HTGAB101 :: changlix ✔︎

step 10- tuesgay

Step Ten: Update your wardrobe! You need to be chic, stylish, and elegant 25/8. Take a trip to the mall with your besties! Spoil yourself! He'll see that you have a great taste in clothing, and maybe he'll realize you have a great taste in men too!

I'm not really sure what to make of this step. Shouldn't this have gone before the photoshoot one? This book is messed up. Jisung says he's looked ahead to step 101, and apparently it's a repeat of another step. Whoever wrote that book must have been pretty uncreative (cough, cough).

Either way, it's not important. I'm just going to keep following the steps until I run out of them, or until Changbin is my boyfriend. I doubt that the latter will ever happen, though it breaks my heart to think that way.

School is pretty uneventful, for some reason. Usually a lot of stuff happens for no reason, but today there isn't really anything. Changbin is in a pretty rotten mood for some reason, so I mostly stay with Minho. Jisung isn't at school for some reason.

I need to stay up-to-date with my friends. I'm tossing out a lot of "for some reason"s, for some reason, and that needs to stop.

I — wait. Say it with me, fellas...

I sigh.

Yes, there it is. That satisfying exhale that can mean so many different things. Lately, my sighs have been either "I'm done with life" or "I'm confused." Right now, I'm done with life.

The sigh tickles my throat as it goes up, and I can feel my diaphragm expand. The warm air tingles my front teeth in comforting way; the inhale after my sigh is, as always, like a glass of lemonade on a hot day. It's a cool, refreshing feeling, to have air sucked into my lungs. People don't breathe through their mouths often enough. Like, seriously. Maybe the whole world should sigh more. Maybe we should have an International Sighing Day, or at least an International Sighing Convention, where all the sighers go to sigh together.

I would pay money to go to a sighing party.

After school ends, I stand at my bus stop with Changbin and Minho. Changbin is sour, looking at his watch impatiently. His bus arrives before mine, and he grunts when he gets on. Minho stays with me.

"What's up with him?" I ask, concern laced in my voice.

Minho shakes his head and turns up his empty palms. "I have absolutely no idea. Say, why don't we hang out? We've only been alone in class together; I want to have some more time to get to know you."

That sounds like a plan to me, so we turn in a random direction and start walking. Minho and I fire questions at one another, random things that kindergarteners would find amusing.

"What's your favorite animal?"

"What?" Minho's question startles me. I pause for a moment to think. "Oh, uh... I don't know."

He smiles. "I like cats."

Noted. I shall let Jisung know.

"Cats are nice."

"Yeah, they are. Sometimes I wish I could be a cat."

I raise an eyebrow at Minho. "Because..." I prompt him.

"Because all they do is eat, sleep, get petted, and receive love. Who doesn't want that? I want love and snuggles and to be patted on the head and..... yeah."

Oh dang.

Oh... dang.

Minho is a softie? That was highly unexpected. I'm starting to doubt Changbin's tough exterior, now. I already know a bit of his goofy side, since I glanced over at his FROG worksheet from the past, and Changbin 💪💃also 💅 wants 🌒 rainbow🥇 cheese 🪐.

"I, uh, also want love. Uh-huh," I mumble.

Yeah, so now there's a tense silence. We continue walking in no particular direction. After about, oh, I don't know, maybe twenty minutes of getting lost, I have an idea.

"Wanna go shopping?"

Minho stops walking for a second and I turn around in time to see a grin spread across his face. "Hell yeah. Let's go to Target!"

"Minho, there aren't any Targets in Kore—"

"We'll find one. I'll walk to the nearest one if I have to, even if it's in China. Even if it's in Alaska, or maybe, I don't know, in, like, Switzerland," he says. I shrug and open the Maps app on my phone. Apparently there's a Target two blocks away, but that's impossible. I sigh, and Minho skips along happily beside me as we walk to the Target that shouldn't exist but does.

I take out my wallet and sigh again. Empty, just like I knew it would be.

It's not that I don't have sufficient money. My parents, as I've mentioned, are still sending in some stuff. I just am forgetful sometimes, so I forget.

When I left for school this morning, I only expected to need a small amount of money for lunch. I didn't bring my credit card, although I probably should have. I should probably start bringing it around with me instead of being lazy and leaving it at home. It only weighs, like, 6 grams (5.7 to be exact, according to Google)... so it shouldn't take that much effort.

Unfortunately, I don't have any effort. But that's beside the point.

Minho and I arrive at a Target, miraculously, and he turns into a five year old. "Lix! Look at all the cool stuff!" Needless to say, Minho walks out of there with a whole new wardrobe.

I walk out of there with new jeans, a new turtleneck, and a not-so-considerable debt to Minho.

The turtleneck I got is pale green. Ever since I got three compliments about the pink one, I've wanted to make turtlenecks my thing. If I could, I would also wear skirts, but there are some lines that even I am not willing to cross.

"Selfie time!"

Did I ever mention that Minho is a thirteen-year-old middle school girl? Because he isn't, but he sure acts like one. We change into our outfits (Minho changes three times before deciding on one he likes) and go to Starbucks, where we order their most photogenic drinks.

That translates to... water because I'm broke.

Not broke. Just out of cash at the moment.

Same thing.

No, but seriously, Minho gets this giant iced venti cloud caramel chocolate mocha cream pie bologna marathon runner sweat ham and cheese sandwich frappuccino macchiato thing. I don't even know anymore.

It's a really unsettling shade of orange.

We pose in front of a half-dead tree and take selfies of my bloated, freckled face. Then, Minho gets into the picture frame, and it's like the phone fell in love. Have I ever mentioned that Minho is hot? I think it needs to be restated:

Minho is hot and photogenic. Since when has life been so unfair?

Oh, right. Life has always been unfair.

I groan, in my head, and out loud, I sigh. When Minho's done being a model, we head back to my apartment. "I'm going to go talk to Jisung," he says. "Do you want me to tell him something?"

"Eh. Just tell him to answer his texts."

Minho nods and shuts the door behind him, and I'm quite surprised to acknowledge that I had a fun time with him. Minho isn't all that bad.

Minho could be... a friend of mine.

Which means Changbin could be, too.