TWENTY

The charity date auction happened in one of the posh and exclusive bars in Hongdae. A few weeks before the event, pricey and limited attendance tickets were sold just to guarantee higher bids. The moment the night came, attendees started to arrive and tables and chairs were slowly being filled. However, just before the doors were announced to be closing, eight ladies turned up chatting excitedly among each other totally unaware of the attention they unintentionally commanded for themselves— as always.

Yonghwa frowned from the corner where he stood hidden before the audience and frowned some more because of Seohyun’s apparent absence. Or was she coming in late? It has been almost two weeks that Seohyun decided to cut him off—the last time they talked was when he drove her to the beach and they shared a kiss which, for him and that moment, was a good sign. Yonghwa couldn’t say the same now that he was still waiting for her to talk to him. More so that thinking about it reminded him of the night he drove to her house only to see her with her boyfriend.

He took a swig of beer handed to them a few seconds ago then his eyes followed the ensemble who got settled in the VIP area for the said event. Yonghwa scoffed at the obvious charade of the group and elbowed Jonghyun beside him, “Hey, do you see what I see?”

“Yeah… she said they’d be here today.”

“She’ll bid for you?”

“I think so…”

“Isn’t that a bad idea?”

“I just happened to sign a contract as the next face of Jung Royal Resorts in Jeju…” Jonghyun snickered smugly, “With the next generation Hallyu star Kwon Yoona… so we need this little ‘buzz’.”

“Ha… Jessica…” Yonghwa mumbled to himself realizing it was his cousin’s doing. Of course, those girls usually gang up with each other just to have whatever one of them wants so it won’t be a surprise for him to think that the girls were helping Yoona. He had heard that she didn’t take the news of the date auction lightly, and knowing Jonghyun, it was really understandable for Yoona to be jealous.

Come to think of it, Jonghyun was lucky while Yonghwa could only be thankful of the help Jessica did for them even if she didn’t really want to, “You’re lucky those other girls support your relationship.”

Meanwhile, the girls took their places and were being served with their cocktails. They were all in a good mood and ecstatic as one of the organizers of the event explained to them what was going to happen. After all, it was something new to them that made it even a more exciting experience. 

“Okay, lovely es, let’s get this thing started!” Tiffany said with extra enthusiasm and they sealed it with a clink of their glasses of blue margarita.

Yoona waved off her unnies’ chatters to get their attention, “Unnie, Seohyunie sent me a message awhile ago asking where we are.”

“What did you say?” Sooyoung inquired among the noises in the club.

“What Hyo Unnie said, boyfriend day…”

“She called me too on my way here.” Taeyeon added, “I told her I’m taking Fany to dinner.”

Fany giggled, “On a date!”

“Why does it always have to be Tiffany?!” Sica scrunched her nose and continued with a faked grumble, “Why not me?”

Taeyeon just shrugged and Fany stuck her tongue out at Sica.

The event began accordingly and the auction jump-started after the band performed three songs. As they were introducing each one of the boys, the venue seemed to be heating up and all the participants were excited.

Jessica was lazily inspecting the members of the blue band while the other girls babbled animatedly. A snicker mischievously played on her lips as she bended closer to Yoona who was sitting between her and Yuri, “Hmm, Yoona… that boyfriend of yours, I think I might go for it…”

“Excuse me?!” Yoona groaned then rolled her eyes, “What the hell, Unnie?”

“What? He’s cute…”

“Unnie!” Yoona’s eyes widened in disbelief when she realized that Jessica might be serious.

Jessica just laughed, “Settle down, tiger… I’m just making this more exciting for you.”

“Duh, you’re richer than me.”

“Well then, it’s your loss.

Yuri who was listening to the bantering couldn’t keep her silence anymore so she reprimanded her bestfriend, “Sica-yah, this is not the time to play supervillain…”

“Fine! Jeez, darlings, where’s the fun to this?”

“Girls, girls!” Hyoyeon grinned, “I have an idea… why don’t we bid for all of them so we can take them anywhere we want?”

Sica clasped her hands together, “Ugh, that’s a good one… maybe I’ll bid for that cutesy looking guy who looks terribly like Tiffany when he smiles beside Yonghwa. I think he’ll look good for Krystal.”

“Okay, I’ll bid for the tallest one,” Sooyoung declared.

“Yonghwa is mine!”

The others groaned when Taeyeon looked overexcited.

“Nobody’s taking Yonghwa away from you.”

“Yeah, nobody else is interested.”

Yuri laughed, “I am so loving your energy, Taeng.”

Sunny smiled herself, “This is so much fun… we are going to dominate this thing…”

“I know right!” Fany claimed, “May the best girl win… the richest, I mean…”

“Then move over, es,” Jessica grinned.

Sooyoung rolled her eyes and nudged Tiffany, “I knew she’d say that…”

~~~

At first, everything started with dead normalcy until Sunny started bidding for Jungshin who was the first one to be auctioned. Jungshin turned to him questioningly when the bidder was down to Sunny and Hyoyeon who seemed to be having fun than competing until Sooyoung ended the war and snagged the win.

Minhyuk’s turn went like a breeze since Jessica got feisty and started the bid with five million won taking everyone off guard that nobody dared to outbid her.

When it was Jonghyun’s turn, the girls seemed to have mellowed and let the other participants join the ‘fun’ they were having. However, like the first two, Jonghyun was auctioned off to Yoona to whom Jonghyun playfully sent a flying kiss from the stage and the girl turned beet red as it was the first public display of affection her secret boyfriend had given her.

Finally, Yonghwa was asked to move forward on the stage. He recognized some girls on the floor, aside from his cousin’s group, those fans usually go to every event that the band holds. The bidding for him started, it would seem ordinary except for the fact the girls who definitely caught his attention—and everybody else’s—was just cheering for their wins and didn’t care about the fate he was to have that night. Yonghwa groaned inwardly because, deep inside, he had that little hope they would bid for him.

Maybe this was their way of getting back at him for his past mistakes.

While he was moping at the apparent day of reckoning in his life, the final bid was set and there were murmurs and weirdly enough the spotlight focused on him and on that familiar corner where the girls were laughing and Taeyeon just raised her glass clandestinely at him. It must be a good sign—it should be a good sign because Seohyun’s eldest sister, the one who signed a peace treaty with him, just bought him for 9.9 million won.

Yonghwa and probably the rest of the people in the bar were taken by complete surprise when these girls outbid all the other bidders. It did create a ‘buzz’ (not only because of Jonghyun and Yoona) but for a short moment and everything was blamed to these sick spoiled rich girls who didn’t know what to do with their excessive cash.

“Oh, it was all for a good cause,” Sica argued when cornered by a reporter who happened to recognize her. They, too, were escorted out of the bar after the event like celebrities because some people feared that the result was premeditated, which was actually true but only among the girls.

They shared champagne inside Jessica’s family limo to celebrate their success and start planning for the next event of taking the Blue band in one of the private resorts that the Jung owned.

Later that night, Yonghwa called Jessica just to ask what they were all up to but the ice princess just laughed and told him that everything will just reveal itself.

~~~

Three days later…

“Seohyuna, do you have to be stubborn right now?”

“Unnie, I have a very important exam on Monday! I can’t possibly go to Jeju this weekend with you!”

“You can’t do anything about it,” Hyoyeon declared, “It’s either you go in peace or we drag your in there with us!”

“No, seriously!” Seohyun almost flail in annoyance, “I cannot just sacrifice my future for one of your wasteful childish escapades!”

“What?! Oh my god, what did you just say to your Unnie, Seohyuna?!”

“Unnie! You are not seeing my point! This is just another useless weekend for all of you but it’s an important one for me! I have been wor—”

“Kim Seohyun! You listen to me right now and shut that machine gun mouth of yours because I am so going to slap you and it’s so not going to be pretty!” That finally silenced the little tiger that Hyoyeon smiled, “Now that you’ve calmed down, I am just letting you know that in case tomorrow you still about not coming, the girls are going to drug you— yes, they are so going to drug you because we all want to have this vacation T.O.G.E.T.H.E.R and we are going to have F.U.N. and we will make sure as hell that it’s going to be one of the most memorable days of your life.”

“Huh? Unnie… what’s exactly the deal about this weekend?”

“Hmmm… that’s for you to find out,” Hyoyeon winked and kissed Seohyun lightly on the cheek just because, “Start packing, sweetie, if you know what’s good for you.”

Seohyun cringed. Hyoyeon could be scary like that.

Ultimately, Seohyun sat in front of a vanity while Sica hovered all over her putting her makeup and fixing her hair. Among all the weirdness of the day, that was probably the weirdest since Jessica never attended to anybody but herself.

“Unnie, seriously, why is everybody acting strange around me today and why am I going all out while you and the others are just in your plain dresses and cover-ups?”

“Oh, shush!” Jessica glowered at her as she applied Seohyun’s lip gloss, “There!” She smiled inspecting her masterpiece.

They arrived at the summer resort late afternoon and the other girls excused themselves to retire in their own suites. Seohyun thought that it was an opportunity to grab the books she brought and do a little review while her unnies get ready for dinner but instead, Jessica came barging in declaring that she would perform her little magic on her.

She sighed in submission and let herself be subjugated by her unnie.

“Okay, now take off your clothes…”

“W-what…” Seohyun raised a brow when Jessica brought out a pink box.

Jessica just smiled as she took out the dress and handed it to Seohyun.

“What is this for, Unnie?” Seohyun asked as she inspected the blue Zac Posen plissé dress in her hand, “It’s so beautiful! Is this for me?”

“Uh-huh, and so are these lovely darlings,” Jessica took out a pair of sparkly Miu Miu's. “What are you waiting for? Start stripping, love, and put on the dress first.”

Finally, she was excited. Something was surely up but she was just excited with her new things, especially the fact that they were free. Seohyun spun around with a big smile admiring the dress that flows just a little above her knee, “Oh, Unnie! This is so lovely! Thank you…”

“Don’t thank me, I’m just a mere messenger… and now that you’re all glammed up,” Jessica winked then raised a shawl, “I have to blindfold you.”

“Blindfold? But why?”

“Because Taeyeon has a surprise for you.”

“What for? Oh god, it’s my birthday and I didn’t know!”

“Ha… ha… funny,” Jessica laughed and pinched her on the cheek.

“Unnie, come on,” she pouted and gave Jessica her signature puppy eyes but the latter didn’t even budge.

“Just do as I say, okay?”

That was not really the answer she was expecting as she stood there and held her Unnie’s gaze. She was about to protest again when another voice called out from outside her villa.

“Ya, what’s keeping you so long?!”

Jessica rolled her eyes and sighed, “Aigoo, did you hear that? Just let me put this on you; we don’t want Manager Hwang angry, do we?”

Seohyun gave out a resigned sigh before nodding. She knew there was no winning a war against her eight persistent Unnies.