It’s a high school party with the theme of the new year countdown.

Hundreds and thousands or maybe just tens of students have gathered at the chaebol’s house. Siwon is an unwilling host though, as he sits on his throne (that is in the form of a chair in the corner of the huge clubhouse-turned-club) and watches everyone with jaded eyes.

Hyukjae comes up to him with two glasses of fruit punch. “Yo, my man,” he greets with that horribad fake American accent of his. “Come on, have a drink! Have a break! Have a Kit-kat!”

Siwon wants to kick Hyukjae away, and maybe sock him in the face with a few heavy punches, nothing big. “Hyukjae, you little .”

Hyukjae pouts. “My man, what’s troubling you? Come on, tell little Hyukkie what’s wrong! He’ll give you a kiss and that’ll make everything better.”

The chaebol looks up, then narrows his eyes. “Are you high?”

Hyukjae sputters and makes a wild gesture. “Whatever could make you say so?!”

“Your very presence,” Siwon answers, with a slick flick of the hand.

Jungsoo comes strutting in with his eyes not leaving the girls on the other side of the room. He -bumps into Hyukjae, who swings and hits the wall and gets ignored.

“Man, Siwon,” he greets with the bright, bright smile of his. “You , you’re ruining your party.”

Siwon thinks he’ll be given another lecture about being a downer but what he hears next gets him tumbling out his plastic chair.

“You’re looking cold and bored here and all the other girls think you’re extremely hot with this I-can’t-be-bothered look and they’re ignoring my advances and they keep bugging me for your number so you better get out of that goddamned chair and start being a goof. Here, Hyukjae is right here, go take lessons from him.”

Siwon is offended. “Hyung, you—“

Hyukjae comes swinging back, -first, and he -bumps Jungsoo back so he goes stumbling into another bunch of giggling girls. “Hyung’s right, you should come with me.”

Siwon doesn’t manage to flex his muscles and flash a fist when Hyukjae goes dragging him with all his might. With squinted eyes Hyukjae points out a girl standing at the other corner of the room. “Look, you see that chick? Go, go tell her she looks pretty as hell and go get her number.”

“Hyukjae, that’s your girlfriend.”

“She is? Well holy, she looks pretty as hell. I’mma be right back. Gotta go get her number.”

“Hyukjae, she’s your girlfriend!”

The girls Jungsoo were with earlier on comes swaying in, surrounding Siwon and taking away his oxygen. “Hey, cutie! I heard you organized this party. It’s smashin’ and we just wanted to thank you for being an amazing host.”

Siwon thinks back to how he was bored out of his mind just ten minutes ago. He still is. “You’re welcome…?”

“No, you’re welcome!” squeaks another girl next to the one he was talking to. She looked higher than Hyukjae had ever been.

“Ignore her, she’s just high. I’m Stephanie, by the way. Nice to meet you.”

“I already know you, Fany. You’re my lab partner in Science class.”

“Oh. But you don’t know the real me!” She tries again, sticking her hand out for a handshake.

Siwon smiles, sarcasm laced in every cell on his lips. “Did someone slip something into the punch?”

And then Hyukjae returns with the girlfriend he doesn’t recognize in tow. “Hey, everyone! Meet my girlfriend… Uh… What’s your name?”

Hyukjae is elbowed in the ribs. “Hi girls, Hyukjae doesn’t recognize me again.”

Stephanie slides her arm across Hyoyeon’s shoulder and smiles. “If you don’t want him, I can always have him!”

Hyoyeon laughs. “You don’t want him either, .”

Stephanie laughs too. “That’s right, .”

The high girl from earlier wraps the two girls in a bear hug and giggles madly into their ears. Stephanie and Hyoyeon push her off without a second thought, letting Taeyeon hit the ground, hard.

“es! I’m going to shrink if I keep hitting my spine on the ground.”

“There’s nothing left to shrink in you, Taetae. You have no height, you have no s—“

Taeyeon pouts and Hyoyeon steps in to mediate the fight. Not. “And your eyesight .”

“I have my voice, okay!”

Hyukjae gets up from the ground. “It’s okay, Taeyeon, I think you’re perfect.”

“I’m not going to take your words seriously!”

“Hey!”

=

Donghae waltzes in from nowhere with Kyuhyun behind him, like a boss. Siwon feels relieved to see Kyuhyun for a moment, because someone would be probably, finally as bored as he is. He is shocked when Kyuhyun starts dancing with Donghae and becoming the highlight of the party.

“Your party rules, Choi!”

Hyukjae tears himself away from the girls and looks like his soulmate has arrived. He goes to join Donghae and Kyuhyun, dancing, the 3 of them becoming the highlight of the party.

“You guys are late,” Siwon tells Donghae and Kyuhyun.

He is ignored.

Just when he thinks everyone is here, another girl comes in, dazzling the whole party.

Donghae, Kyuhyun and Hyukjae stop dancing as they turn to look at the angel walking in.

The girls drop their drinks as they let the sight sink in.

Siwon squints.

Stephanie squeals and runs up to the girl. “You’re here!”

“Who is she?” Kyuhyun asks Hyukjae.

“The angel from next door,” Donghae answers, his voice rising a pitch.

“Hae, I’m serious.”

“I’m serious too, she’s my next door neighbor.”

Donghae marches up bravely. “Hey there, Jessica! Nice to see you here.”

Jessica tears away, unwillingly, from Stephanie’s grasp and looks at the boy. “You mean you see me elsewhere too?” Her eyes narrow. “Who the hell are you? Another stalker?”

Donghae is flabbergasted. “I’m… your neighbor…”

“Oh, you are? I had a neighbor?”

Stephanie wastes no time in bringing Jessica away. Donghae stares like a lovesick puppy. “She doesn’t recognize me,” he whines to Hyukjae.

“It’s okay, I didn’t recognize my girlfriend too.”

“But you’re an idiot, she isn’t like you.”

Hyukjae shoves Donghae. “!”

Siwon tilts his head. “Who is she?”

“Jessica, Donghae’s neighbor. I just added her to the Invited list after seeing her face in Donghae’s room. Because he has, like, a wall of photos of her face.”

“You added someone the host of the party doesn’t even know to the Invited list?”

“Well, I—“

Donghae shoves Hyukjae towards the rubbish bin, for exposing his secret. “Go inside there and never come out!”

He turns to Siwon and bows his head. “Sorry man.”

“It’s not your fault, it’s totally Hyukjae’s. Where’s Kyu?”

They turn and see Kyuhyun already sidling up to the girls.

“Wanna make a bet?”

“What bet?”

“That Kyuhyun would come running back to us in a minute.”

“No need to make a bet on that, I agree with you.”

And after a minute, Kyuhyun does come back. “Guys.”

Siwon hugs him. “Come out, cry your heart out. We know you got rejected again, but it’s no big deal, okay?”

Kyuhyun hits him on the head. “I didn’t get rejected!” Siwon leans back to look at Kyuhyun’s blinding smile. “I got her number!”

Donghae tears into Kyuhyun. “Whose number?!”

“The dwarf’s. I couldn’t hear her name because she was pretty short. You know, different frequencies because of different air pressures.”

“She’s Taeyeon,” Siwon offers.

“Oh. Yeah, her. I think I’ll call her Dwarfyeon. She kinda likes the nickname. I’m pretty sure it was supposed to be an insult because she irked the hell out of me by clinging to Stephanie, whose number I really wanted, but then she got pretty fine by the end of our conversation.”

Siwon looks at Donghae, who sinks to the ground in pure loserness. “I feel horribad, guys.”

“Why?”

“I can’t even get the number of the girl who lives next door.”

Siwon pats him on the head. Kyuhyun thinks for less than a minute, then snaps his fingers. “I’ve got an idea!”

“What idea?”

“To, y’know, bring Hae and Jessica together.”

=

“The only reason I’m doing this is because you’re the brightest of our bunch. It’d better work out,” Siwon tells Kyuhyun.

They pull out a karaoke machine from the crevices of the clubhouse-turned-club.

“Don’t worry, man. It will. I only have everyone’s interests at heart. Because there’s no ‘I’ in Cho. Not like you, Siwon, not like you.”

“You—“

Donghae stares at the karaoke machine with apprehension. “What the hell, Kyu—this is your plan?”

“No, it’s my toilet,” Kyuhyun responds sarcastically.

“But I can’t sing!”

“Don’t be a , you can totally sing.”

“I don’t want to embarrass myself in front of her.”

“You already embarrass yourself without doing anything.”

“But—“

“Come on, you know you want to.”

“What if I choke and die?”

“Then she can resuscitate you!”

“I—“

“Stop being a coward! Go for it!”

Kyuhyun shoves Donghae towards the karaoke machine and picks up the mic. “Ladies and gentlemen, because Choi Siwon, the host of our smashing party, is a horrible host,” he pauses to wink at the glaring Siwon, “we are now bringing in a game for you guys.”

The party people cheer.

“Our first two participants are Donghae and…”

Siwon takes Jessica away from Stephanie with a wink and brings her to the karaoke machine.

“…Jessica!”

Siwon and Kyuhyun quickly scramble to pick a song until Hyukjae, who has finally gotten free from the clutch of the rubbish bin, comes swinging in. “You guys are such indecisive es.” And with that, he pushes a button without looking.

The song plays and Donghae struggles to deal with his jitters. He looks to Siwon, Kyuhyun and Hyukjae, who are already turning their backs to head to the girls.

Jessica looks at the screen. Then she looks at a trembling Donghae.

“Do you have stage fright?”

“No—“

“Then why are you trembling?”

“I’m just–I don’t know—“

“Chill out, neighbor boy. Do I scare you?”

“No! I—uh…“

“What’s your name?”

“Donghae.”

“Well then, Donghae, let’s sing.”