Love and Pass (A Seventeen Fanfiction)

Partner

The next day, Myunghee decided that she won't miss her class just because of her broken heart. Broken heart is fine, but failing is not.

Kaede offered to walk with her but Seungkwan ran towards her shooing Kaede away. He booked three whole minutes to scold her for missing classes the previous day before asking how was she feeling.

"Took you ages to ask that, Mr. Boo." She rolled her eyes at him, "I'm feeling nice, thanks to Joshua."

"Joshua..." Seungkwan gritted his teeth, "that man."

He was still not over the trauma from his first date.

Myunghee got to know that Minghao was also missing from yesterday's lectures and had gone to the city today for some bank works. Myunghee's mouth formed an 'O' as a reaction.

Minghao won't be rude or impolite to her, she was aware of that. But she was also aware that it will hurt him as well to see her.

She also witnessed in the bulletin that out of the 145 students in the first year department of engineering, 139 of them have already registered for the ball. She and Seungkwan exchanged looks before letting out a loud laugh.

Wrecked lives leads to manic attacks.

The classes went smooth. Minghao arrived after the lunch break, and just as she expected, his behaviour was the same to her as it was before. Seungkwan didn't leave them alone at any cost, but Minghao frequently bought up a single issue.

"Who you're gonna ask out now?" He asked her, with a worried look.

"I haven't thought about it yet.. If no one asks me, I'll just become a free ride with the left outs, or will go with Seungkwan or Vernon." Myunghee replied to him trying to sound as casual as possible.

"Vernon is booked." Seungkwan told them, "Yesterday while we were returning from the grocery store we ran into a girl and she just asked him if he has someone to go with or not. I swear she's the most daring one here."

"She can't compete with me though," Myunghee joked. To her surprise Minghao chuckled at her joke too. She felt good that she was able to make him laugh because he looked very stiff and sleepless to them.

~

Eventually Minghao asked out the girl he was looking out for. Myunghee felt a little bit jealous of her but she decided not to make it obvious or show it to them make things worse. It was fine, she thought. Since Minghao already got a partner, it won't bother her. And also, it was better for her to prepare and start forgetting him. For her own good, so as to not make her first ball bittersweet.

Everyone was hurrying to get a partner now because the event management team issued a notice when it was just 30 days left for the ball, which said that since they need to book a venue for the ball they need to know the actual strength who'll be attending the event. The person who was her last resort also got booked by the evening.

She scolded Seungkwan a lot for agreeing to Kamilla's proposal, not just because of her but because it would definitely hurt Kamilla when she'll know the truth. Minghao agreed with her this time. Maybe her confession blew some sense into his brain, she thought. But at the same time he also said that he needs to have a partner to go to the ball. He doesn't have the courage to ask out the Kamilla he likes, he can't even ask out someone else because the Kamilla-bold has already made the three dates story public, and he couldn't ask Kamilla the bold because he didn't want to go with her.

But he did say yes to her, so his words didn't make any sense to either of them.

Kaede got asked out by a few guys as well, but she denied them because she had planned to confess to Joshua and ask him out at the same time. Loyalty redefined.

The count increased from 139 to 143 in the bulletin board just a day after the unanticipated announcement, and even when people were hurrying to find a decent partner, nobody asked her out. Wonwoo did ask her out again, but she denied. She denied because it would be morally incorrect to accept him this time, and it would be shameless of her as well.

~

The first lecturer, their Dean came in and started discussing about the ball, it's history and legacy. How it has not been discontinued even after students cross all limits on the ball dates. Never has it happened that the college has found a clean record of every student after the ball. There is always someone whose pregnancy has roots in the ball night and sometimes, it even happens that they don't know who the father is.

The sarcastic lecture sounded very funny to the rest of the class. But for the handful of Asians who were present there, it wasn't funny. Pregnancy means a lot in Asia and pre marital pregnancy leads to huge controversies in the continent. It's not normal in Asian households to have illegitimate kids.

In a very joking manner, he asked who were the ones who weren't yet in the final list, not expecting anyone to be. But there were people who were still left.

Myunghee's cheeks turned pink with embarrassment as she stuck her hand up to the dean's enquiry. She could feel everybody's glances on her but only a pair of eyes stood out.

Minghao's gaze drained the pink colour from her cheeks as her face was visibly red now. She was sweating, shaking, fiddling with her nails while avoiding the gazes and feeling flustered at the same time.

There was another hand in the air in response to the Dean's question. Seungkwan pointed his chin towards the boy as he nudged Myunghee, asking her to look at him. He was confident and indifferent to the stares, unlike her own nervous and anxious state. He was seated on the fifth row from the front, so she couldn't see his face properly.

"Only you both?" The dean asked.

Myunghee nodded as she bit on her lips.

"What's your good name, my fellas?" He asked them.

"Myunghee Ahn," she mumbled a little loudly for the dean to hear raising her head.

"Soonyoung Kwon."

Myunghee's head shot up to look at the guy who just spoke up, freezing a bit when she saw that he was also looking at her. Their eyes met for a few seconds before he turned to look front again.

"You both are from Korea?" He asked them earning a nod from both of them as an answer. "Then how about... Mr. Kwon takes Ms. Ahn to the ball? You both will have a partner and will have the opportunity to attend the ball as well. I'm only suggesting since you both are koreans, to begin with."

Myunghee's mind froze for a few minutes. She couldn't process the professor's words. It might just be a ball ceremony for the rest, but for her it was a first hand experience. And she wanted it to be perfect. She opened her mouth to deny but her eyes met Soonyoung's again, who raised an eyebrow at her to ask for her permission.

She couldn't speak because she was weighing the chances of someone special, whom she was close to, asking her out. Which was obviously Minghao who already had a partner.

"What you say, Mr. Kwon?" The dean's question was directed to Soonyoung and not her. She felt upset because the dean thought that her consent didn't matter and he could set her up with anyone who was a korean.

Soonyoung thought for a few seconds and then nodded in his direction. His nod was like a consent to the professor that he has agreed to take Myunghee to the prom. It was like signing a contract, she was given as a liability to someone whom she did not even know.