[EDITING]
When Jeon Jeongguk's sister gets engaged to his friend's brother, almost everything changes.
Desperate to hold onto a fragile friendship, Jeongguk is willing to get himself into sticky situations--even to the point of ruining his sister's...
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Chapter Thirty-Five: A Close Call
Jeongguk knew right away this was not going to be like the parties he had been to before. Consisting mostly of exhausted college students who had caught the summer fever, ready to shake the stress off their shoulders with a beer––or five, everyone was older than him. When he walked around, tailing Hoseok, he almost felt like a kid, so much smaller, so much less experienced. People were standing in groups, conversing mostly, bobbing their heads to the music, a drink in hand. No one was drunk, it was too early in the night for that, but everyone seemed to be experiencing the first remnants of the good mood alcohol brought. No one was losing it, no one was yelling, no one was doing anything too strange, unlike what he was used to from the parties he had gone to before; teenagers who tried downing as much alcohol as possible as early as they could. Children who didn't know how to treat nor hold their liquor.
"Everyone here is so sophisticated," Jeongguk muttered to Hoseok.
Hoseok laughed. "You think? Just you wait. Things get crazy."
He kept following Hoseok, frequently stopping as they ran into a friend of his, and then Hoseok would hug them, introduce them to Jeongguk, then keep going, only to be stopped again. He was trying to find his friend, the host, to let him know they were here, also to ask him where he could find his beer. His friend had offered to buy some for him, given that Hoseok wouldn't have time to do it himself.
They found both in the kitchen––a typical kitchen, the sink under a window, an island, dark-wooden cabinets, grey countertops. He was standing by the sink, talking to two girls and when he looked up to see who had just walked into the kitchen, his eyes widened at the sight of the two of them. "Hobi!" the friend screamed, and ran to him, pulling him into a bear-hug. "My MAN."
He was much bigger than the two of them, and he lifted Hoseok off his feet and twirled him in a circle, holding on to him tight. When Hoseok finally managed to get out of his grips, he had to catch his breath. "You have to stop doing that," he said, but he was smiling. "This is Jeongguk." He gestured his way. "He's staying at my parents'."
"Oh nice." The friend put out his fist and reluctantly, Jeongguk met it with his own. "The wedding, right? When is it?"
Jeongguk leaned back against the kitchen island, while he tried to recall what his sister had said. "Uhm ... end of August."
"Daaaaaamn, getting close. Only a month. You nervous?"
"Why would I be nervous?"
Hoseok's friend seemed to light up. "My man, that's how it's done. Nothing better than getting married. How old are you?"
"Eighteen," he said. This guy has so much energy.
"WOW, that's young. And you've already figured it all out, huh? Dude, I admire you. Though you can't say it doesn't make sense––love would probably be easy for me too if I had your handsome face. Man, you're pretty! How did you meet the lucky girl?"
