The loud screeching of Byul’s engine was enough to announce her presence as she pulled into Parking Lot B of Seoul National University. She sheepishly smiled at those who turned their heads as she pulled into a free space. Byul glanced at the time on her dashboard before she cut off the engine and pulled out her keys. She only had ten minutes until her first class of the day would begin.

Byul stepped out and slammed the door shut. She took a moment to fumble with the key as she locked the door manually.

“Hey, Byul.”

She jumped, almost dropping the keys on the floor. “When am I going to stop being scared of people sneaking up behind me?” she asked out loud, a hand flying to her chest.

“My bad.” Jongin raised his hands up in surrender.

Byul slung her backpack over her shoulders as they made their way out of the parkade. They always arrived at the same time at the parking lot. She could not recall a Friday morning where she had not run into him before class despite them having different 8AM classes.

She had noticed that Jongin was walking in the same direction as her. “You don’t have to walk with me to class today. Aren’t you going to be late? You have Critical Thinking in another building.”

Jongin shrugged, stuffing one hand in his pocket. “The teacher doesn’t care.”

The two engaged in talk about their weekend plans while they fast-walked to Byul’s building. She contemplated on mentioning the party that Chanyeol had been talking about, but because she wasn’t even sure if Sehun was going, decided against mentioning it. Jongin’s plans involved hanging out at a friend’s basement.

Byul checked her watch as they approached the classroom. “Three minutes to spare! Perfect.”

“Alright, have fun.”

Byul snickered at knowing he meant that sarcastically. An 8AM class during a Friday was never fun. “You’re going to have to sprint to your next class now, by the way. I told you that you didn’t have to walk with me.”

He simply shrugged again in carelessness. “Catch you later?”

She waved after him. “Bye!”

Jongin made his way around the east corridor and disappeared around the corner within the wave of students. Byul frowned to herself in thought. Jongin’s class was in one of the H buildings, but he was walking towards the complete opposite of it. Was he skipping class? It wasn’t too surprising if he was indeed skipping—he looked uninterested in most things. He had never skipped any of the classes with her though.

Before Byul could ponder on it some more, she dashed inside the classroom to find her seat before the clock struck 8 o’clock.

“Hey, are you coming to the party tonight or what?”

Byul stepped through her living room and tossed her backpack aside. She sprawled herself across the couch after a long day of classes before answering Chanyeol through the phone. “Is Sehun actually coming?”

Sehun had been busy that day with work. He had only texted her a handful of times, though he didn’t fail to remind her to call if there was an emergency.

“Yeah, yeah. He told me to take you there.”

“Really?”

“Yes! It’s a costume party. Dress as something.”

Byul was severely doubting Chanyeol’s words. If Sehun had wanted her to come along, he would have said so himself. There was no reason he would be sending Chanyeol to do the talking instead. “I don’t have any costumes lying around, Chanyeol,” Byul pointed out.

“The cash prize is five thousand bucks.”

“What?” Byul stood up from the couch so fast that her head felt dizzy. “Okay, hold on. I’ll just improvise a costume.”

“Awesome! I’ll pick you up from your house in two hours. Be ready.”

“Sure.”

Later, Byul found herself standing in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom with a white dress that she no longer wore. She tore it up by hand and splattered some fake blood stains on it with ketchup and smeared some red lipstick. Byul hair messily until it looked somewhat fizzy. She applied deep purple and brownish-red eyeshadow shades on top of each other on her skin in a way that blended to look like bruises.

She sighed. It definitely didn’t look like a winning costume. Since when did dead girl costumes win anything? It was too late to change anyway because Chanyeol was already knocking on her door before she could think about switching costumes or just giving up entirely.

Once she answered the door, she had to admit to herself that she was quite impressed with Chanyeol’s get-up. “Wow, nice take on the Joker!”

“You like it?” He posed for her with a gun in hand. Chanyeol’s whole ensemble was complete with a tweed suit, black eyeshadow that hollowed his face and red paint that mimicked the Joker’s signature wide grin.

Byul eyed his prop. “Is that gun real?”

“It is if you want it to be.”

“What does that mean?”

Chanyeol seemed to not hear her question as he led her outside after she locked her apartment door. “Who are you?” he asked in the elevator, looking at her up and down.

“Dead girl.”

He fluffed his hair, the green temporary hair dye showing in the light. “Ahh, nice.”

“What’s Sehun’s costume?”

“Hmm?”

“You said he was going.”

“Oh, right, right. Probably something lame,” Chanyeol said and then added under his breath, “Or nothing at all.”

They got to the party by eleven o’clock, the place already buzzing with excitement. Eight Point was located in a part of the city with a bad reputation of high crime rates and sketchy shops, though no one at the party seemed to care. Byul saw pool tables upon stepping through the door and foosball tables on the other corner of the room. The whole atmosphere was colored in a hazy magenta and it felt as if she was wearing tinted glasses.

The party crowd wasn’t the usual type of people she would find out in the street during an ordinary day. There were people who had full tattoo sleeves, a colorful rainbow of hair colors and face piercings. By one of the big couches, a Catwoman was making out with a Robin. A group of drunk girls dressed as Egyptians were on the tables and swaying to the beat of the song.

Seeing the costume that someone had of Elsa, she already knew she wouldn’t win. “Urgh, Elsa is probably going to win. Anything Frozen related somehow always wins,” Byul told Chanyeol.

Chanyeol waved to a friend he spotted across the room as they further entered the building. “Don’t worry. There are prizes for second and third place too.”

She craned her neck to search the crowd, not finding the familiar face she was looking for. “Where’s Sehun?”

“Oh, he’ll be here.”