A smug appeared on the boy's lips, poking out of the sides of the crow's nose. Seulgi displayed an obvious frown with her eyebrows scrunched closer together and an unamused grimace. She crossed her arms and stared at the crow-masked boy standing in front of her. 

"Oh to the ing Sehun," Seulgi muttered, recognizing the face. 

Sehun gave her a wider smile. "How'd you know?"

"I observed," she simply stated.

It was a good thing she took Soojung's words seriously. She observed every single person in the room, trying to figure out who was who. Although she didn't recognize most of the people, she could isolate the popular people from the crowd. At this very moment, she saw Bae Suzy standing at the center of the hall, wearing an elegant red dress with an innocent crimson butterfly mask. The only problem was that Seulgi wasn't sure whether to approach the girl. She was scared of messing up, just like what happened to Hyeri, but she was more scared that Soojung might be lurking in the room and watching her secretly.

I'm going to stay here for an hour, Seulgi realized. I need to figure out what to do during this time. Just talking about random things won't get me anywhere.

"Did you come with Soojung?" Sehun asked her curiously.

"Who?" Seulgi asked innocently, blinking her eyes.

"Soojung. Did you come with her?" he repeated. "I didn't get to see her."

"I think you got the wrong person," she replied. "Also, I thought the rules were not to use real names?"

"Nah. If you said 'Oh to the ing Sehun,' then I'm pretty sure that I got the right girl," he said, exposing her. "Also, I'll let the rules slide. It's my party, after all."

God damn it. Seulgi rolled her eyes. "What do you want?"

"I just want to strike up a healthy conversation with you," he said. "Did Soojung come to my party?"

"Why? You like her?"

Sehun chuckled. "Please don't be jealous."

"Who'd be jealous over you?" Seulgi glared at him. "For your information, I don't like you."

"I could tell," he said, shrugging his shoulders.

"But I can't do anything because Jongin will find out and then he'd hate me."

"So your goal is to get Jongin?"

"I—" Seulgi stopped herself when she realized that she was about to leak her plan. She sealed her lips and looked away. 

Sehun smiled. He looked around, noticing that most people were gathered around Suzy and the phony Hyeri. No one really cared about him, especially since he was wearing such a large and unusual mask. It would take someone with keen eyes to recognize him behind the crow mask. For him, he thought it was a little funny.

Then, he glanced down at the little girl shooting him hostile glares. Kang Seulgi was more than he expected. He was impressed with the fact that she was able to figure out who he was so quickly. For someone who wasn't popular, she sure had a good eye.

"You know, we're going to be here for an hour," Sehun said. "You might as well warm up and talk to me."

"It's only an hour," Seulgi said. "I can handle it."

"Can you?"

"You think I can't?"

"I'd like to see you try."

Sehun smiled when Seulgi scowled. She continued to remain quiet, ignoring him while he anticipated on her next action.

/ / / / /

…2902, 2903, 2904, 2905… Soojung quietly counted up each second in her head, waiting for the hour to pass. The room was dull and didn't have much to offer. She wasn't interested in talking to anyone, and no one was interested in talking to her.

Except for the boy next to her, but he didn't dare to say a word.

Jongin looked at her worriedly, wondering if she was bored. He could tell that she seemed exhausted from waiting. Her eyelids slowly fell down, closing for a brief moment, then shooting them back up to keep conscious. He wanted to do something, but there was nothing he could do. As much as he felt bad for causing her to feel bored, he couldn't help but feel happy just by standing next to her. It was his guilty pleasure, and he was going to cherish the moment a bit longer, even if that meant driving her straight to the world of boredom.

It should be time for the next announcement, Jongin realized.

"…3580, 3581, 3582…"

Jongin looked to his side, noticing that she was starting to whisper numbers. It took him a minute to realize that she had been counting up to nearly a whole hour all this time. He turned red, ashamed of the fact that he had caused her to count almost 3,600 seconds when he could've talked to her and make the moment more enjoyable.

I am a jerk, he declared, embarrassed.

"3598, 3599, 3600…" Soojung lifted her eyelids as a loud chime rang from the speakers. Everyone looked up at the ceiling.

"The one hour talk is over! Ladies and gentlemen, please pick a partner."

Everyone started to murmur and run around the room. Soojung was about to walk away, hoping to find a more interesting partner. However, Jongin quickly grabbed her wrist, preventing her from moving. She looked at him with confusion, wondering why the man was taking particular interest in her. He said nothing but only continued to hold her wrist.

Guess I'll have to deal with this guy for now, Soojung realized. This guy might have to do something with Sehun.

She stopped resisting and returned to his side in a calm manner. Jongin felt his heart skip a beat as the announcer continued to speak.

"Now, if you look behind the curtains—" Someone removed the large curtains that were hiding two doors. "You will see that there is a door with a picture of a pawn and the other has the picture of a king chess piece. You are free to pick either door, but be aware that once you pick the door, you will not be seeing those who went into the opposite door."

Crap. Soojung narrowed her eyes. What's this supposed to do? What's the whole point of this party? What's Sehun scheming?

She noticed that several were following the fake Sehun into the door with the king chess piece. She took a deep breath, then glanced at her partner. Jongin looked at the king chess door, watching everyone else enter the room.

"Do you mind if I pick the room?" she asked him. Jongin looked down at her and shook his head silently. A smirk formed on her lips. "You know, you're a good partner. I like you."

She grabbed Jongin's hand, causing his heart to skip a beat. His whole face turned red, but she couldn't see him behind his full-faced mask. She dragged him to the other room, opening the door and praying that Seulgi had picked the same room.

The new room that the duo entered was a bit odd. It was smaller and had fewer people as if it was expecting that a few people would enter the room. It was quite similar to the room before, but this time the new room allowed people to go outside on the patio.

"Pawn!"

Soojung turned around, letting go of Jongin's hand. Jongin, too, looked behind him, noticing that there was another duo who had approached them.

Soojung let out a sigh of relief when she recognized that it was Seulgi. "Thank goodness."

"The codename we used earlier came pretty handy," Seulgi said. "My partner was trying to pull me into the other room."

Jongin looked up and noticed that she was talking about Sehun. Sehun winked at him, gesturing him to remain silent about their identity.

"I didn't do anything like that with my partner. He kind of obeyed," Soojung said, glancing at Jongin.

Seulgi looked at Jongin a bit longer. "Hm. It's kind of hard to tell who he is."

"He didn't speak."

"Oh, he talks," Sehun said, grinning.

"This is Sehun, right?" Soojung asked Seulgi.

"Nope, I'm Mr. Crow for today," Sehun replied.

"Yeah, it's Sehun," Seulgi answered.

"Mr. Crow," Sehun corrected.

"Yeah, yeah, Mr. Crow. Whatever," Seulgi said boringly. She leaned in to whisper in Soojung's ears. "Did you find Jongin yet?"

Soojung briefly glanced at the boy standing besides her. Then, she shook her head at Seulgi. Seulgi gave her a disappointed grimace.

"I saw Suzy," Seulgi mentioned. "She went into the other room."

"Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you're having a wonderful evening." Everyone looked up at the ceiling, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. "In this room, you will be dancing. Please partner up and let your spirits dance to their heart's content! A few individuals will be selected to enter another room."

Sehun smiled. He was about to turn to Seulgi, but Soojung quickly grabbed her hands. Seulgi, Sehun, and Jongin all widened their eyes as they watched Soojung pull her closer to him.

"M'lady, you will be my partner for this dance," Soojung said, forcing a smile.

"You can't do that," Sehun blurted.

"The rules stated 'partner.' It did not specifically state the gender," Soojung said. She smirked when she saw his face crumble. "See? We can play your game and follow your rules. It's not our fault if there's loopholes."

Sehun clenched his teeth. "Well played. Well ing played."

Soojung curtsied and walked away with Seulgi. The two started to dance near the corner of the dance rooms, trying to avoid as many eyes as possible. Once Soojung felt like the two were alone, she started to whisper, making sure that it was loud enough for Seulgi to listen to her, but small enough to be drowned in the live orchestra.

"How're you feeling so far?" Soojung whispered.

"Awkward," Seulgi murmured.

"Great. Anyway, did you figure out what Sehun is planning?"

"No. He tried to get me to talk about you, though."

"Me?" Soojung repeated. "Why me?"

"I don't know. He asked me if you were here and I… Well…"

"What? You answered him?"

"Not exactly. I didn't really say that you were behind all of this, but I did say that my goal is to get Jongin to be my boyfriend…" Seulgi's cheeks turned pink. "Oh god! I can't believe I said that!"

"So you basically confirmed all of his suspicion, huh?" Soojung grumbled. "Great. Just great."

"I'm sorry! Everything just came out so naturally!"

"We really need to work on your speaking skills."

"I'm sorry."

"What else do you know?"

"Nothing else. He kept pissing me off the entire hour." Seulgi stopped. "What were you doing?"

"Counting 3,600 seconds and hoping that the event would end soon," Soojung said exhaustingly.

For a moment, Seulgi felt bad for making Soojung go through all these commotions. It didn't seem too far, especially since it was Soojung doing all the work and Seulgi blindly following her orders. 

But it's for the sake of gaining popularity, Seulgi told herself. It'll all be worth it in the end, and I can do something for Soojung once I achieve that popularity.

"But just like I thought, Sehun isn't planning to make things easy for us," Soojung quickly added.

"What do you mean?" Seulgi asked.

"I think he just lured us into this party to confirm his thoughts that we're doing something out-of-the-ordinary," said Soojung. "The fact that we aren't able to identify Jongin may suggest that Sehun is doing this all on his own. I think he just pulled us into this party by planting the idea that we're going to find Jongin, but we haven't been doing that at all. For all I know, it could be that Sehun is purposely dragging us to his direction while he could be sending Jongin off at another direction."

"So you're saying that Jongin is probably in the other room?" Seulgi inquired. Soojung nodded. "I can't believe him! That's outrageous! What kind of person does that?" She pouted. "So we basically came here for no reason?"

"Oh, we came here for a reason, but for a different reason."

"So what do you suggest?"

Soojung looked at her before looking back at the crowd. "If Sehun is going to play this game with us, then we need to come up with a different strategy. We need to find ourselves a new pathway to popularity."

"Then should we leave?" Seulgi asked.

"That sounds like a great idea," Soojung said. "I can't stand this place any longer."

"Do we take off our masks?" Seulgi touched her mask. "That's one way to get kicked out, right?"

"You take off your mask. I'll do something else," Soojung said. 

"Why?"

"I don't want people to recognize my face. On the other hand, we need people to recognize yours."

Seulgi obeyed. The two girls stopped dancing with each other. Soojung slowly crept closer to the door where she came from. In the corner of Seulgi's eyes, she noticed a butler approach her with a deep frown. She saw the two chat for a few minutes before the butler politely opened the door, forcing her out. Soojung pretended to resist a little.

I need to stand out, Seulgi realized. She looked around, trying to figure out what to do. At that moment, she snapped her fingers and marched towards the live orchestra. She gave the conductor a keen glare from the back. The conductor pretended to not notice, but gasped loudly when Seulgi stepped forward and snatched away his baton. The whole orchestra stopped playing, gaining attention from the guests.

Soojung forcefully stopped herself from leaving the room and widened her eyes when she saw Seulgi head straight towards one of the violinist.

"!" Soojung hissed.

Before she had the chance to do anything else, Seulgi snatched one of the violins and started to rub the bow across the strings, creating an eerie noise. The crowd groaned loudly and complained, covering their ears for the horrendous playing. Jongin looked at Seulgi with pure amazement while Sehun forced himself not to laugh.

"Thank you," Seulgi whispered to the violinist as she handed the instrument back. She looked back at the audience with the spotlight shining down on her. Then, she raised her hand at the corner of the mask. "This party !"

She did it, Soojung thought, covering her face. She's done for.

Without another pause, Seulgi removed her mask, exposing her identity to the small public. A few people stared at her, clueless of who she was. They all started to think that she was a crazy girl who came to the party by mistake. Seulgi glanced at the conductor and handed the baton and the mask when she noticed that a few butlers were rushing up to her to kick her out.

"Sorry for taking this wand," Seulgi said. She waved to the orchestra before the butlers grabbed both of her arms and pulled her away. "By the way, I love the way you play! Bravo!"

Soojung stared at Seulgi, who started to approach her. The two looked at each other for a brief moment.

"How was I?" Seulgi asked. "Did I gain a lot of attention?"

"You're an idiot," Soojung declared.

Seulgi bit her bottom lip. "Did I mess up?"

The two were kicked out of the party. Jongin looked at the door where the two left. He stared at the door a bit longer, then glanced to see Sehun suppressing his laughter by squatting and hiding his face behind his hands.

"Is it that funny?" Jongin asked him.

A wild grin appeared on her lips. "I love this." He looked up at Jongin. "I love this game so much."

Jongin frowned, but forced a smile, unsure of what to say to his friend.