Sehun looked around the hall, watching out for Ara, but he hadn't spotted her yet. The hall his father had rented was huge, after all, so trying to find a single person was very difficult, if not impossible. He tapped his foot on the ground impatiently. Maybe his behavior was childish, but to him, the most important guest tonight was Ara. Other than his friends, he didn’t take a single guest seriously. 

His birthday parties had always been like this: a handful people who were sincerely celebrating his birthday, some coming because their family names forced them to act appropriate, some came because they wanted to increase their social circle, some came to find a new business partner or a bond with another company, some because of the ambience, others because of the food and drinks – and so on.

On the whole, birthday parties like these, with hundreds of people attending were nothing more than part of the elite's etiquette. A shallow event, with expensive wine, champagne, exotic snacks, and many faux smiles. It didn’t bother Sehun as much as it did back then, as he had grown used to that. He had learned to appreciate the few sincere smiles, the few birthday greetings, amidst the sea of empty words. He may go around and shake hands with everyone, say a quick thanks when hearing a meaningless birthday greeting, but for him the nice part of his birthday was the one he spent with his friends. For the rest, he had the stoic mask ready and some forced manners. So, he could say that he liked his birthdays, looking past the insincere side.

After all, he wouldn’t become completely happy either if he despised all of his birthday parties. He had to either take it or leave it. With both the good and the bad. Even though there were only a few sincere people, compared to the hundreds of insincere ones, Sehun found the sincerity he was given to be much more evident than the insincerity he had to face. That was something, though, he had only realized in this year as he thought of the old parties. Given, he'd always enjoyed the small group of real friends, but unlike now, he had really loathed all the other guests back then. But, Sehun had grown. He had learned.

His friends had always attended his parties, being part of the elite themselves, so them attending wasn’t anything new. However, this birthday would be his first with Ara. And what secretly made him really happy was also the fact that it would also be Ara's first birthday together with him. On the same day.

And a little bit – or maybe not so little – was he anticipating to see Ara in a dress. Not only for his sake, but because he wanted Ara to feel child-like and carefree, at least a tiny little bit. Young girls usually loved dressing up, loved the feeling of being pretty like a princess, but Ara was a person, who'd never had the time or energy to think about such things. So, just for tonight, just once, he wanted her to feel like a child again. It was her birthday, her special day, after all.

When his gaze wandered to one of the huge windows, he coincidentally caught sight of a certain car. The car of the driver whom Sehun had assigned to drive Ara. She had arrived.

Stealing a glance at his parents who were standing several meters from him, with other adults, and at the host who should present the simple program tonight, he tried to disappear without catching all too much attention. Which was quite hard to do, though, as him being the birthday child would always cause a few people to be looking at him. However, once he got off the little stage and disappeared into the mass of people, he knew, no one could recognize him anymore. All males were clad in dark suit, so his figure easily blurred with theirs.

He quickly reached the exit and stepped out the building, finding himself standing on the grass behind some small trees of the front yard. Just as he looked up, trying to find the car again, his eyes were met with a sight that literally took his breath away: Ara.

Ara, with her eyes decently shadowed and encircled with a bit of eyeliner, with her cheeks painted in a gentle, rosy color, and her lips in the same color, only stronger. Ara, with her long hair loosely hanging around her shoulder and ending in soft curls a bit below her chest. Ara, with a pastel pink dress in which she seemed to glow. The lovely color complimented her fair skin, the slight contrast caused her skin to look a tad rosy. The dress, that was shorter at the front, revealed her long and lean legs, and the wore black high heels, which rounded off the look. A small, white cardigan gave all that a cute touch.

Sehun was honestly rendered speechless at the sight of Ara looking so absolutely lovely while she was simply standing there and eying the building. It was the first time, he had seen her dressed up a little elegantly. And truth be told, despite having expected to be wowed, the actuality made him completely dumbfounded. The dress itself wasn't even that striking – a pretty but simple one, actually – but it complimented her so perfectly that it seemed as if the dress was made for her.

Sehun made a mental note to thank Jihyun later after he finally snapped out of his trance. His gaze still set on the girl, he made his way towards her. Somehow, what made her look even lovelier in his eyes was the fact that she didn't flaunt her beauty one bit. She wasn't trying to make sure that everything was perfect about her hair, her dress, anything. She wasn't excessively trying to look elegant or graceful. Ara was just natural.

Before he knew how or when, he was already standing in front of her, his eyes oozing with adoration as he looked at her. “You look beautiful,” he breathed.

It wasn't an empty compliment. It wasn't the one a male would simply say to please the female in front of him. However, it wasn't an absolutely sincere one either. Why? Because it was one, of which Sehun felt that it didn't even convey the compliment he meant completely. Beautiful, wonderful, lovely, breathtaking – if there was a word that could have described everything that rushed through his mind at the sight of Ara, he would have used it. If there was a word that could describe just how much his head was starting to spin at the sight, he would have used it. But, there was none. And he was left with 'beautiful'.

It seemed, though, that together with his tone and the look in his eyes, that he managed to bring across what he meant. A tone so loving, so adoring, so … breathless. A gaze so warm and delighted. All that caused heat to rise in Ara. She was both embarrassed and happy because of the compliment. The embarrassment was simply due to how much she couldn't prevent the wide grin to spread across her lips. Those three words, barely audible, had caused Ara's cheeks to burn and her lips to be unable to stay normal. Why? Because, as embarrassed as she was about that, she felt happy about the compliment. For once, she felt flattered because her appearance was complimented. But only because it was Sehun.

She raised a hand, hid her grin behind it and looked away in embarrassment. “Stop it,” she mumbled barely comprehensibly.

Sehun blinked surprised, his gaze snapping back from Ara's dress to her face. “Stop what?”

Ara, still looking away, bit her lower lip in embarrassment as she replied, “L-Looking at me like this …” she bit her lip again. “It's embarrassing.”

A laugh could be heard – Sehun's. The girl shot him a glare, but he was completely oblivious of that while chuckling with that ever so lovely eye-smile of his.

There she was again, the cute Ara. The one barely anyone could catch sight of. The one who suddenly avoided eye-contact and began to gnaw on her lips. The one whose cheeks were tinted in a light shade of pink. The one whom Sehun found to be the most adorable thing ever.

Ara barely showed it, so Sehun would have to use the chance and lengthen the short moment she'd show it. “But I can't tear away my gaze with such a beauty standing in front of me,” he continued, a slightly teasing tone in his voice. Anther loud laugh escaped his lips when he saw how red Ara's face turned and she quickly averted her gaze again.

Once their gazes weren't locked anymore, she angrily mumbled, “Sehun!”

The male only laughed at that and grabbed her hand. “I'm serious, Ara. Look at yourself, you are beautiful.” And he pulled the girl, whose cheeks were burning as she yelled “Yah!”, with him into the hall.

The adults were standing at the front and the back of the hall was completely filled with the students of their school, so Sehun didn't care who saw him holding Ara's hand as they entered.

However, halfway through, Sehun halted and let go of Ara, because they were approaching the area the adults were standing at and because Ara was nudging him to do so. She wanted to take what Mr. Oh had said seriously and not risk angering him.

“The boys and Hyejin are over there; you should go to them. I … have to go to the front and greet some adults for quite a while, okay?” Sehun mumbled, visibly not wanting to part from Ara. But he had to, and he knew that.

Ara nodded her head and gave him an understanding smile – she knew that he had responsibilities – before she motioned him to go. As she reached the others, she quickly eyed Hyejin's outfit. Kai had taken Hyejin to his mansion for her dress up. The young girl looked really lovely in the beige-colored dress, that was quite wide and fluttery at the bottom and tight at the upper section. Kai seemed to be very content with his girlfriend's dress as well, as he had the same look in the eye when looking at Hyejin as Sehun when he looked at Ara.

The others were quite taken aback at the sight of Ara in a dress, eyes wide and jaws dropped in surprise. “I think Sehun has to look out for possible rivals,” Chanyeol laughed. “He shouldn't leave such a beautiful girlfriend alone,” Baekhyun added jokingly. They were serious about Ara looking stunning tonight, though, but everything else was only joking. They could see how much Ara meant to Sehun and the other way around. Besides, none of them was romantically interested in Ara. They liked her and accepted her as Sehun's girlfriend, but in the end, they didn't know her that much either. They could see that she wasn't someone who easily made friends and grew close with others, which was only a affirmation for how special her and Sehun's bond was. Whereas Hyejin felt like a little sister to them due to her out-going and bubbly nature, Ara remained as Sehun's girlfriend. However, both sides seemed to be content with that.

“I think I have to be Unnie's substitute boyfriend tonight to make sure no one's going to touch her,” Hyejin stated, stepping away from Kai and placing an arm around her sister's shoulder. She sounded completely serious.

Kai half snorted and half chuckled at what the young girl said. Hyejin could always make him laugh with her sometimes childish and dumb statements, but to him, it was one of her many charms.

The others joined the laughter, and Kai pulled Hyejin back to him by placing his arm around her waist, which caused her, as well as Ara since she was she still being hold by Hyejin, to stumble back. “I, as the only taken male here, will have to take care of Hun's girlfriend,” he laughed. Hyejin grinned at what he said. “I agree! Oppa is the only one to trust,” she chuckled.

Ara couldn't hide her smile as she looked at them. Indeed, Sehun had great friends.

The following half an hour, they t