Hyunjin doesn't leave my side once in the afternoon, sitting in on all my classes, no matter how many odd looks he gets.
He points out all the cute guys in my lectures, but there's still something I have to do without him when I see Changbin standing around alone.
"Changbin", I call out.
He turns, and sorrow and anger flashes across his face.
"You here to apologize?", he sneers.
"How would you feel if I said yes", I venture.
Changbin scoffs.
"Listen, I'm a bitch and an asshole who overreacted and ruined a whole bunch of shit, I know that. And I can't change what's done. But, I can apologize, again and again. I'm sorry, Changbin, I betrayed your trust."
Changbin stands there, silently studying me, for a long time. I keep my head at an angle, bowing it in apology.
"I still can't forgive you Jeongin. An apology made it better, somewhat, but my love for Jisung is not just something you can randomly tell him. I've been in love, in actual love, with him for years. I know you were impulsive, and petty, and it's nice to know you admit it, but those aren't excuses."
I nod.
"Ok. Do you still want to get drunk with Seungmin, Hyunjin and me? I'm trying to get over Chan. You can try to get over Jisung."
"You liked him?"
"How could I not?"
"He's overreacting. But, you have to remember the way he broke up with Felix. Chan hates not being able to trust people, and it's often minor things like this that send him over the edge."
"So, are you drinking? Yes, no, maybe?"
"No. I don't want to drink with you"
He just seems tired now, exhausted, so I let him be and walk back.
Seungmin joins me in going back to the apartment. He bought ice cream, the expensive kind, that we usually only buy for special celebrations.
Hyunjin opens the door for us, and talks quietly to Seungmin.
"What did you tell Chan?", Hyunjin asks, trying to keep me from hearing him.
Seungmin lets out a pressured exhale.
"I told him that it's fine for him to date someone else, but he ever so much as came close to Innie again, I would chase him down, and end him brutally."
Hyunjin nods.
"And what did he say?"
"He said he didn't want to come close to a liar anyway. so I punched him. You never call my friend a liar."
Hyunjin bites the inside of his cheek. He puts on some 3Racha, my favorite. I shake my head. Even my favorite music is tainted by Chan.
Lying on top of him as I talk and do school work, feeling how soft he is against my head.
Hyunjin nods, and puts on a playlist titled 'heartbreak' instead. 'Better now', by Post Malone blasts through the apartment. Our neighbor, a guy named Yuta, hammers in on the wall, yelling at us to keep it down.
Hyunjin ignores him, grabs a bottle of vodka, the strong kind, and a scooper for the huge amounts of melting ice cream, and hands me and Seungmin a bowl each. The we cuddle under a ginormous blanket.
Someone hits the door so hard we're scared it will break. Seungmin opens it to find a livid Yuta.
The man quickly calms down though, after he sees us under the blanket, the vodka, the ice cream, and puts it together with Sorry not sorry blasting through the apartment.
"Are you guys ok?", he yells instead.
Seungmin lowers the volume.
"The guy he likes is dating someone else", he explains, pointing toward me.
Yuta winces.
"That sucks."
"Do you want to join us?", Hyunjin mentions.
"Sure. You have vodka, right?"
He puts on 'Legally blonde' after some quick research about heartbreak movies, then joins the blanket cuddle, grabbing himself and me a shot glass.
[][][][][]
A few shots later, everyone but Seungmin is drunk. As the only one with a high alcohol tolerance, he watches soberly as Yuta and Jeongin start making out. He'd stop them, but in his (admittedly just a bit addled) mind, this is actually good for Jeongin. It's definitely better than continuing to be heartbroken over the other asshole.
He watches Yuta sloppily leaving bites all over Jeongin's neck, and already knows that the younger is going to have hickies.
He decides he's reached the point where it might be sensible to pull his boyfriend into a different room, and basically carries the other into his bedroom.
[][][][][]
I wake up the next morning with a slight discomforting feeling in my ass.
I'm naked, I notice after a moment. And Yuta sleeps next to me, our bodies tangled intimately.
Luckily it's Saturday, so I don't have anything planned.
Then I remember.
Johnny wanted to meet me at 12.
I check the phone lying next to me.
It's 11:30.
Quickly, I grab my clothes, and get changed.
Yuta wakes up, his hair still mussed from sleep.
"Morning", he groans,"uhhh... Can we pretend this never happened?"
I grin.
"I wanted to ask you the same thing"
We both laugh, and Yuta gets up to change back into his clothes as well. Then he leaves to go to his apartment.
I grab my phone and slip out of the door to meet with Johnny, but not before popping in a breath mint.
[][][][][]
I'm almost on time to meet the elder, only coming about a minute too late.
Johnny sees the hickies I didn't have time to cover up, and laughs.
"Didn't I tell you to get some actual sleep?"
"Shut up"
I nudge him with my elbow and he laughs again.
"So, who was the lucky guy?"
"None of your beeswax", I say loftily, sending him into a laughing fit at my use of the phrase he taught me Wednesday.
"Good pronunciation", he says appreciatively.
I smile, pleased by his praise.
"Thanks."
We work for a while, and then Johnny asks me to go grab a book from the back of the library.
I get lost behind the bookshelves, searching for the right one.
When I finally spot the right book after 10 minutes of fruitless search, I'm so fixated on it that I bump into someone else.
Their books go flying.
"Oh sorry", I laugh, picking one up to give it to the unfortunate soul.
"Jeongin"
My smile fades when I realize who said my name
"Chan"
My voice is stiff and monotone.
He can't seem to take his eyes off of my neck, studying the blue and purple marks Yuta left.
"Who", he trails off, biting his inner cheek as he runs his eyes up and down my neck,"who gave you those?"
"None of your beeswax, Bang", I say, except when I say it to Chan instead of Johnny, it's cold and emotionless.
[][][][][]
I return to the table, pissed off beyond belief.
Johnny takes one look at me, then looks behind me, to where Chan still watches, judging his expression.
He knows small parts of what happened. He was in the crowd at the cafeteria.
He has me sit next to him and scoots closer to me, putting his arm over my shoulder.
"If you feel uncomfortable, we can leave", he whispers into my ear, glancing at Chan, and I realize what he's doing.
He's trying to make Chan back off.
I internally thank him for how calmly he's handling this.
"It's fine, after all, I have you to help me"
Chan stiffens, showing he was indeed listening in on our conversation. I curse his hearing.
"Ok, as long as you feel comfortable"
We keep working loudly, making a couple insiders.
But Johnny's arm only leaves my shoulder when Chan leaves.
"You good?", he asks.
I nod.
"Good. I seriously hope no one got this on camera, because my boyfriend would kill me."