Previously on It's Just Another Love Story: Poke. Poke. “Ugh. What?” Michelle said, lazily putting her head up. Apparently, the night before, she stayed up all night as she found this old arcade game, Gang Wars. Ironic. The guy she is madly in love with happens to be a gang leader. “Are you awake?” he asked. She nodded, without looking at the guy, crazily rubbing her eyes. “Yeah, yeah” she answered with a hint of annoyance her voice.

Chapter 25: Friday Night

Ding Dong. “Jong-in! Wow, you’re on time!” Tiffany said with a bright smile. “Yeah. You look great!” Jong-in said. She smiled even more brightly. “Thanks, Jong-in! You look great yourself! Shall we go?” Jong-in nodded. The two walked to the car parked right in front of the house where Tiffany’s driver was waiting. “Since I didn’t want you to feel left out, I have a surprise for you!” Tiffany asked. Curious, Jong-in just gave her a smile.

The car stopped in front of a big house 2 minutes away from Tiffany’s place. The two waited inside the car until 2 figures walked out of the house. “D.O.?” Jong-in said with a laugh. Tiffany nodded and laughed too. He watched D.O. playfully lead Taeyeon to the car. “Hello Jong-in” D.O. creepily said. The two girls laughed. “What the hell?” Jong-in said with a laugh. “Yeah, she said it was a surprise so I couldn’t say anything. Sorry bro” D.O. said jokingly.

The car stopped again in another house. Jong-in didn’t have to guess. He knew it was going to be Sehun and Jessica. After a few minutes, two figures left the house, walking towards the car. Sure enough, it was Sehun and Jessica, as Jong-in predicted. The three boys noisily laughed and talked with the girls, who were surprisingly funny.

They find out that Jessica was dating Jonghyun but he was too busy helping at the party to pick her up and agreed to only Sehun picking her up, specifically saying that D.O. was off limits. “I think it’s because he thinks D.O. is cute!” Taeyeon joked. D.O. played along and gave them the biggest and cutest smile. “Hey! I’m cute too!” Sehun joined in. Tiffany laughed and said, “It’s because Jonghyun thinks you’re cool enough to pick up his girlfriend!” All of them laughed and enjoyed the ride to the party.

They finally arrived at Byunghee and Key’s house that looked like a huge mansion. Sehun and D.O. gaped at how big the house was. Jong-in has already been at their house a couple of times since their parents were very close friends.

Byunghee warmly greeted the 6 of them. “Welcome to my humble abode!” Byunghee said with a smile. At that moment, Mir, another member from their band MBLAQ, ran past them, laughing like a maniac. “Come back here, Mir!” Joon, also another member from MBLAQ, shouted violently. Byunghee laughed, “Welcome to the party!” Loud techno music played, the house was filled with lights like that from a night club, and who would forget alcohol. It was their first house party.

“Any drinks you want?” Jonghyun offered to Sehun. Sehun shook his head. “Ah no thanks man” Sehun replied. “Alright. Thanks for bringing Jessica here” Jonghyun said smiling. Sehun just smiled and nodded. Jonghyun and Jessica walked towards the crowd.

The trio walked around to see all the popular kids from senior and junior year. They were just glad that their high school wasn’t those typical high schools you see in movies that had solid separation between “cool” and “uncool”. Everyone greeted everyone quite politely, others, not so, but in the friendliest ways possible.

Sehun tugged onto Jong-in’s sleeve. “Hey, Jong-in, look!” he said softly. Jong-in turned his head to Sehun and followed his gaze. He saw Key standing and laughing with Jamie. Instantaneously, Sehun and D.O.’s head turned towards Jong-in. Jong-in’s face was an obvious mix of confusion and sadness, and D.O. and Sehun could see it. “Let’s go look around” D.O. said.

Jamie turned her head to see Jong-in in the distance with Tiffany. They seemed to be having a lot of fun and for some strange reason, she felt like she was in the wrong place. She looked at Key with a big smile. “What?” he asked, giving back an equally, wide smile. “Nothing. I’m just glad to hang out with you.” Key’s face suddenly turned red. He looked away and whispered, “I’ll be right back.” He then walked off.

Jamie continued to look around, stuck at her current position. “BOO!” Jamie turned around to see D.O. with a big, warm smile. She laughed and playfully hit his arm. “What are you doing?” she asked him. D.O. shyly scratched his head. “I don’t know either” he replied with a laugh. She laughed along with him. D.O. suddenly looked at Jamie seriously. “So what are you doing here with Key?”

Jong-in observed the party with a soft drink in hand. “Jong-in?” Tiffany asked, looking at his side profile.  She admired how good-looking Jong-in was and how humble he always was. “Hmm?” he muttered, without turning his head. Jong-in was still watching D.O. and Jamie talking. He was uneasy, yet he didn’t know why. It was just D.O. and Jamie talking.

“Thank you” Tiffany said sweetly, “For being here with me…”