Wasteland // Kim Seungmin

17 - Innie

"Then do you want to come in? I promise, I don't bite." He winked, gifting me with that perfect dimpled smile.

I stuttered in my response, "S-sure."

I couldn't see the harm. If I went home would have to tiptoe around while Sky slept off the night watch anyway. Jeongin stepped aside to let me in.

In the daylight, I saw his place was almost identical to Sky's and mine, but seemed to have more things in it. It was also very clean, and I wondered if it was Jeongin who was more cleanly, or his dead partner.

Sitting at the table, we chatted lightly, getting to know each other. Of everyone I met, he seemed to be the only one more comfortable talking about life before the wasteland than the now. He talked about his time at school like it was a Sunday morning and tomorrow he'd be going right back to it. He had played soccer before being released, and plans to keep playing at the next level when he returns. He liked science, but only biology, not chemistry. He had a part-time job at a movie theatre. When he said the name of the theatre, my ears perked up. I knew that theater. Then, it turns out his hometown was literally 10 minutes away from where Felix and I grew up.

Once we realized that, we struck up animated conversation about our shared knowledge of landmarks, mutual places we'd frequented. Jeongin had been to my school for soccer games dozens of times, and we figured that I probably incidentally watched him play a few of those games, because I would stay after school for home varsity games. He was two grades ahead of me.

We shared stories about home for almost an hour after he finished eating. As we talked, we both enthusiastically leaned across his table, until we both were half laid across it. I was face down on the table laughing at one of his stories, when he suddenly looked up and said, "Hey Sky!"

The sweet innocence with which Jeongin greeted my partner did not prepare me for the expression on said partner's face when I turned around. It was clear that Sky did not find our reminiscing amusing in the slightest. You'd think he'd walked in on me sucking his dick. "Hey," I smiled, and Sky cocked an eyebrow at me.

"I wasn't sure what was happening in here," Sky muttered huskily. Clearly we had woken him up with our laughter. "What's so funny?"

He came in and stood next to me, since Jeongin did not have a 3rd chair. I reached up and stroked his hand, hoping he'd hold it, but he didn't. "We were just talking about home. Did you know Jeongin lives a town away from me?"

"No." Sky said, "Where do you live?"

He was asking me. It felt like an absurd question to be asking at this point, but I realized I had never brought up the topic either, so I couldn't really blame him. I replied with the name of my town.

He nodded, and I prompted, "Where are you from?"

He said a town name, but it didn't ring any bells. He added a name of the region the town was in, and I still drew a blank. Finally, he added an even larger region, and Jeongin snapped his fingers.

"Ah, okay, that's like, like a 10 hour drive for us." Jeongin said to me.

Sky just nodded, staring down at me. There was a couple beats of a sort of awkward silence, so I asked. "You hungry?"

"Yeah, but if I'm interrupting..." Sky trailed off.

"No, it's alright. It was nice to hang out Innie." The nickname slipped, having heard Chris use it the night before, "If it's okay that I call you that," I added a little embarrassed.

He broke into his signature smile, "It's okay. Do you have a nickname or just Paila?"

"Just Paila," Sky said quickly, apparently determined to prove he knew something about me that Jeongin didn't.