kdrama | l.jn

t h i r t y o n e

"You good in there?", Jeno asked Aerin who was changing in his dressing room.

"Yep, can you help me with something though?", she said, opening the door and coming back into Jeno's room, "Can you...zip it up for me?"

Jeno blushed at the request -he's still a teenager after all-, Aerin turned around, sliding her hair to the side. Jeno's hands shakily reached out for the zipper as his cheeks heat up more and more.

"Thank you.", she said, turning around and brushing her hair back, "Where's your tie?"

"Still trying to figure that out.", Jeno answered, holding up his tie.

"How can you not know how to do this after all this fancy events?", Aerin sighed, taking the tie from his hand and putting it around his neck.

"Well, I'm used to someone else doing it for me."

"Be an independent man.", she rolled her eyes, adjusting the tie for him.

"Thanks, let's go now. Mr.Min is waiting for us.", Jeno gently grabbed her hand and pulled her as he walked out of his room. Aerin grabbed her bag on the way not letting go of his hand which felt quite nice in hers. 

The two were still holding hands when they arrived at the ball, they both entered the building and the atmosphere changed immediately. The room was filled with rich people wearing gorgeous dresses and fancy suits with a soft yet elegant music playing as a background to their conversations.

"Son!", the two turned to the direction the voice was coming from.

"Mom!", he smiled, seeing her.

"Good evening, Mrs.Lee.", Aerin greeted politely with a little bow.

"Oh I see that you did not come with Somin tonight.", his mom said, eyeing the girl from head to toe.

"Mom, we already talked about this. I-"

"Come with me. There are a few people you need to talk with.", his mom interrupted him before walking away.

"I'll be at-", Aerin started but got cut off by Jeno.

"No, come with me. Please."

"Oh my God! I am never doing this again.", Aerin said as Jeno and her walked towards their friends.

"Doing what again?", she heard her brother ask.

"Mark? They got you too? Donghyuck dragged you into this, didn't he?", she asked her brother before turning to his boyfriend, "Why did you bring my brother here instead of a real date?"

"I told him I'd come.", Mark reassured his sister.

"Why would you do that?"

"Because I didn't want my boyfriend to feel lonely and bored during this fancy ass thing."

Aerin and Renjun faked throwing up as Jaemin, Jeno, Jinhee, Chenle and Jisung shuddered at the couple's cringiness, "Oh please stop or I'm going to throw up for real.", Aerin warned with a disgusted face.

"I'm throwing up internally.", Donghyuck said, looking at his boyfriend with heart eyes nonetheless.

"Okay, I'm going to take a drink.", she said, cringing internally at her friend and her brother.

"You know we're still minors, right?", Jeno said before she could leave.

"I was talking about this litchi sparkling thing.", she said in a 'duh' tone and walked to the 'bar'.

The bartender gave her a glass filled with a really pretty pinkish liquid and little bubbles. As soon as she took a sip of the drink, her eyes widened at the taste of the sugary drink, "Damn that shit's good."

Suddenly her shoulder jerked back because someone bumped into her, making her spill half of her drink on herself. Aerin turned around to face the person and, 'Of course, it's you.', she thought.

"Oops my bad.", the person said with the fakest smile ever.

"Jo Somin, why am I not surprise?"

"I see that Jeno downgraded for this year's ball.", her eyes trailed down Aerin's body as she said so.

"He can't really go lower than you though."

"You know that no matter how hard you try you'll never be able to be one of us right? I'm sure your friends will soon realize too."

The group witnessed the entire scene and as they saw Somin talking to Aerin who was holding onto her drink really tightly, they quickly made their way to the two, standing beside Aerin, "You know what?", as those words left Aerin's mouth they all knew, they knew what was going to happen.

"Aerin-", Jeno called, almost in a whisper.

"What?", she snapped at Jeno.

"Don't make a scene please. Let's just get you cleaned up.", he said, taking the half empty glass out of her hand and putting it on a waiter's tray passing by.

"Are you serious? Do you really expect me to stay quiet while Ms.I'm-pretty-and-rich is basically bullying me?", she looked at Jeno in disbelief.

"I know, I know but we are not in sch-", he almost hurried her, looking at the people around them.

"Oh right, it's because we're at your parents' fancy gala.", she said in a disappointed and angry tone.

"People like us behave politely here. You wouldn't understand." , Somin chuckled.

"Yeah, you're right, people like you should behave politely in public.", Aerin smirked with a hint of mischievousness. She grabbed a glass of she-didn't-even-know-what on a waiter's tray and said, "But I'm not like you.", before throwing the liquid at Somin's face and making the girl let out high pitch scream.

Some people around them stopped in their conversation to stare at the scene. Aerin glared at Jeno one last time before walking out of the room.

"Aerin, wait!", Mark shouted, following his sister.

a/n: oooh feisty! i hope you're still enjoying this so far!