Sora is straightening my hair in front of our mirror when my cell phone rings. “Hello?” I say, picking up.

Zelo?, Sora mouths.

“Hyo,” Joonmyeon rasps.

Immediately, I straighten up. Something is wrong. I can tell by the tone of his voice. “Joonmyeon?” I say, my voice rising in fear. “Where are you? Are you okay? What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” he whispers. “I just... can you come over? I don’t feel too well.” He coughs violently.

My shoulders sag. Oh, Joonmyeon. Guilt wallows in the pit of my stomach. I have to get over there and help him right now. An image of Joonmyeon’s sick figure lying listlessly on his bed flashes through my mind and I feel a million times worse. The last time he tried making chicken noodle soup he almost burned his apartment down. What if something like that happens again?

But-

“I can’t,” I say in a small voice. “I have... I’m visiting an old friend right now.”

There is utter silence. Sora is nervously staring at the remorseful wince on my face.

“Oh,” Joonmyeon finally says. Both of us are silent. He sniffles. The hot sensation of shame prickling at my skin intensifies.

“I’m so sorry, Joonmyeon” I whisper. “I’ll make it up to you in any way. I just can’t come tonight.”

    “Yeah. Don’t worry about it.”

    “I’m really, really, really sorry. I’ll come over first thing tomorrow morning-,”

    “Okay. Bring lots of food. I’m going to go to sleep.”

    “Drink lots of water, okay? And don’t get anywhere near the stove. Do you hear me?”

    Joonmyeon sighs. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

    He hangs up.

    “Oh, no,” I moan, burying my face in my hands. “Sora, I’m so ed.”

    “Hey. Don’t do that.” She slaps my arms back down. “You’ll mess up your makeup. What happened? Who was that?”

    “Joonmyeon,” I tell her. “He sounded really sick. He asked if I could come over tonight.”

    Sora cringes. “Yikes. Poor him.”

    “I actually hate myself so much. I can’t be there when he actually needs me.”

    She pats my shoulder. “It’s alright, Hyo. I mean... this is really important.”

    “Yeah, I know. But-,” I let out a loud groan, shaking my head.

    “Do you like him?” Sora blurts out.

I give her a flabbergasted look. “What?! What gave you that idea?”

She an eyebrow. “Are you kidding? The whole school thinks you two are a thing. I mean, both of you are President and VP of Student Council, both of you are total goody-two-shoes who’re totally clean and pure- well, okay, at least, people think you are- and I’ve seen the way you two are around each other-,”

“Oh my god, I- we’re not a thing,” I protest, blushing furiously. “We’re just really good friends.”

“Mmm. Okay.”

    “And I, his really good friend, should be over at his house right now, taking care of him-,” I rapidly shake my head. “Okay, I can’t beat myself up over this now. I’ll do it later. I need to focus on our plan tonight.”

    “Yeah.” Sora tsks! sympathetically. “I’ll help you make amends with Joonmyeon later.”

    “Alright.” I take a deep breath and look at myself in the mirror, embarrassed and annoyed and worried all at the same time. This is the first time I’ve worn a bikini in my entire life, and for good reason. I don’t like wearing things this revealing- not because I care about modesty, but because it leaves too many places on my body vulnerable. My only line of defense tonight will be the knife hidden in my purse.

    This is going to be incredibly dicey.

    “Are you all set?” I ask Sora, who is primping in front of the mirror.

    “Hmmm.” She frowns at herself in the mirror. “Can you get me the Beige Suede lipstick in my purse?”

    I sigh and trudge over to her purse, which is filled with a sundry of bobby pins, lip glosses, and scented lotions with names like “An Afternoon in Paris”. My fingers grasp at something- a ring-

    And then double take.

    “Sora,” I slowly say, holding up the platinum band in my hand. It is embedded with tiny little pearls, with a massive diamond that has the letters S and T engraved in cursive. “Is this an engagement ring?”

Her eyes widen for an instant- panic flashes through her face- but her face quickly snaps back to normal.

“Oh, that.” Sora breezily plucks it out of my hand and tosses it back in her bag. “That’s a family heirloom. My grandmother gave it to me before she died, and I keep it with me. Like a good-luck charm, I guess.”

I an eyebrow. “I see.”

“Yeah. It costs a fortune.” Sora sighs. “Perks of being a chaebol, I guess. Yo, you never gave me my lipstick.”

My eyes snap back to the drawer. “Oh, sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter. I look fine.” She turns to me, a wide beam on her face. “Let’s go.”

I trail after her, staring at her back, wondering why her voice sounds so strained.

“Looking good, ladies,” Himchan says in a smarmy voice, eyeing Sora and I from top to bottom.

“Stop staring or I’ll knock your teeth out,” I snap. We are standing near the rear of the LUXE Club, hidden away in the shadows. I feel like I am going to get frostbite in the next 8 seconds. I am literally freezing my off. Himchan is looking at us with a wide grin, while Zelo is examining us with narrowed eyes. Obviously Himchan has no reservations about this entire situation. I thought he would be weirded out by seeing me like this, especially since he’s seen me as a gawky 14-year-old curled up in the fetal position on his couch whining about period cramps.

Apparently not!

“I can’t believe I have the honor of seeing Kim Lia’s face,” Himchan says. “You’re even cuter without your mask. Oh, you too, Mina.”

Sora has determinedly been staring at the ground ever since we got here. I know it’s not because she’s embarrassed of wearing such skimpy clothes in public- I mean, everyone outside the club is wearing the same thing.

She has probably realized the full extent of what we are about to do, and the risks that go along with it.

“Thanks, Himchan,” I snark. “Really appreciate the compliment.”

“My pleasure.”

    “Okay.” I cross my arms. “Mina’s friends are waiting by the entrance. We’re leaving. We’ll text you two if anything happens.”

    “I’m going to drop dead of hypothermia in about two minutes, so look out for that text,” Sora snorts. I give her a surprised little grin. The best way to handle situations like this is with dry, sarcastic humor. Nice.

    “Let’s go,” I tell her, taking her hand. She is quiet as we walk to the entrance of the club.

“Sora!” someone squeals. Park Yuri, Lee Danbi, Oh Nayoung, and several other of the most attractive girls at SNU are standing near the front of the club, along with a few boys clad in white boxers. Sora grins as I quickly avert my eyes, blushing.

“You’re so cute,” she chuckles. “This isn’t even the worst I’ve seen.”

“Well, excuse me for not wanting to see a bunch of guys in their underwear. What kind of club is this, anyway? Who holds parties with weird dress codes like this?”

“Hey, take it from me. The crazier it is, the more fun the party’ll be. There was this one place I went to where everyone was supposed to wear a thong-,”

“Okay. Let’s not talk about this.”

Sora giggles, and then turns to her friends. “Hey, everyone!” she exclaims. “Guess who I brought along with me?”

The girls look at me- and then double-take. “Park Hyolin?” Danbi gasps. “Is that you?”

“In the flesh!” I say in a failed attempt at enthusiasm.

    “Wow.” Yuri says with round eyes. “I never pegged you for the partying type. You look really hot.”

    “Thanks. You do, too.”

    “Are you es ready to get your freak on?” Nayoung shouts, and everyone in the group whoops and yells. I halfheartedly join them. Everyone around us is staring at us. Embarrassment washes over me and I resist the urge to melt into a puddle of shame-filled goop and die right there on the side of the street.

    “Alright, come on.” Sora grabs my hand and marches us all up to the bouncer. “Kim Sora. I’m on the list.”

    The bouncer checks his tablet and nods. “Have fun,” he says, flashing me a wink.

    The first thing I am hit with when I step inside is noise. Heavy EDM music thumps through the club- so loud that I can barely hear the girls who are standing right next to me. Everyone is screaming, cheering, talking, laughing, partying. The entire place is completely packed on top of it. To make everything even more chaotic and insane, the entire place is blacklit and almost completely dark. Nothing is visible except for pink and yellow and orange and purple neon streaks everywhere; it is so dark I cannot even tell if the person standing next to me is Sora or some other random girl. I furrow my eyebrows, trying to figure out what the hell is happening and where the hell everyone is and what the hell is happening-

    “Hyo,” Sora whispers, grabbing my arm. I turn to her in relief. Despite the fact that we are only standing a few inches from each other, I can barely make out the features of her face.

    “I texted him,” she murmurs. “He’s by the boys’ bathroom on the second floor. And, uh, I know you’re scared of men’s underwear, but-,”

    “Oh, shut up,” I huff, striding away. I’ll text you when I’m done.”

    I do not get more than 3 feet when I feel something hit my body. Someone has launched red neon paint straight at me. It is dripping down my skin in a manner that makes it look like I’ve been shot in the stomach. I groan.

    “Happy Glo In the Dark!” someone hollers.

    I proceed to get hit several more times in the back, chest, and legs. By the time I reach the second floor, there are random streaks of bright colors all around my body. Great. This is going to be such a pain to wash off.

    I reach out and grab the nearest arm I can find. “Excuse me!” I shout over the music. “Where are the bathrooms?”

    “Straight and to the right!” the girl I am holding hollers.

    “Thanks!” I fumble my way around until I hit a corridor, at which I proceed to turn at.

    Thankfully, this part of the club has some dim lighting. After immediately securing my hair in a high ponytail, I grab my face mask from my bag and snap it on.

    “Where are you, Wonho?” I mutter. This hall is absolutely deserted. There are doors lining the sides of the hall, but no one seems to be entering or exiting them. In fact, the place looks absolutely deserted. My eyes dart around, searching for someone, anyone-

    And then I see a black-haired man in a pair of white boxers crouching behind a wall divider in the corner. He is fiddling with a packet of a powdery white substance.

    Bingo.