“Don’t worry we’ll be back soon!” Jihyo screams to her father from the foyer. Nayeon hears a hum from the living room, and Jihyo grins excitedly in response. Nayeon doesn’t want to go. She straps her shoes closed, frustrated to see that, in the end, Jihyo managed to brainstorm her into going to the party.

Jihyo watches over her with an excited grin (and with her eyes trained on her in case she tries to flee back to her bed, like she did not so long ago) and the younger girl suddenly nudges her with her hand when Nayeon takes to long to put on her shoes.

“You ready?” Jihyo squeaks happily, shuffling on her spot and hastily checking her phone every three seconds.

For once, they don’t share an emotion and for once, they’re the polar opposites of each other. When Nayeon feels like sobbing her way back to the safety haven that is her bed, Jihyo seems like she’s about to burst in impatience. Nayeon stands back up, hitting her foot on the ground to adjust the strap.

“Not really but what can I do.”

Jihyo sends Nayeon a wide smile before turning around, opening the door and stepping outside. She feels the evening breeze of early autumn weave in and out of her hair. It feels nice, and for a second she forgets she’s supposed to be angry.

They walk in complete silence toward the end of the street, because Nayeon doesn’t feel like talking even though Jihyo doesn’t keep shut. She just nods here and there to assure the girl that she’s at least faking listening. She’d feel sorry if she wasn’t already too busy feeling like her pms-ing self amplified by a hundred.

“And-- Oh by the way, we’re going to pick Mina up first. So as I was saying--”

At the words, Nayeon stops in her tracks. Seeing how the moon is up in the sky, it’s dark enough for her to silently strangle Jihyo and maybe hide her behind some bushes. The street is so empty that no one will notice the murder.

“Jihyo!” She screams angrily and the younger girl turns around.

“Here,” Jihyo points to the house before the end of the street. “She doesn’t live far. Come on, that’ll be your sport of the week.”

Nayeon scoffs in outrage. “Are you saying I gained weight?” She hears Jihyo chuckle while she catches up with her.

Once they reach the house, Jihyo doesn’t ring the bell. They don’t even step past the porch.

The brunette just pulls out her phone and sends a message with a smile that is too wide for Nayeon’s bitterness to handle and Mina steps out of the house not even a second later.

Nayeon watches as the two girls hug, before her japanese friend turns to her with a soft smile on her face.

“Hi Nayeon! You look gorgeous!” Mina stays sweet as always, hand circling around Jihyo’s forearm. The girl is dressed in a simple black top with short, a bandanna wrapped around her waist and silver glistening where the jewelry is located.

She groans.

“Don’t mind her, she’s grumpy.” Jihyo not so discreetly whispers and Nayeon yelps a “Am not!” before turning around to glare at Jihyo.

She then leads the way to Jackson’s house and they walk for a little while, silently, safe from the occasional giggles and whispers from the duo behind her.

And somewhat she gets even more frustrated.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nayeon gets surprised by the amount of people Jackson managed to amass. She walks and stares around the garden and at the people playing around on the grass, amazed at the amount of effort her friend put into this. It’s decorated, pretty nicely she may say, and suddenly Jackson doesn’t seem like Jackson anymore.

“Hey! Ya’ finally here!” The blonde boy greets louder than the thumping music when the three of them step in the house. He’s all smile, like he won a trophee of some sort and Nayeon smiles before glancing around the crowd of students.

Jihyo playfully punches his shoulder .

“That’s some big stuff there Wang! You aimin’ to make the new Project X or something?” Nayeon finds herself stiffling a laugh at Jihyo's joke and hears Mina’s lighthearted giggle when Jackson’s eyes twinkle in interest.

“Might be, who knows?” He shrugs, wrapping an arm around Jihyo and leading her toward the table of drinks. Nayeon follows, pushing through some familiar faces and once they get there, Jackson immediatly shoves a red plastic cup in her hands, nearly spilling the content and staining her white dress.

“Here! Drink up ladies!”

And with that, he walks away with a loud cheer, throwing his hands up in the air and mindlessly blending with the crowd of dancing high school students. She sips on the drink as Mina starts complimenting the decorations of the house and-- oh, vodka limonade. Not really her taste.

“Do you think he has cranberry instead of this?” She half whispers half yells in Jihyo’s ears, eyeing the table, and her bestfriend gives her a disapproving look.

“What? We won’t even need to drive.”

Jihyo stares at her for a second and sighs. “There’s Sana over there, let’s go.”

Nayeon nods and Mina starts weaving through people, pulling Jihyo with her by the hand. Nayeon does feel like thridwheeling at this point, which she should start getting used to anyways, but it’s still annoying.

She trains her eyes on the back of Mina’s head not to lose her, but the moment she waves at Sana to greet her, she feels a hand clam on her wrist, halting her in the middle of her steps.

“Ah--” She nearly spills her drink (again, she thinks, gotta be wary with the dress) and turns around to stare at Jackson, who’s grinning at her like an idiot.

“Nayeon! Gotta introduce you to someone!” He pulls on her and soon enough she’s face to face with a tall boy, one that she had never seen before.

A tall, brunette-ish one, his sharp eyes staring down right into her almond ones. He’s dressed simply, stylish, oversized hoodie and skinny ripped jeans. He smiles at her, and she gets her attention caught by his teeth, a blinding smile, whiter than… What’s the whitest thing she ever saw? Whiter than egg shells!

That’s a weird metaphore, but Nayeon isn’t possibly in a good mood enough, or straight enough anymore to praise masculine traits wholeheartedly.

Especially not after Jungyeon basically crushed her heart.

“Hey,” He says, not really loud, but still enough to carry to Nayeon’s ears. His voice is low and controlled, and she can’t help but notice how strong the confidence he exudes is.

“Oh- Hi!”

“This is Mark, ma’ handsome homeboy.” Jackson circles an arm around his friend’s and shakes him up, receiving a glare from the taller boy.

Nayeon smiles because she feels like she has to, and her hands slips in his big one.

“Nice to meet you.” He lingers for a little longer, even when Nayeon tries to let go. She gulps on her drink.

“Ya’ll should, ya’ know, talk.” Jackson slurrs a little bit at the end of his words and Nayeon glances at him curiously. He definitely didn’t learn from the last party he threw, where he basically got drunk beyoung reason and ended up giving his keys to some random dude.

Mark smiles at her, showcasing his whiter-that-egg-shells teeth again.

“Jackson forgot to tell me your name.”

“Oh, right. Im Nayeon!”

He nods, and Nayeon feels a body push against her own. They’re standing in the middle of the dance floor which, in reality, is just the center of Jackson’s living room and the crowd is all over the place.

The two of them wiggle their way out of the crowd, and they find a wall to lean on. Nayeon hides her scoff when she sees Mark take the ultimate ‘i will flirt with you’ pose. A pose where he puts one foot against the wall to look cool. It’s a name that Jooheon and Yugyeom (and maybe Jihyo, a little) came up with.

“So? You here with someone?”

“Here with two friends but they ditched me.” Nayeon shurgs her shoulders and points to Mina dancing with Jihyo.

Mark chuckles.

She runs her eyes over the crowd, and notices Dahyun laugh out loud in the middle of it. Her newly dyed hair stands out (Nayeon kind of admires her for her boldness) and she throws a glance at the source of the girl’s laughter. Her heart gets caught up in as she sees Jungyeon’s smiling down at the pale girl.

She quickly turns around, facing Mark again.

“H- Hey but,” Nayeon puts a palm on Mark’s clothed forearm, pushing the thought of Jungyeon away from her mind. She didn't expect her to be there.

“I’ve never seen you in school, are you in a different one?”

“I graduated last year, with JB. You know Jaebum?”

Nayeon nods. “I do! I guess it’s your little clan? Jackson and all?”

She chuckles when Mark cringes outloud. He’s cute, but Nayeon can’t help herself, she looks back at the precise spot, blood rushing through her veins when she sees Jungyeon.

“Are you okay?” Mark asks her, tilting his head and staring right into Nayeon’s eyes.

Nayeon looks up, smiling. “I- I am! Totally am.”

“You sure you’re not lookin’ for someone?”

Nayeon blinks. Has she been this obvious? No, actually, why’s Jackson friend this smart? They aren’t, usually.

“I’m… not?” She smiles the sweetest smile she can muster to Mark, who stares at her in amusement. “I just saw someone I know.”

The boy nods, eyes going to the crowd to maybe see what she was talking about. Nayeon looks over too, and sees that Jungyeon is seizing her up with her eyes.  She quickly puts her palm on Mark’s arm to attract his attention again, all the while blinking the surprise away.

Jungyeon looks really good.

“It doesn’t matter. Tell me more about yourself!” She cheers and brings her cup to her lips, deciding that she should just forget about her, like she swore herself she would do.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“You two,” Nayeon marches toward Jihyo and Mina, ignoring the curious looks of students she happened to bump on her way.

“Ow! What the hell?” Jihyo turns around when Nayeon angrily stabs her finger in her arm, a frown replacing the previous smile on her face.

“You, left me and I had to- to flirt with a guy,” She hiccups, glaring at Jihyo. “And he was attractive, like, white teeth… but- Jungyeon’s here.”

“Jungyeon’s here?” The only part that seems to pick the two girls’ interest is the last one, and Nayeon feels really close to screaming in frustration. Say, on a scale of one to Sana’s level of chill, she’s in the negatives.

“I thought she wasn't coming tonight.” Jihyo whispers and Mina tiptoes to glance past Nayeon.

“Oh here she is!” Mina softly exclaims and Jihyo follows the line of sight of her slender finger. Nayeon is horrified of the prospect of having Jihyo realize that her crush is here. The girl has wild ideas running in her mind way too often for it to be any good.

She stares at the way Jihyo squints her eyes. She doesn’t know what Jihyo i thinking about, and that’s quite stressful in Nayeon’s perspective. The jet black haired girl just sips on her drink, her third one since they arrived here, just to forget about how Jihyo’s eyes are following a moving object-- person.

“Hey Nayeon,” Jihyo starts, eyes not leaving her target.

She swears that, for a second, she sees her bestfriend nod. “Are you hungry?”

“I am.” Nayeon whines, completely dropping the matter.

“Okay! Listen, go sit there;” Jihyo points to the couch not far from them. “And don’t move okay? Me and Mina will go fetch some food.”

Mina nods, and she feels Jihyo push her by the shoulders toward the couch.

“You really wanna get rid’ a me.”

“Just wait here. You’ll thank me later.”

Nayeon grumbles under her breath as soon as her back hits the couch, clutching the plastic cup up to her lips.

“I swear Jihyo and Mina…”

She watches the passing students in front of her, catching sight of Jaebum playing beer pong, Dahyun cheering him on and Sana drunkenly (or probably sober and being herself) dancing to the song in the middle of… everyone.

With a sigh, she runs her fingers through her black locks and sits further into the couch. The party is good, forreal. She’ll congratulate Jackson about that, but in all honesty, she doesn’t feel like she should be here right now.

She starts thinking about her bed, about her pillows, and about how comfortable it would be to mop there.

The couch dips as she gulps onto the last drop of cranberry vodka in her cup, and she nearly spits the liquid out when she sees a wild, very, very attractive Jungyeon looking at her. And, oh, is that lipstick?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Notes: Sorry for the late update, I was (again) having some issues that kept me busy lmao

this is the first part of the party, I'll update the second one right now.