It was turning out to be very hard for Taeyeon to bear with the stylishly pointed objects she was wearing on her feet. Soojung had been considerate enough to drive them to the campus instead of insisting like usual that Taeyeon should drive, or her feet might as well have caught fire

Once they had reached outside the hall they had to go up the stairs that were located on the backside, and then descend down into the hall. Even though the idea had appealed very much to Taeyeon when Baekhyun had suggested that all the society members make special appearance into the dance hall by doing so, but right then it was turning out to be pure torture as she took slow steps upwards, Jongin and Soojung following slowly behind.

"Forget it, dude!", Soojung snapped haughtily to Jongin's suggestion that they enter the hall together.

"Suit yourself", Jongin seemed smug enough despite Soojung’s rejections.

Taeyeon sighed, feeling relieved as she found Yixing standing at the end of the stairs amongst other familiar faces from the society as they waited for their names to be announced so they could enter in style. Yixing had offered to be her date, and despite the fact that Taeyeon had no problems in going alone like she had over the past few years (not caring if people called her cold and unapproachable because of how she never seemed to have a date to any event), she couldn't refuse him as he didn't want to go alone. Unlike her, being a society's president, he did believe in keeping up appearances even if it just meant walking into an event with a date.

As expected, once Soojung's name got called she quickly and roughly pulled Jongin by the arm towards herself, not bothering with the surprised and then amused look on his face.

"Ready?", He asked as she linked her arm with his, their names were going to be called next.

"Can't wait", She really couldn't, to change into comfortable shoes.

_

"Woohoo! Who do we have here?", Chanyeol remarked playfully, as he stealthily approached Kyungsoo and Seungwan from behind.

Seungwan jumped, and then smiled seeing the lanky male. "Hello, Chanyeol shii"

"Now now, we can drop the honorifics. You're practically our group member now", Chanyeol grinned, looking between Kyungsoo and Seungwan, hoping for them to agree with him but Kyungsoo only gave him a wary look, while Seungwan turned a little pink.

Kyungsoo knew his friends weren't going to stop with the teasing now that they were aware of them dating, and it irked him that he had to wait for a right time to tell them the truth about it.

"Hello guys!", Chen came up to them, putting an arm on each of their shoulders.

'Hello, Kyungsoo", He greeted Kyungsoo and then turned towards Seungwan, his smile the mirror image of a Cheshire cat. "Hello sister-in-l----oww!", Kyungsoo smiled sweetly at his friend, who he had just pinched at the side to stop him from talking more crap. Oh, how he wished he was alone with Seungwan right then. It had been hard enough to live through the car drive (having to control his gaze from faltering towards her every second and his hands from reaching out and just grabbing hers), but now he also had to endure through his friend's bad jokes and harassment.

"Oh stop it, Kyungiee. Why are you still in a bad mood? You should be on cloud nine since now you have such an amazing woman by your side!", Baekhyun couldn't help himself from walking towards the group he had seen standing near the stage, asking Junmyeon to keep up with the hosting duties until he returned.

Seungwan blushed beautifully at his comment, making it even harder for Kyungsoo to refrain himself from just reaching out and pinching her cheeks. But he couldn't, he would never hear the end of it if he did it in front of his friends.

It was another fifteen minutes of teasing remarks before Kyungsoo was finally taken away by Jongin, the latter asking him to introduce him to someone.

_

"Up next, we have the gorgeous Presidents of Adventure Club and Media Society, Mr. Zhang Yixing and Miss. Kim Taeyeon!"

Junmyeon announced and the crowd's attention got diverted momentarily towards the top of the spiral stairs, where the spotlight shone on the couple entering. He then turned towards the guy standing next to him. "You announce the next names, I'm going to take a break"

What Junmyeon failed to notice as he walked away from the back of the stage was, that the said guy hadn't heard a word he said as he stood there gaping at the scene in front of him, utterly transfixed.

As soon as Taeyeon had come into his view, Baekhyun's breath had been taken away. Literally. He had seen his fair share of beautiful women, but the grace and poise that Taeyeon was exuding in the red lace dress she was wearing as she walked down, made Baekhyun feel like he was looking at a mirage, an enchanted figment of his imagination and all the noise and people around him, between them, seemed to disappear in that moment.

He was hit with a strong sense of déjà vu, the same scene but with a slightly different version of the mesmerizing girl flashing through his mind. She had taken his breath away even then, but he had been too scared to register or even appreciate how much she had pulled at his heartstrings. How much she still apparently did.

He was woken from his reverie, by the insistent taping on his shoulder by Junmyeon. "Huh-?!"

"What are you doing?! Announce the next names!", He reminded him in between clenched teeth and apologetic smiles to the crowd. Baekhyun shook his head and took in his surroundings.

…................................................................

Taeyeon took a deep breath as soon as she reached downstairs and out of the spotlight.

"I'll see you around", Yixing gave her a sweet smile as he went on ahead to socialize.

"Are you trying to kill yourself?", Minseok walked up to Taeyeon, frowning at her footwear.

Taeyeon rolled her eyes, exasperatedly. "Don't even get me started"

Minseok gave a light chuckle and then said in admiration, "You look absolutely gorgeous"

"Thankyou. You look pretty good yourself", Taeyeon smiled at him. He did look very charming dressed in white pants and red coat in fervent observance of the theme, a look similar to Yixing's. Taeyeon looked around the crowd that was gathered as she sat down at the nearby table, wanting to give her poor feet some rest, Minseok following behind her. Her gaze unintentionally went towards the stage, where Junmyeon seemed to be lecturing a distracted looking Baekhyun. Her eyes lingered on him for a moment, taking in his appearance and she swallowed hard, almost furiously brushing away any thoughts or sensations that might have bubbled up upon seeing him.

"He looks handsome, doesn't he?", Minseok asked out, trying to hide his smirk. "In a white knight kind of way?"

"What?", Taeyeon croaked out, her face suddenly feeling too warm and then quickly recovered. "He looks...fine" She said in her best platonic tone. Minseok simply gave her a smile that said too much and nothing at all.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Please approach the dance floor with your partners for the first mixer dance of the evening!", Junmyeon's announcement rang over the sound system and there was a general shuffle as everybody got on their feet.

Minseok, being the gentleman he was, quickly stood up and held out his hand to her. "Let's"

"What? No", Taeyeon groaned, not wanting to dance in the shoes she was wearing. She needed to find a place to change. But seeing as Minseok wasn't going to take no for an answer, she reluctantly got up and got dragged towards the central area. Her eyes met Seungwan's who seemed to be getting dragged by Yixing as well, leaving an unhappy looking Kyungsoo behind.

"How's life been?", Taeyeon asked as she put one hand on his shoulder and he enveloped the other in his and they started moving to the pop song that was playing.

"You mean since the last five years? Good, I guess", Minseok responded, sarcastically. "How about you?"

Taeyeon gave him a reminiscent smile, remembering the old days. "It's been that long huh?" Minseok shrugged.

"Why did we stop being friends anyway?", Taeyeon thought out loud from his shoulder. They had had great times together. All of them had played a big role in making Taeyeon the confident woman she was today from the introverted, shy girl who barely had any friends and used to sit alone in cafeteria back in High School.

"Just life, I guess"  They were too ashamed and her trying to run away whenever she as much as locked gazes with any one of them in university didn't help things either. They didn't want to bother her anymore after their friend had left.

"You remember Seohyun?", Taeyeon asked, a small smile breaking out on her lips thinking of the girl.

Minseok stopped moving and gave her a long look. "You don't know, do you?"

"Know what?"

"I got engaged to Seohyun. Last year."

Taeyeon's mouth fell open. "What? Really? When?", She blurted out, pleasantly shocked as he twirled her around to the beat. The last she had met Seohyun was three years ago, before the latter had left for her studies in Europe. They had kept contact over phone and emails, but not nearly enough. It was almost sad, that a person you knew so well once, someone who had been there with you during such hard times, was now just an acquaintance and you hardly knew what was happening in their lives.

"I went for a summer internship in Europe two years ago. I met her there through a mutual friend and we kind of hit it off at once, again", Minseok smiled, recounting the fond memory to her and a warm smile made way to her lips too, as she held his shoulder again. She remembered how Seohyun used to get all quiet and shy around him in High School from the bubbly and vivacious girl she was, but had never admitted to it, too afraid to ask out a 'sunbae'.

"Woww. I am so happy for you two", She said genuinely, promising herself to give Seohyun a call as soon as she was home and then continued, in a tone of mock-anger "Why didn't you tell me though?"

Minseok raised his brows. "And how weird would that have been? Me walking up to you all of a sudden and telling you 'Hey, I got engaged to Seohyun!' when we weren't even really talking"

Taeyeon face fell. He was right. She now wanted to slap herself for distancing herself from such kind and amiable people. And why? Just because their so-called friend had been a cause of pain for her?

"Promise me, Xiu?", She looked up at him, stopping in her steps and he smiled at the old endearment she had called him. "That you'll not stop being friends with me again, no matter what happens" She gave him a long look. He had always been a confidant to her and in that moment she thought that he would always be.

"I promise", He smiled.

Just then, the mixer part of the dance came up, where they had to exchange partners and Taeyeon circled away smiling and then came to a halt as a hand wrapped around her waist to hold her and she looked up to meet her new partner's eyes.

Baekhyun. Her smile disappeared.

………………………………………………………………………

"Hi", Baekhyun's heart almost jumped out of his chest at their proximity as he was completely over-whelmed with her rosy scent.

"Hi", Taeyeon replied shortly.

The music stopped, eliciting groans from the crowd of couples dancing and Baekhyun gaze flitted over to the DJ. He caught Chanyeol talking rapidly with the jock and then the music started again, a new slower English song this time.

Chanyeol turned around, only to lock eyes with Baekhyun's accusatory gaze. Unabashed, he winked at the latter and left him to grit his teeth.

Baekyun turned to Taeyeon and smiled awkwardly, to which she just averted her gaze. Great, now she's creeped out too! Baekhyun groaned inwardly. You just wait, you giant with fairy ears! Baekhyun cursed his lanky friend.

They slowly started moving to the rhythm, and Taeyeon despite trying hard not to focus on the lyrics, she was getting more and more hot and bothered with each passing second, her heart throbbing in awareness of his hand settled awkwardly on her waist. She slowly lifted her hand to put on his shoulder and he gently took her other hand in his, making her feel strangely warm.

We were just kids when we fell in love,

Not knowing what it was,

I will not give you up this time.....

Baekhyun found himself falling into a daze again. Under the dim lights, he found himself getting more and more entranced by the girl swaying with him. Her ebony fringe falling to her eyes, the slight blush on her cheeks, everything about the way she looked in that moment was perfect. And then she looked up, and Baekhyun's heart stopped beating for a moment.

And in your eyes, you're holding mine,

Baby I'm,

Dancing in the dark,

With you between my arms

Taeyeon couldn't help it. She had tried not to, but she still looked up and immediately regretted it. He was looking at her with such affection and warmth that it she felt all the way to her toes, and she forgot all the pain she had been feeling momentarily. They just held each other's gaze for what felt like eternity, as they moved gracefully on the dance floor, almost as if they had been practicing it for ages.

It was only when the crowd starting whistling and clapping, that she was broken out of her engrossment. What the hell am I doing?! Taeyeon shook her head averting her eyes, as she took a step back from Baekhyun and joined in on the clapping.

 Baekhyun barely noticed when she lightly moved away from his embrace, his eyes still fixated on her, making her feel more conscious about herself. Why is he staring at me like that? She could feel the butterflies erupting in her stomach. She immediately reprimanded herself for having such weak self-control, and straightened, lifting her head to meet his eyes that were now at level with her own, thanks to the heels on her feet.

"I hope you didn't have any problems getting the theme board ready after I went away last evening?", Taeyeon croaked out with confidence, despite her dry throat.

"Huh?", Baekhyun felt like somebody had slapped him awake, as soon as her voice fell on his ears. What the hell, stop gaping at her you, sappy idiot! He quickly looked away, clearing his throat, his heart beating a million times per minute.

"Y-yes, it was okay....everything was fine", Baekhyun stuttered and then turned to her. "I hope you don’t find any problems with the decorations here?", He asked, in the most formal tone he could manage.

Taeyeon shrugged, looking around. "Not really, it all looks pretty well. We all worked hard", A smile made its way to her lips. Baekhyun smiled back, unable to control himself and then immediately straightened as she did the same.

"Well, I'll see you around then", Taeyeon lifted her dress lightly as she walked away, finally releasing a breath she didn't even know she had been holding.

"S-see you", Baekhyun replied back awkwardly, even though she was already out of hearing range.

What is happening to me?

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