The next day, Saturday, I was set to move in with the Kim family. I came to the new house with my stuff and settled them into the pink room next to Myungsoo’s. My mother had picked out the color herself.

            “Hey,” I said as I went into Myungsoo’s room. “Unpacked all your stuff yet?”

            “Most of it,” he replied.

            Myungsoo sniffed his shirt and made a face. “Damn I stink,” he mumbles as he takes off his shirt and throws it into the laundry basket. I tried to act casual as he walked past me to go get a shirt from his closet. But inside I was going insane.

            I’m seeing him shirtless. Oh my gosh.

            “Why are you turning pink?”

            “W-What?” I touched my cheeks and they were burning so much that you could practically fry an egg on them.

            Myungsoo smirked and patted my head before putting on a shirt. The spot on my head that he touched stayed warm.

            “So,” he said as he sat down on his bed. “Homecoming’s next week, huh?”

            “Yeah,” I said.

            “Congratulations.”

            “On what?”

            Myungsoo gave me a look. “On Taemin asking you to homecoming?”

            “O-Oh yeah.” The hell Naeun you actually forgot about that?!

            “You forgot about that or something?” Myungsoo asked me, as if reading my mind. “I thought you’d have it on repeat.”

            “Yeah well, too many things on my mind, I suppose,” I fibbed. “And thanks, I guess.”

            “You guess? I would’ve expected you to be ecstatic,” Myungsoo said.

            I shrugged. “I thought I’d be too. I have no idea why I’m being so nonchalant about it.”

            Myungsoo studied my face, his eyes keeping at a constant level. “Maybe,” he said slowly, “maybe you don’t like him anymore.”

            I blew up.

            “Psh, PSSHHHHHH.” I threw my hands up in the air. “That is utterly impossible.”

            He laughed. “It’s quite possible.”

            “I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “I’ve liked him for so long that it feels weird to not like him.” Then I grew a bit self conscious talking about myself so much and said, “So what about you, huh? It’s your senior year. Aren’t you going to ask someone?”

            “I dunno. Probably.”

            “Probably?” I laughed. “Now you don’t seem so ecstatic.”

            “We’ll see,” was all he said before he left the room. The dude really knew how to end a conversation.

            Living with him wasn’t like how I expected it to be. If anything, at first, we barely saw each other. He slept early and I slept super late, so our bathroom routines were completely different. I left for school early while he ran into class at the last minute. We occasionally walked home with each other every now and then but with homecoming coming up, I was super busy before and after school.

            We ate dinner as four, though. Me and Myungsoo on one side of the dinner table, and my mother and Mr. Kim on the other side. It was nice to, I don’t know, feel like I have a complete family for once. With four people instead of only two.

            It was homecoming. Masquerade-themed, like Taemin had suggested, and everything was supposed to be perfect.

            “Oh my goodness you look amazing!” my mother cooed as I walked downstairs in my pink dress.

            “Naeun, you look stunning!” Mr. Kim pulled out his super expensive flash camera and started taking a bundle of pictures. I shielded my eyes.

            “Uh thanks mom, and Mr. Kim.” My eyes searched around the living room. “Is Myungsoo home?”

            “No,” Mr. Kim said. “He went out to eat with a couple of friends. I don’t know if he’s going to homecoming or not.”

            “Oh,” I said. “I see.”

            There was a knock on the door. I opened it for Taemin and my mother and Mr. Kim kept gushing about how good the two of us looked together. Taemin did look pretty dashing in his suit, I guess.

            “You look absolutely gorgeous, by the way,” Taemin said to me as the two of us made our way to the limo.

            “Thanks,” was all I said. And I felt nothing from his compliment. No blush, no nothing.

            Homecoming was supposed to be perfect. I had the date I wanted, the dress I wanted, and all of the preparations for the dance had gone successfully. So then why wasn’t I as excited as I should be?

            Once we reached the venue, Taemin and I put on our masks and walked inside, arms linked. A few friends spotted us and went over to talk. It was hard seeing who was who since we were all wearing masks but I caught on.

            “Naeun, want to dance?” Taemin asked me.

            “Sure,” I replied. I always seemed to be saying sure to him.

            So the two of us got out there and danced. It was fun and all, shaking my hips and moving along to the music. My eyes kept searching around, for who or what I wasn’t exactly sure, but I had a feeling I knew exactly what it was.

            It’s his senior year. He wouldn’t miss this, would he?

            My eyes landed upon a figure standing in the back of the room, by the punch bowl. He had a red mask on and he must’ve noticed me staring at him because he gave me a smirk.

            “Hey Naeun,” Taemin said to me over the pounding music, “I have to go take care of some technical difficulties with the lights. Wait for me, okay? I’ll be right back.”

            I nodded. “Okay. I’ll be here.”

            Taemin ran off to who knows where. When I turned around, the dude with the red mask was standing right next to me.

            “Having fun?” he asked.

            “Yeah,” I said, only because it felt like the right thing to say. “You?”

            The guy shrugged. “It was pretty ish. But it’s alright now.”

            I smiled. “Good. It took a lot of hard work and dedication to plan it right. I’m student body vice president, you know.”

            The guy nodded. “I do know.”

            Something about him was so familiar to me. The aura, the presence of the person himself. I felt comfort, like I was home in this room of chaos and unfamiliarity.

            The guy took my hand. “Let’s dance,” he said.

            “Don’t mind if I do.” Wow. I didn’t say sure with this guy.

            So he and I danced and it was different. There were no tense feelings between us. Everything felt more free and fun.

            “Hey,” I shouted through the music. “Who are you?”

            All the guy did was smirk as he took my hand, pulling me away from the dance floor. We ran, hand in hand, out of the building to the rose garden outside, where there was no one in sight.

             “Where are we going?” I asked him. Although I secretly enjoyed the anticipation.

            All he did was put a finger to his lips. Then I saw it: fireworks, just in the distance.

            “There’s an old amusement park closing next to the venue,” the guy explained. “Tonight is its last night open. Fireworks for the closing ceremony.”

            “Wow,” I said, amazed by the colors and sparks in the sky. “I did not know that.”

            “Yeah. No one knows about it. Except us.”

            “What do you mean?” I asked.

            He nodded back to the dance. “No one else can hear it in there.” Then he looked back up at the sky. “Only the two of us know about this closing ceremony.”

            After the fireworks ended, he and I went back to the dance.

            “Oh. I forgot something.” The guy in the red mask pulled something out from his jacket pocket. It was a single red rose. “For you.”

            I then remembered the red rose that I’d found in my locker on the day Taemin asked me to homecoming. “T-Thanks,” I said. “You didn’t...you weren’t the one who left the other red rose in my locker, were you?”

            His red mask glistened under the lights. He winked at me before disappearing into the crowd, growing out of sight.

            “Naeun!”

            I turned around.

            “There you are,” Taemin said. “I couldn’t find you anywhere.”

            “Sorry,” I said. “Just um...went to go get some punch. I was thirsty. That’s all.”

            Taemin eyed the rose in my hand. “Who gave you that?”

            “Someone uh...I found it, lying on the ground. Just thought it was pretty hehe.” I was getting better at this.

            I was with Taemin again, but my eyes kept searching for that one red mask. However, I failed to see it for the rest of the night.

            I got home at around twelve. Myungsoo was home. In fact, he was the one who opened the door for me.

            “Mom and dad are asleep,” Myungsoo answered. “Thank me for staying up extra late to welcome you home.”

            “Thank you,” I said in response. “You didn’t go to the dance?”

            “I did. For only like, 5 minutes though. It was a total bust,” he said.

            “Hey,” I snapped. “Some people work very hard to make it happen.”

            He chuckled. “Whatever you say, Ms. Vice President.” Then he headed upstairs.

            Before going to sleep that night, I kept looking at the rose on my desk. It pointed to Myungsoo’s room, as if it knew who the owner had been this entire time.