I place my hands firmly on either side of his shoulders, looking his square in the eye. A bead of sweat rolls down my forehead as the voices around us grow more and more muffled, until it’s just me… and him.
“Choi Yeonjun, I need you to focus. Do you hear me?” I say, more seriously than I’ve said anything before. He nods, firm, like he understands the gravity of the situation.
“Are you two going to make out or are we going to play?” Byungchan asks, pulling us out of our huddle and back into the Holland Hall common room. They have a challenging smirk smeared across their face as they bounce the ball off the worn Ping-Pong table.
“Just serve the ball,” I say, doing my best to swallow a laugh and keep a straight face for the sake of the competition. Yeonjun looks at me and then across the table to Sejun and Byungchan, our opponents.
“I have never seen him like this,” Yeonjun says through an amused chuckle.
“Twenty, eighteen. Game point,” Sejun announces as Byungchan serves the ball, and just like that we’re in it. All four of us are laser-focused as we volley back and forth.
I was pretty nervous to come to the first game night by myself, but even though I know Yeonjun is on a deadline, I’m not at that point with Taehyun yet, so naturally, I asked Yeonjun to join me. The nerves wore off surprisingly quickly, though. Something about getting my blood pumping playing a game that I love really set me at ease and helped me to just be myself.
Yeonjun is holding up him side of the table pretty well, considering how little he’s played, but Byungchan is good. If we’re going to beat them, I need to pull out a few tricks that Jungsu hyung taught me over summer breaks when he was home from college.
As the ball comes flying off Sejun’s paddle and over to me, I attempt a return with backspin, but it falls a little flat… right into Byungchan’s corner.
“You trying for this, Beomgyu?” they ask, sliding the paddle at a perfect angle, along the bottom of the ball. It sails over the net to Yeonjun, who is not at all ready for the abrupt backspin. He swings his paddle right through empty air, and the ball goes bouncing onto the floor.
Game over.
“Dang!” I yell, before a smile spreads across my face. “Good game, good game.”
“Sorry, Gyu,” Yeonjun says.
“We’ll get ’em next time,” I reply, loud enough for our opponents to hear.
“Like hell you will,” Sejun says with a laugh as the two guys who live across the hall from me take our paddles to play the winners.
Yeonjun and I head over to the “potluck table,” which is just a bunch of incredibly low-quality snacks spread out across a pool table that’s so old, the green felt is practically gray. We were all asked to bring something. I managed to cut up a block of cheddar cheese and put it with some crackers on a paper plate, and Yeonjun brought two bags of chips from, wait for it… 7-Eleven.
“Oh my God, who did this?” I ask, directing Yeonjun’s attention to an open tube of raw cookie dough, a plastic knife stuck into the top.
“I don’t know, but I think I might marry them,” he replies as I twist my face up in disgust, watching him cut off a slab from the end and pop the whole thing into his mouth.
“That is so gross.” I reach for a couple of chips.
“Hey.” Yeonjun pauses to move the mass of cookie dough into his cheek so he can talk. “You’re, like… really good. I thought you told me you weren’t a ‘sporty gay.’ ” He says the last bit with air quotes.
“Ping-Pong isn’t a sport. It’s an art form,” I say.
Yeonjun shoves me playfully in response. “You’re ridiculous.”
A text buzzes in, and I pull out my phone to find a whole chain of texts from my mom that I must’ve missed during the heat of the game.
The first is a picture of Haru, chasing a flock of geese into a pond at the park.
I’m taking a walk with your dad.
I was thinking about coming down tomorrow?
Maybe lunch with your brother?
How’s Yeonjun? Did you wear any of your new clothes yet?
Are you busy?
Gyu?
Do you want to do lunch?
… I’ll take that as a no?
“Oh my God, my mom is like…” My voice trails off as I tuck my phone into my pocket and rub my face in frustration.
“What?” Yeonjun asks, smearing cookie dough on top of one of the crackers I brought.
“She’s just being, like… a lot. I told her that I needed some space, but… it seemed to only work for about a week.”
“Maybe you should just call her? When’s the last time you talked to her?” he asks.
“That’s not the point. I mean, I’m in college now. She can’t just come crashing into my dorm room unannounced and whisk me away for a girls’ day whenever she wants.”
“Gyu, I think she just wants to be a part of your life,” Yeonjun says. “I mean, I would kinda kill for a mom that actually… cares.”
“Oh. Sorry. I…” I want to be sympathetic, but I don’t want him to run away again, like he did the other night. I decide that the best thing to do is to explain myself. “I just… for a long time my mom was my best friend. My only friend. But now… I need some freaking space from her. I’m trying to gain a little independence.” I take a deep breath. “I mean, it’s working. This is working. I’m like a different person from the one who moved here at the beginning of the semester.”
“Yeah.” He huffs out a laugh, thinking of some embarrassing memory of me, I’m sure. “You’ve come a long way, but we still have three more steps, and—”
“Yeonjun, Beomgyu, you two ready for a rematch?” Sejun ask.
“We’ll go easy on you this time,” Byungchan adds. I shake my head with a laugh as I try to push my mom out of my mind.
We step up to the table, but just as they’re about to serve, my phone buzzes in my pocket a couple of times.
“Hang on.” I slip it out, thinking it might be Taehyun, but it’s still my mom, and this time she’s trying to call me. I flip the phone for Yeonjun to see, letting my shoulders drop.
“Maybe just answer it?” he says with a cringe, knowing that I don’t want to.
“Be right back,” I say to Byungchan and Sejun before stepping out into the hall. I swipe right and my mom’s grainy face comes into view.
“Hey, baby! Ooooh, what’s that? Sounds like you’re with your friends? Friends. I love that!” she says, and I glance behind me, realizing she can hear them on the other side of the double doors. I step down the hall to get away from it, then lean back against the wall.
“Mom, what’s up?” I say, trying to not sound too irritated, but it’s not easy right now.
“I was just calling to catch up. It’s been a while.”
“It’s been, like, three days,” I reply, another stab of frustration hitting me as I remember what happened that day at the food court.
“I know, I just—” she starts.
“Mom, I gotta go. I’m busy right now, okay?” I tap my foot against the floor over and over.
“Okay, I won’t keep you from your friends. But don’t forget to call me sometime when you’re free.”
“Sure,” I reply shortly, before ending the call and slipping the phone back into my pocket.
Yeonjun hands me my paddle as I step back into the room to join him at the table. I try to forget about it as we play, but there’s a nagging feeling in the back of my head that I can’t shake.
I just know at some point I need to have a real talk with my mom about this, about needing space from her. But not right now. Right now, all I want to do is crush this game.
YOU ARE READING
A PLAN FOR LOVE ✓
FanfictionYeonjun and Beomgyu made a plan to get their love of their life to fall for them, though, they both begin to wonder if maybe they're the ones falling for each other.
