of the time he has headphones in.

“What?” he calls.

“Can I come in?”

“Yeah, sure.”

I open the door. Taehyun been playing his guitar. He’s still holding it, but he’s taken his headphones off. He’s wearing his college T-shirt. Go Gators! I go inside and close the door behind me.

Eddie’s dozing on the end of his bed. I give him a head scratch.

“What’s up?” asks Taehyun.

“I need a favor.”

“It’ll cost you.”

“I know.”

He strums on his guitar. “What do you want?”

“You know the girl I’m seeing?”

“The one who totally isn’t Cass, you mean?”

“Yeah, her. Well, we sort of have this weekend away planned.”

“Oh damn,” he says. “You guys really are serious now?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

He smiles. “Nice, man. When are you going to let me meet her?”

“Soon, maybe. But I need your help. I want to go on the trip, but I don’t think Dad will let me go.”

“Oh, he definitely won’t.”

“I know. So I was wondering if you have any idea of how I could get him to let me go.”

“Hmm.” His eyebrows furrow. “I guess I could say you and I are going on a trip?”

“What do you mean?”

“I could say you and I are going camping or something for a weekend. We could say we’ve had it planned for ages. Dad never listens, anyway, so if we’re casual about it, he’d buy it.”

“You think so?”

“I know so.”

For the first time, I allow myself to really entertain the idea that Yeonjun and I might be able to go on the trip.

It makes me giddy.

He nods. “You’d majorly owe me, though.”

“What do you want?”

“Anytime Eddie needs a bath for the next year, you’re doing it.”

Oh no.

Eddie’s cute, but he hates baths with a burning passion. He always tries to run away and always makes a huge mess. It’s an ordeal.

“Okay.”

“And I want your old Xbox.”

“Why do you want that?”

“Nostalgia, I guess.”

It does sting to part with it, but it has been sitting in my closet for a few years.

“Fine, it’s yours.”

He taps his chin. What else could he possibly want from me?

“I also want to be able to use you as an excuse sometime in the future. No questions asked, all right?”

“Sure.”

“Then we have a deal.”

Holy god.

That means I’m going.