"Okay, Linna, so who invited them over?" Everly asked upon returning back to their apartment where the pair discovered several more bodies than there was supposed to be.

"I think Jing and Xi mentioned something when we left about inviting other people over." Linna answered.

"Babe! Hi!" Chengcheng called out upon seeing his girlfriend and happily ran towards her. "Surprise!" He cheered while enveloping Linna into a hug.

"Chengcheng? What are you doing here?" Linna asked as she returned the hug, but was still confused by his presence.

"Oh, we came to celebrate Xinchun's birthday with y'all."

"Wasn't his birthday on the fourteenth though? That's like two weeks late." Everly stated with a frown as her eyes scanned the rest of their friends and frown upon seeing Zhengting who smiled and awkwardly waved at her.

"Everly! Linna! Hello!" Jinger joined them as she slung both of her arms around each girl's shoulder while giggling. "I was beginning to think you guys wouldn't be coming back."

"We live here, too, Jing." Linna chuckled as Jinger giggled even more. "Oh, right, you do."

"Anyways, I thought we were supposed to have a girls' night, not a co-ed one." Everly said as Jinger shot her an apologetic look. "I know, I know, but we didn't get to celebrate Xinchun's birthday, so the other girls and I thought we would do it tonight since we were all free."

"Yeah, but you already know about the situation between me and Zhengting though."

"What situation between the two of you?" Chengcheng asked upon catching the name of his friend. "I thought you guys worked it out the other day."

"They haven't because Everly keeps running away every time Zhengting wants to talk to her." Linna explained as Everly rolled her eyes. "I do not."

"Yeah you do." Jinger agreed. "Anyways, it's supposed to be a fun night tonight, Everly. Don't rain on our parade and make the night go sour."

"I pay a fourth of the rent and then some, so I can be however I like, Jinger."

"Honestly, sleep in your car if you don't like it, Everly." Linna suggested with indifference. "It's only for one night. You'll live."

"C'mon, let's go hang out with the others. We were about to decide on a movie before cutting the cake." Jinger urged as she let go of Linna so that she could be pulled away by her boyfriend while she held onto Everly a little longer.

"Don't bring me into this." Everly said firmly while removing Jinger's grasp from around her. "I'll be in my room."

Everly handed Jinger the rest of the groceries while retreating to her room upon noticing Zhengting was making his way towards them.

"Just give her some time, Ting. I'm sure she'll speak to you eventually." Jinger advised as Zhengting nodded solemnly while looking in the direction that Everly had walked off to. "Thanks, Jing."

After being in her room for almost an hour or so, Everly finally left it in search of food and to use the bathroom. After refreshing herself, Everly made her way towards the kitchen as sneakily as possible since she didn't want to interact with anyone at the moment. Fortunately for her, everyone was distracted by the movie that was being played in the living room as well as the lights being off helped concealed her from being noticed.

Helping herself to whatever she wanted upon her large plastic plate, Everly wasn't aware of another person entering the kitchen. Everly had just turned around to leave when she got scared by the person and basically screamed silently while shoving the plate of food on to him. The guy laughed at her reaction while Everly smacked him with the plate of food and stared at the mess on the floor.

"Freaking, Wenjun, I hate you." Everly told him in a sad tone while crouching down to pick up the food and setting it upon the plate to throw away later. "That's such a waste, dude."

Wenjun recovered and helped his friend clean up the mess. "My shirt, too, but you have to admit that was pretty funny, Everly. You're hard to scare so that was the best I could have gotten out of you."

"You're such a brat."

"I know, but you owe me a shirt."

"Like hell I do. Go take one from the spare closet as you guys keep leaving your stuff here."

"Oh, right. I'll check it out."

The duo silently cleaned up the rest of the mess with Wenjun making his own plate and Everly making another. Everly eyed the male and wondered if he was gonna be like all the others and advise her to give Zhengting a chance to talk it out with her and what not. Still, Wenjun stayed quiet and didn't say anything. He turned his gazed onto the female with an eyebrow quirked.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Everly turned away and went pack to stacking her plate.

"It's not nothing if you're actually adding strawberries to your plate when you hate them."

Everly paused in lifting another strawberry while staring at the four that she already had on her plate.

"Shut up, Wenjun." She told him as she put back the strawberries and grabbed something else to which Wenjun noticed with a smirk. "Fine. Enjoy your greens. There should be ranch around somewhere."

Everly made a face at him before removing the salad mix from her plate and back into the large bowl. "Whatever, Wenjun."

She opted for not adding anything else and settled with what she had on her plate already. "Bye, Wenjun. See you never."

Wenjun chuckled as he followed after with his own plate and was being super loud while doing so.

"But Everly, you were supposed to watch the stars with me tonight. You promised."

"Shhhh." Everly shushed the male while facing him with widened eyes. "I said no such thing and get away from me."

It was too late as everyone discovered that Everly had come out of her room and the two youngest of their group of friends tackled her to the floor.

"EVERLY! I missed you!" Junya and Justin shouted as they jumped Everly who held her plate above her head to save it from spilling its contents a second time, but failed in doing so as it splattered away from the trio.

Before Everly could scold them or shove them off of her or even checked the food, she felt herself being pulled back onto her feet and dragged away