Why Jay's absence bothered me so much I never really understood, so someone please slap me now. Here we were at Min and Fei's joint celebration at this exclusive bar they rented out, as if it weren't exclusive enough as it was. Why at a bar when there were strictly no alcoholic drinks served? Simple. It was all about the music and the dancing.

Jay did manage to show up the day after his birthday, and it wasn't really...something easy to explain. Taec and I had decided to leave his present inside his cubicle for him to discover on his own, and...well, let's just say that the moment of discovery was not something Taec and I were even certain of as Jay said nothing to us...ever.

Which was probably why I was waiting for him to show up. Since Jay made no mention of even receiving the gift, (I had told Taec dislike was better than apathy) we never knew if he actually liked it or not. I was leaning towards the latter, but Taec was adamant about the former. I wanted to speak with Jay about it, truth be told. I was dying of curiosity, and I suppose, I just wanted to know if he even got it in the first place.

Why didn't we ask him during school hours? Well...it wasn't something I knew how to ask and the same seemed to go for Taec as well. So now here we were on the second floor balcony overlooking the middle dance pit waiting for someone we didn't even know to show up. Why was Jay such a mystery? We've heard of his multiple absences before, but there should be a reason for it, right? He must be busy with something else, right?

Wooyoung was tearing up the dance floor directly below us, but my dear friend beside me had himself pre-occupied eyeing Ms. Perfection over at the other side of the bar. The class of 3A had decided to make an appearance, as well as a few members of class C. It was almost a batch gathering, just like the rest of the following events to be held this year.

Suddenly, a thought sprang into my mind. Ian's class records! Ian would know Jay's basic contact information! Why hadn't I thought of that before?! I bounded towards the girl's room for some peace, but instead I found more trouble as Min was being cornered by Sunye, Sohee, and Yoobin.

“So where's your boyfriend? I haven't seen him all night,” Sunye said, arms crossed on her chest and her eyebrow arched as she took a threatening step towards Min, her two sidekicks behind her.

I honestly did not know what the point to all this was, but the Wonder Girls seemed to find satisfaction in the revelation of Min's lies. When it came right down to it, Min shouldn't even have started it because it was pretty obvious Sunye would jump at it, but what's done is done, and I slipped out of the ladies room before any of the girls noticed my presence. Min can handle herself, and I'm pretty sure Jia or Fei would be there any moment looking for her. I was right for as soon as I stepped out of the door I bumped into both Jia and Fei.

I didn't even say hi and quickly made my way back to my previous spot with Taec and I pulled at his dress shirt to distract him from Ms. Perfection for a little bit.

“Taec, is your cousin coming?” I asked, pulling him down by his tie, which I told him to get rid of, so I can talk into his freakishly large ears.

He shrugged at me, his eyes growing wide for a moment. “I told him to, but he's busy helping out at the museum.”

“Yah!”

He laughed. “I'm joking, he'll be here as soon as he's done over there.”

Over there being the The Ok family business, the Ok Memorial museum, among other things his family found an interest in. I liked Taec's family, they were so easy-going for people in such high society. I breathed an easy sigh of relief- Taec never fails to deliver, and I knew Min would be just fine. She'd be able to handle herself well enough against Sunye any day.

“You think he's coming?” Taec asked, emphasizing the he a little more than necessary.

I shrugged at him. “I don't know, I mean, we are waiting for him, unless you want to try talking to Ms. Perfection over there again.” I honestly did not know what to do about Jay, maybe I could try calling Ian again?

“I mean, I've never seen him in any of our events, so I don't actually know if he's coming, but you did invite him, and so did I, so let's just hope he'll actually show this time.”

When Taec starts talking, it's impossible to make him stop. How I wish he could utilize this same enthusiasm when he talks to Yoona. Then again. No.

“He is our friend, so naturally he should want to hang out with us. He's a member of the class, so it's just right he'd be here too.”

“I know. I guess it's going to take a while for him to warm up to us.”

“A while? How long does he need?”

“Well, not everyone's like you Taec, or...even me,” I replied. Jay would need more time to warm up to the class, especially since the other guys generally avoided contact with him unless absolutely necessary. Khun was nice to him, but Khun was nice to everybody which he shouldn't be because people tend to misunderstand things, like right now.

Khun was sitting in a booth downstairs, and Victoria was there sitting next to him. Were they the inter-class couple? Only Victoria seems to think so. If she'd use less mascara and less false lashes then maybe she'd actually see how Khun is politely trying to get her off him. Well, not exactly off him off him. She was sitting next to him acting all cute and sweet...and...disturbing, but that's beside the point.

The point was, where the heck was Jay Park?!

“There he is!”

I quickly scanned the area Taec was pointing to, but no Jay Park, I knew he was shorter than most guys in our class, but it shouldn't be that hard to find him with that conspicuous hairstyle of his. “Taec, where is he?”

“Right there,” Taec answered, his hand finding the top of my head and turning it towards Junho.

Wait, Junho?!

“Yeah, Junho, who did you think-”

He turned my head to face him, did I just say that out loud? Taec's eyes were wide with amusement, and his lips were upturned so much it was freaky.

“You thought we were talking about Jay?” he teased.

“No.”

He turned downwards for a moment and called out Junho's name to get his attention. Once Taec was sure Junho saw us and was on his way up, he returned his attention to me, still with that gleam of goading on his face. I hate you Ok Taecyeon.

I avoided his all-too-knowing gaze and focused on waiting for Junho to appear from the staircase. Good thing it was dark, it would kill me if Taec saw the heat burning on my face. Ugh. Jay Park, you will be the death of me. A few seconds later, Junho surfaced from the staircase, and I hadn't noticed it earlier but it was apparent now. He wasn't wearing his glasses, and he even dressed up for tonight. He looked good in a pair of jeans and a plain black shirt. That's it. But why oh why-

“Uh-oh.”

Uh-oh. Uh-oh is never good. I turned back to Taec and he was leaning over the railing looking down, it seemed as if there was a incident...and it involved Min and Sunye. I shot Taec an alarmed glance and he instantly pulled out his phone and ran towards a more conducive spot for a phonecall.

I ran past Junho to help Min out, but he grabbed my arm, effectively stopping me from any further action. “You do not want to get involved in that,” he warned.

I tried to break free from his hold, but it looks like he's gotten much stronger these days. “Junho, I have to help Min,” I said, struggling as I tried to worm my arm out of Junho's hand- one that I hadn't noticed was much bigger than I had previously thought.

“No, you don't.” He stressed this statement by pulling me back towards the railing where Taec and I had decided to hang out in. “Where's Minji?” he asked.

“She's over there,” I said, pointing towards a cubicle where Minji was laying on the sofa, sleeping. Sometimes I don't even know why she comes to these events when it bores her and all she ends up doing is sleeping, for the most part anyway. “She'll be up soon. It's already been an hour anyway. Besides, the party just started an hour ago,” I rambled.

“Just don't get involved.”

I already am involved, Junho. I looked back down at Min and it looked as if the Wonder Girls were taunting her lack of a boyfriend while flaunting their own- Well, Sunye's at least. Anxiety crawled over me like ants at a picnic, and I itched to run down there and defend Min. She was our friend now, and friends make sure their friends don't get beat up.

Taec got back to us, looking much more relaxed, I asked him if everything was all better now, and he just pointed down. His cousin Seunggi had already arrived with a large bouquet of flowers and a large-ish present, even giving Min a peck on the cheek.

“He didn't have to get her a present.” I gasped.

“He didn't,” Taec started. “that's our present.”

Well, that makes sense. It was probably worth it, seeing the look of satisfaction on Min's face and the dejected and embarrassed look on Sunye's face was worth all of it.

“I can't believe you two actually got involved.” Junho sighed.

“Well, all’s well,” I told him, giving him a I did good smile.

“You do realize the consequences of this,” he added.

“Yeah, yeah,” Taec answered. “We got it all covered. No worries.”

Junho didn't believe us by the look on his face, but he seemed to let it go for now. He still kept a hand on my shoulder though, as if I was going to run out any time soon. I keep away from trouble, I'd have you all know.

“For the yearbook!”

We heard Changmin's voice, and we saw him coming up towards us, picking up a groggy Minji along the way. He positioned her next to us, and took a couple of shots before putting away his camera to join us in our spot.

“Nice place you guys have here, no wonder none of you are leaving,” Changmin said, taking his camera again to snap a few more photos of Wooyoung and Jia in the middle of a dance battle down below. “I'd love to see Jaebeom-goon on that stage,” he added.

Jaebeom-goon? I heard Minji snickering next to me, looks like Jaebeom-goon will be sticking around for a while. Where was he anyway? Maybe I should call Ian and ask for Jay's number. Then what? Call Jay? That's assuming Ian would even give me Jay's phone number, which was unlikely as he keeps reminding me that Jay Park is not someone I should be friends with.

So what now?

Sighing, I leaned back, but I jerked back forward, feeling another body right behind me. I had forgotten Junho still had a hand on my shoulder and was still standing directly behind me. I shot a furtive glance at him, but his eyes were busy scanning the dance floor. Did he...did he want to dance? Junho was a choreography major after all, it would be natural that he would want to.

I looked up directly at him, he was only a few centimeters taller than Jay, but he was taller than me by a few inches as it was. I was curious. This was a new Junho. A very new Junho. Did I mention I was curious?

The music suddenly seemed to pound louder in my ears the more I paid attention to it. I wasn't a natural dancer, the beats didn't speak to me, any and all skills I may have, were all learned from all those lessons my mom forced me into when I was younger.

Junho's eyes were focused on Wooyoung and his movements, and if I knew Junho well enough, those were his challenge eyes. The eyes he had on when he was about to show the world just what exactly it was he was made of. This was a very refreshing side to him. Who knew our bookworm was actually very competitive on the dance floor?

I opened my mouth to convince him to battle it out with Wooyoung, but he seemed to sense me move when his eyes fell on mine. He raised his brow at me, asking me what it was I wanted to say. Since when did he know me so well?

“Junho, if you wanna get down there go ahead.” I heard Minji yawn. She actually yawned...at a party.

“Wooyoung's enjoying the spotlight, let him have it. It's his birthday too anyway,” Junho replied.

I whirled back to face the pit below to avoid Junho's eyes. While he wasn't looking anymore, it was still unnerving to have him this close to me right now. I don't think I've ever had Junho this close before.

“He's here!” We all turned to Taec, he was obviously excited about this, and we shifted out gaze downstairs to see none other than Jay Park swagger into the bar with as much fanfare as he could. He was alone as far as we could see, and already Jessica and Tiffany came up to him to say hi.

“Wow. The Barbie Dolls are moving fast,” Minji yelled over the music.

“I don't think they heard you from down there,” I replied, not looking away from the walking talking Barbies who had latched themselves onto Jay. Amazing how they switch personalities as soon as they were out of their uniforms.

“How's life in plastic,” Minji muttered before backing out of the railings again and plopping back down on our cushy booth. The other members of the class were already feeling the party mode creep up on them and Kwon finally stepped up to challenge Wooyoung on stage. Changmin was already downstairs doing what he did best. Seulong and Chansung were off to the middle with Jia and Min, Junsu and Fei were on again after a short bout of off-ness a few days back, Khun was still prying Victoria off him, and the rest of the Wonder Girls were staring at the few 3A and 3C girls that did show up.

A buzzing in my jeans pocket startled me from thoughts, and I checked for my new messages, it was from Ian.

12mn curfew, no buts. Pick you up

I checked the time, it was only 10pm, not that there was a lot to party for, at least not for me. Taec seemed to be enjoying himself as he started bobbing his head to the music, a few more minutes and he'll be downstairs with Seulong partying the night away.

Or maybe not a few minutes.

Oh what the heck, you live only once.

“Hey Junho, wanna dance?”