The Boy Next Door

the small town

"You know what I want?" I asked.

"To let me focus on backing out of the driveway?" Changmin asked. His arm stretched to rest on the back of my passengers seat as he strained his neck to look out the rear window.

His knuckles gripped the steering wheel tightly until he successfully did not run over the mailbox and led us smoothly out of the neighborhood.

"I don't know why you're always so tense when you drive," I said. "You're good at it."

"I'm only tense in the beginning," Changmin answered stiffly as we headed towards the main road.

I waited the usual few minutes until I noticed his elbows relax a little, but still he kept both hands on the steering wheel.

He allowed his back to rest on the seat as we cruised passed a bunch of wooden docks. Our usual route to school was more scenic than a typical teenagers, since we lived by the coast.

"Okay what is it you want?" Changmin asked once he was fully comfortable.

"I want a summer fling." I said and stuffed half a piece of toast in my mouth.

Changmin slammed on the breaks abruptly as we approached a stop sign, which I thought was a bit dramatic. "With who exactly??" He asked.

I knew this wasn't him being jealous or anything, he was like a brother to me and I was like a sister to him. We were protective of each other.

I had a few dating moments go downhill as did he. But out of the two of us, I was the only one with an actual relationship experience.

Sure it was in middle school, and the boy ended up breaking up with me because two things: one, I missed a few dates because of basketball games, and two, Changmin went batshit crazy when he heard the boy had yelled at me, causing the breakup to happen inevitably.

"I'll find someone," I said. "Besides, you should be supporting me since you were the one who caused my first relationship to end so abruptly!"

Changmin grabbed a piece of my toast. "Would you get over it already?? That was like four years ago and your mom agreed that she got weird vibes from him."

"Anyways, you have to help me find a dating prospect. We have like two months until summer so we have to find someone before then." I said.

"See that's the issue of living in a small town. Your options are the people at our school and... the people at our school."

"Come on there must be someone we don't know," I said. Changmin and I had a habit of talking shit about most of the other kids in our grade—but to be honest most of them deserved to be shit talked.

"Why are you even trying to start this anyways? We're gonna go to university soon there's really no point," Changmin said.

"That's exactly the point. Going to university with out having dated more people is weird right?" I asked.

"I don't think people care, Jo," Changmin said.

I waved him off. "Preferably let's find me someone who acts cold to everyone but me, and is super rich and hot, aaand also will give me my independence when I want it."

"Um." He said. "You're better off just waiting until the dating pool is larger."

"I bet there's someone we don't know." I said.

"Like who? We know everyone."

"How about Seong Kihoon? From class 2," I said.

"You just said his name—obviously we know him!" Changmin said as we turned into the parking lot.