WITH GRACE.

20장

as the hours marched on, the formalities for this ball was executed. aside from being a typical junior-senior ball, this was also the bequeathal ceremony wherein seniors will pass on the responsibility to lead the younger years to the juniors.

earlier, i ate to my heart's content ㅡ enough to satisfy me without sacrificing my belly bloating. most of what i ate were chocolate desserts. the boys who knew me longer laughed at me. well, chocolates and eunhye were to be distinctly expected. chocolates and i were, nevertheless, the best pair.

true to his words, sunghoon stuck more annoyingly close to me throughout the night. so far, he never left my side except that one time when he went to the bathrooms. most of our tablemates have displaced themselves inside this hall, mingling with other people. i saw dongkyu talking to some boys, perhaps his classmates. jungwon on one side was swarmed by highschool girls. i can see the embarassed and shy look on his face from where i idly sat. i pity the boy, but i also wanted him to experience this. jake and jay were happily chatting with girls who i bet were their fans from the high school division. there were a lot of them that i couldn't keep up and have a real time update on each of their activities.

soon, it was time for the dance. we stood near the center to witness the highschool's cotillion.

the dance was well directed and the music they chose was just the right tune for this event. jungwon and ni-ki looked shy as they danced with their respective dance partners while dongkyu and taki seemed comfortable about it. my eyes caught sight of k oppa looking at taki with a proud, fatherly smile. heeseung oppa also wpre the same expression on his face as he watched jungwon dance.

i almost forgot, these two pairings were the popular father-and-son tandems within the dance crew. i also remembered youngbin and jungwon sharing a mother-and-son kind of bond. really, their dance crew is adorably interesting.

"noona! let me take you to the floor to dance!" dongkyu approached me.

jungwon, taki and ni-ki trailed behind him.

"me too!"

"i also want to dance with eunhye noona!"

"can i, noona?"

the three responded respectively.

"no, you can't,"

no. it wasn't me who answered the four.

"but hyung, you've practically hogged noona all to yourself the entire night," jungwon stated.

"you're being selfish with noona, sunghoon hyung. you're not even a thingㅡ" jungwon also dropped his comment although it was interrupted by sunghoon.

"who said we're not?"

shocked at his answer, i looked at him in disbelief. he winked at me and slung his arm over my shoulder.

"w-what are youㅡ you're giving them the wrong idea!" i cried at him, disentangling his arm draped over my shoulder.

"hmm... am i?" my eyes grew wide.

this guy is getting brazen tonight!

in the end, all four were able to take me to dance. dongkyu came first, then jungwon, taki and ni-ki. i was also able to dance with jay, jake, heeseung oppa and k oppa for a short while. it was k oppa's turn when i was suddenly yanked away and bumped into another person's chest.

oh, god. it's park sunghoon.

"it's my turn now," he smiled at me.

"you didn't even let k oppa finish telling me an interesting story," i grumbled.