Number Neighbor

9

With the drone of bugs as the aural backdrop they all wind up humming or lowly singing as we float around the pool, digesting the serious amount of food that was polished off. 

I am absolutely certain half of it went to either JK or Jin, and they were still fighting over the last few pieces of meat as the plates were cleared.

'I think I need to work off some of this food before I even try to add dessert to my stomach!' I state, heading to the end of the pool. 'Who wants to race?' A chorus of groans is heard at my idea, but they all follow me, setting up to push off the end and race.

'Whoever wins gets first pick!' JK suggests, and everyone nods, agreeing.

The race isn't even fair. I haven't swam in years, so there was no chance of me winning... I got last place. JK got first, which I found out everyone expected. Jin got second, Hobi got third, Yoongi got fourth... which surprised the guys. Jimin got fifth, V almost tying him but winding up in sixth. Joon is the last guy to finish, but he seemed happy to be ahead of me.

'I'm glad you were able to keep up with me this time V!' Jimin exclaimed. Further questions about this and I find out that Jimin is actually a much better swimmer than Hobi, and would likely have tied Jin for second if he wasn't cheering V on while swimming. My uwus busted internally at this realization.

JK quickly lifts himself out of the pool and dries off, heading in to gather the boxes of treats.

After only being able to grab about a third of them, several threatening to topple as he negotiated the change of flooring from inside to outside, Jin and V follow him in for his next run for boxes and between the three of them they were able to do only one trip, though the boxes are piled higher than each of their heads.

'Joon, can you help me open them?' I ask, nodding to him to start at one end of the selection while I works from the other. The first string snapped in his hands, making the guys groan, but I smiled and shook my head. 'That's actually the way to open them. Snapping the string is the best way to open them.'

'You mean he's supposed to break them?' Asks Jimin, and at my nod Joon relaxes in relief. 'That's perfect for him!' Giggles Jimin, rolling his body on to V's lap in glee.

With the boxes now open the guys are anything but patient as they wait for JK to pick what he wants. The verbal ribbing and jeering as he moves from option to option seems poor-sportsmanlike, until I see JK wink at me, his smile mischievous. Instantly I understand that he's dragging this out to tease the rest of the guys, and I giggle, making them turn a frown on me before joining me in laughing at JK's obvious attempt to annoy his brothers.

With his plate piled high JK sits and each of them take their turn going through the options and selecting what they want. Jin's plate is piled just as high as JK's, Hobi gathers mostly several types of fudges, Yoongi prefers brownies, though he tries a couple of the other options, Jimin goes for anything dark chocolate, V prefers cupcakes, and Joon tries one of everything.

I grab my favorite of each type of sweet and grab a lemonade from the chill chest before sitting back down to enjoy. Seeing my drink choice Hobi gets up and goes to grab some for himself as well, the others yelling their drink requests to him... iced coffees, alcohol, and fruit juices. 

****

'Really, the dark chocolate fudge went really well with the mango juice!' Joon exclaims. 'Have you ever done a fruit based fudge? Maybe you could swirl the two together!'

'I have, and almost every fruit works well with it. My only failure was banana, but I think the fruit itself was the cause of the failure, not the fudge.' I reply, and the curious head tilts I explain further. 'Certain types of bananas have a higher sugar content than others. I only had a few options in my old home, and all of those had very high sugar content. It made it hard to balance the sweetness of the fudge during the making process. I think if I start with a lower sugar content banana it will work well, and I hope I can do that here.' A nod of understanding from them and I sit back, taking a sip of the lemonade to clear my palate.

'What do you think your schedule will be once school starts? We'd love to do this again with you, and we don't want to intrude on your studies.' Jin says, hoisting his alcoholic beverage in salute to me.

'I know my class schedule for this semester, and if university is anything like what I've already done I'm going to be working myself to the bone getting the assignments completed on time.' I reply, shrugging. 'I hope I can get a syllabus from each teacher so that I can prepare ahead of time and cut some of the work up into more manageable pieces, but I won't know until I get to my first class.' I reply.

'What's your language class schedule?' Joon asks over an iced coffee.

'Classes. Plural.' I reply, and the shocked look on their faces is amusing. 'I have a conversational Hangul class four days a week, thankfully only an hour long, but the written Hangul class is two days a week, and three hours long. That one is more of a tutoring class, with three students to one teacher, there being four teachers in that class. I figure it's something like a round table teaching session, with a Q and A process.'

JK looks shook, staring at his now empty plate full of crumbs. Jimin nods thoughtfully, V is serious in his listening as I speak, and Hobi... is in hazy drunk mode. His lack of focus makes me think he's likely to pass out soon. I grab Yoongi's eyes, nod my head Hobi's way, and Yoongi just gets up and heads to the chill chest, grabbing a bottle of water and places it in Hobi's hand. 'Drink.' He orders Hobi, who nods and cracks the cap off and starts chugging the water. 

'So when do you get the economic class?' V asks after Yoongi sits down.

'I actually have an introductory class in that this semester, mostly conversion rates and whatnot, but next semester we'll get into taxes, quarterly claiming processes, and insurances.' I answer. I think Yoongi got all of that, as did Joon. Jimin seemed to get most of it as well, but the rest seemed lost.

****

After helping the guys clean up the debris of the party I call a ride, ready to get home and prepare for next Monday, the classes now in the forefront of my consciousness.

The guys that haven't texted me yet on JK's old number quickly line up to share their number, and until the ride gets here we talk about my move to Seoul, then wave goodbye to me as I leave.

I am glad I met my number neighbors.