18)
Tomi soon forgot about this encounter. Unlike the first one, there was not much to share about it.
Moreover, he was asked to have dinner with an acquaintance a couple of days later, and this was taking up his mind in his free time.
The guy standing outside the apartment building, had an expression of utterly being inconvenienced by this invitation he himself had extended to Tomi. His arms were crossed in front of his chest, while his brows were furrowed.
The moment Tomi stepped out through the door, the other man scoffed. “You owe me a bottle of water, leech.”
Tomi fished out his phone immediately. “Hello to you too. How much do I owe?”
“Buy me this meal and we’re even.”
“That’s asking for too much,” Tomi replied smoothly and sent over some money to cover the bottled water he forgot to pay for in the end, apparently. “No work tonight?”
“No. She’s annoying.”
“Only you would ask me on a date to avoid another date.”
“Only you are available at this time on a regular day and won’t get the wrong idea.”
“Difficult to get the wrong idea when you won’t even call me by name,” Tomi said while waving away the idea that the two of them would ever be able to get together. To begin with, their orientations weren’t compatible, and while he had no problems squatting at the café and annoy the guy and appreciated his odd sense of work ethic, he couldn’t imagine ever dating a person like him.
“Squatting leeches don’t need names.”
“Mhm. I’m a blood-sucking leech who already paid you back. Stop acting like I robbed your grandma. I only indefinitely borrow valuables from defensible sources.”
“Like my wallet?”
“Like your wallet.”
Peter gave Tomi a look of disbelief before he turned around. “Never mind. I think I’ll go work the closing shift after all.”
Tomi couldn’t help but laugh. “I paid you back already. Don’t abandon me. I skipped lunch for this.”
“You always skip lunch.”
“I had lunch the other day.”
“So did I. Big deal.”
Tomi blurted out, “You didn’t sleep until afternoon?”
“No, Julia came over and woke me up to eat.”
“And you’re complaining?”
“Yeah. She’s annoying. Doesn’t she realise I get home past three in the morning and need sleep? I can’t wake up at nine.”
“And she threatened you with a date?”
“Yeah.”
Tomi laughed. “What are you even doing?”
“Don’t ask me, man. I didn’t choose this.”
Peter’s helpless expression made Tomi laugh even harder. He decided to be as unhelpful as he could possibly be. “Get yourself a boyfriend. I’m sure there’s at least one or two guys who’d like someone as unlikeable as you.”
“Not happening. I’m not you.”
“All right, then. There might be a second girl somewhere too…”
“I can’t do that to her.”
“Then break up with her?”
“Man, how do you break something that isn’t a thing?”
“Just tell her you want your key back. She’s not stupid.”
“But she cleans my house once a week and her cooking is almost decent now. She’s pretty good at picking shows to watch and she doesn’t leech off my bank account like someone else I know. Last Friday I was under the weather and she got me paracetamol and every thing too when she heard about it. If she didn’t have a key to my place, she couldn’t have come in to make me her stupid-ass chicken soup. She’s just annoying. That’s not the key’s fault.”
“Jesus Christ, Peter, just marry her already. You practically are gushing over your girlfriend while claiming you don’t want her.”
“You’re annoying too. I could skip buying you dinner and go home.”
Tomi shrugged. “I’m starving. If you leave me now, I might die.”
Peter’s expression changed subtly. “You suck.”
“I mean…” Tomi said meaningfully.
The other man turned around on the spot, leaving Tomi to jog after him.
“No, don’t leave me before you’ve paid for my dinner!” Tomi said between his laughter.
19)
“So why did you really want to have dinner with me?” Tomi asked curiously as they received the pizzas they had ordered. “I can’t do your homework anymore.”
“I already graduated. I don’t have homework.”
“You never know. You work the closing shift at a café open in the evening and late at night. Maybe you got tired by the poor pay and bad hours.”
“I am, but the pay is better than acquiring more student debt,” Peter said reasonably. “But it’s related.”
“So, are you finally going to introduce me?” Tomi asked hopefully as he watched Peter sliced his pizza.
“God no. Go suck up to someone else,” Peter said with a wrinkle of his nose. “I’m not introducing you. Over my dead body.”
“Come on, he’s my celebrity crush.”
“No.”
“My boyfriend oshi. You have to introduce me to him. It’s your duty as my former classmate.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“That’s homophobic,” Tomi said with a perfectly straight face.
“No. You’d be disgusting even if you were a woman. I’m not going to introduce you to my cousin just because you’re salivating over his biceps.”
“His abs are nice, too.”
“Did you watch the most recent film? He lost his abs to play that role. You can stop liking him now.”
Tomi blinked. “No more abs?”
“Yep. He got more of a dad bod now. Stop thirsting over him.”
“That’s better! I’m going to thirst harder.”
“I hate you.”
Tomi smiled brightly at that while Peter seemed to consider whether to throw the pizza slice in his face. When the man instead ate the slice, Tomi chuckles and sliced his own pizza. He gave Peter enough time to calm down while he ate his slice.
20)
How Peter could be cousins with the actor Tomi had been crushing on for years was still a mystery. He had only my chance found out because Peter had once in passing mentioned he went to a film set in primary school when supposed to visit his parents’ workplace. Peter’s journalist father was out of town and his mother couldn’t bring a son to visit her workplace due to confidentiality clauses of her clients, he said as an explanation.
When another classmate asked where Peter went, he had plainly just mentioned he the film and the told them he shadowed the manager of his cousin the whole day. Tomi had off-handedly said that it was amazing that someone who was just in the background had a manager at all.
Peter had cursed him out and then mention Tomi’s crush as the name of his cousin.
Not once had Peter let Tomi meet the cousin. But he had seen multiple pictures of them after that.
One day. He would convince this stubborn ass one day.
21)
“Help us out, leech.”
“Hm?” Tomi gave Peter a curious look as he finished his slice.
“With postproduction. We need someone to work with video editing and sound design.”
“What are you making?” Tomi asked as he picked up his soda.
“The group wants to adapt a novella into a small web series.” Peter got his phone out and typed on it. A moment later, Tomi felt the vibration in hos pocket.
He picked it up and checked the file Peter sent him. “What? You’re adapting the script? Did we not study the same thing?? Since when do you do screenwriting?”
“Since never. I agreed because I’m the most adjacent to a writer.”
“This is gonna flop. How are you gonna afford post-production?”
“You do it.”
“Pay me.”
“We’ll split the earnings evenly.”
“I rather starve to death. I’m not joining a bombing amateur production.”
“Your web thing is also a flop.”
“No, it’s niche. There’s just not a lot of money to be gained from it.”
“Same thing.”
Tomi had never heard anything so outrageous. He cursed out the idiot across the table. Good thing he’s only barely acquainted with someone who had no idea how much something like his footage took to edit. Several takes for a series?
Nah. Tomi was good.
22)
“Introduce me to Niklas.”
“Fuck no.”
“Then I’m not doing it. Make it an audio drama and I’ll consider. You’re just going to fail and feel what a waste of time it was.”
“Since when were you such a cynic?”
“Have you met yourself? It’s a wonder Julia still likes you. The rest of us turn cynical from just living in the same city as you.”
“Niklas went abroad to film an English-speaking TV show. Even if I wanted to, I can’t introduce him to you. And I don’t want to. I respect his private and professional life.”
Peter stared at Tomi, who didn’t look away either.
Eventually, the latter said, “Well, you do the post-production then. You took the same courses as I did on that. You’re worse than I am, but that shouldn’t matter too much.”
“Forget it then.”
Tomi nodded. “Forgetting all about it. It will be out of my mind forever by the time I get home.”
23)
The two of them remained in silent disagreement for the entire time they ate before Tomi suddenly dropped the subject altogether and told Peter, “Julia is a smart girl.”
“If you told me otherwise, you’d have to pay for this meal all by yourself.”
“I’m also a smart girl, buddy,” Tomi said without batting an eye.
Peter gave him a disbelieving look.
“If you’re overwhelmed, just tell her. You don’t need to ask me to cover for you. You just need to actually tell her.”
“And how would you know?”
Tomi stood up and grabbed his drink, clearly leaving. “All men are scum. So don’t be scum. Just talk to her.”
He received a doubtful look from the other man. “Don’t talk crap.”
“Trust me. She and I share interests.” Tomi sipped from his soda, looking past the lid meaningfully, but this acquaintance of his didn’t understand his meaning at this time.
Peter didn’t seem to understand. “Shut up. You are nothing alike.”
Tomi gave him a wave. “I got to go earn some money now. Good luck with your production. If it’s good, I might plug it in a year or two after you finish it if you pay me enough.”
Maybe some other day it would get through to the idiot.
Author’s Note
Is Peter his best friend, a frenemy or worst enemy? I’m not sure Tomi can reply that.