"It gets worse - trust me." Jake continues grimly, "I'm obviously calling out to her to get off the grass - and guess what she does?"
"Ignore you?"
"Beat your ass to a pulp?"
He pokes his tongue in his cheek, "She flipped me off."
"I mean, that's not-"
"Wait for it -" Jake makes a shushing motion with his finger, "- And told me to suck her dick."
A collective 'Oof' leaves both of the other boys' lips.
"Tough." Jay winces, "Kind of funny, I've gotta admit. But tough."
"What he said." Sunghoon agrees, folding his legs to his chest, "Did it bother you?"
"Mm, I don't know about bother." Jake hums, "Just caught me off guard, you know? Like, who does that?"
"Bitches be crazy, or whatever it is they're saying these days," Sunghoon stifles a giggle.
"Hoon - I assure you no one's saying that." Jay rolls his eyes, "And Jake - thanks for the story and all, but can we get back to the real problem at hand here?"
When met with blank stares from his friends, Jay gives them an exasperated refresher: "Hellooo? This awkward lunch thing I've gotta go to in 10 minutes? Do you guys not listen to anything I say?!"
"Sounds an awful lot like a you problem to me." Sunghoon fake-yawns, earning yet another flick on the forehead from his elder.
"Just get it done and over with, man." Jake shrugs, "What's the worst that could happen?"
"I guess so." Jay mumbles, absentmindedly tapping his foot against the carpet. "Wait - Oh!" He lights up all of a sudden, "What about you guys come with me?"
Sunghoon stares back at him with a look that screams, 'I'd literally rather do anything else!', and Jake just looks confused.
"It'll be way less weird as a small group instead of one-on-one! C'mon, pleaseee?" He drags out the final syllable, jutting out his bottom lip for good measure, "When do I ever ask you guys for anything?"
Sunghoon snickers, "Like, ten times a day."
"Twenty." Jake amusedly counters, "My bet's on twenty."
"Please!" Jay begs, and the other two are almost curious to see how long they can keep this up for before he starts pleading on his knees, "I'll pay!"
"Hmm..." Sunghoon muses, as if deep in thought, "Is she cute?"
Jake and Jay shoot him a glare in unison, "Seriously?"
"What?!" Sunghoon raises his hands in mock-surrender, "Is it a crime to be curious?"
"Dude. I haven't seen her since we were, like, ten." Jay face-palms, "How the hell am I supposed to know?"
"As if it would make a difference anyway," Jake laughs, "We know our Hoon... No one's tying that down for at least another decade."
"Decade?!" Sunghoon gasps, "I'm not that bad!"
The trio share a chorus of lighthearted laughter.
"You keep telling yourself that, buddy."
★
͏͏͏͏͏͏ ͏͏͏͏͏͏ ͏͏͏͏͏͏⠀⠀ She's arrived.
The boys' boarding house is a far cry from Sujin's idea of a suitable living area, she comes to realize very quickly. Even from outside the building, she can hear and see all the commotion through the big glass doors. Boys of all ages chasing one another around, wrestling each other to the ground, throwing various objects (both intended for throwing and not) all over the place, and shouting obnoxiously loud whoops for no apparent reason.
And to think she'd thought the girls' dormitories were bad.
Sujin feels her lips settle into a familiar scowl as she steps into the lobby. In doing so, she attracts the prying gazes of about 75 percent of the male population inside. She glances down at her outfit choice with a sigh.
Crop top to a boys' boarding house. What the hell was she thinking?
All of a sudden, a rogue football comes hurtling in the girl's direction, ricocheting off her arm before falling to the ground with a thud.
"Ow, what's your problem?!" She hisses, rubbing over the affected area whilst shooting a dirty glare to the guilty group of sophomores down the hall.
"My bad!" One of them laughs, waving his arms above his head, "Over here!"
"And how about you throw us your number along with it, hot stuff?" Another voice pipes up, and Sujin swears she sees fucking red.
"Oh, I'm going to-"
"Whoah, whoah, whoah!"
Milliseconds before Sujin is about to send the ball flying directly into the offending stranger's face, the arrival of another figure interrupts her movements to a sudden halt. She squints, features subconsciously scrunching in half-disbelief.
"Jay?"
SAGE'S SPACE! 🗯️
finally getting the 02z's perspective this time around, what did we think? it was so fun to switch from sujin's usual internal dialogue for a bit, and i just love writing the boys' friendship !!! they're saur silly !!!! aaand we got a brief introduction to jake's little... situationship 🤯⁉️ thoughts omg ??? i'm dying to know.
also, even though i've already mentioned this on my message board a couple of days ago - thank you again for 1k+ views and 100+ votes on this book (!!!) 🤩 all of your support has been so encouraging and i appreciate you guys more than you could ever know. here's to many more milestones together! 🤍
til next time, sage ♡
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