Minjae looked around the room as the party raged on. Drinks were flying and people were dancing wildly, most of them drunk, and music booming. For all of a minute, she'd been one of those people but due to her position as designated driver, she was sober; dancing wildly while not drunk was only fun for a limited amount of time. She'd danced for as long as she could before she got tired and bored – now she was left sat on the sofa, watching as people had the time of their lives. I had to draw the short straw on New Year's Eve, she huffed.

She couldn't deny that she was bitter; if she hadn't been so unlucky, she'd be actually enjoying herself. It's not that she needed to be drunk to enjoy a party but when everyone else was drunk and you weren't – it was hard to enjoy yourself. Sighing, she downed her drink – a sad glass of apple juice – before placing the empty cup on the table next to her and rising from her seat. Minjae pushed through the crowd, in search of someone that she came with. To her relief, it didn't take her long to find one of them as her brother Bobby was in the middle of the crowd dancing.

Bobby was the life of the party all the time and for some reason, he never drew the short straw when they did it. Minjae suspected that he cheated somehow so that he'd never have to be designated driver but had never called him out.

Tapping his back, she called his name loudly, trying to be heard over the music. It took her ages to garner the attention she needed, but eventually she managed. He turned around with a huge grin plastered on his face, his eyes low lidded. Minjae narrowed her eyes, wondering how many drinks he'd already had.

"JAE!" he exclaimed, as if he was thrilled to see her. He probably was in his intoxicated state.

"I'm going to the toilet!" she yelled in response.

His eyebrows furrowed, shouting, "WHAT?"

"TOILET!" she replied. His brows rose in acknowledgement as he nodded, waving her away to continue dancing. Rolling her eyes, she walked away, heading up the stairs to find somewhere to hide out. She never actually needed the toilet but she needed a way to explain her absence to everyone. The last time she'd disappeared at a party, Yunhyeong, her and her brothers shared friend, had freaked out – assuming that she'd been kidnapped or killed somewhere. The funny thing is, that time she'd actually gone to the toilet.

Smiling lightly at the memory, she opened the farthest door from the stairs, happy that she could only slightly hear the music from there. The door creaked faintly as she let herself in, scanning the surroundings. It was a bedroom – what appeared to be a girl's one – and to her luck, it was empty. It was covered in posters of various idol bands, such as Bangtan Boys and Exo. Minjae hoped that the owner of the room wouldn't mind her chilling in their room until just before midnight. She decided that she'd head back down just in time for the countdown; that would be good whether drunk or sober.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the door opened, a tall boy waltzing in. Minjae recognised him as one of her brother's friends, Junhoe. He stood at the door, looking surprised. Minjae wasn't sure what to say to him; he was one of the less approachable people that Bobby hung with. She couldn't remember ever having a conversation with Junhoe that didn't end up with them arguing because frankly, they just didn't get along, something about their personalities just didn’t click. He was snarky and kind of mean – she knew because a lot of the time, his hostility was directed at her.

Closing the door behind him, his eyes narrowed slightly as he told her, "This is my hiding spot. You should find a new one."

Minjae choked on her spit, not sure what she had been expecting him to say. "Um, I was here first," she frowned, choosing to stand her ground.

"Actually, I've been camped out here all night. I just went to go pee," he rolled his eyes.

She raised an eyebrow, "Prove it."

Junhoe sighed before crossing the room and picking up a random hoodie that had been thrown on the dressing table. "This is mine," he explained, "I took it off earlier because it was getting hot in here."

Minjae had to admit that it was kind of hot in there but she wasn't going to leave just because he ordered her to. Glaring at him in defiance, she crossed her arms. "Fine, you were here first. But I don't see why I have to leave, can't we both stay in here?" Minjae was hoping he'd at least be nice enough to allow her to just sit in there with him.

He shook his head, snorting, "No."

popped open in surprise. He couldn't be serious. Why the hell couldn't he share a room that wasn't even his? It wasn't as if she was a stranger; she was one of his friends little sister. Most of Bobby's friends felt protective of her and treated her as if she was their sister so she was surprised that he was different. "Why not?"

He rolled his eyes, huffing in impatience, "Because I'm not in the mood for the Kim family friendliness."

Minjae didn't reply for a moment. She knew what he was expecting. Sure she was friendly, but she was nowhere near as outgoing as her brother. Bobby was on a whole other level of charismatic; he could make friends with almost anyone while she could only be bubbly for so long before she was worn out. Plus, she always argued with Junhoe.

"I promise to be quiet," she smiled pleadingly at him, giving him the puppy dog eyes. When he didn't seem to buy it, she held her pinkie finger out, wiggling it at him. "Pinkie swear," she said, pouting slightly.

Junhoe gave her a look of disgust as if her aegyo made him sick – she tried not to take offence. "If you get your pinkie out of my face and ditch the aegyo, you can stay," he rolled his eyes.

Grinning in triumph, Minjae rested her hands on her lap, putting her puppy dog face away. They sat there for a while, in silence. Glancing over at Junhoe, she noticed that he was still stood by the dresser, his arms crossed and his body rigid. He was staring out of the window, his jaw clenched. She wondered what his problem was – resisting her urge to ask him. She stared for a little while longer, pushing away the voice in her mind that was telling her how attractive he was.

To her surprise, he looked away from the window back to her, catching her stare. She held his eyes for a moment before looking away in embarrassment. Maybe he won't say anything, she thought.

"I know that I said you could stay but I didn't think that entitled you to stare at me," he said smugly, breaking the silence that had been built.

"Sorry, you just looked upset," she frowned, looking down at her phone to check the time. There was only fifteen minutes till midnight.

"That's just my resting face," he sighed.

She scoffed, "Of course, I should've realised that you have a permanent stick shoved up your ." He looked back at her in shock, probably not expecting her to be so rude. Minjae had to be honest, she wasn't even expecting herself to be so rude either but something about his smug tone had just gotten to her. Not wanting to wait for his reply, she stood up, smoothing out her dress.

"Where are you going?" he asked her.

She rolled her eyes, "You're the one who wanted me to leave. Why? Do you want me to stay all of a sudden?"

Jeering, Junhoe replied, "No."

Minjae raised her eyebrows in disbelief, hoping to provoke him.

Somehow, her facial expression had worked as Junhoe huffed in annoyance, "Why would I want you stay when for the past half an hour you've been sat there checking me out?"

She gasped, "I was not checking you out."

He smirked, "It's fine. I completely understand why you were staring."

"Meaning?" she scoffed.

"Meaning, I'm a pretty attractive guy, I can see why you want to stare at me."

"It's too bad that nice face comes with a crappy personality," she glared at him.

"See, I knew you thought I was attractive," he grinned.

Rolling her eyes, Minjae shook her head in disbelief, "That's what you got from that?"

He nodded as if he didn't know what else he was supposed to have heard from her comment. The innocent look on his face was one of the most adorable things she'd ever seen. It actually made her want to stop arguing with him. Now that she was looking up at him properly, she realised that as they'd argued, they'd drifted closer to one another until they were only a few feet apart.

"You're doing it again," he said more softly - but still in his naturally raw voice. It reminded her of fine sandpaper - smooth to the touch but still rough and grainy. Still, it was more than enough to break her from her thoughts.

"Huh?"

"You're staring again," he smirked, "You know, if you want, I can hook you up with a picture of me. You could stare at that instead, maybe tape it up on your bedroom ceiling and make me the last thing you see before you go to sleep."

To both of their surprise, Minjae laughed at his comment. Still slightly laughing, she smiled at him, "I don't really know if I want a picture of you looking constipated on my ceiling."

His m