"Mingyu!" Mom cries in surprise as she opens the front door, seeing him dropping me off home. "It's nice seeing you! How are you? How's your mom?"
Mingyu laughs at my mom's enthusiasm. "Hello Mrs Park! We're very good, thanks for asking."
"Would you like to stay for a bit? I made pizza," Mom asks.
"Sure," He replies, without hesitation.
As we both step inside the house and take our shoes off, Mom makes her way to the kitchen, saying, "it seems like we haven't had you over in forever! Feels like a family reunion this does!"
Mingyu and I giggle at her excitement as we follow her into the kitchen.
"Pizza is not ready yet, you two can play for a bit," Mom says.
"We're 17, not 4. We don't play anymore," I say.
Mom sighs. "Seems like yesterday you two were taking baths together, playing with your toy boats."
I ignore my mom and turn to Mingyu. "Let's go upstairs."
When we reach my room, Mingyu flops lifelessly on my bed, sighing.
"What's wrong with you? Hard first day back at school?" I ask jokingly, falling onto my swivel chair and spinning around on it.
Mingyu doesn't reply and just grunts as if he can't be bothered to answer. He starts to throw his phone up in the air and catches it.
"If you drop that phone on your face..." I say, my voice trailing off. Mingyu and I burst into laughter at the thought. He throws it again but this time as he catches it, it slips out of his hands and falls on the ground.
"Wow... I'm lucky your floor is carpet," he says, placing his hands on his stomach as he starts to stare at the ceiling.
I stare at Mingyu, sensing his bad mood. "What's wrong?" I ask.
Mingyu gives another deep sigh. "I don't want you meeting up with that Hansol guy. He's bad news, I feel it."
I laugh at how ridiculous he's sounding. "Listen, I know you're a good friend and you want to look out for me or whatever but at the end of the day, it's a science project. Would you rather me get a grade F or a grade A?"
"... Grade A," Mingyu replies sulkily, pouting, as if he was a toddler getting told off.
I nod. "There you go," I say. "And that reminds me... I need to text him."
I get out my phone and look through my contacts, scrolling down to the 'H' section. I click on the name Hansol and start to message him.
Me: Hey Hansol, it's Jia. How about
tomorrow after school at the library?
Just as I am about to lock my phone, I get a notification. I check it to see Hansol has replied. That was quick.
Hansol: Perfect.
