“No more shots!” Yoonmi laughed and giggled while hiccupping at the same time, something she didn’t think would be possible considering how much she had to drink. “Sojin, no more!”

“It’s your bachelorette party!” Having to take on the role as bartender, Sojin grabbed a random bottle of tequila and poured it over empty shot glasses, spilling it all over the table as the glasses started to overflow. “This is the celebration of leaving everything behind so you can start a new life with the man of your dreams!”

“You’re even more drunk than I am if you’re saying like that.” Yoonmi wobbled from where she stood and scrunched her eyes to try to get some focus back. “I see two of you.”

Ignoring Yoonmi’s comment, Sojin tumbled over, spilling some more tequila on the floor and passed Yoonmi a shot. “Come on at 26 years old, you’re a freaking business partner at Yates and you’re about to marry Mark Tuan. Life can’t get any sweeter than that, Yoonmi! Let’s have a drink because you played the fcking game of life and have hit the jackpot!”

Getting caught up in the festive feel of the room, Yoonmi took the shot from Sojin and tipped her head back, no longer able to feel the burn of alcohol because of how tipsy she was becoming. After a while, Sojin pulled her over to sit on the bed (they had rented out a huge suite in a hotel for the party because Yoonmi didn’t want any clients to see her getting a from a stripper if Summer did hire one), and they all started to start shouting out what they wanted to do.

“Okay!” Sojin put her hands up so everyone would quiet down. “We’re so starting with my favourite game – toilet paper dress.”

Laughing while people spun her around, Yoonmi and all the girls grabbed toilet paper and split into teams as they all started their dream toilet paper dress. Not at all shocking, Sojin’s dress was ripped to shreds because of how frantic she became in the last two minutes and she couldn’t figure out how to hold still.

After taking photos and forcing the girls away from the laptop to stop them from posting on facebook, Yoonmi plopped onto the couch and waited for the next game Sojin had planned.

“Grab a marker and some post its,” Sojin directed the girls. “And then write down your favourite memory of Yoonmi. This can be sweet and sentimental, but I would prefer if it were embarrassing because that is what makes this fun.”

Yoonmi laughed loudly and tossed a roll of toilet paper at Sojin’s head before resting her head on the couch, wondering if she really was leaving behind her single life. Married. She never expected herself to marry Mark, it just seemed too surreal.

While she was just watching everyone peek over one another’s shoulders, her phone buzzed and funny enough, it was Mark calling. Excusing herself to the bathroom, Yoonmi took the call.

 “Hey,” she said.

“Aren’t you supposed to be really drunk and completely beyond speaking the English language?” Mark laughed on the other end, remembering when he had dialed Yoonmi when he was at his bachelor party.

“Not that drunk yet.” She giggled and sat on the edge of the bathtub. “Why are you calling?”

“Just wanted to make sure Summer didn’t have you streaking down the street singing Celine Dion,” he said. “But why are you taking my call? You’re supposed to be having fun.”

“I am having fun,” she insisted. “We’re just playing another game where I can’t really participate. And besides, this was a very poorly planned bachelorette party because our wedding is literally two days from now. Can’t risk tripping or else you’ll see Scarface walk down the aisle.”

“I think Sojin wanted to prolong it for dramatic purposes,” Mark said. “But are you sure you’re alright? Do you want me to by to pick you up?”

Yoonmi smiled, completely able to picture Mark in their house, pacing around the living room and ready to grab his keys if she wanted him to. He always made her feel safe and secure like no one else in the world could.

“I don’t think you want to battle with ten different drunk women to get me out,” she joked.

“That is rather frightful,” he admitted. “Having one woman scratch you is already scary – now imagine ten of them drunk.” He laughed at his own joke before saying goodbye to her; “I love you, Yoonmi. Be safe.”

“With you, I always am,” she smiled. “I love you too.”

As Yoonmi made it back out of the bathroom, the girls looked completely buzzed with excitement as they waited for her to sit down. One by one, they all read what they wrote on their sticky notes, some embarrassing like when Yoonmi did a presentation in class and didn’t realise her white dress shirt was completely see through and the whole class had an eyeful, others were sweet with words of encouragement and promises to stay in touch even after they all had kids. Most of all, everyone congratulated her on what seemed like the perfect relationship – the cherry on top of her sundae.

Everything was going completely according to Sojin’s plan until a very drunk Minah got up to read out her note.

“Hey, remember before you met Mark?” Minah tried to stand up but her knees kept collapsing on her. “Like you were like so hung up on freaking Jimin all the time. Waiting for freaking Jimin because he –”

Sojin tackled – literally tackled – Minah to the ground before slapping a hand over . Her expression was a mixture of complete disbelief and fear as she looked over at Yoonmi.

Yoonmi froze at the sound of Jimin’s name but as quickly as she froze, she laughed it off as a joke. “Okay, I was a little mopey, you think you could let go of that?”

The other girls laughed along with Yoonmi but the tension in the room had changed for the worst. After cleaning up a good part of the mess, the girls started to yawn, falling asleep on the bed, on the floor, on the couch –  virtually anything that caught them as they fell.

Eventually Yoonmi passed out but something woke her up in the middle of the night. She wasn’t sure what it was. Stretching, she rolled out of bed and grabbed her phone before walking around limp bodies and out of the room. She tried to call Mark – there was a good chance he wasn’t really sleeping anyhow – but her phone signal kept changing from one bar to five and then to one again, cutting her phone call before it could completely connect.

Feeling annoyed, Yoonmi went in to grab her shoes before walking downstairs, hoping that she’d have more luck with getting reception from there. Not wanting to sit in the lobby, she went outside and sat on a bench, crossing her legs before she dialed Mark.

A part of her was grateful that Mark didn’t pick up because that meant he was able to sleep, but another part of her wanted to talk to
someone. Not about anything in particular, she just wanted someone to distract her and give her a reason to fall back sleep. She gave up and left him a message, letting him know that she was fine and that she had a great night.

“Yes.” Yoonmi looked at him to see if she could place him anywhere. Was he a son of one of her clients? “Can I help you with something?”

“Someone asked that I deliver this note to you, Miss.” The bell boy passed her a note before pushing his baggage of carts into one of the elevators, leaving her to wonder what that was all about.

Let’s meet at our tree.