Chapter 25

It's still my day off, and I feel a little demoralized about life in general, so I decide to call my cousin, and ask if she's free.

She shows up one hour later at my home, with her arms full.

"You sounded pretty down on the phone so I have a cure for that," she replies, while transferring everything she was holding into my arms as she takes her shoes off.

    "What's all this?" I ask, carefully balancing everything.

"Posters. Fan art. Beautiful magazine clips collage."

"What?"

"Come on," she says, and heads to my room, "How are you supposed to be in a good mood with bare walls? You need to liven up the place."

    "With fan art?" I scoff, following her.

    "Tasteful fan art."

I kind of roll my eyes, and drop everything carefully on my bed. "Because the tasteless fan art doesn't go on walls?"

Dot turns and grins at me. "No, it stays on your phone so you can look at it hiding under the covers with the lights turned off."

I snort. "Not weird at all."

"Absolutely not weird at all," she repeats, nodding, and grabs one of the posters, taking off the rubber band around it. "So? How was your date?"

I shrug. "It wasn't really a date. We just hung out."

Dorothy scrunches up her nose. "See, this is weird. You're good at kissing people, but not with following up with that kiss."

"Hey, there's no guidelines for that shit," I try t defend myself.

    "Well, usually, when you kiss someone, it's because you might want things to evolve in a more romantic direction," she replies, lifting the poster with Nine Knots on it at the beach. They look cute, in pastel colours. They must have bitched like crazy about the fashion choice. I don't think they like playing dress up that much.

They're still very much like grumpy teenagers boys.

"Jae-sang kisses everyone he meets. Doesn't mean he wants to date all of them," I point out, and take the poster out of her hands.

It's a little cheesy, to put this up in my room, but she's right. My walls are bare and I'm in a sour mood.

Nine Knots can change that.

I put them al the wall by my window.

"You should not follow Jae-sang's lead when it comes to kissing. He's a terrible influence and he thrives on chaos," Dot chuckles, helping me to put the poster up so it's not crooked.

I look at the rets of the stuff on my bed.

I grab a bigger picture frame from the box.

"When did you make a college with my paparazzi kiss pictures?" I ask, showing it to her.

It's ridiculous. Very well done, but still ridiculous.

She shrugs. "I had free time last weekend."

I lift it up, giving it a good once over. There's a lot of pictures of me and Jae-sang kissing in every angle possible. "I don't know how I feel about this."

"It should cheer you up!"

"I absolutely can't bring a boy to my room now," I say, chuckling, while trying to find a spot for it. It would be perfect over my bed, but that would be tasteless, right?

I still go grab a hammer and nails from under the sink and come right back in my room.

"Why? Because you wanted to have a boy over with your whole family one thin wall away?" Dot continues the conversation when I come back.

"Fair point."

"I'm brilliant, you should accept it," she says a little boldly, brushing off her shoulders.

"You're right."

"So? The date-none-date with Frank?" she asks again.

I shrug. What's there to say? Nothing happened. "He played video games. I sat beside him."

"He didn't try to put any moves on you?"

"His roommates were also there," I explain, which feel a little weak even for me.

"Oh, wow, this is disappointing," she says, making a sad face.

"Even Jae-sang was still able to kiss me with his bandmate sitting beside me while watching a basketball game," I add, which is probably one of the things that bother me the most about the other night with Frank.

If he wanted, he would. Jae-sang certainly did. So why didn't Frank? Did I misread the signals? Does he want something to happen romantically between us? Or he has no idea what he wants, but he just keeps me around for the moment when he does figure it out?

"Unfortunately for you, the boyfriend shop is all out of Jae-sangs."

"Do you think he has a girlfriend?" I ask, a little thoughtfully.

"I think he's for the streets!" Dot automatically exclaimed in an hilarious tone.

"Dot!"

She laughed. "What? He's an insanely good looking pop star and he has the very bad habit of flirting with literally anything with a pulse. You wouldn't want to actually date him. You'd be worried every night."

"I think if I was dating him he'd be loyal,"I sigh, trying not to picture it in my head. "He's a good boy."

Dot points to my face. "That kind of fantasy is dangerous Naree."

I pout. "I am quite aware of it."

"You should tell that to Tenth Knot. She'd shut that shit down reaaaal quick," she says, taking out prints drawn by fans of some iconic Nine Knots moments.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, anytime anyone starts to be delulu in the comments section, she always shuts them down in the most hilarious way," Dot says, and I can almost see starts in her eyes as she says this.

I laugh a little at this. "Should I try to set you up with her?" I tease her.

My cousin sighs. "Our love is impossible. Don't give me false hope."

"She's really funny though. I have to give that to you. And apparently has extensive knowledge about fuck boys," I add, as an afterthought.

I wondered where he fuckboy facts come from.

"Because she actually knows Nine Knots," Dot says, voicing my own conclusion.

"They're all for the streets, aren't they?" I admit, chuckling.

"Any Pretzels that's delusional enough to think that these guys aren't dating and fucking around need a cold hard dose of reality."

"I get the infatuation though. They sell it well."

"Not that well, " Dot disagrees, shaking her head. "They sell the friendships well. But they don't play our boyfriends like, for instance True Colors does. When you buy their latest album in digital, you apparently get a weird recording where they talk to you like you're their girlfriend. Nine Knots could never."

I snort. "Yeah, they'd crack up way too much before they could record anything serious."

After having made a selection, I tape a few of the prints on my door, and some more on the wall behind my computer.

Now there's no room to wonder whether or not I'm obsessed with Nine Knots. It's quite obvious.

And I'm not ashamed at all.

I take a picture of the kiss-collage and send it to Tenth Knot, with a "look at what my cousin made for me."

I don't get an answer, but I assume she'd busy. She can't be on her phone all the time. She must have a life.

"This is good work," Dot says, appraising my room, arms crossed over her chest.

"Very good work,"I agree, nodding.

"Feeling any better?" she asks, nudging my shoulder with hers.

"Yes."

"See, Nine Knots is always the solution."

I chuckle, giving my cousin a sideway glance.

It really is.