You know that moment when you are suddenly woken up by your parents screaming at you that you only have 7 minutes to get ready because you are being dragged once again to another stupid banquet? Well that was me. And to some people, 7 minutes is plenty of time, but to me, 7 minutes is nothing. It was literally a life of death situation. And so, in that 7 minutes of pain, anger, tiredness, and frustration, I ran to my closet, picked out the closet dress to me, stripped my clothes off and quickly put my dress on, washed my face, put some makeup on, it took me 2 minutes to try to find phone, which was underneath my pillow the whole time, and I headed out the door. I forgot to brush my teeth but screw it; I have some gum stashed in the car. So I am currently sitting in the back seat of my car, listening to music, and chewing my watermelon and kiwi flavored gum just trying to survive the hour long car dive all the way to my parents’ banquet. Isn’t my life just fabulous?

And so, in my car ride of misery, Sehun had come back from wherever he went to and I was texting him in the car. “So you are going to ANOTHER banquet?” he asks

“Yep. But I’m not that surprised. I mean the last time we went to one was when I met you in the park, and that was like what, a month ago?”

“A month and 2 weeks to be exact”

“Yeah, and anyways this one is apparently bigger with two floors and it’s supposed to be WAY fancier than the last one. Of course my parents would go and drag me along”

“So how long have you’ve been in the car?”

“27 minutes. And I have 33 more to go. Yay me!” I text

“Hey I got to go but I’ll talk to you later. Okay?”

“Sure. Bye” I say a little disappointed. Afterwards I take a little nap in the car and by the time I woke up, I had a slight pain in my neck because of the position I was sleeping in, and we were only 5 minutes away from the banquet. Note to self; to kill time, just sleep and it all goes by so fast. When we arrive to the banquet, there were a lot of cars in the parking lot (which means that this place is gonna be packed) and the building was huge! When we get out of the car, I can already tell that this banquet is going to be different than the rest.

We walk inside and there are so many people, but the good news is, is that the room is very big so it’s not packed. But the big thing I noticed is that there were a lot of people there that were not only my parents’ age, but they were MY age too. They are most likely the children of their parents who are also dragged along too, but the difference between them and me, is that they seem to be having a good time. The next thing I notice is that I’m standing alone all by myself and I have no idea where to go. I walk upstairs to the next room and there are less people up here. There is a food table and some refreshments with couches to sit on. I walk to the table and I grab a bottle of water (sadly they don’t have coffee) and I sit on the couch awkwardly. As I’m sitting there, I notice a lot of people my age go to this room and, being the person I am, I get up and go check it out.

I walk in and there is a stair case which is weird because I thought this banquet was only two floors not three. I walk up and I hear music playing. The farther I walk up the stairs, the louder the music is. When I get to the top I see people dancing, drinking, sitting on couches, and making out. Basically, I’ve walked into the party realm of the rich kids. And once you walk in, there is no turning back. Some people turn and look at me like I’m not invited but they go back to whatever they are doing. I guess all of these people know each other because of their parents, but none of them know me. Whatever. I try to walk past all of the people dancing, but then I feel someone grab my wrist and they push me up against a wall. “I’ve never seen you here before” he says and I can smell the alcohol in his breath. He tries to lean in to kiss me, but I quickly dodge it and I push him aside and I walk away quickly. Creep.

But then, I felt someone grab my wrist again and I say, “Let go” and I look at whoever grabbed me, and it was none other than Kai. “Kai?” I say in surprise

“Charity? I didn’t know you would be here. How did you find this room?” he asks

“I followed some people. Why are you in here?”

“This is my parents’ banquet” he says. That makes so much sense. Suddenly a girl walks up to Kai and she says “Kaaaiiiii, I’m borrrreeedddd” and she’s obviously drunk.

“Just go lie down for a minute” he says

“But I want yoooouuuuu!” she says and grabs onto him. He gives me that face that says I-need-your-help-and-I-can’t-get-this-freaky-girl-off-of-me face. I sigh deeply and I walk up to her and say, “Kai will be there in a minute, he has to go do something for his parents” She lets go of him and (tries) to walk back to wherever she came from. He mouths a thank you and I nod to him and we walk out of the room. “So, you seem to be quite popular” I say

“Yeah well my parents are very social people” he says

“Do you know who she is?” I ask referring to that drunk girl.

“Yeah, her dad owns a light bulb company. And you would think ‘Really, a light bulb company?’ but actually her dad makes a TON of money. So if it works, it works”

“I guess so” I say.

“You look nice tonight” he says

“Thank you, you too” I say. Someone walks out of the party room and says “Hey Kai, someone is trying to climb the shelf so you might want to deal with this.” Kai sighs and looks at me and says, “I’ll be right back, this might take a while” I nod and he goes back in there and the door closes.

I walk back down to the first floor and I hear someone behind me say “Charity!” I turn around and I see Kai’s mom and she walks up to me and hugs me like we are close or something. She lets go and asks, “Have you seen Kai yet?”

“Yes ma’am”

“You look beautiful, as always” she says

“Thank you, you too”

“So, have you and Kai talked much?” she asks. Why does she keep asking me about Kai? I mean, we aren’t THAT close. “Not really” I say

“Oh, well you two should more often” she says and I can tell by the tone of her voice and her expression that she was disappointed a little bit. “I’ve always thought you two were so cute together” she says. Luckily someone calls her and she leaves because I would have no idea what I would say about her thinking me and Kai are cute together. It just doesn’t seem right.

The next few hours I basically walk around the building (because there are thankfully way more rooms to this place) and people keep on stopping me and they talk to me about my parents or myself. I walk outside of the building and I see a girl standing out there just sitting on the curb all by herself. Normally I would just go back inside, but instead I sit next to her and she looks surprised. “Hey” she says.

“Hi, what are you doing?” I ask

“Trying to survive this day” she says “You?”

“Trying to kill time and not have to go inside that crazy party room with all of those weird rich kids” I say

“Same. I’m Krystal” she says

“Charity” I say “So you are dragged here too I suppose?”

“Yep, but this banquet isn’t as bad as the others I’ve been too. There was one where barely anyone showed up so I was forced to socialize, it was awful.”

“I bet” I say and we sit there in silence. “Do you happen to know Kai?” I ask

“Yeah a little bit, he’s cool I guess. Why?”

“Just curious, his family is close to mine and he said that his parents socialize a lot”

“They do. And his parents are charming, but I can tell that they pretty much control him” she says and I totally agree. You know, it . You have these parents who are so kind, but they control their kids and they child doesn’t even realize it half of the time. “There is a rumor that Kai’s getting married” she says

“Really?” I ask

“Yeah, but there are a ton of rumors that aren’t true. Like there is a 99.9999 percent chance that it’s not true. There was one that said that I ran away from my parents because of the business, but I can assure you that isn’t true at all.” She says and chuckles a little bit. “You know, it’s nice to be talking to someone who get’s it for once” she says

“Yeah, where do you live?” I ask

“Far away” she says “which because it would be nice to hang out with you again, but this is basically the only time my family ever goes out this far for anything.” She turns around and there are people walking out of the building which means that the banquet it over. Thank god. She gets up and says, “Well, it was nice talking to you, but I have to go”

“It was nice talking to you too” I say and she smiles. She starts walking away and then she says, “Oh and by the way, your dress is yellow.” She knew I was colorblind.

We get in the car and we drive back home. It was getting dark outside and I get a text from Sehun that says, “Even though I can’t see you, you probably look beautiful as always. Sweet dreams, Charity” and I smile for the last time that day.

I wanted to update this chapter real quick because I have a stupid Latin test to study for and I hate Latin with a burning passion. But I have this week and next week left until I'm free for Thanksgiving break! Anyways thanks for reading ^^