Eomma always said that a good wedding is 80% organization, 15% guest behavior, and 5% luck. But really, no matter the size or type, you took all the luck you could get.

So far, we'd had some. Like the fact that Julee's neighbor was a contractor who had several ladders, one of which he happily climbed, lights in hand, then draped them across the branches as I directed him. He also had six folding chairs in his garage, which we were able to add to the five Julee found wrapped in spiderwebs behind her water heater, where they'd been left by the previous owner of the house. We still need more, though, which was why it was especially fortunate the Baeks kept an supply in their own garage to set up, along with small tables, for food truck seating. One call to Gayeon - sure enough, Katyleen had an ear infection - and she'd offered to bring as many as we needed of each. When I told Sehun, he let out a deep breath I thought he might collapse.

"Thank goodness," he said. "If I had to hear Suho talking about blankets one more time I would've lost my mind."

"She and Jaebum are going to try to bring them by five at the least. Ceremony is at six, right?"

"That's the plan," he said, unpacking another mason jar from the box at his feet. "It should be super fast. Then we'll immediately start receptioning."

"Not exactly a word," I pointed out, helping him with the jars. "What about food? Are you doing it right away, or waiting?"

"It's all finger food that has to be heated," he said. "So I figured we'd do it in waves. That's why I put that one table down at the bottom of the stairs. We can run out the trays, plop them down, and let everyone have at them."

Plop, like throw, was a word I hadn't heard much before in terms of planning. "You may get a mob scene, though, especially if people are hungry. Might be better to pass some, so they can't all rush at once."

"Oh." He stopped packing. "I didn't think about that. We don't have servers, though."

"I can help with that," I told him, picking up another jar. "And I'm sure we can enlist a couple of others. There's a certain kind of wedding guest that likes a job. You just have to ID them."

This, of course, was different from someone trying to wrest control of the event. There were types who just managed a guestbook or collecting bouquets from bridesmaids for the cake table, and Wooyoung was great at spotting them within minutes of arrival. Without him here, I'd just have to trust my own instincts.

"Oh, I don't want you to have to stick around," Sehun said now, as we finally emptied the box. A dozen jars for six tables: eighteen would be better, but it would do. "I'm sure you got plans tonight."

Instantly, I felt embarrassed. Here I was inviting myself to the very wedding I'd been refusing on the day before I wanted no part of. Stupid, I thought, and wished for a second I'd ignored his text and just stayed home, maybe tried again to deal with that dress. Then, though, I looked in the wide window in front of us and saw Jihyo at the kitchen island, bent over crowns she and Tzuyu were weaving from flowers picked in Julee's garden. She was smiling as she said something, then covered and laughed.

"Not until later tonight," I told them. "I mean, I don't want to force myself on you. But if you need my help, you have it."

Sehun looked up at me. "I think it's obvious that need is not even strong enough a word. Please stay."

Now I smiled. "Okay. Now let's talk tablecloths."

It was a short conversation, as this detail, like many others, had been overlooked. "Oh, darn," Tzuyu said, when we went inside to report. "With the whole blanket debate those totally slipped my mind."

"You don't absolutely need them," I pointed out. "It's just the tables are kind of ruined."

"So we need six tablecloths," Sehun said, looking around the kitchen as if they might suddenly appear. That would be luck. "And probably some plates."

"Probably?" I questioned.

"We have a lot of napkins!" he told me. "It's finger food."

"People will get a new napkin for every items they eat?" asked Suho, who unlike the tablecloths, had suddenly appeared. "That's so bad for the earth."

"Suho, it's a napkin, not fracking," Tzuyu told him, sounding more peeved than I thought was possible for her.

"It's still wasteful. What we should do is give everyone one plate and one cup when they arive, and they keep it until the end."

"What?" Jihyo said.

"Oh, ," Sehun sighed. "Cups."

"We don't have cups?" Tzuyu asked.

"I am not asking people to carry around their plate for three hours!" Jihyo said, her voice more adamant than I'd heard all day.

"Three hours?" Suho said. "How long are we planning to do this?"

"I can't believe you forgot cups," Tzuyu said to Sehun.

"I'm in charge of everything," he shot back. "You can't keep up with paper goods?"

"I was dealing with flowers!" she said.

Uh-oh, I thought. Nothing could fray nerves like this kind of detail, and my instinct told me words might be about to be spoken that wouldn't be able to be taken back. "You order a keg, right?" I asked Sehun. He nodded. "Then they'll bring cups with it. As far as plates, there's a 1000 won store two blocks away where they also have paper tablecloths. They're cheap and will rip eventually, but at least they'll look nice when people arrive."

"1000 won store," Sehun repeated. "Right. Let's go."

"Go?" Tzuyu said. "You're supposed to be helping with the bouquets. You promised, like, an hour ago."

"Did you not hear me say I'm kind of busy with all the other details?" he said. In return, she glared at him. That got ugly fast, I thought.

A knock sounded on the glass door in front of us. When I looked up, Kyungsoo was standing there, in black pants and white button-up, carrying a piano case and an amp. "Where do I plug in?" he called out, his voice muffled.

"Plug in?" Suho said. "We're going electric with this?"

"I thought he was just doing his DJ thing on his computer," Tzuyu whispered to Jihyo. "I didn't know he played."

"You're his best friend," Sehun pointed out.

"Oh, shut up," she said. Then, turning on her heel, she walked away. Jihyo looked at me, like I was supposed to do something, before following her.

"Sehun!" Julee called. "Yunhyeong and Donghyuk just got here with the food. Did you want them to buy forty pizzas?"

"Forty?" Suho said. "I didn't even know we were having pizza. Now we definitely need to do my plate assigned plate idea."

"They're going to be bite-sized!" Sehun shouted, sounding slightly crazy. Everyone got quiet, quickly. Until Kyungsoo, still outside, knocked again, harder this time.

"I'll just go to the store," I said quietly to Sehun, happy for any reason to put distance between me and Kyungsoo. "See you in a bit."

Everyone started talking again as I slipped out, pulling my keys from my pocket. I exhaled, relieved, when the front screen door swung shut behind me.

I'd just started the engine and put my car into gear when I heard knocking on the back window. As I turned to look, the passenger door rattled open and Sehun jumped in. "Drive. Fast. Get us out of here," he said, pulling it shut behind him.

"But -"

"Suzy. I'm begging you. Just go."

I remembered the last time he'd leapt into that seat unexpectedly and told me to drive. Then, we'd stolen a dog. This time, who knew? Whatever happened, though, it was better than that lonely dusty closet I'd been in earlier, or maybe forever. Yolo, I heard Jongsuk say, something I'd almost forgotten. So I drove.