Lizzy’s POV

It’s the day of the dance. I just woke up. I haven’t gotten out of bed yet. I feel an empty pit in my stomach. She won’t be here. I reach over and pull out her drawing book from my nightstand. I flip to the last page and stare at the drawing. A few tears escape my eyes. This was supposed to be us. I hear my phone vibrate on my nightstand pulling me out of my reverie. I pick it up. It’s a text from Raina.

Lizzy, wake up! We’re all getting ready at Krystal’s dorm room

I heave a sigh as I roll out of bed. I head to the bathroom to shower and get ready. Once I’m dressed, I head down to Krystal’s dorm room with my dress, heels, makeup, and mask packed into my bag. I knock on the door. Krystal opens it.

“Hey Lizzy, come in,” she welcomes me.

I go inside and see Raina, Seohyun, E-young and Kaeun there with a few other girls. I smile at them.

“Are you excited for tonight?” Kaeun asks.

“Yeah, I am. I hope it’s fun,” I reply. We help each other with our makeup and hair. We sing and dance to music and just have a blast getting ready. I hadn’t felt this happy in so long.

The clock struck 7 and we were heading into the dance hall. It was decorated beautifully. The students all parted as we walked in. They all stared at us in awe. Of course it was a masquerade, but masks can only hide so much. We sat at the table designated for us. Dinner was brought out to everyone, soon after dinner the dancing began.

Nana’s POV

I walked into Hansung High. I wasn’t even dressed yet and the dance had already begun. I saw E-young and Kaeun approach me.

“Unnie,” they both exclaimed in glee.

I smiled and hugged them both tightly. They walked me to their dorm room so I could get ready. I wore a long black dress that had a . I put on my mask and we headed to the ballroom.

“Find her,” Kaeun whispered in my ear as they left. I walked into the hall. The room was decorated as an ice ball theme. I noticed people were staring at me. Hopefully they don’t realize who I am. I saw her. She was sitting at a table watching the others dance. I approached her. I tapped her on the shoulder lightly. She turned around.

“Long time no see,” I said.

“U-Unnie,” she stammered. She quickly got up from her seat and hugged me tightly. She placed her face in the crook of my neck. I smiled as I wrapped my arms around her. I buried my face in her hair, breathing in her scent.

“I missed you so much,” I whispered.

“I missed you too,” she whispered back.

We snuck out of the hall and went outside to the gardens. I reached over and held her hand as we were walking. She looked at me surprised but she held it tighter. We found a bench and sat down.

“How did you get here?” Lizzy asked shocked.

“Raina and the others planned it out,” I explained.

“Does the headmaster know?” she whispered.

I shook my head.

“I wanted to see you. I missed you so much. There hasn’t been one day where I haven’t thought about you,” I said.

“Me too.”

We were quiet. We stared at each other, trying to consume every last bit as much as we could. You could here the music from outside a slow song came on.

“Would you care to dance?” I asked.

Lizzy smiled. “Of course.”

She held my hand and we danced in the gardens.

“You look beautiful tonight,” I said.

“You look even more beautiful,” she replied.

We stopped dancing. I slowly took off her mask. She did the same with mine. Her hand caressed my face softly.

“Don’t leave again,” she whispered.

I frowned. “I have to go.”

“No you don’t.”

We continued to stare at each other. Lizzy’s fingers traced my lips down to my neck and collarbone. I inhaled quickly. Her lips parted as did mine, we moved closer to each other. I felt her breath hit my face. I closed my eyes. Our lips touched. The kiss was short and sweet. We parted and breathlessly stared at each other.

“I love you Lizzy,” I said.

“I love you too Nana,” she said breathlessly.

She moved closer and we kissed again. I didn’t want to let go. She was everything I wanted, I didn’t want to let her go. I felt as though this was a dream and that I would soon wake up and it would all be over. But when our lips parted and my eyes opened to see her again, I knew that this wasn’t a dream. It was a beautiful reality.

“I’m going with you,” Lizzy said suddenly.

“What?”

“If you can’t stay here then I’m coming with you. There’s no law that’s keeping me here,” she said.

“But your aunt, she wouldn’t let you leave,” I said.

“Let’s runaway together,” Lizzy said.

I laughed. “Are you being serious right now?”

“Yes! Let’s runaway! I don’t want to live without you.”

I smiled. “Let’s runaway, let’s go someplace far where we can be together.”

We probably sounded crazy, but at that moment it sounded like the right thing to do. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and dive in headfirst. You can’t always swim along the sidelines and wait for a tide to push you to where you have to go.

Lizzy grabbed my hand and we ran to her dorm room, careful not to get caught along the way. We changed our outfits and put on hoodies. We snuck out of the dormitories.

“How do you suppose we sneak past the gate?” I said as we approached the high security gate of Hansung High.

“Uh…I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” Lizzy admitted sheepishly.

We hid behind a few bushes as we tried to think of a plan.

“How did you get in?” Lizzy asked me.

“Raina and the others organized it, they lied to the guards saying the headmaster wanted me to come,” I explained. “You could lie. You’re the headmaster’s niece. You could go to the security guards and ask for them to open it.”

“But, what do I tell them? What if they tell the headmaster?” Lizzy asked.

“Tell them you have to go visit your parents.”

“What about you? How will you go through?”

“I’ll wait down here near the gates, once the gates open I’ll quickly sneak by,” I said.

“Are you sure this’ll work?” she asked worried.

“I’m sure.”

Lizzy’s POV

I walked up to the guard’s station and tapped on the glass. One of the male guards turned around and opened the window a bit.

“Excuse me, could you open the gates please. I’m going to visit my parents for a few days,” I lied.

The guard looked at me, speculating my reasoning. I gulped. I felt a cold sweat forming on my forehead.

“Where is your letter of permission from the headmaster?” he asked.

“I didn’t think I needed one. You see, I’m the headmaster’s niece, Park Lizzy,” I said quickly.

He eyed me up and down. Inspecting me, trying to figure out if I was lying or not. He smiled.

“Well Miss Park, for verification purposes we’ll need to call the headmaster.”

My heart almost stopped beating. What do I do now? He picked up the receiver and dialed a number. He looked at me as he waited for a response on the other end.

“Hello. This is Security Station A calling. Is headmaster Park there?” A pause. He pursed his lips. I felt faint.

“Headmaster Park. Sorry for calling on such short notice, but we have a student here that goes by the name Park Lizzy. She claims to be your niece. She says she’s visiting her family for a few days. I was just calling to confirm since she didn’t have a letter of permission with her.” Another pause.

“Yes she’s here.” He handed me the receiver through the window. My hands were shaking. I was close to dropping the phone. I placed it to my ear.

“H-Hello?”

“Lizzy,” a serious voice on the other end said.

“Y-Yes?” I stuttered.

“Why didn’t you tell me you wanted to visit your parents? How are you getting there? Do your parents know you’re visiting?” she asked.

“I…well, you see…” I stammered.

That’s when my aunt knew. From my tone of voice she knew I was lying. She hung up the phone. I gave it back to the guard.

“Sorry we can’t let you through miss,” he said politely.

Now what? Before I could even think of a backup plan I saw a figure in the shadows approaching us. It was the headmaster. My eyes widened. I wanted to run.

“Where is she?” her voice boomed.

“I-I’m right here,” I called.

“Not you!” she hissed.

She looked through the bushes and pulled Nana out by her arm.

“I knew it,” she said as her eyes wildly flew from me to Nana. “Both of you to my office. NOW!”