Somehow, had Chunji managed to drag L.Joe with him to a noodle stand. His reason to that, was his hunger. Apparently, had the salad not been enough for him, so he was still hungry. So, there they were, 6PM, eating noodles like their lives depended on it. Because both of them knew, that if one of them finished their food first, the other would steal from the other. It was a thing only the two of them did whenever they ate noodles.
“Yah”, Chunji said after swallowing another roll of scalding hot noodles. He eagerly waved his hand in front of his face to cool his burning tongue down.
“What?”, L.Joe asked with his own mouth filled with noodles.
“What are we even doing?”, Chunji chuckled and grabbed L.Joe's wrist to prevent him from stressing down the food. L.Joe gave the boy a surprised look.
“Wae? I'm hungry too...”, he lied, but put down the chopsticks to sigh. “Fine, let's stop this then”.
“Good!”, Chunji laughed and raised his hand in the air. “Ahjumma, one bottle of soju please!”, he hollered.
“Yah, what soju? I don't like drinking and you definitely can't drink. We both know what happens whenever you drink anything with alcohol in it”.
“Oh come on! It's such a lovely night! And I haven't hung out with you alone for such a long time. Let's enjoy this to the fullest, eh?”.
To that, L.Joe couldn't say no. He hadn't hung out and had such a nice time with his old friend in years. Though he still was a minor, was alcohol something he had drunk many times before. Most of those time had things ended up pretty bad, since Chunji couldn't handle alcohol at all. Soju in particular.
“Fine. One drink. You heard that? ONE. O-N-E”.
But that number was one Chunji hadn't been taught in school, it seemed, as he filled his cup over and over again. The same went for L.Joe's. Everything turned out pretty smoothly however and the two shared stories only they knew of. It was beyond nice and easier for both of them to talk.
“You know...”, Chunji suddenly said and raised his empty glass in the air, making L.Joe laugh at the boy's stupidity.
“What?”, he said and brought Chunji's hand down to fill the cup. The boy chuckled cutely before emptying the cup in one shot.
“I never stopped loving you”, Chunji confessed after letting out a ksch sound with his teeth gritted together. “Not when you rejected me the very first time nor the time you said you liked girls and would rather be together with Hyuna. Nor did I stop loving you when I found out you had hooked up with Ricky”.
L.Joe swallowed and stared out in space. Here it goes, he thought and noticed how the bottle of soju they'd shared was now in Chunji's hand and he drank the last of it up.
“Chunji-ah”, he complained and grabbed the boy's wrist. “Don't go there. You know how I feel... about everything”.
The boy just smiled widely at him and patted him affectionately on the head, as if he had been the one rejected, and not Chunji. L.Joe cleared his throat and figured it was best to bring up another subject the two could talk about.
“I saw you with Changjo last week. Are you guys close?”, L.Joe asked with a sincere interest, but was ignored and instead brought back to the awkward subject about feelings.
“You know... I never gave up”, Chunji continued and yelled at the woman in the stand for another bottle of soju. “You got my letter, right? My letter of confession... again”.
L.Joe gulped and nodded. “I did”.
“You didn't reply to it though”, Chunji said with a pout as the older woman with black curls placed the bottle on their table, quite violently. The bottle let out a thump and the liquor inside shook from the small earthquake.
“Chunji, jebal”, L.Joe muttered and shut his eyes close.
“I don't understand what you see in Ricky, honestly. He's blunt, careless and... did you know about his family situation? His parents gambling, debts and what-not?”.
L.Joe's ears sharpened and he stared directly at the blond haired boy. What was he blabbering on about now, L.Joe thought. Though he doubted Chunji; that kid was one heck of an actor. He knew how to lie and how to make it sound real, it was a wonder the kid hadn't debuted as an actor.
“Don't lie”, L.Joe sighed and felt how he tensed up, just by the mention of Ricky. He felt himself drawn towards the curious direction, but the knowledge of Chunji's lies was also running on and off inside his head.
“I'm not”, Chunji said sternly and reached for the bottle, but L.Joe was a tad faster and placed it further away from the already drunk boy. “L.Joe-yah... I need to fill my empty heart with something, since my love has been rejected”.
“Don't joke around”, L.Joe hissed, feeling irritated with the boy. Sweat performed on L.Joe's forehead and he leaned closer to Chunji to give the boy a murderous eye. “Listen to me; you don't know shit about Ricky. Don't be nosy and remember; I'm in love with him. I will never accept your feelings, and if you're going to be like this, then I don't want us to be friends either. Understood?”.
A heart-breaking sound left Chunji's lips and he pouted. “I-I never meant to hurt your feelings, Hunnie-ah! I'm sorry, I won't ever do that again. Please forgive me”.
It was hard for L.Joe to tell whether his friend was acting or not, but his heart was somehow weak for Chunji, so he decided to trust in him. If that was a smart move or not would he find out sooner or later.
“I think we've drank enough today. Let's get going”, L.Joe said, not suggesting anything, but rather stating a fact. He got up from the plastic chair and pulled Chunji along with him. Though Chunji had insisted on paying for that meal, did L.Joe end up getting out his wallet to pay for the rather expensive meal, soju taking up ¾ of the prize.
He let out a sarcastic laugh and paid for the food and drinks, together with a huge tip almost twice the prize.
The old woman thanked him and looked suspiciously at Chunji. “That boy sure likes to drink... you should take him home to make sure he don't do anything stupid”.
L.Joe nodded and gave her a half halfheartedly bow before muttering that he wouldn't let Chunji out of his sight, which was something Chunji heard and smirked.
