𝗨𝗣 𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘, ᴅᴏɴɢ sɪᴄʜᴇɴɢ

twenty three

This was probably the third party Sicheng has attended in the last few months and it was still as unbearable as the previous times.

However, as he walked in with Hyewon right beside him, he felt somewhat more comforted knowing she hated this environment too. "Do you see Yuta? I can't see anything with all these people."

Sicheng snorted, "Well, maybe if you weren't the size of a dwarf you'd be able to see over everyone."

Hyewon threw him a glare and he smiled sweetly at her. "Do you want today to be your last day alive? Because you don't sound like you value your life at all."

"Are you threatening me on my birthday?" Sicheng asked in mock fear.

"You will never not be annoying, will you?" Hyewon retorted and Sicheng only shook his head as his lips tugged up in a cocky smile. Hyewon pretended like she was going to punch him and Sicheng actually flinched. "You're so stupid." She laughed.

Sicheng wanted to reply to her remark but a sudden voice caught their attention. "Babe, you're here!" Sicheng watched as Yuta grabbed Hyewon's hand and landed a kiss right on her lips.

His stomach churned at the sight and immediately broke away his eyes. Suddenly the room was suffocatingly small. Where the hell even was Yena?

"Oh, Sicheng! Happy birthday, man. Who would've thought we'd have birthdays right after each other?" Yuta was nice and Sicheng gave that to him, but it didn't mean he liked him or didn't want to punch him in his perfect jawline.

"Thanks." Sicheng said bluntly.

Yuta smiled brightly and it was clear he wasn't completely sober. "Well, I'll be taking my girlfriend now. Thanks for bringing her to me safely." Yuta gently tugged at Hyewon's hand and led her into the crowd.

Well, there goes his only hope for enjoying this shitshow of a birthday. So, he decided to try and find his other friends amidst the chaos. Automatically, he gravitated towards the kitchen. The last time he was in this kitchen, Yena miraculously showed up. There's hope he might find someone good here again. Unless Yena was a once off thing.

It seemed the universe didn't completely turn its back on him because there he found Jaehyun and Aeri at the kitchen island with Renjun and Haechan plopped ontop of the counter by the sink. "Hey, guys."

All of them looked up and greeted right back. "What's with Aeri?" He immediately asked as he caught sight of the girl chugging down another shot.

The Chinese's eyes flickered to the couple at the sink and Haechan mouthed a name that didn't surprise Sicheng one bit. Mark.

"Aeri..." The girl looked up at the mention of her name. "Why don't we leave the vodka for now, hm?"

Aeri sighed but still gave in. "Fine, okay." She flicked the little shot glass and it tipped over, the alcohol now spilling over the counter top.

"What happened?" He asked as Jaehyun watched her with concern. Aeri nudged Jaehyun to explain.

"Nope, you explain." The male retorted and Aeri rolled her eyes.

It took her a minute to figure her thoughts out before finally speaking. "I arrived with Yena and when we came in, I saw Mark standing with some girl. I don't know her though."

Sicheng's brows furrowed. It definitely had to be something innocent. Mark isn't that type of person. "I saw the girl too. She's not even pretty. Mark's fat head needs some sense knocked into it." Haechan spoke from the other side and Renjun nodded his head from where it was on Haechan's shoulder.

"And I thought we had just started being okay again. He spoke to me! Even complimented me. But clearly, I thought wrong." Aeri mumbled as she slouched against the fridge.

"Hey, whoa. Can we all just chill for a second?" Sicheng interjected.

"Yeah. Aeri, it probably wasn't even anything to worry about. Mark has a lot of friends." Jaehyun tried to ease the girl's worries but Aeri wasn't falling for it.

"Mark also has a lot of girls that like him. Just like you do. So, why are we forgetting about that fact?"

"Aeri, Mark is dating you. He would never cheat or even entertain the thought of another girl." Sicheng defended and at this point, he had no idea what to tell the girl anymore.

Aeri shrugged him off and Sicheng glanced to his other friends who seemed to be just as frustrated as he was feeling. "Okay, so change of topic. Where the hell did Yena go?"

"Uhm, I think she was talking to that Taeyong guy. I don't know. We don't really know each other." Renjun answered.

Sicheng nodded. Okay, so she was off with someone else. Nice, so he really had to stay behind with a tipsy Aeri, a concerned Jaehyun, a pissed off Haechan and Renjun trying to calm everyone down.

Aeri then excused herself to the bathroom and they all watched her leave. Once she was out of sight, Jaehyun immediately spoke. "I'm going to kill Mark."

"Not if I do first." Jaehyun and Haechan shared a look before Haechan jumped off the counter and walked out with Jaehyun.

"So, Mark's dying on my birthday?" Sicheng asked as he stared at the two in confusion.

"Seems like it." Renjun said and they shared a laugh before running after the two boys.

They had pretty much found Mark at lightning speed. Sicheng swore he saw Hyewon at some point too, but shook off those thoughts as he had more important things to attend to right now.

"Mark Lee." Haechan spoke and the boy whipped around.

"That's the girl?" Sicheng asked Renjun and the latter nodded. "Okay, Haechan was right."

"Hey, guys." Mark said, sounding a bit too casual for Sicheng's liking. "What's up?"

"What's up? What's up?!" Haechan was slowly losing his cool and he probably would've if Jaehyun hadn't stepped forward to stop the younger.

"Mark, what are you doing?" Mark didn't know what Jaehyun meant and it took everything inside of Jaehyun to not throw a punch at the boy. "You have a girlfriend. Remember her?"

Mark's brows furrowed. "Yeah, I know. What exactly is your point here?" He asked, straightening his back.

"My point is that-" Jaehyun suddenly cut his words off as his attention was no longer on Mark but on something behind the latter. "Aeri!"

again, i'm sorry