To be fair to Jongdae, the party wasn’t really all that bad.

 

The music didn’t pound a massive headache into his head, nobody smoked inside, nobody vomited (on him), and nobody punched him (or anyone); the food was good, but the people (as Jongdae promised) were … the real treat of the night.

 

There were hot and haughty dancers, talented and energetic singers, fresh and visionary producers, the ever so courageous freelancers, odd and fiery designers — you get the point. But most of the guests were students that Jongdae couldn’t stop shutting up about. Most of them were majoring in stuff that they swore were not for them, but still spoke about their days and upcoming projects with a passionate protectiveness.

 

“I don’t know ,” a jittery girl with glitter all over her hair spoke, “except I know that I wanna learn as many languages as I can before I die. It’s the one talent I got, apart from being naturally flexible.” she winked at Baekhyun, who smiled and nodded hesitantly, hoping his ears weren’t giving him away.

 

“How many do you know?” he asked.

 

“Eleven,” she answered, cool as a cucumber.

 

There was a guy with an out-of-the-world face majoring in Forensic Chemistry, and the only reason he had chosen the major was to shove it in the face of his high school Chemistry teacher.

 

“She was s oo oooo bad at her job,” he told Baekhyun, swaying slightly, but still drinking after every sentence. “I mean, imagine a high school math teacher who couldn’t even teach fifth grade math — that bad. But hey!” he grinned. “Apparently it’s one of those majors that girls instantly find hot, so there’s that.”

 

As if he needed anything else, Baekhyun thought, when he had that face.

 

After meeting with all sorts of lunatics with equally loony hobbies, interests, goals and aspirations, Baekhyun danced for a bit with a girl who had the most kissable looking lips, adorned with a piercing. Her eyes were grey (lens) and her legs were probably start-a-war worthy.

 

She moved against him slowly but with a firm grip, had her eyes on him at all times and smiled and caressed his cheeks, which she kissed gently before gesturing at her phone and walking away.

 

Slightly tipsy and still carrying the amazing smell of the lip-pierced girl, Baekhyun walked to the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of water and flopped down on a small couch where Jongdae was chilling alone.

 

“I feel good,” Baekhyun confessed to him. It had been a long time since he had gone out and met strangers, and a really long time since he felt the touch of someone who wanted him in bed. Taking his time to dress up in all black turned out to be a good idea.

 

Jongdae bumped his shoulder against his, his smile smug and satisfied.

 

“I told you,”

 

“I thought you were better than the ‘I told you’ thing,”

 

“You thought wrong.” Jongdae deadpanned. “I’m petty and small and I hold a grudge until I forget about it.”

 

Baekhyun yawned and blinked his eyes. “Wow, I’m starting to feel sleepy though,”

 

Jongdae turned at him. “What are you, a toddler?” he looked at his watch, it was almost midnight. “Who are you, Cinderella?”

 

Baekhyun yawned (at Jongdae’s face this time) again.

 

“Here,” Jongdae got two shots from a passerby. “This will wake you up.” He drank the shot and then the other before announcing that he was going to perform for him on the pole — there was a pole in the middle of the “dance floor”. Of course Kim Jongdae made sure he had a pole in his house.

 

Everybody groaned and booed as the two (extremely tall and hot and talented) female guests that had been dancing around the pole (sometimes on it) laughed and made way for Jongdae, who pulled himself up, posed for a picture and promptly fell down on the floor, face-first.

 

Baekhyun choked on his water, laughed, then cursed and made a beeline for Jongdae.

 

The two extremely tall and hot and talented girls were helping the idiot get up, he was assuring everyone that he was okay, through a (profusely) bleeding nose. He even tried to make a pass at the girl on his right, but she just laughed at him, eyes b with confusion and pity.

 

Baekhyun took another picture. Jongdae glared at him.

 

“You were right,” Baekhyun said as he led his friend to the nearest bathroom. “That did wake me up,”

 

Jongdae’s cousin Seulgi came to find them in the bathroom. She was not old enough to drink and vote yet but she had the maturity and grace of an adult that none of them could hope to achieve.

 

“Baekhyun oppa,” Seulgi greeted him, kissing his cheek and pulling him into a hug. “I missed you,”

 

“Hello, pretty,” Baekhyun kissed her back. “I missed you more,”

 

“You lost some weight,” she observed, looking over his frame worriedly. “Haven’t you been eating properly? Wanna come over and stay at my place for a while? Kyungsoo’s been teaching me some basic cooking, we can learn together,”

 

Baekhyun laughed. “No, no, Kyungsoo will shove up a wooden spoon up my the moment I get there; he’s nice and patient with you, but never with me,”

 

“I’ll protect you,” she tried.

 

He kissed the tip of her nose. She was so cute. “I’ll take classes from you any day though,”

 

Seulgi bit her lip. “Oh yeah?”

 

“Stop flirting!” Jongdae hollered. “Help me, you heartless savages!”

 

Seulgi glanced at him for a second. “Just put some ice on it, and be glad it’s not broken.”

 

“How do you know if it’s not broken?” Jongdae turned off the water and grabbed a towel. “I could be dying right now, just so you know.”

 

“Lemme see,” Seulgi tutted. “How much does it hurt?”

 

“Extremely,”

 

“It doesn’t feel broken,” Seulgi said, touching Jongdae’s nose in various places. “If it was broken it would hurt really bad, especially when I touch it like this.”

 

“It hurts really bad,” Jongdae tried to stand his ground.

 

“Yes, but you have the pain tolerance of a snowflake and a tendency for exaggeration of an evil mother in law.” Seulgi sighed. “You’d be crying if your nose got broken, but you’re welcome to go see a doctor if you want. And here I thought you would want to use your swollen nose to get sympathy from girls,”

 

At that, Jongdae stood straight up (to hell with standing one’s ground). “Actually, it’s not bad. It hurts but totally tolerable.”

 

Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “I hope you really break it.”

 

“Yah!” Jongdae looked hurt. “What do you have against me getting laid?”

 

“You’ll get a girl,” Seulgi said pleasantly, patting his shoulder. “On the first of never.”

 

Jongdae fake-spat at them.