By the time dinner was over, everyone has separated ways. Soojin was having a videocall with her boyfriend. Ilsoon, who happily got away with not drinking tonight, was busy editing her photos and compiling some videos she took for a “vlog.” Suho and Jongdae were engrossed in a modified poker game, betting shots of alcohol and who ever would lose drinks all the “bets.”

Chanyeol, Hwa Seok, Baekhyun and I were at the balcony, also drinking but merely talking to each other and just catching up. I was initially annoyed that Baekhyun just always seemed to be wherever the hell I was, making me feel uncomfortable and unable to be as playful as I really am but that changed when I had some alcohol in me.

Chanyeol had gone first in telling us how his life has been doing. Not much has changed he says, except he was a lot more serious now which we all scoffed at. Hwa Seok was next and she shared to us what it was like to study in a foreign country.

There were jokes thrown, some teases here and there before we quieted down, three heads turning to look at me. I blinked because apparently, it was my turn to share my story. I heaved a sigh and pursed my lips in thought. There was nothing much to share. I have been focused on studies and didn’t really go out unless it was with them.

Hwa Seok chuckled at me, probably knowing that I had no idea where to even start. “Need help?” I merely tilted my head in wonder. The two boys had turned to her as well. “Didn’t you say you have an eye on someone?” I involuntarily gulped because what in ’s sake is this girl talking about?

Chanyeol was already ahead on the teasing, wiggling his brows at me and Baekhyun and nudging the guy. Baekhyun did what he always does when they tease us. He chuckled. It could be the alcohol messing with my brain but is Baekhyun looking smug right now?

I was drinking my strawberry juice and gin when Hwa Seok grinned a little to widely at me and said, “Oh Sehun.” I choked on my drink, Chanyeol looking like a confused toddler while Baekhyun snapped his head to me, brows heavily furrowed like he is demanding me to spill who this “Oh Sehun” is.

I was a coughing mess. With a sigh, Baekhyun reached over to give my back a calming pat. Damn, Hwa Seok and her blabbering mouth when she drinks. She and Soojin are the only ones who know about him, thus Baekhyun and Chanyeol staring at me, waiting for me to explain who this guy is and why I reacted the way I did.

I murmured a thank you to Baekhyun and set my glass down. I pulled my knees to my chest, biting my lip in thought. “Oh Sehun,” I muttered to myself as I processed in my head how to tell them of the boy who had almost made me forget about my ex, about Byun Baekhyun.

I in the cool evening breeze before opening my mouth. “It was the first year of uni. I had just made new friends and agreed to go clubbing with them,” I started. Surprisingly, despite the alcohol running through my system, the memory of meeting Sehun about a year ago was vivid.

How we met was… unique. Why we met was even more so. In the club where bodies were pressed against each other and the scent of alcohol lingered in the air, I was happily chatting with my new friends. Like Baekhyun and the others, my new friends were a mix of boys and girls.

I remembered being seated between two boys, Yong Hyun and Hee Joon. Yong Hyun was rumored to have a tiny crush on me but I never believed so. He was always joking anyway. It was sort of hard to figure out what was a joke and what isn’t when he speaks. Hee Joon is his best friend, his supposed “wing man.”

That night, when I’m sure as hell that I’ve been hit by the alcohol, I apologized to my friends and told them I had to go home. I was even sloppily texting Suho that time so he could pick me up. I already had my purse in my hand, my phone in the other as I murmured at the call button to stay still so I could press it and call Suho up when Yong Hyun turned me to him.

“Leaving so soon, sweetheart? We haven’t even had fun yet.” I wasn’t given time to reply because the guy had his hungry lips devouring mine. His dirty hands were smoothing down my body while I banged on his chest to let me go. My supposed “friends” didn’t even think of how I struggled. They even cheered and wolf whistled.

I bit his lip hard on purpose and he pulled away with a hiss. His hands that were on me flew up to his bleeding mouth. I turned away from him quickly and tried to get up but Hee Joon had his own filthy hands on my waist now. He pulled me back down, his lips automatically latching on my neck. I screamed and kicked, hitting him with my purse over and over again.

Only then did my so called “friends” actually help. I was crying by the time they pried the drunk guys away from me. They apologized and said they thought the two were just playing. The apologies fell on deaf ears though. I was too enraged and my mind was still spinning. I had ran out of the noisy club.

I didn’t stumble on the way out but I did fall the moment I stepped foot outside. I merely sat on the pavement, sobbing when I felt someone drape a jacket over me. I looked up with a gasp when this person helped me get up. He didn’t even glance my way when he walked to what I supposed was his car. I quickly shrugged his hands off me.

“What the is your problem?! Do I look like a ing e to you?!” I yelled. He wasn’t taken aback like what I expected. He gave me a pleading look instead. “It’s not like that. We have to–” We had both turned around when I heard a familiar voice calling for me.

It was Yong Hyun, drunkenly stumbling out the club and beckoning for me to come to him. I stared up at the stranger in fear and as if understanding the mere look in my eyes, he nodded and continued to lead me to his car. Yong Hyun was still behind us, screaming at me to come back. I can hear my friends trying to stop him from following us.

I had buried my face into this stanger’s chest out of pure fear, my tears already wetting his olive-green shirt. His grip around me tightened ever so slightly as shushing came out of his mouth. When we had made it to his car, he quickly opened the door for me but I hadn’t even stepped in yet when Yong Hyun had somehow caught up to us.

I was suddenly yanked away from the stranger’s arms and forced to walk back into the club. “Yong Hyun, stop it! Let her ing go,” I heard one of my friends say and felt hands trying to pry his hands off me. Even if he was drunk, he was strong and that made it hard for one boy and some other girls to control him.

My eyes have been shut tight this entire time so I couldn’t see what was happening but I felt his grip leave me one second and heard a loud thud the next. My eyes shot opened when I heard groaning. I saw Yong Hyun on the ground, clutching onto his bleeding nose and my friends crowding around him.

The stranger had fire in his eyes when he looked at Yong Hyun and walked back to me, one of his tightly balled fists red and swollen, some blood splattered on it. The fire in his eyes dissipated the moment they landed on my anxious ones. He softened, blocking my view of the whimpering Yong Hyun, lightly pushing me to his car.

I remembered being so bothering looking at his bloodied and swelling knuckles. He didn’t say much during the drive to my apartment, only that he won’t hurt me and he only wanted to help. That he had seen what happened in the club and claimed that that deserved to get a broken nose.

I remembered shyly saying my thanks and inviting him in so I could tend to his fist. I was a lot soberer than when I was at the club that time but apparently not sober enough because I had somehow agreed to give him my number. I fell asleep right away when he had felt.

And in the morning, when the killer hangover has struck and I am a huge mess, I get a call from an unknown number. I groggily picked it up, voice hoarse from sleep. “Is this Eun Bin? You sound like a forty-year-old chain smoker,” The caller said, chuckling.

My brows furrowed. Who the hell was this and why is he talking to me as if we were friends? I gulped down some water and ran my fingers through my unruly hair. “Who are you and why do you have my number? Why do you know my name?” I was replied with more chuckling. I rolled my eyes at that, just about ready to hang up when I heard my doorbell ringing.

I don’t know why I still didn’t hang the phone up and merely held it against my ear as I made my way to the door. I flung it open without much