I was lying on the couch in front of the TV. The TV was on but I was caught up with my thoughts to even bother watching. What if I went to Krystal’s house with those tickets and get down on one knee and asked her to go to the dance with me. Would she fall for that gesture? Judging from the many romantic movies we had watched together before this – a bowl of popcorn, my arm around her shoulder and her legs draped across my lap – I felt like she was trying to make me become the dreamy, romantic girlfriend. Surely, she would like it if I asked her wouldn’t she? “Mom,” I called out my mom who was making dinner, “Can you send me somewhere?” “Where to?” Mom asked. “Krystal’s house.” “I thought you and her broke up.” Dad said this, he was sitting over the kitchen island as well, scrolling on his phone. “We did, but we could still be friends.” I smiled. “So you two are patching things up or something?” Mom asked. “I hope so.” When nobody said anything, I added, “I bought us tickets to the dance. I thought I’d go over tonight and ask her to be my date.” “Oh honey...” Mom had this tone, it almost sounded like she sympathised. “Why don’t you just text or call her? You don’t need to go over at this hour.” “It’s only seven-thirty.” “Yes, but…” “But what?” “Maybe…maybe you should give her some space…?” My parents were very accepting on my preferences. And they were supportive as well when I came out to them. Especially Mom, who normally gave me advices whenever asked. But I do realised that over the past two years, Mom had tried – many times – to tell me that I focused too much on Krystal, that I shouldn’t let her be the centre of my universe. But like the teenager that I am, also like the foolishly in love person that I am, I ignored her. “Princess…” This was Dad speaking up and he was sighing and using that authorative tone which he only used on me once in a blue moon. “Maybe it’s better to make her realise what she is missing? You could even ask someone else to the dance. There’s a lot of fishes in the sea.” “Yeah but the sea is full of mercury poison.” I was starting to feel sort of pathetic. And knowing my parents, they were pretty set on not giving me a lift. So, I ate dinner quickly and quietly and went to my room. But those tickets. I still couldn’t get the image of a surprised and delighted Krystal seeing me dropping on one knee with those tickets. So I did what I had to do. On a day like this, my parents would usually resort back to their rooms after dinner. So I crept downstairs, making sure that nobody was around (well it was just Mom and Dad) and went out through the back door. I remembered doing all this sneaking out when I was younger, just because I want to go to my backyard. I often get caught though. Parents do pay extra attention to you when you’re younger – or maybe because I was the only child. I see my dad’s car in the garage and the keys hung on the hook. He had taken me driving a few times and I was quite sure I could make a trip back to Krys’s without causing any mishaps, but thinking of the police patrol had me chicken out. I remembered I had a bike I got for my thirteenth birthday. But once I entered high school, I kind of ditched it and it was just there, only once in a while I would take it on a spin. The thing about the bike being almost five years ago was that, now, it was sort of rusty and my height sort of grew. I had to pedalled my way to Krys’s house while standing so that I wouldn’t knock my knees. If anyone saw me right now, they know I looked absurd. But I was on a mission. As I approached Krystal’s block, I hopped of the bike and stashed it in the tall hedges of her neighbour’s front yard. I steadied my breath and walked. I found Aunt Jihyun in the driveway; her old model of a blue KIA car parked nearby and she was heaving and dragging the black garbage bins out to the street. “Hey, Aunt Jihyun.” She yelped and put her hand to her chest when she saw me approaching, but she doesn’t seemed all relived to discover it was me. “Hi, Seulgi. Why are you here?”  “To see Krystal.” “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” “But I have tickets,” I said, “For the dance.” “Yes,” she said, “Krystal has a new dress as well. Its purple.” “Does she have a date?” “Seulgi, I can’t—” “Never mind.” I knew by then that Luna was telling the truth. Maybe Krystal and Amber really had secretly planned to go to the dance all this time. Hell, it was also Amber who suggested the duck boat ride calling it a romantic date. But like I said, I think Amber meant for it to happen between her and Krystal. Not me, I’m out of the picture. Maybe when Krystal said, Seulgi I can’t do this anymore, that was because she was thinking of Amber all this time along. I stood looking up at Krystal’s huge house. All the lights seemed to be on. This house had been my second home, and now here I stood, with the garbage bins. I remembered Joy saying I should draw trash cans. She was right. “Don’t tell her I came by.” “Yes, Seulgi. I won’t say a word.” I went back and retrieved my bike from the hedges and I pedalled – sitting down, knees spread and aching, all the way home.                                                               ***   You know in school there is like a weekly or monthly theme, whether it’d be a reading week where everyone is encouraged to read a book and write a summary about it, or English week or some sort. Well this week its drugs related. More like anti-drugs awareness week. So there was a lot going on at school with certain clubs raising awareness of this issue and for our Art Class this time, we had to create something authentic and a never before seen poster that would instil awareness on this topic. Normally people would opt with editing anyway, since it’s easier and doesn’t consume much time. But this was an Art Class and when Mrs Lee wanted something artsy and original, we must give her that. She also said the poster that gave the most impact and the ones that use great colour theory would be pasted on one of the school boards by the end of the week. I feel like this was a bit middle-school-ish. But I won’t complain. Besides we don’t have much left to do anyways now that our bigger projects from before were settled. I looked at the empty seat opposite me. Irene was absent today. Joy said something about Irene’s little sister being sick. I was in different classes with the two of them and only connected in Art; which is why I rarely see the two at the school halls. Maybe during recess – because it was impossible to not see Joy with her height but Irene was out of question. She was kind of – small. Again, I had asked Wendy to drop me downtown. There was this bookstore which happened to sell art supplies. My crayons were blunt and short and I needed to use them for the posters. Once I made my way and find the right ones, I queued at the counter and my eyes trailed to a girl who was crouching down at one of the shelves, eyes scanning, and with what look like a grocery bag slung on her shoulder. It was Irene. I hastily paid for my crayons before I made way to said girl, now delving into some book. She hadn’t noticed I was right beside her until I spoke, “Hey, did you skipped school?” I’d startled her. And she even raised one fist up as if she was about to punch me. “…Oh, it’s you.” “You skipped school.” “I didn’t – well technically I did, but I have a reason.” Irene put the book back to the shelves and eyed the packet of crayons in my hand. “What’s that for?” “Mrs Lee told us to make a poster for anti-drug month. I figured I could go with the classic, using crayons and all.” “Oh, okay…” I noticed the girl seemed less animated than usual. Her brown eyes were still round and bright, but the sparkle was missing and she looked slightly weary as well. “You’re checking me out again, Seulgi.” “I wasn’t!” She half-smirked and looked outside the glass window, “You wanna do something?” “Like what?” “I don’t know. I just don’t feel like going home yet.” Irene peered down at the bag of grocery she was carrying. “And you want to do something with me?” Irene raised an eyebrow, dazed at my question. “Why? I just wanted to know if you wanna like, do something, or eat something, you know, to kill time. I’m not trying to date you or anything.” “I didn’t mean it like that.” Why was I always embarrassing myself in front of Irene? “I mean, there’s always Joy when we’re together, so I wasn’t sure you would want to hang out with me.” “Joy? I’m fine though if she’s here or not.” “You sure?” “Why do you care so much?” “I don’t.” “Really? You sound like you think I’m interested in Joy or something.” “You aren’t?” “No,” Irene scrunched her nose, shaking her head. “Joy is actual