44. Knees Collide
Somin and Teho
Teho grinned, holding his Xbox lovingly in his arms. He was dressed in a comfortable beige knitted sweater with an embroidered hem and a white t-shirt.
"You'll play with me," he said.
Smelling fresher than before which brought the image of a smoked-in pub vividly to Somin's mind. His now damp hair spoke about a clear attempt to look normal. Their scent faintly reminded her of pine wood.
Somin opened her mouth to argue, but he sneaked around her, striding into the living room and putting the console on the coffee table.
"I don't know how to play." The tone of her voice softened as she poured herself another glass and sarcastically handed him a glass of cold water.
"Got anything important planned?" he asked.
"Painting," she lied, knowing that the only thing she had planned was pitying herself as the flat got more and more silent.
"Well life isn't about working all the time," he shot back, winking at her.
"Weren't you shooting throughout the day too?" she asked.
"That's not the point," he laughed as she caught him in a lie.
"Come on, it's simple," he helped himself to her room and brought out her monitor.
"Jeeez, carefully!" she yelled, seeing him a bit stumbling out, "I'll kill you if you break it!"
"Sit," he patted a spot next to him on the sofa while putting the ensemble together.
Somin reluctantly sat as far away from him as she could and he handed her a controller.
"It's easy," he explained the rules of the Sci-fi game he wanted to play.
It turned out that the start was hard.
"What the fuck do I have to do?" Somin screamed as the dead creature closed up to her.
"Shoot him to the head," Teho encouraged her.
"How? Help! Fuck! Quickly!" Somin panicked, consumed by the game.
"Press B, come on," he instructed her.
With the second glass downed Somin relaxed more and got more intuned with the game. When they reached the desired checkpoint he high-fived her and she laughed the rush out.
The touch of his hand was electrifying.
Keep your distance. She reminded herself.
"Aw, Somin-ah! Good one," he exclaimed.
"You're not so bad yourself," she let out involuntarily.
"Well don't tell me what I already know," he cockily remarked.
"And you're back at being an asshole," she shot at him.
"Like I said, tell me what I don't already know," he winked at her again.
...
While playing the second part they both slowly moved toward the middle of the sofa, powered by pure excitement. The rush of shooting the zombies made them stand up and sat down with emotions.
"Duck, duck!" he shouted as a bloody corpse almost bit her avatar's neck.
"Shoot him!" she screamed.
As the second checkpoint was reached, Somin realized their legs were touching or more precisely were tightly pressed into each other as they moved closer. Even worse was the realization she smelled his scent, faintly, but it was there. Despite the heavy smell of the fresh clothes and his shampoo, there it was. Her wine-relaxed mind separated the tones from the other scents.
Like black pepper mixed with wood.
She panicked a little as she caught him looking at her, noticing the knee collision. He just smiled widely and playfully tapped her on the shoulder, getting one strand of her hair and brushing it back against her neck.
Well, I wanted us to be authentic, right? Teho nervously cracked his neck.
His stomach flipped with every daring touch to the pale girl's skin.
"Good one. You see, you're a natural," he whispered smoothly.
"Am I?" she asked, her heart rate shot through the roof from the adrenalin.
He's so different. More relaxed than normal, maybe it's the alcohol?
Why's he so handsy though? She was more confused than ever.
Somin had to stand up, a bit reddened from the closeness and weird intimacy, but his hand shot out immediately to hold hers.
"One more," he pleaded.
"You should sleep," she tried helplessly.
"You should be better to me," he bantered back.
"No, I shouldn't." And there it went—the relaxed honesty.
"You were awful to me. I..." Somin stopped, remembering the fight with the unknown boy.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing," she wanted to turn back time.
Fuck, that's the wine talking. Somin regretted her words.
"Say it," he pushed drunkenly, "Go ahead, I can take it."
"I wanna slap the shit out of you," his eyes widened with the unexpected confession.
"The way you behaved when we met really hurt me," she let out finally, sitting down, making a wider space between them.
"I'm sorry," he offered, but he felt there was much more behind her words. He reached and held her hand, turning to face her.
She's letting me touch her, interesting. He noted.
"I'm truly sorry Somin. I'm a total shithead. I will apologize till the end of the world," he said the cheesy lines and it worked as she laughed sadly.
"Don't be such a Jeff," she said back.
"I wanna be friends, really, I do," he offered the warmest smile he could while caressing her hot fingers gently.
She's burning. He noted, excited about how the night turned out.
She untwined from his hand and cheekily slapped him across the chest to disperse the warmness spreading throughout her body. This was the first time he had seen her happy and carefree.
So she can be relaxed in the end. Teho was aware even through the cloud in his head.
"One more game and I'm going to sleep," she offered reluctantly.
"Roger that," he saluted her.
They played until the gorgeous photographer literally couldn't take it anymore and collapsed on the sofa while she took a bathroom break. She found him asleep there when she came back.
What a great night. Somin thought happily.
But her excitement was shut down by the realization.
I shouldn't be this close with him, he's Mia's boyfriend, play thingy guy. He shouldn't have bailed on her like this.
That's not fair.
...
When Mia came back much, much later, she found the dashing boy asleep on their couch, a baby blue blanket over his body, and the controllers neatly aligned on the table next to the sofa, but Somin's monitor was already back at its station. He lay peacefully, both hands hugging the coconut-scented sheet.
Unbelievable.
Somin stumbled from her room, hearing the commotion in a hall.
"Your boy toy was roaming," she announced sleepily.
"So I babysat him for you," she pointed at the controllers.
Mia shook her head, "Well, he was supposed to meet us in front of the club."
"He was kinda drunk," Somin said, looking at Mia who wasn't totally wasted, but socially tired nonetheless.
"I guess he didn't want to dance?" Somin tried to ease the tension.
"I guess not," Mia said and finally smiled.
"It's cute he stayed to see me though," she misinterpreted his presence in the flat.
"I'd say it is," Somin lied.
Did he really just wanna hang out with me?
...
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