Trust

Friends Being Friends

"So..." Yunho comes up to me on Monday, which catches me by surprise. "The offer still stands?"

"Um... what offer?"

"Duh." Yunho turns to Mingi who's standing behind him, "I told you he'd forget. There's no way of remembering everything of a night after two and a half bottles of soju – right, Wooyoung?"

I blink. "I drank that much?"

"Dunno", Yunho shrugs, "but you told us so..."

Okay. Wow.

"What did I offer you?", I finally ask and try not to cringe at how awkward the words sound coming out of my mouth. It could be really anything though – I want to prepare myself for the worst.

"You said that we could come and sit with you and your friends..."

"Oh." That's not half as bad as I expected. In fact – it's a pretty good idea. I didn't think of that at all. At least not while I was sober.

I'm also pretty certain that I wouldn't have suggested it without the alcohol.

"'Oh' means what?" Yunho grins.

"It means come on." I'm surprised how easy it suddenly feels to smile at both of them. "I didn't tell my other friends yet – for obvious reasons – but I'm sure it'll be okay for them too."

Oh. I said my other friends. Does that mean... Does that mean that I've just got new friends? Suddenly, it is a thousand times harder to keep my smile from transforming into a stupid, happy grin.

Hongjoong doesn't mind Yunho and Mingi joining us at all. In fact, once Mingi tells him that they're both both studying Performance and Aesthetics, Hongjoong's all over them: "I've seen your names on quite a lot on top rankings here around the uni already. What styles do you dance the most? What dancing courses did you take so far? And which ones are you taking this semester?"

Holy shit. This is borderline embarrassing.

Seonghwa is a little bit more leveled. He smiles at them politely, introduces himself shortly and excuses his over-enthusiastic boyfriend.

Thank you, Seonghwa. I send him a silent smile, to which he returns one of his reassuring everything's-gonna-be-alright smiles.

Only Yeosang behaves kind of reserved. He greets both Yunho and Mingi – then turns to me: "So... does that mean that San will come over too?"

"Yeah. Jongho will too."

"Oh!" Yeosang's frown lightens a bit. "Right. I forgot. I used to hang out with Jongho in high school, you know?"

"Not until now. But that sounds great." It really does. In fact, it sounds so great that I, just for a moment, bathe in the illusion that the eight of us eating lunch at one table could become a regular thing.