“This better be important,” I scowled at Soojung who had been knocking at my door at two in the morning.

I was already on my bed, too tired with the trip with Sehun’s family but then I was awakened by the persistent ringing of my doorbell. If it had been someone else, I wouldn’t have had opened my door, and pretended to be continuously sleeping.

But it was Soojung. I can complain, but I cannot say no to her.

Because if it was the other way around, I can bet my life that Soojung would do the same.

“It is important,” she answered with all glee.

I yawned and squinted at her, curious as to how she could still harness all her energy at this ungodly hour.

“Soojung, my body is still aching,” I confessed to her, “I really want to rest.”

“Your body is aching?” she threw my question back at me, “What exactly did you and Sehun do over the weekends?”

I grunted and rolled my eyes at her, “Stop thinking something dirty. We were with his family.”

“But it’s still possible if you two shared a room…” her words trailed.

“We did share a room, but we didn’t do anything stupid, okay?” I immediately answered.

“That’s a shame. Aren’t you two attracted to each other, at least physically?” Soojung continued teasing.

And by the way she chuckled after, I knew that she understood that the answer was written in the way my cheeks blushed and the way I could speak no words to deny her accusations.

“Stop making this about me,” I uttered while putting my hands on my hips, “What are you here for?”

She tapped the empty space beside her in the sofa and said, “I have good news.”

I took her invitation and sat beside her, perking up my eyebrows as a gesture for her to continue narrating. She took a deep breath before confessing, “I can’t sleep.”

“That is obvious enough,” I spat.

“Let me finish,” Soojung said, “I can’t sleep because I think I’m in love.”

I turned my whole body towards her and asked, “With Minhyuk?”

“Yes,” she nodded with enthusiasm, “Suzy, I think I’m already committing to something serious. Unlike the other boyfriends I had, I can see our relationship progressing long term. Hell, I can already imagine building a family with him.”

My mouth gaped and as I stared at Soojung’s eyes, I could see nothing but pure and genuine happiness.

“Suzy, all this time, I’ve just been looking for a person who could fill-up the empty space beside me, make me feel less lonely, but in Minhyuk I found something more. I found someone to fill-up the void that I never knew existed within me. He completes me in a way that I can’t explain,” Soojung explained, with tears of joy forming at the corner of her eyes.

I could do nothing but mirror the smile on her lips and wipe the tears that threatened to fall.

“I never thought I could be this happy,” Soojung beamed, “And the only explanation that I can find is that I love him. I have fallen in love with Minhyuk.”

I pulled her in an embrace and Soojung gladly reciprocated my hug. Then I whispered in her ears, “I am as grateful and as joyful as you are, Soojung. Your happiness is mine as well.”

“Thank you, Suz,” Soojung hugged me tighter, “Sorry for bothering you so late. I just needed someone to tell, and I knew that you should be the first one to know.”

We both giggled before we slowly pulled away. We were then facing each other with silly smiles in our faces. I tucked some strands of hair behind Soojung’s ears, and she beamed sweetly at the gesture. Then, she took my hands and clasped them together.

“I hope you could also love again,” Soojung told me, “And it doesn’t matter who it is, as long as he could show the magic behind this feeling.”

I was already dressed and dolled up, but I was still at my apartment, waiting for Sehun to answer my calls and texts. He promised to come with me to our highschool reunion. However, to my dismay, he had not answered any of my attempts to contact him.

Urgh. If he is busy, he could just tell me so.

As I ended my nth missed call for Sehun, my phone buzzed, and a notification appeared in our high school batch chat. People had been asking everyone where they were. I muttered a curse underneath my breath as I realized that I have already ‘seen’ their message, and as expected, one of them mentioned me, asking whether I was coming.

I my lower lip. I was not certain if I could survive an evening with my high school classmates without Sehun to entertain them or distract them from bombarding me with interrogatories. I could always come up with an excuse.

But then, it dawned upon me that I have become too dependent on Sehun, as if he was some sort of superhero who would rescue me everytime from my misery.

Of all people, I should know that I should not become dependent on a person who is not a permanent part of my life. I was almost forgetting that everything I have with Sehun was supposed to be ephemeral.

I clutched my phone in my hand as there was a sudden pinch in my heart.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror and released a breath, before taking my bag and immediately walking towards my door. There was a sudden surge of ego within me and some sort of eagerness to prove that I can be fine without Sehun.

I need to learn how to handle these situations by myself, because it’s not forever that I’d have someone to pretend to be my boyfriend.

Before I knew it, I was already in front of the restaurant which they rented for the party. I could already hear the noise that they were making from outside. However, as I see the amount of people that were inside the area, I suddenly felt horrified.

My insides churned. Gatherings are not really my cup of tea.

As if my silent prayer has been answered, my phone started ringing and I saw Soojung’s name register in the caller ID.

“I’m outside,” I told her.

“And I’m in my apartment,” Soojung replied.

“What?” I grunted, “But you are coming to the reunion, right?”

“Uhmmm…” she hummed.

“Soojung!” I exclaimed.

“I’m really sorry, Suz! But Minhyuk and I sort of agreed to make tonight our official monthsary date,” Soojung answered, “You know, some sort of dinner together to make things official between us.”

“So you two were not official?” I furrowed my eyebrows.

“We were dating, but maybe not really a couple?” Soojung answered in a manner that she also questioned her own statement. She sighed before explaining, “Look. It was only last night that we confessed our real feelings to each other, and Minhyuk is being sweet so he still wants to have dinner to celebrate our love.”

I cringed as I was not used to seeing Soojung too sweet with regard to the man she was dating with, but I could not hide that part of me which was also giddy that she was experiencing these kinds of things.

“Fine. You are forgiven,” I mumbled, “I’d just tell everyone you are busy.”

“I love you, Suz,” Soojung cooed.

“More than Minhyuk?” I teased.

“Uhmm. Maybe on the same level?” Soojung replied, and both of us chuckled.

However, as I ended the call with Soojung, I was confronted by the fact that I need to handle this reunion alone.

Suddenly, my heart was thumping ten folds in nervousness; I was having cold feet.

But as I turned around in an attempt to leave, I collided with one of my high school classmates.

“So Soojung’s not coming?” Chanyeol asked.

Chanyeol was a known varsity player with his height, and also a known detention mainstay for his mischievous personality.

“Yeah. She’s busy,” I answered, as rehearsed.

“That’s unfortunate; less the people, less the fun. But at least more food for everyone,” Chanyeol replied, “So how about you? Are you not coming in?”

“Uhmmm…” I trailed.

Should I do the ‘suddenly, I have a stomach ache’ technique?

But Chanyeol suddenly furrowed his eyebrows at me and uttered, “Are you thinking of escaping because your best friend is not coming?”

Then, he took a step towards me and his height towered over me, as he continued, “Can’t handle a high school reunion by yourself, Miss Valedictorian?”

I wanted to argue back but I could not a find a retaliation as every word that Chanyeol said was true. I opened my mouth to protest, but suddenly, an arm head-locked Chanyeol.

“You’re still such a bully, Yeollie,” Jongin ruffled the other man’s hair.

“What? I thought you were still abroad!” Chanyeol exclaimed.

“I did not want you to miss me any longer,” Jongin mocked as he planted a kiss on Chanyeol’s cheek. The giant squirmed under his hold and immediately freed himself, before walking away in disgust.

Suddenly, I found myself smiling genuinely at the scene. Some people’s charms never fade away.

But then, Jongin’s gaze met mine, and he kept the smile on his lips before motioning for me to go inside.  He opened the door for me and said, “It’s not as scary as you think, Suzy.”

I wonder how Jongin could not lose that skill of understanding me with just one simple look.

Our school hosts an annual event of alumni homecoming where every batch is encouraged to attend, but as if that was not enough as an opportunity to see each other yearly, our high school classmates had organized a gathering exclusively for our batch. They had insisted that a simple dinner would not suffice to catch up with each other. Fortunately, our school was relatively small – so there was only around a hundred people per batch, but a hundred people in this party is three-times the number of people who attended Sulli’s wedding. Moreover, it was easier to go unnoticed and unharmed with a yearly homecoming dinner than and this get-together for our batch where we’re expected to enthusiastically socialize with each other.  

“Hey, Suzy!” Hyeri, one of the most sociable people I know, welcomed me. She gave me a brief hug which I gave back. We might not be close, but I knew that Hyeri is genuinely warm.

At least I have someone I can be comfortable with for tonight.

“Where’s Soojung?” she asked.

“Busy,” I automatically answered.

“Oh. That’s a shame,” Hyeri frowned, but then, she immediately replaced it with a smile as she guided me to her table, “But look. We still got a chair for you.”

“Thank you,” I said, and I immediately caught the attention of the people in the table, who, with