‘Ssshhh, she’s waking up!’ In a hazy state, I forced myself to sit up and was startled by the sight of Yibo and Seungyoun’s heads floating on the edge of the bed.
‘Morning Chi.’ Yibo said softly, staring at me as if he was scared of me. Words struggled to come out when I tried to respond, ‘Wa-ter…’
‘WATER! SHE FREAKIN’ NEEDS WATER! SOMEONE GET HER WATER!’ Seungyoun bolted out of the room screaming at the top of his lungs and then came back in an instant, nearly slipping on the floor in his socks, with a glass of water in his hand.
‘Thanks…’ I never knew water could taste so heavenly as I chugged down the entire glass, soothing my dry throat. I put the glass down onto the table with Seungyoun and Yibo intently watching my every move which was a bit embarrassing.
‘She’s awake! Alright, move aside kids, we’re dealing with adult stuff here.’ Wenhan declared as he entered the room and shooed Seungyoun and Yibo away from the bed with his foot despite their grumbling.
‘Chi here is experiencing what we adults call a hangover.’ Wenhan haughtily placed his hands on his hips whilst Seungyoun and Yibo glared at him, irritated that he was belittling them. Hangover… I thought about it for while and it didn’t seem right to me.
‘Let’s let her rest, little ones!’ Yibo and Seungyoun put on a tantrum as Wenhan pulled them out by the back of their shirts.
‘But we have to protect Chi!’ Seungyoun whinged. Their resistance was no match for Wenhan’s beastly strength. He worked out the most out of all them after all. Even though my head was still throbbing, I was quietly chuckling throughout the whole ordeal.
Hangover… A wave of uneasiness fell on me. Suddenly, Yixuan came rushing through the door with a steaming hot bowl of soup on a wooden platter.
‘Yixuan’s special hangover soup coming through!’ He excitedly announced as he set it aside onto the bedside table. I smiled at the homely sight of Yixuan in a yellow apron admiring his own steaming hot dish.
‘You didn’t have to.’ I said with a weak smile. Before I could explain what I meant, he waved his hands up in the air.
‘Don’t be silly. Plus, it’s a chance for me to see if it’s still good!’ He beamed as he stirred the soup around.
‘Yixuan, I didn’t have anything to drink last night.’ I said.
‘What?’ Yixuan sat beside me on the edge of the bed, ‘What do you mean you didn’t have anything to drink?’ I could tell he was very confused but concerned all of a sudden.
‘I didn’t have any alcohol last night. I don’t have a hangover.’ The more I thought about it, the more upset I became. I didn’t realise it but I was so stressed, my eyes blurred up from the tears welling up. I quickly wiped them away, hoping that Yixuan wouldn’t see. Yixuan remained silent as he comforted me by slowly rubbing my shoulder.
‘Sungjoo said he found you at one of your friend’s place. We can work backwards from there, okay?' Yixuan warmly smiled at me and I quietly nodded. He went in for a comforting hug and patted my back before letting go. A friend’s place…? Who could it be? I suddenly noticed the time on Yixuan’s watch and frantically kicked the blankets off me.
‘Where do you think you’re going?’ Yixuan pushed me down by the shoulders as soon as I tried to get up.
‘I need to get ready for work!’
‘Don't worry. I’ve already called your workplace to say you can’t make it today.’ I looked at him in awe, amazed at how far ahead he had thought. No wonder he was the leader of the group. Mama Yixuan! ~ He went over to the soup bowl and took a small sip of it from the spoon.
‘Alright, the temperature is perfect now.’ He lifted up the big bowl and gave it to me, ‘It better be all gone when I get back.’ Yixuan warned as he took his apron off and I gratefully nodded.

~

I finally woke up from another nap and was staring at the ceiling. Then I went to the bar and ordered Coke… I remembered the blonde bartender who served me. Was it him? Did he do something to my drink? It tasted like Coke though. All of a sudden, Sungjoo’s face appeared out of nowhere and startled me. He was hovering his head right above mine as I was still laying down.
‘How are you feeling?’ He asked with a wide grin on his face. It was such a comforting sight to see.
‘Better than this morning.’ I replied. Without time for me to react, Sungjoo’s face looked as it was getting closer and I was scared he would be able to hear my heart beating at such an alarming rate. He suddenly placed his forehead on mine for a few seconds and then straightened himself up with his arms crossed. What...what the hell was that for?
‘Well you don’t have a fever which is good.’ He calmly said.
I sat myself up on the bed, ‘Thank you helping me yesterday.’
‘I’m just glad that you were safe when I found you. You should thank your friend Chorim later.’ Chorim? It was a little strange to find out that she was the one to help me out. Not that I thought she was a bad person but it was just unexpected. Her nickname of being the campus ‘angel’ didn’t seem so absurd after all. I’ll call her later. Maybe she’ll be able to tell me what happened. I suddenly remembered the sensation of me twirling Sungjoo’s rose between my fingers from last night when I was at the outdoor bar. Oh no!
‘What’s wrong?’ Sungjoo asked after seeing the dark expression on my face.
‘I’m really sorry.’
‘Sorry about what?’
‘I…’ A long sigh escaped me, ‘I lost the rose you gave me last night.’ I could feel the disappointment envelop me. I had a feeling it wasn’t a big deal to Sungjoo but to me, it was. To my surprise, Sungjoo’s hearty laugh suddenly filled the room.
‘You were worried about something like that?’ He tilted his head and smiled warmly at me, ‘If that’s the case, I’ll buy you a million more roses.'
I stared at him blankly whilst I processed what he just said. The only thing I could manage to say was a dumb-founded, ‘What?’
He grinned mischievously, not saying another word. He must have found it amusing to see me awkwardly looking around the room, figuring out how to respond to him without looking like a fool. At that moment, we both heard the front door open and the sound of footsteps so Sungjoo promptly left the room to greet the others. I slid back down into the bed and shyly pulled the blanket up to my nose.

Later that night I returned to my place despite much retaliation from the guys. I already felt bad that I had taken Sungjoo’s bed for a whole night and didn’t want to bother them any further. I did end up calling Chorim up to thank her. She was incredibly flustered by my gratitude and just told me to treat her to lunch some time. She briefly explained what happened last night and to my relief, it seemed like nothing extremely bad happened whilst I was unconscious because she had found me just in time.
    ‘Also, it’s another long story but do you still have my heels?’
‘Your heels?’
    ‘Yeah um, they were like 4 inch red pumps?’
‘I don’t know. I’ll ask my friend if he has them and I’ll return them to you as soon as possible!’
    ‘Oh, yeah, no worries. Anyway, I have to go now but I’ll talk to you at school yeah?’
‘Yeah no worries, bye! Thank you once again!’
    ‘Bye!’
Even with Chorim’s account of last night, the whole fiasco last night still bothered me immensely. Why I became the way I did was still a mystery. It wasn’t the bartender, was it? I fell backwards onto my bed. And how come I have Chorim’s heels? I tossed and turned all night with a million questions distracting me when I was trying to sleep that night. Tired and frustrated, I some light music and closed my eyes, hoping that everything would go back to normal soon.

~

It had only been a few days since the festival but it seemed it would be a while until things went back to the way they were.
‘Ah Chi! You missed it!’ Minny came running to me and pulled me closer.
‘What did I miss?’
‘Namjoon and Jin were in here just a few moments ago.’ Minny whispered to me. It took me a while to process who she was talking about. Ah, the elitists...
‘Really?’ I still didn't understand what the fuss was about them but when I thought about it as being the real life gossip girl, it made more sense.
‘But you know what the strangest thing was?’ Minny stared at me with anticipation and I shook my head, ‘Namjoon totally had his eyes on Hyojin!’ She giggled out loud, ‘He looked like a complete fool for her!’
It actually wasn’t that surprising. After all, it wasn’t unusual that someone as pretty as Hyojin attracted the likes of Namjoon.
‘Minny, don’t bother Chi with something like that.’ Hyojin smirked, ‘It doesn’t matter to her.’ I pretended not to be bothered by her remark and went to the staff room to get ready.

That wasn’t the last time I would hear of Kim Namjoon that very week. I had finished my shift for the day and was gathering my stuff when Minny barged into the staff room with her phone in her hand.
‘Did you receive the invite!?’
‘Invite?’ I took my phone out and checked my notifications, ‘To what? I didn’t receive anything.’
‘He must have missed you because you’re a new student. I’ll add you to the event.’ Minny said as she tapped on her phone, ‘It’s going to be huuuuggggeee!’
Once I received the invite, I quickly scanned through the event details. It was an event exclusive for business students at S University held by none other than Kim Namjoon. Considering the size of the whole faculty, Minny wasn’t exaggerating when she said it was going to be huge.
‘House of cards?’ I read out loud as I going though the invite.
‘Yes! It’s a really famous night club in the area. I’ve always wanted to go to it but you need membership to get in…’ Minny excitedly held her phone up, ‘unless there’s an event held by a member!’ She squealed with joy. I couldn’t say I was as excited as Minny about this sudden event but it did seem quite interesting.

~

Later that day, I was at home folding my clothes when I heard a knock on the door.
“Who is it?” I cried out, waiting for a response. Without hearing anything, I walked over to the front door and cautiously opened it. There was no one at the door and I was about to return inside when my eyes spotted something on the ground. I picked up the photo and took a look at it. It was an image of a guy hugging a girl from behind, taken from not too far away on the side. I couldn’t quite figure out what was wrong with it until I examined the location and the outfits the people were wearing. Wait, that's... It was a photo of Sungjoo hugging me from behind on the night of the festival. I quickly opened the door and looked both ways down the hallway. Whoever knocked on the door and left the photo behind was long gone. I returned my attention to the photo as I closed the door and realised there was something written on the back of it.

STAY AWAY FROM THEM