Toward the Walk of Shame

17 {Suzy}

I don't know if Sehun understood what he had just done. I barely understood. Even if he was naive - and I knew he wasn't - there was no mistaking the angry look in Seulgi's eyes before he left. It was weird to see her eyes so icy when her hair and lips looked like they were on fire. You could practically feel the waves of hatred radiating off her body.

Even now I could feel her eyes piercing through my back. I don't know if Sehun felt it, too, but he tightened his grip. And he never looked back. Not when even Kai let out a loud "Whoop!"

We didn't head for the parking lot. Instead, we strolled along the water's edge, hand in hand, but not looking at each other. Not saying anything. I was glad. I didn't know what I was supposed to say. My mind was still reeling.

He chose me. Me over Seulgi in all her red-bikini glory. In front of everyone. His hand was warm and steady in my hand. It was both comforting and made me tingle from head to toe. And it was getting kind of hard to catch my breath.

Finally, when the party was way behind us, he let go and sank down into the sand barely a few feet from the shore. He watched the waves crash against each other in the distance. White foam glowed against the black ocean. A couple of seagulls pecked at the sand around us, cooing at each other every other minutes or so.

"So, that was kind of crazy." Sehun commented after a while.

"Yeah, a bit." Sitting down next to him, I tried to sound confident. "I could've handle it, though."

"I'm sure you would have." He wave his hand in front of my face. His index finger and thumb were an inch apart. "I helped a little bit, though."

"Maybe." I batted his hand away. "Or maybe I let you play the knight in shining armor to boost up your ego. Big as it already is."

"I think we both know that my ego is already at its max," he said with smile that made my stomach flop.

"You said it, not me."

With a laugh, Sehun shifted to the side and took the joint out of his pocket. "Better get rid of this now before I forget. Eomma and Mark would freak if I accidentally brought it home." He wound his arm back and pitched it into the ocean. Dusting of his hands, he turned to look at me. "So why are you here?"

I wrapped my arms around my knees and rocked. "What do you mean? This is my scene every Friday night. Before Seulgi showed up, I was the life of the party out there."

A wide smile came across his face. "Something makes me really doubt that, since you consider homework fun." His hair flopped as he shook his head. Parts of his hair were still damp. He must have been surfing before the party. "Are you sure there's no other reason?"

Was I such a bad liar? It was like he saw right through me. "I was worried about you. You seem different. Like you're mad at me or something. Especially after the other night with Minho -" I broke off when his jaw visibly tightened. Uh, maybe this wasn't the best time to bring up Minho. "Do you regret this?"

He stared out at the water. "Depends what you mean by this."

What the hell. There was no turning back now. I let out a small breath. "The contract. Us pretending to be together. Do you regret it?"

Even though I asked the question, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to know his answer. Because I was afraid of what it would be. Just because he chose me over Seulgi once didn't mean anything. Maybe he was being nice.

He finally look down at me, and his face softened a bit. His eyes searched my face like he wanted to find the right answer there. his hand brushed my hair out of my eyes, and I fought the urge to lean against his hand. "No, I don't."