The sun hits Pyo Jihoon's eyes directly and wakes him up. He shifts a bit before finally falling on the floor from a leather couch, hitting his head in the process. There is a pungent smell of alcohol and peanut butter roaming around, and he dares not ask where it's coming from - probably from the stupid concoction of someone named Hyomin, who attempted to serve it as a chaser last night. He composes himself, yawning, running his fingers through his hair as he scans his surroundings. Bodies are sprawled out everywhere, heels and sneakers and socks and all - there is even a bra hanging from the armwrest of the couch Jihoon had fallen from - and his eyes immediately fall on a hyung of his. Woo Jiho. He's fallen asleep on the floor, just a few inches away from him, an empty bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand, remnants of the drink still dripping from its mouth.

Jihoon's head hurts like hell. He's sure he was somewhat sober last night.

He stands up and looks for his shirt, since he notices that he's half . He tries to remember who undressed him but his head hurts so much and he curses under his breath, cursing that he drank that silly Hyomin chaser of the peanut butter and vodka descent. Who even drinks vodka and matches it with peanut butter? Who even cares? He pulls onto his hair as he roams around the house - he forgets whose house he's in - for his shirt when suddenly, a white thing's shoved onto his face.

"This is your shirt. Still smells like your perfume." she beams, and Jihoon almost smacks her in the head. She, Park Jiyeon, just smiles and waves Jihoon's shirt in front of him. "Oh, come on now. It's clean. Yukwon had it off of you ever since the start of the party so you haven't puked on it...actually you haven't puked all night, that's a first..."

"Wh-why are you - okay?" Jihoon manages to ask in monosyllables. His brain is to fried to function, even to grab his own shirt.

"Hm? I didn't drink much."

"Oh."

Jiyeon must have been feeling sore from waving Jihoon's shirt so she slings it on her shoulder, pulls Jihoon's arms up, and puts the shirt on him as if Jihoon is a stubborn eight year-old who refuses to change his clothes. "I beat a guy named Yifan in Wii Tennis. I was so beat up after that so I locked myself in a room and slept until this morning."

The clock on the wall tells them that it's a little after six. Sunbeams start to creep through the clear glass windows of the house, and the beam that woke Jihoon up is now three times wider, illuminating more unconscious bodies all around the house. Jiyeon looks around when she sees that Jihoon's doing the same thing, and sees Woo Jiho shift to his right, hears him giving out a light snore. The house still smells like peanut butter and vodka.

"You drank the Hyomin chaser." Jiyeon says.

"Yes, I did,"

"That's the only drink I had last night." she chuckles, smoothing Jihoon's white shirt on his body. "That's why I swore I won't drink again last night. It was that bad."

"It knocked me out. Literally."

They are in the kitchen. Jiyeon's searching for food in the fridge, takes out two single-sized tubs of ice cream, hands Jihoon one along with a red plastic spoon. They both sit on the kitchen countertop and Jihoon's still wondering whose house this is. Everything looks familiar - the retro-style fridge, the red-white-brown-black color scheme of the house, the little crystals on the chandeleir hovering above them (Jihoon's surprised that the chandeleir survived the party. It's when he notices that Jiyeon is wearing a flowy white pajama dress that he realizes that it's Jiyeon's house, and that her parents aren't always around and that she's always practically home alone.

Jihoon doesn't touch his ice cream, but Jiyeon's almost halfway through. She swallows, before looking around again. The boy named Yifan (whom Jiyeon beat in Wii Tennis - she points out that he's the Yifan from last night) had passed out just inches near  the other kitchen door, leading to the dining area. On top of him was another boy, Park Chanyeol, Jiyeon's older brother and the only boy she calls Oppa. She stares at them for a while, observing how his brother held Yifan's hand like that, how one of Chanyeol's legs are inserted between Yifan's. JIhoon sees it too. He blinks.

"Good thing it's a Sunday today," she says suddenly, sticking the spoon into the half-eaten ice cream. "At least I have time to clean up, unlike last week..." Jiyeon turns to Jihoon and holds the back of her hand up to his forehead. "And you, sir, need some paracetamol."

Jihoon coughs a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a lot of things that can happen during a party that must not escape from the four walls of the venue. That's probably the first thing that Jiyeon notices a day after a party, especially on a school day. She notices the boy, Wu Yifan, the exchange student from China, and he's much more composed than when he was playing Wii with her. She notices how slender he is, how tall he is, how everytime he walks, it looks like he's walking on a runway. Details are important to Jiyeon, details with Sherlock Holmes-type of precision.

Park Jiyeon also notices that her brother, Park Chanyeol, isn't giving a damn about Wu Yifan's existence.

They arrive just in time, the driver dropping the Park siblings off in front of the school's main gate. Jihoon is standing beside his hyungs, his circle of friends, and gives Jiyeon a nod. She nods back. They are friends, Jihoon and Jiyeon, but in school they don't talk about who's that with who and who slept at where. They are best friends, but they decide not to say that publicly. At parties, they're always together. In school, they're just civil. Life is a bit complicated, but Jiyeon tries to understand.

Park Chanyeol leaves his sister's side to give his circle of friends his attention. Wu Yifan is just a breath away, but they don't say anything to each other, not even noticing each other's presence. Jiyeon stands there, quietly observing. A snapping sound makes Jiyeon fall out from her trance, bringing her back to reality. It's a friend, Eunjung. A school friend.

"We are going to be late for class." she says. Jiyeon nods and follows her.

The day's a blur and all Jiyeon can remember is jotting down notes and almost falling asleep, but even if she does fall asleep, the teachers wouldn't mind - she is a star student, after all, and star students do not get scolded. She remembers seeing Jihoon down a certain hallway and he almost, almost comes towards her, but his Jiho hyung has other plans and pulls him to the next curve of the corridor. She remembers Eunjung flirting with this boy named Minhyuk, about Chanyeol's age. She remembers, but she doesn't think they're memories.

Jiyeon is tired; she needs something to calm her down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Tonight. You'll come?" Yifan tries his best to speak Korean, but fails abruptly. He laughs, shifting back to English, which to Jiyeon sounds way better. She tugs on the sleeve of Chanyeol's uniform. He has no reaction. It is obvious that Yifan's talking to Jiyeon and Jiyeon only, but he's inviting both her and Chanyeol. "Tonight, at my place. Just make sure you invite people, hm, worth inviting."

Jiyeon nods, replying in Korean. "I'm sure they already know about the party, but I'll try." she tugs on the sleeve again. "Chanyeol Oppa, you'll come too?"

Chanyeol grunts. Nods. Yes.

Yifan doesn't smile, but gives an approving nod. "You'll be in my VIP list." and to make sure that Chanyeol gets the message: "Both of you."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a complete mix of everything that the word "nightlife" could describe, and it includes Eunjung running around in only her bra and underwear, the boy Minhyuk running after her, both of them jumping in the pool and emerging not long afterwards with their lips locked. Jiyeon is wearing a loose white top, a black tank top underneath, denim shorts, boat shoes. Jihoon is wearing only his skin-tight jeans and his sneakers; he has a red plastic cup in his hand. They are sitting on the grass, overlooking the pool of Yifan's house. Jiyeon decides not to drink. She wants to observe, she wants to be sober enough to remember the details.

But she takes a drink from Jihoon's cup, just a tiny sip. And after that, she swears not to drink again (just for tonight).

It's weird that Jihoon always decides to stay near Jiyeon during parties, because he's not that approachable when they are in school. In fact, they don't talk when they're in school, not a single word, just nods of approval. And Jihoon has to make sure that his hyung, Jiho, doesn't notice him always wanting to get her attention in the corridors. It's complicated, Jihoon's life is complicated. At parties, he's free to roam around, free to chat with whoever he wants. He chooses Jiyeon, because Jiyeon's almost always sober and he'd like someone to talk to, literally, without being drunk enough to puke every other sentence. Jiyeon's always attending parties, but she stays out of the way. Jihoon is in the way, but she stays with Jiyeon. Tough love, they call it, but they don't like each other that way. They just are very fond of each other's company.

They stay, sitting on the grass, sometimes admiring the stars, sometimes laughing at the drunk people falling in the pool. It is when Jiyeon stands up, suddenlt, to announce "I'm hungry" that Jihoon's envisionment of a perfect night is cut short. He stands up, follows her, and she leads him to Yifan's kitchen.

She opens the door and wants to shut it closed again. Not in disgust, but in surprise, because Yifan's legs are wrapped around Chanyeol's, they're fully clothed, they're kissing, and it's just too private for Jiyeon to see.

It's too private.

They don't notice, though. They're too immersed in their own lust, their own need to be together, that they don't notice Jiyeon opening the door to a tiny crack and closing it again.

"I'm not hungry anymore," she announces to Jihoon and walks back outside, to the grass.

"Why -"

"Just. Not hungry." Jiyeon stops, and turns around. "Let's dance?"

"Sure."

Jiyeon pulls him to the dance floor (it's just the living room with the couches and everything pushed against the walls, but it's big enough) and they dance. It's Jiyeon's first time to dance, actually, but she's good at it. She dances to the bass-laden music, dances her boredom, frustrations, and all the other things, dances them away. Jihoon's not that much of a good dancer but he tries, and Jiyeon laughs at him. She tries to help him, placing his hands on her waist, and they start to grind to the music, but not against each other. They dance the night away.

Yifan's party is a blast, but Jiyeon did not have any. She danced, but it's not enough. Her details, her stack of details, were still lacking something.

The driver takes both a drunk Chanyeol and a sober Jiyeon home, the older of the two resting his head on his dongsaeng's shoulder. Jiyeon thinks back at the things she has observed, at the things she might have missed. She shouldn't have danced. She should have observed more about Eunjung alomst taking it all off - literally - in front of Minhyuk, Jiho, and the other people Jihoon hangs out with during school hours. She should have observed more about the aftermaths of his brother making out with Yifan, because Jiyeon knew something was up.

She did observe one thing, though. Jihoon isn't the same Jihoon from last Sunday's party. She danced with someone who claims to be Jihoon, a topless version, but he's not the Jihoon that refused to eat ice cream or the Jihoon who fell from the couch. Jiyeon thinks that he wants to tell something, he wants to change, but Jiyeon's not sure of what it is because Jiho's always in the way. But for now, she's tired, her brother's drunk, and she just wants to call it a day. There's a thought that lingers just before she drifts off to sleep while the driver's making a right turn.

Park Jiyeon thinks that there's something wrong.

 

 

 

 

---

It's kind of like 10 in the evening and that's late for me, so my brain's kinda not functioning and I've completely lost the ability to write. I swear the next chapter is less confusing, but let me give you a hint - Jiyeon senses something wrong, starting from the unknown relationship between Chanyeol and Yifan. Something's up between those two, you just don't know mang. You know she likes details. And (spoiler! and just so I don't forget to put this in): you guys better watch the Nillili Mambo MV that Block B released recently. It might come in handy. And I think obsevation is the key for now. All the things in the first chapter are essential to the chapters following it.

Yeah, comment rate blah whatever. I'll appreciate everything you throw at me. Thanks for reading. Love y'all.