Yujin refused to look up, but she saw his feet as he stopped in front of her for a few seconds and then he moved to the side and leaned against the wall beside her. She thought to herself, oh my gosh what do I do.

“To be honest, I don’t want to be at this ball thing either” the guy said and chuckled. 

Confused, Yujin finally looked up at the guy and noticed up close how much more good looking he was. “What did you say?” she asked him.

“I said that, I don’t want to be at this ball thing either,” the guy said again.

She thought to herself how if any guy had done the same thing, she would be thoroughly creeped out. But just something about the way he looked at her made her feel like there was no creepiness there. And of course, if it was some other guy, “I don’t want to be at this ball thing either” would not have been the first thing that the guy says.

“Yeah well, this ball is always a place where people brag about their wealth or their accomplishments, or something in their lives that needs to be bragged about” said Yujin, trying to not seem flustered talking to this guy.

“Do you always come to this thing?” he asked

“Is that your way of trying to pick me up?” Yujin asked, somewhat disappointed that this guy really is just a creeper trying to pick girls up.

“Oh god no.” he said, defending himself. “It’s just that you said always, so I assumed you’ve been here before”

“Oh” Yujin said, now embarrassed and doing a mental facepalm “Sorry, people here aren’t very nice, so I’m in defense mode. But yeah, I’m here every year.” She could feel her face heating up and instinctively, she put her hands to her face to hide her blushing.

Seeing her do that, the guy laughed and said “My mom dragged me to this too, even though she’s never made me come before, I don’t know she would make me come to this this year.” When the guy laughed, Yujin noticed his smile and how it made her want to smile too.

Although she was still embarrassed, Yujin managed to say something. “I’m Yujin” as she reached out her hand towards him.

“Seungyeol” he said, as he took her hand and shook it, still smiling. “So if you don’t like being here so much, then why are here every year?”

“My mom forces me to come too” Yujin replied “And I can’t not come because she planned all this so I feel bad if I don’t come, even if I do hate it.”

“Ah so your mom is the head of the organization group thing? My mom’s part of the group too, she’s been going around asking girls how old they are, thinking she could set them up with me. It’s so embarrassing” Seungyeol said, as he tried to laugh off the embarrassing thought.

“So that was your mom”, Yujin thought out loud and immediately realized what she just did. “Oh! I’m sorry, thought out loud for a second” Yujin tried hard not to hide her embarrassment. She wondered to herself how she had never embarrassed herself this much in front of a guy before.

“It’s okay” Seungyeol said, reassuring her “You must’ve been pretty weirded out when she was talking to you.”

“Just a little” Yujin laughed, and they continued to talk and got to know each other.

Seungyeol and Yujin talked for a long time, when Yujin heard her mom looking for her.

“Yujin!” her mom yelled, while looking through the crowd “Where are you?”

“Oh my god,” Yujin said, taken by surprise that her mom was looking for her because it usually doesn’t happen “My mom’s looking for me, she can’t see me in this"

“What? Why?” Seungyeol said, showing concern over Yujin’s surprise.

“I can’t explain it to you right now,” Yujin said, not knowing what to do “She just can’t-”

Before she could finish her sentence, Yujin and her mom made eye contact. Her mom squinted and said “Yujin, is that you?! Why are you in a different dress?”

Yujin had no idea what to do. I’m screwed, she thought to herself. If she gets caught like this, she’ll have to explain everything and then she’ll have to tell her mom how she hates going to these charity events. It’ll break her mom’s heart.

“I uh-” Yujin said, trying to think of what to say.

“Sorry, ma’am” Seungyeol cut in, and said very politely “I think you have the wrong person.”

“Oh” Yujin’s mom said, “I’m very sorry, dear. I thought you were my daughter, these masks make it very hard to recognize anybody. You two have a good night then!” And she went back into the crowd and continued searching.

When her mom was out of sight, Yujin let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much” she said to Seungyeol “I don’t know how I would’ve gotten out of that”

“No problem” Seungyeol said “So why didn’t you want your mom to see you?”

“It’s kind of a long story” Yujin replied, “Do you want to go somewhere quieter so I can tell you?”

“Here?” Seungyeol said, jokingly “I don’t think there isn’t a single spot here that’s quiet..”

“Not in the ballroom” Yujin said, laughing “I know the perfect spot.”

“Okay, lead the way then” Seungyeol said. Yujin led Seungyeol through the staff doors and they walked through the hallway turning corners here and there. Finally Yujin stopped at a door and said “It’s through these doors” and opened the door.

When Yujin opened the door, Seungyeol curiously peeked in and saw that it was just an old storage room with a ladder that went all the way up through the ceiling.

“Um…” Seungyeol asked “Where are we going exactly?”

“Up the ladder” Yujin said “It leads to this rooftop terrace area that nobody goes to, but- ah you’ll see what I mean when you get there” Yujin made her way to the ladder and climbed a couple of steps when she remembered that she was wearing a dress, and Seungyeol would be under her climbing up. Yujin quickly jumped off.

“Um..could you go first?” Yujin asked Seungyeol.

“Why do I- oh.” Seungyeol said, and his face went red. Yujin knew that Seungyeol figured it out too. “Yeah, okay I’ll go up first” And he started climbing up. When Seungyeol got to the top, he helped Yujin up and they stood together on the terrace. Although Yujin said that no one went up there, it was decorated with lots lights and plants and the view from the terrace looked over a golf course beside the hotel.

“Wow” Seungyeol said “This place is amazing. Did you decorate all this?”

“Me?” Yujin said, “Oh no. It’s always like this up here, something about the hotel wanting to fill in and decorate the empty space.” As she said this, Yujin walked up to the edge of the building, took off her mask, sat down behind the railing and let her legs dangle off the terrace. Seungyeoul followed suit, and sat down beside Yujin.

“So you asked why I didn’t want my mom to see me right?” Yujin asked, and Seungyeol nodded. Yujin explained everything to Seungyeol from the beginning, and Seungyeol listened attentively, occasionally adding his thoughts in. As they continued to talk, Yujin found out that Seungyeol was in a similar situation as her. Yujin thought to herself that she and Seungyeol understood each other so well that it seemed like they’ve known each other for many years. And for the first time, Yujin saw Seungyeol without his mask on.

They talked for the rest of the night, and Yujin checked her phone for the time. “The charity ball’s almost done!” she said, getting up “I have to go change back into my mom’s dress and find her”

“Wait, you have to go?” Seungyeol said, with a sad tone in his voice.

“As much as I don’t want to, I have to” Yujin said, herself feeling a little said as well.

“Okay, well…” Seungyeol paused mid sentence “Can we see each other again before the summer ends?”

“I’d love that.” Yujin said, and pulled out her phone to exchange phone numbers with Seungyeol. After they exchanged their numbers, they headed to the ladder and made their way down. Seungyeol walked Yujin to the janitor’s closet where her mom’s dress was.

“Well this is me” Yujin said, “It was really really nice meeting you Seungyeol.”

“Likewise,” Seungyeol said, smiling “I guess I will see you soon?”

Yujin nodded, and before she could say anything, Seungyeol lowered his face down to Yujin’s and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek and said “Bye Yujin”.  Yujin felt completely shocked, she had never felt so many feelings for a boy after only just meeting. She stood there, and when her body finally decided to move, she realized that Seungyeol was already walking away. Still somewhat stunned, Yujin went into the janitor’s closet and changed back into her mom’s dress. When she came out, she hurriedly went back into the ballroom to find her mom. When went back in, she made it just in time because people were already starting to file out of the ballroom.

“There you are!” her mom said “I’ve been looking for you all night. Oh never mind that, you ready to go home?”

“Yep, let’s go home” Yujin said. Yujin and her mom waited in the front of the hotel for their driver, with almost everybody else from the charity ball. Everyone had taken off their masks and were mingling with each other. Yujin looked around, hoping to see Seungyeol once more before going home, when she spotted him waiting with his mom. Seungyeol was also doing the same thing, scanning through the throngs of people, until they both made eye contact. Yujin didn’t how long they held their eye contact but she did know that they were interrupted by a hotel staff who went up to Seungyeol to talk and Yujin being led to the car by her mom. Right before Yujin got into the car, she looked at Seungyeol once more, and at the same time, Seungyeol looked away from the conversation and towards her, and smiled.

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Going to write the third chappie right now! Stay tuned!