♡ 36

It feels like everyone is at this party and I know none of them. Well, at least not personally. Sure, I have seen most of them on Tiktok. Half the room is filming and the other half has a clique thing going on. Sunghoon had left me alone twenty minutes ago to go "help out". Sohyun and Jake haven't shown up yet, so when I see Heeseung walk in, I am grateful. Someone I know!

"Hey!" I say, maybe a little bit too enthusiastically. "I am so glad you are here!"

"Really?" He asks, his eyes wide. "Because I have been meaning to call you. I am so sorry about that night at the bar. And then the elevator..."

"Don't worry about it. It isn't like you meant to. Sunghoon wasn't mad. All is fine." I wave my hand, not wanting to talk about it.

"Wasn't mad?" Heeseung raises an eyebrow as he looks down at me. "He was furious."

"What?"

"Yeah," he chuckles nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "I know I was drunk off my ass, but I remember him taking me back to my room and helping me pack well."

"Helped you pack? Sunghoon made you leave?" I think back to the morning after and how he had acted shocked that Heeseung was gone.

"Yeah. Told me to stay the hell away from you."

I replay that night when Sunghoon came back to the room. Him telling me that he understood and that everything was fine. Had he really made Heeseung leave and then came back to the room like nothing happened?

"But you came to this?"

"I was invited. And I thought if I apologized to you with him around he wouldn't be too mad." He shrugs. "Because I truly am sorry for unloading on you like that? I should have never said what I said, especially when you have a boyfriend."

"You were drunk. I didn't take any of it personally." I shake my head, but can't seem to get past the fact that Sunghoon had been so different with Heeseung. Why didn't he tell me? And why does it feel like he lied to me?

"Where is Sunghoon?"

"He is helping out in the kitchen." I explain, pointing toward the big double doors. At least, I think that is where the kitchen is. Youngji's house is massive.

"I shouldn't be here when he gets back." Heeseung takes a step back and I reach out and grab his arm.

"Please don't leave me alone." I say quickly. "Sohyun isn't here yet and I don't know anyone."

"I don't want Sunghoon to think..."

"Right now, I don't care what Sunghoon thinks." I look towards the doors where he had disappeared. I should have seen him by now, right? Leaving your girlfriend at a party where she didn't know anyone and then threatening the one person I do know.

"Y/n..."

"Come on." I grab Heeseung's arm, pulling him toward the kitchen.

"Where are we going?"

"To find Sunghoon. I want answers." I tell him, a death grip on his arm.

As we enter the kitchen the loud music fades. There are a lot of catering staff going in every direction. Some moving plates of food in and out, some pouring drinks, and then some are down on their knees cleaning up a shattered bottle of wine and cheese that had been spilled. But nowhere did I see Sunghoon.

"Excuse me." I get the attention of a girl that is about to take a tray out to the party. "I am looking for my boyfriend, Sunghoon. He came back to help. Tall, black hair, was wearing a navy button down?"

"Yes. Mr. Park caused this mess." She gestured toward the spill with a sigh. "Miss Cha took him to get cleaned up. He cut himself or something."

"Where did they go?"

"They went up the stairs." She points to the stairs on the other side of the kitchen, before leaving the room.

"We should wait for him." Heeseung pulls against me as I begin to move toward the stairs.

"No. We are going to find him. Now!" The anger that is in the pit of my stomach turns and I feel a bit worried. Is he hurt badly? Why didn't he come and get me? Or text?

I drag Heeseung up the stairs, checking a few empty rooms on our way.

"Y/n, please stop. We need to go back downstairs before we are caught alone up here." Heeseung makes a lot of sense. I know he does, especially after what he told me about the trip. And I remember Sunghoon saying he would kill him if he caught him on top of me again.

"We aren't alone." I reply. "They're up here somewhere."

"Are you jealous? Sunghoon would never..." He is cut off by a giggle. I might not have met Youngji yet, but I know her voice well. I obsessed over her when I thought Sunghoon had slept with her.

I move toward the giggle, Heeseung not protesting anymore. I open the last door on the right, where the noise had come from, and my entire body goes still.

Sunghoon sat on a fluffy pink bed, shirtless, with Youngji in front of him, almost straddling him. She is close to his face, as if she is going to kiss him.

"Wh... what the fuck?" I ask, hating the way my voice trembles.

Both of them look at me, Sunghoon springing to his feet. Youngji stumbles back and he reaches out and grabs her waist to keep her from falling.

"Peaches..." Sunghoon's face is pale and his eyes are huge. He looks guilty. "This isn't what it looks like."

"Then what is it? Why are you shirtless on her bed?" I want that to come out stronger than it did. I don't want there to be the shaky fear there.

"Is this her?" Youngji asks as she looks from me to Sunghoon. She glances behind me and I know she sees Heeseung. "The girl with the dirty webcomic about your friend? The one she wanted to..."

"Youngji!" Sunghoon cuts her off, but it's too late.

He told her about that? Did he show her? Was this all some kind of joke to him?

"Sorry." Youngji looks honestly apologetic. Perhaps Sunghoon forgot to tell her nobody was supposed to know. Including her. "I was just helping him. He cut himself..."

"It doesn't matter." I interrupt, holding up a hand. "Nothing matters now. He's all yours."

I turn around and Heeseung moves out of my way instinctively. I rush down the stairs and out of the party, my face probably having makeup streaming down it.

"Peaches! Wait!" I hear Sunghoon call behind me, but I pick up my pace. "Y/N!"

"Leave me alone, Sunghoon!" I yell as I run now. I have no idea where I am going. He drove me here and I have no idea where here even is.

"Stop!" He grabs my arm, easily catching up with me. "Please, stop. Let me explain."

"Explain what?"

"I cut my face. Blood was all over my shirt. She was just helping me bandage it and she had a shirt of her ex's."

"And the comic? Did she just fucking find it?"

"Listen..."

"No." I shake my head. "There is no excuse. NO EXCUSE." I yell, my hands coming to grip the back of my neck as I step back. "Did you show her?"

"I..." He stumbles. "She saw me reading it."

"Fuck you."

"You have to listen to me." He reaches for me again, but I move away again. "I can't lose you over this."

"I found you in a room shirtless with her. She was basically straddling you, Sunghoon! And then she refers to me as the dirty webcomic girl, something nobody was ever supposed to know about!" I scream. "After the shit you said to Heeseung on the trip? Yeah, I know about that."

"I was angry at him for touching you. I shouldn't have made him leave, but..."

"It doesn't matter now, Sunghoon. I am done."

My heart feels like it is shattered into a million pieces, cutting up my chest. I am basically sobbing, my breathing shallow. I don't think anything in my life has hurt this bad. And I never want to feel this pain again. And if I let it go now, he is going to do this again.

"Please."

"I think we are done here for tonight." A voice says behind Sunghoon and we look to see Heeseung. Behind him are Sohyun and Jake. "Come on, Y/n. I will take you home. Sohyun will stay here with Sunghoon."

"Over my dead body." Sunghoon says through gritted teeth.

I nod, but I am unable to move. My entire body is shaking and I am afraid if I move I will fall. I don't know how I am standing up now.

Sohyun and Jake step forward to block Sunghoon from me as Heeseung comes over and picks me up.

"Y/n!" Sunghoon yells, his voice cracking. "I'm sorry."