This night is horrible, she thinks.

Quick footsteps bring her to the large oak doors of that vast room. Around he, chatters of people dressed elegantly – men in suits, women in sweeping gowns of varying colors and brightness – but she does not mind them. All that occupies her mind is one thought: to get out of there.

One quick glance across the room, and she sees that she’s clear to go. Nobody even noticed her, despite her being one of the stars of that night’s events.

“Tonight you’ll meet the son of my good friend. I hope you two become good friends too.”

She’s not stupid. She knew exactly what her father meant. True, tonight is not a night of engagement announcements; it is a night to celebrate her family’s success for how many years. Still, she knows that soon, another event will take place which will be of that nature.

The moment the door closes behind her, she breaks into a run, her silver high heels clicking against the marble floor. She turns around a corner, and due to her momentum, she’s not able to stop herself from running into someone.

She looks up, and the first thing she sees is an all-white wall. She blinks, then straightens and steadies her posture, at the same time, she feels the hands that were steadying her a second ago. She looks up. Large brown eyes full of concern look back at her.

“I’m fine, sorry, I need to go,” she says, answering the unasked question. She turns away, slowly, because if she’s honest to herself, she found herself mesmerized by those eyes. The need to get away overwhelms her though, and her slow footsteps hastens.

When she gets outside, the thought of where to go next crosses her mind. What she needs is some space, to think, and to accept her inevitable fate.  Staying there will do her no good in achieving that, because by then, one of her family members probably have realized that she is nowhere inside that ballroom.

She walks into the parking lot, thinking hard. She cannot take a taxi to bring her somewhere else; she doesn’t have money with her. Walking along the streets is not street-smart, and unless she wants to be robbed, she should not do such. A sigh escapes her lips. She is about to go back, when in the periphery of her eyesight, she sees a bicycle leaning against a lamppost.

She approaches it slowly, and when she reaches it, she stretches out an arm to hold its handle. A grin forms on her red lips. But as soon as happiness comes, reality comes crashing back. She doesn’t know how to ride a bike, so how is she to use it to get away?

In a fit of frustration, she stomps her feet. As she does so, she hears a low chuckle behind her. She quickly turns around, fear sinking into her heart for being found out, and her widened eyes meet large brown eyes.

The same brown eyes she saw a while back in the hallway.

Blood rushes to her cheeks. She realizes that the owner of those mesmerizing eyes have other facial features that are as mesmerizing as well. And that he found her there, in a black sleeveless gown and silver heels, holding a bike.

She looks away quickly, embarrassment making her feel small. She hears him laugh again, this time a little louder. Even if she isn’t looking, she can imagine those heart-shaped lips forming a grin.

“Planning to escape?” she hears him ask. She slowly nods her head, because she knows it’s best to tell the truth, especially since she’s caught red-handed. But she never looks up. He asks another question, “Do you know how to ride it?”

If it is possible to be swallowed by the earth, she will have done it by then. She lowers her head as far as she can, then shakes her head. Another low chuckle, then white slacks enter her view. She can’t help it; she looks up, and she sees him standing right in front of her, one arm stretched towards the bike. She finally realizes that he’s wearing an all-white suit ensemble. Too fancy, like hers, to ride a bike.

He looks at her, and their eyes meet. She sees a playful glint in his. Without words, she understands what he’s thinking. Her lips slowly form a smile, then stretch into a grin. A giggle escapes her lips, and she nods. He chuckles, then gets on the bike. She gathers her long dress into a bunch, enough to show her legs but not her thighs. She sits sideways, one arm slinging around his waist for support, the other keeping her dress out of the bike tire’s way.

At the back of her mind, she thinks this is crazy. She barely knows the guy, not even his name, and yet she comes with him. He may actually be there to kidnap her. Still, she suppresses those thoughts, because what she wants right now is escape. And escape she does.

The thoughts worrying her when in the building quickly go out of her mind, as if removed by the wind meeting them as he rode fast. She enjoys it, and when they go downhill, she releases a gleeful shout that makes him laugh.

A few minutes of riding, and he slows down. Questions return to her mind, but mostly questions on where exactly they are, and who he really is. Soon, he stops by a swing.

“Get off,” he says gently, but she does not need to be told what to do. The second the swing came into her view, even if they weren’t stopping yet, she already knows at least partly what his agenda is. She quickly walks to one of the swings, and gently pushes it, checking its stability. Then she sits down, gently stretching her legs until only her toes are touching the ground, then she lets go.

She hears him chuckle again, and this time around, she pouts. His chuckle turns into laughter. She watches him sit on the other swing.

“Thank you,” she says, after a few minutes of silence descended on them. He gives her another heart-shaped smile, but then he asks, “Is it okay to know why you wanted to run away?”

Their eyes lock, and she cannot look away. She thinks over his question – a question she actually does not want to answer – but then she realizes that she will be unfair to him if she does not. He helped her anyway.

“Just… family problems,” she says, settling on a vague and general answer all of those born in the elite society have used. His smile turns into a frown, and through his eyes she realizes that he probably is going through something of that sort too. It kind of makes her understand as to why he suddenly appeared when she found the bike.

She finds herself uncomfortable with the ensuing silence and her thoughts, so she changes the subject. Soon, their conversation becomes playful and happy, befitting of their ages. She does not ask his name – it is his discretion to tell her, and she does not give hers too. But they learn other things about each other, probably much more than their parents know, in the short time they are together.

She glances at her watch, and realizes that if they don’t get back, a search and rescue team might as well be deployed to look for her. She expresses this to him in a joking way, to which he laughs. Both of them get up and brush their clothes.

“Pity you have white slacks, those probably are dirty now,” she says, as they mount the bike. He laughs, and replies, “I have a black one in the car, I’ll just change.”

The ride back is silent, and as they neared their destination, her grip around his waist unconsciously tightened. When they stopped at the lamppost where they found the bike, she lets out the breath she doesn’t know she held.

“How do I look?” she asks, and she gives him a bright smile as she turns around. He chuckles, and says, “Perfectly beautiful.”

She blushes at his compliment. Then her heart sinks at the thought that they probably won’t ever meet in such a carefree way again, because in the world they’re going back to, is full of fake smiles and fake words. She smiles at him, one last sincere, but sad, smile. He gives her one last heart-shaped smile, before she turns around and walks away.

She enters the room through one of the smaller doors, just so she can go unnoticed as much as possible. She scans the room, then makes her way to her parents, hoping that they did not worry too much.

She puts on a smile as she approaches them. Her mother notices her first, and the slight crease in between her eyebrows told her that her mother did not like her sudden disappearance. She ignores it, and she faces the couple her father is talking to, her smile unwavering.

Her father introduces her, then introduces them, and she shakes their hands. In that introduction she learns that the man is the friend her father was talking about. Before she can learn if their son is with them, she is distracted by her mother, who has a scandalized look as she stares at the end of her gown.

She follows her mother’s gaze, and almost laughs when she sees a small leaf stuck to her gown. She barely hears her father calling her name. A discreet pinch from her mother makes her look up.

And her eyes meet large, brown ones.

“This is Do Kyungsoo, their only son and heir,” she hears her father say. Her heart fills with relief, as she stretches out her arm to shake his hand. She can see relief in his eyes too, and that makes her smile, a big and sincere one that makes her eyes twinkle.

And he gives her a big heart-shaped smile, a sincere one that makes her heart flip over.

This night is not as horrible as it was earlier, she thinks.