WARNING: Mature language in this chapter

Jisoo happened to like formal dinners and fancy occasions, so she was actually looking forward to the gala even if she wasn’t looking forward to spending time with Jinyoung. L’hotel Stella was a five-star establishment, a posh hotel with a 1920’s art-deco concept. The ballroom had a dance floor and a live band. Several round tables were set with white lilies in the center. She wondered what exactly they were going to be doing, but Jinyoung was unresponsive for most of the evening.

Unlike Jisoo, who was texting her fake-boyfriend up ’til 3 in the morning making sure he knew the details of her carefully-laden plan for the Julie Kiyoko meeting, Jinyoung had no plan at all for the gala.

Jisoo had forgotten to ask him what version of the story they were sticking to: the one in her email, the one they’d improvised in the Embrace offices, or an entirely different one. 

She didn’t even know if she was supposed to be acting like his girlfriend or just some girl that he brought as his date. It was slightly annoying. 

It occurred to Jisoo that she never really understood exactly why Jinyoung wanted her to come to this gala in the first place. In the three weeks since they’d agreed to this arrangement, she’d never thought to ask him. He didn’t strike her as the type of person to really care about what other’s thought. And, as he had been asking her for weeks now, she wondered why her in particular.

They were passing through a hall to get to the ballroom when Jisoo surreptitiously looked him up and down. His scruff from the night before was gone, so he was clean shaven. His tux was neatly tailored to his measurements and he kept his hair lightly tousled so as not to overdo the formality of his look. Objectively, Jinyoung was handsome. In exactly the bring-him-home-to-meet-the-parents, do-gooder-type way that Lisa had said described before, and even without visual confirmation, she knew that he had the biceps to woo any girl he wanted.

So… why her? Why the stuck-up, bitter former high school rival who hated him?

Mostly, they ended up wandering around the ballroom, occasionally greeting his professors and he would just introduce her as his date. Once, Jisoo excused herself to the dessert table to try some chocolate truffles that were set out on a platter and drank several glasses of punch. She was downing her fourth cup and was heading back to where Jinyoung was standing when she noticed him staring into the crowd of people on the dance floor.

Unlike some of the frat parties and clubs that Jisoo had been to before, the gala was a classy affair and the band was playing lively, classy swing music, and the people danced in pairs. Actually, it was kind of a romantic scene. It reminded her of something she might read about in an old-timey novel. Her eyes especially zeroed in on a good-looking couple near the center of the floor.

The girl had sleek black hair and was wearing a sleek black dress, but her smile was bright, and she was staring lovingly into the eyes of a lean, handsome boy in a black tux with brown hair. He was spinning her and she was laughing, her eyes were sparkling. Then he leaned forward and kissed her nose. Jisoo smiled at the heartwarming scene in front of her.

When she reached Jinyoung he was still staring into the dancing crowd. 

“Do you want to dance?” Jisoo asked. She mentally slapped herself. She didn’t mean did he want to dance with her, she meant to ask if he liked dancing in general, but she knew he would twist her words around. She braced herself to hear the saucy reply that she didn’t doubt was coming.

But he was silent. In fact, he didn’t seem to hear her at all. 

Jisoo looked at Jinyoung with a puzzled expression.

“Hey!” Jisoo said, raising her voice until Jinyoung snapped out of focus and then turned to her.

“What?” he asked. 

“I said, do you want to dan—I mean, do you like dancing?”

“Maybe later,” he said, and Jisoo was slightly amused that he still managed to misconstrue her meaning even after she changed the words. He suddenly looked nervous and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Let’s find our table,” Jinyoung said. He didn’t even look at Jisoo before turning to find their table. Jisoo scoffed and was about to follow him when those glasses of punch she drank suddenly hit her.

“I need to pee,” she said, grabbing his sleeve to keep him from leaving.

“What?” he said. Then Jisoo blushed, realizing she’d said that aloud.

“I mean, I need to use the bathroom.”

“Go, then,” Jinyoung said, nodding in the direction of the ladies’ room. “I’ll be at Table 10. They’re gonna serve dinner soon.”

Jisoo excused herself and began to push through the crowds on her way to the women’s restroom. The song ended and the dancing couples started to clap and cheer by the time Jisoo reached the door to the women’s room. It was in a narrow hallway and right across from the men’s room. 

She pushed the door and found her way to the toilets. After relieving her bladder in the bathroom stall, Jisoo sighed, remembering that her dress’ zipper was a challenge to do up. She made a mental reminder not to drink too much so she wouldn’t have to deal with the stupid thing twice. She her stomach in and arched her back and began the long struggle with her dress’ zipper.

After a few minutes, she heard the bathroom door open. A pair of heels clicked on the marble floor, followed by another pair of frantic footsteps.

“Nawon! There you are!” said one of the girls. “Guess who’s here.”

Jisoo leaned against the side of the bathroom stall and continued battling the zipper. She cursed quietly to herself when the effort accidentally chipped the color on her thumbnail.

“Who?” said the other one of the girls on the other side of the stall.

“Your ex-boyfriend, Park Jinyoung!”

Jisoo froze. Jinyoung? Ex-boyfriend? She stopped dealing with her dress’ zipper for a minute and looked through the gaps in the bathroom stall. Her view was narrow, but if she positioned her head correctly, she could see the girls’ reflections in the mirror. 

It was her. The girl with the sleek black dress who was dancing. She had a heart-shaped face and her lips were stained red with lipstick. The sleek black dress she wore hugged her figure elegantly. 

“Are you serious?” the girl (Nawon, Jisoo assumed) said. “Oh, god, that’s so awkward.”

Jisoo in a breath. So that’s who Jinyoung had been staring at. It suddenly made sense. The other girl, who was wearing a floor-length red gown, nodded as she refreshed her lip-gloss.

“I haven’t even got to the weirdest part yet,” said Red Dress. “He brought a date.”

Oh, Jisoo thought. She means me. What dramatic irony, Jisoo thought, being hidden in a bathroom stall with a stubborn zipper while two girls gossiped about her and her date on the other side. She tried to keep quiet.

“Why should I be interested?” Nawon said, staring at her reflection intently as if to keep from showing emotion. Red Dress crossed her arms.

“I was watching him interact with her,” she said. “She’s pretty, but zero chemistry, at least from my perspective. You two made a much cuter couple.”

Jisoo saw Nawon roll her eyes. “Mark is my boyfriend now, Jiyeon,” she said.

“Sure but don’t pretend you never had any feelings for Jinyoung or that you’re not mourning the end of that relationship,” the other girl, Jiyeon, said. “You really liked him, you said that you never would’ve cheated on him if it weren’t for that eight-week training program he went on.”

Nawon tossed her lip-gloss into her clutch and faced Jiyeon. She really did have a killer figure, Jisoo noticed. It suddenly occurred to her that if Jinyoung had dated this girl once, he must have really liked the way she looked in figure-hugging dresses. The thought made her blush, though not out of modesty. 

“It wasn’t just the eight-week program,” Nawon said, her voice becoming stern. “He was a distracted guy. He was a nice guy, but he only cared about work and school, I felt like I had to fight just to be a part of his life. I know it’s his dream to be a doctor and all, but I have needs, too! And Mark was there meeting those needs when he wasn’t.”

Jisoo’s eyes widened hearing their conversation. There were so many things to be shocked about in just the span of a few seconds. One, Jinyoung had a girlfriend and two, she cheated on him with some boy named Mark because Jinyoung “wasn’t meeting her needs,” whatever that meant. 

“What does that mean?” asked Jiyeon.

“I mean, he’d spend literally all day at that hospital and not get off until evening,” Nawon said, crossing her arms. “And then I’d ask him to get dinner with me and he’d just be distracted the whole time. He’d just talk about what he did at work or what he learned on his program. I was starting to get tired of it. And he was so busy, for two whole months, we didn’t have .”

Don’t picture them having , Jisoo snapped at herself.

“I would just wait at his apartment for him to get home and feel stupid and alone,” Nawon said, her voice slowing down. “But Mark was there. We would talk, and then one day, I just kissed him. And then it got out of hand.”

“Oh, ,” said Jiyeon.

“I told myself it was just going to be that one time, but I kept going back,” Nawon continued. “Then, Jinyoung went home for a funeral or something, and I went to his apartment to see Mark. But then Jinyoung ca