Sakura

“The world is ending.”

She looked over with sympathy at Chaewon who was lying on the ground of the student council room surrounded in various papers.

With the school formal getting closer and closer, they had all been working in overtime to get all the final details done. Which was why she and Chaewon were at the school very early in the morning.

Although she was also vice-president, Chaewon was the type of person that was so dedicated that she took on the most work. There was nothing she or Eunbi could do to convince Chaewon otherwise.

She spoke calmly, “Chaewon, why don’t you sit down and talk me through it.”

“The caterers need the last meal selections finalized, the decorator wants my opinion on the color scheme, I need to remember to send the last deposit to the venue, and the DJ is still undecided.”

Wow that was a lot.

“Okay, let me contact the caterers and finish the deposit, Chaewon.”

“Okay.”

She quickly wrote up an email and set up a check that she would mail out through the main office. As she took the time to work through everything she saw Chaewon looked less stressed.

Chaewon turned to her, “So the dance is coming up.”

“Yeah it is.”

“Do you have a date?”

Was Chaewon the only one in the school who didn’t know about her weird love square situation?

She shook her head, “Nope, surprised you asked though.”

“Yeah sorry, was trying to make conversation and couldn’t think of anything to talk about.”

Well at least Chaewon was trying.

She tilted her head, “Are you going with anyone?”

“Of course not, I have to be the head chaperone.”

She laughed, “Why don’t you ask someone to the dance?”

“Who?”

That was actually a good question.

She suggested, “What about Hitomi? You always say how cute she is.”

“That’s true, and I guess it would be kind of fun.”

There was a short pause when Chaewon looked thoughtful.

“I know I don’t usually ask but how are you feeling about your…love life with the dance coming up.” Chaewon asked.

She paused her typing, “If you’re wondering, yes, I figured out and managed to get out of Nako that Chaeyeon promised you all to finally make a decision by the dance.”

“Are you worried?”

“Yes.”

“Then why aren’t you acting like it?”

She shrugged, “I think I went through every possible emotion I could have. At this point, I know that I like Chaeyeon and I know some part of her likes me too. For a while I was just so jealous, but I finally realized that I can’t force her to choose me. That’s not my choice.”

“Wow you know they say drama is bad but it’s really made all of you mature. I’ve never seen Hyewon coming out of her shell so much, Minju is still a klutz but she seems less sensitive.” Chaewon commented.

That was actually all true.

So in a way, despite all this general iness some good did come from this situation.

Chaewon suddenly gasped, “I just realized something.”

“What?”

“We have to get security so the punch doesn’t get spiked.”

….well okay then.

Minju

“How about this one?”

She watched with mild disgust as Yujin fed Wonyoung a cookie. They were currently at the caterer, tasting and choosing foods for the formal. When she had been assigned the task she hadn’t been happy to hear that she was partnered with the new couple.

The pair were annoyingly adorable.

“Oh I wanted to ask did you pick out a dress yet for the formal?” Yujin asked.

Wonyoung tilted her head, “My mom sent me a rack of dresses but I haven’t decided yet. What about you?”

“I don’t know, I was talking to Chaeyeon and we might wear suits. We look better than all the guys in them anyway.”

“That’s true.”

Instead of glaring at the two for being gross she was lost in thought imagining Chaeyeon in a nice tailored suit. With her long legs and perfect figure she would look so good.

“What about you Minju?”

“I honestly don’t know.”

While her mother was doing better money wise compared to when she was younger. They were still comfortably middle class. She didn’t feel comfortable asking her mom to buy her an expensive dress and for the past years had always borrowed old dresses from her friends.

This year with Chaeyeon and everything that the formal meant, she wanted to buy a dress that was just perfect.

But she couldn’t bother her mom….

Wonyoung offered, “You can come over and have one of the dresses, Minju.”

“No, I couldn’t do that.” she shook her head. “And I don’t want to borrow anything either, I feel too bad doing it. I’ll figure something out.”

Yujin replied, “Well why don’t you head off early and figure things out.”

“Thanks guys, I’ll get going.”

The catering place was luckily close to her house which was why she had been assigned to help. The whole time she walked home she tried to figure out what she could do about her dress situation but no solutions came up.

When she made it to her front door, she quickly made her way inside but was surprised to see her mom’s shoes in the doorway.

“Hi mom!” she greeted.

Her mother sat on the couch in the living room surrounded by boxes.

“Minju why don’t you sit down so we can talk.”

Uh oh, the last time her mom wanted to talk she had to go to the dentist. She was like five but it still .

“So a few days ago I ran into Chaeyeon on the subway.”

She blinked, “Oh.”

“She told me so much about how a dance was coming up.”

“Ohhh.”

She had actually never told her mom about the formals because she didn’t want her to worry.

“And before you make up an excuse I understand. Ever since your father passed away we’ve had a hard time. You’ve always been such a good kid but I know it hasn’t been easy.”

“It hasn’t been too bad.”

“Well, either way I got this for you.”

She accepted the large box and hesitantly opened it up. In the box were various trinkets she remembered growing up from her favorite stuffed animal, to Christmas decorations, and two things she didn’t recognize. What looked like a large photo album and a dress.

“Wow, it’s beautiful.” she said with awe as she pulled out the dress.

It was a pale pink dress that had a classic timeless style. Just from holding it she could feel the material and tell that it was hand stitched.

“Minju, that’s the dress I was wearing when your father proposed to me. We didn’t grow up with much so I couldn’t buy a dress. His mother was actually a seamstress and she helped me make this. If you like it, why don’t you wear it to the formal?”

“Really?”

“Of course.”