Not sure if you know this

But when we first met

I got so nervous

I couldn’t speak

“I can’t believe you come here alone,” Daesung nodded at the waiter with a charming smile as he grabbed a glass of champagne from the tray the latter was holding. “Without. A. Date.”

He gracefully sipped from his own glass, eyes aimlessly roaming the crowd in the hall. “Because I’m dateless, Dae. With whom I’m supposed to come?”

“Dateless my . One week ago when you and I—two pathetic dudes were having lunch together, there were like half a dozen of girls came over to ask you, Choi Seunghyun to be their date. And what did you answer them?” Daesung poked at his friend’s chest, looking up at him in challenge.

He closed his lips around the rim of the glass and tilted his head aside. “What did I answer them?”

Daesung rolled his eyes. “You said, ‘I’ll be going with Daesung here, sorry.’”

“Yeah, so here I am, with you.”

“Dude!” Clearly defeated by his friend’s illogical logic, he could only throw his arms in the air. “Don’t you think it’d be a better idea if you could just help me, who also happens to be your best friend, get a date from one of those girls?”

“You needed a date?”

“Gosh Seunghyun, what’s in—” his words were left unsaid as the commotion from across the hall got his attention, as well as everybody else’s attending the prom.

A guy dressed in all white was stammering apologies, a hand grabbing a napkin, hastily cleaning the mess he’d made on the waiter’s black uniform in a futile attempt. Then a white fluffy ball rolled out of nowhere and scurried under the long table where all the food and drinks were served.

“Lucky!” the guy with platinum hair whisper-yelled, torn between sopping up the soaked waiter and going under the table like an uncoordinated marionette.

“I’m sorry, but I gotta go,” he smiled his most sincere apologetic smile at the poor guy and patted his ruined uniform, “before the brat makes a bigger mess.” As soon as the sentence was finished, he vanished under the red sheets covering the long table.

Someone behind Seunghyun asked, “Who’s that weirdo?”

“We’ve a make-up party in another hall?”

“More like a drama festival.”

“He must be playing the snow prince then.” And a round of giggles resonated in the hall.

Seunghyun’s eyes were fixated on the table and a mild frown slowly crawled its way across his forehead when nothing happened. The snow guy just…vanished. “Should we…go help?”

Daesung had barely recovered from the surprise appearance of the guy and the snowy fluffy ball. “Yeah… Let’s—” Again, his words were caught in his throat when the said fluffy ball made a dash from under the table and launched itself straight in his friend’s direction. Nah ah buddy, not this guy, he almost felt sorry for the furry creature because Seunghyun would definitely dodge away. He'd befriended him for long enough to know that Seunghyun’s never fond of pets, not to mention this short legged furry thingy.

Imagine his shock when Seunghyun crouched down and opened his arms in a welcoming gesture. He never thought his eyes could be widened so much until that very moment.

“Wow!” It was sure a ball of energy as it leaped with full into Seunghyun's outstretched arms, causing the man in dark blue Armani suit to fall on his .  He held it in arm’s length as a lot of face was enthusiastically sent his way. “Aren’t you a small little energetic pup?” A low deep chuckle rumbled up from his chest, dimples grinning at the puppy which had its tongue stuck out, looking back at him with those innocent glistening eyes, and Daesung’s jaw dropped open. Small little energetic pup?!

“Lucky, behave!” The guy in all white appeared beside him and took the puppy over from Seunghyun and tucked it tightly against his chest, eyeing the man on the floor from beneath knitted eyebrows. “I’m so sorry, did he hurt you?”

Seunghyun’s eyes moved from the Samoyed to the voice. Their eyes met. And he was stunned. This guy had blue eyes and he not only dressed in all white and had platinum hair, white eyeshadows were smeared around his eyes, artificial snowflakes on his face reflected the lights from chandelier hanging above them. His lips were silvery as well. His features were all in varying shades of white except for his eyebrows; they were of fiery orange.

He couldn’t move. He couldn’t even breath. It was as if this guy from the snow kingdom had frozen him in time.

“Dude, let’s get you up, everybody is looking this way.” Daesung’s face forced its way into his sight, and Seunghyun blinked, unfroze immediately.

“You come to the prom with—” Daesung pointed at the fluffy ball in the guy’s arms, “—him?”

He huffed a helpless laugh and shook his head, platinum hair swaying left and right above his blue eyes. “No, I’m not invited to this party. We’re having a dress rehearsal at the theatre down the hall. And this brat here is one of the characters, kind of.” He giggled and nuzzled against its neck although it struggled its way out and turned to look at Seunghyun with its puppy eyes. “I borrowed him from a friend, he doesn’t like me though; tries to escape every chance he gets. He likes you.”

It took Seunghyun a few seconds longer than it should to realize it’s actually him that the snow guy was referring to. “I-I-I like him too,” he stammered out the three words before he wanted nothing but to bite his own tongue off.

The guy just smiled up at him and Seunghyun forgot to breath, again. “I’ve to get back to the rehearsal, they must be looking everywhere for this rascal.” He his heel and took his leave but something held him back as he spun around. “Oh, I’m Jiyong by the way. And this is Lucky.”

Daesung waited for three seconds and when his best friend just stood there and looked as helpless as Lucky in Jiyong’s arms, he stepped forward and draped an arm across Seunghyun’s shoulders. “I’m Daesung, and this is Seunghyun.”

“There’s nothing you can’t do, it’s not like you never asked someone out,” he murmured, eyes on the floor, pacing in front of the door to the drama practice room.

The purpose he was here hadn’t even showed up and he was already a frazzled basket of nerves. Remembering that one fact didn’t help at all as he sighed heavily and banged his head against the wall. “Okay I’ve never asked anyone out, I’m screwed.”

“Seunghyun?”

His eyes blew wide opened, not because of being caught, but because he remembered the voice. He turned around and plastered his face with the most natural smile he could manage. “Hey, Jiyong.”

He looked genuinely surprised. “I didn't expect to see you here.”

“Yeah...” Abashed, he could only rub the back of his neck. His tongue was so tied up that getting a word out seemed difficult.

“Are you here to see someone?”  

His lips opened to say something. Just ask him! But meeting eyes with Jiyong made the thumping in his chest go even wilder and he forgot what he’d planned from this morning to say to the guy standing right in front of him.

“I can go get her for you.” Jiyong’s hand reached for the door.

“You! I'm here to see you!”

Taken aback, his hand paused on the door, shock registered on his face. “Me?”

Seunghyun swallowed the lump in his throat and decided to take a leap of faith because this can’t go worse anyway. “I've a match coming up this Friday. Uhm... Will you come to see me play?”

Mouth agape, Jiyong just blinked at him with his mesmerizing eyes. And the tiny spark of hope in his heart slowly slipped away. Just before he was going to brush it off by saying it’s fine if Jiyong can’t make it and that it wasn’t an important match, the few words that shot him to heaven flew out between those plump lips. “I'll be glad to.”

“Choi!” someone shouted from somewhere across the court and a glimpse of something flew his way was all he got before he was hit in the side of his face. Years of training had drilled it in him that his hands reflexively caught the ball even after it hit him so hard.

The referee blew the whistle hard and long, signifying the end of the first half and he dropped the ball on the maple floor before walking to the bench with droopy shoulders, rubbing the sweat off his chin with his black jersey.

Daesung was agitated sitting on the bench. He stood up when Seunghyun walked up to him, grabbing a water bottle from the floor for his friend. He looked tired, exhausted to the core despite it was just the first half. But Daesung knew better, the game wasn’t the reason behind Seunghyun’s low spirits and obvious attention deficits; the aggressive opponent team neither.

His eyes scanned the crowd, searching for the one promised to come. None of those faces made his heart race like that one person did the other day at the prom. He took the bottle over from Daesung and the latter shook his head at him, almost in sympathy.

He did not come.

Seunghyun walked over and sat on the bench, his eyes fixated on the floor, giving the water bottle in his hand a light squeeze but he didn’t open it.

“What was that, Choi?” A pair of black Adidas Cross ‘Em 3 appeared before his sight and he looked up. “That’s the worst I’ve seen from you. What the has gotten into you?”

“I need an answer too. The one from that team stole twice from him and he just let it slipped from his hand. That’s so not you, Choi.” Another guy crouched before him, his eyebrows knitted together in concern because it’s simply unbelievable that his leader would make such mistakes. 

“Guys,” Daesung interrupted, “he’s under pressure. This is the last game before we go national.”

Another from their team, the center who was almost 2meter tall tramped over too. “We understand, and we’re not blaming it on him. Those ers aren’t playing clean either.”

“I’m sorry pals, I’m not in shape today and I don’t wanna hold you all back. I’ll talk to the coach and see if he decides to sub me.”

Every member had something to say but Daesung was the loudest of them all. “Dude! I’m the only bench you’ve here, and you know I can’t be the point so stop playing around.” Before Seunghyun could utter a word, Daesung put his hands on his leader’s shoulders. “I get it. He said he’ll come but he isn’t here and you’re disappointed, I get it. But the game goes on. He can’t see how good you’re on the court, his lost. Why don’t you win the game and go flaunt it to him?”

Kevin, their four, eyed the best friends with curious gaze. “No idea who’s this guy you’re talking about, but I gotta let you know,” he looked Seunghyun straight in the eye, “We’ve got your back.”

A loud bark was heard over the noise amongst the crowd and Seunghyun spun his head to the source, his eyes widened at what he saw. Little bows and “excuse me” on loop later and Jiyong was there, standing in front of him, panting at the same rate as the Samoyed trapped in his arms.

“I’m…s-sorry… I was on my way here… and…we walked past this grass field. And this r-rascal…decided to make me e-exercise a little. I really need to get him a collar.” The Samoyed barked again, as if opposing the idea.

For the first time that day, Seunghyun smiled, the dark cloud hovering above his head swept off right away.

The whistle blew again and Daesung invite