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There’s a loud sigh. Yeonjun kicks back in his chair, putting his feet up on the desk. He comes dangerously close to kicking the microphone, but thankfully his sneaker misses by a couple inches. Their audio engineer, Beomgyu, would probably have Yeonjun’s head if he broke a mic. Not that he could actually kill Yeonjun, but Soobin still thought he might try.
He watches Yeonjun’s expressions morph as his train of thought takes different paths. His face is so expressive, which is something their radio listeners never get to see. It’s kind of fun– like a little secret for Soobin and Soobin alone. Well, and Beomgyu, who’s always watching from outside the booth. And Taehyun, because he’s their social media manager and writes the loose scripts that they follow for their shows. And Kai. Soobin doesn’t really know why Kai spends all his time outside of class hanging around the recording studio, but he doesn’t mind it. Kai’s nice, and Soobin gets the feeling that he doesn’t have a lot of friends outside of the “Campus Confessions” radio crew.
Speaking of the radio show, Yeonjun is chewing on his lower lip. Soobin watches his eyebrows crease and uncrease before he speaks. “I think we need to stir up some drama. I don’t know, something fresh and new for the show. People just aren’t sending in enough juicy gossip these days. There’s only so many love poems I can read on air before I barf.”
“Like what?” Soobin asks.
“I dunno. Maybe we should add a new segment. Couples I Would Break Up If I Could, or something.”
Soobin laughs. The sound kind of gets swallowed up by all the foam on the walls, but it makes Yeonjun smile, too. “Seems a little negative. We could add Couples I Would Get Together If I Could.”
“Psh. Can’t handle a little negativity? I would expect more from you, Soobin. Number one hater boy, number one lover boy. That’s our bit.” Yeonjun pushes his hair away from his forehead, sliding his glasses back up his nose. His hair is a slightly eye-watering shade of carrot orange right now, which should be off-putting, except it’s not. Somehow every hair color looks nice on him. It’s a talent Soobin envies.
“I don’t know how I got the reputation for being the hater. You’re a hater too, you just do your hating off-air.”
“Yeah, because ninety percent of the poetry submissions suck. We need to tell Taehyun to stop writing them into the script.”
There’s a long silence. It’s weird in the recording booth, because when no one’s talking it’s so quiet that Soobin can hear Yeonjun’s stomach rumble. He always calls Yeonjun out on it when they’re not live, but Yeonjun calls him out on constantly tapping his feet. The noise should be barely audible against the musty carpet, but somehow Yeonjun catches him every time. He always smacks Soobin’s knee under the table. It kind of makes his knee buzz afterwards, which is a weird feeling he doesn’t quite understand.
“Who would you get together, if you could?” Yeonjun asks.
“Hmm.” Soobin takes a second to think about it, fiddling with the zipper on his hoodie. “Bahiyyih and Hikaru, I guess? They’ve always seemed a little closer than friends.”
Yeonjun drops his glasses. “Kai’s sister?”
“Yeah. How many people do you know named Bahiyyih?”
Yeonjun grins. It makes his eyes crease into these little feline curls that Soobin secretly thinks is pretty. “Oh, we are definitely adding this as a segment. I can’t wait for Kai to jump you after we get out of the studio next week.”
“Why, who would you get together?”
Yeonjun goes quiet after that, too. It seems like he has something to say, but he’s holding back for some reason. He opens his mouth, eyes flickering between Soobin’s face and the wall. Soobin turns around. There’s nothing there, but Yeonjun is acting a little weird all of a sudden. “Uh, I don’t really know. I just wanted to know if you had an answer.”
Soobin hums. “We could at least propose it to Taehyun and see what he says.”
“Ooh!” Yeonjun exclaims, so loudly that Soobin jumps a little. “Oh my God, we have to try to get Beomgyu and Taehyun together. Like, for the show. It can be our secret little side project.”
“For the show?” Soobin replies, baffled. “It won’t exactly be secret. They sit outside the booth.”
“No, I mean you and me. We should try to get them together, and then we can tell the grand story of how we ended two years of miserable pining on Beomgyu’s part and actually made love happen. It’ll be like the ultimate confession.” Yeonjun is practically bouncing up and down in his chair in excitement. “Bonus points if we get him to confess on air.”
Soobin snorts. “That’s not happening.”
“Not with that attitude, it’s not. Tell you what, I’ll work on Taehyun and you work on Beomgyu. For some reason, he’s a lot more inclined to listen to you than me.”
“If you think Choi Beomgyu listens to what anyone says, you are dead wrong.”
“Taehyun,” Yeonjun says smugly. “He always listens to Taehyun.”
“That’s not the point,” Soobin reminds him. “It’s hard to get Beomgyu to confess to Taehyun by telling Taehyun to make him do it. Kills the element of surprise.”
“Oh. Yeah.” Yeonjun goes quiet again, frowning at his shoes. “Well, we’ll work on it. First, we have to propose the Couples I’d Get Together If I Could segment and tell Taehyun to nix the poetry.”
“Starting with the name. That is a terrible name,” Soobin says.
“Do you have any better ideas?”
“… No.”
“Exactly.”
The show airs twice a week, which gives them a little more time to work on the new segment idea in between going to classes like regular college students. Soobin’s in his third year, which means he’s only slightly behind Yeonjun in terms of stress level. Yeonjun is taking four upper-level classes, all with complicated names like “Global Economics Through the Lens of Geopolitics” and stuff like that. Soobin’s communications major seems like a cakewalk by comparison. Still, he’s stressed because he has to keep his grades up in order to secure an internship.
He sees Yeonjun at the gym. He sees Yeonjun at the library. He sees Yeonjun on the way home, even though he knows for a fact that Yeonjun lives in the opposite direction. It’s like there’s some sort of invisible cord tying them together, so that even when they’re not actively sitting in the studio they’re waving to each other from across the street or dropping a sticky note on the table at the library. Soobin wants to question it, but doesn’t. What would he even say? Hey, why do you go to the same school as me? That seems weird.
Instead, he waits for Yeonjun to call the meeting at the café just off campus where they always have their meetings because one of Yeonjun’s friends works there. He gives them free drinks when the manager isn’t looking.
Yeonjun is already there when Soobin arrives, chatting to his friend behind the coffee bar. Soobin knows his name– Wooseok? Woosung? Something like that. Taehyun is already here, too. He’s sitting at the their usual table by the window, absorbed by his laptop.
“Beomgyu gonna be late again?” Soobin asks, in lieu of a greeting.
“He’s not coming,” Taehyun answers, still actively typing as he speaks. “Got stuck in a group project meeting because they had to cancel the last one. One of the girls in his group– apparently her cat died over the weekend so they couldn’t work on the project.”
“Damn. That sucks,” Soobin says. He throws his backpack into the booth, not caring that his own laptop is probably getting slammed around in there. It’s practically as old as he is. “No chance he can ask anyone from his group to send in a confession?”
“After the girl’s cat died? Probably not.”
“Mmkay. Just wondering, because hyung’s convinced that we need something juicier for the show.”
“Yes. He told me you have ideas,” Taehyun says. The tone of his voice tells Soobin that he’s very doubtful about any ideas the two of them might come up with.
Kai shows up, because even though he’s not in the radio cast or crew he’s still in all their group chats. He’s got a hat jammed on his head, which lets Soobin know that he hasn’t washed his hair in a while. He makes Kai sit next to Taehyun.
“Okay, sorry for the chit-chat, but drinks are on the house,” Yeonjun announces, arriving at the table in a flurry of carrot-orange hair and smiles. “Usual orders?”
“Yep.” Taehyun answers for all three of them, and Yeonjun goes back to the bar momentarily before dropping into the booth next to Soobin.
“Okay. So, poetry submissions are completely off the table, then?” Taehyun asks.
“Aw, man, I thought some of them were kinda funny,” Kai whines. “Like, in a cringe way.”
“That’s the problem. It’s cringe.” Yeonjun sips his iced Americano through the straw, and then makes a face at the bitterness. Soobin doesn’t know why he keeps ordering them when he makes that face every time, but it’s endearing, somehow. “I’m going to die from secondhand embarrassment one of these days. What if one of the recordings gets super famous, and then my voice becomes known as the guy from the super cringey love poem? Employers don’t like cringe.”
“That seems like an irrational fear,” Taehyun says flatly.
“No! It’s real!”
“Anyway,” Soobin cuts in. “Sorry, Kai, but I think we’re going to put a hold on the poetry submissions unless someone sends in something really good. How’s that? We keep the segment, but there’s quality control involved.”
Kai crosses his arms. “Can I decide which ones make it into the show?”
“Absolutely not.”
Kai whines some more, at least until Yeonjun kicks him under the table. Then he starts kicking at Yeonjun, and the table wobbles dangerously. Soobin grabs it to keep their drinks from falling over. Taehyun’s expression is telling him that the younger man is thinking about getting up and leaving.
“Okay! Okay, guys, hold it together. We’ve been here all of five minutes and we’re going to get kicked out already,” Soobin says. “Yeonjun hyung and I have a proposal for a new segment instead of the love poems.”
Kai sits up, tilting his head. “Oh. What is it?”
“Couples you would get together if you could,” Soobin answers. “We’re, uh, still working on the name.”
“Oh my God, you guys are so old. That’s called shipping. You’re asking people for their OTPs.”
“Their what?” Yeonjun blurts. “Is that an STD?”
“No. One true pairing, hyung. Come on, haven’t you been on the Internet before?”
“No. That’s Taehyun’s job.” Yeonjun tilts his head towards Taehyun, who’s typing away on his laptop so fast that Soobin is mildly afraid the keyboard might catch fire.
“Tyun? Do you know what an OTP is?” Soobin asks.
“Of course,” Taehyun answers, like it’s a stupid question. “My Secret Ship could be kind of funny.”
“That sounds like people are hiding boats on campus,” Yeonjun mutters, mostly to himself. Soobin laughs.
“I think it’s time to admit that we’re just old, hyung. We can do a little explainer at the beginning of the segment every time we do it. How’s that sound? That way the oldies aren’t left out.”
“Taehyun’s call,” Yeonjun replies, loudly sipping on his Americano and stirring the ice around at the bottom.
“I think it’s good,” Taehyun says. “I’ll send it out as a question on the socials right now, and people can answer anonymously. In the meantime, the remaining segments are staying as-is?”
“Yep. We are Campus Confessions, after all. It would be kind of weird if we took out the confessions part.” Soobin takes a bite out of his muffin, and it sends crumbs all over the front of his hoodie. Yeonjun tuts and immediately starts brushing down Soobin’s chest with his hands. It kind of makes his heart do weird things, but he chooses to ignore that and move on.
“Well, I hope Beomgyu hyung is having fun with the cat girl,” Kai says mournfully. “I miss him. He would know what an OTP is.”
“Yeah, because he’s chronically online. Like, terminally online. Embarrassingly online,” Yeonjun replies. “If that’s it for today, then I think we should get out of here. Wooyoung’s already given us so much free shit, we probably shouldn’t take up the table for too long.”
“Anything else on the agenda, Taehyun?” Soobin asks. Taehyun shakes his head and closes his laptop.
“Hopefully we’ll get enough submissions to air the new segment on Friday. If there’s no responses, though, we’re going back to poetry.”
Yeonjun groans.
The group chat is active sporadically in the lead-up to the Tuesday airing, but it’s nothing much of importance. Taehyun sends a bullet-point script with all of their talking points for the episode, and Yeonjun hits it with the thumbs-up emoji and no other response. Soobin highly doubts he even opened the file.
He clicks on it, and it opens to a two-page document. They start out the week by talking about feedback and follow-ups from previous episodes that they’ve gotten from social media. There are a couple anonymous confessions for them to read, and then they’re supposed to promote the new segment and “encourage” submissions, whatever that means.
Soobin squints. There’s a rather lengthy confession, but it’s not poetry. It’s a huge block paragraph with no spacing or anything– Taehyun copies and pastes every submission verbatim, so they’ve gotten several hilarious typos over the last few years. This one has perfect grammar, and reads very formally. Soobin chuckles to himself. He’s definitely going to make Yeonjun read that one while he kicks back and relaxes.
It’s good. It’ll definitely take up the hour that’s allotted to them by the school’s radio broadcast on Tuesday nights, at least. Soobin sends some positive feedback in the group chat and puts his phone down.
He has one more class for the day, and then he has to go to the studio so that Beomgyu can do mic check. It’s a requirement for his major, and boring as all hell. Another box to check before he can graduate. He goes out into the living room and finds his homework on the coffee table, shoving it into his bag without much thought.
He pauses. There’s an extra coffee mug on the table from yesterday. Yeonjun had dropped by unannounced, saying something about how he’d been in the neighborhood and his class had been cancelled, anyway. He does that kind of thing a lot. Soobin looks around his tiny, cramped apartment and sees signs of Yeonjun’s presence everywhere. There’s a second scarf on the hook that he’d forgotten once, and a hoodie on the back of the sofa that’s definitely not Soobin’s. Yeonjun’s favorite tea is in the kitchen cabinet, and there are cans of beer in the recycling bin next to several empty cups of ramen. There’s a red notebook on Soobin’s desk that he has never opened. Idly, Soobin wonders what life will be like after Yeonjun graduates.
He pictures the apartment without the hoodie on the couch and the scarf on the hook. He imagines his desk, organized and empty without Yeonjun’s chaos. Suddenly, he gets the irrational urge to put the extra coffee mug back on the table. He doesn’t want Yeonjun to leave so soon.
Soobin shakes his head. It’s silly. He takes the mugs into the kitchen and washes them in the sink, placing them upside-down next to each other on the drying rack. Grabbing his bag from the couch and his jacket from the entryway, he goes to leave. For a moment, he considers taking the scarf and bringing it back to Yeonjun, but decides to leave it. Yeonjun will come back for it.
“Alright! Hellooooo, and welcome back to another session of Campus Confessions!” Yeonjun says, in his best radio announcer voice. He always introduces their episodes like this, even though it’s so loud that Soobin can see Beomgyu smacking a hand to his forehead through the window. “I’m your host Yeonjun, and this my little minion Soobin. Say hi, Soobin!”
“Hi,” Soobin says, raising an eyebrow at him. “I’m taller than you.”
“The listeners can’t see us, so you can’t prove it! I guess we’ll never know,” Yeonjun replies, grinning. “Today we have a very exciting episode ahead. Not only are we introducing a new segment this week, but we got some very juicy confessions from our anonymous listeners! Don’t worry, Soobin and I are here to help you with any love dilemmas, big or small.”
“Speaking of dilemmas, we have a follow-up from one of last week’s episodes. If you missed it, our listener ‘K’ says she started saying she has a foot fetish as a joke, but now she’s starting to wonder if it’s serious,” Soobin says. “Very brave confession. And what was your advice to her, Yeonjun?”
“I told her that she should look at some pictures of feet on the Internet and then journal about her feelings!” Yeonjun says, looking proud of himself. “Journaling is a great way to find your true self, especially when it comes to secrets. You can’t talk to anyone but yourself about it– and us, of course. Don’t worry, K, your secret is safe with us!”
“Personally, I think if you have to even ask yourself if it’s serious, it’s probably serious,” Soobin responds. “But, we got a follow-up message from K to our email! She says that she followed Yeonjun’s advice, and has decided to try feet to find out. I have no idea what that implies, but I’d rather not know. Sorry, K!”
“Don’t listen to him, he’s just a hater,” Yeonjun says, smacking Soobin’s shoulder.
“Ow! He just hit me, everyone. Yeonjun is very mean to his Campus Confessions minion.”
“At least you admit that you’re my minion. Don’t worry, K. We’re always happy to hear you out. Toes before hoes, am I right?”
Soobin laughs. He can see Kai cracking up outside the booth, and Beomgyu is practically bent over the audio sliders in a fit of giggles. Even Taehyun is chuckling to himself. He’s scrolling on his phone– probably monitoring their social media in real time.
“Alright, after that incredible feet of wisdom, we’re moving onto this week’s confessions. Some of you had a lot to say!” Soobin looks down so that he can read the print-out of Taehyun’s script. Yeonjun is cackling like a hyena in his ear, and he can hear it directly even though they both have headphones on to monitor their own audio.
“Let’s start with something from our friend Daisy. I’m going to read this verbatim, alright? It says Hi, I’m a first-year at SNU. My roommate is really annoying me. She’s really messy, and it’s driving me crazy. Oof,” Soobin interjects. “Roommate problems. I had those too, my first year.”
“The worst,” Yeonjun agrees. “I feel like no matter what, first-year roommates are always terrible.”
“Yes, Anyway, Daisy says, She pisses me off on purpose by leaving dishes in the sink and singing in the shower even though she sucks, but then she left for a week to go on vacation with her family. I should feel happy that she’s gone, but instead I feel lonely without her to annoy me all the time. What should I do? Sincerely, a concerned and confused Daisy.”
“Hmm. Well, Daisy, it sounds like you don’t hate her as much as you think you do,” Yeonjun says. “It could be that the things she does annoys you, but you actually like her as a person. Like– um, what’s that called?” Yeonjun pauses, thinking, and Soobin spots Kai frantically scribbling something on a piece of paper. He holds it up to the window so that Yeonjun can read it. “Oh, yes! Enemies to lovers.”
“Enemies to lovers?” Soobin replies skeptically. “Seems like a bit of a stretch. You might be able to find a way to get along with her, but if the things she does now piss you off, I don’t think she’s very likely to change in the future.”
“It’s not about changing. It’s about compromising! Look on the bright side, Soobin. Daisy could find that when her roommate returns, they can work out an agreement about the dishes, and that she actually finds her roommate’s terrible singing charming instead of annoying. How nice would that be?”
“Yes, well, I’m sure that would be lovely,” Soobin says dryly. “Look, Daisy. Just stick it out for the year, and if you really find that she’s tolerable after all, then you can make decisions about whether or not you can be friends. Some people make great friends but terrible roommates.”
“Definitely send us a message when she gets back. We want to hear all about your enemies-to-lovers journey!” Yeonjun trills, looking delighted at the thought of it.
They read a few more confessions, most of which are either boring or straight-up bizarre. Yeonjun is a natural on the air; he cracks jokes and makes fun of Soobin’s stuttering in a good-natured way. They veer off script a few times, but Yeonjun is good at gradually bringing them back on track. They get to the last confession with only one or two scathing looks from Taehyun.
“Oh my God, we’re already on our last confession! Time really flies, you guys,” Yeonjun sighs. “Anyway, Soobin, do you want to do the honors?”
“After you just bullied me about stuttering four times in a row? No way. This one’s a brick, you read it.”
“Alright, alright,” Yeonjun acquiesces, chuckling. “For a communication major, your communication is abysmal, Soobin. This last confession is from someone named Yeowoo.”
Yeonjun’s voice takes on this odd tone that Soobin can’t quite place, and his eyes don’t leave the script once. Usually he stops to make a joke or ask Soobin for his opinion during the confessions, but this time he just reads the entire thing without stopping.
“Hello. I have a problem, and I’d like some advice. I’ve been friends with this guy for three years now, and we’re very close. At least, I think we’re close, but I don’t know what he thinks. I feel like I’m always the one who organizes our hangouts, while he just goes with the flow. I really like him, but I don’t know how he feels about me. On one hand, he lets me do whatever I want and never complains. On the other hand, I can’t tell if he’s just tolerating me or if he actually enjoys my company. He never invites me to do anything. I have to be the one to set up everything on my own, and I don’t know what to do. We spend a lot of time together, but he seems so neutral about it. I can’t tell one way or another, so I don’t know if I should confess to him or not. I don’t want to risk our friendship, but I’m also running out of time before I graduate. I don’t know if I should just stop contacting him and let our friendship die out naturally, or if I should really just try it. I like him so much. Sincerely, Yeowoo.”
There’s a short silence after Yeonjun finishes speaking. He’s still looking at the table, avoiding Soobin’s eyes for some reason.
“Well, that was… a lot,” Soobin says. “Thank you for your submission, Yeowoo. There’s a lot to unpack here. It seems like you’re a very considerate person, and you’re thinking a lot about how he feels. Why don’t you just ask him?”
“That would be a good idea,” Yeonjun agrees. “It might give you some insight as to whether or not it would be a good idea to confess. What would you think, Soobin?”
“Me?” Soobin says, surprised. He thinks for a moment. “I guess I’m not a very expressive person either, so I could see how it might be hard to read how he’s feeling. If you guys have been friends for three years, I’m sure he’ll understand.”
“But how would you feel if you were the only one who ever organized hangouts, and stuff?” Yeonjun asks. “It must be tiring, after a while.”
“I can see how that would be tiring, and why you feel like you might be doubting how much he likes you,” Soobin replies. “But for me, personally, I’m also nervous to ask people to hang out. I always assume that they have better things to be doing, or that they’re already busy. I wait for other people to contact me first because I feel like it’s considerate.”
“Even though the other person might think that they like you more than you like them?”
“I can see how people would think that,” Soobin acknowledges. “But, at the same time, I think there’s a certain level of trust when you’ve been friends for that long. You trust that the other person would say something if they were annoyed or upset with you. Yeowoo, can you send us some more information? Does he open up to you when you guys talk, or is it all surface-level stuff? If he’s sharing things with you, he probably likes you a lot more than you think.”
“I’m conflicted,” Yeonjun says, tapping his chin with his finger. “I can see how you would feel like it’s not worth it to risk it to confess to him when you really can’t figure out how he feels about you.”
“But at the same time, our friend Yeowoo is graduating soon. If he waits too much longer, he could lose his chance.” Soobin points out. “If the friendship could die out either way, don’t you think it’s better to confess regardless?”
“Depends on whether or not Yeowoo’s friend reaches out and wants to continue the friendship after graduation. If he does, then maybe it is too risky to try to confess without knowing how he feels.”
“Well, I think you should try talking to him about how he feels. It doesn’t hurt to ask, and then you’ll have more information. Don’t forget to follow up with us next week, okay? Keep us updated,” Soobin says.
“Yes, I think that’s a good idea. Unfortunately, that’s all the time we have for confessions today. Let’s introduce our new segment!” Yeonjun brightens considerably, practically bouncing up and down in his chair. “This is My Secret Ship! This segment is all about who you think could be the cutest couple on campus. Think of the potential! Just send us two names, and the reason why you think they would be a good couple.”
“Or a terrible one,” Soobin cuts in. “I’m also down to hear your worst pairings. I think that would be awesome.”
“Yes! Why don’t we start with an example?” Yeonjun knees Soobin under the table. “Let’s have my minion Soobin tell us who he thinks would make a super cute couple.”
“Uhh,” Soobin eyes Kai through the glass. The younger man looks none the wiser, watching the show with bright, curious eyes. Soobin swallows. “I think Bahiyyih and Hikaru would be cute together.”
“You heard it here first, guys! Huening Bahiyyih and Ezaki Hikaru!” There’s a screech that’s audible even inside the soundproof studio, and Soobin flinches. “Well, that’s all the time we have today. We’ll see you back here at the same time on Friday– or at least I will! I’m not sure Soobin will live to see the end of the week,” Yeonjun says cheerfully. “This is Yeonjun, signing off!”
“Soobin, signing off. This has been your Tuesday night of Campus Confessions! Don’t forget to follow us on social media and send in your confessions for a chance to be featured on the show. Good night!”
The On Air sign goes dark, and the door to the recording booth slams open. Kai is practically irate, Beomgyu and Taehyun only just managing to hold him back. It’s pretty impressive considering how much time Taehyun spends in the gym. Kai is a lot taller, though, and broad. Soobin is suddenly in fear for his life.
“Hyung,” Soobin hisses. “Why would you do that to me!?”
“What if I want to be the sole host of Campus Confessions?” Yeonjun puts his headphones down on the table, fluffing up his hair without a care in the world. Soobin is trapped between the desk and Kai blocking the door.
“Oh, Kai, don’t be silly. He was just kidding. It’s for the entertainment value.” Yeonjun pats Kai’s shoulder with a serene smile, slipping past Kai and leaving Soobin for dead.
“You were kidding?” Kai says suspiciously, eyes narrowed at Soobin.
“Yeah. Haha,” Soobin answers weakly.
Kai is clearly still thinking about pummeling Soobin into the ground, but thankfully he lets him out of the booth and into the sitting room where the all monitoring equipment is. Beomgyu is flipping all the switches and shutting the board down.
“Gotta say, the feet segment had to be my favorite,” he says, fist-bumping Soobin. “You guys were on fire with that one. Funniest the show has been in a while.”
“You wound me. I thought we were hilarious last week,” Soobin replies, although there’s no malice behind it.
“Eh. Last week was mediocre. Again, the feet segment was probably the funniest part. Do you think someone sent that into the show as a prank?”
“Seems like a lot of effort to send in multiple paragraphs of foot fetish for a prank.”
Beomgyu hums, picking up his bag from under the sound board and slinging it over his shoulder. “The new segment sounds like it’ll be good. I was mad that I missed the proposal meeting.”
“It was relatively uneventful, actually,” Soobin responds, watching Kai shriek with joy as Yeonjun hops on his back and they go zooming from the building into the night. Taehyun, looking as long-suffering as ever, is holding all three of their backpacks like a short, muscular camel.
“Yeonjun hyung texted me to ask if anyone from my group could send in a confession. After Lia’s cat died? I told him to fuck off.”
Soobin chuckles. “That seems like the appropriate response to a lot of Yeonjun texts.”
There’s a short, peaceful silence, broken only by the sound of a giggling Kai returning and dropping Yeonjun back on the sidewalk. “That Yeowoo confession was an interesting one,” Beomgyu says. “For you guys in particular.”
Soobin blinks. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, doesn’t that sound familiar? Yeonjun hyung is practically up your ass all the time, and you kind of just brush him off.”
“I don’t brush him off,” Soobin insists. “He comes over whenever he wants, I show up when he texts me. It’s not like I ignore him. We’re close, and it’s not even just for the show.”
“I know, I’m just saying that it seems like you guys would be really well-suited to answering that confession.”
Soobin thinks about it on the walk back to his apartment. Are they well-suited to Yeowoo’s confession? It’s not like Soobin never texts Yeonjun first. Yeonjun is just the one who always has the good ideas, and wants to go out and do fun things. Soobin is perfectly content to sit on his couch or his bed all day and do nothing. Yeonjun is the one who finds fun cafés on Instagram or movies that he wants to see in the shady theater near campus.
He wonders if Yeowoo was listening to the show tonight. Surely he must’ve been, since the question seemed like it was kind of eating at him. It had been a while since they’d gotten a confession that was so… heartfelt. Soobin couldn’t imagine anyone sending that in as a prank.
He decides to think about it some more through the week. If he really is well-suited to answer Yeowoo’s question, then he’s going to figure out the best answer. Something about the wording sticks in Soobin’s chest, like a pill he can’t quite swallow.
Yeonjun texts him right as he gets home. Omg ur never gonna believe this. The diner is doing discounted breakfast on Wednesdays. See you there tomorrow?
Sounds good. I fucking love their pancakes, Soobin texts back. Yeonjun responds with a sticker of an excited fox jumping up and down, and Soobin smiles at his phone without realizing it. He’ll have to set an alarm for tomorrow, but at least Yeonjun seems happy. Wednesday morning at the diner becomes a weekly thing.