As the days turned into weeks, the events of the party became long forgotten.  Bouquets of flowers, bought to the diner by Ryan, smoothed over his comments and his behaviour to the point where Sunny thought nothing about it.  Well, almost nothing.  She was no longer hurt by the comments, that was for sure.  But they hadn’t been completely dismissed.  In fact, they caused her to think.

She found herself thinking every evening about the Shakiras and the Beyonces in the world.  She found herself watching videos of dance routines of the artists and comparing them to Korean artists.  She tried to practice small snippets of their routines in front of the mirror, although the sight of her writhing and shaking her body caused a few more insecurities than she already had.  She looked at ways to enhance her figure, to show off her physical attributes, all with an aim to please him.  She received many compliments from him about her appearance, but she was not so confident about her dancing.  This troubled her greatly; without some kind of dancing prowess, he might not be as attracted to her as he would be to another woman.  She had to learn something to keep him interested.

She knocked on the heavy brown door in front of her, her faded blue jeans and black t-shirt covering enough of her body to make her inconspicuous, her peaked cap providing the casual look that aided her in the sunshine outside.

“Sunny!” Hyoyeon smiled, shocked at her colleague’s unannounced appearance at her door.  “Come in!”

She bowed and entered the small apartment.  “Where’s Amber?”

“Out,” Hyoyeon shrugged.  “What beings you here?”

“I ... uh ...” she sighed, “I need some help.”

“Ok ...” Hyoyeon offered her a chair.  “But I’m not much of a talker.”

“No, it’s not like that,” she explained.  “I need you to ... teach me.”

“Teach you?  Teach you what?”

Sunny explained the conversation from the party.  She explained Ryan’s comments and the kind of things he liked.  She explained her vain efforts to learn routines using YouTube as her teacher and her desperation to please him.

“You want me to teach you to dance ily?”

She nodded.

Hyoyeon sat back into the chair.  “Wow, girl, I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Well ... I didn’t know where else to turn.  I figured, since you’re always going to these dance contests, you’d know what to do.”

Hyoyeon looked at her shorter friend, a slight discomfort bubbling inside of her.

“I’m not asking for you to make me into a stripper,” Sunny shuffled about in her own discomfort, “just ... teach me how to dance ...”

“ily,” Hyoyeon finished.

She nodded, embarrassed at having to ask her friend and colleague such a delicate favour.

Hyoyeon took a few deep breaths.  She wasn’t too keen on teaching Sunny how to dance lasciviously just to please her boyfriend.  She had taken dance lessons since she was a little girl and having a guy tell her that he liked her dancing for him would make her incredibly uncomfortable and feel almost like he was insulting her craft, reducing it to a series of ual motions meant to arouse him.  But Sunny did seem to love the guy and she did seem to want to make him happy.

“I just want to do a little something for him,” Sunny explained.  “Show him that I listen to what he wants, and that I’m trying to be like that.”

“I don’t know ...”

“I’ll pay.”

“What?”

“Whatever you charge, I ... I’ll pay it.”

Hyoyeon glared at Sunny.  Payment?  Was she serious?  She studied her friend, looking for any signs that could help her back out.  There were none.  Sunny looked back at her with absolute determination and unwavering certainty.  She wanted to learn.

She sighed.  “Next Thursday.  After class.  Bring cash.  I’ll see if I can get the studio kept open for a while.”

 

~~~

 

“Oh my god, I can’t believe the party’s only a month away!” Yuri squealed with delight as she sat with Nathan.  They occupied the booth in the local bar with Taeyeon and Sooyoung.  Yoona and Tiffany were at the bar, ordering drinks for the group.

“Party?” Nathan asked.

She nodded.  “Yeah, one of our friends is getting married, and she’s throwing a big bachelorette party.”

“Aaaaah ok ...”

“Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.  I just know how wild these parties can get.”

“You don’t want me to go?”

Nathan smiled and shook his head.  “No, you go.  Enjoy yourself, really.  I mean, it isn’t every day that your friend will get married, so ... yeah.  You go and celebrate.”

“Awww, dude!” Taeyeon beamed as Yoona and Tiffany returned with their libations.  “You have the coolest boyfriend ever!  He’s ok with you going out with a load of girls, getting absolutely trashed, making out with a load of strippers ...”

“Wait, what?” Nathan looked between the pair, a slight look of trepidation crossing his face.

“It’s a bachelorette party,” Taeyeon laughed.  “You think there won’t be any strippers?”

Tiffany sipped at her drink and shook her head.  “She’s not getting any,” she assured him.

“Come on!” Taeyeon smirked.  “When you get invited to a bachelorette party, the implication is there will be strippers. Maybe not completely , but at least a six-pack and G-strings. That's not unreasonable!

“She doesn’t want strippers,” Tiffany answered back.  “She told me a few nights ago.”

“Who, Victoria?” Yoona asked perplexed.

“Yeah,” she nodded.  “She just wants something simple, low-key.  No hanky-panky.”

“But she’s the queen of strippers!” Taeyeon protested.  “That one strip club downtown named a pole after her!”

“I heard Krystal had booked it already,” Yoona admitted.  “Didn’t you tell me that, Soo?”

Taeyeon’s face lit up in all its erted glory.

“Not only did she book him,” Sooyoung added, “we know who she booked.”

“Really?” Yuri leaned forward, eager to find out the identity of their performer.

Sooyoung took her phone from her pocket and opened her photo album.  “Thank god for booking sites,” she proclaimed, searching for the photo she needed.  “Wish I could remember his name though.  Total hottie.  There it is!” she declared, turning the handset around to Yuri.  On the display was the most handsome man Nathan had ever seen, topless, muscles protruding in every place Nathan wished he had muscles.

“Hubba hubba!” Taeyeon called at the image.

“Siwon?” Yuri asked, stunned.

“Yeah, that’s his name!” Sooyoung beamed for a moment before realisation struck her.  “Wait, you know him?”

“I ... uh ... I used to go to school with him.”

“You did?” Taeyeon shuffled forward, her hormones and uality focusing solely on Yuri.

“Down, girl,” Tiffany pulled her back as Yoona laughed.

“Wait, it’s that Siwon?” Yoona asked, taking the phone from her friend.  “Wow ... he’s gotten hotter since school.  I didn’t think that was possible.”

“Yeah,” Yuri sighed wistfully, taking the handset from her friend and gazing at the image on the screen.  It had been too long since she had seen his face.  She smiled to herself, remembering the years she spent with him through middle school and high school.  He was the school track and soccer captain.  He was the most admired guy in school.

Nathan looked over at the handset.  “Ah,” he nodded, a little colder than he imagined.  “I can see why he was booked.”

Yuri blushed slightly and avoided his gaze.  “Actually ... I kinda ... had a crush on him in school.”

Tiffany looked at Yuri, puzzled.  Sure, this Siwon guy was cute, handsome even.  But she was dating Nathan.  And Nathan was right next to her, hearing her, seeing her melt over this photo like ice cream in summer.  It was embarrassing for her to watch.  But if it was embarrassing for her, she could only imagine how much more embarrassing it would be for him.

“So he’s going to be at the party too?” Nathan asked.

“Yeah, apparently ...” Yuri answered nervously.

“This really handsome guy that you had a crush on will be undressing in front of you ...”

“Not just me,” Yuri defended herself.  “And …”

“And he’ll be dancing for you ily ...”

“Nathan ...”

“This guy,” he carried on, “who you’ve just swooned over now.”  He looked at her with a pained expression plastered over his face.  It was clear to see that this not only made him jealous, but it hurt him.  “Yuri, I’ve had relationships fall apart because girlfriends have cheated on me.  Two with my best friend and one with a guy old enough to be her dad ... and her mother hated me because I was a couple of years older than her.  Yet she loved this other guy.  I’ve been cheated on.  And it hurts.”

“I’m not going to cheat on you,” Yuri argued back.  “I know you’ve had bad stuff happen to you, but you’ve got to trust me.”

“I do ...”

“Do you?  Because it doesn’t seem like it.  It seems like you’re trying to stop me from going out with friends because you’re jealous of some guy I used to have a crush on.”

Nathan furrowed his brow, biting back what he wanted to say.

“Hey,” Taeyeon interrupted as she and Tiffany leaned over to grab her arm.  “He’s not saying anything like that.  Girls have walked over his heart and he probably still has the scars.”

“Yeah,” Yoona added.  “I mean, we can’t stop Siwon from coming now, but you’ve got to see things from his point of view.”

Yuri looked at her friends, close to arguing back.

“It’s fine,” Nathan dismissed their concerns.  “I trust you, Yuri.  I don’t think you will hurt me.  That doesn’t mean I feel have to be ok with this.”

“Nathan, stop it,” Yuri almost spat back.  “It’s pathetic.”

“Yuri, don’t, ok?” Tiffany scowled at her friend.  “Think of it this way; how would you feel if things were the other way around?  If Nathan was the one going to the party with the strippers …”

“I wouldn’t have a problem with it.”

“And one of them was of this real hot girl who he used to have the biggest crush on.”

“The girl he promised he would marry for many years,” Yoona added, showing how serious this was for Yuri to consider.  “The girl he would watch from across the dining hall.  The girl for whom he became a baseball player when she became a cheerleader for the school team …”

“Ok, I get it,” Yuri snapped.  “I’d be pissed.”

“And Nathan can’t be pissed at you?” Tiffany asked, pertinently.

“Tiffany,” Nathan tried to stop her, but the younger member of the group pressed on.

“This is different,” Yuri defended herself.

“How?”

Yuri glared back at her.  Of course this was different.  She would never leave him for Siwon.  No matter if he was the hottest guy she had ever met.  Nathan was her boyfriend.  That made him important.  That made him her priority.  He should see that, not his insecurities.

“Yuri, can we talk?”  Nathan interrupted before she could answer.  “Alone?”

Yuri shook her head dismissively, left her handbag and walked out, Nathan following behind her.  He held the door for her, and they walked outside into the parking lot.

“Yuri,” he explained, “I know I can’t stop you from going out.  And I won’t, ok?  You’re not a little girl.  All I ask is that ... just that you understand that it bothers me.  And that you understand why.”  He looked at her with the same pained expression that he had before.

She smiled at him.  “Nathan, I’m with you, ok?  I’m not going to leave you and I’m not going away.  You are cute and handsome and ...”

“It’s not that,” he carried on.  “I’ve never been enough for anyone.  I’ve always been second best.  I know this guy is more handsome than I am.  I’m not stupid.  But at the same time, I want to know that it doesn’t matter.  That it doesn’t mean anything to you.  It doesn’t matter who you hang out with or what you do with them.  But this is a guy that you’ve crushed on for a few years.” he sighed.

“I was in high school.”

Nathan took a step backwards and leaned against the railings that separated them from the car park.  He looked at her inquisitively, trying to size her up, weighing the next question in his mind.

“Tell me about him then.”

“What?”

“Siwon.  Tell me about him.  What made him so attractive to you all of those years ago?”

She looked at him as though he was accusing her of high treason.  Before she could defend herself, she caught herself looking into his eyes, their stare burning into her soul.  He wasn’t accusing her of anything.  In fact, he didn’t even need to know the answer.  He knew already what it was that had attracted her to him; he saw it in the photo.  The question he had asked in words was not the question he meant to ask.  She was seeing how this was hurting him and she knew she couldn’t be mad at him.  It wasn’t his fault that ex-girlfriends had hurt him so badly; these girls just weren’t suited to him.  Maybe she could be a little more sensitive to him and his emotional needs, she reasoned.  Maybe she could try to understand him a little more.  Maybe she could be more sympathetic to him.

Or maybe he could just let her be how she wanted to be and not be so damn needy.

“I had a crush on him in school,” she sighed.  “You think I’d be with you if I still had a crush on him now?”

“That’s not what I mean,” he defended himself quietly.  “You think he’s the hottest guy walking.  And you are going to a party where there will be alcohol and there will be screaming girls celebrating their freedom, and there will be a half- guy there who you think is y as hell.”

She shook her head, the argument sapping her energy.  “Why are you being so possessive all of a sudden?” she asked, confusion growing in her mind.  “I thought you liked my ‘free spirit’.”

“I do,” he answered pointedly.  “But that doesn’t mean I love that you do whatever the hell you want without any regard for me.”

She took a deep breath and folded her arms defensively.  “I don’t do whatever the hell I want,” she replied calmly, with ice in her voice.  “Now, I’m going to the party, I’m going to enjoy myself.”

“And I’m not going to stop you,” he added.

“Damn right you’re not going to stop me,” she seethed.  “I don’t play the dutiful housewife.  I’m not here at your beck and call.  I don’t run to you when you click your fingers.  I have my own life.”

“And I never said you didn’t,” he stepped forward, entering into her personal space.  “I said I was unhappy with a guy you had a crush on stripping in front of you.  That’s it.”

She shook her head.  “Grow up,” she spat back.  “You’re jealous.”

“Yes, I am, ok?  I am jealous that you’re going to spend the evening with some guy you thought was the hottest piece of man meat in the whole of East Asia.”

Without a second’s thought, Yuri reached her hand backwards and slapped him across his cheek.  The noise echoed through the near silence of the parking lot, alerting any passer-by in the vicinity.  Fortunately, there were none around.

“Don’t you dare speak like that,” Yuri shot back.  “You have no say in where I go or what I do, ok?”

Nathan didn’t answer.  He remained silent as Yuri turned around and headed back into the bar, pushing past Taeyeon with anger and frustration.

“Dude, I’m so sorry,” she meekly and wholeheartedly apologised.  “I didn’t think she’d be like this.”

“It’s ok.”

“No, it’s not,” she closed the distance between them.  “I shouldn’t have said anything.  She totally overreacted.”

“And I didn’t?”

“Well ... no, not really.  You just said you weren’t happy about it.”

Nathan shrugged.  “I should have just kept my mouth shut, shouldn’t I?”  He looked around, watching the empty street.  “I think I should leave,” he mused aloud.

“What?”

“If I go back in there, things will be awkward,” he answered.  “It’ll be less awkward if I left.”

“Ok … I ... I’ll get your stuff,” Taeyeon offered.

He nodded.  “Thank you.”

He took a deep breath as Taeyeon sheepishly turned and walked away.  How could Yuri not see what she was doing to him?  Did he really mean so little to her?  Did his own thoughts and his own insecurities really lower himself in her eyes?  He wasn’t expecting to be the crowned king of her world, but at least he expected her to take his own thoughts into account.

Maybe that was his problem.  Maybe he was too sensitive.  Maybe he should just let it go.  It was a party.  A party where the absence of strippers was usually frowned upon.  It was generally expected that at least one stripper would perform.  It just so happened that this one was a guy his girlfriend had spent a significant portion of her adolescence crushing over.  Taeyeon returned with his bag and watched as he turned to the street and headed home.