In-ho would have never expected to meet Gi-hun’s childhood best friend like this.
They had been dating for 6 months, and he had only met Sae-byeok, whom Gi-hun called his daughter.
It had been at a party, where Sae-byeok was way too drunk to go home by herself, and she had called Gi-hun to come pick her up. Gi-hun would’ve gone, if only he weren’t on a business trip.
He had immediately called his boyfriend to come pick up his “child.” Even though In-ho was embarrassed and tried getting out of it, he ended up accepting. He didn’t want to disappoint his future husband.
When he arrived at the party, he called the number Gi-hun had given him and waited patiently for her to arrive where he had parked his car.
She couldn’t really speak properly, but In-ho understood her just fine. The only thing she talked about was her girlfriend. Ji-yeong, Sae-byeok had told him. When he asked how she knew Gi-hun, she just said they met when she was only 6, and he was ten years older. She also mentioned another name, Sang-woo, if he remembered correctly. She said the three of them became close when she was a teenager, and had been inseparable ever since.
A few days later, when Gi-hun came back from his trip, In-ho asked him more about his friendship with Sang-woo and Sae-byeok.
Gi-hun loved talking about his friends, who he appreciated very much. He explained that they were both gay. In-ho had already assumed Sae-byeok liked girls, since she had mentioned Ji-yeong’s name non-stop.
In-ho had just recently discovered he was attracted to men. Gi-hun was his awakening. He had never been around queer people, and he had never really thought liking boys was an option. His environment was full of straight and homophobic people, and every time Gi-hun talked about his queerness so openly, he couldn’t help but feel surprised.
Him meeting Sae-byeok had gone ok, but when he met Sang-woo, things didn’t go that well.
—
Gi-hun and In-ho had gone to the supermarket. When they were waiting to pay, Gi-hun realized they had forgotten the soy milk. He told In-ho he was going to go get it really quickly, and he’d be right back.
When he left, a few seconds later, a tall man with glasses came next in line. Before he could think about it, the cashier asked what she could do for him. In-ho asked her to wait a minute or two, because he was waiting for another item.
The woman had no problem with it, but someone else did. The tall man with glasses.
“Can you hurry up?” he asked, in a tone In-ho considered was very rude. “I don’t have all day.”
Someone’s in a bad mood… In-ho thought.
“I’m sorry, sir. My partner will be right back,” he said, trying to end the conversation there.
“Well, I should go first, then,” the stranger said angrily. “Put away your stuff and let me scan my items.”
In-ho sighed. He didn’t want to cause a scene.
“Look, I’m just here trying to shop like everyone else. If you’re so annoyed by that, then maybe you should get your ass somewhere else where they’ll have no problem prioritizing rude people like you.”
“What did you just say?”
Before he could reply, he heard his boyfriend scream.
“Sang-woo!” Gi-hun said, approaching both of them, apologizing to the people who were waiting in the line. “My guy! How’s everything going? How’s Ali?”
In-ho didn’t understand what was going on. That was Sang-woo? His childhood best friend? How? Gi-hun was a sweet energetic kind man, and this stranger had been nothing but rude. How was it possible they were such great friends?
“I’m ok, thank you. About Ali… he’s not doing well,” he said, sighing. In-ho almost felt bad for him. “I was just here to buy him some painkillers.”
“Love?” In-ho said, looking at Gi-hun. “This is Sang-woo?”
Gi-hun smiled.
“Of course! My best friend! The one who graduated top of his class!” he said, proudly.
In-ho and Sang-woo stared at each other, both confused.
“Hyung, who is this?” Sang-woo asked.
“I’m his boyfriend.” In-ho said, protectively.
“Boyfriend?” he asked, shocked. “This is In-ho?”
Gi-hun nodded, smiling. Sang-woo turned to see In-ho and then back at Gi-hun. He sighed.
“Pleasure to meet you, In-ho. I’m Sang-woo, Gi-hun’s best friend,” he said, offering him a handshake, which In-ho accepted after a few seconds.
They quickly scanned their items, and bought everything. When they were about to go home, Gi-hun had an idea.
“Oh my god!” he said. “I just had the greatest idea ever.”
In-ho was exhausted, but when he saw the bright smile on his boyfriend’s face, he couldn’t help but chuckle.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Sang-woo!” Gi-hun said, facing the mentioned one. “We should totally have a double date!”
“What?”
“You and Ali! Me and In-ho! Oh, wait, Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong too! This is a great idea!” he said, excited. “Triple date!”
“Oh, Hyung, I don’t know…” Sang-woo said. “I’m not sure if this is a good idea…”
“Come on, Sang-woo!” Gi-hun said. “It’s a brilliant idea!”
Sang-woo sighed, and when he was about to say no again, In-ho spoke.
“Of course, Gi-hun,” he said. “Why not? It’d be good to meet your friends, officially.”
Sang-woo looked at him, and sighed again.
“I’ll ask Ali.”
“Great!” Gi-hun said, excited. “Ali’s an angel! He’ll obviously say yes!”
—
Gi-hun was right. Ali did accept.
And here they were, waiting for the guests to arrive. Gi-hun was cooking, and In-ho was setting the table.
“I’m so excited, sweetheart! You’ll love them.”
In-ho smiled, even if he wasn’t really sure about that.
When he was about to kiss him, the bell rang.
Gi-hun went to open the door, and Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong were there. The three of them smiled at each other.
“Gi-hun! I missed you.” Ji-yeong said, hugging him.
“I’ve missed you too, Ji-yeong,” he replied with a bright smile. “And I’ve missed you too, Sae-byeok, even if we saw each other two days ago…”
Sae-byeok chuckled and hugged him too.
“This is my boyfriend, In-ho.” Gi-hun said. “In-ho, this is my daughter’s girlfriend, Ji-yeong, and this is Sae-byeok, who you have met before.”
In-ho froze. He didn’t know how to greet them, until both girls approached him and hugged him.
“You know, I never thought Gi-hun would have a boyfriend.” Sae-byeok said. “He was always so busy being the dad friend, I thought he would never find love!”
“Thank you, Sae-byeok,” Gi-hun said ironically. “That’s really kind of you, dear daughter.”
Sae-byeok rolled her eyes and giggled.
They sat down on the sofa and started talking.
“By the way, where are Sang-woo and Ali? I haven’t seen them since… well, you know,” Ji-yeong asked.
In-ho did not know, though. When he was about to ask, the bell rang again.
Sang-woo and Ali were there. Sang-woo’s expression was blank, while Ali had a huge smile.
When the girls saw them, they came quickly to greet them.
“Ali!” they said while hugging him. “We’re so happy to see you!”
Ali hugged them back. “I’m so happy to see you both too! I missed you.”
“Ali! My guy!” Gi-hun said, cheerfully, and hugged him too.
“I see you are all very excited to see me,” Sang-woo said, ironically.
They all laughed, and one by one, they started hugging him too.
“This is my boyfriend, In-ho,” Gi-hun said, again. “You know Sang-woo. And this is Ali, Sang-woo’s husband.”
Ali bowed. “Lovely to meet you, sir. I’m Ali.”
“Nice to meet you too, Ali,” he said, a bit surprised.
He noticed Ali was a few years younger than Sang-woo, even though they looked like a really cute couple, he had to admit.
They sat on the table and started eating.
“So, I wanna hear all about your trip to Jeju Island!” Ali said.
“It was great! Thanks, Ali,” Sae-byeok said. “We were only there for a few days, but we really enjoyed it. We had always wanted to go there.”
They continued explaining how their trip went.
In-ho wasn’t talking much; he was a bit shy. Especially because Sang-woo intimidated him, and he remembered he had called him rude when they first met. He appreciated that he hadn’t mentioned it.
“So, how did you two meet?” In-ho asked the female couple, trying to be polite.
Ji-yeong and Sae-byeok looked at each other and smiled.
“It’s a funny story, actually,” Ji-yeong grinned. “We met at school, when she was about to graduate. Sae-byeok is a year older than me, so we hadn’t really interacted much before. Until I heard her crying in the girl’s bathroom. It took her a while to actually vent to me, after a lot of convincing. She explained she was nervous about her graduation, and she didn’t know what she wanted to do after she was done with school. I tried cheering her up and asked her what she liked doing,” she smiled. “She was so insecure, she didn’t think she was good at anything. So, after a long chat, I discovered she was really good at drawing. I convinced her to apply to a fine arts course. And here we are; we’ve been together for 20 years, and we still love each other as much as we did when we were teens.”
In-ho replied with a smile; that was an adorable story.
“How I love lesbians…” Gi-hun said, fake crying.
“You two are adorable!” Ali said.
“I didn’t actually know the full story.” Sangwoo said, a bit surprised. “I have known Sae-byeok for decades, and I have never seen her cry.”
“You’d be surprised. She cries with princess movies.” Ji-yeong replied, gaining a soft smack on her knee from her wife.
They continued chatting, this time In-ho felt more included in the conversation.
They talked about Sang-woo and Ali’s cat, who was getting kind of old, Sae-byeok’s family and how they were doing, Gi-hun and In-ho’s future wedding…
They were all getting along with In-ho pretty well. They asked him stuff, and he was always happy to reply.
He was especially getting along with Ali. In-ho thought he was a very kind and hardworking man. He had a bandage on his hand, and it wasn’t until he was eating dessert that he noticed: he had two missing fingers.
He gasped.
“Ali? What happened to your hand?”
Everyone went silent. Ali looked at the floor, nervous. In-ho noticed, and started asking.
“Are you-”
“He doesn’t wanna talk about it!” Sang-woo yelled, furious. “Why don’t you go mind your own business?”
Sang-woo got up from his chair, angrily, and went outside, to the terrace, to smoke for a bit. Ali followed him, nervous, and apologizing to In-ho for how his husband had acted.
“Sang-woo…” Ali said, once they were both sitting on the terrace’s chairs. “He didn’t mean to make us uncomfortable. He was just curious.”
Sang-woo was about to snap, until he looked at Ali.
His Ali. His angel.
He really loved him. Ali had come to his life when he needed him the most. He had made him see his life from a different perspective, he had changed him.
He smiled softly.
Ali smiled back and sat on his lap, kissing him.
“I love you, Sang-woo,” he said. “I love you so much, and I appreciate the fact you want to protect me, especially since the accident, but you know I can take care of myself.”
“I know, baby, I know,” Sang-woo said. “In-ho just pissed me off. I will apologize, don’t worry. Go back with them, I’ll smoke a cigarette and go back with you and the rest. Is that alright, love?”
Ali nodded and went back with the rest of them.
Sang-woo got lost in his thoughts. He had been through so much these last few months, but the worst part was knowing that his pain was nothing compared to Ali’s.
He heard footsteps, and chuckled.
“Ali, honey, I’ll be with you in a second. Give me a moment.”
“I’m not Ali.”
Sang-woo turned around. He saw his best friend’s boyfriend, standing there and silently asking if he could sit next to him.
Sang-woo nodded.
There was a long silence after that.
“I’m sorry,” they both said at the same time.
“Why are you sorry?” In-ho asked.
“I shouldn’t have been so mean to you. You were right; when we first met, I was being rude. Ali had just fainted, and he had hit his head quite badly,” he said, and In-ho noticed how it hurt him to talk about this. “I went to the pharmacy to buy him medicine. There was no one there, and I lost 20 minutes of my time looking for someone, so I just went to the food section and asked them if they could let me pay there. I was in a hurry; I wasn’t even sure if Ali was alive. I needed to get back to him as soon as possible,” he said, and finally looked at him. “I’m also sorry, In-ho, for having snapped at you today. I’m not trying to defend myself, but I have just lived awful months taking care of my ill husband, who had just had an accident at his horrible job that doesn’t even pay him. I guess I needed someone to snap at, and it couldn’t be Ali, or my friends.”
In-ho listened patiently and waited until he finished.
He had to admit, this man wasn’t what he thought he was. This man was caring, and loved his boyfriend so much. He understood him. He couldn’t even imagine how he would react if something happened to Gi-hun.
“I’m grateful you apologized,” he finally said. “I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have asked. It was not very polite from me. I’m sorry, Sang-woo. And I’m sorry for everything that’s happening to Ali. He’s a great man, he doesn’t deserve it.”
Sang-woo smiled. “He’s my angel.”
—
When they both came back to the dining room, Gi-hun smiled at his best friend. It was a genuine smile. A “I’m not mad, but watch your mouth next time” smile.
They both sat down.
After they finished eating, the six of them stayed for a while.
Ji-yeong was the first one to fall asleep. Sae-byeok noticed it, and smiled. Her girlfriend was adorable. She asked Gi-hun where she could sleep more peacefully, and he told her she could go to the guest’s room. Sae-byeok picked her up, and took her to where Gi-hun had said. She stayed with her, until she also fell asleep.
An hour later, Gi-hun fell asleep on In-ho’s shoulder while they were both on the couch. Eventually, In-ho fell asleep too.
Sang-woo was about to laugh about it with Ali, when he realized his husband had also fallen asleep. He smiled softly, and had no choice but to also fall asleep.
None of the three couples were expecting to have a sleepover at Gi-hun and In-ho’s house, but the next morning, when they woke up confused, not knowing where they were, they told themselves they should have imagined it.
They were a small family, and In-ho had just been welcome to it.