“What are you staring at?” Jiho demands bluntly. He’s sitting on the couch in the lounge at the studio, feet propped up on the scuffed coffee table. It’s Tuesday and they’re recording again, but they’re working on Taeil and Jaehyo’s duet right now so he’s not needed.

Emily, sitting on the couch beside him, her lips – he tries to pretend that it’s not an obscene gesture, but his brain has other ideas – and gestures to the ice cream bar he’s currently eating. “That looks good,” she says meaningfully.

He takes another big bite. “It is.”

Emily pouts, puckering those lips out in another obscene gesture – Jiho really needs to get his mind out of the gutter. “Give me some.”

“No way,” he exclaims, taking another bite. “This is my ice cream. If you want ice cream, then go buy one. There’s a convenience store on the corner.”

“I don’t have any money!” she whines. “And besides, my uncle doesn’t let me out on my own. You know that. Just give me a bite.”

Jiho groans and holds out the ice cream for her. He gives in way too easily, he finds himself thinking. Apparently Kyung is thinking the same thing, because he smirks in Jiho’s direction before going back to the book he’s reading. Jiho has to resist the very strong urge to flick his best friend off.

Emily sighs in a sinful way – Jiho’s really not usually a dirty-minded person, he swears – and her lips again. “That’s delicious. Give me more.”

“No way,” he grumbles, snatching his ice cream bar away. “You said you just wanted a bite.”

“Well it turns out that I want more than that,” she says with a cheeky grin.

He remains stoic, looking anywhere but at her. “Well you can’t have any more of mine. Go get your own.”

“I already told you that I don’t have any money and that my uncle won’t let me leave the building without an ,” she reminds him. “So that means you have to go with me to be my chaperone and you have to buy it for me.”

He gives in before he really realizes what he’s agreeing to. “Fine. Let’s go.”

Kyung makes a whipped noise as they walk past, and Jiho smacks him on the back of the head in retaliation. He’s not whipped. He’s not. He just doesn’t want Chanyong to get upset at Emily wandering around the streets by herself. Yeah, that’s it.

Emily sighs the second they step out of the building. “Ah, it’s such a pretty day,” she muses thoughtfully, stretching her arms over her head. “I hate being in that stuffy studio all day.”

“Well if you quit running away, maybe your uncle would give you a bit more freedom,” Jiho suggest dryly.

Much to his surprise, Emily doesn’t retort like he’d expected. She just sighs and shakes her head. “Nah, that’ll never happen. He’ll be overprotective of me forever because of what happened.”

Jiho tries not to push it, but he’s insanely curious. “What happened?” he demands.

She pointedly ignores him, and so he takes that to mean she doesn’t want to talk about it. He’ll just have to deal with his curiosity.

“You know, there’s a party I’m going to this weekend,” she says instead, casually linking her arm through his.

Jiho tries not to start at the skinship. “And you’re telling me this why?”

She grins cheekily up at him. “I know you guys are going to follow me, so I figured I’d just go ahead and invite you so we don’t all have to act surprised when you show up.”

He can’t help but laugh at that. “Who says we’re going to follow you? I’m getting pretty tired of this constant babysitting thing.”

She rolls her eyes. “You like the parties I go to. Admit it. You had a lot of fun at that foam party.”

Jiho doesn’t answer; he did, in fact, have a hell of a good time at the foam party.

“This is just a regular party, unfortunately,” she continues when he doesn’t answer. “Nothing fun like paint or foam. But still, there will be alcohol and live music, so it should be pretty fun. So you’ll come, right?”

He shrugs noncommittally. “I dunno. Maybe I have pans this weekend.”

“Jihoooo,” she whines, tugging on his arm as they enter the air-conditioned convenience store. “You never have plans on the weekend.”

“Yah, don’t say things like that,” he grumbles good-naturedly, leading the way over to the ice cream cooler. “I’m an idol. I have plenty of things to do on the weekends. Choose a damn ice cream.”

Emily only laughs when he gets flustered, and she takes her time selecting a chocolate ice cream bar. Jiho pays for it with loose coins in his wallet and the two of them head back, Emily linking their arms together again.

They walk most of the way in silence, but Jiho breaks it as they get close to the studio again. “Why do you act like this?” he asks, and he’s genuinely curious. “Partying all the time? Worrying your uncle?”

Emily’s face clouds over. “I like to party. That’s all it is,” she says stiffly, awkwardly enough that Jiho knows there’s something more to it. “And Uncle Chanyong worries too much.”

She lets go of his arm once they get back to the lounge, throwing herself onto the couch and unwrapping her ice cream. Kyung quirks an eyebrow at Jiho in silent question, but Jiho just shakes his head. It’s not like anything happened anyway.

“So you want to go to this party?” Kyung asks Saturday afternoon. It’s one of the rare days where they don’t have a schedule – contrary to what Emily seems to think, they actually are very busy – and so they’ve lounged around their dorm for most of the day. Kyung, as usual, has made himself comfortable on Jiho’s bed.

Jiho sighs and runs his fingers through his messy hair. “I dunno…” he mumbles.

“Liar,” Kyung accuses with a knowing twinkle in his eye. “You definitely want to go. You just don’t know if you should. Right?”

The blonde sighs and sinks down beside his friend. “I’m an idiot, right? I mean, there’s absolutely nothing to like about her, right?”

Kyung purses his lips thoughtfully. “Well, I don’t know that I’d go that far. She’s pretty.”

“She’s a baby,” Jiho points out with a sort of self-loathing tone in his voice. “She’s not even legal.”

“At least she’s almost legal,” Kyung replies immediately. “And sure she’s got some issues, but she definitely knows how to have fun. I had a blast at that foam party the other night.”

Jiho has to laugh. “Well, you’ve got a point there.”

“And she seems to listen to you,” Kyung continues knowingly. “That’s more than she does for anybody else.”

Despite his friend’s assurances, Jiho still isn’t sure. “So do you think I should go to the party or not?”

“I think you should go,” Kyung says. “We’ve got the weekend off and what’s the worst that can happen? You’ll go, you’ll drink a little, and you’ll have fun while keeping an eye on the girl you like. It’s not a big deal, bro.”

“So does that mean you’ll come too?” Jiho asks hopefully.

“Not a chance in hell,” Kyung replies immediately, still smiling. “Think of it like a date.”

“It’s not a date!” Jiho exclaims, but Kyung has gone back to his video game and is pointedly tuning his friend’s whining out.

So, when Emily texts him the address of the party – from whose phone he doesn’t know but she seems to have a way to borrow phones wherever she goes – he pulls a cap on over his blonde hair and heads out to meet her.

Even though it’s just around midnight when he arrives, he finds that Emily has already had her fair share of alcohol and then some. She’s dressed in skinny jeans and a top that rides up when she lifts her arms, revealing her tanned stomach and pierced belly button. She’s got a beer held negligently in one hand, her metal bracelets clanking together as she sways and jumps to the music blasting through the speakers.

“Jiho!” she crows when he finds her, throwing her arms around his neck as if she’s super pleased to see him. He tries not to let that go to his head – either of them. “You made it! Where are your little shadows?”

“You mean Kyung and Yookwon and the others?” Jiho asks, trying to pry her arms from around his neck. She’s got a death grip, so it’s sort of an impossible task. “They’re back at the dorm. They wanted to be chill tonight, so I came alone.”

Emily doesn’t seem bothered by this at all. In fact, her face splits into a genuine smile. “Let’s get you something to drink!” she suggests, and then she’s dragging him over to one of the bars.

It’s crowded, so she pushes and shoves until they’re right up against the countertop. The bartender, a college-age guy whose hair is shaved on one side, catches sight of Emily and grins. “What can I get you, Em?”

“I’m good for now,” she says, shaking her mostly-full beer bottle. “But my friend here needs to get on my level.”

The bartender gives Jiho a onceover. “He’s gonna have to do a hell of a lot of drinking to catch up with you, love.” But he goes to fetch a beer for Jiho anyway.

“Are you on a first name basis with all of the bartenders in Seoul?” Jiho grumbles while the bartender is busy. “How do you even get to drink in all these places? You’re not old enough!”

She just laughs delighted and laces her arm through his again.

The bartender returns and slides Jiho his beer with a knowing sort of smile on his face. Then Emily is dragging him back out onto the dance floor.

The bartender hadn’t been joking when he’d mentioned how much Emily had already had to drink, Jiho realizes quickly. He’s partied with her quite a few times now – not always of his own free will, either – and this is by far the drunkest he’s ever seen her. Her face is flushed and red, and she sways on her feet in a way that has nothing to do with her dancing. Sometimes Jiho feels that his hands on her waist are possibly the one things keeping her standing.

Of course, the drunker Emily gets, the more amorous she gets. She grinds her denim-clad into his crotch, swaying against him, eyes sultry and almost inviting.

She her lips, and this time Jiho is positive that she’s doing it on purpose. “Jiho,” she says, and he sort of likes the way his name spills from her red lips in an almost purr. “Do you want to kiss me?”

He swallows thickly. It seems like the rest of the party has fallen away and there’s suddenly nobody but the two of them there on the dance floor. “No,” he says, but he doesn’t sound very convincing even to himself.

“Liar,” she accuses, but she’s smiling that drunk sort of smile that makes one side of quirk up more than the other. Then she leans even closer. “I want to kiss you.”

Jiho has to turn his head before she can put her lips on his. “You’re drunk, Emily,” he says, and it’s taking all his willpower not to accept her advances. “You’re going to regret this in the morning.”

She’s pouting. He can see this without even looking at her. “How do you know what the I’m thinking or feeling?”

Jiho sighs. This is not at all the way he’d wanted the night to go. “You look tired, Em. Let’s just go home, okay? It’s almost dawn anyway. The party will be ending soon.”

Emily sighs, but then she pecks him lightly on the cheek. “Okay, okay. Quit being so ing responsible all the time.” She links her fingers with his. “Let’s go. I want to go back to my uncle’s house tonight.”

Jiho sighs. He’d sort of expected that after he’d refused her. “Fine. I’ll take you back to Chanyong’s place.” And they leave the party together.