Izumi bobbed her head to the pulsing music, foot tapping as she sipped her drink. She’d protested when her friend suggested they come to a club, but she had to admit, she was having fun. She hadn’t been out in months, not with the pressures of work, but tonight was a celebration. A new division was opening up at the company, making one of the most coveted positions available, so she hadn’t hesitated for a second before applying, along with a third of the other staff in her department. While she hadn’t been officially notified, her good friend, Violet, from HR had learnt that the original twelve candidates had been weeded out to only three by a process of elimination based on qualifications, experience and level of dedication. Out of the three, she was the most qualified for the position and gathering from roughly scribbled notes on the applications, it seemed she would be the one selected. Sure, their celebration was a little premature, but she was hoping her optimism would somehow count in her favour – some crappy video on cosmic tantra she found in the second hand DVD she bought taught her that. And it was a few days to her birthday, so being out at the club was also her almost-birthday celebration.

“Told you this was a good idea,” Violet said into her ear as she slid back into their booth with another round of drinks. “Why don’t we do this more often?”

“Because this isn’t as much fun as what we usually do,” Izumi said with a teasing smile.

She laughed at the glare Violet shot her, knowing full well that all they ever did on a Friday night was watch movies, play board games and eat junk food.

“Well, one of us is really having fun.” Violet laughed, pointing toward the dance-floor.

They sat together watching their next door neighbour, Sunmi, dance her way across the dance floor, catching the eye of every man she passed. Sunmi was nothing short of stunningly beautiful, so one couldn’t blame any man who wanted to be by her side, yet ironically she was also the one amongst them least interested in dating anyone. Sunmi had moved to Seoul from Bussan with the dream of making it big as a K-Pop idol and had gotten call-backs from every company she’d auditioned at. She’d eventually become a trainee at one of the bigger companies, but the way she was expected to dress and act in order to live her dream had left a sour taste in . She waved goodbye to her dream, enrolled at the local university and was halfway toward realising her new dream – to be a social worker.

“She really is having fun, isn’t she?” Watching her friend warmed Izumi’s heart, the girl could usually be found with her nose stuck in a book heavy enough to knock a Titan unconscious, so it was nice to see her having a good time. As it was, they had to practically dress her themselves and drag her out of her apartment to get her to come out with them.

“Which reminds me, tonight is all about you and you are not having a good enough time yet,” Violet said as she shoved another drink into Izumi’s hand.

“Good thing we’re not driving,” she said as she took the drink and downed it. Already she was feeling a slight buzz, but it felt good to be a little irresponsible for a change.

“You drag me out here and leave me to have fun by myself?” Sunmi said as she walked up to their table. She grabbed each of their hand and pulled them out onto the dance-floor with her.

And that was how most of the night went, they would go out onto the dance-floor and dance together for a while, then come back to the table for a drink and then back out to dance again. Every so often someone would come up and try to dance with one of them, but the trio enjoyed turning them down, choosing to dance with each other instead.

“How sad is it that we’re young and we’re hot and we’re-” Violet started to say.

“Drunk?” Izumi interrupted.

Sunmi giggled, which started a fit of drunken giggles between them.

“Yeah, we’re that too, but… that was not my point,” Violet continued.

“So what was your point?” Izumi asked.

“My point is umm…” She tapped a finger to her chin as she pondered, her words trailing off as her thoughts chased each other around in dizzying circles.

“Who cares what the point was, we’re young and we’re hot and that’s good enough for me,” Sunmi said and raised her glass. “To being young and hot and drunk!”

They cheered loudly as they toasted, drawing attention to their table from everyone around them, not that they cared or even noticed. Soon they were out on the dance-floor again, their gyrating bodies once again drawing male attention, all of which they snubbed. It wasn’t that they weren’t flattered, it was mostly that they were all good girls who weren’t into flings with random strangers and none of them were looking for a serious relationship.

“Enough!” Violet yelled close to them to be heard over the pulsing beat. “I need to sit the next few out.”

The other two nodded and followed her back to their table.

“Don’t look now, but there’s a criminally hot guy over there,” Sunmi whispered across the table. 

Without a moment’s hesitation, they both turned to look. Sunmi rolled her eyes.   

“He’s hot!” Izumi said. “I think maybe he took a wrong turn and ended up here by accident.”

“Hot? That guy isn’t hot; he’s triple dipped in chocolate cherry fudge hot!” Violet exclaimed, turning to sneak another look at him. “Now a guy like that might make me want to date again.”

They were right, even with him leaning casually against a wall in the shadows of the gloomy bar area of the club, it was impossible not to notice how hot he was. He looked slightly out of place in his dark slacks, partly ed shirt and loosely knotted tie. He was leaning down to talk to some guys at the table beside him, then laughed at something one of them said. Clearly he was not lost; he seemed to be with the other men at the table.

“Dare!” Violet’s voice broke through her reverie. Now that was one word Izumi hated to hear coming from her friends, especially since most of their dares ended with her either being in trouble or feeling embarrassed.  

“Dare who to what?” Sunmi asked, her eyes still on the guy who was once again leaning agai