I woke up at the first daylight of the new year to find Hyejung practically draping herself over the kitchen’s island counter. As I approached, I was brushing through the mess of my hair with my fingers. Maybe she was suffering from a hangover and the cup of tea she had in her hand wasn’t helping.

She sat up as soon as she heard my footsteps closing in. “I can’t believe I did that,” Hyejung blurted. “Last night, I—“

Not wanting her to repeat the incident out loud through words, I cut her off. “I know. I was there.”

“But Jinah, I told Luhan I like him.” She threw her arms out in frustration, nearly knocking down her cup. “Why did I do that? I said I liked him, and then... Wow, do you think Luhan was drunk enough that he’d forget?”

“I think so.” Digging through the pantries for a breakfast idea, I shrugged even though I  knew Luhan could hold his alcohol well and he’d remember every bit of that night. “How’d you get home?”

“Oh, Junmyeon brought me home in a taxi!” Hyejung perked up at that. “He was super nice, even though I was kicking him when he was forcing me in the taxi. He told me... Did you know he had a CD collection of Elvis?”

“I did not.” I pulled out a box of cereal and settled for that.

“I love Elvis. He said I had to come over and see it or something.” Sighing, she drank the last bit of the tea.

I had to smile at that. I’d have to give Junmyeon plus points and a pat on the back. If fate was on my side, maybe Hyejung would move on to Junmyeon. She’s been lingering on Luhan for too long. Junmyeon was a great guy. He was always patient—perfect for a control freak like Hyejung.

“Hey.”

A finger probed my arm.

“What are you doing?”

I was face-first on the table as I waved the half-eaten cheeseburger in my hand. “I’m too lazy to eat this.” My voice was muffled.

I felt Luhan snag the food off my grasp.

“Luhan!” I sat up, seeing him walk away. “That was mine.”

“Wait, wait. I got a solution if you’re too lazy to eat this.” He dug through the cabinets. “Just hold on.”

Luhan retrieved a blender and propped it up on the counter. He plugged the machine in. I stood to hover beside him and watched as he tossed in the cheeseburger. Topping it off with its lid, he pressed a button. The burger was brown mush within a minute.

“Is this going to be a burger smoothie?” I asked.

“Uh-huh.”

“Might as well put those in.” I gestured to the plate of hotdogs by the stove.

Junmyeon walked into his kitchen as soon as the smell of a burning engine lingered in the air. He pushed the door open to see Luhan and I dumping the mud-like substance down the sink. “Did you two burn something in here?”

I glared at Luhan. “A blender motor.”

“Don’t look at me like that!”

“It was fine until you added a chunk of ham in!”

Junmyeon shook his head and held his hands up in defeat, not even bothering to ask. “Someone owes me a new blender.”

I pointed a discreet finger at Luhan. As soon as he noticed my accusation, he swiped my hand away.

“Anyway,” Junmyeon threw a work booklet down on the table. “Here are the practice questions I was talking about. I printed it all off while you two were...” He eyed the unfortunate blender that was still on the counter, “...experimenting.”

“Thanks.” I seized one of the chairs and flipped through the fifty pages of the booklet and caught a glimpse of diagrams. “How was your New Year's’ Eve?” I asked him, distracting him from worrying over some blender.

There was a flash of pink over his face. “Good.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Just good?”

Luhan took the seat beside mine, curious.

Junmyeon nodded stiffly. “Yeah, I took Hyejung home. What else?”

“I heard about Elvis.”

He slapped his forehead. “Oh my god, she remembered that.”

I laughed as he folded over in embarrassment. Glancing inside Junmyeon’s apartment, it looked more like a mini library with the shelves of books. He had a movie collection by one corner. I wondered where he kept his apparent Elvis CD collection. “That’s a good thing though. She loves Elvis.”

“Do you think she’d actually come over and see the CDs if I asked?” There was a silent plea in the glint of his eyes.

“She would.” I absently skimmed over the pages of the booklet while Luhan leaned against my shoulder to see.

Luhan burst out into laughter out of nowhere.

We both looked at him questioningly. “What?”

Just peeking at Junmyeon seemed to set him off in his fit of giggles. “I just remembered you did an Elvis impersonation for the talent show in high school.”

Junmyeon threw his palms down on the table. “That was a long time ago! Don’t!”

“Hyejung would love that,” I mumbled, eyeing question number 26.

“What can you do?” Junmyeon pointed at Luhan. “Why does Hyejung like you anyways?”

Luhan frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“No, no. I didn’t mean it like an insult,” he assured quickly. “I’m just wondering.”

“I don’t know.” Luhan shrugged, taking an orange from the fruit bowl and rolling it around the surface of the table. “I got rid of her laptop’s virus. Girls dig that apparently.”

I eyed Luhan and he gave me a sheepish smile.

Junmyeon scratched his nape and spoke quietly. “I could do that too...”

“But seriously,” there was an edge to my voice and I had to clear my throat. “You should really consider asking her out sometime.” As I spoke to Junmyeon, I could feel the desperation already betraying me through the look on my eyes.

This mess wasn’t his to fix and I knew that. The best solution wasn’t to force Hyejung on someone else and hope that we’d both eventually forget about the bet, though I was running out of choices while the guilt continued to gnaw at my insides.  

“Luhan.”

“Yes baby?” he glanced at me for a millisecond to say.

I snickered at this cheesy English club-style line. "Where are we going?" Looking out the car's window, we only passed through turns and roads that weren’t attached to anything familiar to me. The streets were covered with a thin layer of snow—leftovers from the snowfall the night before.

He was smiling cheekily. "I'm going to introduce you to my other girl."

My eyes turned to slits, though knowing him, he was probably referring to a slice of pizza or something.

"She's not as pretty as you though." Pretending to double check, Luhan gave me a quick once-over.

"Where is she?"

"It's a surprise."

I hesitated with my hands. "Do I cover my eyes?"

"You don't have to." The car slowed to a stop. "We're here."

Through the windshield, I saw a pet store. Pet House was written in red and blue bold overtop of the front double doors. Confused, I followed beside Luhan as we hopped off the car. The cold January air whipped me at once and I shivered into my coat.

"Wait!" Luhan held a hand out, signaling for the two of us to halt.

I skidded to a stop and looked around for any hazards, though there were none. Nothing but gravel and snow. Luhan acted like we were just about to walk off the edge on a cliff.

"What?"

"Could we make a game ? Whoever loses has to buy lunch."

Any other day, Luhan always bought us lunch. I crossed my arms and apprehended him anyway w