Josy arrived at the EXO dorm, nervous about seeing everyone. In truth, she wasn’t prepared to see Lay so soon, but Suho had invited her and Angela to come and hang out with the group. Angela left earlier to get some time alone with Xiumin and Josy was forced to show up alone. She rang the doorbell and stepped back, expecting the worst. However, it was Baekhyun who swung open the door, pulling Josy into a hug.

“Josy!” he greeted before letting her go. He smirked at Josy, giving her a knowing look. “So I see you’ve finally made your decision on who to be with. Took you long enough. But I told you to pick Lay!” He shook his head in mock disapproval before bringing Josy into the living where everyone was sitting.

“But I like Sehun better,” Josy finally replied. She quickly slapped a hand over . She didn’t mean to say something like that right when Lay was in the room.

Sehun walked over and threw an arm around Josy’s waist, smiling. “Well of course you do,” he said before bringing Josy over to his sport and sitting down.

The words that Sehun said were too mean Josy thought. She felt so bad about what happened with Lay she just wanted to leave. She knew that she had hurt him, but she couldn’t deny herself of what she really wanted.

As if sensing the awkwardness that might ensue, Baek busted out a bottle of soju, immediately pouring drinks for everyone.

“Hyung, you seriously bring out soju all the time,” Kai pointed out. “I’m starting to think that you’re becoming a drunk or something.”

Everyone burst out in laughter at Kai’s statement.

“Hey, I’m just trying to get the party started!” Baekhyun shoved drink glass into Kai’s hands, urging him to drink. The said guy reluctantly took a drink as Baekhyun cheered him on.

Josy looked around the room, glad to see that everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. It had been such a long time since she hung out with the whole group. In fact the last time was when she caused a commotion at dinner. She made a face thinking back on it. Who would’ve guessed that she would have ended up with Sehun. As much as Josy was enjoying herself, she couldn’t help but notice that someone was missing from the room. She did a quick headcount, noticing that there were only nine members in the room.

“Where’s Tao?” Josy questioned.

The entire room grew dead silent. No one said a word. Eventually Suho cleared his throat loudly before saying, “Tao decided to stay in China for a bit.”

Angela, who was on the other side of the room, noticed how somber the atmosphere got. Suho didn’t explain any further and Angela couldn’t help but worry that Tao stayed in China because of her. She wasn’t trying to be presumptive and she wasn’t trying to act as if she was so special to him that he was heartbroken, but it was strange to her how shortly after her rejection he decided to stay in China. Beside her Xiumin was still, and the other members seemed to lose all of their spirit from earlier.

As the room stayed quiet, Josy felt like kicking herself. It had only been about ten minutes but already she ed up twice. More than anything she wanted to go home. Things were just getting too weird.

“Hey guys,” Chanyeol said, breaking through everyone’s thoughts. He looked at both Angela and Josy, asking a little too loudly, “So how is school?”

“It’s cool,” Angela quickly replied, glad that Chanyeol threw them a lifeline.

“Yeah, it’s been okay,” Josy agreed.

    Sehun pulled Josy closer to him, sensing her discomfort because of her faux pas. He rubbed Josy’s arm, hoping that she would start to feel more comfortable. After all, it was the first time the group got to see them together as a couple, and he wanted the others to know how happy they were together.

    For the rest of the night the group just made small talk. After a few shots of soju, everyone was a lot more comfortable and thoughts of Tao seemed to disappear from everyone’s minds, at least for the moment. There was no doubt that every was getting tipsy. The tipsier that Sehun got, the more handsy he got as well. The entire night he practically had himself wrapped around Josy. He was constantly giving her kisses and touching her face.

    Several times Josy had to push Sehun away. As much as she liked how touchy Sehun could be, this was not an appropriate time. From across the room she could feel Lay’s stare on the two, and the more feely Sehun got, the worse Josy felt about hurting Lay. She noticed Lay taking another shot, his eyes not leaving the couple. She wasn’t sure, but it seemed as if Lay had had more than his fair share of drinks.

    After pushing Sehun away for the upteenth time, he was starting to get sulky. Sehun pouted at Josy. “Why do you keep denying my love, Josy?” he blurted, trying to hug Josy again.

    “This isn’t appropriate,” Josy murmured in annoyance. “This isn’t right, especially with Lay right here.”

    Sehun scoffed loudly before taking another drink. “Stop thinking about Lay. I’m your boyfriend, not him. You should be thinking about me. About us.”

    “I am, but . . . we should do this on our own time, not in front of all of your friends.” Josy knew that Sehun was getting riled up because of the alcohol, so to appease the situation she turned to hug him and give him a quick kiss on the cheek. She usually didn’t like public skinship, but she knew that if she didn’t show Sehun some affection he would cause a scene.

    Josy liked Sehun, a lot. But she wanted to be considerate of Lay, especially after what she put him through. She knew that she shouldn’t care about what others thought about her and Sehun, but she still cared about Lay as a friend and she didn’t want to hurt him more than she already did.

    “Fine,” Sehun slurred. “But you’re going to have to make it up to me later.” He struggled to wink at Josy, causing the latter to laugh.

    Sehun loved Josy’s laugh, and he quickly joined in. He couldn’t help himself, he just wanted to be affectionate towards her. She looked so beautiful, and the alcohol was making him feel fuzzy. He honestly couldn’t believe that Josy was his girlfriend. He had tried so hard to win her over, and now that she was his he just wanted everyone to know about their relationship. Not seeing Josy while he was in China was terrible. But when she called him to tell him that she had chosen him, Sehun felt elated. While he did enjoy their concert and seeing their fans, he couldn’t wait to go back to Korea to see Josy.

    As much as Sehun knew that it was wrong to show so much skinship in front of Lay, he couldn’t help it. He respected Lay of course. Lay was his elder after all, and a good member, but that didn’t change the fact that Lay liked Josy, and Sehun was not okay with that. Sehun didn’t want Josy anywhere near Lay.

    Sehun wasn’t the only one feeling elated. The entire night Xiumin couldn’t stop staring at Angela, and every time they made eye contact she would slightly blush. He couldn’t stop thinking about what they did earlier, and he was sure that no one in the entire room was as happy as he was. He kept his hand on the small of Angela’s back, tracing circles. He couldn’t wait until the next time they were alone together. He had told her he loved her, and she had said it back. He had never been in love before, and everything just felt so much lighter.

    Throughout the night Angela tried to converse with Suho. He was talking to her about what promotions the group would do next, but Angela just couldn’t concentrate. Her mind kept wandering back to Xiumin and earlier, and she would blush madly. She still couldn’t believe that Xiumin told her he loved her. Nothing felt real anymore. She knew that she and Xiumin hadn’t dated for long, but she didn’t regret anything they did.

    As the night continued, some members got rowdier while others started to get tried. Josy managed to extricate herself from Sehun’s grasp, and she quickly slipped out to go to the bathroom. When she was done, she opened the door and almost screamed.

    Lay stood in front of her moodily, blocking the way out. He pushed her back into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. From his eyes, Josy could tell that Lay was drunk.

    “What are you doing?” Josy demanded, trying to push him out of the way.

    “Josy, I care about you,” Lay muttered. “I want to be with you. Why did you choose Sehun?” Lay looked near tears, and he hung his head, unable to look Josy in the eyes. Ever since she had called him telling him that she chose Sehun, he wasn’t able to sleep or eat well. He never said anything to Sehun and he tried to act normal, but seeing Josy again made his gut wrench. The entire night Sehun was all over her and he couldn’t stand to see Sehun and Josy together, especially not so soon after her rejection. Lay wanted Josy to be happy. He did, but he wished that she would be happy with him instead. Lay cared about her, but she was killing him.

    “I want to be with you,” Lay repeated, putting his hand on Josy’s shoulder.

    Josy felt her heart twist. She never wanted to hurt Lay so much. “I’m so sorry,” she said, unable to think of anything else to say to possibly make him feel better. “I’m sorry.” She gently tried to push Lay back, but he grabbed onto her hands, bringing them up to his face.

    “Just promise me that you’ll be happy.”

    Josy pulled Lay into a hug. “I promise,” she replied. Lay relaxed into their hug and Josy wished that soon he would start to feel better.

    Suddenly the bathroom door opened and an angry Sehun stood glaring at the two.

    “What the !” Sehun shouted, grabbing Josy’s arm and pulling her away from Lay.

    Lay raised his hands up in defense. “We were just talking, okay?” he explained. “Nothing was going on, I swear.”

    Sehun let out an angry breath and continued to glare at Lay. How could Lay make a move on his girlfriend? Sehun was furious.

    “Calm down, Sehun,” Josy said from Sehun’s side. He glanced down at her, the anger in his eyes slowly fading. He turned back to Lay who wa