My Financial Advisor was one of the chattiest males on the planet. He was chatty, dominating and impatient and despite knowing him since time immemorial, I had no idea of the intricacies of his personality.

“Not your right foot, your left! Your left! Your ing left!” he scolded for the nth time.

And he swore.

When I had offered my hand for the dance, he accepted it hesitantly. I could see the confusion in his eyes. Here was his cold President kissing the Vice President and when he left, she turns and invites him for a dance. Anyone would be confused.

When the music began, he did not talk neither did he look at me, he was looking beyond me. It was fine with me really, I was grateful to him for not talking, for not asking questions. Whether he knew it or not, my rawest and most delicate self was exposed to him at the moment. My emotions, feelings everything was on the verge of spilling but the entire challenge was to push them back and to smile without reason.

It was only when I had stepped on his foot twice that the demonic side to him was unleashed. He was something between a strict teacher and a nagging parent. ‘I can’t believe you are such a bad dancer!’, ‘Is that why you don’t dance at the annual school dances?’, ‘Even if you are going to get back at me in school I will not bear this pain you are inflicting upon me!’, ‘Woman!’, these accusations were shot at me in regular intervals.

But I knew he was not a bad guy at heart. If he was, he would have left me on the floor, alone and got himself another partner but he did not. He got hurt but he stuck along nonetheless.

The music stopped. Our dance ended. And I smiled at him instead of apologising.

“You must be immensely shameless to be smiling after wounding me so grievously,” he grumbled as he led me out.

Did I mention, he had a flair for drama as well?

We stood there awkwardly outside the arena. I did not know whether he had company. I did not and he knew that I did not; I guess that was why he  did not leave.

“Just where did you run off to?” shrieked a familiar female voice. My Financial Advisor and I whirled around to see the female and I was in for a surprise. It was the shy girl at the café and it seemed that my Financial Advisor had her as a companion.

“Oh my god! That devil woman found me here as well!” he whimpered, looking desperately for some exit and fidgeting with his t-shirt collar when finding none.

“Ah! President!” the girl exclaimed. Turning to him, she said, a little less furious, “You should have informed me if you went to meet the President. I would have liked to meet her as well!”

“I didn’t come here to meet the President,” my Advisor emphasised, “I ran away from you.”

She furrowed here eyebrows as if annoyed at her pet dog’s obstinacy and then petting his head said, “Be a good boy and I’ll reward you.”

Where were these people until now? This shy girl was a dominating female and my Financial Advisor set a complete new definition to complicated!

“President, what’s so funny?” she asked tilting her head.

I giggled at my stupidity and blindness. All my life I looked at the dark side of things, always focused on how the glass was half-empty. Yes, my life was ty but it was not completely destroyed. There were mad people like these two in school but somehow I had never noticed their madness. I was self-indulgent and I had pitied myself.

“President, why are you crying?” my Financial Advisor enquired, feeling uncomfortable.

I was crying because I had been stupid, because I did not change what I could change. I waited for change to happen instead of being the change myself. I crouched down on the road and bawled my eyes out. I wasted 17 years of my life! 17 precious years! 17 years in which I could have blossomed into a different woman, 17 years of lost smiles, 17 years of lost opportunities.

“Hey! It’s going to be alright,” I felt her rubbing my back, her gentle voice calming me. I think my Financial Advisor was kneeling next to me as well because I could smell his strong minty cologne or maybe it was my over imaginative mind.

Nothing could be alright, not anymore. I had fallen behind, fallen behind in life. I stole a glance at the girl and then at my Financial Advisor and it radiated from their face that they were teenagers who had experienced vicissitudes, they had fallen and they had climbed up. I, on the other hand, had taken the easy way out. I had fallen and did not make any effort to get up. It is very easy to fall, the hardest part is to gather our senses and proceed forward. It is easy to lose but it is immensely difficult to win.

“Hey nerd!” barked the girl, “We are going to the artificial beach!”

I chortled through my sobs at my Advisor’s humiliation while he huffed, grunted and finally, relented to her demand.

It was funny, walking with them down the length of the beach. I barely knew these people but they chatted with me like long lost friends. The banter between him and her was a constant entertainer. Both of them had misunderstood me in the past, both of them accepted the new me but none of them talked about my change. It was as if I never changed! They knew this me all along! May be I had not lost my 17 years . . .

“Let’s wade through the waters!” she suggested, clapping her hands excitedly. He shook his from side to side adamantly refusing her offer but she was not one to listen. She dragged the two of us by her hands and there we were knee deep in the water, under the entrancing moonlight, shivering as if it was snowing.

“Stupid female!” he yelled, his pale skin getting paler by every passing minute. “Sickly child!” she retorted, she splashed water all over him. He yelled something incomprehensible before returning her attack with equal ferocity except that the water landed on me. I wasn’t drenched but my hair and my sweatshirt were dripping with salty water.

“!”He elicited, “I am so sorry! I-“

Another shower of water drenched the poor guy and I didn’t feel one bit guilty at doing that. His pale skin registered a little red, which increased as his temper reached its peak. His glassy, doe like yes, blazed with fire and for a moment, I felt I was looking at a doll.

“President! You shouldn’t have done that!”

And splash came a second round of water. It was ridiculous! We were acting like five year olds, splashing water at each other in revenge but enjoying it nonetheless. Of course, my Advisor was infuriated but I did catch him giving his dimpled smile once in a while. Such a kid!

“N-Now Wh-what?” she asked shivering, her teeth chattering noisily.

“Tr-tr-trip to-to the Him-Himalayas!” he retorted sarcastically.

Both she and I made a face at him but he just tossed his head haughtily.

“Ho-how about dinner at . . .“ I stalled, thinking what would be cheap but satisfying, “McDonalds’?”

The three of us began to contemplate on this suggestion. Let’s see, it was cheap, it was greasy, it was unhealthy. Right! It was perfect!

With a hearty nod of the head, three wet people made their way to an overcrowded McDonalds. I had never gone out with friends before. Well! I did go with Jieun and Sehun to some bistro or restaurant once or twice but it had been uncomfortable. I used to be extremely conscious, wondering whether I was using the right cutlery, whether the order of my food was right, whether food was stuck in between my teeth.

But here, while the three of us gulped down the cheesy burger, our attempts to strike a conversation defeated by the food in our mouth and raucous gang of occupants, I couldn’t care less about manners and customs. My hands were my cutlery, I only had a burger and a coke to finish and if food was stuck in between my teeth, I knew these two would warn me. I had absolutely nothing to worry about.

“How about we do this again?” my Advisor suggested as he chivalrously paid the bill. Not really, we were being stingy asses so he decided to cut the nonsense by shelling out the required wons warning us that he would, get the money back.

I did not reply. Did I want to this again? Fool around, without any fears? Get wet, eat greasy food, talk nonsense, quarrel unnecessarily, did I want to do it again.

“Or maybe not,” he muttered scratching the back of his neck, turning red in embarrassment.

“Yes,” I murmured. “Yes!” I shouted, fully convinced about what I wanted to do. It was time to let loose, it was time to let go.

“That’s great then!” she cheered, jumping around like a kid. He smiled, indicating his sentiments were the same.

The clock struck 10 and this underage Cinderella, who danced with two princes, had now to go home. And how she didn’t want to. She wanted to roam around the streets, eat more street food, and make new friends but home, a place where most probably the other prince and princess were confessing their love to each other, home called her.

“Do you want me to walk you home?” he offered as he saw me looking at the wall clock resentfully.

I shook my head, refusing his offer. Too much of anything was not good. “No,” I said, “I’ll take a taxi and thank you, both of you, thanks a lot!”

Not waiting for them to return the gesture, I walked out and hailed the first taxi which rushed by. So much had happened today. So much.

Going back home was more painful than I had expected it to be. I blessed every red signal, ever y traffic jam, every speed breaker, for delaying my journey to the destination. Once inside the hollow mansion, the darkness would gnaw on me once again and drag me back to hell’s pit. I did not want to deal with the Kai mess I had created. I did not even want to look at him; neither did I want to look at Jieun nor Sehun. I just wanted to be with people who made me happy, who did not make me feel even a tinge of sadness.

As the taxi stopped in front of the majestic gates, I realised I was asking for too much. I had to face the devils one day or the other, might as well face it today.