Chapter 1 – Mutual attraction

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"You've gone over the edge."

Sulli shot Krystal what she hoped was a threatening look before lowering her eyes to continue with the task at hand, responding, "I'm not over any edge. For the first time in months, I have never been more sure of anything."

Krystal sighed but remained silent. She flopped down on the couch in the small apartment and staring up at the ceiling. Now she refused to help her best friend with her newest way of getting over her ex-fiancé.

Two months had passed since Dohan dumped her one day before their wedding and Sulli had done everything from throwing his possessions out the window, crashing every bit onto the street below, to burning his clothes in a trash bin.

Krystal watched as her friend dealt with her heartbreak. She would devoid herself of any emotion except anger and would never let anyone see her resembling anything weak. Not even her closest friends.

Sulli sat on the floor of her living room in front of the coffee table currently covered with photo albums that contained every single memory captured of her with Dohan. She was doing a shredding ceremony on every single picture she had of him but there were some photographs that were harder to part with than others. The photo of them standing with her dad four months before he died in a car accident was the hardest to shred. Perhaps she could just cut Dohan out of that particular picture. But the idea was quickly nixed. She had made a pledge to herself to get rid of every picture and that included photographs that made tears sting her eyes and her heart twist at the thought of disposing of. She hoped Krystal didn't notice it.

After almost two hours of trying to remove Dohan from her life, Sulli fell back onto the soft carpet. He had always been so stubborn. Even now, when they weren't together, he still refused to get out of her mind.

Sulli blinked quickly to stop more tears from forming. She was so sick of crying over him. She hated Dohan with such a fiery passion, it was definitely beyond just simple hate now. It was far into loathing.

"Are you done?" Asked Krystal, sitting up.

"No!" Sulli said quietly, knowing that Krystal was looking at her. At least she still had Krystal, she had always been there for her. She had no idea how she would have survived the past few months without her best friend.

But even though the two knew everything about one another, Sulli didn't show any more of her pain in front of Krystal. She had done enough already the first two weeks after the cancelation of the wedding. Sulli would burst and cried hysterically while Krystal cursed Dohan using every imaginable distasteful word as long as she could make her friend feel a little better.

"I've been thinking. Maybe we should call Sehun and Kai and tell them to meet us at Blue Night tonight." Suggested Krystal and was secretly jumping for joy when Sulli didn't immediately shoot the idea down.

Blue Night had been the only bar the four constantly go since their college days and till now they still had the habit of going at least twice a month. Sulli hadn't been there for awhile now.

There was silence and Krystal was almost holding her breath, awaiting any sort of answer.

There was a soft sigh, then a groan. "Fine."

"Yes!" Krystal exclaimed. "Wonderful!" She clapped her hands and bounced up and down on the couch excitedly.

"I suppose I should take a shower." Said Sulli as she sat up with another sigh. She honestly couldn't remember the last one she had taken.

Sulli took a lock of hair and twirled it around her finger. She had wanted to cut her hair but only because she had promised Dohan long ago that she never would. He had always loved her hair tumbling down her back in soft waves. She had never realized how pretty her hair was until he walked up to her one day and complimented her on it.

All it took was one stupid compliment and he was in. Thinking back, Sulli couldn't believe that she had fallen for him just because he had thrown a few nice words at her.

"Ssul?" Krystal shook Sulli from her thoughts

Sulli shook her head slightly to bring herself back to earth. "Huh?"

Krystal gave her a soft smile. "He's an ."

That was all it took. Sulli smiled at her friend and suddenly felt one hundred times better.

Sulli got up and disappeared into the bathroom. Instead of taking the shower right away, she stood and stared at her reflection distantly in the mirror. She hated how she looked right now. She couldn't remember the last time she had gotten a good night's sleep. She had also lost more weight than she cared to.

Why was it that he had such an effect on her? She then covered her eyes with her hands. Why wouldn't he? She had loved him more than anyone in the world and he had ripped her heart apart in his hands.

Taking a shaky breath, she stepped into the shower and immediately tried to drown herself underneath the stream of hot water. If only it was that easy. If only she could just stay forever within her apartment and live out her life.

But that wasn't Sulli's way. She wouldn't let Dohan win by turning herself into a hermit. She was going to go out with her friends and proceed to get as drunk as possible. Maybe, just maybe, she would get drunk enough to make a bad decision that resulted in with a complete stranger that she would never see again.

Strangers couldn't break her heart. The only thing they could do for her was make her feel damn good for the first time in weeks. Maybe after she moved back into the land of city night living, she'd be able to sleep again, too.

- - - -

"Damn it!" Minho swore to himself as he collapsed on the steps leading into the alley behind the bar.

He didn't ask for this. But why she always decided to show up in his life again and again much to his annoyance?

It was just like her. No matter how many promises she made to him that she would leave him alone, she was always just lying to him. Of course she wouldn't leave him alone.

Joohyun was insane and had the craziest notion that Minho was her soul mate. Apparently, she didn't understand the meaning of a "casual relationship" because that was exactly what Minho had told her that he wanted. He didn't want some huge commitment. He was strictly a one-night stand kind of guy and Joohyun just wasn't the girl that could change him and his set in stone ways.

Minho wasn't a complete cynic when it came to love and relationships. He knew that finding a girl to spend the rest of his life with was possible because he believed true love exist.

But he was twenty-six years old. There was no way that he was anywhere near to finding the love of his life. He gave it at least another ten years before he even began the search. As of right now, he was enjoying his life just fine.

Except the fact that Joohyun had known too damn well that Blue Night was the bar he constantly visited and that tonight, it was guaranteed that he would be there with his other friends and much to his much annoyance, she showed up.

Minho let out another curse under his breath. He stood up and stretched his arms above his head. It was quiet night at the bar so avoiding Joohyun was nowhere near going to be an easy task. He could just go home now but he wasn't going to let her win. He always went to Blue Night and she wasn't worth enough to scare him away from what he liked doing.

Minho took a deep breath as if preparing himself then turned and went back into the bar. He searched for Joohyun and spotted her talking to Taemin. He stood there, keeping her occupied and allowing her to talk his ear off. Minho made a mental note to himself to do something nice for his best friend. Dealing with Joohyun was not an easy task.

But all thoughts of Joohyun vanished from his mind when his eyes met hers from across the bar. It felt as if the air was knocked out of him. Whoa.

Who was she? She was definitely worth getting to know better. That much was for sure. Minho had never seen her there before because if he had, he would definitely had remembered her. She gave him a slight smile and Minho immediately felt his head whirl.

What an effect her smile had on him. He wondered what other sort of effects she would have on him. The blue jeans he wore were already beginning to tighten just from her smile. She was dressed in a black short dress, quite y but with an amount of attractive decency. Minho wished that he had worn something better. He was no where near her and he already felt unworthy to be anywhere near her.

But he had to be near her. Minho willed himself to take the steps towards her but he couldn't move. Her eyes were captivating him. For some reason, he realized that he could get very used to staring into them.

- - - -

"Please Kai." Krystal was pleading, grasping one of his hands and trying to tug him towards the dance floor. "Please dance with me."

"No way." Kai adamantly refused, shaking his head and nursing his beer.

Krystal was still pulling on his hand. "Just help me out. Dancing with you will make me look really good and maybe someone will cut in." It was not true. Krystal just wanted an excuse to dance with Kai, the object of her pining for three years. Kai naturally still only looked at her like a friend and it drove her mad.

Kai sighed and shook his head again. "So, you're using me to pick up other guys? No, thanks. I'll just stay here."

Krystal dropped her hands on him. "Fine!" She clipped and then turned to stalk away in the directions of the bathroom.

Kai watched her before taking a quick swig of his beer, as if preparing himself for the apology he was going to give, before going after her.

Sulli didn't pay any attention to her friends though. She was way too distracted with something else.

No one was allowed to have such beautiful big brown eyes, Sulli decided as the man from across the bar kept his power over her. He was staring at her with the hypnotizing eyes and she also couldn't look away for some reason. There was quite the distance between them at the moment but Sulli still felt something, almost like a pull towards him.

He looked stress and distracted when she saw him come in from the door that led into the back alley but now, as he stared at her, he looked intense and completely focused. On her. His eyes were so blazed with a look that could be not mistaken for anything but lust. It actually sent a shiver down her spine. Dohan had never looked at her like that. But this man looked as if he wanted to actually devour her.

He was finally walking towards her. She took a deep breath and gave him another faint smile. She just couldn't look at anything but him.

"Hi." Greeted Sulli.

"Hi." He said in response.

Everything around them seemed to