News of Sehun's birthday invitations spread like wild fire. Everyone busied themselves, hoping to search for the invitation. They looked as high up to the trees and as low as to the dusty bottom of the vending machine. Some people were lucky enough to find it, but it never meant that their invitation was safe from others. Rumors started to say that people would wait until someone stupid found the invitation. Then, at the right timing, they would steal the invitation and guard it until they got home. It was truly a game meant to last the entire day.

Soojung eyed Seulgi carefully. Just like Sehun said, Seulgi, too, was enthusiastic to find the letter. She would go on and on just to talk about Sehun's magical party. Whenever she asked Soojung if she got an invitation, Soojung would only lie and say that she didn't get one or that she couldn't find one yet. It was a good thing that Seulgi was naive. Otherwise, it would've been a pain to deal with her if she found out that she had an invitation hidden somewhere at home.

Just a week before Sehun's birthday, people started to leak about what the invitation held. The location wasn't hard to find—address to the venue were publicly displayed online. The only difficult part was that there would be tight security, so you would either need to have the invitation or not get in at all. The theme, too, was also published: a masquerade ball with clothes provided for all the guests.

"Masks," Soojung murmured. "Interesting."

She was kind of glad that Sehun decided to make a masked-theme party, but she knew that she shouldn't get too comfortable with the idea. Sehun had a plan, and she didn't know what his plan was at all. That made him dangerous.

Very, very dangerous.

"You've been spaced out these days," Seulgi commented. "Are you okay?"

Soojung eyed at Seulgi. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"I don't know. You seem like you're all tense and everything. Are you stressed?" she asked.

"Never mind me. Anyway, I might have some good news for you," Soojung said. "First, did you find an invitation yet?"

Seulgi groaned. "No, and it !"

"I've got good news for you then," she started. "One of the girls who has the invitation is Yezy."

Seulgi stopped walking. "Y-Yezy? You mean the Yezy? Lee Yezy? The one who looks scary?"

"Yes," Soojung said, nodding her head. "She has the card."

"Isn't that a bad thing? No one would dare to steal the card from here."

"No, that's actually a good thing. You see, according to my reports, the one who actually found the invitation is Gong Minzy."

"That other scary girl, right?" Seulgi asked. She shuddered. "Those two are really close, but they're really scary."

"But you see, Minzy and Yezy aren't interested in Sehun's little party," Soojung said, flipping through her small notebook. "They don't Jongin and Sehun very much."

"I understand why they'd hate Sehun, but why Jongin?"

"Those two girls hate them for the same reason: the boys are popular and 'think they can rule the world.' In other words, these girls are kind of 'rebelling' against them by hating them," Soojung explained.

"Okay, so why are they holding onto one of the invitations?" Seulgi inquired.

"Because they feel like they have power. If they hold one of the most valuable things in the school, then they feel like they're the queens or something equivalent to that."

"So why are you telling me all this?"

Soojung looked at Seulgi. "The goal is to get that invitation from the two."

"How?"

" up to them." Seulgi blinked her eyes. "I'm serious, Seulgi. You need to be direct and up to them."

"B-But they're so scary," Seulgi whimpered.

"Popularity itself is scary, so just talking to these two won't do you any harm," Soojung said, closing the book. "The main goal is to get the invitation from them, but the side goal is to be good acquaintance with them."

"I have to be their friend?" Seulgi shrieked.

"Yes, but you don't have to necessarily like them," Soojung told her.

"What does that mean?"

"It means just do the best you can to get close to them." She stopped, then smiled. "Speaking of those two, here's your chance!"

"Wha—"

"And there you go!"

"Woah!"

Seulgi nearly tripped over her own feet. She glared behind her, only to realize that Soojung had disappeared from her sight. She frowned and looked up. A small gasp escaped her lips. Standing before her were two short-haired females who gave her a daunting glare. Seulgi gulped and tried to look for Soojung in the crowded hall, but Yezy had interrupted her.

"Can you move?" she snapped. Her words forced Seulgi to make space for the two to walk. The two girls started walking away. Just when Seulgi thought that she was in the clear, Minzy looked behind her.

"Oh," Minzy continued, "and don't just stand in the middle of the hall. You're getting in the way of everyone's business."

Seulgi gulped. She quickly nodded her head and watched the two girls go. She let out a sigh of relief, proud of herself for surviving through the small encounter. She turned around again, but bumped into someone else. She let out a yelp and was about to fall until someone grabbed her wrist, saving her from the ground. Her eyes widened she a familiar pair of brown eyes bore through her soul.

"J-Jongin," Seulgi stuttered. She hitched her breath, but started to breathe when she noticed Hyeri standing right besides him.

Hyeri gave her a skeptical look. Despite how many times Seulgi apologized to her for acting strange, Hyeri always felt the need to hold up her guard. She knew that Seulgi was about to something, but she wasn't sure what the goal was. This girl was suspicious, and that didn't make Hyeri feel safe at all.

Regardless of her thoughts, Hyeri used her hands to help Seulgi regain her balance. She grabbed Seulgi's other wrist and pulled her up until the girl was able to stand.

"T-T-Thank you," Seulgi said, her eyes only on Jongin.

Jongin smiled. "No problem. Don't interrupt the flow of traffic here. Accidents like these might happen."

This was no accident, Hyeri silently thought. I bet this little girl planned to bump into Jongin.

"You're…Kang Seulgi, right?" Jongin asked. 

Seulgi widened her eyes. "Y-Yes!"

"I heard you cheer for your friend a few weeks ago. You were loud," Jongin said, chuckling.

Seulgi felt her heart squeeze. "Oh, um, I just like supporting my friends. Was I too loud?"

"No, you were fine. You just caught all of our attention," he said. He looked around. "I don't see your friend. Where is she?"

"Who?"

"The girl who ran really fast. The one you were cheering on."

Hyeri frowned. "Why are you looking for her?"

Jongin paused. "N-No reason."

"She's…somewhere," Seulgi murmured.

"Are you going to the party?" Jongin asked her.

"Huh?"

"You know, my party," another voice said. Seulgi turned around and saw Sehun standing behind her. He grinned at her, which she only returned with a dull frown. "What? That's not the kind of face that I expected."

"I'm going to the party," Hyeri said, showing off the invitation in her hands. She smirked and locked arms with Jongin. "You're courting me to Sehun's party, right?"

Seulgi stopped frowning. She stared at Hyeri, tempted to glare at the most popular girl. Hyeri smirked at Seulgi and continued to cling Jongin's arm. It was clear that he was slightly uncomfortable, but Hyeri didn't care. She just needed to show the little brat that Jongin was hers.

"Oh, you actually got the invitation? Congratulations!" Sehun said, still smiling.

Hyeri glared at him. "I think it's so unfair that you just gave Jongin and invitation instead of making him find it like me."

"Please, everyone knows that you didn't find it. We all know that you made your subordinate take it," Sehun said, keeping up his grinning mask.

Hyeri scowled. "Who told you that?"

"Rumors," he replied simply. He looked at Seulgi. "Did you find one?" Seulgi shook her head. "Ah, really? What a pity. You only have a few more days until you get one."

"What? Are you really expecting someone like her to come to the party?" Hyeri spat out, glaring at her.

"Why not? It'll be amusing."

"Ew," Hyeri murmured. She buried her face in Jongin's arm. 

Seulgi felt her blood boil. Why are you hugging Jongin like that? Don't you see that he hates it? He hates you, ! Let go of him! Gosh, poor Jongin! You need to keep up with so much from this girl.

"Time's ticking," Sehun said, showing Seulgi his watch. "All the invitations are gone from their hiding spots."

"Wait, seriously?" Seulgi asked, widening her eyes.

"Yeah. I just checked to see where I placed the invitations, and they're all gone from the spot," Sehun revealed.

"So how am I supposed to get an invitation?"

"Steal it from someone," Sehun said. "Take it away, make a deal with someone who has it—I don't know. Do whatever you want." Sehun patted Seulgi's head, which only caused her to groan. "I'm looking forward to how you're going to get an invitation."

Seulgi rolled her eyes up to him to glare at him, but his eyes were elsewhere. Rather, she noticed that he was scanning the crowd, as if he was looking for someone. She also realized that he had said his last sentence a bit louder, as if he was trying to convey his message to someone who was far away.

He smirked and smiled down at Seulgi. She only glared and smacked away his hand from her head. She fixed her hair while Sehun placed his arm over Jongin's shoulder.

"Come on, buddy," Sehun said. "Let's go to class."

Jongin nodded. He was about to bid his goodbyes to Seulgi, but Hyeri and Sehun pulled him away before he could say anything. Seulgi watched the three walk away, their heads high and their backs straight.

I'm a little envious of them, Seulgi thought with a grim expression. I wish I was close to Jongin like them.

"Crap."

Seulgi gasped and whirled around, only to see Soojung standing behind her. 

"You scared me!" Seulgi exclaimed.

"Now's not the time to be scared," Soojung said, giving her a sharp look. "Sehun's invitations are all out, and we don't know who has it except for one person."

"Yezy," Seulgi answered.

"Exactly, and I know for a fact that those two aren't interested in going. They're just going to tease people until last minute," Soojung said.

"So what now? Am I not going to the party?" Seulgi asked.

"Oh, you're definitely going to the party, alright," Soojung said. She gestured Seulgi to follow her to the window. The girl obeyed and followed Soojung to the clear window pane. Soojung pointed below and Seulgi bent over to see what she was pointing at. "This is your next mission: Get close to Yezy and Minzy, and get the stupid invitation."

"Okay, but how?" Seulgi asked again.

"By temporarily stooping down to their level," Soojung said.

When Seulgi saw the way Soojung smiled, she had mixed feelings: half of her heart was glad to see such a smile since it meant that Soojung would be reliable, and half the other part anxiously feared whatever Soojung had in store for her.