A/N: Extra long chapter to end this mini-arc <3

 

---

 

Between the laughing, the good food, and the dancing, Eunji wasn’t sure exactly what she was full with. She danced with every member of the After School Club (even Ahri, although it was a difficult task to pull her away from Baekhyun. She thought the plan was to make Baekhyun follow Ahri around like a puppy, not the other way around).

 

She had even danced with Minseok, after getting permission from his girlfriend of course.

 

And for reasons unknown, Tao had also agreed to dance with her that evening.

 

There were only two people she hadn’t danced with yet: Suho and Kai. Suho’s case was understandable, they hadn’t talked to him all evening and while Eunji wanted to personally thank him for the invitation, she knew that he’d be better off talking with business partners. Kai, on the other hand, was a different story. She had seen him during dinner and on the dancefloor, but he seemed to have disappeared somewhere along the way.

 

Or maybe she was convincing herself to believe he was gone; she didn’t quite understand anymore.

 

Eunji sat down at their table and was sipping from a glass of water when she noticed someone approaching her. He was short, with blond hair and green eyes, and he looked furious.

 

‘Oh my god, not Lenny #3,’ she groaned.

 

Lenny #3 pointed his finger at her and yelled something in French. Eunji stared at him with a dumbfounded expression on her face. ‘What does he want now?’

 

The elderly translator standing next to Lenny #3 approached Eunji, cleared his throat and said, “Master Francois is very upset that you two weren’t able to finish your dance earlier, and demands an apology. The young master would also like to take you out for dinner sometime.”

 

“Tell him he’s not getting one,” Eunji said through gritted teeth.

 

“Which one? The apology or the dinner date?”

 

“Both!” she yelled, then stormed out of the scene. She could see Lenny #3 trying to chase after her, but between his short stature and childlike physique, Eunji easily outmatched him in the race even with heels on.

 

She slipped through a set of doors and found herself back in the dark hallway that was illuminated by moonlight. The scene looked slightly different than the one she had experienced with Sehun earlier, and deduced that she had probably gone through a different set of doors.

 

Last time, she couldn’t do any exploring because she had encountered Sehun. This time however, there was nothing stopping her from roaming the empty hallway. I mean, who wouldn’t want to explore a giant mansion where you could literally get lost in?

 

Eunji walked down the long hall and admired the expensive vases and paintings that decorated the walls. Eventually, she encountered a split in the hallway. The hallway diverged into three different pathways, and Eunji was forced to make a choice.

 

She could have also chosen to go back, but where was the fun in that?

 

She chose to go straight down the middle, and continued to walk. By this point in time, Eunji was surprised that no one had noticed her roaming the hallways. It seemed as if the rest of the mansion was empty, which both made sense to her and didn’t. She concluded that the workers in the mansion either had the day off (it was Christmas Eve after all), or they were attending the party in the main banquet hall. But, a little security in the rest of the mansion was also important, was it not? The emptiness of it mansion made the scene feel quite eerie.

 

All she needed now was a jump-scare and that would put the cherry on top of this borderline horror-esque type of an episode.

 

Suddenly, she heard a noise. It sounded like scampering. Eunji wrapped her arms around her body as if to protect herself, and slowly backed herself up against the wall. She looked to her left, then to her right, and finally to her left again. There was nothing in sight.

 

Suddenly, a small figure emerged from behind the curtains and meowed. The cat had black fur like the night, and piercing heterochromatic green and orange eyes. It had a red collar around its neck and a single bell attached in the middle.

 

The cat meowed again and rubbed itself against Eunji’s leg. It purred, her leg once, then turned around and disappeared into the darkness of the hallway. When the cat left, Eunji let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding, and sank to the ground.

 

‘It was… just a cat,’ she repeated the line over and over in her head to reassure herself.

 

After a few moments, she stood up and decided that it was time to head back to the party. Her little adventure was over, and she wanted nothing more at the moment than to indulge herself in a nice, refreshing glass of lemonade. She walked in the direction that she had came from, and was expecting to see the hallway split into three like it had the first time.

 

So when the hallway split into only two different paths, Eunji was quite confused.

 

She was sure she the hallway had diverged into three different paths the first time, and that she went down the middle. After her encounter with the cat, she was sure that she had left the scene in the same direction as she had entered it.

 

She paced around and tried to come up with a logical plan (basically she tried her best not to panic). ‘Alright, Eunji. You’re lost in a mansion, that’s not a big deal. I mean, it happens to everyone, right? It’s okay if you’re lost, maybe they have a map somewhere. Oh who am I kidding,’ she groaned and then pulled her cellphone out to check the time.

 

‘Wait! My cellphone!’ she mentally cheered. She could call one of her friends, or maybe even Suho, and ask them for directions to help her find her way back. She pressed the ‘home’ button and her screen lit up, revealing the current time, date and the ‘no signal’ symbol.

 

‘NO SIGNAL?! THIS IS THE HOUSE OF THE RICHEST FAMILY IN SOUTH KOREA AND YOU’RE TELLING ME THEY DON’T GET SERVICE IN SOME PARTS OF THEIR OWN HOME?! WHAT KIND OF BULL IS THIS?’ Eunji screamed in her mind.

 

It was then that Eunji realized that just a few paces ahead of her was a set of doors that led to a balcony. She was sure that hadn’t been there the first time she walked through the halls. She decided to walk to the balcony because perhaps she could pinpoint her current location if she knew what her surroundings were.

 

She stepped out on the balcony and was greeted by the crisp, winter air. She hadn’t brought a jacket with her, so she rubbed her hands on her arms in an attempt to stay warm. She looked around, and found that nothing but trees surrounded her. Trees, and a familiar face that she hadn’t seen for majority of the evening.

 

Kai’s back was turned to her and he was staring out at the trees. When he heard her footsteps, he turned around with a scared look on his face. When he saw Eunji’s face, his expression immediately relaxed and he asked her, “Curiosity sure killed the cat, huh?”

 

Eunji’s face lit up when she saw Kai, and she had the sudden urge to embrace him. Perhaps it was because she had gotten lost in the mansion, but she sure was happy to have found someone that she knew. “You got lost too?” she asked him.

 

“I’m not lost,” he started. When she gave him an unamused look, he stared at his feet and muttered, “Okay fine, maybe I got lost. And call me stupid, but I was following a cat and somehow ended up here. I was gonna call one of the guys, but my phone died.”

 

“You met a cat too?!” she exclaimed. “Did it have black fur-“

 

“And green and orange eyes?” Kai asked, his eyes starting to widen.

 

“And a red collar?” Eunji asked.

 

“Yes!” they both shouted in unison. There was silence, but then they broke into a laughing fit.

 

“How dumb are we?” Kai laughed.

 

“Can’t believe we both got lost because of one cat,” Eunji laughed and wiped a tear away from her eye. “Oh, and even if your phone was still alive it wouldn’t help because we don’t get signal here.”

 

“Are you joking? Damn, and here I thought the richest family in South Korea would at least have signal throughout their entire house,” Kai sighed.

 

“That’s what I said!” Eunji exclaimed. Then, she asked, “So, how long have you been out here for?”

 

“Dunno,” he shrugged. “My phone died, remember? I don’t know what time I got to this balcony, nor how long I’ve stayed here for. But I’d say around half an hour or so?”

 

She took a few steps closer to him so that they were standing next to each other, shoulder to shoulder. She stared at the scenery before her; white blankets of snow covered the ground, and countless trees painted the landscape. That, paired with the star-filled sky, made the scenery look like something straight out of a movie.

 

Eunji sneezed, and rubbed her arms to warm herself up. She reminded herself that it was the middle of winter, and she was standing outside wearing nothing but a knee-length dress and heels. Kai immediately took his blazer off and draped it around her shoulders. Surprised by the action, she looked up at him, who flashed her a charming smile and said, “Sorry if my jacket’s cold. I’ve been standing outside.”

 

Eunji shook her head slowly, then thanked him. When she realized she had been staring at him, she whipped her head to focus on the trees. Kai did the same, and Eunji was sure he was paying full attention to the trees.

 

She however, couldn’t keep her eyes off of him.

 

She stole glances of him from time to time, admiring his chiseled profile and twinkling eyes that seemed to light up whenever something caught his eye. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t known he was handsome before, but there was something about him in this moment that captivated her.

 

Maybe it was his hair, which was styled differently than normal. Or perhaps it was the fact that he was dressed in a suit and tie, which was a completely different look than what she was used to seeing at school. Or perhaps it was the fact that he had worn cologne, which left a faint, masculine scent on the jacket that he had draped around her shoulders.

 

The wind suddenly blew a little stronger, and Eunji bundled herself up in his jacket. As she brought the jacket up to cover her neck, she caught a whiff of the cologne that he had used and couldn’t help but think to herself that, ‘Damn, Kim Jongin smells good.’

 

It was then that she realized; who was she currently talking to? Was it Kai or Jongin?

 

She couldn’t help but remember what had happened at the karaoke event. She had come to terms with the fact that he had not been planning on confessing his love for her, which now when she looked back at, seemed like a dumb theory in the first place. One question had been answered, but in doing so, had led to a myriad of other questions.

 

‘Who is Jongin? Who is Kai? Who have I been talking to school with? Who am I currently talking with? Why are there two?’

 

Eunji opened to speak, but no sound came out. She wanted answers, but there was a sinking fear in her stomach that prevented her from speaking. Would he be upset with her if she asked? He hadn’t told her anything, so why should she ask? She didn’t want to seem nosy, and judging from what Sehun had told her about Jongin, he didn’t want the world to know that Kai was a persona.

 

Kai noticed her jaw hanging open, and brought a finger to her chin. He lifted his finger upward to close her jaw, then his lips curled into that half-smile that he wore so well. “What’s wrong?” he asked her.

 

“N-nothing,” she sputtered out, taken aback by the sudden act of intimacy. She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks as he stared at her with those big, brown orbs of his. His face shifted from amused to concerned. He brought a hand around his head and scratched his hair nervously.

 

“You’re cold,” he said guiltily. “Sorry, I should have noticed it sooner. Let’s go back in, hm? You’ve got a phone, and I’m sure we’ll get a signal somewhere in this huge house. Besides, maybe we’ll bump into that cat again and he’ll guide us back to the party.”

 

Kai made his way out of the balcony and into the hallway. He turned around to make sure that Eunji was following him, but when he saw that she was still standing outside he frowned and motioned for her to follow him. She stepped into the hallway and positioned herself next to him. He smiled ever so softly at her, and patted the top of her head with his hand. His hand made its way down from her head to the tips of her hair, and he placed a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

 

“Now then, let’s go back, shall we?” he grinned at her and removed his hand from her hair. He turned around and began walking, leaving Eunji behind him.

 

Eunji didn’t quite understand the entire situation regarding Kai and Jongin, but she knew one thing for sure: the person she just talked to wasn’t Kai. She followed him from behind, keeping a good amount of distance between them. Eunji placed a hand on top of her head, and rubbed the area that he had patted. As the pair walked, a part of her wished that the hallway would never end. She knew that once they returned to the party, the person in front of her would disappear.

 

.::.           .::.           .::.

 

It was past midnight, and the crowd was slowly starting to reduce in numbers. Everyone in the After School Club remained because they were determined to see Suho before they called it a night.

 

Eunji had been right. As soon as they found their way back to the banquet hall, the person that she had been following from behind vanished. He was replaced by the usual Kai; arrogant, snarky, and with just a little bit of douchebag sprinkled in.

 

She wondered why he had acted so different earlier, and why he did so in front of her. Was this a sign that he felt comfortable around her, just as Sehun had? Or was this an indication that he was afraid of showing everyone else in the club who Jongin was? She shook her head and tried to rid her mind of those thoughts. After all, she wasn’t even sure that she had been speaking with Jongin in the first place. Maybe she had been talking with a Kai that wasn’t always an arrogant cupcake with douchebag sprinkles on top.

 

“Guys! You’re still here?” Suho exclaimed as he ran up to them. He stopped before the club members to catch his breath before adding, “It’s so late already! You should be home!”

 

“Merry Christmas, Suho!” they all chimed in unison. Then, Chanyeol beamed proudly and added, “We just had to say it to you, hyung.”

 

Suho’s heart filled with warmth at Chanyeol’s words. “Thank you guys for coming tonight. It really means a lot to me, more than I could ever express with words. Also, Chanyeol, your clothes fit for once!”

 

Chanyeol puffed his chest out proudly and said, “It’s Kris-hyung’s suit. He let me borrow it.”

 

“Why do you sound so proud? It’s my suit,” Kris scoffed.

 

Before Chanyeol could say anything in protest, a voice called out, “Junmyeon!”

 

Eunji directed her attention to the source of the voice. A couple was approaching them. The woman looked elegant in her royal blue gown and up-do. She smiled at Suho, revealing the lines around that indicated she was much older than they were. The man looked very refined in his suit, and looked like a much older version of Suho. Even though he wore the same black jacket and black trousers that many of the guys in the club wore, he gave off an air of sophistication that was impossible to copy.

 

“Mother, father,” Suho smiled widely at the couple and bowed his head.

 

“Junmyeon, your father and I apologize for not being able to have had dinner with you tonight. I know it’s kind of a tradition for us to eat together on Christmas Eve, but we’ve just been so swamped with work,” Suho’s mother said, a frown forming upon her delicate face. “Can you forgive us for breaking tonight’s agenda?”

 

“Of course, it’s not a big deal,” Suho said with a smile, even though he had been looking forward to sharing a meal with his parents. “I talked with a lot of our partners tonight too.”

 

“Junmyeon,” his father started. “Your mother and I are very proud of all of your achievements in the past year. Keep it up, son.”

 

Suho couldn’t help but smile like a child at his father’s words. He suddenly started to feel shy in front of his parents, and scratched the back of his head nervously. A year’s worth of longing had been satisfied simply by knowing that his parents were proud of him.

 

“Junmyeon, since this will be your last year before you go to university, your father and I were thinking of doing something special. Don’t take our word for it, but if there’s room in our schedules for a vacation, how about the three of us visit our private island together for a couple of days? It’ll be a family vacation,” Suho’s mother said. She was smiling, but something about it felt off. It was the kind of smile that someone forced when they were trying to cover up their anxiety.

 

‘Are… my parents… nervous?’ Suho wondered to himself. His father was staring at his feet when his wife asked Suho about the vacation. He had his arms behind his back, and unbeknownst to Suho, his father was playing with his fingers nervously.

 

Suho couldn’t believe it – his parents were nervous about asking him to go out with them on a vacation? Why?

 

“Of course I’ll go! I mean, I’d love to go,” Suho said with a smile that reached his ears.

 

“I get it, you want to spend time with your friends- what? I mean, that’s good to hear. We’ll try our best to clear our schedule for it then,” Suho’s mother said with the exact same smile that her son wore. His father seemed to let out a breath of relief, but then cleared his throat and adjusted his tie.

 

Why were his parents nervous? Why did they seem so happy? Shouldn’t he be the one that was supposed to jumping around for joy?

 

Suho had to fight back the urge to start crying. His heart felt like it was being filled with a lifetime’s supply of joy and love. Was it alright for him to feel so happy? How was he sure this wasn’t all a dream? It seemed too good to be true.

 

When his mother approached him and brought him into a hug, Suho knew that everything he was experiencing was real. “Without knowing it, my Junmyeon has grown up into such a fine man. Your mom regrets missing out in it,” she whispered into his ear.

 

Surrounded by his friends and having discovered his parents’ feelings, Suho was sure he had become the world’s most blessed man. It truly was a Christmas miracle.

 

.::.           .::.           .::.

 

The young boy would never forget his first day of middle school. He stepped into the building that was considerably smaller than his mansion, and yet it felt like his world had suddenly grown incredibly larger. The young boy showed up half an hour early for his first class – it wasn’t good to be tardy, he was told. When the teacher showed up and let him into the small classroom, he took a seat in the middle of the room.

 

Students slowly filled the room, one by one, and yet no one took a seat near him.

 

“Isn’t that…?”

 

“No way I wasn’t prepared for this!”

 

“Oh my god, my parents are gonna be so happy to hear that he’s in my class!”

 

The young boy slumped into his seat like a tortoise retreating into its shell. Perhaps going to middle school had been a mistake.

 

Suddenly, someone pulled the chair to a desk that was next to his. A tall student with blond hair and piercing facial features sat down. The student glanced at the young boy, and cocked his chin towards him as if to greet him.

 

“Good morning,” the young boy said with a smile.

 

“Yeah whatever,” the other student shrugged.

 

“So, how was your-“

 

“Look,” the student said as he stared into the young boy’s eyes. “I don’t talk to losers, okay?”

 

“Okay…”

 

Suddenly, a girl grabbed the tall student’s arm and dragged him to a corner of the classroom. In a hushed voice, she said, “Don’t you know who that is? You shouldn’t have said that!”

 

“I don’t even know this language fluently yet,” the tall student shrugged his shoulders.

 

“Well let me tell you that you don’t want to get on his family’s bad side, alright? You understand that?”

 

“Yeah, whatever.”

 

“Canada isn’t like South Korea, Kris. You have to watch what you say here,” the girl scolded him.

 

“Yeah, the people here are a lot more superficial that’s for sure,” Kris said with a smug look. “Besides, what’s the big deal about that kid anyways? He looks so scrawny.”

 

“That’s Kim Junmyeon, heir to the Kim Group.”

 

---           ---           ---

 

If there was one thing Junmyeon learned, it was that money could buy him whatever he wanted.

 

Even friends.

 

Junmyeon was going to start a club. They wouldn’t do anything routinely, nor would they participate in competitions. He was going to start a club where he would spoil the members with gifts and trips. It would attract so many people that by the end of the year, he projected that the entire student population would become his friend.

 

So when no one showed up on the club’s grand opening, Junmyeon was stumped.

 

Were they scared of talking to him? Scared of offending him? Scared of getting to know him because his family holds so much power?

 

He was about to take down the streamers and decorations in the otherwise empty room of classroom 3003 when someone poked their head through the door. Kris looked around the room, then stepped in.

 

“Is it true you get to go on cruises here?” Kris asked as he waved the poster Junmyeon had made in the air. Junmyeon nodded his head, asking himself why the student who had called him a loser in the morning wanted to join his club. He thought Kris didn’t hang out with losers, so why was he here?

 

Ah yes, because of money.

 

Following Kris came two other students named Luhan and Minseok.

 

“Where are the hot girls?” Luhan asked.

 

“I thought this was an empty classroom where I could study…” Minseok mumbled. When he began packing his bag to leave, Luhan grabbed him by the collar and told him to stay put.

 

Junmyeon cracked a smile and welcomed his new friends. They weren’t exactly what he had in mind, but who was he to be picky?

 

---           ---           ---

 

It was just a cold. A small fever and a couple of sneezes here and there. Junmyeon didn’t understand why the house was scrambling around like the roof had fallen off. The maids rushed to nurse him back to health while the butlers tried their best to entertain them. The chefs had a cooking competition to determine who could cook the best rice porridge to serve him. He was a second-year high school student, not a baby.

 

“No, you mustn’t push through! Master Junmyeon is ill and will not see anyo-“

 

Suddenly, the doors to his bedroom flung open and a flood of students from his school came in.

 

“We heard you were sick!” Luhan exclaimed. “It must be really bad because you never miss a day of school!”

 

“No, that’s not-“ Junmyeon started.

 

“Is it the flu? Did you get your vaccine this year?” Minseok asked with concern.

 

“Like I was saying-“ Junmyeon tried to continue.

 

“It’s nothing this cold syrup can’t fix,” Kris said as he frantically searched through his backpack. He pulled out a bottle with a brown-caramel coloured syrup in it.

 

“Hyung that’s maple syrup,” Chanyeol giggled.

 

“Exactly! Nothing maple syrup can’t fix,” Kris said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

 

“Guys, really I’m-“ Suho tried to explain himself when he sneezed.

 

“Hyung, you’ll get better, right?” Yixing asked. His voice cracked, and it looked like the younger member was fighting back the urge to cry. “Baekhyun told me you never miss school because you love it so much. He said that you’d come even if you lost an arm and leg. Is it that bad?”

 

In the background, Baekhyun and Jongdae were giggling. But when they saw Junmyeon cough, the two troublemakers immediately stopped laughing. Jongdae handed him an audio card, so that when he opened it up, his and Baekhyun’s voices sang along to the song, “Get Well Soon”.

 

Kyungsoo had brought a pot of his home-cooked rice porridge with kimchi and set it on Junmyeon’s bedside. “Eat it when you have an appetite,” Kyungsoo said with a shy smile. “It’s probably not as good as the stuff your personal chefs make, but I’m mighty proud of it.”

 

“Why?” Junmyeon asked. “You didn’t have to visit me. How did you get here? Don’t some of you live pretty far away?”

 

“We bussed,” Baekhyun replied.

 

“Oh, let me pay for your bus fare then. Did some of you take a taxi?” Junmyeon asked as he pulled the drawer to his bedside table out, and searched for his wallet.

 

“Why would you pay for our bus fare?” Chanyeol asked like it was the most preposterous thing he had ever heard. “We chose to visit you.”

 

“Yeah but, it’s not like I told you to come here. It’s only right I pay for your transportation fees,” Junmyeon replied.

 

“Of course we’d come!” Luhan exclaimed. “We’re friends!”

 

“We came on our own accord, so I don’t see why you’d want to pay for our transportation fees,” Minseok explained, then flashed a smile at Junmyeon.

 

Junmyeon stared at his friends in disbelief before he broke out into a laughing fit. When Yixing asked him if he was okay, he replied, “I’m more than fine. I’m all better now that you guys are here.”

 

Junmyeon had originally started the After School Club as a way for him to buy friends. He thought that no one would truly stay by his side if it weren’t for his money. He thought that these guys joined the club for the incentives, and he was fine with it. He had expected it.

 

What he hadn’t expected was that they chose to stay by his side not for the money but rather, for him. In that moment, Junmyeon realized the true meaning behind his instructor’s words that day. He had asked him if it was possible to buy friends with money, to which the instructor said that he could buy as many connections as he wanted. He could use money to buy people’s time, but he couldn’t buy their hearts with it.

 

He had earned these friends by his own means, and he didn’t have to spend a single penny to buy their trust. After living a lifetime of loneliness, Junmyeon was looking forward to spending his life with the ones that he could call his friends.

 

The young boy wouldn’t be so lonely anymore.

 

---

 

A/N: This mini-arc has been an absolute joy to write. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I know this one didn't have as many jokes in it as the other ones. This chapter is probably the most serious one to date lol. If you enjoyed this 3-part mini-arc, then look forward to another one coming your way very soon ;) And if you didn't like it, well I'm still gonna write it. See ya'll in the next chapter <3

\\ xoxo