Boy Talk

Jae-in's POV

---

It was for the collective good that neither Wendy nor I saw each other after that exchange. Not even the playful strings of fate could bind us together as everything felt really a drought; whereas we never even got to see each other again even if was by a slim chance. Spacing myself from her did help justify the decision before I could even take it back because admittedly, it does take a huge deal of getting used to her absence. Gone were the calls, the periodical nagging, the occasional skinship… I would lie if I would say that I did not miss her to a certain degree. There was a point in our relationship that I enjoyed what had transpired. However, the negatives outweigh too much of the positives for me to even continue on. So far, I have no regrets whatsoever.

It was quite ironic, even for a person such as me, to divert my attention to the flurry of academic works I had going about. Normally I would just let things slide like how they would usually go but I figured that for a change, I might try to exert some extra effort and see how would that go for the incoming weeks. In my head, it would help me ease the periodical guilt that sprang from Wendy's slap. I was either intentionally heading straight home or going to Pacific at a weird time to enjoy myself without the rest of my new found friends.

Still, I remained updated about her thankfully, through United Kindred; of which most of her updates came from Thomas and Katy. I also observed that I went back to the more silent, sentinel type of person in the messaging group unlike when Wendy was still actively participating in it. Somehow, that subtle 'break-up' between us both incited a barrier that served the rest selective of their conversations. Replying and reacting to my friends chats suddenly felt awkward; a predicament I never viewed possible considering the presence of Vincent and Jayden…

Maybe even Vivian…

Then again, there are also the conversations that I could not avoid. Vincent is really a close friend of mine and a classmate on a mutual subject, so the talk was inevitable. I do appreciate how he's not bringing the topic out with regards to Wendy, but aside from that we really have nothing else to talk about. I guess it was my fault, considering I was making up shit-stupid reasons just to not go home with him when the issue was at its peak, all because I just wanted to be alone.

I already feel bad for doing that, but I need these little solo-times to make things work on the way they were supposed to. Soon, I will be able to get back on track.

I have full confidence that Vincent, among others, would understand that best.

The midterms are also starting to knock on the university door, and I figured I would press myself further to see what it would yield. It was a cold and rainy night; I was stuck in the comfort of the four corners of my room with Yihyun-noona running an unofficial night-shift, effectively leaving me alone in charge of the apartment. I didn't really mind, as the soft noise of the night cityscape coupled with the rain was an immaculate combo for studying.

That night, I had my phone on my desk as I repeatedly memorized the derivatives of certain trigonometric functions, the most used ones at least. I was working on a set of problems that I deem would solve my usual confusion between arcsine x and arc secant x, because in my head they always looked the same especially at first glance.

BZZZT

My phone lit up in response to a newly received message. At first, I initially thought that it was either the United Kindred messaging group or at least one of the members… then I had a hint that might be Wendy Jeon, finally deciding to message me directly after that…

I honestly hesitated for a bit before I decided to open it nonetheless.

Well, I was half-right. The message was indeed from a United Kindred member, just not someone I would immediately think of in this time of the evening.

Kim Jongwan: Yo, Jae-in, it's been a while! Are you there man? Are you online?

Of course, there was not even a second's hesitation especially when it came from Dawn. I don't know what has gotten into him that he suddenly wants a conversation, but a talk from a good friend is certainly something I could not ignore even in this situation.

Right… If there was one person that I could relate to in some degree… it would be him. We're both not in the active circle of United Kindred, not the ones who go out every week anyway… plus, he's not studying at NLIU either so I guess he's someone I can talk to when I'm in a sump with the rest of them.

With that, I decided to place a mental note on the problems I have yet to solve and brought my phone up to reply.

Jae-in: Hey, man! What's up? What's with the sudden private message?

Dawn: Well, I'll just ask if you happen to be free tomorrow evening, right after your class. Let's head for a stroll at Metro Station for a change?

This dude has got something to tell me. He's got to be sandbagging on something otherwise he would not have messaged me in this form. I could literally hear him through the screen. I'm willing to bet on it.

Jae-in: Yeah, sure… I really don't have anything else planned after tomorrow's classes. Oh, but it's the class I share with Vincent. Do you mind if I tag him along?

Dawn: That's very convenient then! I was just about to ask him the same thing. Go ahead and ask him if he's up to it, but I would appreciate it if you limit it between the three of us.

Jae-in: Why…? What's going on? Did you suddenly commit murder or something? Do you need help hiding the body?

Dawn: Hahaha hell no, brother. This is something serious. I figured I want to ask your opinions on things, and Vincent's inclusion is a damn good addition. I hope he goes as well.

What is this dude up to?

Oh wait…

Jae-in: This is about a girl now, isn't it?

Dawn: Hey, I'm going to save things for tomorrow so we can enjoy it between a cup of tea or cola or something. No alcohol and I insist. At least we have something to talk about. Don't forget to message me tomorrow, okay?

Jae-in: Alright then. Save the best for last, I guess? Lmao

Look at this idiot…

This is most definitely for a girl.

Jongwan has always been quite the ladies' man ever since. I would not be surprised if that was the case.

I could almost envy his enthusiasm to finding the right girl.

Let's see where this goes. If it works out then at least I should take notes from him, I guess.

---THE FOLLOWING DAY---

In lieu of recent events with regards to the other side of the group chat, it would stand to reason that Jae-in's enthusiasm to meet Dawn was largely anchored to his curiosity more than anything else. His sudden appearance in the middle of all the chaos of United Kindred offered a fresh set of perspective to divert him from the lingering guilt of Wendy. It was already established in his head that Dawn, being a person enrolled on a completely different university than all of them, had a different approach with regards to people. He was the most 'friendly' amidst most of them, so Jae-in found the situation to not be really much as a surprise. What he found as a surprise though, was Dawn going all the way of asking them out for their opinion. He cannot immediately think what else Dawn would ask him for because normally his friend would take care of things himself.

Given the conversation Vincent Koh and Yoon Jae-in shared on their first subject earlier that day, it was mutually agreed that Dawn was planning to ask another girl out. He was to what Jae-in would always tease him, the more 'tamed' and toned-down version of Jared as he really craves more on flirty conversations than skinship and sex.

Hours passed and eventually the afternoon fell. Jae-in and Vincent took the long route, exiting through the university hospital to meet with Dawn along the way and ultimately settling to meet on a convenience store near his college. Similar to North Light, strands of people started to walk out of its premises with the only reason being the hourly dismissals.

Jae-in and Vincent treaded towards the tall buildings of the spread university campus, still engaged in a conversation with regards to their drafting subject. That was when he showed up; the man of the hour Kim Jongwan. He was walking towards their direction, a soft black beanie concealing the rest of his blonde hair while he supplied both of his friends with a wide smile. As he waved his hands in greeting, Jae-in was able to notice the can of soda he held, including the two others lodged on his other arm with his sling bag's strap lay dangling on his back.

"Hey!" Jongwan said with utmost enthusiasm as soon as he approached the two. As per usual, he gave them mutual fist bumps even with the sodas and joined them on their walk. "I went to pull my luck and hope that I bump into the two of you. The convenience store is so jam-packed with med students racking in some coffee for the night classes so I had to settle for a little take-out."

"Well, going way up here was a good call then. Jae-in and I were about to stay at the internet café just to chill and wait, so it was better that we walked up here," Vincent added.

"I agree," Jae-in said. "Had we agreed to stay there and things did not turn out the way we thought they would, you're going to walk all around just to get to NLIU's main gate. It's crazy when you think how large of a space the university actually occupies."

"You would have been tired the moment you arrive at the shop," said Vincent in agreement. "Well, let's just cut to the fucking chase… to what do we owe the pleasure, Kim Jongwan? This entire ordeal seemed pretty serious considering you're pretty much MIA most of the time. This is such a huge development. Jayden would flip if he hears this."

Dawn smirked. "I can't help it. I figured I had to tell it to someone. However, this is not the place to talk. You guys okay walking all the way to Metro Station?"

"Of course, I mean look who you're talking to. We literally have Jae-in with us."

"As for the time," Jae-in added, nodding. "We have all night. Go ahead and we'll listen."

"Damn, you guys are as reliable as ever; well except for the one time you misdirected me on Yeouido, Vincent. I'm never forgetting that."

"Hey!"

"Anyway, let's head on. We have a shit ton to talk about."

---

"Okay, we're here embracing the beauty of the city's best malls while we tread its premises… so could you please just cut it with the suspense and tell us what the hell is going on?" Jae-in said with an obvious tone of sarcasm, wedging himself between the two figures of his friends.

"Fine then, I think I've stalled long enough," Dawn began as that time he swapped positions with Jae-in and became the one wedged between them. "So, for starters, I think it was already a given fact that your boy Dawn talks to a lot of girls, right?"

"Oh really, you do? Can you please tell us something that we don't know yet?" teased Vincent.

"Hey, I'm being serious, man! I'm trying to intro this in the smoothest way possible!"

"Okay, okay, so… let me guess… you found a girl amongst all the ocean of people you're talking to, and hoping to hop to the next level of that talk you asked Jae-in and me for help. How does that sound?"

"That feels way too accurate of a guess," said the other friend, Jae-in from the other side of the trio. "I think that you just hit him spot-on."

"It does feel like a suspicious guess, but nevertheless accurate. It does sound bad when you put it up that way, though," Dawn replied with a smirk and transferring his gaze towards Vincent's grimace.

"Isn't it bad, though? I mean, you don't usually end up doing that no matter how serious it gets," teased Jae-in. "What made this any different from the past ones, hmmm?"

Kim Jongwan hesitated for a bit, cleared his throat, and then proceeded to talk with a clearly retreated tone.

"I… I happen to stumble upon a girl… Nancy… when I was sending people tons of messages… it went down initially as a random conversation here and there and I thoroughly enjoyed talking to her because she replies so quickly… it eventually evolved to our ideal types and of course I had to spill mine to her."

"Ah-huh…. And….?"

"Well, apparently this girl I was talking about introduced me to someone she thought would be suitable for me and that is judging by all the conversations we had prior to that arrangement. She organized a lunch date for the three of us a couple of days ago, and there I finally met the woman that I wanted to talk about."

(Three…?)

(There's more than one girl this guy's talking to?)

"Wait, hold up," Vincent interfered. "I'm confused… so this person that you initially talk to was not the same girl you're intending to ask out, but rather her friend?"

"That's what I am trying to explain man… listen carefully because it is very complicated."

"I mean, my expectations were low but holy fuck."

"Anyway, so I was successful on talking to this friend of hers and I was thoroughly interested on where our conversation would lead, but then she eventually posted a photo on her story with a couple of her other friends and damn I was so stunned with one of her friends bro. She looked so amazing. I knew when I first saw her I'm immediately hooked."

"What the hell?" Jae-in replied as he stifled a laugh. "I thought you were already talking to this Nancy girl? How come that it was her friend that you've suddenly developed interest on? Is it really that complicated? You just took a 90 degree turn out of her way!"

"Hey, in my defence, I was just talking to Nancy because she looked like a fun person to talk to, and I was right! Turns out Nancy and I had a lot of things in common that we're easily getting along, so when I asked the name of the pretty person on her story she immediately went off and arranged a date for us to meet without an ounce of hesitation. It was just the very first day and yet I'm already mesmerized with her. Damn man, she's so breathtakingly beautiful. I learned that her name was Roslyn Kim, which I thought was as pretty as her face could ever be."

Jae-in silently placed his palm over his forehead while laughing to himself, along with Vincent fighting his urge to do the same.

(Jongwan was definitely something else.)

"So, have you gone already and talked to her or at least add her profile?" asked Vincent. "That way you could at least talk to her directly and not pushing things through with this Nancy … I mean, this Roslyn girl might think that you're into her friend and not her."

"Well, no… Not yet. Of course I wanted to jump right into it and talk to her almost immediately, but my conversation with her friend, Nancy, stopped me. She said that Roslyn was the type of person who always trusted her first impression on someone that adds her on social media. With that, I checked my wall and realized all the bullshit I've been sharing for the past few weeks and they were really embarrassing. Good thing Nancy told me about the whole first impression thing and I've got time to evaluate my profile for it to be interesting for her, but with its current setting I'm pretty sure I got a lot of things to work on first."

Jae-in knit his eyebrows.

"Didn't it occur to you that maybe this Roslyn has already taken a peek on your profile by now? You two have literally met, and even if you say that you're talking through Nancy, it's almost impossible to believe that she didn't even get curious with what you've got in store. I'm sure at some point she's taken a peek to it."

"I placed a quick remedy for that and temporarily hid all my posts," Dawn said nonchalant, earning a look of surprise from Jae-in's end. "I made things as private as I could, and thankfully Nancy was quick enough to understand why I did that."

"Wouldn't that make Roslyn's impression worse if she sees? That would appear so suspicious; it's as if you're trying to hide something… in this case you are, but you know what I mean."

(I honestly don't see the point why Dawn had to go onto such huge lengths. Maybe there's something in that first impression that he really values, or an essential element that I'm morbidly lacking.)

(Until I know what that is, I still feel like this entire overhaul is so unnecessary.)

"It might, but the way I look at it… I'd rather delay it for a short while than let her see it the way it is now. In the small chance that she's not paying attention, then there's my lucky strike. I'll be able to change everything before she could even see how crazy I was."

Vincent turned a gaze towards Jae-in of which the latter was quick to return. Their eyes met for a brief moment yet they already spoke a ton, perhaps including how they would try to help Jongwan in his problem. Good thing, Vincent was quite the quick thinker and decided to head on to the route that Dawn was probably trying to steer the conversation into.

"You know what…? I think Jae-in and I could relate to you better if you show us what she looks like. At least then we can see if she's worthy of our approval, right Jae-in?"

"H-huh…? Sure… I guess…?"

"One sec," replied Dawn in quick fashion as he immediately fished his phone from his pocket, in turn directing the three of them to seat at the nearby bench within the mall. Seconds later, he flashed a photo of two ladies smiling towards the camera, proceeding to hand his phone over to Vincent for him to see further. "There. Roslyn is the one on the left and Nancy's on the right."

Vincent eyed the picture carefully, and then his eyes widened.

"HOLY SHIT, THIS IS THE GIRL YOU'RE TALKING TO?!" he exclaimed, pointing towards the photograph. "Holy shit man, she looks like a goddamn model! You're so fucking lucky!"

"Dude, that's Nancy you're pointing at."

Vincent shifted his finger towards the other girl.

"She is so beautiful!"

Dawn emitted a soft chuckle.

"I get it, they're both pretty so I get why you're confused. It was just Nancy's idea to bring us together because she felt that we're… compatible, I guess."

"Here, take a look Jae-in," Vincent said as he handed the phone over.

With that, Jae-in held the phone with the two ladies pictured perfectly. Sure enough, there was no denying that they're really pretty, and even that felt like an understatement to him. However, perhaps his subsequent fallout with Wendy caused him to be really disinterested in anything romantic, even down to the smallest details of praising a person's visuals. He could see why Dawn would take a liking into her, it's just he could not give his honest opinions about her. He really could not care less.

"She's pretty," he concluded, sufficing a smile while returning Dawn his phone. "I can see why you're interested on her. He looks exactly like you're type. I approve… I guess."

"It's decided then; you get both of our approval," said Vincent. "Now, tell us of this plan of yours."

Dawn straightened his back and sighed, trying to gain confidence.

"Thanks to Nancy, we know that she likes a good impression. With that, I want to overhaul everything in my profile, man. The picture, the cover, the bio, even the clothes, and anything else I could change to improve a good impression towards her. I want her to get an impression that I'm this chill, reserved yet humorous dude just by looking at the photo. That's how I want to present myself to her so that she could approach me easily even through messaging."

Vincent choked and coughed while Jae-in wide-eyed his statement.

"Damn I didn't expect it to be that far," said Jae-in. "You're re-doing everything from the bottom to the top."

"I mean, come on man; when was the last time that I've been this much of a simp for a girl, hmm? You've seen her; you've seen how good looking she is. I want to at least match that. I promise you, once this works out, it would be really worth."

"So where do we come in?"

"Ah, I need your skills and your knowledge. Do you know someone who has knowledge on photography? It'll be better if it's someone we know closely. I don't know if there's anyone at the United Kangaroo or whatever, who's into this kinds of things, but I just want things to be perfect in her eyes and I want to look as best as I possibly could get. I need a good photographer, and I'm speaking here because I'm willing to pay the price for it."

Jae-in suddenly remembered something.

"Hey what's wrong with this huh?" Vincent smirked as he pointed towards Dawn's current fit. "You're pretty okay with your current setting man, why don't you just jump into it right away? You don't need to re-do everything just… just tweak a couple here and there, maybe?"

"I feel like if I do it this time, I'm not going to achieve anything of the sort and I think I could things better. You know, it should start of as booming as it could be so she could get immediately overwhelmed with how carefully planned my profile was. With that, she'll be more interested on knowing me and hopefully it could be the ground to start things off, harvesting the seeds I planted from the date and from our future conversations."

"Well I think you can get those things even if you stay true to yourself. Let me use myself as an example; I barely even give some thought into what I'm wearing every day and it's my confidence that's bringing me to the next level. I don't think you really need to go this far, Jongwan, and risk exhausting yourself for nothing. "

"I told you man… I might end up regretting not doing it the moment that it does not work out. Think about it; if I manage to give a good impression with Roslyn then that's the best case scenario, right? If, however that that is not the case (which I do hope not), then at least I have my profile set up good. It's just… I can't explain it. I just want to look presentable because I trust Nancy's advice. She might be someone that I would pursue in the long run, you know."

"Yeah, what I'm trying to say is you can just head on off and—"

"Vincent," Jae-in interrupted right as Vincent was starting to make gestures in the air in front of him. "I feel like we should just leave Jongwan be, you know. I think he's pretty much decided already anyway. Sure, maybe you and I could not immediately see why he's doing this, but maybe there's something going on with his convo with Nancy and Roslyn that is making him motivated to do this."

"You're definitely correct, Jae-in. There's just something that I can't explain, making me push through with all of these. You'll know when you're in the situation," nodded Dawn in agreement.

"Also, at least if Dawn fails this entire thing does not work out for him then we know that his profile is already set for the next agenda of flirting, right?"

"Yah"

"Anyway, my point is that… let's just help him out Vincent. Trying to get around the bush and forcing this off would just be fruitless and dumb. I say we let him do it and see what comes out from it, right?"

(I do wish this works out for him, though.)

"Okay then, fine. Then the first thing we should think of is the photographer. Do you guys know anyone reliable for photography?" asked Vincent.

"Hey, Jayden does that part-time, right? Why don't we ask him?" Dawn said, his eyes widening upon realization. Jae-in, however, shrugged his shoulders in response.

"I don't know about that one. The fact that Jayden does photography is pretty much already given in United Kindred, but most of the time he's really lazy. If he's not on the mood to do it, his natural skills won't surface even if you force him by bribing a lunch or something. If you like, I think I know someone who could help you, I just don't know how I'm going to talk them into this…"

"Wait, you're being serious? You know someone aside from Jayden? Are you sure you can ask them for a favour? Are they professionals at this?"

"Well, not exactly, Dawn, but I think it could get the job done. Just let me worry about how I would convince them to do it."

"Oh right," Vincent's voice suddenly added to the fray, but before Jae-in could even hear the rest of his statement, his mind began to space out.

And there, just as Vincent and Jongwan were debating whether it was a good idea to ask United Kindred's resident ladies' man, Jared, Jae-in immediately opted himself off of the conversation. He turned his attention towards his phone's blacked screen; his mind generating thousands of explanations on how to even convince a small favour from Vivian Ning from that evening, especially on an oddly timed circumstance directed to his friend instead of himself.