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Hana was now downstairs for the first time since The Seven had arrived. Upon stepping out of the downstairs kitchen with a tray in her hand, her eyes darted around the room in search of them, however, the venue was far too large to spot them so easily.
So she began filling empty glasses, chin up as she still searched for them. Thankfully, mobody had tried talking to her yet, she only received glances and stares.
But speaking of stares, the man with the circular framed glasses and golden tie who had been staring intently at Hana earlier was now downstairs, and if she didn't know any better, she'd think he was following her.
He stood by a pool table among other men who were in a game, and everytime Hana looked at him, he was already looking first. It was chilling, and each time they met eyes, she quickly broke eye contact, which felt out of her own control.
Like a lifeline, she was relieved to see them. In not so much of a distance, Haechan, Jeno, and Chenle sat at a table, along with a few other people she didn't know. As calm as she could be, she approached. They looked up at her, before quickly looking back at one another as to not look suspicious, not without Jeno flashing her a small smile, enough for Hana to see yet go under the radar by those watching.
She went around the circular table and filled their drinks that they each held up to her before politely nodding their head to thank her. This particular bunch had more manners than the rest of the venue who either ignored her existence or stared at her as if they were deprived of women in their lives.
She was going to spin on her heel and turn to tend to other tables, when she stopped and looked at Haechan, hoping he would look at her back. So when their eyes met, she slickly tapped her wrist, signaling that she'd like to know how long until it would be time for the attendees to eat.
Responsively, Haechan who'd understood her immediately looked across the table to make sure nobody else was looking, before mouthing, forty minutes.
Time was passing quickly in Hana's mind, likely because she didn't have access to a clock or her cell phone which she couldn't pull out.
After finally getting the answer she needed, she turned and walked off, fulfilling her duties still. She was amazed at how nobody seemed to question her presence there. She'd imagined all sorts of confrontations. Yet something told her she was in for one.
She made her way back to the upstairs kitchen, once again alternating places. She, per routine now, stocked up a tray and bumped the swinging door open with her hip.
But as she carried the tray by her side, a hand delicately wrapped around her wrist, stopping her in her tracks. Gulping down her anxiety, she slowly turned around, relieved to see it was only Chenle. He released her wrist from his hold and she put her free hand over her frantically beating heart.
"Don't scare me like that." She sighed, relaxing her nerves.
Chenle apologized, seeing the fright dissolved, before getting to the point. "You can relax, I just wanted to see how you were doing."
"Everything's fine," her response was short and simple due to her mind being plagued by different outcomes for how the night may be. "Well, there is something worrying me."
"Okay, go on." His eyebrows were now furrowed in concern, his eyes studying her face as she glanced around the room.
On the other hand, Hana saw him again, the man the golden tie and small glasses. On the other side of the large venue again stood he, only this time he wasn't already staring at her. His eyes darted across the room, as if looking for someone, which Hana could only assume would happen to be her, though she didn't want to get too ahead of herself.
She didn't want to make it into a bigger deal than it was, but she would also rather be safe than sorry.
"I think someone has been following me and eyeing me," she clamped her eyes shut for a moment, dreading that if she were to look over at the golden-tie man, that he'd already be looking at her. "I could be wrong and I could be exaggerating it but it really feels like I'm being followed."
Chenle remained calm in order to help the girl in front of him stabilize. Curtly and right to the point, he asked: "Who?"
She grabbed him by the sides of his arms, and with a quick maneuver, she rotated the two around so Chenle could now see him the way Hana did, and Chenle, confused as ever, waited for the girl to explain.
"The one with the golden tie and circular glasses." She explained, keeping her voice low even though it was unlikely someone could hear their conversation anyway in a crowded, busy environment as such.
Chenle squinted his eyes to focus his vision better as he, without making it obvious, scanned the room for said man with a golden tie and circular glasses. And when he finally saw, his eyes widened slightly, before quickly returning back to normal as he now looked at Hana once again.
His reaction didn't go unnoticed by her, as she ever-so-slightly tilted her head in question of why he reacted that way. "Well...?"
"Well, that's Sangmin."
"And?" Hana pressed him further.
"He's kind of known for being perverted, but you'll be okay--just don't go into any room by yourself please."
"That's the thing, Chenle," her voice came out as a mere whimper of fear and desperation, as she wanted nothing to do with this Sangmin person, "My role literally requires me to go into a room by myself, did you seriously forget?"
"Shit." He muttered almost inaudibly, "No, no. You'll be okay. We'll all be downstairs, he won't do anything, at least not in a public, open space like this."
"Okay," she sighed, shifted her weight between her feet nervously, "I believe you, then."
He patted her shoulder before heading downstairs, likely to go sit with the others.
From her corner vision, she spotted Jaemin and Renjun at another end of the large upstairs. They were sat at a table, just the two of them, looking bored as ever. Hana didn't like Renjun, not even a pinch. But she took comfort in the fact that he and Jaemin were just there. They were all around the building, and she really started to believe that nothing could actually happen to her.
✦*ೃ༄
What had felt like hours passed and now it would only be a short while until the buffet carts would be brought out for the guests to eat. If she must make a rough estimate, she'd say there was some under ten minutes left.
The food was completely done, various in its essence and final touches were added. It once again reminded her that she would be able to eat absolutely none of it--unless someone like Chenle or Jaemin, or anyone even, would be so kind to plate something for her, which would be highly unlikely.
She made her way up into the upstairs kitchen, then out the doors, this time instead of primarily satisfying her role of filling drinks--which she still of course did--it wasn't her main focus.
If she wanted to be successful in her simple task when the time came, she had to be observant, even if it were for stupid, insignificant things, like the way some of the attendees' moods and patience lessened slowly now that they were growing more hungry (she'd been using that as a helpful meter of how much time could be left) or the way the two floors began gradually losing their balance of people, as there were now more people going downstairs than there were going upstairs.
There was no clock, no real way to tell what time it was or how many minutes had passed, as she, unlike the rest of the attendees and much like the drink servers, could not have access to her cellphone. It was in the inside of her jacket and hadn't been touched since the ride there.
And slowly, more guests began making their way downstairs, meaning it must be time soon.
She drew near the kitchen and after entering, went down the stairs. In the downstairs kitchen, meals and entrees were being loaded into buffet carts that would be taken out any second.
Traveling back to the upstairs kitchen, she peered out of the swinging door. There was less than like twenty people left, who, for whatever reason, were taking much longer to want to leave than the rest.
Exiting said kitchen, she saw another woman, a drink server like her. Elegantly, the woman picked up empty glasses and put them onto her own tray, likely to be sent back to the kitchen. Hana decided to mimick this action. While she was doing so, she peered over the ledge to the ground floor. The buffet carts had finally been brought out, and the attendees had civilly formed lines--more like clusters in a line--all to fix themselves their own food.
She could see different members of The Seven scattered across the room, and her eyes laid on Jaemin who was at the front of the line, eager to finally eat.
And before Hana could notice, he glanced up at her, before sending her a curt head nod. Hana brought herself back to the reality around her upstairs. She was the only one left.
The next best thing she could do was just go for it. Creeping her way toward the stairs to the forbidden third floor, her eyes frantically darted around the room, to be certain nobody was up there with her to see her go up.
Her foot hit the bottom landing of the stairs, and she crouched low, to avoid being seen by those at the ground floor. Staying low, she made her way up carefully.