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“You suck.”
“What?”
“I said, you suck,” Jaebum cracked his eyes open to see a very sweaty and
highly
annoyed off Jinyoung standing over him.
“Do you have any particular reason for telling me this?”
Jinyoung huffed, “It’s about 27 degrees outside and I’m sitting inside your shitty apartment with no air conditioning.”
“I already told you. The maintenance guy is coming to fix it tomorrow.” Jaebum rolled over on the couch ignoring the younger’s grumbling. Jaebum didn’t like this weather either, but who was he to complain? Hot weather = more naps.
“This should be classified as torture. Even your cats are dying.” Jinyoung pointed towards Jaebum’s three cats panting under the shade of the coffee table.
Poor kitties,
Jaebum thought, and stood up from the couch. He grabbed the cats’ empty water bowls and filled them up with water from the kitchen.
As returned to the room, bowls in hand, the cats perked up at the sight of their savior. Jaebum kneeled next to the coffee table and placed the water down. “Sorry about the heat.” He apologized and a smile crept on his lips as the cats refreshed themselves with water.
“You give them water but none for your best friend of forever? I’m sensing favoritism.” Jinyoung complained.
“Grow a pair of cat ears and then you can be my favorite.” Jaebum responded while pouring glasses of water for the both of them. He really needed to refill his ice tray at some point.
“Careful
Bummie
, your kinks are showing.” The younger replied and Jaebum pondered pouring the water on top of his head. Jaebum decided that a wet and pissed Jinyoung would be worse than a slightly annoying Jinyoung. He passed one of the glasses to Jinyoung, who kindly thanked him. Jaebum returned to his spot on the couch, ready to sleep until the weather cooled down. Jinyoung rested his head against the back of the patchy recliner the two of them picked up from the elderly woman across the hall. He took a sip and sighed at the instant relief.
The two sat like this for a while, comfortable in their own silence. Years of friendship had taught them that they didn’t need words. Quietness was enough. But when the gods deemed that the two couldn’t just spend their afternoon scrolling through Twitter, Jinyoung was usually the first one to crack during these moments.
“Hey Jaebum, you wanna check out that ice cream shop down the street?”
Jaebum distantly remembered Jinyoung talking about the store a few weeks ago. Jinyoung mentioned that one of his classmates from his acting class managed to snag a summer job there.
I think his name was Mark,
Jaebum thought. He also contemplated the pros and cons of ice cream.
Pros:
Ice cream
Working air conditioning (very important)
The shop sold ice cream for cats (according to Jinyoung, who heard it from BamBam)
Cons:
Having to leave the house
Walking
His laziness outweighed the pros, but Jaebum doubted that Jinyoung would share his sentiment. Maybe he should just pretend to be asleep? He could fake it for a good while. Hell, maybe he’d even fall asleep trying to fake sleep. Then, he wouldn’t have to hear Jinyoung’s complaining anymore. The more Jaebum thought about it, the more staying home sounded like the best option.
Jaebum decided to ignore the question and snuggled himself into the cushions of the couch. The younger sitting across from him wasn’t taking silence for an answer, and threw the pillow right at his head. “Hey!” Jaebum shouted and threw the pillow back.
Jinyoung threw the pillow again. “I asked you a question!”
“I’m trying to sleep!” Jaebum caught it and chucked it back over.
“You’re being lazy!”
“I should be allowed to!” With every statement, the pillow kept flying across the room. The only ones safe were the cats, who watched the whole scenario with confusion and apathy. The boys argued back and forth, progressively growing more hot and frustrated. Jaebum didn’t understand Jinyoung’s insinstance for him to go, and Jinyoung couldn’t see why Jaebum didn’t want to.
The repetitive back and forth reached its peak and Jaebum threw the pillow to the ground. “Why is this is so important to you?” He shouted, “It’s just ice cream!”
“Because I’m worried about you!” Jinyoung shouted back and the room went quiet. “All you’ve done this school year is work, sleep and occasionally eat when I remind you to. I passed it off as immense stress for your grades and music, but now it’s summer break and you’re doing the exact same thing. Name
one
remotely interesting thing you’ve done over the summer that I haven’t forced you to do.”
Jaebum stayed quiet.
Jinyoung walked over to his hyung and sat. Placing a hand on Jaebum’s knee, he continued, “You are my best friend in this entire world. I can’t keep seeing you stuck like this. I have friends down at that ice cream shop who would love to meet you. Can you try and go with me?”
Jaebum faced Jinyoung, seeing the pure emotion in his eyes. He had to admit that this year wasn’t his best. He didn’t realize that being a music major would cause so much unneeded stress. Jaebum had dreams of owning his own record label, and somehow the business side of the music industry was easier than the song part. His production teacher frustrated the absolute hell out of him and rejected every piece of music Jaebum created. His teacher wanted him to “find the music”, but that just ended up in him spending endless nights mixing and recording, surviving solely off of stale beer and cup noodles. He hadn't eaten a fresh vegetable for weeks until Jinyoung forced him to eat a bundle of raw spinach stolen from BamBam’s place. As gross and weird as the experience was, Jaebum felt gratitude for his friend looking out for him. The least thing he could do was walk with Jinyoung for ice cream.
Jaebum sighed and conceded. “Fine, I’ll go.”
Jinyoung smiled and clapped his hands together. “I knew you’d come around, bummie.”
“Stop calling me that, asshole.”
Jaebum instantly regretted leaving the apartment as the blistering sun shone over his body. He could feel his skin begging for him to walk right back through his door and take the coldest shower he could handle. Jaebum felt a hand grasp his own and tug him along. “The faster we walk, the faster we get inside,” Jinyoung sang.
The two eventually arrived at the front of the store. The name
Sweet Treets
shone from a sign in the front painted in nice pink and yellow pastels. Jaebum opened the store door and practically cried from the cool air.
It feels so nice,
he thought, and allowed himself to breathe for a moment.
“Welcome to
Sweet Treets!
” Jaebum looked up to see two men around his age standing behind the ice cream counter.
“Ah Mark-hyung!” Jinyoung stepped in front of Jaebum and greeted the taller one with dark red hair.
Mark smiled back, “Jinyoung, you finally came.” He took a look at Jaebum and added, “You must be Jaebum-ssi. It’s nice to finally meet you.” Mark reached out to shake Jaebum’s hand and the latter accepted the gesture.
A gasp shot into the air and Jaebum attention snapped towards the shorter man on Mark’s right. “You’re the cat dude!” The shorter shouted and Jaebum stared at him, confused.
“Mark-hyung was telling me,” he explained, “all about how you were Jinyoung’s friend and you had lots of cats. So, you’re the cat dude.”
Jaebum frowned at the new nickname, “I think I’d prefer to go by Jaebum.”
“Of course you would.” the boy laughed, “I’m Jackson.” Jaebum took his time to evaluate Jackson. Fluffy brown hair flopped across Jackson’s forehead. That combined with his ridiculously warm brown eyes made him look like the human version of a puppy. He seemed cute, annoying and hyper. All of the reasons why Jaebum preferred cats over dogs.