The word had gotten around among their friends, and it wasn’t on account of Subin. She had been silent aside from the main detail of her relationship status, but she knew that everything Chaeyoung and she had discussed over lunch had been promptly reported to the other two. She felt it in the way the squeezed her shoulder in greeting her, and the way they shot her pitiful glances when they thought she was too absorbed highlighting a textbook to notice. That’s why Jennie’s brilliant and totally innocent idea to go to a frat party come Friday afternoon was no surprise to Subin. 

She was surprised, however, that none of the other girls had any objections. No doubt, it had been discussed in detail before being brought before to Subin’s approval, but how they even agreed to get it that far was a mystery. It was a frequent joke between them that they wouldn’t be caught dead hanging around frat boys at their age, since those parties were just for naive new girls. 

“That’s why!” Jennie exclaimed when Subin voiced her skepticism. “Just for laughs!” 

“And some of the guys are cute,” Jisoo commented, drawing her line of vision to the boys walking around campus who looked like they could only ever belong to a fraternity. Chaeyoung let out a tiny giggle as one of the guys felt their stares, glares in Subin’s case, and flashed them a winning smile. 

Subin rolled her eyes, defeated. One of her friends alone would be stubborn enough, but all three of them holding the same goal? She would never be a match. She took in a deep breath and started coming up with possible outfit combinations, knowing full well that as soon as Jennie was done with her last class, they’d all be at her apartment, raiding her empty cabinets and forcing makeup on her tired face. 

At the same time, she was grateful. Not a word had been exchanged between she and Baekhyun. It was normal for other breakups, but she was still under the impression that they were extraordinary. Every day, despite how much she told herself otherwise, she waited to hear a knocking on her door. In her childish fantasy, she expected him to come back with roses to tell her that she was right, that he couldn’t let her go yet. For all she knew, he had moved on long ago, but she didn’t dwell on the possibility. 

When she wasn’t purposefully trying to distract herself from the thought of Baekhyun’s silence, it would sometimes wonder to the boy she had slept with almost a week ago. Saying it so casually made her half laugh, half wonder what kind of person she was. Not only did she let it happen, but she she also found herself wondering whether it would happen again. Of course, she acted appalled at her own thoughts, insisting on remaining faithful to Baekhyun even in his absence. Still, she couldn’t help think that it was strange that he hadn’t contacted her. Not to say that she thought she was that memorable, but rather, his eagerness led her to believe that he was a nuisance she’d have trouble ridding herself of. Instead, she was the one more or less fixated on him. 

Just as she had predicted, the girls were all gathered in Subin’s minuscule bathroom, taking civil turns applying their makeup one eye at a time. Subin was ready, sporting a black leather miniskirt and burgundy velvet halter top. It wasn’t as casual as she had hoped, but Chaeyoung absolutely wouldn’t let her leave wearing the t shirt and jeans she had planned to wear. Subin was taking uninterested gulps of a hard lemonade that was brought by Jisoo to “pregame”. As versed as she was in alcohol, she couldn’t claim the same for her friends. They were the kind to get pink as soon as they even smelled anything stronger than beer, so they always had to take baby steps. Usually, Subin found it cute, but today, it was almost irritating. The urge to be anything but sober was growing, and even after three bottles, she was feeling nothing. 

It was dark by the time they left. Luckily, since Subin’s apartment was only a few blocks away from campus, the frat houses were close too. They had decided to crash at Jennie’s place, since it was practically at the edge of the university. Subin wanted to ask why they