Chaerin entered the school and her mood was definitely better than yesterday. After her overwhelming thoughts about Nana, Kris and the accident two years ago she spent the rest of the day goofing around with Yongguk, Himchan, Yukwon, Dara and Jiyong. Later it was also revealed that she will be styling, as the top designer in her class, the cast for the upcoming Christmas musical ‘The Beauty and the Beast’.

She approached her friends while flashing them the widest smile she could.

“Whoa, looks like somebody got a good sleep last night!” Himchan grinned and looked at Yongguk “Do you have something to do with that?”

Yongguk only rolled his eyes and smacked him on the head. Chaerin, on the other hand, ignored Himchan and tipped on her toes to peck Yongguk on the lips.

“I feel like puking rainbows and fluffy unicorns right now” Jiyong muttered and everyone laughed after that.

“Guys, give CL-roo a break” Dara said and then capped her hands “She just got appointed as the stylist for that Christmas musical!”

Everyone cheered and Yukwon crossed his arms.

“Damn so that’s why you’re so happy…And I was hoping for some new happy pills you would like to share”

Everyone laughed again and then Yongguk started to wave his hand, obviously seeing someone from afar.

“Yo, Jongin!”

The said boy looked around, searching for the voice. He was slightly taken aback when he saw Yongguk and his friends but he approached them anyway.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked

“Listen, about the beer and our little boxing talk today” Yongguk pointed and himself and Jiyong “Let’s meet at Seoulogy bar, Hongdae area around 6pm. We will have some before-party and then we will head straight to Yukwon’s”

“Oh right!” Jongin face-palmed “The party!”

With that Yukwon nodded, grinned and winged his eyebrows.

“I hope you’re coming”

Jongin was quite shocked but smiled after the official invitation he received, as he heard about the party only from Luhan. His Chinese schoolmate absolutely insisted to go, convincing everyone that Yukwon will not mind.

“Sure thing” finally Jongin answered.

“Awesome” with that Himchan high-fived him and that was the third thing this morning that left Jongin quite speechless. He was truly glad that the nervousness because of the fight with Zico was gone but that was rather normal - boys generally did not tend to be mad for long. Of course, the rest of the school still acted quite odd towards him, but he only cared that Zico’s friends were quite ok about the whole situation.

Just then the next voice was heard. Jongin turned around to see Luhan.

“Hey guys!” he greeted and then took a closer look inside the circle “Hi Dara”

The brunette smiled back and waved her hand. Chaerin and Yongguk exchanged looks and Jongin did the same, somehow, with Jiyong. What surprised him again today was that Jiyong was about to snicker, like everybody else.

“Hey Xiao Lu” Himchan called him “Are you coming today?”

“Yeah, it’s about time to get the title of the beer pong king away from you!” Yukwon added. Luhan smirked and shrugged his shoulders.

“Dunno dunno” with that he looked at Dara, flashing her his trademark smile “Depends”

Everybody laughed what caused Luhan to wing his eyebrows teasingly. Suddenly Jongin understood what Jongdae meant when he spoke about Luhan crushing on someone - that guy was getting straight to the point. While everyone was doing everything to be as subtle as possible while checking the background and doing some general research about the person he was just showing all of his cards at once.

But now each person found it charming since Dara did not seem to mind at all. She giggled and tilted her head on the side, looking straight at him.

“Well, I would love to play some beer pon-“ suddenly Dara stopped as her gaze focused on the main entrance. Her neck straighten up immediately, eyes widened and mouth hung open a little.

Luhan raised his eyebrow and looked behind himself. The rest turned their heads as well and it was  obvious why Dara became so distracted.

“Wow” even Chaerin gasped “That is super cool”

“Holy !” Himchan exclaimed “I thought Zico has the best hair, but dude! You totally slayed!”

There comes Oh Sehun.

With rainbow-colored hair.

LATER, SEOULOGY BAR, NEAR HONGDAE AREA

“Jesus, Jongin-sshi, please stop babysitting that beer and just drink it” Yongguk exclaimed before lighting up his cigarette.

“Give him a break” Jiyong eyed him and then turned to Jongin “Let me guess – you’re confused?”

“As ” Jongin only blinked his eyes and immediately wanted to slap himself for saying that out loud. Yongguk and Jiyong exchanged looks and then burst into laughter.

“Ok guys, I guess you need to have a word. I’ll call Chae in the meantime” with that Yongguk smiled and went outside. Jongin and Jiyong just looked after him and then at each other. It was awkward.

Luckily Jiyong caught that and sighed.

“Yeah, I know, you think I’m a psycho”

“No! Never!” Jongin’s eyes widened and Jiyong only grinned “I mean I don’t know…you seem like a nice guy but there was something odd about you when you fought Tao”

“Exactly” Jiyong crossed his arms and smiled slightly “You’re a fighter as well, you should know that feeling”

“What feeling?” Jongin furrowed his eyebrows as he finally decided to take a sip of his already not so cold beer. Jiyong rolled his eyes and then grinned again. His smile was really adorable and that made him weirder than he already was.

“When you can be free” he finally answered and that made Jongin’s head perk up from the glass. Jiyong continued.

“When I fight I am a different person” he lit up a cigarette from Yongguk’s pack “I release all my demons. My dark side is taking over and then I am back, calm and pure”

Jongin was listening carefully so the other boy spoke again.

“Everybody has the dark side that is similar to some animal. It’s not wrong – it’s our nature. But I am lucky I can get rid of it because I am a fighter. This is my own way to help myself and I hope others would find theirs as well”

Jiyong smiled again.

“So, you’re telling me…” Jongin finally put his glass down, realizing it was half empty “You fight because it helps you stay sane?”

Jiyong nodded, the smile still visible on his face. Jongin was truly amazed by everything he just heard and now he understood what Yongguk meant by telling him about Jiyong’s philosophy. But one thing still bothered Jongin.

“And what when your dark side takes over so strongly that you can’t control it?”

“Then there’s Dara” he answered sincerely and leaned for his glass. Jongin’s eyebrow raised.

“You mean?”

Jiyong laughed.

“Dara is the person I care about the most so it’s obvious she, somehow, controls me. But there is another thing about her” Jiyong chuckled gently “Try to recall all the bad people you met in your life and then think of the opposite” Jiyong raised his forefinger “Dara is one of those opposite ones” 

Jongin only nodded with approval, absolutely agreeing with everything he just heard. He felt immediately that she is magnetizing and it was something more than her pretty face. No, he did not fancied her but on the other side he was not surprised that Luhan did. She also caught Sehun’s attention and that was unusual.

Finally Yongguk was back.

“Tell me” he looked at Jongin “Did Jiyong described his philosophy to you?”

Jongin only nodded and smiled.

“Good” Yongguk took a sip of his beer “I hope everything is clear now between you two” with that he raised his glass for a toast “Let the party tonight be epic because the next week will !”

“Why is that?” Jongin raised his glass and eyebrow in the same time. Yongguk only sighed.

“Your first fight, ‘The Beauty and the Beast’ auditions and Chaerin being super-busy with the styling for it. And all that is next week!”

“Fine then” Jiyong raised his glass as well “Cheers! For the next week!”

“For the next week!” Yongguk and Jongin repeated after him, their glasses high.

2 HOURS LATER

Yongguk, Jiyong and Jongin stepped out from the taxi.

“Holy crap” Jongin gasped “Yukwon lives here?”

They stood in the front of white, modern, giant and half-glassed villa with the pool on the backyard.  The music coming out of the house was already shaking its windows and filling up the nearest neighborhood.

“Yep” Yongguk smiled and patted Jongin’s shoulder “He’s the richest kid in school and probably the richest we know. Let’s go!”

With that the three of them, already tipsy after few beers they managed to drink back in Hongdae, went to the main doors, passing few familiar faces by the way. As soon as they entered someone jumped on Jongin, almost making him fall on the ground.

“Jonginnie!” the person squealed and Jongin only widened his eyes in horror while seeing Baekhyun’s red face. He looked around in panic only to see amused Jiyong and laughing Jongdae with two, big bottles in his hands.

“Ciao bello” Jongdae said “Sorry for Baek. He’s super clingy when he’s drunk” he passed him the bottle of vodka “You would need this”

Jongin only laughed awkwardly and turned around to see how Baekhyun went closer to Jiyong and started to gape at his face.

“” the vocalist whined “How come you can be so cute and badass at the same time?”

Jongin face-palmed and Jiyong only nodded and smiled at the smaller boy, while patting his head and making his way to the, presumably, kitchen. Jongin decided to look around the place that were filled with people he could recall from school. It was only 9 pm but most of them were already in Baekhyun’s state. Without any better plan he decided to use the bottle as he took a solid sip straight out of it.

Drank.

Luhan found Dara near the pool, busy with her phone and with the bottle of beer by her side.

“And what are you doing here alone?” he asked while taking a seat next to her on the table. Her head perked up from the phone and she grinned widely.

“My mom called me, she’s still in Japan” she answered “So I came outside to talk to her…What about you? Where did you lost your Rainbow-haired friend?”

Luhan laughed as he recalled Sehun’s drastic image transformation. Too bad he could not ask him about it as Sehun got a call from his modelling agency just after he came to school today. He was urgently booked for some lookbook photoshoot so he skipped the classes and managed to tell Luhan that the agency’s staff would probably kill him – he absolutely forgot to inform them about his new look. 

“Sehun?” he looked at her “He