University of Wonderland

Chapter Fifty-Five

I really wanted to use the privacy time for kissing, but I also had questions. "Omo, Sehun, I was so worried. Are you okay?"

"I'm okay. And very, very punished." He slid his arm out from around me and turned my body to face him. "Grounded doesn't even cover it. Think Amish. I had to tell my dad everything." He drew his finger across his throat. "Took a lot of begging and bribery to finally get my cousin to lend me his phone so I could check my email."

"I figured. Either you you'd been cut of or you'd believed me when I fake broke up with you."

He laughed. "No, the only thing I believe in is us."

A couple of students dressed in outfits that are more fit for a nightclub than a school dance laughing all the way up to the door, looking at us with curiousity. He squeezed my waist. Flutters swept through me.

I fake-pursed my lips. "You're just trying to get me to say the phrase I owe you."

"The phrase was definitely not I owe you. You messed up one word."

"I owe glue? Because if so, Sulli has some I can lend you."

He shook his head. "That wasn't the word, but it is an interesting idea. If I glue myself to you, my dad can't take me back."

Music sounded when an student held the door open for his date and friends, making the melodic beat linger. It was some kind of slow song I'd never heard of, but that was no surprise. Sometimes it seemed like the only music I listened to was the classic music that played in the elevators.

"Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance? Will you, won't you, will you, won't you join the dance?"

"As soon as we go inside, we're not going to be alone." Sehun leaned into my ear. "I'm sorry, Suzy. For not asking you to the dance earlier."

I wrapped my hands around his neck. He smelled so good, like pumpkin spice, a scent I'd never smelled on him before. I nuzzled closer to him. He was right - as soon as we go inside, this moment would be over.

I had imagined us at the dance together, me in a dress that actually fit and didn't come from a kids' store. Him looking more dapper and clean in a tux. I pictured myself trying to curling my hair into altering my image. Because I'd wnat him to tell me I was beautiful. I'd want him to actually think I was. But that wasn't real.

This was.

Him in jeans and a T-shirt with a jacket that has a letter S on it. My hair as boring as it always was. The two of us outside, making the most of what we had. I rested my head on his chest, and he pulled me closer to him until our bodies sealed together.

He kissed the top of my head. "I missed you."

"I missed you, too."

He smiled and I wanted to freeze it there on his face forever. "And . . . ?" he prompted.

"And I love . . . teasing you," I giggled, instead of saying what he wanted to hear. He groaned.

We stayed like that, swaying to a stolen song.

"How'd you get away from your dad?" I asked after a verse went by, when I knew I had to snap out of the moment.

"Claimed I was job hunting. I'm guessing I have another hour or two until they figured out I'm still gone."

"Job hunting? On a school day?"

"Yeah, that . . . I kind of quit for good after I left Wonderland. It was the only bargaining chip I had to try to get back here."

That left a bad taste in my mouth, but I didn't want to argue about it now. Sehun wasn't a quitter. "How does quitting get you back here?"

"My dad doesn't want me to be a high-school drop-out, and I told him the only way I'll continue to go to school is at Wonderland University."

But in order for him to have that chance, and not end up in jail if Minho was planning something huge that drew Shin-Hye's attention, we had to go face the music.

I pulled him toward the dance.

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