You were in the middle of getting dolled up when someone suddenly knocked on your hotel room door.
Soo-hyun, your makeup artist, stopped blending in your eyeshadow and asked, "Were you expecting room service, Miss Byun?"
"No, I'm not," you responded. "Maybe it's my parents or my brother."
She set down the brush she was holding onto the table, went toward the door, and checked who it was through the peephole. "I think it's your boyfriend."
"He's not my boyfriend," you sighed. "Let him in. I'll see what he wants."
Soo-hyun opened the door and a different-looking Chanyeol stepped into the room.
You already knew that Chanyeol was kind of attractive, but you had no idea that he could look even better. He was wearing a classic black and white tuxedo. It complemented his broad and long frame, as if he was born to wear formal attire. His hair, which usually settled on his forehead, was combed up, further accentuating his handsome face.
You always saw him in jeans and sweatshirts, but this is the first time you've seen him look so formal and... handsome. There, you said it. He looked breathtaking.
"I look hot, don't I?" He asked with a stupid smirk on his face. Maybe it was a little obvious from your expression that you thought he was stunning.
"You're always so humble." You rolled your eyes at him. "Why are you here? What do you want?"
"Oh, right. I needed to give you-" he began to say, but his sentence was cut off when the telephone on the bedside table suddenly rang.
You stood up from where you were sitting to answer the call.
"Hello?" You said into the receiver. "Okay. I'm just finishing up. Okay. Bye."
It was your dad. He told you that the ball would be starting soon, so you needed to hurry up and get ready.
It was two days before Christmas, and for as long as you can remember, it has been your parents' tradition to hold a ball for their company. A lot of people came to these affairs, mostly your parents' business partners and their families.
You and Baekhyun hated it. Obviously, the two of you were going to inherit your parents' businesses, so you were expected to mingle with the people that your parents did business with. You disliked forced interaction but you disliked faking your enthusiasm with it even more. The only thing you liked about it was that it was the only time of the year when you could see your other relatives.
For the past three years, you attended these balls with your ex-boyfriend. Of course, you didn't have a boyfriend now, so you asked Minseok if he wanted to go with you but unfortunately, he went out of the country with his family for the holidays.
You told Baekhyun that you didn't want to suddenly show up without a date at the ball when you already went with one for three consecutive years. It didn't matter to you, since Baekhyun always showed up alone in these things, but you didn't want people asking what happened between you and your ex-boyfriend.
So, in true Baekhyun fashion, he suggested that you asked Chanyeol.
You immediately said no because you thought it would be weird to suddenly ask so much of him when you didn't even know him that long. Baekhyun then said that he had already told Chanyeol about it and that Chanyeol agreed because apparently, he wasn't kidding when he said that he didn't have anything to do during the holiday break.
That was how Chanyeol ended up in your hotel room.
You sat back in front of the vanity table and called on Soo-hyun to continue doing your makeup.
"Just give it to me later," you said to Chanyeol. "Whatever it is you need to give me, I mean. The ball's starting soon and I still need to finish my makeup so leave me alone. Go find Baekhyun and annoy him."
"Fine," Chanyeol sighed. "I'll see you later." He gave your shoulders a squeeze before leaving the room.
When Soo-hyun was sure that Chanyeol was out of earshot, she asked, "Are you sure he's not your boyfriend, Miss Byun? He's handsome. The two of you look good together."
You wanted to gag at her comment, but your heart was inexplicably beating fast contrary to what you wanted to feel and it was frustrating you. You could sense your cheeks warming up and you hoped that Soo-hyun hadn't noticed it.
You and Chanyeol looked good together?
"We're just really good friends," you explained, your mouth lingering at the last word.
The two of you were friends, weren't you?
"I'm just saying," Soo-hyun shrugged with a mischievous smile on her lips.
After you finished getting ready, you immediately headed down to the grand ball room.
When the elevators opened, Chanyeol standing with his hands in his pockets was the first thing you saw, as if he was waiting for you.
He looked at you and his eyes traveled from your face, down to your feet, and then settled on your face again as if he was seeing you for the first time.
You were wearing a tight red dress that stopped just a little bit above your knees. It emphasized your already prominent hips, and you saw that Chanyeol's eyes lingered on that part of you longer than necessary. You were also wearing stilettos, but you were still significantly shorter than Chanyeol when you stood right next to him.
"I look hot, don't I?" You teased him. "Pick up your jaw from the floor, Yeol."
He cleared his throat. "You're always so humble," he repeated what you had said to him earlier in the exact same way that you did.
Chanyeol held out his arm for you to hold, and you took it. The two of you entered the ball room linked together.
Your parents and Baekhyun were already talking to some people when they saw you enter.
Baekhyun was grinning like a mad man. "Wow, you're looking good, sis."
You didn't answer and just gave him the sweetest smile you could force yourself to do because you didn't want to say something horrible to him with your parents and their business partners around.
"Your daughter has grown into a fine woman, Mr. Byun," an older woman whose name you didn't know said to your father.
"She got her looks from me," your dad joked.
You smiled at the lady. "Thank you, ma'am."
The woman looked at Chanyeol. "Oh, who's this handsome young man?"
"He's my good friend," you replied. You felt Chanyeol's muscles tense at your last word.
"I see. What happened to the young man you went with last year? What was his name? Did something happen between the two of you?"
Your smile disappeared. This lady was probably one of your parents' business partners, but she absolutely had no right to pry on your personal life like that.
Your parents looked at each other and then exchanged a look with Baekhyun, a silent understanding passing between the three of them.
Baekhyun smiled and said, "Uh, sorry. Can I excuse my sister and her date for a second? I need to discuss something with them."
Before the rude lady could even respond to him, your parents were already starting another conversation about shares with her.
When the three of you were far enough, Baekhyun let out a deep breath. "Jesus Christ, Mrs. Kim is so fucking annoying." He looked at you. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," you assured him. "Let's just go get drinks and not talk to anyone for the rest of the night."
And so you did.
Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and you sat together drinking champagne while exchanging funny stories.
Your parents didn't approach you to meet anyone anymore, probably because of the way you reacted with Mrs. Kim. It was the first time that you blatantly showed your distaste while talking to the other businesspeople that your parents knew, and it was because you saw no correlation between your past relationships with business.
It was a sensitive topic for you and your parents knew it. They saw firsthand how your previous relationship broke you, so it was natural that they would try their best for you to not talk about it, especially with people who weren't friends or family.
It still hurt when you thought about what happened, but at times like this when you were laughing with Baekhyun and Chanyeol, it hurt a little less.
You were resting your head on Chanyeol's shoulder when the live band announced that the dance floor was open and started playing slow songs.
Baekhyun's face turned sour. "I'm having war flashbacks from prom," he said before finishing another glass of champagne.
"You were the fucking prom king," you reminded him. "How could you have possibly hated that night?"
"You have no idea," Baekhyun mumbled.
You suddenly felt Chanyeol's hand rest on yours and you looked up at him.
He asked you, "Do you want to dance?"
"I thought you hated dancing."
"I would for you," he laughed.
He stood up and led you to the dance floor. Baekhyun was cheering from the table.
You and Chanyeol took to the middle, surrounded by a few other couples who looked so happy in each other's arms.
Chanyeol put his right hand at the small of your back while the other took yours in its grasp. You placed your left hand on his shoulder, and he started leading your feet to the music and you followed without even thinking about it.
You felt dizzy, but it wasn't because of the champagne in your body. It was because you and Chanyeol were so close to each other that it made your limbs weak and set your heart on fire.
The intimacy shouldn't have bothered you because the two of you had gone closer than this, but it did anyway.
"You're getting better at dancing," you said just for the sake of talking about something. You had to calm your nerves.
He chuckled. "Actually, I asked Jongin to help me with this."
You couldn't help but laugh too. The image of Chanyeol and Jongin doing this was so ridiculous that it helped you forget your nervousness.
"You really thought this through, huh?"
"I may have overthought it a little," he smiled. He then cleared his throat. "Uh... You look beautiful tonight," he shyly said.
"Thanks, Yeol," you said. You hoped your cheeks weren't as red as you felt they were. "You don't look so bad yourself."
"I think this is the first time you've ever said anything nice to me," he laughed.
It became quiet after that, but it was a comfortable silence. The two of you looked at each other until the song ended and the uneasiness in your chest was completely gone.
Baekhyun was smiling when you and Chanyeol got back to the table. It wasn't one of his teasing smiles; it was a genuine one, like he was so happy to see the two of you dance together. It had been a while since you saw Baekhyun smile like that.
He pursed his lips to stop himself from grinning. "I want to say something, but I won't."
Never in your life did you expect to hear those words come out of your brother's mouth.
_
The ball had ended, and you just finished washing up. Your feet ached from wearing high heels all night long, and all you wanted to do was lie on your bed until all the pain went away.
Your mind couldn't help but replay the dance you and Chanyeol shared just a few hours ago. You could still feel the phantom of his hand lingering on your back, warming your chest once more.
You didn't want to think about Chanyeol like that because you knew that it should never happen. It could, but it shouldn't. You were fine with the friendship the two of you had now, and you didn't want to risk losing all of it because of some stupid butterflies in your stomach.
You were about to sleep when your phone suddenly beeps, indicating that you just received a text message.
[ Chanyeol / 00:02 ]Open your door.
You stood up and walked towards the door. The pain in your heels made you feel like you were stepping on needles and when you opened the door for Chanyeol, you were wincing.
He had his hands behind his back. His huge smile suddenly turned into a worried expression. "Why? What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
"Nah," you dismissively said. "My feet are just aching from the shoes I wore earlier."
"Can I come in?"
Instead of answering, you opened the door wider and headed straight back to your bed because you couldn't stand walking around any longer. You heard the door close just as you pull the sheets over you.
"I was about to sleep," you yawned. "What are you doing here? Aren't you sleeping in Baek's room?"
He snorted. "As if I could sleep in there with him snoring so loudly." He then placed a small black box wrapped with a silver ribbon beside you. "Since I couldn't sleep even if I wanted to, I thought that I'd just give you this."
You sat up. "Is this a Christmas gift?" You asked as you gingerly took the box.
"Uh, obviously."
You unraveled the ribbon around the box and opened it.
You wanted to cry.
It was a silver chain bracelet with a heart clasp studded with clear stones. It was so simple yet so beautiful, and what added to its beauty was that Chanyeol had picked it out for you.
You hugged him tightly.
"You know, you don't suck sometimes," you joked even though you could feel your eyes filling up with tears. "Which reminds me, I bought something for you too."
You quickly got off the bed and wiped away your tears so that Chanyeol wouldn't notice that you were crying. You rummaged through the cabinet where you kept the stuff that you had brought with you to the hotel until you found the box that you were looking for.
You just bought this today and you were supposed to save it for Christmas itself, but now felt like the perfect time to give it to him.
"You're not the only one who doesn't suck, you know," you said as you handed him a small paper bag.
Chanyeol made quick work of the packaging, and in no time, he was staring at the gold watch that you had bought for him.
"I just thought that you needed some color, you know? You wore black from head to toe and even the watch you had was black and I thought that it would be nice if you had a little bit of gold-"
Your rambling was cut short when Chanyeol took you in his arms.
His chest felt firm against yours and you couldn't help but feel safe as his strong yet gentle arms wrapped you in a warm hug.
"It feels nice to have a rich friend," he joked. You broke away from the hug and smacked his arm.
Your eyes were still taking in the image of his beautiful smile when he took your face in his hands and kissed you.