I get a text the following morning from Choi Yuna.

Yuna: do u have the docs for the meeting today

I shoot up, my eyebrows furrowed.

Hyo: we have a meeting today????

Yuna: yeah..... u didnt know??

Hyo: NO LOL

Yuna: I thought joonmyeon told you

My stomach sinks all the way to the floor.

When is it?, I ask.

It started like 10 mins. BRING THE LIST OF SCHOOL DONORS AND STUFF LMAO

Dammit.

I march down to the student council room, my fists clenched. I know we’re both mad at each other, but he could’ve at least told me about this, right? We can’t let our personal relationship interfere in student council business. How am I supposed to act around him? Do I call him out? Or should I just ignore him? God, why can’t we just make up and-

Someone bumps into my shoulder, and I throw them a hasty “Sorry,”- before I realize who it is.

“Morning, Lia,” Jimin says, his lips curved up into a smile.

“Don’t call me that,” I growl. “Get the hell away from me.”

“Calm down. I’m not going to do anything to you here.”

He’s acting calm, like everything’s completely normal, when the reality is far from it. The more I glare at him, the more his easygoing expression pisses me the hell off. So despite my willpower, I end up snapping, “What’s your problem? Are you doing this to piss me off?”

“Doing what?” Jimin asks innocently.

“Acting like everything’s okay. We ing hate each other.”

He furrows his eyebrows. “I don’t hate you.”

I blink. “What?”

“Why would I hate you?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because our groups are rivals and we’ve all tried to kill each other on multiple occasions- oh, and your freaky little friend Taehyung murdered one of my closest friends?”

“What? Who?”

I grit my teeth. “Her name was Chorong. Just another name in his bingo book. Right?”

“Oh. I’m sorry about that. But I don’t have any reason to hate you- even though you might hate me by association, I suppose.”

The weird thing is that Jimin actually looks genuine. I don’t trust this slimeball one bit- in fact, he reminds me of another person-

Wait. I narrow my eyes. Could Jimin be the masked man?

I scan him from top to bottom. He’s of the right build, I suppose- I can’t really tell, seeing as how the man’s features are always covered. The only thing that doesn’t match up is Jimin’s voice. Maybe he’s using a modifier?

    My mind flashes back to the night of the masquerade ball. The lower half of the man’s face was exposed. If I block out the upper half of Jimin’s face-

    “You’re an interesting girl, Hyo,” Jimin drawls. My eyes snap back to his.

    “How so?” I snarl.

    “When we were first told about you- the name you’d made for yourself in the gang world, the murders you’d committed- I thought you’d be jaded. Cruel. But you’re not like that. You have your soft spots, too.”

    My level of alertness sharpens. I close the gap between us, my eyes hard.

    “What are you talking about?” I utter in a deathly soft voice.

    “You have people you care about, too,” Jimin murmurs, looking down at me. “You have people you want to protect. You’re human, too.”

    Joonmyeon.

    No. He can’t do anything to hurt him. The man promised-

    But what if he is the man? What if he’s referencing our conversation last night?

    “Tell me right now,” I hiss. “Are you the masked man?”

    “Masked man?”

    “The man who knows everything and has been leading me around on a wild ing goose chase. Are you him?”

    “Ah.” Realization dawns in Jimin’s eyes.

    “Ah what? Give me a straight ing answer.”

“You tell me.”

“What? What does that even mean?”

Jimin simply gives me a knowing smile, which infuriates me even more. “You guys are ed up,” I say, my voice rising. “What is wrong with you? How could you all do this?”

“But Hyo,” Jimin says. “Isn’t this the same as what you did?”

I arrive at the student council room ten minutes late. Everyone’s heads snap up from the informational pamphlets they are reading when I walk in. My stomach clenches when I see Joonmyeon appraising me from the head of the table with cold eyes.

“Nice of you to show up,” he utters.

On a normal day, I would just apologize and sit down. Hell, on a normal day, I’d make some joke about the aliens in my closet forcing me to be late.

But all the pain and worry and frustration I feel towards Joonmyeon- all the anxiety that he’ll be hurt- I don’t know why, but something about the hostile tone of his voice just makes me snap, and I find myself frostily replying, “I wouldn’t be late if I’d known we had a meeting today.”

Kyungsoo, Seolhyun, and Yuna are giving each other panicked looks as Joonmyeon and I have a staredown across the room. Frustration, sorrow, regret- the emotions churning in my stomach threaten to rise up and overtake me. Never in my life did I think that I would be in a situation like this.

Yet here I am. Joonmyeon hates me and I’m trying not to care.

“The meeting date and time was posted in our group,” Joonmyeon says, his voice scarily soft. “It’s your responsibility to check it.”

“The group that no one uses?” I scoff. “I guarantee you, no one here’s checked the group the whole year. If you really didn’t want to talk to me, you could’ve texted the group chat.”

“If no one checks the group, then how come everyone’s here?” Joonmyeon calmly counters. “You’re the only one who didn’t know there was a meeting.”

    “This is ridiculous. We have meetings every other Wednesday. What is today? Not a Wednesday. If you schedule a supplementary conference, then a heads up would be great.”

    “Okay, you two,” Kyungsoo says, alarmed. “Let’s calm down-,”

“If you have a problem with me, just say it. Don’t bring the student council into it.” I angrily tell Joonmyeon.

“I don’t have a problem with you,” Joonmyeon says in a sharp voice that suggests exactly otherwise. “You’re the one being immature and starting a scene in front of everyone. We can’t keep accommodating you. You’re a part of the student council. The student council isn’t here to cater to your schedule.”

“You know what?” I say. “You’re right. I would hate to hinder the student council anymore. I officially resign as Vice President.”

“Hyo!” Seolhyun exclaims, shooting up.

“Both of you cut it out!” Yuna shouts. “What the hell even happened between you two? Stop being babies and figure it out!”

I stare at Joonmyeon, my fists clenched. He’s so distant. He looks so distant. Doesn’t he know how much I care about him? I’ve been trying to protect him. He should be happy that I’m not telling him what’s going on. It’s for his own safety.

Listen to yourself, Lia. You sound so patronizing.

.

It’s okay. Joonmyeon doesn’t need to know.

All he needs to be is okay.

Seolhyun clutches my hand. “Hyo, please sit down,” Seolhyun begs.

After a moment of hesitation, I sigh. “Fine,” I say between gritted teeth.

“You brought the docs, right?” Yuna asks.

I pass over a manila folder to her. “I’m assuming we’re picking out donor awards right now?”

For the past month or so, the school has been planning the Donor Banquet: a yearly ceremony that honors SNU’s biggest benefactors. The guest list includes some of the most prominent luminaries in South Korea: politicians, business executives, scientists- we even had a very famous singer who had been an alumni of SNU come one year (all I can say about that is that there should have been more security inside the actual banquet. Nothing could have prepared me for the sight of poised, cool Yuna screeching, “Marry me!” when she saw the guy walk up on stage.)

Frankly speaking, though, It’s just a four-hour long ceremony of dull speeches and wealthy old men. The only reason I was able to survive it last year was because of Joonmyeon.

This year... rest in peace, Hyolin.

Oh, . It’s this Saturday. I need to tell Zelo, Himchan, and Sora that I’ll be out that night.

Kyungsoo sighs. “We’re done with everything else. The only thing left is awards. We’re trying to figure out who should get the Alumni Achievement Award this year.”

“I think it should be Han Gayoon,” Seolhyun pipes up. “She gave us that two billion won grant to refurbish the science labs.”

I grab the nearest folder and pore through the spreadsheets of names and total sums donated. “How about Choi Insook? She- wait, do we have anyone down for the Alumni Humanitarian Award? We should give her that.”

“I’ll make a note of that,” Yuna says. “Yeah, the school board would definitely approve of that. Choi Insook created that geothermal heat source nonprofit in Siberia.”

“But the Alumni Achievement Award,” Seolhyun sighs. “It’s the biggest award. How are we supposed to pick one from all these people?”

“I have an idea,” Joonmyeon utters. “Why don’t we give the Achievement Award to Kim Sangyoon?”

“Kim Sangyoon?” Kyungsoo says confusedly. “Isn’t that Kim Sora’s dad?”

I whip my head around to gape at Joonmyeon.

“That’s right,” he says, staring straight at me. “He’s donated at least 500 million won every year since 1998. Both his kids went to SNU. He’s on the alumni board. Frankly, I don’t know why he hasn’t won it before.”

What the ? He knows Sora and I are friends. Is he doing this on purpose?

Kyungsoo scans over Kim Sangyoon’s bio. “That’s a really good idea. It’s a justifiable choice.”

“Look at this guy,” Yuna whistles. “Head of the Korean Crime Prevention Policy Bureau, the 28th wealthiest man in Korea, volunteers to pick up trash in the Han River- I never would’ve guessed that he was Kim Sora’s dad.”

“Careful, Yuna,” Joonmyeon drawls, narrowing his eyes at me. “Sora’s best friend is sitting right in front of you.”

“Hey, how about we not trash people who’re my friends?” I snap. “Sora’s an awesome person and she doesn’t have anything to prove to any of you. Second of all, are you ing doing this on purpose, Joonmyeon? Are you trying to make me feel uncomfortable? Bad news, buddy: I don’t care! You can go and-,”

“Stop!” Yuna shrieks. She flings a stack of papers at Joonmyeon, whose mouth is open, ready to argue back. “You need to calm down, Hyo. I was joking. I'm sorry for saying that. Let’s get back to work.”

Her comment definitely didn’t sound like a joke. But I just shut my mouth and keep looking over papers.

It takes all my willpower not to glance up at Joonmyeon every two seconds.

After we finish picking out awards, Joonmyeon dismisses us, and we all head to the door. I am walking down the hallway when someone yanks me back. I whirl around, my fists raised- and am faced with Yuna and Seolhyun.

“What happened between you and Joonmyeon?” Seolhyun questions. “You two were, like, in love a week ago-,”

“We weren’t in love,” I protest, but she talks over me.

“-and now you hate each other. Did you two fight? Both of you have been so grumpy. You should’ve seen Joonmyeon before you came. He snapped at Kyungsoo for breathing too loudly.”

My eyes slide over Seolhyun and Yuna’s shoulder to the end of the hall, where Byun Baekhyun, Oh Sehun, Kyungsoo, and Joonmyeon himself are lounging by the water fountains. Joonmyeon is staring off into the distance with a brooding expression on his face as Baekhyun, Sehun, and Kyungsoo attempt to talk to him. I notice that Kyungsoo keeps glancing over at us. There’s no doubt that the guys are trying to ask Joonmyeon the same thing.

Why am I even so mad at Joonmyeon? Our fight is my fault.

And why does he look so good just standing there like that? He’s cute when he’s all happy and cheerful, but somehow, the dark, sulky look on his face makes him so-

“Hyo. Hyo.”

I snap back to Seolhyun and Yuna. They are staring at me with raised eyebrows.

“There’s nothing to it,” I utter. “He thinks I’m not telling him something. I don’t know.”

“Well, are you not telling him something?”

Joonmyeon is staring at me. When I catch his eyes, we both stubbornly look away.

“I have to go,” I say, and march away.

A/N: IT'S LIKE 1 AM RIGHT NOW AND I'M FREAKING OUT W EXCITEMENT BECAUSE I JUST PUBLISHED MY FIRST BOOK, The Classified Accounts of Ami Hwang, which is available on Amazon! I will also be selling signed copies with notes, so check out this blog post for more details!

IM SO EXCITED..... AHHHHHH