Chapter 28: {Befriending My Friend's Crush Pt. 2}

At this boba place. We kind of just hang there.

"What's it like having a boyfriend?" Xochitl asks me (of course through her phone voice).

Of course this is the first thing she asks me, cringe, but whatever. At least she didn't judge Hyun. That gets annoying really quick when people judge why I love my Hyun (he's my Hyun and no one else's).

"It's interesting. Having a mutual understanding of what you two need together makes it easy. Hyun and I quickly got on the same page with what we wanted and we benefitted from it not taking long. Most couples I know take at least a month or two to communicate that. We also got to skip a huge step in the testing waters period, since he was already my best friend and I'm his second best friend, we got to skip the casual dating part of it which is why we claim each other as bf and gf already. We enjoy each other's company and a lot of other stuff as well, overall, it's a fun ride if you make it fun. It's also nice having a someone to depend on when things get shaky." I reply. This was so out of the blue, so that's all I could really say. Which was a lot, and I'm definitely surprised I said that much. At least the big thing is out of the way and she got it out of her system first.

"He's that big mixed guy right? Also duly noted with that understanding philosophy."

"Yeah. Are you into anyone?" I ask her this because, remember my motivation in the first place is to get her with Dowoon. At least on one date.

"There's this one guy I like. He's cute and smart. He never looks my way though. He's not that tall, has basically no muscles, and he's absent somewhat frequently. He's kinda clumsy too, I dunno why I like him, I just do."

That sounds like Dowoon. I'm not gonna ask further because even if we just became associates, it's not like we're close or anything after one bonding experience, and I just don't wanna be nosy right out of the gate, she might get creeped out. I wanna tell Dowoon, but don't wanna get his hopes up.

I just reply with an "interesting."

We chat about some other stuff for a bit like cars, video games, shows, our hobbies, and clothes.

Let's just say I learned everything about her in like an hour. She's not that interesting of a person, but she's a decent person. I don't want to make it obvious that I'm befriending her mainly to set her up with Dowoon. Also this girl just really likes cars. And PCs and PC games. And clothes. Very focused and specific tastes with these things too.

I wish I could invite her to karaoke or something, but that would make absolutely no sense and also would be rude. I'm trying to think of a perfect triple date place to bring a mute person to.

At least she's not deaf, or the best place we could go to is probably the zoo.

"Thanks for hanging with me today and buying me a boba. I had fun. Here is my number. 0XX-XXX-XXX7." she says to me.

"It's no problem, let's get you home."

"No problem, I live literally a crosswalk away."

"Okay. Was fun and I'll text you."

"See you Jugyeong."

I'm still trying to find something that we could do as a group. The beach would be fun, but the closest one is cold as hell right now. Sucks to be in January.

A bonfire sounds fun but what the heck would we do? Go camping and throw axes? Share dumb stories? Like that's a nah right there.

A car show would be beyond pushy.

I dunno man. Going out to eat seems fine. Maybe b o w l i n g? That's a cheap group date. Also Suho owes Hyun and I money so maybe he'd just pay for the 2 hours at the lane.

Eh that's pretty generic, but it's a good backup plan. The theatre is way too expensive and doesn't give Dowoon and Xochitl any time to talk.

A study group seems like a great idea on paper, in execution, not at ALL. Besides me with my super high F (59.9 like seriously why can't my teacher round it up), and Xochitl, my friend group doesn't care. I don't know Sangah that great either.

The arcade seems likes something that all of us would mutually like, but that's wayyyyy too expensive.

Then I remembered something that can potentially change everything.

All 6 of us like video games to an extent.

There's this game cafe nearby that lets you rent a room with 1-8 computers for 5000 won a person. That's dirt cheap (less than 5 usd).

But at that point we could all just play games at home. Since besides Hyun and I, and (maybe?) Sangah, the rest of them have PC's.

"Do they have game consoles I wonder."

I check and you can rent a room with a Joystation 6 for 10000 won.

That console just came out. Xochitl mentioned that she has the 5, and Dowoon still only has the 5. I only have a VR headset. Hyun has definitely absolutely no game consoles. Suho is more of a Yakuzatendo <search up N*ntend*'s history and you'll know why I name it this>. And Sangah I dunno. We've never really hung out Sangah and I.

I decide to take matters into my own hands.

I make a group chat and text, thankfully, Hyun gave me Sangah's number just in case:

"Wanna go to the game cafe on Monday after school to try out the new JS6?"

Suho responds first, "Can we do Thursday? I have a gig on Monday."

Sangah responds, "Can't do that day. I got work."

"How about this upcoming Sunday morning?" I send.

Everyone immediately agrees. Even Xochitl, which I didn't expect to accept. Maybe she wanted to try the console too.

"Great we can all meet then." I send.

I would have asked Kiara to join, but she would be a third wheel for at least one of the other two groups. Especially Suho and Sangah, since Kiara likes Suho (she likes pretty much every half-decent hot guy so it doesn't really matter, but she would try to shoot the barely budding casual relationship they have).

Man all of this meddling is making me tired. I know Hyun and I probably should never have meddled into any of our friends' love lives, but hey, if it works, it's payed off. If not, they at least still have us? Eh whatever. I'm tired. And need my second Adderall.