Roomies

5

"Listen, I couldn't just tell my dad that everything was fine after I called and complained to him about you! So instead I just talked to the landlord and fixed the situation." Hojin explained.

"So your dad thinks your male roommate moved out?" Haru chuckled.

"Yes- and he just assumed you were a guy. I didn't want to tell him you weren't because he would've made you move out that day." Hojin said. "So in a way you should thank me."

Haru snortled and shook her head, "No way."

***

The next day, there was a knock on the door. Haru looked at Hojin who was watching television. "Are you expecting someone?" She asked. Hojin shook his head and Haru went to look out of the peephole. Her face grew pale and she backed away from the door. "I-it's your father."

Hojin jumped up from the couch and started panicking. He grabbed Haru's shoes from beside the door and shoved them into her arms. He pushed her to his bedroom and shoved her in the closet. "Stay here and don't make a peep!"

He went to the front door and opened it. He smiled at his father and chuckled nervously, "H-hey dad... what brings you by?"

"I just wanted to check out the apartment. Is there a problem?"

Hojin shook his head no and let his father in immediately. His father looked around- like he was looking for something in particular. "Who were you talking to before I came in?" He asked.

"I-I was watching television."

"These are some nice little trinkets. I didn't know you were into decor." His dad says.

"I'm not- it just looked plain in here so I um- bought a bunch of random things from online."

His dad traced his fingers over one of Haru's sculptures.

"Your mom would love this. You should get her one of these for her birthday coming up." His dad smiled. "Speaking of birthdays- I heard you're engaged to Byeol? You didn't tell me you two hit it off that well."

Hojin clenched his jaw and shook his head. "What does that have to do with birthda- Uhh, that's just a rumor online."

"Is it? Byeol's the one that told me."

Hojin almost choked on the air after his fathers words. "Oh, phew- she told you. I thought we were going to wait to announce it to our families." He lied.

His father looked around more until he was standing outside of Haru's bedroom door. "This must be your old roommates room?" He asked while walking in. Hojin was glad Haru's room was so clean it could pass as a guest room. His father looked around and was about to open a drawer until Hojin stopped him.

"Ahh! Don't open that!" His dad looked at him in confusion. "That's- Byeol's personal items in there. Yea... she comes over sometimes so she leaves her things in here."

Mr. Yang nodded and straightened his tie. "Well I'm going to head out. Don't forget you have dinner with Byeol and her parents tomorrow."

Hojin nodded and walked his dad to the door. "I'll see you later dad." Hojin rushed.

"Did you hear that?" His dad asked. "Do you have a dog?"

"Yes I got a dog because I was lonely, bye dad!" Hojin spoke and slammed the door in his dads face.

As soon as his dad was gone, he let out a deep breath and went to get Haru from his closet. "Your closet looks expensive." Haru said while holding a pair of shoes and examining them. "Just look at how nice these shoes are!"

Hojin drug her from the closet and took his shoes from her hands. "Get your filthy hands off of those!" He put them back into his closet neatly and looked at Haru. "Is that my jacket?"

"I got bored okay! It's fun playing dress up in a rich persons clothes." She mumbled while taking it off.

"Keep it."

"Really?" Haru smiled. "Why?"

"I just have a feeling somethings gonna happen and you're gonna be caught in the middle. So think of this as your pay."

"Fine by me." Haru shrugged and left his room.

***

"Hello?" Hojin asked while picking up his phone and putting it on speaker. He continued cutting up vegetables while he talked to the person on the other end of the call.

"So... I live with you now?"

Hojin groaned and pinched this bridge of his nose. "First of all, I never said you lived with me. I said you come visit."

"Same thing. So does this mean- you have another woman? Is that why you used me to cover up whatever you were hiding? Because you're with someone else?" Byeol's voice softened.

"N- yes. I have someone else." Hojin lied. "Now we're in a bunch of mess because you told him we were engaged. Why would you do that?"

"I did it to help you!" Byeol defended herself.

"How the hell is that helping? Now my dads expecting us to be some couple when we were supposed to be 'breaking up' soon!"

"Because I saw engagement papers on my dads desk! Him and your father were already planning it so I said we were already engaged!"

"I still don't get how that helps."

"If they think we're already engaged they'll get rid of the papers they already have. So now we're just fake engaged- no documentation."

Hojin sighed and nodded even though she couldn't see it. "Thank you, Byeol." He said. "Just- we need to get this sorted out soon."

Hojin hung up and sighed. He looked over at Haru who was giggling to herself on the couch. "What are you laughing at?" He asked.

"Why'd you lie like you had another woman?" Haru asked.

"If I said you were my roommate she probably would've told my dad and he'd get you out of here. If she thinks you're just my girlfriend who doesn't live here, he'll just tell me to dump you or something if he ever finds out."

"You just made things harder on yourself though... She set you up." Haru laughed.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you think you guys' parents would've asked to see the engagement papers before getting rid of their own? Then they would've seen that she was lying... and um, Hojin?"

"Yea?"

"You don't have to sign papers to get engaged. You have to sign papers to get married."

"Crap! I bet she's going to tell my dad!"