Showered, dressed and ready to go, I was nearly bouncing off the walls in excitement for the night that lay ahead. Minseok did turn up 13 minutes later than planned, but his good mood more than made up for it. We drove to Minseok's friend's place where he'd said there was a pretty big party going on.

“Pretty big” was kind of an understatement. The party was bustling, loud and absolutely chaotic when we walked in at 10:31PM. A drink shoved in my hand as I entered, Minseok and I were met a familiarly handsome boy at the front door. His cheekbones appeared as though they were lovingly carved by the hands of a true artist – prominent, but not overly so. His dark hair was tousled just so, to appear as though no effort had gone into its styling. These seemed bland and irrelevant in comparison to the smile beaming from his mouth, his teeth all on display.

“You’re back, babe!” He exclaimed at Minseok, his grin nearly consuming his entire face.

Minseok's eyes widened and his face reddened as he turned between the boy at the door and I. After a few seconds, he smiled. "Lu Han, this is Jongdae." He gestured to the boy at his side who flashed a dazzling smile and I suddenly remembered who he was – the boy from the library! The one Sehun and I had seen Minseok with! "Jongdae, this is Lu Han."

“Hi Lu Han,” Jongdae shook my hand, slurring his words. “I’m Minseok’s boyfriend.” He blurted before giggling.

I nodded as he confirmed my suspicions.

“The guys are calling me, I’ll see you soon, babe.” Jongdae kissed Minseok’s now tomato-red cheek before heading over to a group of loud boys who’d been beckoning Jongdae over, most of whom I’d never seen before and who didn’t seem to have their right minds about them at all.

“Um. What the fu-?”

“Surprise?” Minseok tried a joke to lighten the mood.

I sighed. “You could’ve just told me.”

“It was such an impulsive thing, I didn’t know how-“

It was then that Jongdae, now somewhere in the kitchen, called out to Minseok.“Baaaaabe!”

“Loverboy’s waiting.” I rolled my eyes before walking off.

What was with these friends of mine and their insistence on keeping their boyfriends a secret?! Am I some damned omen? As the people I was closest with, I couldn’t even understand how they thought they could continue hiding it from me. It wasn’t even like this was a big deal, Minseok easily could’ve introduced me to him, not difficult at all!

Hang on, that meant Minseok was at the library that afternoon, when I'd texted him to ask. He'd lied to me? For what, to keep this relationship with Jongdae a secret? I felt my stomach drop at the thought that someone I'd trusted so much had lied to me. The feeling brewing in my stomach was sickening, I took a long swig from the cup Jongdae had given me, hoping to squander the nauseating sensation. Scowling at the bitter taste of the awfully potent vodka and coke, I tossed the empty cup aside and went the roundabout way to the kitchen, hoping to forget about how close I'd been to throwing up.

I couldn’t believe what I saw when I arrived there.

Firstly, Jongdae was an absolute party animal.

Secondly, they were on the kitchen bench. Minseok and Jongdae.

Thirdly, they were dancing.

Dancing. On the kitchen bench.

In a matter of minutes, Jongdae had convinced Minseok to get up on the kitchen bench and dance with him. What was even going on?!

“Crazy, aren’t they?” Came a voice from behind, right in my ear. I nearly jumped in fright. Turning, I came face-to-erm…neck (he's pretty tall) with Sehun, quite possibly the last person I thought I’d see there. It was, however, the sight of his eye-smile that quelled the brewing queasiness I'd been feeling. 

“Oh! Sehun!” I exclaimed in surprise.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out!” He joked with an exaggerated wink and mocked shooting guns with his fingers.

I almost snorted at the awful attempt at humour. “What are you doing here?”

“Turns out Minseok’s boyfriend over there knows a couple of friends of mine.”

“Oh, that’s cool. So, you came with them?” It turned out more as a question than I’d intended.

“Yeah, do you want to meet them?”

NOT REALLY, NO. Actually, I had no one else to hang out with so, uh-

“Sure.” I shrugged, figuring ‘why not?’ I was just glad the events of earlier tonight hadn't been brought up yet.

Sehun led me to a group of five boys, three faces vaguely recognisable whilst one face seemed very familiar and appeared to light up in recognition when he spotted me.

"Oh, Lu Han-hyung! Hey!" He grinned as I high-fived him.

“Hey, Chanyeol!”

"What's up?"

“Y'know, same old, same old. You?"

He chuckled. "Yeah, same. How's Kris-hyung?"

"He's good, you should drop by soon."

Chanyeol nodded, his smile stretching from ear to ear.

"So, you guys know each other?" Sehun asked, eyebrow quirked in question.

"Oh, yeah, Lu Han-hyung, Kris-hyung and I go a long way back."

“I see.” Sehun looked impressed. “I should introduce the rest of you, though. Jongin, Junmyeon, Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, this is Lu Han, he’s-”

“We go to college together.” I interjected, grinning as I shook hands with the four of them, exchanging greetings. They were pretty nice and really friendly.

There seemed to be some kind of non-verbal communication going on between Sehun and Jongin when they both believed I wasn’t looking. I pretended to be oblivious, continuing the small-talk, as Jongin sent questioning glances, Sehun shrugged then Jongin laughed soundlessly, winking at Sehun.

I turned to Jongin in that instant and he jolted in surprise, failing to subtly play off the exchange that had just happened between himself and Sehun. “Are you okay?” I asked, showing false concern at the reaction he’d had to my sudden turn in his direction.

“Um, yeah, I’m fine.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Do you want a drink?” He asked, holding up his own near-empty plastic cup.

“Uh,” I nodded. “Sure.”