Another day at Shinhwa University…

“ Attention all students…” boomed the speakers in every classroom. “ This year’s acquaintance party will be a masquerade ball. You have enough time to look for your respective costumes and ball dates. Freshmen and new students however can go stag if they want to, seeing as they are only new in the school. Higher batches are required to have dates. Better start looking for a date kids, the ball will be held on Friday and it will start at 8. No one better be late. Oh! That rhymed! Ha! I’m so clever! Hahahahaha…oh wait, this thing is still on? Oh crap. That’s all. Uhh, bye?” everyone who heard the announcement laughed at how idiotic their principal could get sometimes.

By the time lunch came around, Onew and Taeyeon completely forgot about their announcement. They ate casually with the rest of their group as if nothing changed. Well, except they were feeding each other and that Taeyeon was practically sitting on Onew. No one dared to ask if they were already together because they were afraid Taeyeon would go ahjumma mode again and lecture them on friends who are just so close they do coupley stuff so they just decided to ignore the two and started talking about the upcoming acquaintance party.

“ I’m going to go look for a dress later, does anyone want to come?” Tiffany asked.

“Fany-ah, you don’t have to ask you know. I’m always going to be by your side if you need a companion!” winked Yunho

“Aww, Yunho you’re too sweet sometimes,” she said as she pinched his cheek. “But I wasn’t talking to you, I meant the girls.” She  laughed as she turned her attention to the other females in the room.

“But, but, can’t I come?” he pleaded, trying, but oh so miserably failing at doing aegyo.

“That’s not going to work on me Yunho,” she smirked “Besides, I want to shop with the girls only so we can surprise all of you on Friday.”

“Aww, fine.” He pouted. “If I can’t go with you, then I guess I’ll have to go out with the boys.” He said with a devilish grin as the other boys rose an eyebrow at him.

“Jung Yunho what are you planning this time?” Tiffany asked raising her voice a little. “If you take these boys out to a bar and I find out you’re drunk and dancing with another girl th-“

“Fany, Fany, Tiffany-yah!” he laughed as he hugged his girlfriend tight giving her a kiss on the forehead. “Relax, we’re just going to look for suits and tuxedos and maybe get a haircut or something for Friday. That’s all. No need to worry.” He grinned

“Aww, I thought we were going to drink hyung!” Jonghyun complained as Jessica pinched his ear and twisted it painfully.

“ Yah! Kim Jonghyun! You dare bring my brothers to a bar, and I will slap you to death with a cucumber!” Jessica threatened

“Aigoo,” he huffed as he rubbed his ear gently “I won’t do anything that’ll make you mad, or at least I’ll try not to, and you know that Sica.” He smiled at her. “And besides,” he said as he put his arm around her shoulder “We all know you can’t touch a cucumber, even if we’d pay you who knows how much!” he teased. His statement was rewarded with a well earned shove and a painful hit on the arm from Jessica.

“Yah, keep teasing me like this and you won’t have a date for the party on Friday.” She said as she stuck her tongue out.

“Eh? I was just kidding Sicaaaa.” Jonghyun suddenly hugged her from behind earning a laugh from the others in the room.

“Sica’s got Jjong in the palm of her hands” laughed Sungmin. “Look how quick Jjong transformed into his ‘lost puppy’ mode.”

“Said the guy who can’t resist his Aegyo Queen” smirked Eunhyuk.

“Hey! That’s a different situation! Sunny’s aegyo is just too hard to resist sometimes!” Sungmin rebutted

“Sometimes?” Sunny rose her eyebrow at Sungmin.

“Oh, hehe, did I say sometimes? I meant to say that your aegyo’s hard to resist all the time.” He quipped

“Exactly.” Eunhyuk laughed

“Psh, at least he’s  sweet to his so called queen.” Hyoyeon complained.

“Well, if Sungmin has his Aegyo Queen, then...You are my Dancing Queen.” Eunhyuk laughed as he sang a few bars of ABBA's Dancing Queen. "I've got someone I'm thankful for too, you know." he said as he kissed Hyo’s cheek.

“Yeesh, enough with all the cheesy couple stuff.” Taemin complained “Why don’t you all be like them for a change.” He said pointing to the Goguma couple who had fallen asleep amidst all the fuss in the lounge

A soft chuckle was all everyone could do in response to seeing the couple who had fallen asleep in such circumstances. It was some sort of a God-given talent, falling asleep at times and in places where it’s virtually impossible. It was a skill, or a talent rather, that they swore only the Goguma Couple and Jessica possessed.

Time passed by quickly during lunch and soon enough everyone was heading to their respective classes. The seniors and juniors alike were feeling extremely sluggish and sleepy after the heavy lunch they consumed, some students even fell asleep. Taemin, Yoona, Sooyoung and Key’s English teacher in particular even fell asleep during the film viewing of “Macbeth”. The students were subject to think that time had completely stopped seeing as everything was going by so slowly. Thankfully, classes were suddenly dismissed by the school principal who himself was eager to look for a costume for the upcoming acquaintance party.

The group met in front of the school gates, slowly arriving pair by pair. Alas, Taeyeon arrived while dragging a half-asleep Onew who was still mumbling “my precious chicken”. Unfortunately, the boys weren’t complete seeing as Yongwha was sent home after lunch because he had a fever. Seohyun looked inexplicably sad but they were unsure if it was because Yonghwa wasn’t there or if it was because Yonghwa was sick. Maybe it was both.

“Hmm…that explains why he fell asleep during lunch.” Yunho thought out loud. “Anyway, I’ll just pick a mask for him then. That’ll save him all the trouble. I’ll be the good twin for once.” He laughed

“Alrighty then. Now that we’re all here, sans Yonghwa oppa, we should split into the boys and girls group and start shopping. Now let’s all make a deal. Number one, no one is to reveal their outfit or their mask to the opposite gender, even if that person isn’t your date. We can only see the outfits on the day itself. Number two, we’ll all change into our outfits in school so we can meet up before the event without seeing each other’s costumes. Number three, after we change into our costumes, we can no longer meet our dates. We also have to split into pairs because it’d be easy to spot a group of 9 boys or 9 girls. No texting, no bbming, no imessaging, no calls, no special announcements of your identity, no communication at all. You have to find your date the old fashioned way. And by old fashioned, I mean looking at every person in the room. One. By. One.” Tiffany announced, emphasizing the last 3 words. 

“Wow, unnie that sounds so exciting! We’re going to be looking into the eyes of different people until you find a connection with that special someone! Or at least until you find your date.” Yoona laughed, swooning at the idea.

“Wait a minute, if you put it that way then NO DEAL noona!” Minho suddenly disagreed. “What if Yu-you girls get a connection with someone else who isn’t your date or your boyfriend? Wouldn’t that just cause a rift in a relationship?”

“You see Minho, this deal we’re making is sort of a test. Just to see how strong our relationships are with our dates. We’re all risking our dates here. You guys might find someone, or us girls might find someone too. This is why we’re doing this. To see if the connection and the bond we have with our dates is truly something special. I know we’re playing with fate with what we’re doing but if we’re all willing to venture into the lives of adults, then we’re going to have to start dealing with fate and what it can do to us and our lives.” Tiffany calmly explained.

"Damn, that was deep." Eunhyuk mumbled as Hyoyeon elbowed him in the gut.

“If that’s how unnie puts it, then I’m in!” Yoona stated, followed by the echoes of “me too” from the other girls.

“Then hell yes I’m in. Besides, I’m sure I’m the one for my Fany anyway. I’ll kick fate’s and team up with destiny instead.” Yunho joked

“We’re in too.” Announced Eunhyuk, Sungmin, Onew and Jonghyun. “Key, Minho? You guys in or what?”

“I’m in I guess.” Key shrugged as everyone turned their heads to look at Minho

“Aish. Fine. But if I see Yul with someone else, I better be given permission to pummel him.” He compromised.

The boys had easily found their costumes seeing as they only needed suits and/or tuxedos. They only had a hard time looking for neckties or bowties that would match any color seeing as the girls would not tell them what color they would be wearing because it would give their identities away. They knew that the girls wouldn’t like it if their colors clashed so they all decided on buying black or silver neckties and bowties. Now all that was left to look for, was MASKS. It was a masquerade ball after all. The masks were the most important part of the costume. Bad mask = Bad costume. Luckily they had about 2 hours left to look for their perfect masks.

“Hyung! How ‘bout we wear these to the ball? The girls are sure to spot us if we wear these masks. Kekeke” Taemin laughed

“ Yah, those masks are too flashy. People are going to recognize us immediately and the girls are going to end up scolding us for even thinking of wearing these in the first place.” Yunho lectured

“Aww, too bad. They looked kinda cool on us though.” Onew pouted

“How ‘bout we buy ‘em just for the sake of them looking cool when we wear it. My treat.” Minho grinned as the 4 boys hollered and thanked him for the masks.

“Aish, these boys are too childish sometimes.” Laughed Eunhyuk

“Even Jinki acts childish when he’s with SHINee. Sometimes I even think he’s the maknae.” Sungmin chimed in as the 3 older boys laughed.

“Aigoo, this mask hunting is honestly frustrating. What if I wear shades instead?” Yunho asked slightly exasperated, trying on a pair of shades.

“Hyung, that’s not a good idea.” Key laughed “No matter how big your shades are, it’ll be too easy to recognize you. Plus, you’re just going to trip if you wear those shades in a room that’s dimly lit.”

“Oh. Right. Nice work dongsaeng.” Yunho congratulated as he laughed at himself for being a tad idiotic. Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures right?

“Uhh hyung? How ‘bout these masks instead?” Sungmin suggested

“Those are perfect!” Key exclaimed

“Where’d you find them hyung?” Jonghyun asked

“There’s a glass case near the back of the store. There are a lot more so you can go check it out.” Eunhyuk informed them as he took of the mask.

After picking their masks and paying for them, the boys decided to find a restaurant where they’d eat dinner and rest there while they were waiting for the girls. They had about an hour to rest seeing as the girls asked to extend their shopping time by an hour or so. They decided to go to a restaurant called “The 7 Seas”. It was a restaurant that offered different types of cuisines from all over the world. They knew the girls would be really hungry after their shopping spree so they arranged a private buffet in a small function room.

“Aigoo, I’m tired AND hungry. When are the girls going to get here hyung?” Taemin asked

“They asked for an extension so we’ve got about an hour to just sit here and rest while we wait for them. ” Answered Yunho

“Typical. Girls and shopping. I don’t get how they last this long without sitting down or eating. Where do they get all that energy?!” Jonghyun asked no one in particular as the other boys laughed at his impatience.

“I wonder how they’re doing though..” Minho mumbled

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Next chapter will be about the girls’ shopping for their costumes. Plus dinner and Ontaeng’s announcement. Maybe some Jongsica since I haven’t been paying that much needed attention to them. Sorry for that though. Although I tried to fit in the minor couples in this chapter as well as the other main couples. However no Taemyoon or Sookey in this chapter because I have something planned for these 2 couples. Might include Minyul as well. Kekekeke. Anyway, hope you liked this chapter :))