The university semester was finally settling into a predictable rhythm, which usually meant I could return to my natural state of calculated isolation. However, being Park Danoh's boyfriend meant my "natural state" now involved a lot more trips to the local supermarket to pick up snacks for her late-night study sessions.
I was standing in the snack aisle of the local super shop, meticulously comparing the nutritional data of two different brands of honey-butter chips, when a sudden, familiar hurricane of energy entered my peripheral vision.
"HYUNG! JEON HANBIN HYUNG!"
Before I could even turn around, a heavy weight slammed into my back. Two arms wrapped around my chest in a suffocating grip, and I felt a head bury itself against my shoulder.
It was Doyoon. And he was making a scene.
"Hyung... oh, my god, Hyung!" he wailed. It was a loud, dramatic, entirely fake cry that caused several elderly shoppers to stop and stare at us with concern. "My life is a tragedy! I am a character in a Shakespearean play, and the ending is just... misery!"
I stood perfectly still, holding my bags of chips, while the boy clung to me like I was a life raft in a stormy sea. "Doyoon-ah," I said, my voice deadpan. "You are attracting attention. And you are crushing the chips."
"Who cares about chips at a time like this?!" Doyoon pulled back just enough to look at me, his eyes wide and watery (though I suspected he had just rubbed them really hard). "I did it, Hyung. I gathered all my courage. I bought the strawberry milk she likes. I stood in front of her after taekwondo practice and I... I proposed to her again!"
I blinked. "You proposed to Harin? Again? You're seventeen."
"Not a marriage proposal! A 'Be My Girlfriend' proposal!" he corrected me with a sniffle. "And do you know what she did? She didn't reject me. She didn't say no. But she didn't say yes either! She looked me straight in the eye, took the milk, and said, 'I'll think about it and give you an answer later.' And then she just walked away! She's hanging me out to dry, Hyung! She's keeping me in a pending state!"
He threw his head back against my shoulder again, letting out a long, theatrical groan. "Why are girls' hearts so hard to debug? Why is there no manual for this? I've been stuck in this loading screen for three hours and my processor is overheating!"
I looked down at him. He was ridiculous. He was loud, he was messy, and he was currently using my expensive coat as a tissue. But as I watched him—this boy who wore his heart on his sleeve and wasn't afraid to look like a fool for the girl he liked—I felt a strange surge of affection. He was, as Danoh would say, "too cute for his own good."
"Doyoon-ah," I said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Yes, Hyung?" he sniffled, looking up at me with hope, as if I held the secret key to Harin's brain.
"She didn't reject you," I pointed out. "In a binary system, a 'no' is a zero. A 'yes' is a one. If she's thinking about it, it means the condition hasn't been met yet, but the possibility is still open. If she hated you, she would have returned the strawberry milk."
Doyoon's eyes widened. He processed this for a second, his brain whirring. "So... you're saying I'm still in the running? That the data is still processing?"
"Exactly," I said, subtly trying to untangle his arms from my waist. "She just wants to see if you can handle the wait. It's an integration test."
Doyoon let go of me, a massive, goofy grin slowly replacing his fake-sad pout. "An integration test! Of course! You're a genius, Hyung! That's why you're the Ice Prince and I'm just... a high school student in love."
He punched my arm playfully, though it felt more like a fly hitting a wall. "Thanks, Hyung. I feel much better. I'm going to go buy more strawberry milk. Just in case she needs more 'data' tomorrow!"
He turned and practically skipped toward the dairy aisle, his "misery" forgotten as quickly as it had arrived.
I watched him go, shaking my head. He was a complete anomaly—no logic, all impulse. But then I thought about how I had felt when I was waiting for Danoh to answer me in the rain. I realized that maybe Doyoon and I weren't that different after all. We were just two guys trying to find our way through the most complex code in the world: a girl's heart.
I picked up an extra bag of chips—the one Danoh liked—and headed for the checkout. I had my own "system" to maintain, and she was waiting for me at home.