Koon Chai Cafe

Chapter Twenty-Two - The Calm Before

Park

"Kopter, we can't!"

He held my hand tightly in his and led me down the bustling street. I jogged beside him to keep up with his long strides.

"Yes we can," he replied determinedly. "We've been together over a month now Park, and I'm pretty sure they already know."

I bit my lip. He was right of course, there was no way that Krishna and Dior didn't know about our relationship. The minute we spent time together again after our break, they'd given us knowing glances and raised eyebrows, but never verbally confirmed their suspicions with us.

He continued and practically carried me across the street. "I'm not lying to them any longer Park, and you said so yourself, they knew about us loooong before we did."

After we'd reconciled, we each shared everything that had happened over the weeks we were apart. I informed him about Krishna and Dior's knowledge of us, and he'd filled me in, with much scowling on my part, on his meetings with Bianca. Unlike myself, Kopter was actually quite good at lying but, being the infuriatingly perfect ball of do-good sunshine he was, he hated doing it. He'd tried to convince me for a solid month to tell Darius, Krishna and Dior. And every time I'd managed to change the topic or talk my way out of that idea.

I pulled him to a halt and stared him down. His face was stern and set, there was no way I'd talk him out of it this time.

"Fine," I conceded. His face lit up with a puppy-like smile that still gave me butterflies. "But I'm not doing it," I quickly added, my arms crossed in resolution.

"Fine by me!" He trilled and slowed his pace the rest of the journey so that we could walk side by side with more ease. We arrived at the cinema with barely a minute to spare and saw the others already waiting outside.

"Was the road really that busy?" Darius inquired as he looked down at our interlocked hands in surprise. Kopter squeezed my hand reassuringly and I gazed up to see Krishna and Dior exchange an excited glance with one another.

"Actually," Kopter cut in as he squeezed my hand so tightly I couldn't feel the tips of my fingers. "We're dating."

Krishna and Dior let out high pitched squeals of delight while Darius stood rooted to the spot, open mouthed and dumbfounded. I felt the familiar sensation of red as it crept up my neck and cheeks and I stared resolutely down at my shoelaces.

Once she'd calmed down and regained her composure, Dior turned to us and gave us an approving nod. "Thank you for sharing that Kopter. Now the movie's starting in around twenty minutes, so -"

"Wait wait wait!" Darius interrupted as he stared stunned at me and Kopter. "Y'all were gay? This whole time?!" He turned to face Kopter, "You're gay?!"

I looked down at my chest to check whether I'd worn my huge 'GAY' banner this morning. Was it because I was small? Did I need to radiate more testosterone?

Kopter shuffled uncomfortably next to me. "Well, I like girls so I guess I'm not gay..." he muttered. "I just like Park, I guess that makes me bisexual or queer or something..."

Krishna waved a hand impatiently in front of Darius. "Kopter's sexuality is none of your business, Darius. Besides, it doesn't matter, they like each other and that's that."

Darius shrugged and Dior took the opportunity to push her popcorn agenda once again. After we agreed on sharing three large tubs between us, Dior, Krishna, and Darius walked towards one of the kiosks to buy everything and collect our tickets. Kopter gently squeezed my hand again and I turned to look up at him.