Haechan and I sat on the stairs talking to each other a while longer until a few of his teammates practically forced him to join in on their party games. He urged me to join them but I declined, it being out of my comfort zone.

I stood in the living room and watched as Eunah and Donghae were playing a game of beer pong with others. Other students in the living room had moved the furniture to the side and were dancing next to one another. Outside some of the boys were taking turns smoking cigars. Across the room, amidst the flashes of light, a smile caught my attention. Their eyes locked with mine and they flashed another smile as they brought their red solo cup to their lips.

“Do you want another drink?” a male from the classroom next door held out a red solo cup to me.

I shook my head and pushed the cup away, “No it’s okay, thanks for asking.” Even though I was familiar with his face, I didn’t know his name or anything about him.

“Come on, bottom’s up, just have a drink with me,” he pushed the cup in front of my face.

I pushed the cup away from my face, “No I’m okay, I already had a lot to drink tonight.” I lied, all I had was water, but I wasn’t in the mood to drink anything else, especially from someone I didn't really know.

“What do you mean? The night’s still young, you should drink some more,” he winked.

“Sorry it took me a while to get you your water,” a hand held out a water bottle right next to me, “But I’ll take that,” they took the cup from the guy.

“Didn’t know she came with you,” the guy pursed his lips.

“Well now you do,” the person next to me smiled at him. He took it as a sign to leave.

“Thanks,” I said once he had left.

“No problem, but you should probably really drink that water,” Chenle pointed to the water bottle in my hand.

I broke the seal of it and took huge gulps, not realizing how dehydrated I was.

“I wasn’t expecting you to come,” he said.

I shrugged, “I wasn’t either, but my friends,” I looked over to Eunah and Donghae who were still in their game of beer pong, “They really wanted me to come, kind of dragged me here.”

“I’m glad they did,” he smiled, “Should we grab some air?”

“Yea,” I nodded.

Chenle put the red solo cup down before leading the way to the second floor and to a balcony that overlooked the backyard, “The air feels better,” he took in a deep breath. The lights from the backyard reflected upwards, hitting his skin and making his smile even more wholesome.

It wasn’t the first time I met Chenle at a party, in fact this was probably the tenth time or so. I still remember the first time we did meet though, it was at a mutual friend’s party. I wasn’t exactly close to any of the people there, Eunah had insisted that I go with her though, and being the good friend I am, I agreed to go. Like earlier tonight, Chenle and I caught each other’s gaze across the room against the flashing lights. The way he smiled that night, it was different, magical almost, maybe it was how the lights from the pool reflected across his face that he seemed more perfect than anyone else that night. After staring at each other for awhile, he approached me and we ended up just talking to each other for the rest of the night, our feet dipped in the cold water with the music blaring inside behind us. We talked and talked for hours until Eunah found me to go home. The following parties I would see Chenle, the both of us always finding each other and just chatting away the whole night. It continued on for a while, until I became consumed by school that it slipped my mind to go to see him again. We could have met each other at school, but it wasn’t the same, it was just something at parties that brought out the both of us. We never thought of exchanging each other’s numbers or social media, being too caught up in the moment. Soon after not seeing Chenle for a while, I realized my feelings for him and wrote him a letter. Maybe I had only felt something for him whenever I was buzzed off of the alcohol, or it was just the atmosphere of the parties. Either way, I felt it again tonight.

“How have you been?” he asked.

We spent the next few hours just talking to each other, catching up with one another. We were sitting at the pool now, sharing an ice cream sandwich. We swished our legs in the water as we passed the ice cream sandwich back and forth.

“I can’t believe you actually managed to burn ramen in the faculty office,” I laughed at his story once more.

“I didn’t mean to,” he began defending himself, “It was late and I was hungry, plus I asked the custodian and he said I could use it. I cleaned it up myself afterwards too,” he took a bite of the ice cream sandwich before holding it out to me, I took it.

“Still.”

“Your turn for a question.”

“Okay, well you ever just,” I held the ice cream sandwich to him. He grabbed my hand and brought it closer to his face to take a bite. I stopped mid questioned, forgetting what I was about to ask.

He looked up at me, “Well?”

“Um,” I looked down at the water and took a bite of the ice cream sandwich, “I forgot, you go again.”

“Hyeri, you ready to go home?” Eunah came out to the backyard with Donghae leaning against her as she had an arm draped over her shoulder to keep him standing up straight. Her eyes flickered from me to Chenle and back at me. “Oh you were here too?” she asked Chenle.

He smiled at her and nodded, “How’s your mom?” he asked.

Eunah shrugged with one shoulder, “Same as usual, which reminds me I’m supposed to stop by at your company for some files.”

“I’ll be seeing you both more in the future then?” he looked at Eunah then to me.

“Yea,” I nodded, “Hopefully.”

Walking through the house to the front doors, there was still students playing games with one another and drinking. On the couch, Haechan had passed out, an arm covered his eyes as he slept.

Once Eunah had settled Donghae in the front passenger seat, she took the seat next to me in the back.

“Sooo what was that about?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” I asked her.

“You and Chenle started talking again?”

I nodded, “It’s been long since I’ve gone to a party, but I’m glad I got to see him at tonight’s.”

She gave me a wide grin, “See,” she slapped my arm, “I knew it was a good idea for you to come.”