“What the ? He rejected you?!” Aecha screeches over the phone. “How? Oh my god, what a !”

    “No, it’s not his fault,” Suyeon mumbles. “There must be something wrong with me.”

    “There is nothing wrong with you! You’re super cool!” Hwe Ji shouts on the other line. “Okay, seriously, I actually thought he would say yes. Like he’s always been chill with you. Why’d he say no?”

    “Does he have a girlfriend?” Jihae questions on the other line. “No, seriously. Maybe she goes to another school, or lives in France.”

    The thought of Hoseok in a relationship makes Suyeon feel dismal and embarrassed at the same time. The other girls must have sensed it, because Jihae suddenly announces, “We’re going out tonight.”

    Aecha trills with excitement. “Ooh! Where?”

    “Club 9.”

    Suyeon’s eyes widen. She abruptly sits up. “Club? As in, a club?”

    “Yup.”

    “But we’re underage! We can’t get into clubs or drink! That’s illegal!”

    “Oh, Suyeon, you pure, pure .” Jihae sighs dramatically. “It’s time you step out of your comfort zone and have a little fun. You know what? We’ll find you another guy tonight who’s 10 times hotter than Hoseok.”

    “Uhh....,” Suyeon fidgets with the hem of her tshirt. “I don’t know...,”

    “Suyeon, it’ll be fine,” Hwe Ji assures her. “We’ve been to a few clubs a few times, and we’ve been let inside easy. We just have to make sure to stick together. Also, if someone buys you a drink, make sure you watch the bartender pour it so no one tries to slip anything in it.”

    Suyeon gapes with horror. Drugging drinks! Drinks! This conversation is too grown up for her! She wants to remain in the innocent, safe realm of coffee dates and pizza buffets.

    “We’ll go for an hour,” Jihae tells her. “I know it’s your first time, so you may be a little tentative. But once you get there, you’ll feel fine.”

    Suyeon bites her lip. “Ummm.... okay. Fine.”

    “Awesome!” Jihae whoops. “Okay, put something hot on. I’ll pick you up in an hour, kay?”

    “Kay.” The click! of the phone echoes in her ear as all three girls hang up.

Three hours later, Suyeon is officially wasted.

Her solid red, skintight dress rides up her thigh as she grinds against someone behind her, tipping her head back and laughing, feeling the dizzy bliss of alcohol tug at her mind and pull her deep, deep down under. The heavy beat of techno music thumps in her ears, causing her entire body to vibrate. Suyeon cannot see anything more than hazy black figures, flashes of faces snapping in and out of her vision.

“You were so right,” she slurs to Jihae, who is practically glued to an attractive man next to her. “I feel sooo much better. Like, really.”

Jihae pulls herself away from the man to give her a tipsy grin. “I’m always right. I told ya so.”

Suyeon blows her a little air kiss and goes back to dancing.

This is so inappropriate, she thinks to herself, grabbing another shot of alcohol from the bar and heading back out to the dance floor after downing it in one gulp. Nerdy, boring Suyeon would never do this. This feels ing fantastic-    

    “Mind if we dance?” a throaty voice purrs in . Suyeon thinks there’s something a little strange about his voice- like she’s heard it somewhere before- but she feels too woozy to identify it. And when his firm arms snake around Suyeon’s waist and press her up against his well-defined body, she becomes a little... preoccupied.

    “I didn’t say yes yet,” she simpers.

    “But you were going to, weren’t you?” he whispers. Suyeon rolls her head back in pleasure. His voice is tickling her neck.

    “Touche. Let’s dance, then.” Suyeon moves against the man, swiveling her hips and standing oh so close to him. She runs his lips against his jawline and he growls, yanks her closer to him, slips his fingers up her dress.

    “You’re the iest girl in this club, you know,” the man murmurs raspily. “You’re gorgeous as hell.”

    Suyeon giggles, because when, oh when would someone have said that to her in the past? iest girl in the club? Ha! The man must have thought that she must have found what he said pleasing, because he smirks in satisfaction.

    “Wanna go somewhere more private?” he suggests, leaning down to place his lips right next to her ear. Suyeon does not reply; instead, she continues dancing to the beat of the music. Suddenly, she feels the man thread his fingers through hers and lead her away.

    “What are you doing?” she mumbles in protest, trying to bat him away. “I wanna dance.”

    “Baby, I want you.” He takes her hand and runs it up his rock-hard abs. “Let’s get out of here.”

    Jihae’s words float through Suyeon’s mind. We have to stick together, she had said. Suyeon teeters back and forth, leaning between the man and the dance floor, where her friends are.

    You know what?, she tells herself. Screw it. Hoseok thinks I’m ugly. This guy might be the only person who ever wants to sleep with me.

    “Sure,” she tells the man sweetly, and he smirks in approval.

    “My car’s at the front,” he tells her as he leads her to the exit of the club. “I have a Lamborghini, you know? I usually save it for special occasions, but something told me that today was a special occasion. Looks like I was right.”

    Suyeon is about to giggle and reply, but the two finally exit the club and the man’s face is thrown into sharp relief by the street lights. And she’s not so drunk that she can’t recognize his face.

    “Oh Sehun?” she gasps, stumbling backwards.

Sehun smirks. “So you’ve already heard of me? Well, y-,” He suddenly stops mid-sentence. Squinting, he peers closer at Suyeon’s face...

And blanches.

“No way,” he whispers. “Suyeon?”

    “Oh my god,” Suyeon groans, burying her head in her hands. “This is so, so embarrassing. Of all the people, why did I have to find you?”

    “You think it’s embarrassing for you?” Sehun mutters, his face steadily turning redder and redder. “I tried to put the moves on you... what was I even thinking? I didn’t even recognize you. What happened to you?”

    Suyeon sniffs haughtily, straightening. “What do you mean, what happened to you? I just changed how I looked. It’s not that big of a deal.”

    Sehun eyes her with a look that makes Suyeon feel like her insides are being examined by an X-ray. He takes her in, from her perfectly made up face to the hem of her dress, which is scrunched up to her mid-thigh to her cold expression. Suyeon narrows her eyes, steeling herself against his judgemental gaze.

    “But you didn’t just change on the outside, did you?” he asks softly. “Hwang Mirae would never go to a club. Who did you come here with, Suyeon?”

    “Why does it matter to you?” she asks frostily.

    “It doesn’t,” he responds smoothly. “I’m just curious.”

    “I came here with some other friends, if you must know,” she says. “And I should probably be getting back now-,”

    Sehun cuts across Suyeon’s words. “What if another man had said those things to you? Would you have actually slept with him?”

    “I- I don’t know,” she mumbles, avoiding his eyes.

    “So someone only has to say a few sweet words to you to take advantage of you? Why would you do that to yourself?”

    “Just stop,” Suyeon whispers, and suddenly it all comes rushing to her, Hoseok and the club and Sehun’s fingers up her leg and the alcohol and her face crumples. Sehun’s eyebrows shoot up.

    “Get in the car,” he says coolly. “I’ll take you home.”

    “I can’t go home,” Suyeon murmurs, her breath shaking. “My family will just laugh at me if they see me like this. I’m not leaving.”

    Sehun closes his eyes, clenching his jaw. Then he says, “Figure it out, then. I’m not going to stand here all day.”

    “I can’t call my friends,” Suyeon says. Her voice is getting smaller and squeakier by the second. “They’re all in there.”

    “Are all of them in there?” Sehun asks pointedly. And then it dawns on Suyeon.

    “Oh my god,” she whispers. “I’ve forgotten Mirae.”

    “Bingo.”

    “But I can’t call her. I’ve been avoiding her for weeks. It’s not fair of me to just use her like that.”

“Just try,” Sehun says heavily.

Mirae is fast asleep when her cell phone buzzes.

“Mmph,” she groans, fumbling around. “Hello?”

“Mirae?”

Mirae’s eyes widen.