A PLAN FOR LOVE ✓

seven : yeonjun

“That was way bigger than a small get-together,” I say to Taehyun as we sit on the bench at the bus stop while Huening Kai squints at a bus schedule on his phone. It’s just after 2:00 a.m., and the streets around us are dark and quiet except for the fellow students who stroll by, giggling couples clinging to each other, a group of friends championing a box of pizza.

“Maybe just a bit,” Taehyun says, laughing as he grabs my arm and leans into me, the cinnamony scent of Fireball moving over me in a wave.

I fight the instinct to pull him closer and scoot a little farther down the bench. Huening Kai lets out a long sigh and circles over to where we’re sitting, plunking down right in between us.

“Well, we’re fucked,” he says as he pockets his cell phone. “Last bus was twenty minutes ago.”

I peer past him at the enormous hill we rode up on the way here. I don’t even have to open up Google Maps to know it’s at least a mile back to my apartment, the route winding and poorly lit. I grimace and turn back to meet Taehyun’s gaze.

This isn’t Ansan, and I am not a fan of strolling around after midnight in a place I am not even a little bit familiar with. Especially when I’ve hit my self-imposed two-drink limit and am definitely a bit buzzed. Then again, what man is?

“We can call an Uber,” Taehyun offers.

An Uber would… definitely be out of budget for me. An Uber at this time means surge pricing.

I bite my lip and try to psych myself up for the impending walk as a small white sedan chugs to a stop in front of us. The window slowly rolls down to reveal warm brown eyes, identical to the ones I sat across from for most of the night at the party.

Beomgyu. I’ve never been happier to see someone that awkward in my life.

“Hey,” he says. “Do you guys need a ride?”

The words are barely out of his mouth before we’re all tumbling into his car, singing him praises.

“You’re an actual lifesaver!” Taehyun says, and Beomgyu’s cheeks turn faintly red over all the attention.

We buckle in and tell him where we’re heading. Taehyun and Huening Kai are roommates at Nordenberg, the bougiest of the freshman on-campus housing. I saw the pictures online when I was applying—vending machines in the lobby, a flat-screen TV in every room, air-conditioning.

I somehow get cramped in the back seat for the ride home, even though I’m at least a head taller than Huening Kai, who snagged shotgun. I rest my forearms on my knees, enjoying the darkness of the car and the song playing through the speakers and, admittedly, the way that last bit of alcohol is making me feel. Normal, for the first time since I left.

As we drive, I pull my phone out and check my Snapchat, refreshing it a few times just to be sure it’s not my low-speed data telling me that Soobin still hasn’t replied. He opened my Cheetos Snap four hours ago and didn’t send anything back.

Great.

I glance up as the car starts to slow, and I see the multifloor, gleaming glass and brick building that must be Nordenberg come slowly into view for the first time. Even with the beer cans strewn along the walkways, the pizza boxes overflowing out of the trash cans, it looks like an actual palace. I think I can see a girl on the fifth floor in a hoodie and a blanket, the AC nice and crisp even in the late-August heat.

Beomgyu slides into an open space and puts the car in park, and Taehyun looks dead at me.

Oh no.

His hand slides onto my leg. “You can come up if you want,” he whispers as he leans toward me.