It was a Friday afternoon. The sun was beginning to set and I was heading over to my best friend Niall's house for dinner. His family was hosting a big dinner to welcome their new exchange student from Seoul, South Korea. Being a small town girl, I had never met anyone from outside of Missouri before. Why would anyone want to come here on an exchange program?
Niall's house is just down the street, but being pudgy and unfit was causing me to sweat up a storm on the short walk. I reached Niall's house 20 minutes later, out of breath, and knocked on the door with my chubby fist.
The door clicked open.
"Hi," greeted who I was assuming to be the new exchange student. I was a full foot taller than him.
I looked down to meet his gaze. "Hey, nice to meet you. I'm Niall's friend Y/N. Can I come in?"
"I'm Jimin," he replied. "God damn I love America," he muttered under his breath. "I love a little extra meat."
"Did you say we are having roasted meat for dinner?" I asked, oblivious to what he just said.
"Uh yeah sure," he scratched his head nervously.
We walked to the kitchen together and I admired the spread of Sam's club fettuccini Alfredo, Lays, Ore Ida crinkle cuts and storebought strawberries and macarons. Many were already serving themselves, including Niall's neighbor and our old math teacher, Mrs. Kim. Mrs. Kim had a loaded plate and was balancing two to-go boxes full of goodies she scavenged from the kitchen.
"Hey bff!" Niall patted me on the back. People questioned why we were best friends: I'm unfit, tubby and can't jog for more than a minute; he's tall, handsome and captain of the football team. Niall wasn't like other popular guys; he was kind and liked to play dress up games online like I do. That's how we hit it off in 5th grade.
"Have you met Jimin? Can you believe he doesn't know what Sam's Club is?" Niall asked. I could see Jimin staring at me from across the kitchen. He picked at his half frozen fries and lukewarm pasta. Niall's mom isn't the greatest chef in the world.
"Yeah I have. He's kinda an odd one isn't he? He told me we were having roasted meats for dinner."
"Oh he likes to talk to himself sometimes," Niall scratched his chin. "He's kinda cute though, he has that haircut you like."
"Yeah," I agreed. "But no one would be into a fat chick like me. The most action I've gotten with a guy was the time Bret threw half his bbq sandwich at me at lunch and instead of being offended, I picked it up and gobbled it down."
"That's really sad that you indirectly kissed Bret through a sandwich," he sighed and shook his head. I had a crush on Bret through 10th grade until he started calling me the school hippo and constantly threw things at me during lunch. I like to think he bullies me because he likes me. "Look. Jimin is heading over here."
I watched as Jimin stumbled through the crowd of people towards us with a shy smile.
"Hey. What's up?" He asked.
"Nothing much. How's the food?"
"It's pretty good, kinda tastes like kimchi," he replied with a mouth full of ore ida fries. "Do you have a boyfriend?"
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"That's random, but I'm actually single."
"That's hard to believe. Who could resist a big beautiful woman like you?" Jimin asked, with a thoughtful expression on his face. He's very forward. I looked down at my jeggings, too tight tank top, old flip flops and Coach crossbody purse. Is he talking to me?
I looked over to Niall, who appeared to be choking on an onion burger that was raw in the center. I wasn't sure if he choking because he ate too much or because he was disturbed from the scenario playing out in front of him. "I gotta go to the restroom of all of a sudden," Niall stammered. "For a long time," he added before running away.
"Yeah I'm talking to you." Jimin seemed to have read my mind. "Why are you so surprised?"
"No ones ever taken an interest in me before."
We spent the rest of the night laughing and talking about anything you could think of. We both loved Applebee's and stretchy pants, both hated bugs and the idea of the spork. We had a lot in common and I never wanted to leave.
"Would you like to go out for beers sometime?" He asked as I headed towards the door near midnight.
"Sure, I love me a good Bret Brew," I smiled before closing the door behind me. Who knew South Korea had such charming young men. I'm happy to welcome Jimin into my life, even if he's only here for a short time.
~ A kind user named yoongititties made fan art for this chapter.
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