iv.

dinner, anyone?

***

Hey :)

The message pops up on Seulgi's browser, unexpected not because of its arrival, but because of who it's from. Her eyes widen a little when she sees Kai's name, and her fingers dart across the keyboard in response. Hi, what's up?

Less than a second after her reply, Kai sends: Are you coming to Krystal's birthday dinner thing tomorrow night?

A smile plays on her lips. Yeah. You?

Yeah... She imagines frantic typing on his end because the icon indicates another incoming message. It pops up a second later. But I don't know what to get her. Any ideas?

Seulgi puts a hand to , suppressing a laugh. Krystal's actual birthday was a few days ago and the two girls had already had a little celebration at her house, with cake and little presents; so it hadn't really occurred to Seulgi that the birthday dinner would be the first celebration with Krystal for the others. Um... You know, to be honest, Krystal doesn't really like presents.

Oh, don't give me that. His eyes are practically rolling across her screen. Everyone likes presents.

This time, Seulgi really does laugh. To be honest, I actually don't know... Just get her jewellery or something.

What about chocolate? he suggests.

Chocolate? Seulgi sighs. Really, Kai?

Maybe apples, then?

Seulgi shakes her head, laughing as she remembers that one day in chemistry. She’s about to reply when her phone starts chiming beside her. Picking it up, she squints at the screen. Incoming call: Jinyoungie, it says.

Suddenly recalling Jinyoung’s text from a few minutes ago, asking if he could call her, she sighs, fingers scrambling back over her keyboard. Listen, I have to go. See you tomorrow x

Okay, Kai sends back, just as Seulgi answers the phone.

“Hello?”

See you x, Kai adds, and a smile plays over Seulgi’s lips, though it disappears the second she hears the tone of Jinyoung’s voice. “Gi, are you busy? Can we talk?”

“No, I’m free, of course we can talk. Are you okay?” Seulgi pauses, frowning. “Are you... crying?”

“No,” Jinyoung says unconvincingly. “Not this time.”

Not this time. “Ah.” Seulgi leans back against her headboard. “Is it Naeun?”

“Yeah. She’s─ something happened today, and I’m going to break up with her. I’m just going to do it.”

Seulgi sighs. “That’s what you said last time.”

“But I really mean it this time,” he insists. “Just... let me tell you what happened first. I want to know what you think.”

“Go ahead.”

There’s a shaky breath, then, “So today we were at the mall,” Jinyoung begins, “and she was showing me something on her phone. Then this message popped up from someone called ‘JB’, and I was like, “Who’s that?” and she said, “Oh, just a friend of my mother’s,” but that obviously wasn’t true, because I saw the message from ‘JB’ and he was asking if she was going to Chanmi’s party─ and we both know there’s only one person who asks her if she’s going to parties.”

“Yeah, and that’s Jay─” Seulgi gasps. “Jay. JB. That’s incredibly subtle,” she notes sarcastically. “But I thought she deleted his number when you asked her to last week?”

“I thought so, too.” Jinyoung’s voice is heavy. “Jay’s been flirting with her for months now, and at first, I was okay with that because I trusted her. She chose me. But you remember─ last week he insulted me, and that just crossed the line, so I asked Naeun to delete his number, and at the time, she was good about it! She didn’t even protest. She- she seemed to understand.”

“But today you found out she didn’t really delete his number. She just changed his name,” Seulgi concludes.

“Yep. She tried talking it over with me after we left the mall, but I just didn’t want to hear any of her excuses. When I left, she tried giving me a hug, but I shrugged her off. I don’t...” Jinyoung hesitates. “I don’t know if I want to be with her anymore.”

Seulgi raises her eyebrows. In the past, his declarations to end things with Naeun have always been hesitant; never have they been this definite. “So... is this really it?”

“I think so. Yeah, it is,” Jinyoung decides. “I mean, at first I thought I might be overreacting. But then I realised she’s been texting him behind my back whilst pretending to my face that she’d cut off all contact with him. And then I thought, if this is what she’s doing to me now, what is it going to be in five years time? Will she cheat on me, have an affair even after all the promises we’ve made?”

Seulgi nods, even though he can’t see it. “Exactly.”

“Besides, this is high school,” Jinyoung says, laughing. “High school is supposed to be fun.”

“Is it?” Seulgi laughs, too. “Hey, can I ask something? Please don’t get offended.”

“Sure, go for it. It’s pretty hard to offend me.”

Very true, actually. Seulgi chews her lip. “Would you still be dating Naeun if she wasn’t attractive? You know, if everyone wasn’t always praising her beauty to the high heavens every five seconds?”

“That’s the thing,” Jinyoung says sadly, no longer laughing. “She isn’t beautiful to me anymore.”

There’s a pause, as if in this moment they are the same soul and are both mourning the death-like end to something that could have been. Then, “Seulgi?”

“Yeah?”

“Could you... not tell anyone yet? I don’t want everyone on my back about it like last time. And all the ‘last time’s before that. I don’t think I could handle that, it gets so exhausting.”

“Of course,” Seulgi says, hoping that what she’s hearing now in his voice isn’t hesitation.

“Anyway,” Jinyoung says, “How are things with Kai? Have you gotten anywhere?”

“Oh, God...” Seulgi mutters.

***

Sehun had been the first to express excitement about Krystal’s birthday dinner, but he turns right around a few hours later and is the first to say he can’t come. Oh guys, I actually can’t come. I forgot that I have a swim meet tomorrow night, yehet yehet, he types into the group chat.

“What does yehet mean?” Suzy wonders aloud. She does an internet search on the word, but gets no results. “O-kay... Sehun’s making up new words. Nothing new.”

After Sehun’s message, Suzy fears that Kangjoon won’t be able to come, either, seeing as he’s also a swimmer, and sure enough, a message from Kangjoon arrives. However, since he’d just come out of hospital, his mother isn’t letting him go to neither the swim meet nor Krystal’s surprise dinner.

That’s a shame, Suzy sends to the group chat, leaning back against her chair and hoping no one else cancels.

Thankfully, no one else does, but later the next morning, it occurs to her that she had made a reservation for seventeen people, and with two guests down, she’s worried the restaurant won’t be too pleased. “Who else is friends with Krystal and will probably be free tonight?” Suzy mutters under her breath, trying to think of people as she cuts up potatoes for shepherd’s pie during her hospitality class.

Suzy’s still stumped even after she comes out of class, but just as she makes her way up a flight of stairs, she catches sight of Wendy and Luna─ both of whom happen to be friends with Krystal.

 “You two!” Suzy yells, leaping up the last couple of steps to intercept them. “Are you guys doing anything tonight?”

***

“Are you serious?” Seulgi splutters.

“Yeah,” Krystal says. “But that’s so weird! Why would she invite Wendy and Luna to the movie night? I mean, everyone in our group gets along with those two, but they’re not really part of our group.”

“Besides, there are already so many people going to the d- movie night,” Seulgi corrects herself quickly.

“What’s happening?” Jinri pipes up. She’s in a rare good mood as she leans into Seulgi and Krystal’s discussion without invitation.

Seulgi and Krystal exchange a brief glance, sharing a silent flash of annoyance at this interruption. “Our group is going over to Suzy’s tonight for a movie night,” Krystal explains curtly. “We were just talking about how Wendy and Luna got invited unexpectedly.”

Jinri’s face falls. “Wait, so your group is having the gathering, but those two were invited, too?”

“Yes,” Seulgi says, wanting desperately to roll her eyes. Why does Jinri even need to know? “Why?”

“Oh...” All traces of content have disappeared from Jinri’s face, replaced by dismay, which confuses both Seulgi and Krystal. “Wow, it seems like everyone is going to this party,” Jinri says, laughing half-heartedly.

Ah. Seulgi realises that the disappointment on Jinri’s face is due to the fact that she had not been invited. Nothing else. “It’s not a party,” she insists, as if to shoo away the other girl’s desire to be invited to the movie night that is not so much a movie night as it is a dinner.

“Do you think I could come?” Jinri asks hopefully. “If I asked Suzy?”

Krystal looks sideways at Krystal. “Uh...”

“I think she was only allowed to invite a certain number of people,” Seulgi tells Jinri.

“Oh,” Jinri says again. “That’s fine...” She retreats back to her space, her mood now not only sunk, but completely deflated.

***

Kai has a reputation for arriving late, and it doesn’t look as though it will change when he arrives at the restaurant that night and everyone else is already waiting outside, minus Suzy and Krystal.

“Je-sus,” Chanyeol exclaims. His anxious posture and constant watch-checking owes to the fact that he was Suzy’s accomplice in organising this event, and is responsible for making sure everything goes smoothly while she isn’t here. He throws his arms in the air when he sees Kai. “You took your sweet time! We were all waiting for you so we could go in and take our seats.”

“Sorry,” Kai says sheepishly, raising his hands in surrender. “To be fair, though, you really shouldn’t have expected me to come on time.”

Chanyeol sighs. “Well you’re here now, so at least we can go in, and I can text Suzy and tell her we’re here so she can start getting here with Krystal.” He raises his voice to address everyone else, “Have we all sent texts to Suzy saying we suddenly can’t come to the movie night?”

“Yeah, I texted Suzy saying I had taekwondo,” Taehyung says.

“You don’t do taekwondo, though?” Jinyoung frowns.

“I said my little sister was sick,” Baekhyun adds.

“But you don’t have a little sister...” Jinyoung’s brow further creases in lines of confusion.

 “What about you, Kai, did you remember?” Chanyeol asks.

“Yep.” Kai nods. “I said I couldn’t come because my goldfish died.”

Beside him, Seulgi looks up at him with that mixed look of exasperation and amusement she’s seemed to reserve only for him. “You didn’t.”

“I did!” Kai insists. “Do you want to see? Here, I’ll even show you the text.” He pulls out his phone, and Seulgi ducks her little head closer to look at the screen─ which, sure enough, says, Hey, sorry Suzy, can’t come tonight because my fish has died and I should probably bury him before it starts to smell. Maybe next time?

Seulgi is shaking her head; he can’t (ever) tell if she’s actually unimpressed or just dryly amused. “’I should probably bury him before it starts to smell?’” she repeats, snorting. “You guys are terrible at coming up with excuses.”

***

“So, what are you going to order?” Kai asks.

“Kai, that’s probably the third time you’ve asked me that!” Seulgi exclaims, but she’s laughing. “And I still haven’t decided since the last time you asked. I want a pizza, but I don’t think I could finish it all...”

“We should just share,” he suggests.

At the other end of the table, Sungjong observes the two of them quietly with sharp eyes. After walking into restaurants, Seulgi and Kai had coincidentally slid into the long booth right beside each other, and since then, they’ve been sitting pretty close, talking and laughing lightly.

A smile begins its curve on Sungjong’s lips; a hint of suspicion had hit him a few days ago, when the two of them had walked in the rain (and walked that way after school every day since). But now, he can see closely, with his own two eyes, that something is going on.

The question is─ does it go both ways?

***

“Shhh! Suzy and Krystal are right outside!” Chanyeol hisses, but no one takes heed. All around him, conversations continue, Baekhyun and Taeyeon have started making out again, and Taehyung is trying to balance a spoon on his nose, though the constant clutter of cutlery indicates his consistent failure.

Catching the desperate look in Chanyeol’s eye, Chen yells, “SHUT UP EVERYONE, THEY’RE COMING.”

Silence falls.

“Ready, when they come around the corner, we all have to sing happy birthday, and make sure you don’t say anything rude...” Chanyeol’s voice trails off in a blur, muttering instructions so fast they sound like a buzz and everyone just stops listening.

Finally, Suzy appears around the corner, followed by Krystal, who is barely bottling embarrassment and appears to have been coaxed into a little lilac dress and black heels by Suzy.

The whole table gets to their feet, exploding all at once into song, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR KRYSTAAAAL, HAAAAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!”

“Oh, my God,” Krystal squeaks, hiding her face in her hands, and cantering to her seat.

“We so got you!” Chanyeol yells.

“You look hot!” Seulgi shouts, and Jinyoung adds in a wolf whistle.

Krystal takes her seat at the opposite end of the table, disappearing momentarily from the view of the people at the other end of the table. Chanyeol cranes his neck to look over the crowd who are offering presents and well wishes to Krystal.

“Did she look surprised to you?” Seulgi asks eagerly, straining her neck, too, for a view of her best friend. “Is she happy?”

“Yeah,” Chanyeol says, slumping into his seat in half relief, half satisfaction. He nods. “I hope so.”

***

The staring contest begins when the food is brought out, and Seulgi realises (belatedly) that Jinyoung had brought Naeun as his plus one (though Suzy had never mentioned anything about being able to take dates). Only two hours ago they had been having a conversation about Naeun lying to him, and how he would break up with her, yet here they are─ Jinyoung in his checkered button-down and Naeun looking deceptively angelic as usual with her curls, sparkling headband and white dress.

Seulgi stares and stares, trying to catch Jinyoung’s eye, but he seems just as determined not to look at her, as if he senses her disapproval. He must.

When Naeun excuses herself to go to the bathroom, Seulgi kicks Jinyoung under the table with the sharp toe of her heel. “What the hell!” he yelps.

“I should be saying the same to you,” Seulgi say, eyes narrowing. She nods her head in the direction of the bathroom. “What is that? I thought─”

“What’s this?” Kai asks; like Seulgi, his realisations are coming late tonight and he’s only just noticed the tension between Seulgi and Jinyoung. He looks between the two of them, a question in his eyes.

Seulgi would have told him, if not for the favour Jinyoung had asked her. His words ring in her ears. “Could you... not tell anyone yet?” She sighs, because best friends honour their favours, even if sometimes, they are misplaced. “Nothing,” she tells Kai, slipping on a smile. “Jinyoung’s been stepping on my toes all night; I just kicked him so he would stop.” It’s not entirely a lie.

“Yeah,” Jinyoung follows up with swift support, smiling weakly.

“Oh.” Kai laughs, but any further questions he would have asked disappear; his attention is diverted by the waiter coming towards their table, carrying a chocolate cake garnished with strawberries and lashings of more chocolate.

***

“Oh, no...” Wendy says under her breath. Her hand has frozen in place (where she had raised it to to wipe away traces of her business in the bathroom), because of what’s sitting in the centre of the table.

A chocolate cake, circled with syrup-swirled strawberries, and a rain of chocolate curls and flakes.

She’s about to turn back to the haven of the bathroom when Suzy calls out, “Wendy, quick, sit down before we sing happy birthday to Krystal!”

Too late now. Wendy stretches a smile over her teeth and takes her seat. As she stares at the chocolate cake, she tells herself over and over that she wants to be here, she wants to be here, she─

The scent of the cake wafts towards her.

She doesn’t want to be here anymore.

***

“Aw, man,” Seulgi pouts, putting her phone down. “That was my dad. He’s coming to pick me up.”

The people who aren’t already engaged in conversation hear her and offer sympathetic expressions, and ‘Aw, so soon’s. “But we just got dessert,” Kai says.

“I know,” Seulgi says sadly, although truthfully, she’s already so full from dinner. She looks down at the half-eaten slice of cake she’s sharing with him and wishes she had the appetite to finish all of it.

Seulgi looks down at the table at Krystal, who is talking to Daehyun, and wishes she’d been able to be with her more tonight, seeing as the whole point of the dinner was to celebrate her birthday. She thinks briefly that maybe if there were less people, if it was just their group and no plus ones, they would have had a more intimate celebration.

But with that thought, Seulgi allows her gaze to travel, allows herself to see that everyone is having a good time, laughing and eating and chatting away. And looking at Kai beside her, she knows that tonight has not been terrible at all.

Kai notices her staring and touches his face self-consciously. “Have I got something on my─”

“No.” Seulgi chuckles, shaking her head. No, tonight has not been terrible at all.

*

Fifteen minutes later, Seulgi gets a text from her dad saying he’s outside. With a sigh, she gets to her feet, a little disappointed that she’s the first to leave.

She heads over to Krystal’s end of the table and pulls her into a hug. “Happy birthday! I hope you had fun tonight.”

“I did! I can’t believe you all kept this a secret from me!” Krystal shakes her head.

Suzy laughs. “Well, now that it’s over, we can add you to the group chat and you can see all our planning.”

“Oh, I can’t wait.” Krystal winks. “Seulgi, come sit here!”

“I can’t,” Seulgi says, pushing her lower lip out. “I have to go now, my dad’s waiting outside.”

“Aww,” the two girls coo. There’s a round of hugs and goodbyes, before Seulgi heads back to her end of the table to fetch her bag.

She’s just about to turn to leave when Jinyoung says to a standing Kai, “Hey, are you going to walk Seulgi out?”

Kai looks at the two of them, wide-eyed. He blinks, and the surprise on his face is smoothly washed away. “Uh, yeah, sure,” he says, unable to stop the flood of red in his cheeks.

He waits for Seulgi to have all her stuff together, then accompanies her to the door, babbling things about how everyone had such a good night (though he doesn’t really know what he’s saying). Seulgi is right near the restaurant door when Jinyoung, who had been trailing behind them silently, calls out, “Hey, Seulgi, you haven’t paid yet!”

“Oh, my God!” Seulgi exclaims, turning back. She knew she’d forgotten something. Unhooking her bag from her shoulder, she opens it to get her purse─

“No, it’s fine,” Kai says, stopping her. “I’ll pay.”

“No, no,” Seulgi says. “I can’t just let you do that.”

“But we shared,” Kai reminds her. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll pay,” he repeats.

Seulgi stops trying to fetch her purse, though guilt sets in. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.” He smiles.

“...Okay...” Seulgi says, still unsure. “Alright. I should probably go.” She turns to leave, but Kai has his arms out.

“Goodnight,” he says, as she walks into his arms.

“Goodnight." Her voice is muffled, head against his shoulder.

***

When Kai walks back to the table, he gets a chorus of whistles from Taehyung, Daehyun, and Chen, as well as pointed looks from Suzy and Krystal.

“So,” Suzy begins, wiggling her eyebrows. “Did anything happen?”

“Did you kiss her?” Daehyun demands to know, throwing subtlety out the window.

“No...” Kai looks away, flushing. “I just walked her to the door, guys.”

“Just,” Suzy repeats. “Just.”

A/N (8/10/14): Hey guys! Sorry, this update is a little later than usual and is still primarily Seulgi-centric, but it’s a bit longer and I released it earlier than planned because today is my 2 year anniversary on AFF and I wanted to celebrate it some way! I wanted to advertise Tangerine Express, but I didn’t have enough karma points or upvotes, so I’ll just set that as my goal for October 8 of next year. Anyway, it’s been a long and fabulous two years, thank you!