46: Trouble

It was a clear and bright day; Inho’s bike courier shift was over, and his restaurant shift was about to start. he hefted his bike up by the frame and carried it up the back stairs of the restaurant. His worries had been unfounded, his body felt fine, and his mood was definitely even better than fine.

He bounded up the stairs like they were nothing and greeted Jasmine warmly at the upper landing when he reached it.

“What are you so happy about?” she inquired, struggling to shake out a cigarette while also gripping a coffee, “Smoke?”

“Nah, I quit again. Hang on I’ll put my bike away and keep you company though, I don’t start for another 20 minutes.”

He ditched his bike and clomped back down the shaky metal stairs to join her. She had crossed her arms and was leaning against the brick wall, taking deep drags and exhaling long and slow.

“Did something happen?” Inho asked, “You look tense.”

“Nope, nothing happened. Just men being men.” she blew out a cloud, and took a sip of coffee, “but speaking of men. How’s things with the boy?”

Inho beamed, there weren’t a lot of people in his life that he could talk about Stephen with, in fact, Jasmine was pretty much the only one. He was looking forward to indulging in his excitement a little. He knew exactly how much she liked hearing about romance.

“Well, um, we’re dating, now!” He turned his face down shyly, and then peeked up at her with a grin, to catch her reaction.

She didn’t respond right away, “Weren’t you already dating? What do you mean?”

“No, like, we’re in a relationship now. Official.”

“Oh! Whoa! Congratulations!” Jasmine flicked her cigarette away and put down her coffee to hug him, “Eeeeeee!!!” She squealed, shaking his shoulders. “That’s so exciting! When? How?! Did you guys bang?” She stomped her feet in a little happy dance.

“Yesterday. We sort of...had a fight, then he told me he really liked me, and we agreed to start dating and, ah...yeah.”

“And??? Did you?” she pressed. Inho didn’t know where Jasmine found her enthusiasm for other people’s sex lives, but she was nothing if not reliable.

“Yeah, well, we did it,” he couldn’t resist her wide sparkling eyes begging for details, and he didn’t really want to either, “It was amazing Jas.”

Jasmine gave a shout of joy and pumped her fists in the air to celebrate, “My baby’s a man now!” she yelled at the sky. It echoed in the alley, scaring a skunk out of the dumpster. It waddled away indignantly.

“Oh my god Jas,” Inho said grinning and side-eying the skunk, “I wasn’t a virgin before, you know.”

“I bet your butt was,” she cackled.

“Pfffft whatever,” he replied with a playful eye-roll. Jasmine didn’t need to know any sordid details about his butt’s adventures. “But yeah, anyway, we’re dating and, I just really like him you know?”

“Yeah! I’m really happy for you Inho. I can’t wait to meet him,” her voice evened out, “that’s pretty fast though hey? You’ve been on, like, three dates right?”

Inho shrugged, “I dunno, I think it’s fine. When you know, you know, right?”

“Ok baby, I trust your judgment.” She gave his shoulder a squeeze and nodded back up the stairs. “Guess we have to get in there now,” she sighed heavily and tossed back the last of her coffee.

He joined her on the stairs, “You sure everything’s fine? You seem grumpy.”

“Yeah, grumpy’s a good word for it. Don’t let me ruin your mood though, I’ll be fine.”

Inho didn’t pry further and followed her to the change room to grab his uniform.

His happy smile persisted when he started his shift, and for some reason, he seemed to be getting bigger tips than normal, so his good mood persisted. For a moment, while standing at the kitchen passthrough, waiting for an order, he looked around at the patrons and servers.

Not for the first time, he was struck by how extremely far away from home he was. The hum and chatter were not the language he was used to hearing, the patrons were not the people he was used to seeing, and even the scenery out of the windows looked nothing like Korea. It was an odd and surreal sensation that hit him every now and then – that he was thousands of miles from home.

What were his friends doing right now? What were his mom and sister up to lately? Had they changed? He had changed, he thought. He had wandered off his previous path and was somewhere completely different than he could have predicted.

All these odd sensations and thoughts passed through him in under 30 seconds, then the cook hit the bell, and they evaporated. A steaming plate of linguine slid into the metal surface and he scooped it up for the table.

It was supposed to be tortellini though, and he promptly carried the plate back to the kitchen to correct the order.

When he got there, a raised voice from Nathan’s office in the back immediately caught his attention, “If you won’t talk about it, then I can’t help you!” he heard Nathan say.

Immediately after, Nathan marched through the kitchen like a storm passing through. Inho had never seen him angry before, and it was an uncomfortable sight. He caught his arm as he passed, “Everything ok Nathan?” it was the least he could do, considering how Nathan had had his back recently.

Nathan shrugged his hand off immediately, “Everything’s fine. Sorry.” He kept walking and disappeared through the front door.

Inho didn’t get any further explanation, but later he noted Jasmine’s puffy reddened eyes and had some suspicions. He remembered what he saw in Jas’ kitchen the night he got high. Since he hadn’t addressed it at the time, and they were both rejecting his questions, he felt a bit helpless to see them so upset.

When he finished his shift that night, he was relieved to escape the tense atmosphere. Climbing on his bike, he texted Stephen one-handed as he rode. It was too late to see him, but he wanted to chat before Stephen went to sleep. Stephen had a very diligent sleep schedule (when he wasn’t breaking into pools), and if Inho didn’t catch him now he’d have to wait till morning.

Stephen had sent him a cute selfie from his bed. He was admiring Stephen’s messy sleepy hair when a car door opened suddenly in front of him on the dark street. He swerved violently and just managed to dodge it, but his tire caught a pothole disguised as a puddle, ripping his bike off course, and it promptly hit a parked car. He flew over his handlebars and landed hard on the hood.