-All Too Well-

11. 열하나

It was probably the loneliest afternoon for Matthew. No it wasn't because he was upset that neither Jiwoong nor Hanbin had texted him, in fact, Hanbin did. It wasn't anything special, just his typical texts asking how the classes had been. The problem was inside his head. After last night, he probably expected Jiwoong to contact him or anything but he figured that not everyone can have time for him. So, sighing his own loneliness away, he went back to his room. He changed, showered and sat on his bed when his roommate returned as well.

"Oh Matthew, where have you been last night?"

"Um, with a friend." Matthew answered. "Why?"

"You look tired, so I was wondering if you were okay." Said Taerae. It made the Canadian smile, "I'm okay, thanks for asking dude."

Taerae smiled and returned to his place. He set his stuff down and took out his phone. About a minute later, he asked his roommate, "Matthew, what is the name of that guy you were with- the, the tall one?"

"Which guy?" Matthew asked, clearly not getting the clue.

"The one, you know! Whom I bumped with that day."

Matthew realized, but didn't let it show. "Which one??" He asked cheekily.

"The blonde and handsome one." Taerae said, "Don't you remember? He was down on his butt and-"

"I do." Matthew laughed, "Ricky. His name's Ricky."

"Just Ricky?"

"Mm-hm. He's Chinese, so he must have a Chinese name, but I don't know it."

"Ah, I see." Taerae said, "Well, do you know- perhaps... Is he mad at me or something?"

"What!? Why??"

"No, he sent me a follow request on ig, I didn't recognise him but accepted it anyway. You know, hot guy and stuff. But then he sent me this." Taerae walked to Matthew's bed and showed him Ricky's DM.

'Thanks for accepting someone you pushed and laughed at.'

Matthew suppressed his laughter while Taerae bit his lips in worry, "He must be very embarrassed, right?"

The Canadian went with the game, "Yeah, he sounds pretty mad."

"I knew it!" Taerae sat down on his friend's bed, "Aish! I shouldn't have laughed that hard... But you see, he looked so funny! Who would have thought such a hottie would fall down like that!?"

"Hmmmm but you need to do something now. He must be very upset." Matthew said. Secretly cursing at himself for lying that way, but it was fun. Plus it wouldn't hurt Taerae so why not? He was just playing cupid.

"What should I do, Matthew? You know him, can you suggest me anything?"

"Hm... Let me think..." Matthew took his sweet time tormenting his roommate, then said, "Why don't you treat him to food?"

"Will he agree?" Taerae immediately asked.

"Why not? Food always wins!"

"Um...okay, so what should I write?" Taerae started reading as he typed, "Sorry... For... Laughing at you... Will.. you take a meal... As an apology?" He showed the text to his friend, "Is it okay?"

"Hm." Matthew nodded, "It sounds good."

"Okay." Taerae sent it, and almost immediately received a reply.

"Oh, he read it right away!" Taerae grinned, "He asked why."

"Say that you wanna make him feel better about that." Matthew instructed.