“No, no, no. Play Erik Satie. ‘Je te veux,’ I want you.” Donghyuk grabs my hand and places it on his shoulder, and wraps his hand around my other hand. His left hand holds my waist. I am held awkwardly against his chest as he leads me in a circle. Continuing with his piano, Jihyun turns to look at us. He smiles.

“This is called a waltz. Yeoul, you’re a natural.”

“Yeah?”

“You’d learn how to dance quickly, I think.” There’s a pause and then Donghyuk presses his nose against my cheek to sniff. “Yeoul, you smell very nice.”

“You must be smelling the shampoo. I want to stop.” I plop down on the carpet, but the piano won’t stop. “Jihyun, where is my bag?”

“I hid it.”

“Give it back!”

“For what? You didn’t seem to have much in there.”

“I have to take care of some business.”

“It’s getting late. Can’t it wait?” Donghyuk brings in a new bottle of wine, stabs the cork with the opener. There is cheese and smoked salmon too.

“Yes, Yeoul, don’t leave. Let’s drink! After tomorrow you won’t see Jihyun for a while.”

“Jihyun, when are you leaving?”

“The flight is on the day after tomorrow, but I need to leave for Seoul tomorrow. I’m spending the night near the airport so I can catch the early flight. I wish you could come with me, but you don’t have a passport, do you?”

“I have no such thing, no.”

“While I’m gone, get yourself one. You need one for our honeymoon trip.”

“Who said I’d marry you?”

“That nonsense again! We bathed together, and we saw everything. So …”

Donghyuk grabs his head with both hands and squeals, “Wait, you guys are at that stage?Yeoul! Are you really going to marry this homo? He can’t get hard with women. His cock is tiny, like this!” He lifts his pinky, and Jihyun wraps his arm around Donhyuk’s neck, pretending to put him in a choke hold.

“Donghyuk, stop kidding around! Stop making shit up, you drunk asshole!”

“What are you talking about? I shouldn’t marry Jihyun?”

“You don’t even know him very well. What do you love about him?”

“I think I know him somewhat. He went on several blind dates intended for an arranged marriage, he dated a Miss Korea, he is quite a bit older than me, but … he is nice, rich … I don’t think I can find someone like this again. Did you marry the café owner because you loved her?”

“Well, love is an illusion caused by hormonal confusion.”