Absinthe

Chapter 54: Nosebleed

The whole place was a maze of tables and benches, people carrying trays of food while dodging each

other as they find their seats, random kiosks spaced unevenly across the wide hall, buss personnel

pushing their trays of used plates and utensils, and...

"Wait a minute," I said after making sure I scanned the whole area for at least three times. "What

happened to the drinking fountains? There used to be drinking stations for the customers, right?"

"Oh that?" Jiwoo answered. "Gone. Years ago. They now sell ZM Mall branded bottled water."

"Capitalism." I joked. "Never mind that. What are we eating?"

Jiwoo scratched his head with his left hand, his right still holding mine. "What do you feel like eating?

There's all sorts of food here: Sizzling Plate, Pao Tsin for Chinese snacks, you name it, they have

everything here."

"Where do you want to take your boyfriend for a date?" I asked Jiwoo teasingly.

Jiwoo let go of my hand and started scratching his head faster and harder this time around.

"Fuck! I swear I wanted to take you somewhere better. But I don't really have a lot of cash on me right

now. I thought I could cook you something special for lunch, but I screwed up that plan because –"

"You were screwing me," I finished his sentence for him, laughing.

It was Jiwoo's turn to blush, and slowly, he returned my smile.

"I'm really sorry, BJ. You deserve better."

"Oh, shut up." I said, taking back Jiwoo's hand and dragging him towards the Sizzling Plate corner.

"Stop worrying about that stuff, alright?"

To be honest, I got scared for a second there. I was really just teasing Jiwoo when I asked him which

fast food he'd like for us to eat. I wasn't expecting him to be all sensitive about getting me fancy stuff.

I guess that's something we should work on for this relationship to work.

I fell in line to order food with Jiwoo right beside me. A dozen other gay guys and ladies suddenly

changed their store choices and started lining up after Jiwoo.

And as usual, Jiwoo seemed oblivious about it and I'm not sure whether I'm okay with that.

"Hello sir, what would you like to order?" the lady at the counter asked.

Right in front of her was an array of fake sizzling plates with amazingly realistic models of the different

dishes they sell. I gave it a quick scan and immediately chose that one thing I've been meaning to eat

ever since I came back home.

"Pork Sisig, please." I ordered, pointing at the replica to the far left. "And a tall glass of pineapple juice,

please."

"Two hundred five pesos, sir. You can get a free banana from the central counter if you present this

receipt."

"I'll pay for that," Jiwoo told the lady at the counter as she gave me a spoon and a fork wrapped in

tissue paper. Jiwoo slid a brown tray towards me and motioned for me to follow the person to my left.

I could hear Jiwoo ordering a pork chop set and a tall glass of root beer. I heard the lady telling Jiwoo

the total amount as well as her spiel about the free bananas. Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.

"Here's your meal, sir," said another lady as she carefully placed the sizzling and smoking plate of Sisig

with the most amazing half-cooked egg on top. "And here's your tall glass of pineapple juice."

"Thank you." I greeted her as I lifted my tray and moved to the side to wait for Jiwoo.

Jiwoo got his meal right after. But I guess it was more than a meal.

"Here's your meal, sir, the same lady said. "And here's our special beef broth soup, on the house!"

"Gee, thanks!" I heard Jiwoo saying.

"And here's a special brownie, courtesy of yours truly."

I was waiting for this to happen, actually. I kind of expected it. But I think I'll just allow Jiwoo to handle it

and decided to go ahead and look for a free table.

But everything's occupied and there's basically no place for us to seat. We should have grabbed a seat

first and let one of us order while the other waited.

"BJ!" I heard Jiwoo calling. He must have successfully wiggled his way out of those ladies at the

counter. I turned and saw him already sitting in one of the tables near the central counter. And of

course, he had already claimed our free bananas and was shameless waving them at me. "Over here!"

I moved towards him and bowed just a little bit to the elderly couple sitting side by side across Jiwoo.

"There are no tables left." Jiwoo whispered as soon as I made it beside him. "They agreed to let us

share this table with them, and they'll be finishing soon."

I nodded and thanked the couple in front of us before starting on my lovely and fragrant sisig, diving

first into the runny yolk to let it mix with the meat.

I was about to take in my first bite when I felt Jiwoo's arm wrapping around my shoulders again.

"IG post," he explained, grinning.

I rolled my eyes and complained, "I'm starving. And what's the big deal with you and your IG posts,

anyway? Gossip Gay's minions would have probably taken a dozen shots of us already."

"Yeah but..." Jiwoo said, giving me the world's most annoying set of puppy eyes. "Am I not allowed to

brag about being your boyfriend?"

Props to this guy for always saying the right things, and now I'm pretty sure my cheeks were burning

red.

"You're just doing that for the money from your followers," I said, grateful that I was able to think of a

bitchy comeback.

Jiwoo's pale lips turned into the world's sluttiest pout. "I need that extra money so I can buy good things

for you, take you out to better places... not here."

Whoa. It looks like this issue of me wanting fancy stuff every time is way bigger than I expected.

"You're making me feel like I'm demanding all these things from you," I started, not taking my eyes off

his. "I don't need them, okay?"

"I know that," Jiwoo said. It felt like he had more to say but he didn't say anything else and averted his

gaze instead.

I watched him put his phone down and started playing with his food. He was literally making circles with

his fork and just staring blankly at it.

Oh god, this guy is like the lovechild of annoying and adorable. Jiwoo, the annoyrable!

I leaned closer until our bodies were practically touching and I lifted Jiwoo's arm and placed it across

my shoulders. I also took a spoonful of his sisig and raised it to his mouth.

"Fine," I said, feigning annoyance. "Take your IG pic now. Let the world know you got BJ head over

heels for you."

Jiwoo's pout slowly eased into a sheepish grin as he turned on his phone camera. He spent but a few

seconds looking for a good angle, and as soon as he found one, he opened his mouth wide and posed

like a ferocious monster about to devour its prey.

I didn't want to eat the sisig. I wanted to eat you, @bjmesoftly

I frowned at the caption Jiwoo wrote. "You're too good at this."

And Jiwoo suddenly stole a kiss on my cheek and whispered, "I love you."

I pretended not to hear it and proceeded to devouring my now cold sisig, all thanks to Jiwoo's

shenanigans. "You know, if you really want to earn money off of IG, why not post naked pics?"

I heard Jiwoo choke on the piece of pork chop he was just trying to swallow. I handed him his root beer

and he drank halfway through before he spoke again. "I thought you wanted to keep that for yourself."

I snorted and almost spat the yellow rice to the elderly couple in front of us. "What? What am I,

seventeen?"

"I can't do anything about my face," Jiwoo answered, "everybody can see my face, but at least I can

keep my body safe for your private viewing."

I laughed hard again. "I didn't mean like completely naked! I was talking about thirst-trap pics! You

know, topless photos? Showing off your abs? Showing off your biceps? That sort of stuff!"

"Do you want to see it?" Jiwoo teased.

"Are you going to upload it on IG? Fan service for all your gay fans?" I teased back.

Jiwoo frowned again and took out his phone, tapped here and there, before finally putting it back down

on the table. I felt my phone vibrate and I fished it out of my bag, eyeing Jiwoo suspiciously.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Early birthday present," he replied, a glint of mischief in his eyes.

I unlocked my phone and tapped on the DM notification I got from IG.

"Here," Jiwoo said, handing me a piece of napkin. "In case you get a nosebleed."

It was picture of Jiwoo putting on a white shirt, both his arms raised above his head. He was looking

directly at the camera. Being in that position did wonders to his muscles. I could clearly see the

definitions shaping his arms as they were raised upwards, and the veins that slither the length of his

forearms. I could also see his the sharp lines outlining his chest and the perfect set of pale nipples that

seemed to be waving at me from the picture.

I had to call on to my ancestors to extend me their eternal calm, otherwise, I would have ripped Jiwoo's

shirt right here in this very instant.

And the lines in his torso. God, I always thought Jiwoo was hot but looking at a glammed up photo like

this brought his hotness to a whole new level.

"You still want me to post that on IG? Don't you want that to be for your eyes only?

Jiwoo thought he was winning this game already. Unlucky for him, I was equally adept at this kind of

thing.

"For my eyes only?" I asked, raising an eyebrow as I put my phone back into my bag. "So who took this

pic? Your ex?"

I saw Jiwoo's eyes swell and I laughed inside.

"No! It's not like that," he protested.

"I guess I better leave then." I said. I was joking but I made sure I looked dead-serious. "You can

continue this date with whoever took that pic. It seems you're comfortable taking naughty pics with

them, anyway."

I made a move to stand up but Jiwoo was fast. His arms were already wrapped around my shoulders

and my waist.

"It was my brother, Jeremy." Jiwoo said. And then he moved his mouth dangerously close to my ears

for a whisper that never came. Instead, I felt him rest his head on my shoulder, as if in prayer. "He told

me that I should post these pics on IG if I wanted to get your attention. It was back when you were

angry at me for what I did to you at the bar."

"Huh?"

"I was becoming desperate because you wouldn't talk to me. So I agreed to this photoshoot. We took

hundreds of photos."

"Why didn't you upload it then?" I asked. "Your brother's right. You would have gotten my attention with

that."

"I wanted this time to be different." Jiwoo said, his head still buried in my shoulder. "I wanted us to be

different."

I'm starting to realize that I barely knew Jiwoo at all. What he's doing right now is totally out of character

– that is, totally out of character to how I thought him to be.

"Please don't give up on us. We barely even started." Jiwoo said pleadingly. "There's a lot of stuff I

want to do with you.

"Okay," I said simply.

I felt Jiwoo's arms tighten their hold on my shoulders and belly.

"On one condition," I said. "Send me those hundreds of pictures you were talking about – all of them!"

Jiwoo laughed and squeezed me tighter still.

"I love you," he whispered. "I do. I really do."