WANT TO KNOW WHAT ELSE HAS SEVEN BONES? 

It was going to happen at a nightclub.

Minah had said that Kyungsoo and his friends were going out that night, and that was when I would strike. Meanwhile Minah would be at her job, which involved her handing out perfume samples at the local mall. This is the life that you live in college. All of those jobs that you hate? Somebody, typically those between eighteen and twenty-five, has to do them. 

In preparations for my big moment, I had been devouring magazines for the past eight days while Minah droned on and on about every single flirting technique that she knew. Which is a lot, by the way. Minah was subscribed to practically every magazine on the planet. Chorong occasionally offered small bits of information, but still stuck to her claim that one of us was going to get screwed over in the end, and that person was more than likely going to be me. 

"Hopefully, he'll try and kiss you," Minah said and I wrinkled my nose in disgust. Wasn't her wanting for him to kiss me the exact opposite of how she wanted this to pan out? "And then you pull away and say that you have to leave." 

I nodded. "Why would I have to leave?" 

We were in Minah’s apartment on that Friday night. I was sitting on the stool in front of her vanity mirror while she was attempting to wrestle my hair into something that made it look sleek instead of poodle­like. She was giving me a rundown of what was going to happen that night while I was blankly staring at the pages of some gossip magazine. 

“Don’t say anything. Just smile at him, give a flirty wink, and then walk away,” she instructed. “No speaking.”

“I can’t wink,” I stated dumbly. Actually, I could wink; it just looked thoroughly creepy when I did so. I was trying to attract a man, not scare him off.

“Everybody can wink,” she shook her head while trying to drag a comb through a lock of my hair. It wasn’t working. I was going to be bald before I even made it to the club.

“I look weird when I wink.”

“Okay. Fine. Don’t wink,” Minah rolled her eyes in defeat. I love when I win arguments. “But you still can’t say anything.” I shrugged, because I had no problem with not speaking. “Now, what do you do if he tells you that he has a girlfriend?”

Go home and laugh in your face? “Try again,” I answered.

Minah had given up on the comb and was now curling sections of my hair. It felt like I had been sitting there for hours while Minah burned and scalped me. “How many times?”

“If he rejects me three times, I leave. Just like in baseball,” I recited.

"I don't know what that means." 

Damn. I forgot that Minah didn't keep up with baseball even though most people in Seoul did. "Don't worry about it," I said. "Three times and I'm out. And I guess that you'd be in." Minah worked silently for a few seconds before I spoke again. "Do you really think that he's cheating on you?" 

"Don't trust men, Avery," was her answer. That makes total sense, thanks Min. 

That was when Chorong bustled in; holding what could have been a large wash-cloth in one of her hands. The only reason that she was even there was because her and her boyfriend were also going to the club that night and I was hitching a ride. Plus, even though Chorong would never mention it, she really didn't want for me to get hurt. If I was too big of a failure, she would jump in and finish the job for me. That's what best friends did. 

"I bought the dress!" she exclaimed, waving the hanger in the air. 

And that was not what best friends did. 

"What the hell is that?" my eyes widened in fear. 

"It's a dress," she replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which, I guess it kind of was. It's just that normally, my dresses covered a respectable amount of skin. Chorong was holding a top. 

"I know that it's a dress," I rolled my eyes in the mirror. "Why is it so small? What kind of place are we going to?" 

"A nightclub? You know, Avery, it's okay to let your knees show every once in a while," Chorong remarked, walking further into the room and handed me the dress. "Hurry up. Joonmyun's waiting downstairs and we don't want to be out all night." Chorong said it like she thought that I wanted to be out until the wee hours of the morning. 

Minah finished my hair and I wiggled my way into the tiny black dress that I had been given. It was so tight that I was having a great deal of difficulty breathing. When it's hard to breathe, you know that your dress is too tight. 

It didn't matter. It was too late to back out at that point. Besides, wasn't getting forced out of your comfort zone supposed to be a good thing? I wedged my feet into the strappy black heels that Minah had chosen for me and said a silent prayer before leaving the room. 

As expected, Chorong and Minah gushed over my appearance, which only made me feel more uncomfortable, and took a few pictures before Chorong ushered me downstairs because her boyfriend had been sitting in his car for a good twenty minutes and was probably about to die due to boredom. 

"Remember the plan!" Minah shouted as I left the apartment. 

Believe me, it was going to hard to forget. 

***

Oh, god, I was way too awkward to be in a crowded nightclub. I was way too awkward to be in public. Okay, that was a slight exaggeration. We had just made it inside. But there were so many people. And they were all ... touching. 

It was okay, Avery. Get in, get out. 

"Which one is Kyungsoo?" I yelled to Chorong over the music. I wasn't sure where Joonmyun had run off to, but I was slightly envious. 

"Chill out," she leaned over and whispered in my ear. That was more effective than yelling. "Let's go wait by the bar and look for him there." 

Obviously, I wasn't going to reject spending time with someone that I actually knew. I let Chorong drag me to the bar, where Joonmyun was already ordering us drinks. Or him and Chorong drinks and me some water. Because the last thing that anyone needed was a drunk Avery in a public venue. I practically inhaled my water bottle while silently measuring out the different outcomes of this in my head. 

"Maybe he didn't show up," I told the two of them hopefully, swiveling on my barstool. "Maybe he felt guilty about going out without Minah and decided to stay home and watch a documentary on the Sahara on Animal Planet." 

"You have strange expectations of what people do when they have free time," Joonmyun teased. I don't mind when Joonmyun teases me, though. I know that he doesn't mean it. Joonmyun and Chorong have been dating for more than three years, and he was seriously one of the best things about her. He was just so nice. And he would never cheat on her, meaning that I would never have to use this insane plan for Chorong's sake. 

I slid off my chair and wriggled around, adjusting my dress. "Shut up, Joonmyun. The Sahara is one of the most interesting places on Earth. Did you know that giraffes have seven bones in their neck, just like almost all mammals?" 

"You should really get out more," was his response before taking a sip of his drink. 

That was probably true. I sat my water bottle down on the countertop of the bar and tugged my dress up so what little I had didn't fall out, then back down again to make sure that the tiny amount of that I actually had wasn't exposed to the world. Really, guys, I'm not kidding. Wounded deer. I rubbed my index finger over my teeth to make sure I didn't have any lipstick smeared on them. I hate wearing lipstick. It always ends up every place but your mouth. Oh, God, that sounded dirty. 

"Avery, stop doing that," Chorong mumbled at me, rubbing her ear that was hidden behind her long veil of light brown hair. 

"Doing what?" I asked, still rubbing my teeth. It wasn't like I was picking a wedgie or anything. 

"Kyungsoo. He's behind me," she muttered, looking at me. 

I froze, my finger still on my teeth. . There were nearly a million people behind Chorong. And it was dark. She could have been talking about anyone. "Which one is he?" I hissed, finally pulling my hand away from my face. Damn, I should have brought my glasses with me. Or I could have at least been like the rest of the world and gotten contacts. Or even laser surgery. But no, I insisted on keeping it 'old school.' 

. That was cheesy, too. If my own thoughts were that awful, I was scared to know what was going to happen when I actually spoke. 

Chorong straightened up her back. "He's the one on the couch. Blue sweater. Brown hair, brown eyes," she said. 

How did she even know that he was behind her? I didn't even know that she had turned around. 

"There's some blonde girl trying to flirt with him on the couch. He appears uninterested," Chorong continued while I was still scanning the room to find him without appearing too obvious. "Try and get his attention." 

And then I saw him. And I knew him. It was the same guy from the Chinese restaurant from that night last week. Oh . It's alright, Avery. He won't even recognise you with all of the fancy makeup and micro-dress that you have on. 

I somehow managed to recover from the initial shock before Chorong could notice the mini- that I had just gone through. "How do I get his attention?" I asked her. Oh, yep, it was definitely him. He had the same big owl eyes. Damn. And he was so freaking nice to me? How could he have been dating Minah? Minah usually went for the type, and Kyungsoo didn't seem that -y to me. And the best part was that he wasn't looking at me. I guess that meant that the plan was a bust.

"Start talking about giraffes again. That'll be sure to get his attention," Joonmyun smirked and Chorong elbowed him in the side. 

"Bite your lip, look down, run your hand through your hair, and then look up at him. That order. Do it. Now!" she barked with such authority that I was surprised she didn't join the army