Breathe in, breathe out.

You can do this, it’s just a stupid high school party.

Chaewon hesitantly stood near the letterbox of the rather large house before her. She was certain she was at the right address, (that giggling couple standing by the fence were in her geography class a few years back), but she was still nervous.

Parties weren’t really her thing, at all, she’d much rather sit at home studying, and if it were any other night she would be (and she hadn’t quite finished revising chapter 15 from her physics textbook yet…).

But not tonight.

Tonight she was here, standing in front of this large, foreign house with loud, booming music coming from within and all the popular kids who’d never talk to her in a million years... unless they were drunk.

Pushing thoughts of turning around and going home from her mind, Chaewon made her way to the door of the house and knocked.

And waited.

Then knocked again.

Great.

When Chaewon realized that no one was going to answer the door she steadily turned the handle and entered (she was allowed to do that, right?). No one took any notice of her, and there were kids already drunk and acting foolish all over the place.

It wasn’t even 9.45!

She only came here on a whim; she didn’t even really know why she was here to be honest.

Oh wait, yes she did.

This wasn’t just any party; this was a party at the Ahn household. Chaewon scanned the room before her and saw no one she knew well enough to talk to (which wasn’t surprising) and when a football flew – much too closely – past her head, she quickly looked for an exit from the crowded lounge room.

She made her way through the thick crowd of drunken bodies and Chaewon found herself in the kitchen, the room was still filled with people but much less so than the last, thank god. She could actually breathe here.

“Chaewon! Hey! You made it!” A voice yelled loudly from across the room, shocking Chaewon out of her thoughts. She looked up slowly and let a small smile grace her face, it was her acquaintance – no, her friend – from her math class, the one who had invited her to this party in the first place (she wasn’t too sure why he had invited her or whether to thank him for the invitation just yet but, anyways).

He made his way over to her with a too-big grin on his face and enveloped her in a hug, he's drunk, he's so drunk, Chaewon thought to herself – they’d never hugged before. Ever.

“You look great, Chae. Super great!” Chae? Since when did he call her Chae? Chaewon simply nodded, looked down at her outfit, she was wearing a new shirt, and murmured a short, “You too,” in reply.

She opened about to ask, hey, by any chance have you seen—

When his face lit up like he had just cracked the Da Vinci Code and he yelled, “Hey Chae, let me get you a drink okay? Your hands are looking too empty!” and before Chaewon had time to stop him he was stumbling on his way over to the other side of the kitchen.

Once he was gone Chaewon began to feel very awkward, why were all these people looking at her? She closed her eyes briefly and hoped that no one would approach–

“Hey.” Too late.

Some tall, dark, and drunk guy she didn’t recognize made his way over to her, his eyes scanning her body openly. Chaewon simply nodded, not wanting to give the guy any encouragement, but apparently that one nod was all he needed.

He put his hand on the wall beside Chaewon’s head and leaned in to slur in her ear, “You’re cute. Why haven’t I seen you around before? Do you think maybe we could go somewhere a little more...private?”

Straight to the point.

Chaewon wanted to say no, wanted to run away from this creep and maybe kick him where it hurt, but she could only manage to shake her head. No.

The boy touched her face, trying to be smooth but failing miserably, “Come on girl, we can just–”

That’s it.

“No,” Chaewon managed to say, voice low, anger high. She pushed him away from her, just as her friend was coming back over with what looked like a bottle of beer in each hand. She pushed passed him too, trying to get out of the room as soon as possible.

“Chae? Wait, I got you this!” he boomed, as he pushed the drink into her hand, “Where are you going anyways?” he asked.

“Fresh air. I need fresh air,” is all she said as she exited the room, beer in hand, not looking back.

Chaewon was beginning to think this whole thing was a bad idea. She now knew why she didn’t come to parties.

Maths was easy, maths she could understand. If you had these numbers and you did this too them, then this would happen. Good! But parties – she was flying solo, no logic or reason seemed to be in play, as she had just witnessed.

She took a deep breath and shivered, that guy was disgusting.

Gross, so gross.

She walked slowly on, through a wide hallway and found herself at the bottom of a stairwell. No one was around, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

Chaewon looked down at the bottle in her hand and eyed it suspiciously. Beer. Bringing the bottle to her lips she sipped carefully, she’d never tried the stuff before.

Yuck, and she never would again, it was vile! She placed the bottle on the end of the stairwell bannister guiltily and left it.

At a loss for what to do Chaewon glanced around her. She didn’t want to head back into the main lounge room, there was no way she was going to go back into the kitchen, and she wasn’t entirely sure how to get outside while still avoiding all human contact.

So Chaewon decided to make her way up the stairs. She liked the alone-ness surrounding her and maybe there was a bathroom up here too. She needed to freshen up. Good idea Chaewon.

Was this even worth it? She thought to herself, this wasn’t even fun and Yujin didn’t seem to be here at all. Maybe she should just go home. Chaewon made it to the top of the stairs and eyed the wooden doors lining the hallway.

She had a one-in-five chance at finding the bathroom on her first try; Chaewon approached the door at the end of the corridor and took a chance.

She reached for the brass handle, opened the door slowly and immediately froze.

This was not a bathroom. This was most definitely not a bathroom, not at all. Firstly, in the room – lit only by a table lamp – was a bed, desk and dresser, and secondly, there was a Yujin Ahn facing her in the middle of the room, hands over her head in th