Friday morning.

I wake up in Joonmyeon’s arms.

    We are lying on his couch, old reruns of That 70s Show playing on the TV. My head is nestled under his; a cashmere blanket is wrapped around our intertwined bodies. I sit up, my mind woozy from the heat of Joonmyeon’s body. The clock on the wall reads 9:14 AM.

    T minus 12 hours.

    I texted Sora, Himchan, and Zelo last night and told them I was going to take a break Thursday night. Sora vehemently agreed with my decision. I didn’t stay by my phone long enough to hear what Zelo and Himchan had to say- I powered off my phone and took up Joonmyeon’s offer to come over. We spent the entire evening by the fireplace, sticking anything we could- from marshmallows to biscuits to hot dogs- on skewers and holding it over the flames. Two empty mugs, with the slightest residue of hot chocolate left inside, sit on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

    I twist back to look at Joonmyeon. His messy brown hair is in different directions, with a tuft hanging in his eyes and another sticking up in the back. I am struck by how angelic he looks. How calm and peaceful and innocent his sleeping face is.

    My stomach skitters. I quickly tear my eyes away from him.

    I can’t. It wouldn’t be fair to him.

    “Joonmyeon,” I murmur, shaking his away. It takes a while for me to rouse him. He rises, sleepily rumpling his hair.

    “Morning,” he mumbles. “Did you sleep well.”

    I smile. “Yeah. No bad dreams.”

    “Good.” He ruffles my hair affectionately. “Breakfast?”

    “Yeah. Pancakes, please?”

    “With maple syrup on top and kiwis on the side?” Joonmyeon grins. “Of course.”

    “Shut up,” I scoff, punching him in the side. He knows I hate both of those things. “I’ll make you eat ravioli for lunch if you give that to me.”

    He wrinkles his nose. “Ew. Satan’s food.”

    “I still don’t understand why you don’t like ravioli. It’s freaking delicious. And you’re fine with every other kind of pasta.”

    “It’s just weird, okay? Why is there cheese and meat inside pasta? It’s like foodception. That’s just... weird.”

    “Uh, sandwiches, calzones, and pie are all stuffed with food, too, and you seem to be fine with those.”

    “Those are different! It’s just complicated, Hyo. You wouldn’t understand, because you eat too quickly to even taste your food.”

    As Joonmyeon continues rambling on about his hatred for ravioli, I reach over and turn on my phone. Immediately, it begins buzzing in my hand. I peer at the screen.

    69 unread text messages. 13 missed calls.

    Everything is from Himchan, Zelo, and Sora.

    My heart sinks.

    “Hey, Joon,” I say, grabbing my coat. “I completely forgot about this study session I had to be at, like, half an hour ago. I have to go.”

    He turns around, a look of surprise on his face. There is a box of Bisquick pancake mix in his hands.

    “A study session at 9 in the morning?” he says. “How do you even concentrate?”

    “I know. But I promised I would help them out.” I rush over and give him a quick hug. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

    “Don’t forget about our student council meeting at noon!” Joonmyeon calls after me. I wince. .

    “Uh, I think I might have a meeting with Professor Hwang at noon,” I tell him quickly. “Bye!”

    I rush out just as he yells, “If you ditch the StuCo meeting, I’m going to kill you!”

    As if on cue, my phone begins ringing when I get into the elevator in Joonmyeon’s high-rise building. “Hello?” I mutter.

    “Where the have you been?” Zelo exclaims. I jerk my phone away from my head, wincing.

    “I said that I wanted to take a break before today!”

    “Yeah, but that didn’t mean you had to go completely MIA! You know how close Himchan was to breaking into your dorm to see if you were there? He thought Sora was hiding you somewhere!”

    “Well, I wasn’t in my dorm, so that would’ve been unnecessary anyway.”

    “What? Where were you?”

    I redden. “Out.”

    There is a pause on the other end, and then Zelo sighs. “Whatever,” he says. “Come to the Galmegi. We need to prep for tonight and finalize everything.”

    “Got it.”

    “Were you at Joonmyeon’s last night?” Sora whispers in my ear as I hurry into the Galmegi, my hair tucked under a wig and a black mask over the lower half of my face.

    “Yeah,” I murmur.

    She clucks her tongue, a knowing smile on her face. “Thought so.”

    “What is that supposed to-,”

    “Okay, kids!” Himchan chuckles. Zelo trails him, an annoyed look on his face. When he sees me, his displeased expression intensifies.

    “What?” I say.

    “Do you know how freaked out we all were?” Zelo snaps. “You just disappeared last night! You could’ve at least told us where you were going.”

    “I went to a friend’s! I’m sorry.” I widen my eyes, clasp my hands together. “Please forgive me. Pleaaaa-,”

    “Oh, stop,” Zelo huffs, but I can see a smile playing on his lips.

    “Hey, Mina, you wanna start flirting, too?” Himchan teases. Sora responds by smiling sweetly and giving him the finger.

It takes us several hours to revise our plan with the new information we have gained. Sora had subtly scoped out the location of the party last night.

“It’s this mansion in a gated community,” she tells me. “I couldn’t get in and actually see it. But I’ve been to a party in that area before, and those houses are pretty big.”

    And this is coming from a chaebol who lives on an enormous estate herself. If Sora says it’s “pretty big”, it’s probably ginormous.

    “I borrowed an earpiece and mic from one of my old, ah, associates,” Himchan smirks, sliding over two black chips to me. “I also have a voice transmitter, but it’s a tooth cap that’s been worn before, so I don’t know how you’d feel about wearing that.”

    I grimace. “I’ll pass.”

    “Ew, Himchan.” Zelo gags. “You don’t know whose tooth that thing has been on. What if it belonged to some thug with rotting teeth who never flosses? Why would you take that?”

    “Actually, it belongs to a very cute girl who works in the tech shop downtown,” Himchan interjects in a smug voice. “So you don’t have to worry about that. It’s okay, though. I have another transmitter that I can attach to your dress- well, Mina can do that.”

    Zelo, Sora, and I look at him in puzzlement. “How did you-,” Zelo begins to ask, but Himchan wags a finger.

    “Ask no questions and I will give you no answers.”

    “You’re the sketchiest person here, Himchan.” Sora mutters. He grins widely like she has given him a compliment.

    “So do you have any idea what Creepzilla looks like?” Zelo questions.

“Creepzilla?”

“Yeah. That’s what this guy is. Who just comes up to someone and whispers, I know you killed ZE:A in their ear?”

I squirm uncomfortably. When recounting this story to Sora, Zelo, and Himchan, I omitted certain parts of it- the sensual touches on my hips, his smooth, velvety voice... how I was actually enjoying it. There is a strange, embarrassed feeling that rises in my stomach every time I think about what we did.

Plus I really don’t want to see the look on Zelo’s face if I tell him.

“I just remember that he was tall,” I say. “I could feel him hovering over me. But... yeah. That’s pretty much it. Oh, I know what his voice sounds like, too, I guess.”

    “Maybe you could go around talking to as many people as you can before you find him,” Sora suggests. I scowl at that, cross my arms.

    “Lia? Socialize?” Zelo chortles. “She was supposed to do that during this one mission we were on- just distract the bouncers to CNBLUE’s club by talking to them. Instead, she gave up 5 seconds in and just knocked them out.”

    “I remember that night,” Himchan says. “Daehyun almost got shot by Yonghwa. We grabbed tequila shots at the bar before we left to celebrate his survival.”

    Sora’s eyes are as round as quarters. “What? Are you serious?”

    “It’s true,” I tell her. “I was there.”

    “How old were you?”

    “Uh... . How old were we, Zelo?”

    “I was 16, so you must’ve been 15.”

    “15?!” Sora shrieks. “You were doing that at 15?”

    “This isn’t anything new,” I tell her, but she continues to look absolutely astonished.

    “Anyway,” Himchan says, amused at Sora’s reaction. “Mina, did you finish getting Hyo’s disguise for tonight ready?”

    Her eyes snap back to focus. Sora looks a little relieved; this is more in her zone of understanding. “Yeah,” she says, placing the large bag she brought on the table. It contains a short black wig, violet circle lenses, and a long, strapless black gown slit down to my sternum that is speckled with white roses. Sitting atop everything is a luminescent silver mask, embroidered with white sequins in swirling patterns.

    “Wow,” I say, the papier-mache mask. “It’s beautiful.”

    “Yeah,” Sora says. “It’ll make you look like another fancy, sophisticated partygoer. When we all know what you’re really going there to do.”

I was right. When Sora said the house the party is being held in is “pretty big”, she completely understated its size. It is absolutely enormous. My eyes widen as I see the threads of twinkling gold lights that line the entire span of the estate, the rounded floral arch intertwined with white hydrangeas and dripping with dark ivy, the mass of wealthy partygoers gathered around the garden and the house. The whole place is characterized by outright ostentation. Whose mansion is this?

My eyes scan the crowd. There are so many people here that I cannot tell who is the host of the party- let alone who the man who called me here is.

. This is going to be even harder than I expected.

“Excuse me,” a voice says. I turn. A petite woman wearing a pink mask is gliding towards me in a frilly baby blue gown.

“Yes?” I ask, trying to hide the nervousness in my voice.

“Where did you get your dress? It’s absolutely exquisite.”

The tension dissipates from my shoulders and I laugh. “My friend gave it to me as a birthday present. It’s my favorite gown.”

“Oh. How sweet.” I can feel the woman’s eyes scan me. “Hmm. I can’t figure out who you are. Have we met?”

“I don’t know. I can’t recognize you, either.”

The lady scoffs. “Really? You don’t know me? I’m Mino’s girlfriend.”

The name doesn’t ring a bell, but I pretend to gasp in surprise anyway. “What? Really? Oh, wow! I’ve heard your name around. It’s nice to meet you!”

“Hello, there,” she says, sticking out her hand. Her tone is still haughty, but she sounds a lot more satisfied. “What’s your name?”

“Lia,” I respond in a sickly sweet voice.

“Lia? I’ve never heard your name, either? Who are you?”

. Time to pull something out of my . “I’m actually pretty new to all this. This is my first party, but I’m... loosely associated with a few people here.”

“Mmm. Who do you work for? Seventeen? TWICE? Monsta X?”

The last name she says causes a jolt of surprise to go through my body. Monsta X is a gang... which causes me to realize two things: one, this girl knows about the gang world. She’s probably involved in it somewhat- I’m betting that she and her boyfriend Mino are gangsters. Two, everyone here must be affiliated with a gang as well.

New gangs.

Does this unsettle me?

Maybe.

. The woman is waiting for me to respond. I clear my throat, waiting, waiting-

And then finally, I hear Himchan say through my earpiece, “Oops. Sorry. Say you’re a tech dealer. Mino’s a part of the gang Winner, by the way.”

Finally, , I grumble in my head. “I’m a tech dealer,” I tell the lady.

“Oh. I see. That’s... cute. Well, Mino fell for me the moment he saw me. I was at, like, one of those street fights, you know, the ones that BTS holds-,”

My ears perk up when I hear the letters BTS.

“-and Mino was fighting some dude from AOMG for territory- who didn’t stand a chance against him, and he totally beat him-,”

“Wait, BTS holds street fights?” I interject. “Where?”

“Uh, in Taebaek? Anyway, after he won, I went up to him- I was wearing this cute little miniskirt and a tank top, but I wasn’t half- like the other s there- I congratulated him and he gave me this look-,”

    “This sounds like a piece from the Weddings section of the Seoul Times,” Zelo groans into my ear.

    “Who is this ?” Sora mutters. “Lia, if I have to listen to any more of this bull, I’m going to throw up.”

    “,” Himchan chuckles. The sound of a slap! and an “Ow!” resonates from the other end, along with Zelo’s raucous laughter. My lips curve up into a small smile at this.

    It is only thanks to Himchan and Sora’s banter- and Zelo’s snarky commentary- that I am able to survive the next 15 minutes, during which Mino’s girlfriend- whose name is Jina, apparently- continues rambling on about how amazing her boyfriend and his gang is. Her trite blabber is somewhat useful, though. I am able to put pieces together and make out that, despite the substantially higher amount of money and resources they have, the new gangs operate just like the old gangs. They fight with each other, they form feuds and alliances only to dissolve them a few weeks later, they up.

A pang of nostalgia hits me. I used to know the old gang world in and out. I knew its intricacies, I knew its people, I knew how it worked. But this? This is a world I am not a part of.

    It was my decision to leave, of course.

    But somehow...

    Somehow, I feel as if I have been left behind.

I wonder if this is how Zelo and Himchan feel as well.

    The sudden sound of a clock chiming jerks me out of my thoughts. I look around in confusion, attempting to locate the source of the noise.

    “It’s time to enter the ballroom,” Jina gasps excitedly. “Ooh, I’m so excited! I told Mino that he had to pick me out from the crowd. If he finds me- well, let’s just say that someone will be getting some tonight-,”

    “What are we going to do in the ballroom?” I question.

    Despite the fact that she is wearing a mask, I can practically feel the condescending look she is giving me. “Dance, of course. Oh, I forgot. You’re new. Well, at every party, there’s always a dance, and we’re supposed to switch off partners and all. Good luck if you get Joshua. He’s notorious for trampling on girls’ feet.”

    “I’ll keep that in mind,” I tell her offhandedly. We walk into the mansion and enter the ballroom, which is full of ritzy men and women wearing ornate masks and expensive dresses. A live orchestra is stationed at the front of the room. Rows and rows of violas and flutes play beautiful classical music as couples gliding together onto the dance floor.

    “They started without me!” Jina gasps in indignation. She hurries towards a masked man sipping a glass of wine and sticks her hand out. “Let’s dance,” she tells him in a haughty voice. The man takes her arm, and they head to the floor- leaving me standing by myself.

    “Great,” I mutter. “Thanks a lot.”

    I watch everyone waltz together from the outskirts of the dance floor, my hands awkwardly clenched by my side. What the hell am I supposed to do now?

    “What’s going on?” Sora asks through my earpiece.

    “This really beats me,” I mutter out of the corner of my mouth.

    “Do you see anyone who could be Creepzilla?”

    My lips curl up into a smile. “God, Sora, can you-,”

Suddenly, someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn.

A tall man wearing a sky blue tuxedo and a matching mask proffers his hand to me. “Do you, uh, want to dance?” he asks rather nervously.

Hm. It’ll look weird if I turn him down.

I should blend in.

“Sure.”

A/N: GUYS OH MY GOD, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE BIRTHEDAY WISHES. I ACTUALLY LOVE LL OF YOU, OH MY GOD, IM SO SORRY IF I HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO REPLYING TO UR MESSAGE YET IM LIKE WORKING MY WAY THROUGH THEM. ALSO S/O TO ANANASHADOW FOR MAKING THE MOST INCREDIBLE EDITS FOR MY BDAY!!! She made these 2 masterpieces which are now my computer/phone wallpapers: 

The other ones she made litearlly inspired me to write a story so you may see those in the future :^)) anyway, THANK YALL SO MUCH AGAIN <3 I'LL TRY AND DOUBLE UPDATE 2DAY.