This Friend | Yeonbin

5

Soobin P.O.V

I’m laying out by our pool, lounging on a deck chair.

I haven’t stopped thinking about what happened last night.

I met Yeonjun whateverhislastnameis. And I know it might be stupid, because we just went to a crappy diner to get a surprisingly good burger. And shakes. And waffle fries.

But it felt kind of special to me, like we just sort of clicked.

I don’t know.

I’ve tried to find him online, but so far, nobody I’m friends with knows anyone named Yeonjun.

Which makes me think maybe he doesn’t use social media much. He gave the impression he was a sort of busy guy, so maybe he’s got too much going on to keep up a social media presence.

Which feels like nonsense, even to me.

Hot guys like him love social media.

Where else would they post thirst traps? Why even work out if you’re not going to post shirtless photos?

I just need to look harder.

I sit up and unlock my phone. I load my cousins Facebook and search his friends for anyone called Yeonjun. He has one, and my heart kind of soars, but then when I click through, I see it’s not him. Unless he looks really different in person.

The gate to the pool opens, and Taehyun steps inside. He’s holding a towel and is wearing black trunks.

He throws the towel onto the deck chair beside me and then pulls his shirt off over his head. He fixes his hair, adjusts his trunks, then thumps down. He puts his arms behind his head, stretching out.

He’s so defined; it’s so unfair. I know he works out almost every day and tracks his calories and macros, so I’d probably look more like him if I paid more attention to it.

Still, it feels so damn unfair that he has a sculpted torso, complete with a defined six-pack, and I don’t.

It’s just rude.

We look so alike in every other way but being buff makes all his features click together in a way mine don’t. I try not to be hard on myself, but he was right about what he said last night. He is the good-looking one.

He pumps out some sunscreen from the tube I have beside me, and slaps it down onto his chest.

“Where’d you go?” he asks.

“Huh?”

“Last night, you disappeared for a while. Where’d you go?”

I don’t have a lie planned. I truly thought I’d gotten away with it. I should’ve expected him to notice, though.

“Oh, nowhere exciting. I was craving fries, so I went to the diner down the road.”

“By yourself?”

I shrug.

“You’re a weird dude, anyone ever tell you that?”

“You did, just now.”

He laughs. “Where was my invite? I’m bulking, you know I need all the calories I can get.”

He slaps his hard stomach. I have no idea how the whole muscle thing works, that he can eat burgers and stuff and still look like him.

It seems to go against everything I’ve been taught at school about being healthy.

“You were busy.”

“Doing what?”

I chew my nail. “You were with P.J, remember?”

“Oh yeah. I almost forgot. So many, so little time, you know?”

Obviously, I don’t.

“Did you two hook up?” I ask as I put my hands behind my head, so I’m mirroring him. In front of me is my pool, then a small stretch of perfectly kept lawn.

Dad makes us cut it on alternating Saturdays. If I forget, Taehyun reminds me. It looks really short, so I guess he’s already done it this morning.

“Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you,” he says.

I roll my eyes.

“How ’bout you?” he asks.

“Are you asking if I hooked up with that person?”

“No. Did you meet any girls?”

“What do you think? Nobody even noticed I was there.”

“God, stop being so pathetic. I’m telling you, just find a girl who gives you a happy feeling down there, then give ’em the old Choi smolder. They’ll become obsessed with you, for the night, anyway. Trust me.”

My brother, folks. I love him. But he’s such a douchebag.

“Noted,” I say.

I don’t know why I said that, because I already know it’s not really possible for a girl to give me any sort of feeling down there. Trust me, I’ve tried. I watched all sorts of videos on the internet, hoping they’d inspire some sort of reaction in me.

Like I’d see one girl, the right girl, and everything would click into place. But my attention is always, always, drawn to the guys.

I’m just built that way.

I’m done with this conversation, so I turn the volume of my music up, roll over, and face the opposite direction.