Lipgloss. Check.

    Mascara. Check.

    Heels so high that one wrong step could break an ankle like a twig. Double check

    Cho Minhee prepared herself for battle with a grim determination. Her outfit had been planned two weeks ahead and had been at least quadruple checked. She had been up until the wee hours of the morning ironing every last wrinkle out of her skirt, and had even gone over the pleats twice.

    Spinning carefully in the mirror, Minhee gave herself one last once-over before sighing and running her hand over the grey long-sleeve t-shirt that she had paired with the palest pink tennis skirt. She wore white heels so high it had made her sick to her stomach just pulling them out of her closet. The shirt was the slightest bit too small, and it showed a teasing strip of egg shell skin that made Minhee smirk to just look at. The thin gold chain she clasped around her neck completed the look.

    It was the perfect blend of innocent and promiscuous, and Minhee nodded to herself in final approval before grabbing her purse and laptop to head to her morning class at university.

    Her friend Yoomi who lived across the hall paused to say hello as she struggled to balance a coffee and several binders while unlocking her door. Yoomi and Minhee had met just a few months ago when Yoomi had helped Minhee get up the stairs in the same shoes she was wearing on this occasion and had been friends ever since.

    "Cute outfit today, Minhee." Yoomi didn't look the least bit surprised, having gotten used to Minhee's increasingly bold wardrobe choices over the past two months. 

    "Thanks Yoomi," Minhee a strand of hair down over her shoulder. It had been very long at one point, but she had decided to cut it all off a couple weeks back and hadn't regretted the decision one bit. "Tell Sungmin I said hey."

    "Will do," her neighbor grinned. "Have a great day."

    Minhee threw an automatic "you too" over her shoulder as she strode down the hall, deliberately taking the elevator so she wouldn't mess up her meticulously applied make up. Tapping her foot impatiently against the tile of the elevator, Minhee pursed her lips (many thanks to the new bubblegum tinted lip gloss she had purchased for just this occasion) and checked her phone for texts before the doors opened and the girl hurried out, shoving her device back into her purse.

    Walking at a brisk pace, Minhee was well aware of the attention she drew. Minhee was an attractive young lady, and she was well accustomed to the males that swarmed around her like a swarm of flies. 

    It took a lot to impress a girl like Cho Minhee- a boy like Park Chanyeol, for example. Park Chanyeol was the only boy who didn't fall over his own two feet over her, and it drove her crazy. Wait. Had driven. 

    Not that she still liked him or anything. A pang of hurt ran through her as she recalled how crappy she had felt while dating him: the ignored calls, the constant insecurity every time he asked her out, how he had been on his phone the whole time they were together

    Minhee was 100% over him and his adorable laugh, the way he put his hand in the crook of her elbow when he talked to her, and how he always texted to make sure she got home okay. Yep. Totally over him.

    Loud, boyish laughter and several raised voices of girls gave away the approach of the boy she had desperately avoided at all costs, and Minhee ducked behind a corner as fast as she was able to in her heels. Not two seconds later, Chanyeol and his equally disgustingly beautiful friends appeared from the building Minhee was currently hiding behind. For a second there she let herself admire the artwork that was Park Chanyeol.

    It was like he had gotten even hotter from the time they broke up (was that even possible?). His hair had grown out from the choppy black style he had kept it in, and now it was styled neatly on top of his head, cut short on the sides and dyed an almost imperceptible dark red that somehow worked on him. 

      Looking him over again, Minhee could not tell if he had gotten taller or if she had just not really cared to look before, but he was still almost a half a head taller than her when she was wearing her death trap shoes, and Minhee was pretty leggy, herself. 

    Unfortunately for Minhee, that also meant that he had grown even more popular among the girls at university, and the news of their break up had been a hot topic that was only just beginning to die down because of Chanyeol's newest piece of arm candy that was a huge slap in the face: Han Seulgi. 

    Han Seulgi had been Minhee's biggest insecurity while dating Chanyeol; the girl threw herself at her boyfriend every chance she got, and it wasn't like Chanyeol had ever done anything specific to stop it. On the contrary, he seemed to welcome the attention a busty, attractive girl like Seulgi could give. Minhee was pretty, sure, but her flat chest and skinny legs were her secret shame, and it was because of this she always wore flouncy skirts that cinched at the waist but flared outwards, hiding her lack of curves.

    Minhee snapped back to attention, rolling her eyes at Seulgi clinging onto Chanyeol's arm like some sort of an exotic monkey and pulling out her cell phone from her purse and punching a name in her contacts. She tapped her foot as she waited for the person to pick up.

    "Hey," Minhee said immediately as Bora groggily picked up her phone. "Where are you? The jerk is right here and I need back up."

    Mumbling from the other end of the phone made Minhee roll her beautifully makeup-ed eyes (it had taken her almost an hour).

    "Please," she retorted sarcastically. "You are still in bed. Don't lie."

    More mumbling.

    "Yeah, whatever. I'll tell you about it later, okay?" 

    Minhee hung up her phone and opened her text messages to make herself look busy before stepping out into eyesight of the boy she had preparing to face all week. When she heard Chanyeol had asked out Seulgi, Minhee knew she needed to step it up.

    Putting one foot in front of the other, Minhee walked with what she hoped was confidence down the sidewalk, pretending not to notice Chanyeol as his group passed her by. As her shoulder nearly brushed with a couple of them, she shrunk back, hoping they didn't know who she was, but she doubted it. Based on their lack of a reaction, Minhee didn't think they knew who she was. 

     As Chanyeol approached, however, Minhee drew herself upwards and locked her spine into a rigid line: Chanyeol would not be getting the best of her today.

    Casually tossing her hair over her shoulder, she braced for the inevitable comment that was bound to come her way. Minhee ran possible comebacks through her mind, clutching her phone tighter and tighter with each passing second until she thought that her knuckles would surely burst through her skin.

     She watched him as he drew near; his eyes were locked on Seulgi as they chatted, and every now and then they would crinkle into that smile of his at something the girl said. Minhee felt her heart thump in protest, and she frowned, waiting for him to notice her and hit her with the barrage of unkind words.

    What happened, however, was worse than anything she could have ever imagined: nothing. Chanyeol did nothing; he didn't even stop to roll his eyes at her or throw an underhanded remark her way. Instead he joked around with the friends he never bothered to introduce her to, holding Seulgi tightly around her waist.

    He had never done that with her; in fact, he had never bothered to tell her their names. Yet there Seulgi was, smiling and talking with the group like she had known them for years while Minhee stood stock still in the middle of the sidewalk in heels that were much too high, wishing she had brought bandaids for her feet.

    Chanyeol had not only dumped Cho Minhee, the undumpable girl, the girl guys could only fantasize about, but he had also managed to add insult to the injury by showing off his new toy. Minhee didn't know whether to cry or scream, but right then she had half a mind to do both. 

     She remembered that her makeup had taken more than two hours to apply and quickly reconsidered, opening her cell phone front camera to check her reflection. She frowned down at her face and wondered what was so wrong with it that it had made Chanyeol lose interest.

    Did he even notice that she had been standing right there?

     No, Minhee reminded herself, he had not.

    Furiously dialing in another number in her phone, Minhee didn't even wait for the other person to say hello before she began talking.

    "Bora," Minhee's voice shook with fury. "Get your out of bed right now. We have a situation."

     Mumbling from the other end of the phone call made Minhee roll her eyes; she had begun to pace back and forth as she spewed empty words at her friend on the phone. The more Minhee talked however, the more worked up about it all she became, and before she knew it, tears streaking her cheeks charcoal with mascara.

     "," Minhee exclaimed, not bothering to pull the phone away from her ear. "My makeup is ruined, and I worked so hard on it this morning."

     She plopped down heavily onto a bench and hung up her phone, staring at her screensaver- a picture of the beach that she had driven to with Chanyeol a month before they had broken up. It had been a good day.

       She closed her eyes and pictured his face as he had grinned to her from his towel as they both lay in the sand, more focused on each other than the water. They had spent the day building sandcastles and holding hands while basking in the sun, and not once had he picked up his phone.

       She hated that the more time that passed from the break up, the more his good moments became apparent. 

       Well, it wasn't like he had been that great, anyway. He ignored her more than he talked to her, he spent more time with his phone on their dates, and he refused to introduce her to any of his friends (like he was embarrassed of her or something). Minhee nodded her head encouragingly to herself and locked her phone, shoving it in her purse.

       It wasn't like she was holding onto anything special by keeping that screensaver. It was a pretty picture, that was all.

       She was totally over him. 

      Minhee stood up from the bench to get to class and swore as she swayed in her ridiculous shoes. She took them off and swapped them out for the flats she had put in her purse that morning. 

       Chanyeol wasn't worth wearing those shoes for, she told herself.