PUCKER UP ❆ LEE HAECHAN

❆ chapter twenty-seven

Before Hyerim left for the party, Jihee had briefed her for the plan like they were in a Marvel movie.

Step one - acquire beer to make the whole process easier.

Hyerim entered the party with this in mind, heading straight towards the stack on the table. Pulling one out of the six-pack and cracking it open, she slightly cringed at the room-temperature beer.

Step one was down.

Step two - dance.

Now, this was easier said than done. Hyerim chugged the beer, hoping to be a little bit tipsy so that she didn't have to dance around sober - she would die of embarrassment.

Feeling a bit of a buzz, she made her way to the dance floor, hands clutching her beer close to her chest. A wave of awkwardness washed over her as she tried to move with the crowd, the smell of sweat invading her nostrils.

Her eyes wandered over to Jihee that was a distance away, pressed against a guy as they swayed. She shot Hyerim a look of encouragement, hoping to calm the girl down. It semi-worked, as Hyerim began also swaying along to the beat, trying to look as natural as possible.

Step two was completed. Kind of.

Now for step three - find a cute guy.

As Hyerim surveyed the pool of choices, none of them caught her eye. Some were good looking enough, she supposed, but none matched up to-

"Hey, pretty lady."

Hyerim swore she didn't mean to visibly grimace, but she tried her best to cover it up with a smile.

"Hey." She turned to look at the culprit of the compliment, finding a guy staring back at her. 

He was just okay-looking in her opinion. Jihee would probably find him cute, so she marked step three as complete in her mind.

Step four - flirt.

"So, um, how are you? How's your day?" She folded her arms in an attempt to look cool, but she could tell that she looked weird judging by the quizzical look the guy gave her.

This was going to be a long night.

❆

Three hours later, and Hyerim had talked to exactly two guys.

Flirting was hard. The two men that she had interacted with didn't flirt like him. They weren't effortless and casual with it, instead using corny nicknames and and making it hard for Hyerim to stay five minutes around them.

While wandering towards the bin to dispose of her beer can, that's when she saw him.

Standing at one end of the beer pong table, which she learnt was one of his favourite drinking games.

Haechan had one eye squeezed shut, his bottom lip captured by his teeth as he concentrated. His sleeves were rolled up, exposing his forearm as he practised flicking his wrist to aim into the last cup.

Hyerim watched as he flicked two times before launching the orange ping pong ball. It landed in the last cup, skimming the rim before falling inside with a plopping sound.

She decided that she had seen enough when his friends whooped, surrounding him and dapping him up, girls included. But she stayed a second longer and watched as another girl - a red haired one this time - ran her hand along his arm, leaning forward to try and whisper something in his ear.

And that one second was enough for him to lock eyes with Hyerim as he leaned away from the girl, shrugging off her hand from his arm as he muttered something to his friends, not even looking at them. 

Hurriedly, Hyerim turned around, squeezing her way through the crowd to get away from him, embarrassed that she had gotten caught staring, scared that he would try and talk to her even though that was sort of the point of her being at the party tonight.

To cuss him out, then shove another guy in his face like he had shoved another girl in her face.

She huffed as she tried to slither past the people crowding the living room, but she didn't get far before she felt a hand on her shoulder, and heard a familiar voice whisper into her ear, his lips brushing lightly, his breath fanning the side of her face.

"We need to talk."

im ngl i have MADDD writers block rn like i have zero motivation but im leaving for japan and china in 2 weeks and i wont be back until january bc i have a bunch of family over there. so im trying my best to push through the chapters but they are so shitty omfg im so sorry I JUST WANNA FINISH THE BOOK so i dont leave everyone hanging for like 2 months. i still wanna try retain the quality of the chapters though but tbh im speeding through so many details and just rushing its so bad im losing my mind

how are yall though