You knew it wasn’t the best idea to come here. Your hand tightly grabbed the plastic cup with the drink you were holding as you looked around the room. There were so many people but you didn’t even know half of them. The music was just lame monotone techno and way too loud. You sighed. Why did you let yourself get dragged here?

You glared at your two friends standing next to you, seemingly enjoying the party.
“What?” Hyerin asked, when she noticed the look you gave here.

“Why are we here again?”, you questioned her.

“So that you can finally have some fun!”, your other friend Jenny answered with a sly smile. “Besides, HE is going to be here too. It will be the perfect chance.”

“I don’t know…” You really didn’t know what to think of this. But just this moment HE entered the room. His name was Kim Seokjin. Most people just called him Jin. And he was perfect in every way.

 

He was well known at your university. He was tall and incredibly good looking. Actually the first time you had seen him on campus you thought you were dreaming. Such a beautiful human being could just not exist in this world.

But it wasn’t just his looks. He was also incredibly nice. To everyone. When people greeted him he would always smile and greet back politely and never seemed to be in a foul mood. Even though it seemed that he was from a well-off family, his behaviour was far from arrogant and he didn’t show-off. Wherever he went people liked him and many people called him “Prince Charming”, because he simply was incredibly charming.

One day in winter, when you were already late for school, you were hurrying over campus, when you slipped on a thick layer of ice that was hidden under the snow, and fell hard. Jin, who had been walking in the same direction, immediately came over and helped you get up. He had asked you if you were hurt, if he should take you to the hospital. It was in this moment, when he had looked deep into your eyes, his beautiful face full of worry, that you knew you had lost. Had lost yourself in his eyes, had completely fallen for him. You shook your head and mumbled a “I’m fine”. He had smiled and walked away but not before telling you a “Alright. But be careful, ok?”.

That was three months ago. Since then you hadn’t talked to him again, except for the occasional greeting, which he always replied with a “Hello” and a smile.

You knew you were not the only girl who had a crush on him. Of course a lot of girls did. And a lot of girls had confessed to him. But he had never accepted a single one of them. There were a lot of rumours and theories as to why. Some said, that he didn’t like it when girls confessed first, that he wanted to be the proactive one. Some said, that he liked mature girls and women and that college girls were too young and immature for him. Some said he had a secret girlfriend, some said that he was gay… the list was long.

Fact was that you knew you didn’t really stand a chance but rational thoughts could not stop your heart from beating faster whenever you saw him. Confessing out of the blue was out of the question but maybe, just maybe, if you got closer to him, if he got to know you better, he would like you too.

 

That’s why you were at this stupid party. You were watching him as he greeted everyone he met with a warm smile and making Smalltalk with people, before he turned around and talked to his friends again. He was as usual surrounded by his three best mates, Namjoon, Yoongi and Hoseok. They were like an inseparable squad, and even though their personalities were really different from each other, they seemed to have been friends since their early childhood days.

“So, what’s the plan?” Jenny asked you.

“Plan? I don’t have a plan. This whole thing was your idea!”, you said with bewilderment.

“How about you just go over there and start talking to him?”, she suggested.

“But what would I say? You know I’m not good at smalltalk.”

“Just say anything!”

“Yeah, ask him how his spring break was!”, Hyerin suggested.

You looked at him. There he was, his usual gorgeous self, talking, laughing, having fun. He wasn’t talking with his friends at the moment but just with random people.
“Okay”, you thought, “I can do this!”

You slowly walked over to him, took a deep breath, tried to ignore your bouncing heart and put on your best smile. “Hey”, you said. It was all your courage could manage right now, but it should have been enough for a start.

He turned around to you. “Hey”, he said back, his usual smile on his face.

“Uhm, so, how was your spring break?”, you asked, face palming on the inside. This was so lame. Why couldn’t you just say something better, something more interesting or funny or…

“It was nice actually.”, he replied. “I went to Jeju Island with Yoongi and Hoseok. Namjoon was unfortunately too busy to join us but, yeah, it was fun.”

As he was talking he smiled and made eye contact with you. You blushed and looked away, your heart racing and your fingers nervously fumbling.

“Oh, uhm, that sounds really nice” you said softly and smiling shyly. 

“How was yours? Did you do anything special?”, he asked back.

“I? Uhm, not really. I just stayed in Seoul. Just enjoyed, you know, the time off.”

“That sounds nice too. It’s good to have some time off and relax sometimes, isn’t it”, he nodded friendly. Goddamnit, why couldn’t your life be a bit more exciting? Or why couldn’t you just lie and tell him something, something to make you look cool and not this lame?

Before you could respond anything more, someone called his name and Jin turned around. “Alright, I see you around”, he said looking back at you and walked away.

You looked at his tall stature while he disappeared in the crowd. Your heart sank a bit. You wished you could have talked more. Jenny and Hyerin came over.
“And, how was it?” they inquired.

“I don’t know”, you mumbled. “He was nice, he replied and he asked me something back. But it didn’t seem more than just politeness.”

“But he asked you something back”, Hyerin said encouragingly. “If he didn’t like you a bit he could have just replied to not be rude and then walk away.”

“I don’t know”, you said again, looking at the floor.

Your friends then changed the subject and tried to cheer you and get you to dance with them but you weren’t really in the mood for dancing. As you were just about to get yourself another drink you saw Jin again. He was standing in a corner of the kitchen talking to a girl. But not just any girl. Her name was Bora and she was probably as known on campus as Jin was. She was more than just pretty, with long silky hair, fair skin and big dark eyes. And she was smart too, always one of the best in her class.

Right now Bora smiled brightly while twirling a strand of her hair around her fingers and touching Jins arm with her other hand from time to time. Her flirting was so obvious, it almost made you sick.

“Hey what are you doing here?”, Hyerin asked. “Oh”, she said, as her eyes followed yours.

“They are just talking, don’t think anything of it.” She dragged you back to Jenny and quickly updated her on what just happened and why you were looking so pale.

“Maybe it’s time to change the game a little”, Jenny said after a while.

You looked at her with big eyes. “What do you mean?”

“You know, I’ve been thinking. Maybe talking to him like all the other girls won’t do it. Have you heard the rumours that he doesn’t like girls who are too pushy, that he wants to be the one to initiate? Well, maybe that’s how we should do it then.”, she said.

You still didn’t get it. How were you supposed to make HIM do anything?

“What’s your plan?”, Hyerin said.

Jenny’s face turned into a smirk and there was a twinkle in her eyes. “We’ll show him how cool and desirable you are. We’ll make him jealous!”

You stared at her in disbelief. “What? No. How? This would never work.”

But she just made you shut up with her index finger. “Of course this will work. You don’t know how competitive men are. And especially when it comes to girls. We just need to the right guy for this, someone you can seduce. Or maybe not really seduce “, she quickly added, when she saw the look in your eyes”, but someone you can flirt with right before his eyes. It can’t be one of his friends, as we all know he is way too close to them to fight over a girl. But it has to be one of the guys at this party.”

“This is a stupid idea. Right Hyerin?”, you turned to your other friend who seemed to think about the whole thing. “No actually this could work”, she said, destroying your hope for backup. “You know how people usually want what they can’t get. So maybe if he sees you flirting with someone and even asking another guy out on a date, I think he would get at least a little jealous.”

You looked from one friend to the other, still in disbelief. “But this is stupid. First of all, I’m not interested in any other guys. And secondly, I don’t even know how to ‘seduce’ a guy, or flirt or ask him out on a date.”

“Well”, Jenny answered with a smile, “You don’t need to really like or be interested in him. Just flirt a little and ask him out on a date, maybe even let yourself get treated a little at the date and that’s it. And as for your flirting, of course you know how. You might have never tried it consciously but I’m sure you know all the little tricks. You’ve seen enough Television Dramas for that.”

It still didn’t seem like a good idea. But maybe you could try. What if this really was a way to get Jin’s attention?

“Alright”, you sighed, “but it can’t be anybody we know. I would die in embarrassment.”

“Yoosh”, Jenny said full of energy. “But I don’t really see anybody in this room who would be suitable.”

“How about the next reasonably decent looking guy, who we don’t know, who walks through this door is it?”, Hyerin suggested.

“If you say so”, you said and looked at the door, still unsure about the whole thing. You waited for a couple of minutes but nothing happened. Just when you were about to tell your friends how stupid this was, a boy you had never seen before stepped through the door.