Junior's Society
011: The Ball

|| D-DAY ||
¬ 4 Hours before the ball

3rd Person’s POV

“Sooyoung, come here, let me fix the slit of your dress!” It’s a mess in Youngjae’s house right now. As we all know, it’s the Valentine’s Ball in Mallenois University, and as much as they hate to admit it, the theme of the ball is “The Socialites of 2018”. And what other group is a group of Socialites? Honestly, there is no one but CLYDE. And as we all know, Youngjae’s mom is a fashion designer, so all of the CLYDE’s children who are joining the ball are in the Choi’s, and this also includes Youngjae’s younger sister’s friends. Sooyoung’s stylists are also here to help in styling the others. The CLYDE strongly believes in sharing resources.

Youngjae’s mom headed for Sooyoung and she lowered Sooyoung’s off-shoulder. “Thank you, Auntie.”

Cathrina, Youngjae’s mom just smiled as she headed for Sooyoung’s younger sister. “Jihyo, sweetie, where’s your hairpin?” And she gushed off. Sooyoung sat down on the sofa between some tall guy who she slightly suspects to be her little sister’s boyfriend and Seokwoo.

Seokwoo passed her his blazer. “Cover your legs, the slit is too high.” He whispered, afraid to be heard by Cathrina.

Sooyoung smiled and did as he said. Sooyoung’s wearing a navy blue off-shouldered dress with a slit that reaches up to her thigh. Cathrina loves Sooyoung’s body proportions, and she only wants the best for Sooyoung and Sooyoung knows this, so she just trusts Youngjae’s mom. “Thanks, Seokwoo.” Seokwoo looks hot today, too, but when did he not? He’s also wearing a navy blue coat and a black vest. He has a white corsage which is the same with Sooyoung and Youngjae’s. Since none of the three are coming with a date, they just decided to come together.

“Is Daniel really not coming?” Sooyoung can only nod as Seokwoo held her hand. “Hey, cheer up.”

“How can I cheer up when my ex decided to go with my ex-bff to the ball, Seokwoo? What if Juho went with Dabin today, what would you feel?” She tried to sound softly as possible to avoid attention. Sooyoung’s sisters know that she’s really mad about this issue, but the others aren’t aware at all. And besides, Sooyoung’s youngest brother likes Daniel a lot, so she wouldn’t want to unnecessarily break friendships because of her feelings again.

“Okay, I get you, Soo.” Seokwoo gave her a reassuring smile. “Didn’t you talk with Daniel about this, though?”

Sooyoung bit her lower lip. “It looked to me like he tried to, but I didn’t want to.” She frowned. “Am I too harsh?”

Seokwoo shook his head. “No, no, sweetie, no.” He cupped her face. Seokwoo has always been caring and the touchy-feely one, so this instance is not a new thing for him. “You have your instances, and he has his, don’t worry about it too much.” He tried to comfort her.

“Daniel issue again?” Youngjae sat down between Sooyoung and the other-guy-who-looks-like-he-likes-Sooyoung’s-sister. Youngjae’s also wearing a navy blue suit but he’s wearing a necktie instead of a vest. “I told you that guy was trouble the moment I met him.”

Seokwoo hit Youngjae’s shoulder. “Shut it.”

Youngjae shrugged. “Am I wrong? I told you, Soo, Daniel’s the type who’ll move and move on and on.” He crossed his arms. “Watch as he and Jennie get together after this ball.”

“Quit it, CJ.”

“Seokwoo, I’m just telling the truth.” Youngjae isn’t usually like this, but as someone who grew up with only Sooyoung as the girl in the three, of course he’s going to be protective. “Please, Soo, do yourself a favor and end everything with Daniel.”

“CJ!” Seokwoo scolded once again. “I said stop!”

“Seokwoo, don’t shield Daniel and the fact that he broke Soo again, despite knowing what she’s been through.” Youngjae finally raised his voice, gathering everyone’s attention, including Youngjae’s older brothers, Minki and Seungcheol, both with raised eyebrows.

Minki frowned. “Did CJ just raise his voice?” He asked Seungcheol and the latter nodded.

“Wow, CJ who didn’t raise his voice when we were talking about Seokju is raising his voice here.” Seungcheol smirked, squeezing his younger brother’s shoulder, until their sister, Yuju, stood up and slapped Seungcheol’s hand off Youngjae’s shoulder.

“Watch the atmosphere, Oppa.” She said before looking back at the three of them. “All of you.” She shot down all of her siblings and they all dispersed to join their respective friends when their only sister came out.

Sooyoung smiled a little, seeing Youngjae fuming. The last time they saw him like this was when the Yerin event happened. “I’m fine, CJ.”

Youngjae stood up, “Should we watch something before we go?” He asked with a smile on his face.

“How about Green Inferno?” Sooyoung joked, trying to make amends between the two. “Come on, I know both of you love Green Inferno.”

“We don’t!” They both chorused then scoffed.

“Oh, dear.” Sooyoung let out a small chuckle and she led her two friends out of the main house and they headed for Youngjae’s room. When they got there, Youngjae inserted his flash drive into the television and scrolled to look for the Green Inferno movie. “Oh, I was kidding.” The two boys stared at her like ‘WTF’ before Youngjae scrolled down to the ‘La La Land’ movie. When he played the video, he sat down next to Seokwoo on the sofa while Sooyoung hoarded the bed.  “The guy next to me earlier, he’s hot, who’s he?”

“Which one? The pale one or the guy who has a chicken for his hairdo?” Seokwoo asked.

“The pale one.”

“Ah, Jaehyun.” Youngjae concluded. “Jaehyun is Wheein’s cousin.” He said, referring to one of the CLYDE members. “Also, our siblings’ friend.”

Sooyoung nodded. “One of the girls is also pretty.”  The two guys raised their brows, as if asking for a name. “The one with long, black hair.”

“Chaeyeon? Mingyu’s ex?” Seokwoo blurted out, making both Sooyoung and Youngjae stare at him. “What?”

“So the gangster girl is THAT pretty girl?! She doesn’t look like it!”

“And Jaehyun is her twin brother.”

Sooyoung sighed. “And Jaehyun seems to like our Jihyo.”

“Doesn’t look like it, to me.” Youngjae suggested.

Just then, Seokwoo thought of a great idea. “Wanna place bets that they’ll get together?”

Bets. The thing that keeps these three alive.

*bzzt* Youngjae stood up as he heard the beeper ring. “Master CJ, Mister Hanbin has arrived.”

Sooyoung beamed a little as she heard Hanbin’s name. She stood up and cheered. “About time he did!”

“Lawrence, tell him to come up, thanks.” Youngjae said with a smile as he ended tapped the beeper to close. “Hanbin’s late.” He glanced at Seokwoo.

Seokwoo shrugged. “My dear cousin has a younger sister fifteen years younger than him so he picked her up at the kindergarten first.”

And together, these four made up the group of kids who met when they were babies but grew up together, standing on the same field supported by one another.

**

“God, Jinwoo, your lips are chapped.” Yerin said as she passed Jinwoo a lip balm from her purse. “Did you make out with a dog?”

Changkyun, who was with the two, chuckled as Jinwoo hurriedly applied the said lip balm to his face. Right now, Yerin, Jinwoo and Changkyun are in a salon near the taxi bay. They’re in their hometown, because the dorms are unavailable during Valentine’s Season. As the dormitory head has once said, “If you guys are going to do the deed, do it in your own homes. I don’t want testosterone-smelling bedsheets to clean after the fourteenth.” Not that they haven’t been doing that, anyway. “Jinwoo, who are you taking out, again?”

Jinwoo looked up to meet his eyes before looking back at the mirror to continue applying lip balm. “Sana.”

As if he spoke God’s name, both of them threw darts at him. “Sana as in, Minatozaki Sana?” Yerin asked, unbelieving. “She didn’t punch you?”

Jinwoo narrowed his eyes. “Come on, Yerin. Sana’s not like that.” He shrugged. “She just has some… issues.” He passed Yerin her lip balm. “Anyway, it’s hard to understand, especially since it’s not my story to tell.” Both of them shrugged back as they continued in what they were doing. “Oh, Yerin, have you heard? Daniel asked Jennie out.”

Yerin flipped the magazine that she was reading. “I know, I heard it from Jennie, herself.” She heaved a sigh from her chest.

“Yerin, it’s time to change.” The stylist said as Yerin nodded, put down her magazine and entered the dressing room.

The two guys were already prepared, though. Both of them are wearing black suits, but Changkyun was wearing a black inner polo while Jinwoo’s wearing a white one. “Can you believe Wonwoo missed the shot on getting a perfect woman?” Changkyun asked Jinwoo and Jinwoo nodded.

“Hell yes, he did.”

“But I also can’t believe that you lost Sejeong to Dongyoung, you idiot.”

Jinwoo shot a glare to Changkyun. “Do you want to talk about Binnie and Soobin, Changkyun?”

Changkyun smiled. “At least I didn’t lose her to someone who broke up with her before.”

“Shut up, Changkyun.”

**

¬ 2 Hours before the start of the ball

Wonwoo, Jihoon, Soonyoung and Junhui, together with Soobin who’s Junhui’s date, arrived in the campus intact, no thanks to Junhui’s driving skills. Soobin was holding on for her life every time they took a turn. When they were parking, Wonwoo decided to pray for his life. Soonyoung did nothing but scream and Jihoon, who sat between Wonwoo and Soonyoung, had to cover his ears for protection. “We’re here!” Junhui cheered.

“I don’t think that’s something to be proud of,