OUR HEARTBEAT [BEOMJUN] ✅

nineteen

Are you coming to Liz’s tutoring session today?

I texted Arin after school, once I was home.

Arin: I’ll meet you over there.

Before I left to go to Liz’s house, I stopped at Jeno’s bedroom door and knocked twice.

There was a mumbled reply that I interpreted as “Come in,” so I opened the door. Jeno sat at his desk, drawing in a sketchpad.

“Hey, I’m leaving,” I said.

“Okay,” he answered without looking up.

“Do you want to come with me?”

“Nope.”

“You have a lot to say today,” I said. He’d been quiet on the ride home, too.

“Yep.”

I picked up the nearest article of clothing on his floor, a green Harry Potter shirt, wadded it up, and threw it at the back of his head. Jeno threw it back. It landed on the floor in front of me, and I noticed it was ripped at the collar.

“What happened to your shirt?” I asked.

“It caught on a fence.”

“What fence?”

“The one around the baseball field.”

“Fences are just jumping out and grabbing you these days?”

“I took a shortcut through the baseball field after school and the gate was locked. I had to climb it.”

“Wow. Look at you being all athletic.”

He flexed his biceps, and then shooed me away.

I pulled the door closed and walked next door to my aunt’s house. I found Liz in her bedroom sliding her feet into a pair of ballet flats. The first thing she said to me was, “You’re totally famous now.”

“Because one of your friends thinks I’m cool?”

“It’s more people than thought you were cool yesterday.”

“You’re a brat.” I looked her up and down, realizing she’d changed her outfit since getting home from school. “Are you dressed up for Jake?” I teased.

“This isn’t dressed up. I was just gross from school.” She picked up her backpack. “You ready to take me?” She was looking at my outfit now, like she thought I should go change.

I glanced down at my jeans, two-toned T-shirt, and Chucks. “What?”

“Nothing,” she said. “Let’s go.”

When we walked through the front door of the tutoring center, Yeonjun was at the front desk.

“Do you work here every day?” I asked him.

“Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.”

Liz knew the routine now and walked past Yeonjun to meet Jake at the back tables.

The phone rang and Yeonjun answered it, so I sat down in the waiting area. This time I’d brought my backpack and homework, but it didn’t stop me from checking out the magazines. There was another new one: Hobbies, it was called. I don’t know why I felt the need to note the magazines every time I came in now, but because I’d studied them so closely the first time, the new ones were easy to recognize.

Yeonjun must’ve noticed me looking, too, because when he hung up the phone he said, “Do you read that one?”

“Hobbies? No. But it looks interesting.” I dug into my backpack and retrieved my Math homework for the day. “Arin would like it.”