Julee's house was a pretty one story house at the end of the street with sunflowers blooming up the front walk. Much better than a smoking patio. As I climbed out of my car and started for the front door, I realized I was actually curious to see what Sehun had come up with. After knocking a few times with no response, I heard voices from the backyard and headed that way.

"They're supposed to be in the trees," someone said just as I came up to the gate. "You don't put lights on bushes!"

"Says who?" another voice, sounding equally frustrated, replied.

"Everyone! Omo, Suho, just stop. That looks awful. Give them to me."

I leaned over the gate carefully, looking into the yard. Across the grass, Jihyo and her groom were standing by a bush with a few lights flung across it, the rest in a tangle at their feet. Even though they were facing away from me, the tension was clear: her arms crossed, his, on his hips.

"Hello?" I called out. "I was told to bring tables?"

Jihyo turned, seeing me. "Oh, Suzy, hi! Honey, go help her. I'll get some backup."

As she ran, barefoot, across the grass and up the back porch steps to the house, Suho made his way over to me. He was about my height with short black hair, wearing a T-shirt. Pit stains were visible beneath both his arms.

"Do we need tables?" he said to me. " I was thinking everyone could just sit on blankets."

"Just doing as I was asked," I said cheerfully, walking back to my car.

His response was a grumble. Maybe Sehun had called this right and he was a CG after all. "Up until last night, we were getting married at a coffee shop."

"I heard that," I said, surprised and yet not at how swiftly I'd shifted into my ever-pleasant-I'm-staying-out-of-this work mode. "I brought six. That's all we had."

"Six?" he said. "How many people are they inviting now?"

Instead of replying, I popped the back of the van, sliding the top table out so he could grab one end of it. He didn't, instead now focused on his phone. I looked back into the car, realizing I was probably going to have to ask him to help me, when suddenly I felt hands grab the other end.

"Got it," Sehun said, sliding it farther out. "Hey, Suho! You and Jihyo take this. We'll get the next one."

"Sure thing," I heard Jihyo say. Nothing from Suho. A moment later they were walking awkwardly, the table between them, up the path to the gate.

I pulled the next table out, Sehun took the end, and we put it between us, following them. "So how's it going?" I asked. "I sensed some light tension."

"Oh, no, there's heavy tension," he replied, shaking that curl out of his face. The door of the house opened and Julee and Tzuyu came out, making their way down the path. "In the truck there, ladies! We've got four to carry!"

"I meant tension about the lights," I corrected him, dodging a rosebush coming to my left.

"Oh, there's that, too." He looked behind him, adjusting his course toward the gate. "Turns out you really kind of need a ladder if you want them in the trees."

"You don't have a ladder?"

"My plan was to throw them," he explained.

A word I had never, in all my years, used while discussing wedding preparations. "Somebody on this block has to have one. You just need to go and ask."

"How can I do that, though," he replied, shifting his grip on the table, "when every time we add any wrinkle Suho sighs loudly and Jihyo starts crying?"

"Why are they even here?" I asked. "You know my mom never allows the bride or groom at the event pre-ceremony, even if they want to be. It's asking for trouble."

"I don't have that many people!" he shot back. I raised my brows. "Sorry. It's just . . . this isn't easy as I thought it would be. Like, it's not easy. At all. Shoot, I just banged my leg on this fence. Watch it as you come through, okay?"

"Sehun!" Jihyo yelled. "Where do we want these?"

"Arranged in an orderly and yet not rigid fashion!" he replied.

"What?"

In return, he cringed. I'd honestly never seen him so stressed, and had to fight the urge to laugh, which was absolutely the wrong response, I knew. "Just put it down," he said, his voice tight. "I'll figure it out."

"I don't understand why we need tables," Suho was saying as we put ours next to the one they'd dropped unceremoniously by a large tree. "What happened to my blanket idea?"

"You can't expect people to sit on the ground and balance a plate in their lap at a wedding," Sehun told him.

"Why not? Not everyone needs a chair."

I was facing Sehun, so I saw his expression - one of sudden realization, then dread - as he heard the last word. I said carefully, "You do have chairs, right?"

He just looked at me as Tzuyu yelped. "Ouch, I just totally hit my leg. You guys, hazard over here by the gate!"

"Sehun, where do you want this table?' Julee asked.

"He said in an orderly but not rigid fashion," Jihyo told her.

"What the hell does that mean?"

Before Sehun could respond, a huge clump of lights fell from the tree above us, landing with a clank on the grass. So the throwing had worked. Sort of.

"Man," Suho said. "That could've killed someone."

Jihyo sniffed, putting her hand to , as Julee and Tzuyu exchanged looks. But I was focused only on Sehun, looking around with obvious, rising panic on his face.

"Go find a ladder," I told him. "I've got this."