“He’s going to love this.”

    Haemin, Fei, Jimin, Jia, Min, and Hyuna stand around me as I gaze at myself in the mirror, astonishedly taking in my appearance. My dress is gorgeous. Absolutely breathtaking. Tiny crystal beads are woven into layers upon layers of black chiffon material, spattered with gold and silver spangles. The gown grows thicker and thicker as it descends from my body; the top is nearly translucent, while the bottom is cloudy, opaque.

    I look like I have torn a piece of the midnight sky and draped it over my body.

    “You should ditch Sehun and be my date instead,” Haemin jokes, slinging an arm around my shoulders.

    “But what would JB do?” I tease. “He’d get mad at me for stealing his hot date.”

    Haemin rolls her eyes, blushing, and tugs at her fitted coral gown. “Oh, please.”

    “Yo! We need to take a selfie!” Hyuna lifts her phone in the air and yells, “Cheese!”

    “Cheese!” we all echo, giggling.

    “Cheese?” Haemin guffaws. “Talking about JB’s personality, are we?”

    All of us burst into laughter as Haemin gives us a satisfied grin. She opens - no doubt about to make another snide comment about JB- when Fei suddenly exclaims, “! It’s 7:03, guys!”

    “Crap! Let’s go!” I grab my satchel and rush out the door at an admirable rate, considering my tall silver heels. We round the corner, hurrying past other girls clad in their Winter Formal finery, heading to the pavilion in front of the Fluck Building.

    “If you and Sehun make out one more time in front of us, I’m going to push both of you into the lake,” Jia informs me.

    “Stop!” I say, my face reddening. “We don’t do that in public anymore.” We save that for the observatory, I think.

    “Seriously? You don’t do it in public anymore?” Min snorts. “Haemin, you’re lucky you don’t go here. You don’t have to deal with seeing this girl practically entwined around Sehun during every single passing period.”

    “Ew!” Haemin playfully wrinkles her nose. “I already have to see that at the Honey Cafe.” She raises her voice to a high falsetto in a crude imitation of me. “Sehun, do you want some cake? I know cherry chocolate’s your favorite!” She lowers her voice, this time impersonating Sehun. “Babe, why would I need cake when I have a girlfriend as sweet as you? Dammit, Mihi, you two sound like you’re in a stupid TV drama.”

    This past week has felt like something out of a TV drama. After Sehun and I confessed to each other, we proceeded to head to the observatory and cuddle while studying the stars. There may have been some making out involved. And some hot chocolate and marshmallows. And discussions on the implications of the discovery of gravitational waves. His cardigan is practically mine now. It’s awesome.

    Chaos theory states that nature is absolutely unpredictable. Crazy things happen due to seemingly irrelevant reasons. My spontaneous decision to ditch a ball led to me getting faced with Hyuna at a party. The loneliness I felt at the beginning of freshman year ultimately caused JB to ask Haemin to the Winter Formal. It’s interesting to think how the actions I’m taking now will affect my future.

    And I like how things have ended up. All the drama and confusion and mayhem resulted in something good: the position I am in right now.

    Things are pretty great right now.

    “Hey, there they are!” Jimin suddenly exclaims, breaking my train of thought. A cluster of boys are standing by the pavilion, talking amongst themselves. A grin springs to my lips when I spot a tall, familiar figure holding a bouquet of roses.

    “We’re here!” Haemin calls, waving her hand. The boys look over to us. I see Sehun pivot around, a playful smirk on his face-

    When he sees me he drops the flowers to the ground.

    “Hey there,” I say, smiling.

    “Oh,” he breathes in response. “Wow. Holy- wow.”

    “Close your mouth. You’re going to let flies in.” I reach up and peck him on the cheek. “You look really nice.”

    “Y-You look- amazing. Holy , Mihi.” Sehun shakes his head in awe. A rush of satisfaction and glee surges up into my chest. This reaction is better than I could have expected.

    Plus, seeing the normally composed Sehun dissolve into a stammering mess is quite pleasurable.

    “I saw this dress and just knew,” I murmur. “I’m glad you like it.”

    “I don’t like it. I love it.” And Sehun tugs me towards him and kisses me full on the lips.

    “I thought you said you didn’t make out with him in public anymore!” Jia shrieks, and I hastily detach from Sehun, laughing.

    “Hey, leave us alone,” Sehun jokes, wrapping me up in a hug. “Let us do our PDA-ing in peace.”

    “To think that Oh Sehun would be saying this,” Jackson snorts. Fei convinced him to go in our group for the Winter Formal, and he readily agreed. “All Mark and Suzy do is about everyone else,” he told us. “I can’t even eat my pizza in peace anymore.”

    Sehun sneers at Jackson in a very condescending manner. “Yeah, yeah. Take a picture. It’ll last longer.”

    Jackson points his phone towards us. “I’m doing exactly that.”

    “Jackson! Cut it out!” I whine.

    JB and Haemin are standing in front of each other, determinedly looking at the ground. There is a bashful look on JB’s face. Haemin’s cheeks are red.

    “Uh, here,” JB says, sticking out his arm. He is holding a creamy white rose dappled with red and blue and pink streaks. “Sorry, I only got you one.”

    “No, it’s really pretty!” Haemin exclaims. She takes the rose, her face growing even brighter. “I’ve never seen a rose like this. Thanks.”

    “Yeah. No problem. Uh... do you want to-,” JB proffers his arm to Haemin, who hastily loops her own arm through his.

    “Wow,” Sehun whistles, staring at them. “I’ve never seen them for such a loss of words in front of each other.”

    “Same.” I chuckle as I watch the two of them awkwardly bumble around. “They’ve been texting nonstop, too. And now they’re so... shy. Aww.”

    “I sense love in the air,” Min whispers not-so-quietly, and JB and Haemin simultaneously shoot her embarrassed looks.

    “Okay!” Hoseok claps his hands. “Let’s go to the ball!”

    In spite of all its shortcomings, I do have to admit that Andong Prep knows how to throw fancy ing balls. Usually, the excessively ornate crystal baubles and silk drapery hung everywhere would make me roll my eyes at its sheer extravagance. But today, I’m too busy having fun with my boyfriend and my friends to scorn the ballroom decorations. They’re actually sort of pretty, you know?

    I can feel Haemin squirm beside me. Her eyes are darting around, looking at the exquisitely dressed Andong students. A pang of sympathy hits me: she must feel exactly how I did at my first Andong ball. I open my mouth, about to give her words of encouragement- but JB beats me to it.

    “Your dress is a Prada original, right?” he whispers jokingly in her ear. “And, oh my, look at those diamond bracelets on your wrist. How elegant, my lady.”

    “Actually, this dress is from Fendi,” Haemin retorts, her face splitting into a grin. “I’m offended that you don’t know your basic designer gowns. I can’t be seen with you, sir.”

    I turn away, smiling.

    Sehun pulls me onto the ballroom floor, and we dance to the light, spirited piano music the live band is playing. His brown eyes never leave mine; his intense expression causes my heart to flutter nonstop. I can’t keep a huge grin off my face.

Holy , this is surreal. If someone had told me a year ago- no, only a few months ago- that I’d be here, waltzing with Sehun, as JB teaches Haemin how to dance and Hyuna, Jackson, Fei, and Min twerk to classical music around me and Jia grabs Junhong and says, “Okay, pretty boy, I’ll give you a dance”, I would’ve snorted and told them to stop wasting daddy’s fortune on crack. Hell, I wouldn’t have even believed the fact that I would be having fun at a school dance. Yet here I am, laughing my off as Jimin shrieks, “Stop it, Hyuna! Let me and Hoseok dance!” and everyone’s staring at us like we’re a bunch of idiots and we are, but we’re happy about it, and Sehun wraps his arms around my waist and kisses me and it’s freaking awesome.

    “Hey, I’ll be right back,” I tell Sehun. “I’m going to go get some punch.”

    “Get me some, too,” he calls.

    I am walking to the refreshments table, giggling as I hear Bomi yelp, “Jesus, Min, get off my foot!”, when someone bumps into my shoulder.

    “Oh, sorry,” I say, turning around- and then stiffen. Jung Krystal is looking down at me, her eyebrows furrowed in an irritated look.

    “Whoops,” she says, her voice devoid of its usual spite. Krystal looks like she is going to snap a rude comment at me, but decides it is not worth her time. The two of us are simply standing there, looking at each other.

    “Well.” I clear my throat. “Bye.”

    “Wait,” Krystal says, stepping towards me. She opens , closes it, and then opens it again. “You better watch out.”

    I blink. “What?”

    “I said, you better watch out. If you even think of hurting Sehun, I’ll you up, Park.”

    Krystal does not look vindictive or even rude. Instead, she looks more tired than anything. Wow. I was not expecting this.

    “Uh... don’t worry,” I say.

    “Good.” Krystal appraises me from top to bottom. “Huh. I would’ve never thought that Sehun would fall head over heels for someone like you.”

    “How do you manage to make everything you say a backhanded compliment?”

    Krystal smirks. “I guess it’s just a talent of mine. But props to you. I’ve never seen Sehun look this happy before.”

    “O-Oh. Really?”

    “Yup.” Krystal condescendingly pats me on the head. “See you later, Mihi. Remember what I said. Oh, and don’t vandalize anymore buildings, kay?”

    My jaw drops. “Wha- how do you know about that?”

    “Oh, please,” she snorts, her lips curving up into a smile. “I know everything.”

    I am left gaping after Jung Krystal, half terrified, half in awe.

A/N: what the ..... so today i went out to get breakfast with one of best friends (who i thought had 100% platonic feelings towards me.... hes literally like my brother) but then he tried to put the moves on me in the car... and this guy is like BFFs with the guy who asked me to prom (who, btw, gave me valentines chocolates yesterday and basically confessed to me) and this is all a ing mess i dont like EITHER of them they are literally like my SONS and WE'RE ALL ON THE TENNIS TEAM TOGETHER AND THIS IS A ING MESS.