I gazed at myself through the mirror. Eyes staring straight at my reflection as I did my tie again for the second time. “So who is this lucky girl?” Mom asked. “There is no lucky girl. I’m just going with friends.” “Well,” She turned me over from the mirror and smooth my sleek hair to the back as it should. “I’m just glad you’re going and not moping around the house.” “I’ve been moping?” I thought I was quite low-key about the break-up blow. She straightened my purple tie, “I know you were hurt, Seulgi. But it’s a good time for a reset. It’s the last months of your senior year. You’ve worked hard and you shouldn’t have a care in the world.” I thought about Irene and her money issues and stuff. Mom was right. I should have been carefree, but I couldn’t help it; I still felt like I was alone on a duck boat in the middle of the river. “Your tie isn’t the best looking one, Seulgi.” My dad walked into my room with a cup in his hand. “You should wear another one.” “I think I look alright, though.” I stared at myself through the mirror. I opt to not wear a dress this time, and head for a buttoned up shirt, with blazers and slacks. Who said girls could only wear dresses. I heard Jongin honked outside and I said my good-byes. I was his first stop, and I grabbed the backseat. Usually I would sit in front but I’d prefer to sit with Irene tonight. I don’t want her to be uncomfortable. “Nice tie,” Jongin said, as he looked at me briefly before making our way to pick up Wendy. Jongin was wearing a whole suit. He looked smart. “So before we get Wendy,” he said, looking at me through the rear-view mirror, “You wanna tell me what the real story is with this girl?” “There is no real story.” “So you’re totally not into her?” “I’m not sure...maybe I don’t? Or do – honestly, I don’t know...” “So if there was an apocalypse, everyone died but somehow you and her lived. But you’d start walking the other way instead and find another female because you’re just not into her?” “In that scenario, I suppose I’ll be with her.” “Ha! You like this girl then.” “Hmm, I think I still love Krys.” Jongin sighed, “But Krystal died during the apocalypse.” Wendy was waiting outside the driveway in a long pastel blue-ish dress with her hair tied on top of her head in a style that I know you’d spend hours to do so. Wendy wasn’t big into makeup, but tonight she had put some. I only drew my brows, put my usual eye-liner and some lip-tint. “You looked great, Wendy.” “Thanks,” Wendy pulled up her seatbelt at the front seat, “I’m not used to it so don’t get used to all this.” Jongin then looked at me again through the rear-view mirror again. “So are you going to tell me where this mystery girl of yours lives?” I’d been avoiding this moment. Irene lived quite far from their neighbourhood; it might as well have been in another district. “Hak-nam.” “Hak-nam,” Wendy thought it over, “Okay so we should speed now.” Jongin shifted out of park, “Let’s go.”                                                            ***   I was about to unlatch the front fence when Irene stepped out of her house, closing both doors behind her. There was only one streetlamp and it was dimmer than it should be. It cast a glow in her yard, just enough for me to see the electric purple dress Irene wore and how beautiful the way it fit her. “Purple Rain?” Irene said as she walked my way. She probably said that considering how dumbstruck I look. “Right, yeah.” “So you decided to abandon the whole theme and go like some, young, corporate executive?” “What? You don’t like my tie?” “Even though that’s the only purple,” Irene took it in her hand and looked at me, “I hate it.” I took off the tie and led her to the car. I introduced Jongin and Wendy, who grinned at her stupidly, unable to hide her elation. It also turns out that Wendy shared Political Science class with Irene and oh, I know Wendy had so much to say but she kept quiet. Funny how Irene never mentioned about being in the same class with Wendy. I think she does know that I’m friends with her. I think I’ve mentioned Wendy once or twice in our conversations before. As we merged on the big road, Wendy asked, “So did anyone do any research on tonight’s theme?” “Actually, yeah.” Irene said. “I did.” “Really?” I stared at her. “Purple Rain is a Prince song. And also an average musical movie. I listened to some of his stuff recently. It’s quite good.” Wendy smiled, “I checked him out too. He’s tiny!” “Yeah,” Irene said, “He’s even skinnier than Seulgi here.” “Leave me out of this.” Seulgi said amongst the laughs in the car, “Also you’re tiny as well. And Wendy, you’re included.” When we pulled out into the lot, I could see a large crowd gathered outside the gym, boys in suits, coats, girls in dresses, flowery ones, strapless ones and some like me, with blazers. And somewhere in the crowd, Krystal probably stood with Amber’s arm around her waist. Before we got out from the car, Wendy turned to face us. “Irene,” she said. “I think you should know that there’s this girl here tonight. And Seulgi is under the misconception that the sun shines and the moon glows out of her . Sorry for my language.” “No, it’s fine.” “Cool. Anyway, she is not what all the rainbows and sunshine like Seulgi had been visualising as.” “I think we all kind of know that.” Irene shrugged, “Krystal Jung is pretty. But she’s alright. She’s in between not super nice and not super mean.” “Exactly,” Wendy fist bumped with her, “So what we need to do is to take Seulgi here and show her a great time and prove that life freaking goes on even when your girlfriend stops loving you – if she ever loved you in the first place because to me, it seemed like she just like having someone to control around.” “Wow, Wendy…” I said. We got out and Wendy took Jongin’s arm and glanced back at me over her shoulder, glaring at me more like. So I offered my arm as well to Irene. I took a deep breath and we walked towards the gym door and the purple light was glowing mad inside. I scanned the crowd while trying hard to not look like I was scanning the crowd. “Where is she?” Irene asked. “Where’s who?” “Are you going to play dumb because I know you’re looking for her.” And right then, like Irene had cued her up for me, I saw Krystal: head tossed, laughing. She was wearing her hair in my favourite style – down – and a dark purple dress. She also put on a red lipstick, appearing beautifully intimidating. “There,” I said without pointing. “Where?” How could she not see Krystal? It was like a whole spotlight shone directly on her from someplace high above. I turned my back from the dance floor, chugging down some lemonade on plastic cups. “The one in purple dress.” “Well that helps a lot.” Irene said, “Oh wait, I found her.” Irene took my hand and led me to the dance floor a few feet away, right in the thick of crowd. I felt totally vulnerable. I felt like I was an animal out from the jungle for the first time – bewildered. “Let’s dance,” she said. “And I know you’re panicking because you said you were a terrible dancer, Let me be the judge for that.” The song that was booming from the speakers was a throwback to the early 2000s. I know this song so well because the lyrics was so yearning for the lover. It was a romantic one but I remembered playing it again on the day Krystal and I broke up and I kind of cried myself to sleep. Irene started moving and I stood and watched. She gave me a come on motion and so I started swaying back and forth a little. She stepped closer to me and took both of my hands, “Okay. This is way worse than I thought.” “I did mentioned that I was a terrible dancer.” “There has to be a stronger word than terrible to describe this back and forth thing you’re doing with your body right now, Seulgi.” Irene placed my hands on her waist and put her arms around my neck. The song was getting pretty emotional at the chorus and we moved along slowly. Krystal used to wear something like a fruity perfume. It smelled earthy and nice. But Irene smelled like fresh laundries, light, and a bit flowery as well. I looked at Irene but also kept an eye on someone else, I realised we were being watched. Irene pulled me closer. “Much better,” she said. “Would you look at that? Someone’s dancing now.” The song morphed into something slightly upbeat now, with androgynous vocals. The dance floor filled and during the chorus everyone was starting to jump up and down and singing along while Irene and I moved slowly, only a few inches separating us and Krystal’s clique. I wanted to believe she noticed us but I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of knowing I cared, so I didn’t look over and focus my attention back to Irene. Sight: She looked stunning as hell. Touch: I could actually feel the thin material of her dress, meaning I could feel her body heat warming un