There were balloons floating all around the two-storey building (you could see the second floor from here) and a big banner, hung from one end of the house to the other said, "Congratulations for Debut!". What I noticed first and most were the people. There were so many people in here. I recognised quite a bunch to be from our class. They were dancing to the blasting music (BTS' s music, of course). I vaguely remembered Tae Yeon nudge me as we watched the scene before us.
"Congratulations to BTS!" Hana exclaimed as she walked out of the kitchen, carrying a huge cake with the same words written on them.
Hana was wearing really short pants(ugh, it might even be as short as her underwear) and a hello kitty tank top. Seriously, Hello Kitty?
At that moment, I finally spotted the whole of BTS. They were all lounging on the long sofa, the sofa being the only furniture not put aside for the party to commence. Like me and Tae Yeon, they were still in their school attire.
Everyone present at that moment cheered noisily as RapMon cut the cake proudly.
Tae Yeon and I exchanged glances. She looked at me with a reassuring look, somehow saying, "it's okay, don't feel upset". I was quite surprised at her optimism, since my look probably showed, "let's take revenge". I shrugged when her eyes widened in slow apprehension of my intention.
I was upset, but not for myself. I was angry for Tae Yeon. She was the girl closest to BTS and look what they had done to her. Not only had they made her feel like an outcast, they had excluded her from everything! They had replaced her with Hana in just one day. What pissed me off most was she was one of their members' sister.
I pulled Tae Yeon into the crowd with me, unable to deal with how badly they treated her. We squeezed through to get to the center of the crowd, where BTS and Hana were.
When we did reach the center, everyone was looking at us. The living room turned quiet. Even the music stopped.
Tae Yeon looked at me, unsure and hurt. Soon, everyone's eyes were focused on me.
I put my hands up. "Oh no, don't look at me. Go on with your celebration. Tae Yeon and I are just classmates invited to this party." I pretended to think, tapping my index finger repeatedly on my chin. "Oh, wait! We weren't invited."
There were some murmurs passed along the crowd. Hana just stared at us, dumbstruck. BTS looked confused.
"What do you mean, you weren't invited?" RapMon asked, clearly confused. "Didn't you get the invitation?"
I was about to say no when Hana cut in. "Um! Let's just continue with the celebration. Whatever the case, we're glad you're here, Hye Young." Her smile was sickeningly sweet.
I mirrored her smile. "Thanks, but no thanks. Me and Tae Yeon have other things to do now, like maybe study for the exams, which will be coming in two weeks but apparently nobody else knows that. Or maybe go to better parties, but we wouldn't know that better than you, since you're the one crashing everyone else's parties and getting drunk."
Everyone gasped.
"W-what- I- You- When-" Hana stuttered.
I crossed my arms. "So it's true. The rumor of you, Princess."
I used my old nickname for her to mock her.
Hana seemed to become angrier. Her eyes flashed as she clenched her fists. Her jaw hardened.
"Don't flatter me, Ice Princess, at least I have better company than you, a useless good-for-nothing nerd. Ever so cold to everyone. I mean, what kind of nerd, smart and all that, doesn't have friends or parents and live off of someone else's money?" She snickered at me.
Everyone gasped. The first part was true about me being an orphan, but living off of someone else's money? That was downright false and low of her to say that. I was irate at the fact that she had just told one of my secrets and lied about me just to save her big hugeass ego both at one go in the same sentence.
I glared at her. "That was very low and hypocritical of you to have said that." Then I turned to the 'audience'. "I'm very sorry for being a wet blanket. We'll get going now."
Before that, I turned to BTS to fulfil the only purpose of coming here. "Congratulations on your debut."
With that, I reached for Tae Yeon's hand again and we headed out of the dorm building. I was about to slam the door when someone called out.
"Wait! Wait," J-Hope called while running towards us. "I want to talk to Tae Yeon."
"And why would you want to do that, all of a sudden?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. "Seeing that it's practically been months since you've done that?"
"Just... let me talk to her," he said, sounding a bit desperate.
I looked at Tae Yeon, to seek for approval. She nodded.
I stepped aside for him to walk through. He pulled Tae Yeon towards somewhere more quiet.
"I'll be waiting in the car!" I called out as I closed the dorm door.
Even when walking away from the house, I could hear the music being played again and everyone was having fun once again. It was like Tae Yeon and I weren't even there.
I entered the car, suddenly very annoyed.
"What?!" I shouted to no one in particular. "Ice Princess? How lame is that? That girl has no right..."
I gritted my teeth and threw a tantrum. If I looked back to what happened, I felt a bit embarrassed. Now the whole school would be gossiping about me and Hana, and naturally I would be on everyone's bad side. They seemed to love the new side of Hana.
I hugged my knees on the seat. I felt a lot of negative feelings swirl around in my heart as I contemplated what had just happened. Just then, I heard someone tap on the window of my car seat. I looked up, expecting to see Tae Yeon, but it wasn't her. V was not peeking in and tapping on the window, but he was looking away as he knocked.
I rolled down the window halfway. "What?"
He turned to look at me. "Come out."
"Why?"
He scowled. "Just come out."
I grumbled as I got out of the car. This guy was so forceful sometimes. and what was with boys wanting to talk with girls?
"Are you going to start being all 'it's not what it seems' on me?" I asked.
"Are you feeling okay?" he asked.
I blinked. "Sorry, what?"
"I'm not going to repeat that question."
"Fine," I huffed.
V took that as my answer. "Next question. Don't you think your little dialogues there were too much?"
Too much?
"Tae Yeon is your sister!" I yelled at him. "Your kin! And you guys replaced her with Hana all in one day. She felt like an outcast, and soon became one. How can you all do this to her when she's done so much for you? You guys are not even talking to her anymore! You disappoint me. Even going as far as to not invite your sister to a celebration for yourself."
V kept quiet, so I just continued.
"It's fine if you all do that to me. Don't invite me to parties, give me shit to deal with everyday, exclude me from everything, gossip about me, throw bricks at me, I don't care. Just don't do that to Tae Yeon. It's not her fault. She's been excluded from and by her one and only true family, and I know what that feels like."
V sighed. "We tried to include her during lunches, but she refused. She said she didn't feel like she belongs there anymore. Look, I know we're wrong, but today, it wasn't us."
I raised a brow at this.
"We told Hana to pass you the invitation, but it seems that she didn't."
"Told you," I said, glaring at him.
"Don't count the chickens before they hatch. I just came here to apologize on behalf of BTS and Hana," he concluded.
"Not like it works," I muttered.
He sighed again. "It seems that the two of us can never get along. Take care of that hot-tempered head of yours, Hye Young," he said, ruffling my hair before returning back to his dorm.
What the hell? Did he just mess my hair?
I made an I'm-going-to-punch-you gesture with my fists at him before returning back to the car seat. Tae Yeon was back already. She looked less hurt and more relieved.
I told her that something good should have happened to her given her expression and she just shrugged. Despite all the arguments earlier, I managed to grin at her. I had a feeling J-Hope had something to do with this. Tae Yeon squirmed uncomfortably in her seat when I grinned at her.
"Come on, let's focus on our exams first. Let's just forget today ever happened, and begin intense studying from now on," Tae Yeon suggested.
My grin relaxed into a smile. A genuine smile. That's more like her.