Until Next New Year // Lisrene

December 31st

"Lisa, stop fiddling with your mask! You're going to get glitter in your eyes," Chaeyoung whispered furiously out of the side of her mouth, as she handed their invitations to the security at the door, before they were ushered into the building.

Quickly pulling her hand away from her face like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar, Lisa huffed out a frustrated breath. "I can't help it! Who decided that all the masks needed to be painted on anyway? Why couldn't we have actual masks that won't take four bottles of makeup remover to get off at the end of the night?"

Beside her, Jisoo let out a snort that was completely at odds with the elegant dress she was wearing, which she had admitted to Lisa she had pulled out of the back her closet at the last minute in an attempt to look feminine. "She's got a point, babe."

"It's required! It was what was written on the invitation," Chaeyoung repeated for the fourth time since they'd got ready at Lisa's apartment earlier. "The whole point is that you're not meant to be able to take them off and show people who you a-"

"We know, Chaeng!" Lisa said, humor lacing her tone. "It's just itchy, is all. I didn't realize all this glitter would tickle like this. I feel like I've got spiderwebs waving all over my face."

They'd all done their own masks, sitting around giggling over glasses of wine and bottles of beer. Chaeyoung was sporting a mostly black mask with dark red streaks. Jisoo's was bright white with black spirals all over it; Jisoo decided that since she couldn't go in her uniform, she'd at least be wearing her police colors. What the spirals were meant to mean, Lisa had no idea.

Lisa, on the other hand, hadn't gone for muted shades at all. Several drinks into getting ready, Lisa had spotted the glitter and by the time Chaeyoung realized, it was too late. Lisa had swiped the glue across her already yellow-painted face and added enormous glitter sunflowers to both cheeks. By the time Lisa realized she looked a bit like a Pikachu with hair, it was far too late. She was committed. She was going to see this through to the end.

Once Chaeyoung and Jisoo were done laughing, they'd all got dressed; Chaeyoung in a deep red off-the-shoulder dress, Jisoo in a sleek, long black gown, and Lisa? Lisa was wearing a pale green sheath dress with deeper green accents. The gala was being hosted by the BP Foundation, and all proceeds were going towards aiding the child foster system in Seoul. Chaeyoung had been given three tickets from work, although why the National Intelligence Service needed tickets to a gala like this, none of them knew. But as Lisa was new to Seoul, having only just moved there three weeks ago from Busan, Chaeyoung thought it would be good for her to have a night out.

The truth of it, though, was that Lisa was nervous. Galas like this had never really been her thing. She was much more the pizza and potstickers night kind of person, and although getting dressed up and going to a party was fun once in a while, usually she knew more than two people who were attending. Here, she knew nobody other than Chaeyoung and Jisoo, who were of course, already paired off.

Lisa was third-wheeling like a pro, though. Once inside, they marveled at the lavish decorations, and Lisa headed off through the crowd towards the bar to pick them up some drinks. When she got there, she noticed that even the bartenders were wearing masks. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something about the marks being painted on unsettled her a little bit. As she waited at the bar, Lisa looked around. Many people seemed to have gone for simply-colored undertones, but with elaborate designs on their cheekbones. Some people had gone the whole hog and covered their entire face, not just their cheekbones, eyes, and part of their forehead like most people.

There was even... golly, was that person made up like a clown?! Complete with wig. Lisa shivered and turned her attention back to the bartender, who had gone for a solid block of royal blue diagonally across his face. Chaeyoung was right, though, Lisa admitted grudgingly as she picked up all three drinks. Because of the designs and block colors, it was impossible to tell who was who unless you happened to know the person. The face-shapes were completely distorted by the designs.