Surrounded by hoards of fellow dancers and friends alike, my eyes were instantly drawn to Kai. His gleaming smile and booming laugh filled up the entire dance studio; he stood out so much, but in a good way. Gripping his cell-phone in my hand, I made up my mind. This was the only chance I would have to ask him about the party and return his phone, so it was now or never. Giving Eun Bi one last, fleeting glance, I took a deep breath and began to make my way through the practice room.

Kai easily spotted me as I pushed past a group of girls talking about who knows what. He flashed me a quick smile and waved me over.

Feeling a rush of relief that he wasn’t angry about last night, I practically darted across the remainder of the room. Just as I was about to reach the gang formed around Kai, there was a tug on my sleeve.

“Hey _____!”

A beaming Luhan towered over me, his usual bright and bubbly personality not the least bit jaded this early in the morning. However, I wasn’t exactly thrilled about seeing him at the moment. After accidently reading the text message meant for Kai, I had plenty of questions that I was ready to floor him with, but now wasn’t the time.

“Hi Luhan,” I gave him a short bow, my mind still set on getting to Kai.

He stepped in front of me once more, making me halt in my tracks. “I take it you’ve heard about the party we’re throwing?” He cocked his head expectantly, his newly died pink hair partly covering his eyes from under a worn-out base-ball cap. He smelled of musky sweat, like he had been practicing all morning long, and I could tell from his loose, partly damp t-shirt that he probably had been.

“Oh, yeah,” I said while hastily shoving Kai’s phone into my sweat pants pocket so that Luhan wouldn’t see it. “Everybody’s talking about it.”

“Well, that’s good that you know. I was actually going to ask if you wanted to go with me.”

“Huh?” My attention jerked back to Luhan, his question completely catching me off guard. “Like a…date?”

“Yeah! Like, it originally wasn’t going to be like a ‘date’ kind of party, but Suho’s bringing his girlfriend, Kai’s bringing his, and Tao’s bringing-“

“What?” I blurted out.

“What?” Luhan eyebrows creased at the center, his confusion showing threw.

“Kai h-has a… girlfriend?”

“Yeah, you didn’t know that? They just started going out not too long ago. You and Kai are friends, right? I at least thought that he would’ve said something to you.”

“No, he didn’t tell me,” I muttered, my eyes wandered past Luhan to Kai, who was currently showing off one of his signature dance moves to one of the guys standing beside him. His chestnut hair, dark and shining, fell in loose strands onto his forehead as he landed a series of spins, his sultry gaze landing on me for a brief second before he faced his friend once again. I felt a ball of anger beginning to well up in the pit of my stomach. Kai had been lying to me this entire time. I get it now. When he had been kissing me at the club, it had all been for nothing. There weren’t any feelings attached at all. I was just being used.

“Hey, are you okay…?” Luhan leaned forward, a look of concern crossing his face having seen my crushed expression.

I nodded, looking Luhan straight in the eyes. “I’d love to go to the party with you. It sounds like it would be a lot of fun.”

“Oh, g-great,” Luhan said with a hesitant laugh, confused at my sudden mood change. “I’ll come by your room at 10, okay?”

I nodded once more, this time looking in Kai’s direction. “Yep, I’ll see you then.”