Context Clues | Completed

Chapter Twenty-Seven | Complete and Utter Madness

Kang Il

"I really don't want to do this," I groan. "This is far too dramatic."

Despite my groans and complaints, here I was on the studio lot basketball court that Lee Young-min had reserved for our joint bachelor party. It had quickly evolved into being a huge gathering as Ryan Jae and Ca Jin-Ho had invited our entire team to join in the celebrations. I hadn't been expecting much of a turn out since I'm not necessarily well-liked by most the guys, but to my (somewhat unpleasant) surprise, the entire Seoul Eagles team had come out to celebrate my engagement. Lee Young-min and Du Shin-Il invited their friends from the studio to celebrate their engagements as well and now the small bachelor party had evolved into a group of 50 people coming together to play 5v5 basketball games, matching team jerseys and all.

The 'grooms' had been paired together with Ca Jin-Ho as our fifth as Lee Young-min claimed our luck in love could rub off on him, a joke that Ryan Jae merely snorted at and I sighed at.

My luck in love meant he lost out, so I don't know if he's necessarily lucky to be paired up with me or if God just has a really ironic sense of humor.

Upon hearing about the gathering, the women in our lives had banded together, in their own secret group chat, and determined team uniforms for us to wear. Despite my protests, I was decked out in a black basketball uniform with Tae Men's face on it, with everyone else having their own variation. Ca Jin-Ho's was different, his displaying a 'resume' of sorts along with his social media pages to attract any 'single ladies' as Tae Men had explained.

"Tae Men said that if you complain all night and don't try to enjoy yourself, she's pushing the wedding back a week. She already confirmed it with the vendors that the date is available," Tae Moon says.

Tae Men's brother is proudly sporting a jersey of his own, hand-crafted by Yun Goo no doubt, and is bouncing a basketball between his legs to warm up for the first round of the tournament.

Deciding not to risk angering my future wife, I swallow my pride and anger and roll my eyes, offering my hands to take the ball for myself. He tosses it my way and lets out a yell to get teams organized. Bu Seok is passing around drinks and throwing bags of snacks at people via a make-shift cannon and acts as though the bachelor party is for him and not his friends.

"Ready to celebrate?" Lee Young-min asks, clapping a hand on my shoulder.

"I'm ready for it to be over if I'm being honest, but I'm going to celebrate as my bride to be is blackmailing me to do so."

He grins and nods, "Honestly, I'm as surprised as you are that we're here, celebrating our upcoming weddings together. I wouldn't have guessed things would turn out this way when we first met."

I grunt in agreement as I halfheartedly bounce the ball, "Same."

"We start shooting for the next show at the stadium next week so we'll probably be spending a lot of time together too."

"Oh joy," I joke.

"With Bu Seok directing this show for the first time on his own, I'm sure he'll be asking lots of questions for the show's accuracy too."

"Bu Seok is going to drive me crazy, isn't he?"

"Better than him asking more questions about your personal life for the next show, right?"

"What does that mean?"

Lee Young-min looks back at me with raised brows, "You don't know? He wasn't kidding when he said he was gonna write a story about your life."

"My life is not nearly interesting enough to be a drama," I scoff.

Lee Young-min shrugs, "Maybe not to you, but plenty of people would be interested in the story."