At the ding of the timer, Kyungsoo moved to the stove and turned down the heat. He stirred the artichoke tea before stirring the vegetables in the frying pan. He pinched a carrot slice in his fingers and nodded at its softness. He transferred them into a container and let it vent as he checked the rice cooker. Ten minutes remained, which was just enough time for him to finish reading the chapter on different eras and locations of imperialism for history.

The rice cooker sang at the same time the doorbell rang. His mom wouldn't be back home for the weekends this month, and he hadn't scheduled a hangout with Jongdae and Yuwon. He wondered who it was and went to open the door. Jongdae and Yuwon both stood at his doorway, and he blinked wondering if he was seeing right. Jongdae wore his obnoxiously ostentatious poof and fur vest, a styled black T-shirt, and ripped jeans. Yuwon wore a bomber jacket over her crop top, jean shorts, and knee-high boots. They were both a bit fancy for a hangout. 

"Kyungsoo! Get your party shoes on!" Jongdae cheered.

"What?"

"The party is tonight! Your random contact said yes to going to the party, so you have to go with us!"

Kyungsoo remembered Jongdae's party invite and the deal he made with Jongdae, and then he registered what his friend said. He felt that he had the right to say the next word that came to his mind.

"."

"C'mon, let's go!"

"No, I don't want to go to a place with a bunch of sweaty and drunk teenagers in a cooped-up apartment."

"It's apparently a spacious mansion, so you can at least go for the architecture. I'll help you find something to wear," Yuwon sing-songed, as if that was the tip of the iceberg of convincing him to go.

"No, I got homework."

Yuwon raised an eyebrow at him, scooted him to the side, and stepped through the door, taking off her shoes as was custom.

"Alright, show me your closet, Kyungsoo."

Jongdae followed her in and took a big sniff.

"Ooh, smells good in here. Can we eat a little before we go?"

"No, guys. I don't want to go."

"Aw, c'mon, little penguin, there are no leopard seals there to hunt you. Don't be afraid."

"I am not afraid."

A sneaky grin came on her face, and she dashed away to his room. Jongdae had already drifted to the kitchen and was his lips at the vegetables. Kyungsoo smacked his hand away when he tried reaching for a bamboo shoot with his fingers.

"Let me eat, Kyungsoooo."

"Then use a bowl and utensils."

He smooshed his lips up and moved to grab the bowl and spoon he usually used to eat with at Kyungsoo's house. Kyungsoo grabbed his own bowl and spoon and also set out Yuwon's, scooping some food out for all of them. 

"Were you doing homework?" Jongdae asked, looking at the kitchen table.

"Yeah."

"While cooking?"

"Yeah. I don't like to, but it saves time."

Jongdae's spoon covered his mouth, but Kyungsoo knew that a pout sat behind it. He was about to reassure his friend that he was fine when Yuwon loosed a maniacal laugh from his bedroom.

"Yuwon?"

"Kyungsoo, come here!"

He went to his room and found his black jacket, a blue V-neck, and jeans laid out on his bed.

"You shall wear this and the silver necklace chain that you're wearing right now."

"I'm going to wear the chain anyway. Mom got it for me."

"Yuwon, that doesn't look party-like enough for Kyungsoo."

"He doesn't have much else though. His closet is pretty plain."

"I am right here, and I said that I'm not going."

Yuwon squinted at him before scrambling his hair.

"There. That's better."

"Yuwon."

"Please, Kyungsoo? I don't want to go to a party with just Jongdae. I need my other friend there too."

Kyungsoo winced as a huge frown sank at Jongdae's mouth. Yuwon couldn't see him since he was behind her, but he hung his head and started trudging out of the room. Kyungsoo couldn't take the dejected and downright pitiful look on his best friend's face which was probably from being called just a friend by Yuwon. Any resistance he had had flopped over with one look at Jongdae.

"Okay, fine. I'll go."

Yuwon threw her hands up and shouted a cheer, and Jongdae also turned back around and did a happy jump and cheer. He shooed the two of them out so that he could change and told them to eat a little before they left. Facing the clothes on his bed, Kyungsoo sighed and started slipping his comfy home clothes off, wondering what in the polar coordinate system would he NOT do for his friends.

~~~~~

Yuwon had managed to bring her dad's car, and she drove them to the address Jongdae plugged into GPS. They talked about what they hoped to get out of it, Jongdae hoping for new friends and observing how people interact outside of school and Yuwon hoping for a fun time. Kyungsoo listened to their excitement as he watched the road zoom by and the silhouette of trees against the dusk sky. He had forgotten where they were going until Yuwon started to slow down. Kyungsoo peered out of the front window and almost dropped to the floor of the car.

Iron gates yawned before them, pillars marking the entrance. A white building loomed in the distance, blinding even in the night with the amount of lights shining up the walls. As Yuwon drove them down the path, Kyungsoo saw the shadows of topiaries on one side of the window and golf flags on the other. They also passed a medium sized parking lot already full of cars before parking in a different lot. The echoes of music pounded at the air as they stepped out of the car, and the mansion was still a decent walk away from the parking lot. Kyungsoo picked at his hands, a nervous tension winding within him.

"Don't we have to pick up the fourth person? Shouldn't we go see them first?"

"You ask that now that we've actually gotten to the place?" Jongdae chuckled and checked his phone. "He's meeting us here. He said that he'll wait for us near the swimming pool, so let's head there first."

"Who's the random contact anyways? Anyone we know?"

"Just wait til we meet him, Yuwon. Let's go!"

Jongdae grabbed Kyungsoo's arm and dragged a very unwilling Kyungsoo in the direction of the mansion. He tried fighting his friend off, but Jongdae wouldn't relent. He didn't seem to be using that much strength either, and Kyungsoo grumbled at his friend's athletic ability.

When they came to the front lawn of the mansion, people were already passed out on the grass. Some were also shirtless or pants-less, and Kyungsoo covered Jongdae's eyes while pushing him towards the mansion before his friend's curiosity could ruin his innocence. The closer they got to the mansion, the more people there were, conscious and unconscious, and Kyungsoo wrinkled his nose at the bitter of alcohol as people ran or hollered by. Electronic rave music also thudded the air and at Kyungsoo's core even harder now that they were within the multiple patios. 

Jongdae shouted for them to circle towards the left, and they picked their way around an array of screaming, wiggling (probably trying to dance), and stumbling people. Theoretically, there was more than enough space on the patios for Kyungsoo to avoid being touched by anyone, but he found himself hugged by seven people, breathed on by thirteen, and offered to have a one-night stand with three others. He seriously considered burning everything he was wearing except for his silver chain necklace and finding places that offered public chemical baths.

"Kyungsoo!"

Yuwon found him again, took his wrist, pulled him around the edge of the pool, where a school of people crowded together to jump in place within the water. He grimaced at the proximity of stranger bare skin to stranger bare skin, how they likely exceeded the number of people the fire code allowed, and at all the water that so much as even raised the humidity of the air around him. He only remained relatively dry because Yuwon took a surfboard from someone passed out in a chair and covered them as they passed the pool.

She guided him towards a room of the house that connected to the pool area. It looked like it could have been the living room with the chandelier hanging above, the many sofas, and TV, but the amount of cotton stuffing, drink cups, and unconscious people strewn around made Kyungsoo hesitant with calling it a living room. He felt a tap to his arm and turned to Yuwon, who pointed to Jongdae at the edge of the glass sliding door. He was happily chatting with someone covered by the wall, and Kyungsoo couldn't hear him until they came up behind him.

"And that was when Kyungsoo put me into a headlock and— Oh, Yuwon, Kyungsoo, you're here again! Come meet our random contact!"

Jongdae reached behind the wall and gently tugged the person into view, and Kyungsoo's jaw popped from how fast it dropped. 

"Yuwon, this is Kim Jongin! Jongin, this is Bae Yuwon! And you and Kyungsoo should already know each other, right?"

Jongin's eyes widened the slightest bit as they landed on Kyungsoo, and he quickly shut his mouth, pinching his tongue in the process. Kyungsoo nudged Jongdae and turned them away from the other two for a bit.

"Why is he here?"

"He's the random contact."

"Of all the names I randomly picked in your phone, it landed on his name? Someone I actually know of?"

"Well, actually, your finger landed on the alphabetic dvider, so I just picked a name from that section instead. I picked him because I knew that you knew him, and it'd be less awkward if you're with someone you know!"

Kyungsoo never felt more awkward with someone he knew than when he was with Jongin. He didn't get a chance to tell that to Jongdae, because his friend turned him back to Yuwon and Jongin.

"Hello, Jongin-shi. With Kyungsoo as your tutor, you'll definitely pass math!"

Yuwon set the surfboard against the wall and stuck out her hand in a handshake. Jongin nodded and shook it, lightly as if he hesitated in touching other people.

"Kyungsoo, say hi to Jongin!" Jongdae yelled at him, because the music was even louder now that they were in the house.

He snapped out of his stupor and glanced between his friends and Jongin. He wore a ripped jean jacket and slim atheletic pants. Kyungsoo didn't think that those two kinds of clothing would match, but they appeared normal if not good on Jongin. haking out of such random thoughts, he waved at his tutee, and Jongin did the same.

"Okay, now that introductions are done, I'm going to check out the drinks. See you guys in two hours!" Yuwon waved and skipped towards what was likely the kitchen with the tiling on the ground.

"Then I'm going to walk around and see what people are doing! Loosen up and have fun, you two!"

Jongdae patted them both on the shoulder before disappearing through the crowd of people cheering at a TV screen, and Kyungsoo was left with Jongin. He stood just inside the house with Jongin standing in front of him. His tutee leaned is shoulder against the wall, his eyes as blank as when they first met. The boy seemed unfazed by the loudness and mess of the room, like how he was at school, and Kyungsoo almost wished that he had Jongin's sense of calm. Nothing here flattered or impressed him, Kyungsoo supposed. Kyungsoo though felt like spikes were poking his feet, and every shift of Jongin's eyes made him tense even though he was only looking around the room.

Another explosion of cheer burst from the onlookers of the TV, and Kyungsoo jumped. He didn't think he could be anymore surprised by loud noises with the music deafening his ears, but the amount of unwanted interaction he had with strangers, the high numbers of unconscious people, and the general chaos of the property wired him on edge and itching to leave. Yuwon had said two hours, and she had taken the car keys with her so he couldn't wait in the car. Outside was a bit too chilly to stay outside for two hours, so his only option would be to find a sheltered place in the house. 

A tap to his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts of escape, and he looked to see Jongin showing his phone screen with a memo note up.

Kyungsoo then wondered how he had gotten here in the first place (had he walked?), but he nodded. 

"Uh, then I'm going to find a spot in the house not occupied by people."

He didn't get how Jongin could hear him when Kyungsoo had trouble hearing his own voice, but his tutee nodded. Kyungsoo needed to say bye, right? Because he was seeing him in two hours. Unless he followed him?

But Jongin didn't make any motion that he was going to follow, just watched him as Kyungsoo threw a couple of glances back to him. In the end, Kyungsoo waved and started weaving around the crowd of people and out of the living room. The hallways spread out spaciously and the rooms even more so. The light brown of the wood floors and beams glowed under the millions of lights from the various chandeliers and lamps dotting the house. For a mansion, there were less vases, decorations, and artwork than Kyungsoo thought there would be, but they could have also been looted by the guests.

Stepping over a pair of socks, Kyungsoo moved around from hallway to hallway, room to room, looking around. Most people he came upon were chugging on a collection of alcohol with a group, drunkenly playing games, rolling around furniture, or passed out. A few doors weren't open, and the first closed door he encountered he almost opened it. Moans, bedspring creaking, and pleas of 'faster' or 'harder' then came out of the room, and Kyungsoo spedwalk away from it. The bathrooms he automatically decided to stay away from.

Once he scoped out the first floor, he moved to the second, and then the third. The wildness of the party thinned as he climbed up. On the third floor behind a closed door (without bedroom sounds), Kyungsoo peeked in and found a study room. Bookshelves lined one wall, and a desk and stationery sat at the end of the room, facing a window view of the lawn to a garden patio. Nothing inside looked like it had been disheveled by drunk teenagers, so he guessed that this room had been untouched by the havoc.

Shutting the door, he scanned the shelves for something interesting to read and found a book on quantum mechanics and another on gardening in urban landscapes. There was also one whose title read 'From The Beyond: The Qiao'uyi.' Kyungsoo was curious, but he took just the first two and moved to the desk, flipping the gardening one open and starting to read about the problem with urban areas' impervious cover.

He hopped from chapter to chapter, doing the same with the math one once he finished the gardening one. By the time he put the two books back, two hours had passed. No one had disturbed him while he was reading. As relaxing as reading from a stranger's bookshelves had been, Kyungsoo wanted to gather his friends (Jongin included, though he wasn't sure if their relationship counted as 'friends') and head home as soon as possible. Leaving the study room, he found it funny that he ended up exploring the house for the architecture like Yuwon had said and found an escape from the party. Maybe luck was on his side.

Kyungsoo made his way back through each room and hallway, looking for his friends. The frenzy of the party hadn't subsided, and Kyungsoo made sure to avoid touching any loose clothing items, NOT loose clothing items, white liquids, non-white liquids, and people while looking for everyone. They weren't on the third or second floor or in any rooms of the first floor, so he braced himself and went back towards the living room.

As soon as he stepped in its direction, a victory screech boomed from the hallway, followed by the thunderous stamping of feet. Kyungsoo his heel.

"Nope."

He went through the front door instead and walked out to the front lawn. A significantly lower amount of unclothed and unconscious people speckled the green, and he guessed that it was because the parking lot and gate met the back end of the house first.

A few groups, mostly couples, walked around, swaying with alcohol bottles or drink cups in their hands, giggling to themselves. Kyungsoo scanned the groups to see if any of them contained his friends. He didn't seem them, but there was a pretty traditional pond set-up a little ways away from the front. Three traditional lamps illuminated the space, lighting a pond, a rock bench, decorative boulders, and the fencing in the back. Two people were walking along the pond, and Kyungsoo turned away from it to give them their privacy. He took two steps before whipping back around. Squinting, he saw that one of the people wore a fur outer coat, and when they walked into the light of the lamppost, he quietly cheered to himself. He could recognize that obnoxiously ostentatious fur vest anywhere. Running down the gravel path, Kyungsoo approached the pond, waving at his friend.

"Jongdae!"

His friend turned to him and threw up his hands, stumbling.

"Keeyunngsoooo! Where've you been?"

Kyungsoo opened his mouth to question his slurring of his name when a wave of alcohol smell washed over him. He stoppered a hand over his nose.

"How much did you drink?"

"This much!"

Jongdae widened his arms and clamped them around Kyungsoo in a hug. His weight pushed him to one side so much that they both almost fell in the gravel. Kyungsoo managed to right the both of them and pushed Jongdae off him.

"The first party you go to and you get drunk out of your mind? Wait til I tell Yuwon."

Jongdae's head, which had started to loll, perked back up.

"Yuuuuwaaaaahn! I like Yuwahn so much! She's so kind and full of justice and always hits me back to good!"

Kyungsoo just gave his friend his best deadpan look and shook his head.

"Hey."

Kyungsoo turned around, and someone else stumbled up to him. He had dyed blond hair sticking out of his backwards baseball cap. He also looked drunk, but his face was upturned by anger.

"You think I'm not bad enough? I am bad. I am. I am the Skunk Bomber! I'm important. You need me to join your group."

Kyungsoo didn't think that that was a title to be proud of, but he knew better than to argue with an angry drunk teenager. 

"That's great, man," he told the person before he turned back to Jongdae. "Let's go, Jongdae. We should go home now."

"Do you want a hug? They're freeeee."

He opened his arms and started hugging himself, and Kyungsoo sighed.

"There's a hug party at Yuwon's car. Want to go?"

"Yes! Yuwaaahn!"

"Hey! I said that you need me."

Kyungsoo almost said an empty-hearted agreement to dismiss the person, but he caught his tongue. The person had flicked out a kitchen fruit knife. His grip was swaying, but its gleam still shone dangerously.

"I said that I'm important!"

"Sure. You are, and we don't want any trouble. So we'll tell the... person in charge that you're important."

"Do you want a hug? It's not good to be angryyyy."

Jongdae staggered towards the person, arms open. Kyungsoo pushed against him to stop, looking behind him at the person. He swung the knife down in a messy line.

"Keeyuunggsoo, you already had your hug. Wait for your next turn," he giggled.

"Stop looking down on me. I'm important," the person laughed, drunk on alcohol and rage. "I deserve to be in your group!"

The gleam shifted. Kyungsoo shoved Jongdae to the left and blocked the person's wrist wrist, grabbing it and wrenching it behind the person's back. The knife dropped into the gravel, and Kyungsoo kicked it away before pushing the person back. He made a mental note to himself to thank his mom a thousand times over for taking him to martial arts classes when he was little. He turned back to Jongdae, who started rolling around in the gravel and laughing. 

"Jongdae! Let's go to the hug party at Yuwon's car."

"Yes! Let's go!"

He rolled back up and held out his hands. Kyungsoo sighed and pulled him up, and just as he did, hands smacked onto his shoulders and yanked him backwards. He hit the gravel, the rock edges sheering his hands like razors. Was he going to attack Jongdae next? Kyungsoo looked up and immediately turned his head away from the spray of rocks battering him. The scraping of rock against shoes grew louder, harsher, and he braced himself for when the rain of pebbles became a rain of kicks.

Then the ground started to shake. Kyungsoo felt it as he was tilted back and forth along the loose stones. He dug his hands through the gravel, trying to find something to hold onto as they slipped away from underneath him, wincing at a sting in his left palm. Seconds dragged by until the rumbling stopped and Kyungsoo could peek out from his arms. The world still looked relatively nor