The Foolproof Plan

Chapter 29: BRUNCH CODE

"Seokjin. Seokjin."

I blinked my eyes until the blurry faces of my friends came into focus. I turned my head and almost bumped noses with Taehyung.

"Whoa! What is it?" I asked, moving away from him. I looked around. "Hey, Jungkook! What are you doing here?"

Hoseok laughed. "Uh, he's been here for a while, bro. Where've you been?"

I shook my head and smiled into my coffee cup.

"Yeah, cuz," Tae said. "You've been zoned out since you got here. What is it?"

"Why am I always the topic of conversation at brunch?" I asked with a whine. "Why don't you all talk about--I don't know--pancakes?"

"Hm," Namjoon grunted. "Bro, what're you hiding?"

"Nothing!" I exclaimed, yet I couldn't keep my lips from curving upwards.

Yoongi put down his fork. "Wait-Wait a minute! He's daydreaming, he's defensive, and he's smiling like an idiot." He looked at me and lowered his voice. "You got laid."

The guys all either laughed or hit their hands on the table. Jungkook just stared at me with an open mouth.

Then Namjoon quieted everyone down and stared at me. "Seokjin," he said threateningly.

I waved my hand dismissively. "You all stop! I guess you should know: Bella and I are officially back together. She's my girlfriend. End of story." I gave a little shrug and dug into my waffles.

Taehyung gasped. "Really? You're back together! That's great news, cuz!"

"Congrats!"

"Good news!"

"I think so," I replied. "It's early stages, but everything will be okay. Soon."

"So it's not okay yet?" Hoseok asked. "You mean you haven't had...?" He paused when he noticed Jungkook's wide-eyed stare. "...had pancakes?" Yoongi almost spit out his coffee.

My fork stopped halfway to my mouth. "Uh...what?"

Hoseok raised an eyebrow. "You know. Pancakes."

"Oh," I said, understanding his euphemism. There was no need to startle Jungkook on a Sunday morning. "Well, it's not something I'd like to talk about. If that's not in the bro code, then let's make it a brunch code or something."

"Just spill it," Yoongi said. "Pancakes last night? The night before?"

Namjoon made an impatient sound. "Knock it off, guys. If he doesn't want to say anything, it's none of our business." He glanced at me. "We don't need to know, okay?" I knew Namjoon would not want to hear anything about my intimacy with Bella. The guy was probably still crushing on her.

"He's obviously disgustingly happy," Yoongi continued. "He must have had pancakes, butter, the whole works. Right?"

Taehyung leaned closer to me and whispered, "We're not talking about food, are we, cuz?" I gave a little shake of my head, and he leaned back with a nod of understanding.

"Look, Yoongi," I began. "It's nobody's business if I ate pancakes or not and--"

"You ate pancakes?" Hoseok broke in with a wicked smile. "Now we're getting too much detail."

Namjoon jabbed him with an elbow, but Hoseok kept laughing. "All right, you all stop. We don't need to know if he had...pancakes with Bella or not. Have some respect. If not for him, then for Bella."

"Thanks, Joon," I said and lifted my coffee cup to my lips. "Besides, JK hasn't even started college. Let's not traumatize the kid."

Yoongi and Hoseok chuckled again before returning to their food. Namjoon shook his head in mock disappointment, and Taehyung reached for the salt.

Jungkook put down his glass of milk with a shrug. "What's so traumatizing about pancakes?" he asked. "I would've been more shocked if you were talking about sex."

Everyone at the table froze, eyes darting from one person to another. Then Hoseok started guffawing until he was wheezing.