Something about the New Year never sat right with Jennie.

 

Here she was up on the 20th floor of a hotel, at a party hosted by a friend of a friend that somehow managed to get her an invite. Since her parents were out of town, and her other members spending time with their families, Jennie had no other option but to accept if she didn't want to be alone tonight.

 

But alone, she quickly realized, is what she wanted the most. Now when the music started getting too loud and the spaces between each person getting smaller and smaller.

 

She only knew a couple of people here. A few of them acquaintances that she could share a friendly smile, but most of them people she hardly knew.

 

As the lights suddenly turned from a subtle dim to dark with flashes of bright color, she felt suffocated and knew she had to leave.

 

She put her empty glass on top of the nearest table she could find, grabbed her things and went to the bathroom.

 

There, she put a black coat over her champagne-colored dress and tied her hair with a scrunchie. To other people, she might pass as a little bit drunk with the slight flush on her cheeks. She decided she'd use this as an excuse if somebody tries to stop her from leaving.

 

She went around the edges of the huge function room and through the back exit undetected and went straight to the elevator waiting at the end of the hall, quickly pushing the first floor button with a sigh of relief.

 

Her head was slightly spinning from moving and walking too fast and so she rested her head at the wall and closed her eyes.

 

She didn't feel the elevator doors open and another person enter. Not until she hears a slight cough and the clicking sounds of somebody typing on their phone.

 

She turned and saw a tall guy leaning on the opposite wall. He looked about her age and was wearing a dark grey hoodie with a maroon beanie over his black hair. The dim light from his phone allowed her a glimpse on his face and Jennie thought he looked really familiar.

 

He must have felt her staring as he looked up at her, puzzled.

 

Jennie looked away in an instant and quickly fished out her phone from her pocket and began to mindlessly scroll through whatever app she opened first.

 

"Jennie...right?" the guy asked, a bit hesitant.

 

"Uh-yes."

 

An awkward silence. And then, "I'm sorry I don't-" Jennie started to say.

 

"It's Seungyoun. Nice to meet you," he offered a small smile.

 

Seungyoun... Seungyoun... Jennie was sure she knew him from somewhere but she was still lost. Realizing she was quiet for a bit too long and that he was looking at her waiting for a response, she finally says, "Hi, nice to meet you too," and went back to her phone.

 

The elevator opened and Jennie was the first to step out. She thought of getting a cab and going back to her apartment but figured it'd be too soon. Without much thinking, she decided to go for a walk instead.

 

The air outside was dry and cold and Jennie walked briskly, immediately regretting wearing a dress.

 

A few cars passed and she saw the bright sign of a convenience store up ahead so she walked towards it, thinking of grabbing a midnight snack before heading home.

 

The store cashier, who was busy playing a game on his phone greeted her with an absentminded "hello" as she entered. They were the only two people there. Jennie went straight to get her essentials: milk, some cookies, and prawn chips that Jisoo made her try once that were very very tasty.

 

As she went to the cashier, she saw a guy was already there so she stood behind him.

 

Pulling up her phone, she decided to look up the boy she met in the elevator, trying to refresh her memory. After a couple of scrolls, she found him on a thumbnail of a video. She clicked on it and there he was, giving finger hearts with a soft song playing on the background. She's definitely seen him before. Pre-debut? No. Maybe. She thought she's seen him on TV, too. Or was it a different guy?

 

Her thoughts were interrupted by someone clearing their throat. She looked up, and realized her phone's volume was up. The guy in front of her, who was wearing a mask, looked down at her screen and looked up.

 

"Why are you watching a video of me?"

 

"Huh?"

 

He took his mask off and there he was again. The same guy from the elevator. The same beanie. Now with the same cheeky smile as the guy in the video, looking at her curiously and amused. She was flustered.

 

"Uhm...I was trying to remember where I know you from," Jennie admitted and tried to hide her embarrassment with a small smile.

 

"How about I just tell you?"

 

"How about you pay first, sir," the cashier, watching their little interaction, directed. He looked eager to go back to his mobile game. "2,000 Won."

 

When both of them were done paying, no one knew who to speak first. So Jennie slowly walked out the store and sat on one of the tables outside. Seungyoun followed.

 

He took out a pack of gum and popped one in his mouth, and Jennie put a straw on her chocolate milk drink and took a sip.

 

Another awkward silence.

 

"We trained at YG for a while. My members and I," he finally said.

 

"Really?"

 

"Yeah. You were pretty popular even then. That's how I knew you."

 

"Ah, I see," Jennie replied, not knowing what to make of him saying she was popular. "I think I saw you and Bobby at some point."

 

He nodded. "Although," he said with a small voice, "most people know me as the guy from the Produce show now."

 

"Wait, of course!" Jennie exclaimed. "Cho Seungyoun. Ah, I remember now!" She laughed and sipped her drink. "Sorry I had to look you up."

 

"It's fine, really," he shook his head, smiling.

 

"So why are you out here on New Year's Eve?" Jennie asked.

 

"My parents are away on a business trip and I was on my way home from a party."

 

Interesting, Jennie thought. She didn't imagine somebody else would be in her exact situation right now.

 

"How about you?" he asked.

 

"Same. I just left a party from the hotel, too."

 

"You mean the one on the 21st floor?"

 

"No, 20th."

 

"Right," he said. "My friends went up there after ours. They said it was a huge party."

 

"Why didn't you go?" Jennie asked.

 

"Why didn't you stay?"

 

She shrugged. "Didn't feel like it."

 

"Fair enough," he chuckled. He took his plastic bag and stood. "Well, I don't wanna take up your time. I'm gonna go," he said, waving goodbye and left.

 

"Bye."

 

Jennie grabbed her bag and pulled up a cab-hailing app on her phone. She started walking to the direction of the main street, thinking she could book a cab faster that way.

 

A couple of minutes passed and she looked up from her phone only to bump into the back of someone.

 

"Ow!"

 

Seungyoun turned to look at her. "Are you following me now?" he said jokingly.

 

"You wish," Jennie shoved her phone screen to his face. "See, I'm getting a taxi."

 

"Well good luck with that," he said. "It's hard to book one on nights like this."

 

"Please, we're in Seoul. There must be tons of drivers in the area." She looked around them and saw a couple other people walking, a few cars passing, but no taxis. "Right?"

 

Seungyoun saw her face and almost laughed. "Right."

 

Jennie, almost annoyed, sat on a bench and huffed. "Well, go on then. I'll just wait for a cab here."

 

He shifted where he stood and shrugged. "If you say so. Bye." He then turned and started walking.

 

-

 

5 minutes.

 

10 minutes.

 

Jennie was getting antsy. She looked at the app and there were still no cabs. It must be the connection, she thought, but her signal was great.

 

She looked around as fewer people passed. Dread started to sink in. If she doesn't get out of here ASAP, she might get in trouble. This was not a safe place for someone like her to be alone.

 

She sighed in defeat and started walking again, looking at the few passing cars and checking to see if one of them was a taxi. There was none.

 

"I should have stayed at that goddamn party," she mumbled.

 

A couple of minutes passed. The wind blew colder. She was walking alongside the main road, passing shops and building that are mostly closed. Everybody seemed to be eager to go home or spend their New Year's Eve somewhere. And here she was, stranded with nowhere to go to, or no one. And then-

 

"Hey!"

 

She turned swiftly at the sound behind her. She saw the beanie first before she saw him. Seungyoun.

 

"Hey," she said as he stopped in front of her. He looked out of breath from running too fast. "What are you-"

 

"This is yours," he shoved the plastic bag at her. Jennie looked inside the one she was holding and realized they had swapped their bags by mistake.

 

"Oh," she simply said and switched her bag to his. "Sorry."

 

"No, it's... it's my fault."

 

"You okay?"

 

He stood straight when he finally caught his breath. "Yeah."

 

Jennie just stared at him. She felt a little embarrassed to be found walking like a stray dog in the street but she was glad she wasn't alone now.

 

"So about that cab you were talking about," he started.

 

"Yeah, you were right," Jennie replied quickly and looked away. "I guess."

 

"How much farther is your place?"

 

"Pretty far."

 

He took the plastic bag she was holding and starting walking in the same direction she was headed. Jennie stared in confusion.

 

"Well?" he asked behind his shoulder.

 

"Are you walking me home?" Jennie mentally scolded herself for the obvious excitement in her voice.

 

"No?" he stared at her back. "To the bus stop."

 

"Oh," Jennie said and tried not to deflate. She started walking alongside him in silence.

 

By the time they reached the bus stop it was Jennie this time who was out of breath.

 

Seungyoun looked at her amused as she dragged her feet to the bench where he was already sitting.

 

"Can you walk any faster?" she grumbled. "I have short legs."

 

He smiled. "That's not my fault."

 

Jennie sat beside him and pouted. She saw Seungyoun on his phone so she took hers and opened Instagram to kill time.

 

Seeing her friends' IG stories filled with dinners or parties made her feel lonely. She opened her group chat with her other members. Jisoo and Rosie were in Korea but with their families while Lisa went back to Thailand for the holidays. She looked at the photos they sent one by one and smiled.

 

More than once, Jisoo and Chaeng invited her to join them for New Year's Eve but she declined as she didn't want to impose on them her presence on such short notice. Her parents had already made plans for them tonight but they cancelled as they had an emergency meeting out of town to take care of business matters. They were apologetic on the phone call to Jennie and she understood. She loved her parents just the same.

 

She looked at the boy sitting beside her, who was typing intensely on his phone, deep in thought. Who could he be talking to? she thought.

 

Unconsciously, she shifted in her seat and took a good look at him. He wore two earrings in one ear and strands of black hair peeked from under his beanie. His nose sharp but not too much, his slanted eyes reminding her of a cat. He had quite the flawless skin too, Jennie mused. If she had met him in any other circumstance, she would definitely find him cute.

 

"It's rude to stare," he finally said, looking back at her.

 

Jennie, embarrassed yet again, looked away. She took her scrunchie and did a half ponytail, leaving some strands of hair to frame her face, in a last minute effort to appear busy.

 

"You know what," Seungyoun started, facing her and resting his arm on the bench. "You're kind of weird."

 

Jennie was called pretty, cute, even y (which to this day still embarrassed her.) But she doesn't remember anyone calling her weird to her face. Except Jisoo and maybe Chahee.

 

"Huh?" she simply said, dumbfounded. She just met this guy about an hour ago.

 

He smiled at her, although by now Jennie wasn't sure if it was mockingly. "You didn't switch our bags on purpose, didn't you?"

 

"Yah!" Jennie pushed his arm from the bench rest. "Why would I do that?"

 

He was laughing this time. "I just wanted to make sure! You were looking me up on the internet after all..."

 

Jennie threw the plastic bags at him and crossed her arms. "For all I know, YOU probably switched them," she threw him the most accusing look she thinks she can muster.

 

"Now why would I do that?"

 

"I don't know. To get close to the pretty popular trainee from YG?" She flipped her hair dramatically.

 

"Wow..." he simply said. His expression amused. "You really think of yourself that highly?"

 

"I-" She was so used to this banter with her friends but she suddenly felt shy. "Well- no... I was joking. I don't know."

 

Silence. And then, "You should. Confidence can get you anywhere these days. If you don't hype yourself up every now and then, who will?"

 

"You seem pretty confident as a person," Jennie said.

 

"How can you say? You don't know me."

 

"Well-" Jennie paused. What's up with this guy? "I mean I saw you on TV." Jennie remembered watching the show with Lisa the few times that they can. Seungyoun was one of those who stood out the most.

 

"Oh. Yeah that was... that was an experience," he replied. He looked like he was about to say more but stopped himself, Jennie noticed.

 

"I mean fighting to debut is tough enough, I can't imagine going through it with cameras around you," she said. Jennie's training period was hell, for lack of a better term. She didn't even want to think about it.

 

Seungyoun stared at her, deep in thought, and Jennie felt self-conscious. Abruptly, she stood up and looked around. Fewer and fewer cars are passing by and they were the only people in the street. "I don't think a bus is coming," she sighed in defeat.

 

Seungyoun cleared his throat. "I guess bus drivers wanna enjoy New Year's Eve, too," he stood and grabbed the bags. "What now?"

 

"I don't know. Aren't you going home?"

 

He looked at the sky for a moment and smiled. "It's such a nice night. It would be a waste to be spend it alone, don't you think?" He then looked at her.

 

Jennie could melt under his stare. It was a strange feeling, but she felt comforted. She imagined that if she felt lonely tonight, he probably did too.

 

There they were, two strangers, acquaintances if you must, their family and friends elsewhere, seeking unexpected company in each other.

 

She smiled at him and took one of the bags in his hand. "Let's go, then."

 

-

 

"It's near," Seungyoun said, looking at his watch and up at the sky. They were sitting on a stone bench at a small park just a few blocks away from the bus stop.

 

Jennie sat next to him, pulling her coat as the cold wind blew. Everything was still, no sound from the streets or the apartment building behind them. Anticipation building.

 

And then a faint chant.

 

"15! 14! 13!" she could hear the soft sound of people counting down the street.

 

"10! 9! 8! 7!" Jennie looked at Seungyoun, his gazed fixed at the sky. His hands deep in the pockets of his hoodie.

 

"4! 3! 2! 1! Happy new year!"

 

And then the sky lit up with fireworks of every color. It was amazing and Jennie stood in excitement. She turned her head and every bit of sky was full of color. For a moment she was glad she was in the city.

 

She stood eyes fixed at the sky for a few more minutes. She tried to remember what she was doing last New Year's Eve--tossing and turning in her bed, anxious about the headlines to be written about her the next day. She didn't even remember hearing fireworks.

 

"Here you go," Seungyoun said, interrupting her thoughts. He handed her an opened can of beer that he bought from the store earlier.

 

Jennie took it and said thanks.

 

"Cheers," he said smiling, and tapped his can against hers. Jennie couldn't help but return a smile.