Areum woke up on Saturday. She mentally screamed knowing that it’s her birthday and how much she has to prepare. She proceed to walk to the fridge and pour some milk into the bowl. Not much wanting to help preparing but it’s her party so of course she has to. Her parents somehow decided that for their only daughter, 18th birthday should be this huge grand party with vintage clothing, etc.

    “So, how do you feel about being legal now?” Seungcheol sat down in front of her.

“Meh, I still feel like I’m young.” Areum shrugged.

“That’s because you’re actually 12.” Seungcheol stuck out his tongue and received a

punch from Areum.

    “It’s my birthday, stop being mean to me” Areum whined and Seungcheol cracked up then ruffled her hair.

    “Alright alright fine, people start coming around 4 and you woke up pretty late so start working.” Seungcheol chuckled and left to set up the speakers for the party at the hall that they rented out just for this event.

Areum pulled out her phone.”I forgot to tell Jeonghan, .” She mumbled, her text was simple, but important.

Joy is leaving Korea on Monday, her flight is at 11:45am.

Without receiving any responses from Jeonghan, she continued on what she should be doing for the day, figuring that Jeonghan will know what to do himself. But things never really go as planned for Jeonghan. He has been dealing with his tyranny parents and he never spoke about them to any of his friends, it’s a part of his insecurities, not having loving parents. Jeonghan prefered a free spirit life, rather than a life dealing his family’s business. He decided that for good, he’ll move out, somewhere away from his inhumane filthy rich parents and close to his friends. It’ll be less than half a year before he’s going to move out for college and moving out sooner isn’t a problem.

The clock ticked and still ticking after Areum informed Jeonghan about Joy’s departure. Time flew by and her birthday party will be starting in no time. It’ll be a long party. Somehow, her parents decided that it’ll be a good idea to have Areum choose out 18 guys friends and family that she’ll be dancing with, supposedly symbolizing her growing up and Areum hated it to the core. She didn’t even know who to choose. She listed out all of her male friends in class and her cousin and his friends. The only special guys who’d be dancing with her tonight would be her father and Seungcheol. Not that she chose Seungcheol, but her parents insisted on Seungcheol being her for the night which she does not understand why.

It’s supposed to be a special evening for her. Areum dressed in a longer dress than the rest. She decided that she wouldn’t want to go full out princess like look because that’s just too much. Taking the ideas from prom dresses in America, she chose to wear a similar dark red dress. Bora being the professional at hair that she is, helped Areum in that aspect. She curled and styled Areum’s hair for the night. Honestly said Seungcheol being Areum’s made her wondered about Mingyu’s reactions. It’s not like she hated the idea of Seungcheol being her , even though her parents insisted, she knew that even if they didn’t, she would’ve still chosen him to be her anyways.

“Hansol is here. We’re leaving now, see your ratchet at the hall!” Bora said and walked downstairs with Aeyoung in their bodycon dresses.

Seungcheol knocked on Areum’s balcony door before opening it, they agreed that he’ll be wearing a black tux and black dress shirt inside with a dark red tie to matches her dress. Seungcheol walked in, on his phone as usual before looking up to the girl in front of him. He gasped 100 times in his head, he was completely unaware of what she would like but he sure ain’t disappointed.

“How do I look?” Areum smiled.

“You look amazing.” Seungcheol gave a warm smiled back with his hands in his pocket,”Now let’s go.” He walked her downstairs to his car, well his parents’ to be exact (which is their second son so he never gets to drive the car until today)

“Wait Seungcheol, selca!” Areum held up her handphone and took a selca before Seungcheol started driving. Well, they actually took about 20.

They arrived just in time, the teenagers walked through the back door of the hall, preventing anyone from seeing Areum before she's being introduced. Seungcheol sat in the waiting room with Areum, waiting to be called out, his hand hasn't left his pocket, it has been fidgeting with the charm box and he still doesn't know when is the appropriate time to give it to her. The time has come, Areum linked her arms to his and the event has begun.

"The main character of the day, Jang Areum. Escorting her is Choi Seungcheol." Seungkwan, who's the MC of the event, has been doing rather really well at this.

Seungcheol acted calm and relax, he walked her into the hall and it seems like he's fearless about it. But it's totally different, his heart is beating out of his chest and he became extremely nervous. The first dance was with him, and it was the longest dance besides the one with her father. But to be frank, Seungcheol forgot about the world around him as soon as the music played. He guessed that Mingyu would be rolling his eyes but up until that point, nothing matters but the dance.

He handed her hand over to Areum's father and returned to his seat as the other 17 boys are lining up. Each dances went by quickly, Mingyu, Wonwoo, Jeonghan, Jihoon, Seokmin, Soonyoung, Minghao, Chan, Jun, Seungkwan, Bobby, Donghyuk, Hanbin, Yunhyeong, Junhwe, Jinhwan, Chanwoo, all took her hands and danced, but the only one that bothered him was of course, Mingyu. He was emotionally afraid of the way Mingyu looked at Areum. Joy was sitting among one of the tables, as Areum walked around to greet her guests, she decided to stop a bit and said hi and all.

"Hey Joy!"  Areum stopped at her table and greeted. The girl waved back and smiled. Areum, on purposed, placed Joy and Jeonghan in the same table.

Maybe they’ll work this out after talking to each other, she thought.Jeonghan awkwardly sat at the table, somehow, it’s so difficult for him to open his mouth and explain things to her. He knows that Joy is a firm and straight forward girl.

“Can we talk?” Jeonghan lowered his voice and inhaled,”The girls that you saw, I know none of them.”

“Why should I believe that?” Joy rolled her eyes.

"I'm the one who send you emails and you're the one who's neglecting them!" Jeonghan furrowed his brows,"Anyone here knows that I've never dated a girl whatsoever, I’m busy enough being a mom to approximately 15 children.”

Joy stopped listening to him, she stood up and walked over to the food stalls across the room. She picked up a plate for herself and picked up a drink. She didn’t know what to say to Jeonghan up to this point, everything is just so oblivious to her and she can’t seem to get herself together. A few people passed by and greeted her with a smile and she greeted back.

“I’m done with Jeonghan.” Mingyu said to Wonwoo, unaware of the fact that he’s standing across from Jeonghan’s supposedly girlfriend.

“You know your assumptions aren’t true.” Wonwoo shook his head.

“He’s stealing the girl I like away.” Mingyu furrowed his eyebrows,”She hasn’t stop being around him the day he came into school looking like a dehydrated wee.”

“First, you know Areum doesn’t like him, we don’t know who she likes but it sures as hell ain’t Jeonghan, and Jeonghan is the type to throw Areum out of the window.” Wonwoo argued against Mingyu’s much invalid arguments.

“Yeah, he didn’t throw his arms around her and stood there for 5 minutes when no one’s there.” Mingyu walked off and Wonwoo followed him.

Joy stood there. Bewildered at the words she heard. She doesn’t know if those words are true, but she knew that Mingyu isn’t joking around. Her chest tightens and she never felt more betrayed. She doesn’t even know the boy who said those words but she knows for sure that he’s jealous for a reason. And that reason hurts her more than anything. She walked lifelessly back to the table where she sits next to Jeonghan, she could careless about the food right now. Joy picked up her purse and sighed.

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter