CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: The Grand Party

{ It didn't seem that simple. } * Click for BGM!

Hyejung vigorously shifted about uncomfortably in her passenger seat, trying to focus on what's outside the car window. She impatiently puffed her cheeks up, and constantly tugged down at her dreaded skirt. When was this damn nerve-racking drive gonna come to an end?

Kai side-glanced over at the girl beside him, his lips quirking into an amused grin as he switched lanes. "Hyejung, you're gonna end up ripping your dress into pieces if you keep doing that."

Hyejung snorted, crossing her arms. "Yeah? So?"

"So, that in turn will leave you stark ," Kai nonchalantly deadpanned, leaving Hyejung utterly abhorred. "And you don't want to be in that kind of state in front of me, right?" he asked in a hushed, deep tone.

Hyejung felt her body boil in sheer embarrassment. She growled, punching Kai harshly in the arm. He almost lost control of the wheel due to the sudden impact, but he deftly and quickly recovered. "Hey, watch it! I'm trying to freakin' drive here!" 

"Huh. Serves you right," Hyejung hissed, glaring up at the boy. "Just shut up and drive," she grumbled, turning her bitter attention back to the window yet again. 

Kai rolled his eyes, a light, playful smirk gracing upon his lips as he sped up. 

The drive continued in an awkward silence. In a daze, Hyejung absentmindedly spread her legs out, but she speedily placed them together remembering she wasn't in pants. Ugh, she forgot. Kai gave her a strange, questionable look, but continued driving with a light smile.

Soon enough, the pair arrived at Heejin's place. It was definitely more than worthy to be located in the richer parts of Seoul, sporting a seemingly endless driveway with a soft, glowing lighting, numerous parked expensive vehicles, and rows of finely trimmed hedges accompanied with one of the city's vast best flower gardens. 

"Holy crap."

Kai chuckled at Hyejung's frank words, carefully cruising down the driveway to find an available spot to park his BMW. "It's a rather impressive residence, right?"

"Dude," Hyejung stared at the mansion with furrowed brows, scoffing incredulously, "The chick's a freakin' big- rich kid, all right. Geez."

Kai stopped the car at the entrance, looking up at the mirror to fix his bow tie. "Well, there's plenty to do. I'm sure you'll enjoy your time here, especially since I'm your date," he murmured, giving a charming smirk to the girl.

Hyejung gnashed her teeth, glowering up at the latter. "Say date one more time and I'll choke you with that stupid tie."

"It's a bow-tie," Kai corrected.

"Whatever."

Kai laughed, opening his door and stepping out. Hyejung attempted on doing the same, but her door seemed to be locked. "What in the-" She fidgeted with the handle forcefully, her gorgeously-done hair bouncing wildly about. "Hey baboon, what the hell is wrong with the damn door?! Is it broken or something, because I can't freakin' open it!" she loudly protested whilst Kai coolly walked around the car and to her door. 

With one gentle movement of his hand, Kai unhurriedly opened the door with a mild, entertained expression. "Silly, I'm so supposed to open the door for you. I'm you're date, remember?" He smirked, leaning against the car with his left arm. 

Hyejung threateningly narrowed her eyes up at the boy, sticking a foot out of the car. "What did I just say about that word?"

"Date?" Kai coyly recalled, tapping his bottom lip. "Hmm, I don't know, but I'll just keep using it," he mumbled, extending his hand out to Hyejung in a dapper, gentleman-like fashion. "It sounds nice."

Hyejung raised a brow, staring at Kai's outstretched hand dumbly. She opened to retort, but Kai already took a tender hold of her hand and delicately pulled her out of the car.

With her cheeks unconsciously tinted, Hyejung slowly drew round eyes up at Kai. He was calmly gazing down at her, an affectionate glow in his brown orbs. The languid, warm feeling felt familiar, and Hyejung realized that Kai looked at her like that more than once. Perhaps even before this whole party shenanigan, but she couldn't be sure because she just started noticing. Little did she know that it was true.

"Wh-What?" Hyejung blurted, her eyes flickering downwards. "Quit your stupid staring."

Kai straightened his shoulders up, closing the passenger door behind Hyejung. He chuckled in what could be named an innocent tone. "Sorry. I can't help it."

"Liar. You can help it. There's no reason to stare," Hyejung coldly remarked, scratching an imaginary itch on her elbow. "Unless you think I look stupidly ridiculous right now with all th-this...this prissy stuff," she muttered, weakly gesturing her hands.

Kai scoffed incredulously. "Hey, are you kidding me? You don't look stupid or ridiculous at all! In fact, you look so," he trailed off, reaching out to curl a stray strand of Hyejung's hair behind her ear. He looked at her from head to toe, barely in a daze as he softly murmured, "You look so beautiful, Hyejung." 

Hyejung felt her heart squeeze, and she looked in every single direction excluding Kai's face. "What the heck is that supposed to mean," she mumbled incoherently, her feet shuffling against the hard ground. 

"It means what it exactly means," Kai smiled, loosely placing Hyejung's arm around his. "And don't try to deny it. I'll say all my never-ending compliments to you whenever and however I want."

Hyejung felt heat rush up her entire body. She cleared , grumbling under her breath, "Y-You go do that. See if I care." She turned her head to the side, trying to hide her flushed face as she followed Kai inside the mansion.

Kai smiled, deftly tossing his car keys to the valet standing to the side. The attendant promptly bowed, making no hesitation to get in the driver's side of the car and rolling it away. Dumbfounded, Hyejung stared incredulously as she watched all of this happen before her very eyes.

"Yah, Kai, that freakin' is stealing your car!" Hyejung hurriedly exclaimed, quickly darting her eyes from the migrating valet to Kai. "Aren't you going to do something about it?! Dude, you should sue him because that BMW-"

"That man you called an '' is a valet, Hyejung," Kai said, side-glancing down at his date as he climbing up the stairs into the mansion.

Hyejung snorted, unsteadily swaying side-to-side as she tried to keep up with Kai. "As if I'll know what that means. Elaborate, will ya?"

"His job is to park my car for me. It's simple, really," Kai frankly said, sauntering into the immense, lavish entrance of Heejin's humble abode.

"Well if it's so simple, why don't you just do it yourself, you lazy-?" Hyejung scoffed, quickly glancing down at elegant marble flooring.

Kai nodded to a couple of passerbys, immediately turning his longing attention back to Hyejung. "It's for everyone's convenience, Hyejung. Not just mine."

Hyejung rolled her eyes, starting to undo the one large button of her cozy jacket. She was about to slip the jacket off her frame when Kai came up behind her, doing what she was planning on doing herself. "Allow me," he murmured quietly in her ear.

Hyejung's eyes suddenly widened at the sudden action, and she stared quizzically as Kai handed her jacket to the maid on his right. In return, the short woman gave him a small, square shape piece of paper. Kai nodded, letting the cloakroom attendant walk off to neatly put Hyejung's coat away. 

"Great, now you're giving away my clothes?" Hyejung huffed, waiting for her uneven bangs to flail, but they were swept to the side. 

Kai shrugged, sliding the card into a pocket of the inside of his tux. "Something like that. I got the card, so whenever you're ready to leave, I'll go get your jacket."

Hyejung just nodded, not really understanding the point of all this stupid fancy attendant stuff. Weird.

Following the emanating sound of music, the pair made their way to the main room for the gathering. Hyejung glanced around curiously, and she unknowingly bit her lip when she felt the eyes of a few gossipy onlookers stare at the duo in sheer curiosity.

Walking down the occupied halls, it didn't take long for Hyejung to grow insecure conscious of herself. She didn't exactly know why, but perhaps it was because of the fact she never dresses up so elegantly, or maybe it's because her arm was languidly locked with a dashing young man.

Who knows?

But all Hyejung could think about is how uncomfortable she felt right at that moment. She hated the feeling; the feeling of vulnerability. 

"Hey, why are they staring?" Hyejung hissed under her breath, her feet shuffling clumsily against the polished floor. "Do I have something on my face or something? Aish, what the heck." 

Kai shook his head, gazing down at Hyejung with a sparkling glint in his eyes. "Not at all. They're mostly harmless," he assured. "Hmm. They're probably just thinking on how we make such a good-looking couple," Kai suggested, his lips quirking into a handsome, boyish grin. "I honestly wouldn't be surprised if that was the case."

Hyejung gripped her clammy fists, feeling her cheeks heat up at the seemingly innocent thought. The two of them? Being a couple? Pft, as if that's going to happen, right..?

Before Hyejung knew it, Kai successfully lead her into the spacious, bustling gathering room. It boasted its classy features with a grand, intricate ceiling, and a row of large, crystal-clear windows lined side-by-side at the end of the room. Hyejung craned her neck to catch a glimpse of what's outside the windows, and she spotted various teenagers and young adults enjoying the sophisticated outdoor accommodations including an enormous heated in-ground pool. Even in the early spring, there were some people who were languidly swimming or relaxing in the private bubbling Jacuzzi. 

She turned her head and focused her round-eyed attention back inside the room. There were numerous leather armchairs positioned to the side for quiet lounging, and at the left-hand corner there was a bar with several students chatting with their drinks. On the opposite corner laid a high-tech sound system, and not too far away from there were two never-ending white-clothed tables with a scrumptious, refined buffet. Overall, the entire style of the room was both comfortably classy and stylishly modern. 

"Let's go find the others," Kai quietly spoke up, tightening his grasp on Hyejung ever-so-slightly.

"Huh? What?" Hyejung shook her head, trying to get back in focus after being engrossed by the beauty of the room. "The others? Do you mean the guys?"

Kai nodded affirmatively, chuckling, "My, Hyejung. Are you playing dumb? Because you've been asking a lot of questions tonight."

"What?! No!" Hyejung answered, perhaps a bit too quickly. 

"Uh-huh," Kai smirked. "Now follow me. I'm sure the guys are excited to see you." He deftly lead the way, skirting past the various groups of young people in search of their own friends. 

Hyejung sighed defeatedly, bowing her head as she reluctantly followed after Kai. The discomfort she had remained evident inside of her, and she found herself prudently tugging down at skirt yet again.

It didn't take too incredibly long to find the other Exo-K boys, standing aways from the buffet table with glasses of punch in their hands. As the pair approached them, Kai made sure to keep Hyejung close to his side even when the boys are utterly harmless. 

Baekhyun randomly turned his head, and he immediately noticed them approaching. "Guys, they're here!" he exclaimed, his mouth formed into a little 'o' of amazement.

The boys drew their gazes into the direction Sehun was looking, and they all were taken aback by Hyejung's appearance with slightly dropped jaws. Biting her lip, Hyejung immediately averted their sparkling gazes and fixated her eyes on the floor. Oh, this was embarrassing.

"Holy rolling buffaloes," Sehun murmured in shock, but then he quickly scurried over to Hyejung in excitement. "Wahh~ Hyejung you - you look so pretty!" The boys murmured in agreement. 

Hyejung nodded sheepishly, unsurely rubbing the back of her neck. "Um, thanks."

"I told you," Kai discreetly whispered, leaning down in Hyejung's ear. She shot her narrow eyes up at Kai, and he just formed an innocent, lop-sided smirk.

Chanyeol scoffed incredulously, striding his lanky figure over. "Pretty?!