Meori Apeuda

Chapter 4

He beamed and without another word he pulled me back to the bar. Our waiter was still there, looking a little bit confused, but still smiling. Chan exchanged a few quick words with him, once or twice gesturing at me.

I tried to smile as naturally and innocently as I could when the waiter looked at me. After a few seconds his face lit up and with a few bows and approving sounding words he vanished into the kitchen behind the bar.

Chan looked quite pleased with himself when he turned back to me. "All done, he'll pack it up for us and we can take it home." I felt my cheeks heating up, but I smiled at him nonetheless. "Thank you..." I said, sounding really honest.

Now it was Chan's turn to blush and he scratched the back of his head again. He seemed to do that every time he felt embarrassed or unsure. Charming.

We went back to our table in silence and were met with complete chaos.

Two of the guys were armwrestling across the table, one of them was Lee Know and the other one was the guy who had fallen into the sea. The others had jumped to their feet and were cheering them on.

At the exact moment Chan and I came back to the table Lee Know lost the wrestling match to his friend. The might with which he was almost thrown onto the table caused a few glasses to topple over and spill their contents over the tablecloth.

The water jug on our end of the table was placed dangerously close to the edge and when the table shook it started falling to the ground.

Again Chan showed his impressive reflexes and caught it only a few inches above the ground. The table grew dead silent and every head was turned to him. Lee Know and his contrahent straightened up immediately, looking embarrassed, the rest quickly tried to look as if they had nothing to do with the mayhem. Water dripped slowly to the ground.

Chris stretched out his arms in a silent questioning gesture, the water jug still in one hand and pointed at the mess they had made: "Lee Know! Changbin! Really? You're serious? I was gone for FIVE MINUTES! Five!" Chan sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, looking exactly like a very stressed single father.

I couldn't help it: I burst out laughing. Their guilty faces, Chan's reaction, the whole situation, it was just hilarious. I tried to hide my laugh, when Chan's head whipped around and he tried to throw me a stern glance, but it didn't help much.

The guys also started giggling, bowing apologetically to Chan and me and started hurriedly cleaning up the mess as best as possible, bumping into each other in their eagerness to be faster than their friends.

Now Chan started grinning too and shook his head in a "Aah, what should I do with these gangsters?" kind of way, looking at them with clear adoration in his gaze. The nature of this group of friends was really fascinating. There was something very different about them compared to the - admitted, few - other groups I knew.

After a few minutes the table looked almost the same as before, aside from the damp table cloth. Chan and I took our seats again, while some of them got up again, shooting more photos with their phones. I leaned over to Felix.

"Hey, mate, will you post these photos on social media or something?" I asked, as relaxed as I could. He made a mixture of shrugging and nodding. "Yeah, maybe, why?" "Would you guys mind blurring my face or cutting me out of the picture, if possible? Because...well...you know, I really don't like social media." I tried to explain.

"Ah, don't worry, I'll make sure nobody posts a picture with your face on it online, I promise!" he smiled, patting my lower arm reassuringly. I answered his smile and watched him get up to join his friends, his phone in his hand.