There's a special place in hell reserved just for me;
It's called the throne.

She never dreamt that she'd be standing in the City Of Light after a twelve hours flight in the comfortable private jet with typical Korean breakfast served and a snoring Baekhyun sleeping so soundly he didn't seem to mind whether they were kidnapped or sold to Africa. Speaking of which- it was strange that Kai would send them off so far and it made her fuming mad that she won't be able to attend Chanyeol's birthday party when she already prepared the perfect gift.

The streets of Paris wasn't as romantic as people made it out to be. Seoul has more couples everywhere on the streets and in Paris everyone was doing their own thing at their own pace. It was a refreshing change from the bustling city of Seoul and even the air smelled different, it got her excited. People were heads taller than they were and it made Baekyhun extremely unhappy, ranting on and on how he should have brought insoles along knowing they were going Paris. Apart from them two were two bodyguards who followed them all the way from the airport in Seoul and boarded the same plane.

"It's much warmer here than in Seoul." Jiyoon stated happily as she skipped down the street.

"Where are we off to first?" she scrolled through her phone, scanning the different historical sites and city tours they could find. She was so thrilled to know that they will be touring the city for 2 or 3 days that she begged for a sim card for her iPhone. Baekhyun on the other hand didn't look too happy about the arrangements.

"Are you that happy we are here?"

"Why not?" Jiyoon blinked at him in surprise, as if he was a spoilsport. "We got a free holiday!"

"Seriously-" Baekhyun threw his hands in the air. His hands were raised in mid-air as the thought that Jiyoon has never been to France struck him. Though there were many things to settle back in Korea, he decided to let it go for once. He sighed, letting his hands down. "Where do you want to go?"

"Mhm...." Jiyoon revealed a bright smile.

"So," Jiyoon trailed off as she munched on her greens quietly. They could've been shopping on the streets, visiting museums or eating cusines in Michelin restaurants. Much to Baekhyun's shock and disbelief, they were sitting in Champ de Mars, the park that looked towards the iconic Eiffel tower. "Tell me more about you guys when you were younger."

"Really-?" Baekhyun coughed and spluttered, spitting some of the lettuce from his sandwich on Jiyoon's face.

"Ew!" she exclaimed in disgust but not forgetting to push a bottle of orange juice into his hands. "What's with that shocked expression?" 

"You wanna know?" he asked again, sitting himself upright. "I still can't figure out why in the world would Mr Ahn placed 12 of us in the same dorm. At that time Suho was still a candidate for the council president and you should've seen him trying so hard to please everyone around him, it was really hilarious especially to see him swallow his anger when the boys messed up the dorm." he chuckled, sipping on his orange juice. "We weren't always this close, you see. In the beginning there were many arguments especially between Suho and Kris who found him exceptionally fake. And there was the language barrier between the boys from China and cultural difference plus the jokes Xiumin hyung plays isn't helping the relationships at all. But-" he paused.

"I guess soccer bonded us together."

"Soccer?"

"The soccer games in year 1, we won it."

"You mean that trophy in the dorm?" Jiyoon's mouth formed an 'o'. She thought it was just a trophy that Luhan won, not as a team.
 

"I think that's what got us closer, got rid of the differences and forgive each other for those tough days we gave one another. Excluding me of course, I was always a nice kid."

"There's a lot of things I still don't know huh..." Jiyoon smiled, plopping down onto the green grass. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue with less clouds to be seen. She was slowly getting accustomed to life like that. A luxurious high standard of living, school, the boys and she don't even feel shocked to be thrown into Paris in a day anymore.

"Don't be upset about it. Many things happened before you arrived. But many things changed too." Baekhyun laughed, "I can't wait to graduate from high school with all of us. It's gonna be fun if we enter the same university right?"

"I'm sure Suho oppa will hate that."

"Yeah, probably."
 

"Wow wow wow, where did you get that suit from?" Chen winked at Sehun, patting him on his back. "Jiyoon?"

"Mhm." he answered reluctantly, clasping on his cufflinks. Unlike his hyungs who had suits of similar cuttings, his was slightly different and it was outstanding against the rest which was plain. He glanced at his appearance, feeling extremely satisfied with the way he looked.

"Don't steal the limelight." Chanyeol joked, knotting his black tie into a perfect triangle, "It's my big day."

"Where's Jiyoon by the way? She isn't in her dorm." Suho frowned as he stepped back into the living room. "This is weird...  Baekhyun hasn't been in the dorm the entire day as well. Kyungsoo, have you seen them?"

Kyungsoo had dressed himself up long before and sat on the couch waiting for them. The dorm keys he was playing with in his hands dropped carelessly on the ground with a loud clink and he snapped back to reality. "Sorry I-"

"Guess where they are~" Kai chirped in a sing-song tone. It didn't hide how he was in a good mood with his sleek moves as he moonwalked up to Suho with his phone. It was a LINE message from Baekhyun and Jiyoon enjoying their morning in a tiny bakery that looked unfamiliar to Suho. "Paris~"

"Paris?" Suho repeated, his frown deepening. "Please enlighten me why in the world are they flown across the globe, Mr Kim?"

"By your private jet I presume." he added, not giving a chance for him to speak. "You know it's Chanyeol's birthday, what are you doing? And we have school tomorrow if you do recall."

"But Baekhyun said he wanted some baguettes from Paris and Jiyoon-"

Kyungsoo looked up at Kai in bewilderment but he did not throw any glances at Kyungsoo. Sehun came up from behind Kai with a scoff.
 

"Make better excuses Kai." Sehun rolled his eyes. It was worrying enough to find Jiyoon missing the first thing in the morning when he visited her dorm. He found the dress he bought untouched, the box unopened and the calls he made to her phone went right into the voicemail.

And now the mystery was solved. He tried acting relaxed and thought of a million reasons in the span of 1 minute but still did not understand why Kai would do something like that.

"I don't know!" Kai threw his hands in the air, in frustration. It was hard enough coming up with an excuse and there Sehun's smart brain had destroy it. "Ask him when he comes back!"

"Let's forget about him." Chanyeol shrugged but pouted a second later when he thought about Jiyoon that was missing with Baekhyun. "But my princess is going to miss my birthday banquet!"

"She's not yours."

"Surely not yours either." he stuck a tongue at Sehun who glared at him in return.

"Let's halt this pointless argument." Chanyeol wrapped his arms around them, pulling all of them together with a goofy grin. "We're running late. Besides-"

"She's mine."

Chanyeol was in the mansion at 5pm sharp as requested by Mr Park. The tall steel gates opened with a heavy creak after rounds of intensive security checks including pat downs and going through metal detectors. The atmosphere was nothing alike a birthday celebration a 17 year old ought to have. The maids were running around with long plates of appetizers and desserts while the butlers were bringing out bottles after bottles of rare wine from the cellar. In Chanyeol's opinion, it was more like one of the other boring business dinners they had a few times in a year. But tonight was different.

It's going to be a hell of a ride.
 

"I'll be off first." Chanyeol lifted two fingers in salution. "See you guys later."

"I'll go around and find Jin." Luhan was the next to step away from the boys and headed straight into the mansion. His dress shoes clicked down the marble corridor and he stopped before the banquet hall. It wasn't huge but large enough to house a party of 500. And there she was, the girl he was looking for in a beautiful pink gown in gold lacing with her parents. Luhan had never met them before and he was a nervous wreck, sweat droplets forming on his temples as he recited under his breath words that he practiced the night before.

With confident footsteps, he plastered a large smile on his face and entered the banquet hall.

Her eyes lit up when she spotted him approaching and she made a tiny waved timidly with her hands by her side, still paying attention to the adults' conversations.

"Good evening, Mr and Mrs So." Luhan bowed politely. "I'm Luhan, your daughter's boyfriend."

"I see! I've heard a lot about you from our Sojin." Mr So chuckled and made a warm handshake with Luhan.

"Dad!" Sojin whined, hiding behind Mrs So in embarrassment. Mrs So only smiled endearingly and pushed Sojin towards him.

"Treat her well, will you?" she asked in Chinese.

"Certainly."

They escaped in laughter, running out of the banquet hall hand in hand and raced down the corridors. They didn't know where they were going but Luhan led them into the kitchen much  to the shocked expressions of the chefs and maids. He didn't forget to pick up a few sandwiches and they exited into the back garden of the servants' quarters.

"Swings." she ran towards the wooden swings in delight, made by the servants who lived in the mansion with their children. There was a pair, suspended on an enormous oak tree and she plopped on it delightfully.

"I was scared out of my wits." Luhan exclaimed, wiping the invisible sweat droplets on his face. "What if they don't like me?"

"Oh they adore you so much, I'm sure." Jin teased at his nervousness. "Just look at the way my mom looks at you!"

"Thank god." he smiled finally, handing her a sandwich. 

"Isn't it nice if we don't have school and we can play all day? Or go travelling around the world, exploring different places and meeting new people." she commented, taking a small bite into the sandwich although she had no appetite for that.

"I don't mind." Luhan shrugged.

"That's only a dream," she kicked off her heels and swung lightly on the swing. It was a little chilly in November, the oak tree bare of leaves that was brown and crisp on the ground. The news reported in the mornig it might snow earlier than expected. Maybe tomorrow or the day after. She huddled in the suit Luhan wrapped around her and sighed, mist forming in the air. "There's so many things we have to do and my family's here."

"After today, when you've finished everything that needs to be done." Luhan said. "Maybe we can run away and start anew somewhere else. We can visit your grandma in China-"

It was a slip of tongue and he paused. Sojin looking at him with a confused expression. "How did you..."

She stopped the swing immediately and stood up in utter horror. "You knew?"

"Yes-" Luhan mimicked her actions and stood up. "I did."
 

"From the beginning?"

"Yes." he gulped. Luhan turned his back against her. His mouth opened and closed repeatedly but no words escaped. He slipped his hands into his pockets trying to hide his shaking hands.

"Then why?"Jin's voice had a hint of hurt and anger. She took a step backwards, turning away from him as well.

"Because I saw the way you looked at Lay. Underneath that sheen of hatred is a deep sea of love I never comprehend. I know you don't feel a thing for him now but the childhood memories and times you've spent together with him, it's something I can't compete over because I know I'll never win against them. And-"

"I love you."
 

"Let's go home. Let's stop this nonsense." Jin felt Luhan's trembling fingers encircling her wrist. She was too weak to fight back, too ashamed to look him in the eye and she could only let him have his way. His arms wrapped tightly around her waist and pulled her closer into his embrace, her head on his chest feeling each heartbeat thumping strongly with life.

"We'll go back to China and there's no need for you to be Anqi or Sojin anymore. I'll bring you to my parents' in Beijing. You love to dance right? The art faculty in my father's university is a pretty cool one. We can start afresh in the city. We'll cycle around on days we are free and scale the Great Wall of China in the early mornings, snap pictures of random sights we come across and post them on Instagram-" Luhan chuckled softly, "I forgot it's blocked in China. But we can find a way around it."

"Sojung ah-" he called out her name, just like the very first time they met.

His precious gift. 

"Let's go home."

His words definitely made her hesitate and she turned around to look into the eyes of the boy he loved. There was so much sincerity and for once she saw hope in those starlit eyes."Really?"

"Trust me. After tonight, I promise."

"I'll be here, for you."
 

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Park mansion!" the mc shouted into the microphone. "On behalf of the Park family, I thank you for gifting us your time and presence to celebrate Mr Park Chanyeol's 17th birthday celebration."

There