The next day, Baekhyun came out his math class without any worry in the world and just had his mind set on one thing: celebrating! He honestly had no plans to go anywhere; he thought he’d pass out with the lack of sleep he got last night. But, as expected from any college campus, there was some house party going on that wasn’t hard to convince Baekhyun to go to. He got his gang together to privately drink at his place before they all headed out. Everyone knows the golden rule that you don’t show up sober.

“Another shot?” Kai yells at the top of his lungs, pouring shots of vodka into puny, decorative glasses.

“Shut up, the RA’s gonna catch us!” Suho yells back, subtly punching his friend in the gut. “But hell yeah, pour us some!”

Aerin starts laughing and nudges Soojin, who also giggles at the altercation. Set up in the guys’ dorm was just a single collapsible table, with red plastic cups on either end. Everybody was gathered around, mingling between themselves and having a genuinely good time in each other’s presence.

“To a good night!” Kai says, and everyone clicks their single shot glasses together. Aerin takes hers, taps it on the table once, and then downs the drink in one gulp. It’s her seventh shot, and she is slowly beginning to feel the effects.

Knowing her limits, Aerin walks to kitchen to grab a bottle of water. “Chanyeol,” Aerin says out loud, “where’s the water?”

Chanyeol immediately rushes to the kitchen at the sound of his name. “I got you,” Chanyeol replies and walks to the pantry.

“Thank you,” Aerin says when Chanyeol hands her one. She leans on the side of the kitchen island, and practically breathes in the entire bottle. “Can you please recycle this?”

“Will do,” Chanyeol replies. “Even when you’re tipsy, you are such a hardcore tree hugger.” Chanyeol goes to obey Aerin’s request, and when he comes back, he stands at a proximity a lot closer to Aerin than before. Aerin widens her eyes at how close the taller male is, but she definitely is not complaining.

“You look really pretty tonight,” Chanyeol says; he’s so close that the breath he takes after his words hits Aerin on her cheeks. “Did I tell you that already?”

“No, not yet.” Aerin replies with a grin. After a few nights out, Aerin got the idea of what she should’ve been wearing to parties. Before, she was wearing jeans and a tank top, so Aerin came to learn that to fit the party environment, she needed to, said simply, show more skin.

Tonight, she was wearing a black, leather mini skirt, paired with a mesh, long sleeve top. Her eye makeup was a glittery mauve color, done by one of Soojin’s cosmetology friends. Aerin didn’t want to admit it, but when she left her flat, she knew she looked good.

She also didn’t want to admit this, but she wanted Chanyeol to know she looked good too.

“You don’t look too bad yourself,” Aerin says, hooking her hands underneath the island counter. She leans her body backwards, as if she’s inviting Chanyeol to near closer.

“Are you flirting with me, Aerin?” Chanyeol seizes the opportunity to inch towards Aerin, and his hands reach for her hips. Aerin lets out a sudden gasp when she feels his hand cuff her side, and Chanyeol chuckles at her reaction. “Cute.”

“Hey, y’all, we’re bout to go now!” Suho shouts as he walks inside the kitchen. Chanyeol instantly removes his hand from Aerin’s side, and Aerin perks up and stands straight as a soldier. “Oh, gosh.” Suho says after witnessing the whole thing, “Y’all can save that for after the party. Please don’t do anything at the actual house; you guys have reputations to keep up with!”

“We’re not doing anything, Suho,” Aerin laughs it off. “But okay, we’re coming!”

Aerin straightens her skirt and walks behind Suho, and Chanyeol follows right afterwards with a sly smirk on his face.

--

When Aerin and her friends enter the party, it’s a complete chaotic mess. The house was divided; upstairs was the boisterous, crowded dance floor with red, plastic cups scattered on every countertop there was, and downstairs was a less populated area with people stoned out their minds. Aerin didn’t even want step a foot downstairs; the smell, to her, was horrendous.

Aerin takes a seat on the couch upstairs, with a bottle of water in her hands. She knew her limits and wanted to watch herself today. She didn’t want tonight to be a repeat of the bar.

“Hey,” Aerin hears a voice, followed by someone plopping by her side. “You lonely or what?” Aerin twirls her head to see that it’s a boy that looked familiar; perhaps it was a host of a party she previously went to. “I’m Jinyoung, you’re one of Baekhyun’s friends, right?”

“Yeah,” Aerin replies. She notices that Jinyoung is also holding a water bottle, and realizes that she and him are probably the only two not holding a red cup in their hands. “How do you know him?”

“We had Biology together. We could’ve kept having classes together, but uh, I’m pretty sure he made a solid 30 on his Bio final