► Choi S e o h e e :

Scanning my eyes through the exotic scene before me again, I returned to my seat in the lounge. As I sat, my eyes met with the DJ, who seemed to nod so as to welcome me back, and then with some random guy in the far corner of the room, who gave me a cute smile. I turned away before he could see me blush, and that was when I noticed the boy, who was with the cobalt mask and kept trying to get my attention earlier, making his way to me. His stare was sending what felt like daggers into my skin.

Daggers...

Why did that word strike me so?

Then, his voice woke me from my reverie.

“Hi.”

I looked up to see the stranger from before. A long chain of words left his mouth after that, but I didn’t quite catch it in the booming music, so I stayed silent. His arms loosened from his sides in the corner of my eyes as he lifted them to his face, elbows jutting out at me. My gaze shifted to him quickly in case he wanted to try anything, only to realise that he was taking off his mask. He looked the same in the dark space enveloping us, just that now, he didn’t seem so much of a stranger… In fact, he looked really familiar. Studying his features, I was sure I had seem him somewhere before–

Wait.

NARCISSISTIC PRINCE WHO WAS SLEEPING ON THE SCHOOL ROOFTOP?!

► Kim J o n g h y u n :

After losing Sora in the abyss of her house, I kept searching until I finally found her sitting at the lounge, dress pulled down to her knees, alone. She looked like she needed some company. I was entirely captivated by her presence again, when Minji hurtled past my shoulder and knocked some conscience back into me. Like, what the hell? Then, I figured she was probably finding her way back to her 'Queen' for comfort because she did something stupid again. Brushing my jacket where Minji had just bumped into me, I continued making my way towards the girl. When I got close enough to see her looking back at me, her alluring scent controlled my whole body, pulling me near like I was a magnet attracted to her.

In a flash, we were just approximately a metre apart.

“Hi,” I said, pretty sure she hadn't forgotten me yet. “Sorry about earlier, I don’t believe I’ve properly introduced myself yet. Name’s Jonghyun. What's yours?”

I reached my hand out to her, but when she remained silent, perhaps from shyness, I let my hands slip under my mask. I tried tempting her, but resorted to taking it off, and ruffled my hair in a completely unawkward manner. It successfully gained her attention; I found her looking at me. At my face. Ah, of course, which girl on Earth wouldn't fall for my gorgeous face?

Then, I walked over and slid next to her on the sofa, so close until our legs were touching. I expected her to jump a bit, but she showed no such reaction and just crossed her legs. I swear I felt a spark.

What was her heart made of? Stone?

I waited for her to take her mask off, too, but she hadn’t. Instead, she turned her head away and ignored me again, or tried to and was failing, and brought the punch that was left on the coffee table in front of her to her pale lips. She them and they flushed red once more. My heartstrings knotted into a million tangles.

Realising she kept staring at my roommate on the dance floor, I finally decided to ask, yelling just loud enough for her to hear above the party music. “So… you know Key?”

She replied quick and simple. “Yeah.”

“Since when did you two start?”

She fumbled for words. “Wh- What?”

I took it that she didn't hear me, so I used the opportunity to lean into her shoulder. I fought the urge to... bite her ear. “Are you his girlfriend?”

She shot me a look, one that was trying to say ‘what are you, my mother?’, so I assumed she heard me right. She moved her hands in front of and lined her slender fingers together so that they worked like that of a megaphone, and shouted back. “No.. he already has one.”

Key had a girlfriend? Bastard, didn’t even tell me.

When she returned to her upright position, I ran my eyes over her features again, her soft, angelic hair over her bony shoulders and her cheeks as flawless as mine. The only thing impairing the image right now was the strand of hair that had come free and was covering the far side of her face. I wanted to take it in my hand and hook it behind her ear for her, but I resisted from actually doing so when I thought it might scare her. Maybe she liked things slow.

When the silence got too thick, I resumed, curious to find out more. “So, you don’t have a boyfriend?”

“No...”

“For someone as beautiful as you!?! Well, then you're looking at the perfect nominee.”

She laughed.

I didn't quite understand her response. "Why'd you laugh?"

She shook her head, but before she could return her gaze to the dance floor, to Key, I couldn't help but her pull her into an intimate embrace and cupped her face in my hands. Surely, she had to fall for me by now. There was no way any girl could go by me uncaptivated with my secret charm. After all, she was only human, too. Inching closer, I could almost feel her breath on my neck. She looked even better up close, and that didn't surprise me. What surprised me though was that she hadn't pulled away yet, and for a few seconds we were staring intensely at each other, me at her eyes and her at my lips. Proud of myself, I caught her interests in me wavering.

"Want to know what they feel like?"

But that was when I realised I had made the biggest mistake ever. Before I could even try to take her mask off, she grabbed onto my arm, and flipped me. My whole world turned upside down and back in a second, my back landing on something hard on the sofa. I was lost for words.

Ow.

► Choi S e o h e e :

I couldn’t believe the same Kim Jonghyun who had bragged to me about his skin on the school rooftop earlier had just tried to kiss me. First, he told me I was ugly, and now he was trying to get with me? Apparently, all the girls in the school weren’t enough for him to hit on. I hated annoying people, and he was annoying.

“Eugh…” He moaned, trying to hide the pain where it had obviously hurt.

“You should be thankful I didn’t dislocate your hip, lover boy.” I didn’t know if I could do that, but something inside told me I had the potential to.

Rolling onto his stomach, he got up, trying to find his balance on the ground again. “You know, no one has ever rejected me before...”

I was slightly taken aback by his response. "I'm surprised."

"You're still my first."

“Shut up.”

He adjusted his jacket, threatening to close the space between us, totally unaffected, no matter what profanity I threw him. “Are all girls cute like this when they’re mad?” He wiped his mouth. “If you’re doing this to grab my attention, don’t, because it’s working.”

Damn, he was stubborn.

I was going to tell him to run for his life if he wanted to keep his pretty face, but all my good intentions faded when he smirked back at me. His startlingly settled behaviour made me feel limitlessly stressed.

Figuring I wasn’t going to see an end to this, I rolled my eyes and stepped up from where I was sitting, wanting to get out of the room. I was glad no one else had been here to see the series of events unfold; otherwise, I was so going to get it. The last thing I needed was another distraction.

“Don’t follow me,” I warned, before turning my back to him.

But he just flicked the hair out of his face coolly, as though nothing had ever happened. "Can I get your name at least?"

I wasn't going to tell him at first, but when he pursed his lips, my mouth betrayed my heart. "Choi Seohee. Remember it."

Then, I thought I saw him smile. HOW COULD HE SMILE GIVEN THE SITUATION RIGHT NOW?

“You’re so going to regret leaving when you start to miss me.”

I wasn't sure if he was being serious or not.

Jerk.

Saving him from the disappointment of finding out that it was actually I he had been trying to get this whole time, I let silence fill the space between us. I kept walking until I reached the dance floor, three-quarters expecting him to come up from behind and keep me from leaving, a quarter paranoid his fan girls were going to jump me when they had found out. When none of that happened however, I let out a sigh of relief.

I was almost afraid to look back, but when someone jumped onto the pool table in the corner of my eye, I shifted my whole body to examine the scene. Then, I saw Sora pushing through the crowd, who looked really mad because her nostrils were flaring, Minji beside her. My eyes darted to and fixed on the guy on the table top. He looked like he was playing catch with invisible butterflies, and was trying to strip his jacket from his body…

K…

I almost choked on his name.

KEY!?

► Kim J o n g h y u n :

Never had I, Kim Jonghyun, thought that I would live a day to see this. All those girls chasing after me, and Seohee was the first to reject me. It hurt my pride like crazy, and I hated her for it, but… why did she appeal to my senses so much? I felt drawn to her. Somewhere deep down inside, I just couldn’t leave her alone. It was like she was someone I never met yet had known all my life. She ignored me, confused me, but the thought of her enlivened me, and I liked that… It separated her from the rest I’ve dated.

Oh, and it was absolutely odd trying to act nice to someone who had just flipped you. I didn’t even know why I was praising her. But for the sake of my reputation, I had to give it a try. I was going to make her like me so much she would regret ever talking to me like that.

Yes, the perfect plan.

Just... where to start?

Putting my heavy head back and letting it rest on the arm of the leather sofa, I stared up at the ceiling as the party stirred to its utmost extent. Covering my head under my jacket as I left the lounge, making sure no one had noticed the whole scene I had had with Seohee in the lounge, which I was sure no one had because they were too busily dancing, I arrived just in time to see Key…

… Dancing on the pool table.

“Poor kid, got his punch spiked,” I heard someone say.

Duuuude.

I stood around long enough to see Key getting pulled away by Sora’s butlers, held more like he was a captive being brought to prison than anything else, and only stole away when the crowd had dispersed. When they locked him up in some room upstairs, I found that my gaze had left him naturally, lusting once more for Seohee. She was too interesting for me to give up right now.

If I couldn’t get her this time, then my name wasn’t Kim Jonghyun.

► Choi S e o h e e :

I kept feeling a presence behind me. But when I walked out into the backyard – more like a holiday vista attached to the back of the mansion itself – I felt slightly more relieved. Given the crowd in front of me, I thought maybe I could lose Jonghyun more easily here.

No, actually, not exactly.

It was even more chaotic outside than I imagined. People were scattered around the edge of the water, some drinking on the diving boards, others speaking their hearts out under the moon. Everyone was too indulged in their own worlds to even realise my arrival. It wasn’t only until Sora came out with her butlers behind her that everyone’s attention fixed onto her.

► Jang  S o r a :

A row of whispers filled the air as my birthday cake rolled itself out on a trolley onto the podium behind me was my luxurious pool. The layers of sponge pasted with vanilla icing towered over everyone, and seemed to twinkle in the moonlight. It was decorated with pink, creamy flowers around the rims, picked out especially by my father, and matched with an evident trail of green icing, which started from one bud and tangled itself with its flanking member, creating a line of flowers that wrapped in overlapping chains, all connected together. It was like a Christmas tree, except its purpose was reversed, and this one was edible.

I eyed Jonghyun at the back, and then Little Miss , or Seohee as Minji had called her, who was standing there in the middle of the crowd. I held back an evil smile that tried to creep onto my face, thinking about all the different ways I could introduce her to a whole new world of embarrassment. She was lucky the boy had accepted her fate for her earlier. Poor Key... but since he was her friend, no not really.

Raising the glass above my head, I made a toast to my prince charming, secretly promising to give his new, idiotic follower the hard time she deserved. If I couldn't have him yet, then so couldn't she.

► Choi S e o h e e :

“... I, Jang Sora, will like to make a toast to everyone who's here tonight, and to my special baby, Kim Jonghyun.”

Everyone brought their hands together, not surprised that the queenka had mentioned the kingka in her speech, and clapped even louder when she announced that everyone could eat as much as they liked. The tables filled quickly with junk food, cakes and other desserts. Like iron filings to a magnet, the students streamed over and fought for the food, pushing me out of the track albeit me having been there first. Kim Jonghyun was behind the crowd, looking unamused. Forced to walk in the other direction, I came almost face to face with the birthday girl herself, who had her arms crossed, Minji at her side, again. They obviously didn’t look very happy about me being close to Jonghyun. Did they find out?

My stomach lurched.

But I kept walking, pretending her presence wasn’t a pain in the neck. When I passed her, I almost relaxed, but good thing I kept looking long enough because just seconds later I caught her feet appearing from under her dress.

She had actually tried to trip me.

Instinctively, I stopped walking and turned to the side. She tried to push me at my sudden reflex, but instead her heels got caught in her dress and… well, she fell into the water. I gasped as the events unfolded in front of me, literally, when my back connected with something hard, like marble, and Jonghyun tackled me to the ground. It was only when I had opened my eyes on the floor with his hard body on top of me and my head tucked safely into his chest that I realised the situation.

My mask had come off, so everything was in perfect vision. The birthday cake had fallen in front of us, just a metre away, and Jonghyun had pushed me out of the way. If not for him, my dress and make-up rehearsal would have been a waste of time, and my self-esteem completely ruined. Not that it wasn’t ruined already…

Expecting him to immediately jump off because I was that ‘ugly’ girl from school earlier, I was surprised to see that Jonghyun didn’t react much when he had seen my face. Instead, he smiled like a dork. I was madly confused.

“Why did you save me?”

► Kim J o n g h y u n :

The girl from the greenhouse at school today. Oh.

“… you save me?”

Actually, I had no idea. That was a really, really good question. Wasn’t I the one who wanted to screw with her for revenge just a few episodes before this? She flipped me, I saved her, made no sense, right? I contemplated hard and long, eyes unable to move from her face. There was something about this girl that differentiated her from everyone else, but I still couldn’t quite put a name to it. Maybe she wasn’t clingy like the rest of them, or even if she was, she hadn’t shown it yet. Or was it because I knew she was going to be another victim of Sora, so it was pity I was feeling? I wasn't confident at settling on either.

“Yaaa! If you're not going to say anything, then GET OFF ME YOU ERT!”

Oh, and she wasn’t afraid to speak down to me either. The strength behind her words radiated yet again despite her petite figure under me. I felt like I almost… didn’t want to hurt her. Maybe she was only strong on the outside, but really, she was like a marshmallow on the inside. Something in me wanted to protect her. Something in me wanted to make her mine.

Then, I thought of something cheesy, and whispered it into her ear.

“How else was I supposed to make you notice me?”

► Choi S e o h e e :

What was he? Bipolar? Telling me I would regret and then saving my ?

Still flushing with a red line stretched across my cheekbones, he got off me, a guilty look on his face. I expected him to leave, but instead he extended his arm down to me. I examined him a bit before I reached up to grab a hold of his cold hands as he tugged me from my position and I stood up. For a second, I thought maybe he wasn’t as bad as I thought he was, but when he just walked off, playing it cool, as though he was expecting me to follow him, I had a change of heart. Half of my body wanted to, but the other half didn’t. When I realised the glares that had cornered me from every direction however, and Sora, who was soaked from head through to toe, I figured that that was the only option I had. Bowing in my deepest apologies as I closed the space between us, I caught up to him just as he made it inside the building.

✰ ✰ ✰

Nothing much happened after that.

Jonghyun pushed me onto a taxi after telling me Sora looked like she could have killed me and promised to get Key if I waited. Too tired to argue, I did exactly as he wished. It was only then, when I was out of all the disco lights and booming music, that I realised how sleepy I actually was. I stared outside, noticing how the water droplets had started to fall from the sky. The frost forming on the window blurred my line of sight, and the pelting of the drizzle against the taxi rooftop tempted to lull me to sleep.

As I waited, trying to keep my eyes opened, I pondered how I had gotten myself so entangled with two narcissistic princes and a jealous, enemy princess on the first day I arrived. You could say Sora's party was destroyed because of me; if I was going to die, it was going to be tomorrow, but for the moment, my mind drifted elsewhere. It took me no longer than a minute to realise how close their similarities and differences were, especially with Jonghyun and Key, to the point it was actually beginning to startle me. What was it with everyone and beauty? Both were almost always bragging about their appearances – just that Key wouldn’t show it off in front of anyone else; Jonghyun did. A smile slipped itself onto my face at the thought.

My eyelids felt heavy, and my body kept telling me I needed to rest them. I peaked over to the seat in front of me and realised that the taxi driver wasn't there anymore, so, unable to hold my weariness back any longer, I made myself comfortable in the back seat and closed my eyes. And before Jonghyun or Key could get back, I was already plunged into a deep slumber, far deeper into dreamland than I had ever been before, afraid where not even the deepest of calls could wake me up.

hyukxin ft.  ayshienjulie ©