OUR HEARTBEAT [BEOMJUN] ✅

twenty-eight

In the parking lot after school, Arin handed me a grocery bag full of Post-it notes. “Are you sure Yeonjun works at the tutoring center today?” she asked me.

“Yes.”

“Okay, after lab, Soobin and I will meet you over there. Will Yeonjun see you?”

“No, I think they make employees park in back to save the spots out front for customers.”

She nodded.

“Which color am I using to spell out the words?” I asked, putting the bag in my car.

“The blue is to spell festival and the question mark. The orange is to cover the rest of the car.”

“This is going to be cool,” I said.

“Let’s pray for no wind.” Arin grinned at me. “Anyway, I think he’ll be so surprised he’ll have to say yes.”

—————

An hour later, Arin and Soobin met me behind the tutoring center, where I still hadn’t finished covering Yeonjun’s car.

Arin snatched a packet of Post-its out of the bag by my feet and threw the packet to Soobin. “Start coating, baby.”

The three of us got to work. A few minutes passed, and Arin said, “Post-its always remind me of Hawaii.”

It took us nearly another hour to finish Yeonjun’s car. Then we moved to the back fence and sat down on the curb to wait for Yeonjun to come out.

“Are you nervous?” I asked Arin.

“Of course not,” she said, and I completely believed her. I would’ve been nervous. Who was I kidding. I was nervous. In the darkest reaches of my obviously horrible heart, I wanted Yeonjun to turn her down. This made me an awful friend.

No. I wanted him to say yes. Then my horrible heart would get the hint. Then I would know, beyond a doubt, that Yeonjun had been talking about her on the podcast all this time.

Soobin had been pretty quiet during the whole car decorating and I wondered why.

When he spoke, he seemed to answer my unspoken question.

“And after weeks of calling in to the show, he finally gets his girl.”

I widened my eyes and looked at Arin.

“Seriously?” Soobin said. “You thought I didn’t know it was him? I do know the guy. And us podcasters do not, in fact, manipulate the voices until after the fact.”

“We don’t?” Arin asked in mock surprise.

“You’re not going to tell him, are you?” I asked Soobin.

“She still thinks I have no integrity,” he said to no one in particular.

“No, it’s not that. I just think … I don’t know.” I was rambling. “I don’t want him to find out that we’ve all known all this time.” I couldn’t imagine he’d feel good about that. Why hadn’t we told him again?

“He won’t find out from me,” Soobin said.

I squeezed his arm. “Thank you.”

“How’s your phone, Soobin?” Arin asked with a smile.

He bumped his leg into hers. “Totally dead, courtesy of the dunking booth incident, thank you very much.”

We all heard the back door open, and we all jumped up simultaneously.

Yeonjun saw the car first. How could he not? His whole face lit up with a smile. Then he searched the surrounding area until his eyes locked on to the three of us, standing against the fence.