Einunddreißig

“Nari, I’ll be going out for a dinner party. I’ll be back roughly around 10:00pm.”

Standing by the front door ready to leave, Jongin gave me a smile as he tucked his hands in his suit pockets. With his hair gelled up stylishly and dressed up in a dark grey suit, Jongin couldn’t look any smarter than he did right now, and certainly couldn’t look more content besides the slight signs of tiredness on his face.

Naturally, I returned Jongin’s smile, yet my heart was pounding frantically in my chest. In attempt to calm my nerves down, I tried harder to play the part of the ‘girl in love’.

“Jongin, your tie’s a little crooked.”

Reaching out both hands to fix his ‘supposedly’ crooked tie, I fixated my attention onto the grey striped tie and tried to ignore the butterflies in my stomach.

But the more I fiddled with his tie, the more my heart skittered in my chest.

Tonight was the night.

Tonight was the night where everything would be decided.

Tonight…

It’s happening tonight-

 “-Nari?”

Jolting a little as my name was called out, I came back to my senses to realise that I had been fiddling with Jongin’s tie mindlessly for at least half a minute. Lifting my eyes from Jongin’s tie to his face, I was greeted with an expression that showed uneasy worry.

“What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”

Quickly letting go of Jongin’s tie, I placed my hands behind my back and gave him another smile. The last thing I wanted was for Jongin to decide that he would not go to the party after all and stay home to ‘look after me’ or whatever.

And as much as the cowardly part in me half-wished that this plan would just evaporate into thin air, the other half was determined not to let this plan that I’ve sacrificed so much to go to waste.

No. I must do this.

Henceforth, with the brightest smile I could muster, I placed one hand on Jongin’s chest and gently nudged him outside.

“I’m fine, Jongin.” I sounded as sweetly as Jongin would’ve wanted me to sound, “Go and enjoy the party. I’ll wait here for you.”

Though slightly hesitant, Jongin still nodded his head before pulling me into his chest. With his strong arms wrapped against my small shoulders, Jongin leaned in to me and planted a soft kiss on my forehead.

“Then wait for me at home, alright?” Maybe my knowledge on the turn of events that would happen tonight influenced the way I’m feeling things, but his words sounded strangely sad, “Take care of yourself.”

“A-Alright, I will.” The stammer came involuntarily to my lips, and I almost kicked myself for sounding nervous. But with Jongin’s lips still lingering on my forehead, and the sound of his heartbeat beating against mine, I couldn’t help but feel the tiniest sense of attraction towards Jongin returning to me.

The gentle kisses Jongin began making on my forehead didn’t help me much either. And when he began trailing down to my eyelids, my cheeks – then tilting his head slightly as he enclosed the space between our lips, my heartbeat had increased so drastically I was almost afraid Jongin could hear them.

“Gosh, you’re making me so aroused right now,” Jongin’s words shook me out of my nervous daze, and he paused for a second before finally pulling himself off me. “But unfortunately, I’ve got to go.”

“A-Ah…y-yeah.” By now I was too embarrassed and nervous to even try to hide the stammer in my voice, “H-Have a safe trip.”

Standing there dumbly, I could only watch dazedly as Jongin gave me a wink and climbed into his expensive car. Before I knew it, he had already drove off, leaving me standing by the entrance by myself.  

Shaking my head and cupping the my palms against my cheeks, I heaved a deep breath and made my way back into the house.  

Now all I’ve got to do was to wait for Chanyeol to show up.

Ding Dong

The sound of the doorbell ringing made my whole body jolt. Jumping off the couch that I had been sitting like a statue on for the past half an hour, I made my way stiffly to the door.

As expected, Park Chanyeol was standing by the door, dressed casually in a white tank top and jeans with a black jacket covering his bare arms. A cap flattened his dyed brown hair, and a smirk was on his face as he sauntered in the house.

“Yo, so are you ready for this?” Chanyeol sounded suspiciously happy about the terrible plan that was about to plan. “Because I know I am.”

“Chanyeol…” I trailed off, having last minute regrets, “Do you think this plan is going to work?”

Narrowing his eyes, Chanyeol turned around and showed me an expression that looked so irritated I immediately shut my mouth. Noticing that I’ve closed my lips, Chanyeol then shrugged and ignored my question completely as he made his way to the fridge.

“What are you doing?” Out of my agitation, I couldn’t help but ask.

Chanyeol waved the bottle of water in my face. “What do you think?”

Biting my lips, I could only watch as Chanyeol downed the bottle in one shot. Throwing the empty plastic bottle in the trash can, he then made his way to the couch and sat down, one arm slung over the edge. Without saying a word, he grabbed his phone from out of his pocket and began playing with it.

On the other hand, I sat rigidly opposite to Chanyeol, my hands tucked tensely under my legs.

“W-What do we do now?” The question blurted out of my lips without my consent. I was far too anxious right now to endure silence.

Peeking up from the phone, Chanyeol raised one eyebrow at me. “Well, wait until we hear Jongin’s car come through the driveway. Then we can start acting the affair out-“

Cutting himself off his sentence, Chanyeol let out a mocking smirk before putting