Pink Lemonade ✓

xi

Chapter Eleven: I'm Fine Thank You and You?

As fate would have it, on Thursday evening, Namjoon was tutoring him for his English oral exam. They were sitting by a table in the living room, the one Jeongguk usually used when he did his homework. The sky was darkening outside, so they had turned on the lamps, working in soft light. Namjoon had his computer open with Jeongguk's instructions for the exam, which, essentially, would be a detailed conversation about one of the topics listed. Scanning the topics, Namjoon would pick one at random and turn to Jeongguk with a gaze that could only be one of a teacher.

      "Tell me a little bit about yourself," he said, a simple one to begin with.

      Jeongguk took a deep breath before saying–without even taking a second to stop, afraid to forget his train of thought– "My name is Jeon Jeongguk, I am eighteen years old and I like taking pictures. I like to listen to music and be with my friends too."

      Namjoon nodded, seemingly satisfied with the response. He asked another question. "Okay, tell me about your friends."

      "Their names are Park Jimin and Kim Taehyung and we go to school together. Jimin is shorter than me and he dances ballet. Taehyung is my height and he is swimmer."

      "He is a swimmer, Jeongguk'ah."

      "A swimmer, right."

      The evening kept going like that, going from one topic to the other, making conversation, Namjoon speaking with ease and Jeongguk stopping, searching his mind for the right word, writing it down when he had a difficult time remembering it or if he forgot it, and slowly, but very surely, it got easier, he began to talk with more confidence, knowing exactly the answers to Namjoon's questions.

      When the two of them tired– when Jeongguk's tongue almost hurt from all the talking and as he started to make mistakes which could only be blamed on fatigue, Namjoon suggested he go to the fridge and fetch them something to drink, to which Jeongguk had no protests.

      As soon as Namjoon left the room, Jeongguk stood up from his seat and seated himself in front of the computer. Keeping one eye on the doorway, he opened one of the word documents–called wedding invitations–left in the lower bar showing all of the apps. It was organised in alphabetical order, which made it much easier to find the place to just add a teensy little name. When he found the spot, he wrote down one word, Jin. He then closed the document and sat back down on his seat and tried to act normal.

      It had taken less than a minute.

      Once he and Taehyung had figured out which name they should use to mess with Jeongyeon's head, the rest of the plan had been easy to figure out. First, they had thought to simply put Seokjin's full name on the invitations list–try to sneak away the computer for a moment just as Jeongguk had done moments before and call it a deal–but then they realised that if Jeongyeon found out Seokjin's name was on the list, someone would get in trouble–and it would most likely be Namjoon, who was in charge of writing down the names of the ones invited to the wedding. They couldn't let that happen, they had to make it seem like it was an accident. The next idea had been to ditch the list and write out a thank-you card, where Seokjin accepted the invitation, but Jeongyeon was too smart, she wouldn't fall for it, especially if his name wasn't on the list. Their last idea and the one they had decided was the best one, was to play in on Namjoon's tendency to forget things, to make it seem like he had intended to write out another name but Seokjin, some name similar, but had gotten distracted. The name in question was of the couple's close friend Jinyoung, who was often, as a matter of fact, called Jin. It made perfect sense, as Seokjin had also been called Jin–making it easy enough to get confused.