“Yeah, okay.” I take the last few pieces of meat off the grill, splitting them between the two of us. “Do you need anything? At home? Is there something that would make you more comfortable while you stay?”
“Yes,” he replies entirely too quickly.
I’m a little alarmed by how he didn’t have to think about it at all. Am I the worst host ever? Damn. “Okay, what? Name it.”
“I need you to stop folding your fancy underwear at the kitchen table,” he says, miming the action as he speaks.
I can’t help but laugh. “Me doing my laundry bothers you that much? Just because you haphazardly shove all of your stuff in a drawer…”
“No,” he cuts me off. “First. I don’tshoveanything. Second, it’s not your laundry I’m talking about, it’s specifically you bringing a basket of your business guy socks and the underwear with all the wild prints and patterns on it and flinging them all over the kitchen table. Sometimes while I’m working! We eat there!”
I just stare at him, still kind of silently chuckling at his outrage.
“When did you become that guy? Your socks are like, silky. And what’s wrong with black boxer-briefs like you used to wear?” He’s legitimately having a moment with this, all indignant that I decided to add some color and style to what’s under my clothes.
“Should I find it weird that you not only paid attention to the fact I wore boxer-briefs in the past, but also remember theywere always only black?” I raise an eyebrow, challenging him.
“I’m gay and I thought you were hot, Kija. Of course I noticed your underwear,” he says with a casual shrug.
As I flag the server over to bring another round of drinks, I realize something. “Wait.ThoughtI was hot? Past tense?”
“That’swhat you’re taking away from this?” Jase squawks.
Leaning back in the seat, I have to cover my mouth to stifle my laughter because other diners are turning to look at us. Times like this I’m glad that Jase and I usually use English so there’s slightly less of a chance that everyone around us is listening to our inane conversations.
He huffs like he’s annoyed with me, but I know he’s not. I can see the corners of his mouth twitching because he’s trying to fight a smile.
“You’re impossible,” he mutters.
“That’s no way to talk to your roommate,” I joke, but then get serious. “I do like having you around again. I know it hasn’t been that long, and I’m sure we’ll start to get on each other’s nerves at some point, but I’m having fun. It’s nice to be able to spend time with you.”
Jase smiles. “Yeah. I’m not really that upset I didn’t find anything today. I have been enjoying hanging out too. I want a place where I can have Nikko over and not get in your way eventually, but this isn’t bad for now.”
“Maybe you can have a chat with Noel, get her to quit taking her frustrations out on all my stuff,” I suggest.
“Right after you stop flaunting your underwear in front of me,” he counters.
“Understood.”
?
LUX
“JUST TELL HIM!” I shout as I drag my finger across the screen of my e-reader to turn the page. The slow burn has been burning entirely too slowly for my taste. It was easy for me to think of myself as the main character in this one and if the love interest happened to remind me of Kija, well, maybe he did. But I would never wait so long to make a move on the object of my affection in the situation. It’s the end of the world, and the time they’re wasting is ridiculous. “If you’d just talk to him…”
“Who are you speaking to?” Nikko asks as he breezes into the room. His hair is messy and his eyes are bright, lips pink, which means he’s just been with Jase. As usual.
I close the cover on my tablet, knowing I won’t be able to get any more reading done if he wants to chat. And he always wants to tell me about Jase. I like listening to him, and Iamhappy for him, but I feel jealous more often than I want to admit. “How’s your boyfriend?”
Nikko smiles, all soft and dreamy. “Perfect.”
“Of course.” I wait for Nikko to settle on my bed and move closer to lean against him. “What’d he do now?”
“Nothing special. I just like being with him so much. We went to the night marketat Hangang…”
I cut him off, looking up at him in surprise. “Isn’t that kind of reckless? Being out in public like that?”
He shrugs as much as he can with me pinning his arm down. “I don’t know, we didn’t get caught. I had on a hat and a mask and stayed off to the side of everything while he got us hotteok and milk tea. Then we went down by the river and ate. It was sweet.”
