All My Words for You | TXT Huening Kai

Chapter 10

"There's only a few more practices left," Huening Kai says, doing his best to sift away the disappointment from his voice. We're in Starlit Games, on the tail end of TXT's weekly League of Legends tournament. Their team is probably going to win.

I nod, trying for an easy smile. I know, and I'll spend the years ahead of me trying to stop missing you.

He smiles as well, squinting in concentration as if trying to process something I've just said—like his brain has the ability to dissect my language. "My telepathy tells me...." He pauses, pointing fingers on his head like a few antennas, and I laugh. "That you would like to hang out with me again. And my telepathy is rarely ever wrong."

Where? I find myself mouthing the word this time, another sign that I trust him. I only mouth words to a few people in my life, like the counselor I've known for three years or Avalee Springer, the only person in my school who bothers to talk to me. She's been sitting with me at lunch since the sixth grade.

He shrugs his shoulders. "You can choose the place. I barely know anything about LA besides the sandwich place the boys always end up taking me. And the pho place Yeonjun is obsessed with."

I giggle a bit, taking a glance at my father who's handing Soobin a few buckets of sweet and sour fried chicken.

"Yeah, yeah," he shakes his head, drawing his lips into a grimace. "It's scary how much food we eat. If you ever came to Korea, I'd take you to every place imaginable. There's this all you can eat tteokbokki place that Beomgyu likes."

I nod, allowing my head to fill with fantasy, a future that involves as much sunshine I've experienced in the past few weeks. I'd go anywhere, even if you wanted to eat squid brains and rotten cabbage.

"Text me about where you want to meet," he says. "And don't worry about whether I'll like it or not. I want to see your favorite place in this city."

I nod, wishing I had a pen and notebook to furiously jot down my ideas.

Huening Kai must sense my panic, because he steadies a hand on my shoulder. "I hate to remind us both... but I leave in three weeks exactly. So let's make these twenty-one days the best we've both ever had."

When he leaves with his team, I wave goodbye for longer than usual, running up to the glass doors to see Huening Kai form fading into the shadows along with four of his best friends.

I fight the impulse to cry. In his promise, I sensed a goodbye already forming, one I've fought against for the first half of our summer together. Goodbye can't be avoided, and I'll return to the rhythm of a Starlit Games employee, fighting for some sort of stable ground in school—where I often picture myself as a cat surrounded by a plain of twisting grass and sinking sands.

My father calls from over my shoulder, half in nonchalance, but his deliberation lies in the way he stops his work. The dishes stop clattering, and my mother stops messing with the drawer—no doubt eavesdropping. "Let me know if you boys need a ride anywhere," he says. "Tomorrow is Saturday, right? Your day off."