A Stroke of Victory [Yeongyu]

Chapter 5

"Do you think he'll be in there?" Yeonjun asked as he and Soobin waited for the elevator. He wiped his palms on his pants. He still didn't know what he was going to say to Beomgyu.

"I don't know. I'm not privy to his schedule. But if he is, I'll leave so you can talk to him."

"Thanks, man."

"Either way, don't be surprised if he turns you down. He's antisocial."

Yeonjun could relate to that. Well, he could relate to the desire to be like that. He was tired of always being surrounded by so many people. People seemed to gather around him wherever he went. In class, he always received countless invitations to hang out or go to parties. He thought that when he graduated, he would lose friends, maybe even fade into social obscurity, but that didn't happen at all. Sometimes he thought being gay made people more interested in being friends with him, as if he were one of the checkboxes for what makes people cool.

Soobin wasn't like that. They had been friends since freshman year, mainly because Soobin never stopped talking about baseball, and Yeonjun never minded listening. Plus, he knew he could always count on him. He had proven that more than once when other players directed homophobic insults at Yeonjun. Being a pitcher didn't help at all; he had heard his fair share of jokes about pitchers/catchers. Did people give Beomgyu a hard time like that? He hoped not. Just thinking about it drove him crazy.

Soobin pushed the door open to enter their dorm room, but Yeonjun stayed in the hallway. There was something about Beomgyu that made his insides twist; he wanted so much to make a good impression and get to know him better.

Soobin turned and gave Yeonjun a puzzled look.

"Aren't you coming in?"

Yeonjun entered the room and immediately looked to his right to see Beomgyu sitting cross-legged on his bed with a notebook in his lap. He had a textbook open in front of him. Yeonjun offered a smile, but Beomgyu sat still with a bewildered expression on his face.

Soobin slapped Yeonjun on the shoulder.

"Hey, wait here for a minute, I need to use the bathroom."

"S-Sure." The door closed behind Soobin, but neither Yeonjun nor Beomgyu moved. Yeonjun knew he had to do something. Confidence is sexy! He walked to the edge of Hunjin's bed and smoothed out the blanket, then sat down. "So, how are you?"

Beomgyu fiddled with his notebook, drawing Yeonjun's attention to his bare legs. His eyes traveled from the thighs to the red boxers Beomgyu was trying to conceal, and Yeonjun involuntarily licked his lips.

"Good. Just working on some math homework right now." Beomgyu glanced up and resumed writing in the notebook.

There you go, conversation!

With Beomgyu distracted, Yeonjun allowed himself to study him more closely. He looked like he had just come out of the shower. His hair was damp and slicked back as if he had been running his fingers through it. With his left hand, Beomgyu had been absentmindedly rubbing his bare feet and curling his toes. God, Yeonjun wanted to be the one touching him like that. Should he have worn one of his sleeveless shirts to show off his shoulders and defined upper arms? Maybe that would have caught Beomgyu's attention. He was wearing a simple, loose-fitting t-shirt, but he still looked devilishly sexy in it. Yeonjun focused on the front of the shirt.

"1+1=10."

Beomgyu lifted his face.

"Huh?"

"Your shirt. It says one plus one equals ten." Oh. Yeah, it's a joke. Beomgyu smiled. "It actually says one plus one equals two. Ten would be one and zero."

Yeonjun had no idea what Beomgyu was talking about.

His confusion must have been noticeable because Beomgyu further explained:

"One, zero is how you write the number two in binary code."

Yeah, that still made no sense.

"It's complicated," Beomgyu said, as if trying to reassure him that he wasn't a complete idiot.

Yeonjun looked around the room desperately trying to find something to talk about.

"Soobin told me you like Battlestar Galactica."

Beomgyu's face momentarily lit up.

"Yeah, do you?"

"Uh... I don't know. Maybe we can hang out and watch it together sometime?"

Beomgyu considered it for a moment.

"I'm pretty busy with my classes, tutoring, and everything else. That didn't sound promising. Yeonjun was struggling to recover.

"Hey! I was actually going to ask you about that. The tutoring. I could really use your help with my statistics class. Outside of the tutoring center, I mean."

"Like a private tutor? But the center is free."

"I know, but the hours don't align with my schedule. And I like the way you explain things. You really helped me the other day with confidence intervals. Soobin said you might be willing."

Beomgyu tapped his pencil against the notebook.

"Fine, I have some time on Sunday."

"That would be awesome. Thank you so much."

That would give Yeonjun enough time to come up with a game plan.