„This is seriously giving me a headache.”

„Then why are you reading it?” Lin mumbled under her nose, not even bothering to look up at me from her phone as she continued typing a message.

I groaned, leaning back in my chair, my eyes once again briefly scanning the last paragraph I had just read. The stupidity and unrealism of the scene written down by some love-deprived teenage girl sent another shiver down my spine. Then I groaned some more, making Lin throw her phone on the pillow.

„Seriously, can you stop?”

Uh-oh... someone seemed to be in a bad mood.

I slid further down my chair in hopes to hide behind the back of it, just in case she would decide to throw something at me if I dared to complain some more. And boy, we both knew I wasn't done with my complaining. Heck, I wasn't even halfway through it.

As I made a face, obviously first making sure that Lin couldn't see me doing it – because, as miserable as it was, I treasured my excuse of a life more than one could imagine – she sighed, probably shaking her head as she always did. A triumphant smile graced my face when Lin's full attention was finally on me.

„I'm somehow even scared to ask what's wrong this time...”

„Look,” I sat up properly, spinning in the chair to face her, and her head immediately jerked up to stare at me. I ignored her silent plead for this to be more meaningful than my latest monolog and, as my hands started some messy set of movements, I poured my heart out: „How people can even write this? Guy friends don't just randomly call you 'sweetheart' or 'princess'. This doesn't happen in real life so it's beyond me how those girls even come up with this. Being called a sweetheart by a male friend is just so awkward that I can't even read through it without my soul dying little every time those nicknames pop up. Can you imagine Bobby calling us that? I bet he would rather jump off a cliff. I mean, I definitely would've if he did that...”

I shivered at the mere thought of it before a pillow hit me right in the face.

„Yah, Kia! Are you reading fanfics again?!” Lin's yell was borderline deafening and I closed my eyes to prevent more damage. She sounded beyond pissed and when I tried to look at her to confirm it, another pillow smashed my face.

„Geez, stop!” I crossed arms in front of my face to shelter it from other flying pillows. „This is a serious topic!”

I heard her scoff in disbelief, „As if! Do you really have nothing better to do?!”

„No, I don't,” I stuck my tongue at her, dropping my arms down „You may not believe me but I'm in the middle of an important research. ”

„What?” Lin asked, sitting cross-legged down on the bed, and I grinned, happy with the armistice – the second smack of the pillow almost tore my head off my neck.

„Well,” I drawled, leaning back comfortably in my chair. „The wedding is just one month away which - considering my amazing flirting skills - leaves me with zero chances of finding a man stupid enough to go there with me. And without a guy by my side, I'll most likely be doomed to spend the night in my aunts' company.”

There was a long moment of silence between us before Lin's brow shot up, disappearing under her fringe as she sent me a questioning look, still waiting for my point.

I sighed, „A cousin four years younger than me is getting married while I, a twenty-four-year-old student with a loan, can't even figure out what to get for dinner, let alone find a boyfriend. I'm going to be bombarded with questions, accusations, and pieces of advice coming from middle-aged women throughout the night when I- yah! Can you stop with the pillows?”

The discontent look on her face was a sign that she wouldn't if I still kept talking, so I shut up, eyeing how many pillows she still had within her reach. That girl looked petite with her only 5'1 ft but damn was she strong enough to strangle me in a bright daylight with only one hand.

„If you don't want to go alone, ask Bobby.”

„I'd rather not.”

A loud snort escaped her lips when I swiftly declined her proposition, „So instead, you think spending time reading some stupid fan stories is a better idea? I'm not following, Kia.”

„You would be surprised how useful those can be.” I pointed back at my laptop with one of the stories still open in a tab. „I just have to remember one of them, use it as my own story of 'how I and my boyfriend-who-doesn't-really-exist met' and tell my aunts about it so they can leave me alone, living peacefully in belief that I'm not going to end up as a single old hag with forty cats to feed.”

Lin crossed her arms, looking doubtful after hearing about my masterpiece of a plan. „And what will you tell them if they ask why he didn't come to the wedding?”

„Broken leg? Death in a family? Sudden diarrhea?” I turned back to my laptop, listing off the ideas with a serious tone of my voice despite the ridiculousness of it. „The possibilities are endless, my dear.”

The springs in the bed squeaked as Lin stood up, walking closer to me. She leaned over my shoulder and looked at the screen with squinted eyes. „And who are you even reading about?”

A big smile tugged at my lips as I scrolled up the page to show my friend the picture of a particular boy we both knew mostly from the stories carried by the other students at our campus.

„Would you believe he's popular enough to get stories written about him?”

„The boy in a mask from the Sweet Havoc band that plays in Phoenix club?” She laughed, certainly finding it more humorous than I. „What was his name again?”

„Wasn't it something like... Byun... Byuk?” I wondered out loud, searching for the full name in the back of my memory with no avail. I looked back at the picture posted along with the story and eyed the man in it.

The band had become a sensation in our town within a couple months since the first day they had stood up on the stage. It was hard to get to their gigs, not only because of the absurd amount of people wanting to see them live but mostly because no one ever knew when they would play next. Sweet havoc didn't have a schedule, always appearing unexpected, as if on the last minute. Together with the mysterious vocalist, who always covered his face with one of those fancy carnival masks, that unexpected appearances seemed like the biggest sales pitch for the owners of the Phoenix club – there wasn't a day when people didn't literally pour out of every hole in the club, waiting in hopes to finally see the band.

Well, the fact that the members were hot as hell was also an advantage.

„To be fair, he's quite a catch,” Lin concluded, still looking at the picture. „You can't see half of his face but his smile is sexy, he seems tall and well-built too. I bet he has girls screaming for his attention right and left – unless he's a real-life Voldemort, of course.

That comment made me laugh out loud, “That would explain the mask, wouldn't it?”

“Who knows,” she snorted, glancing at her watch. “Oh snap, it's that late already? I should get going.”

I hummed in agreement, getting up from my chair. I grabbed my own phone to check the time and got surprised to see it was already way past 10 pm. Lin lived only half an hour away from my house but since it was already late, I took my own bag and grabbed the car keys from my desk.

“I will drop you home.”

She smiled brightly, patting my back with approval, “You know I won't say no to that.”

“I wasn't even expecting your lazy ass to decline in the first place,” I snorted, walking down the corridor. As I bent down to put my shoes on, a strange feeling of uneasiness squeezed my stomach, making me straighten up immediately.

Wait... why was it so quiet here?

I looked around, trying to pinpoint what was different from the usual mess in the house and then it all clicked. The pair of male, black sneakers usually resting next to the door was gone, along with the denim jacket.

“Something's wrong?” Lin gazed at me in concern and when I locked eyes with her, a sudden image of my younger brother's smug face ran right before my own eyes.

I groaned loudly, pinching the bridge of my nose in irritation. “I swear I'm gonna kill him before he reaches the legal age.”

“ Joon again?”

“I can't believe he had guts to sneak out,” I complained furiously, reaching to my bag in search of my cell phone. This little shit was going to be grounded for the rest of his stay at my house. I swear, I would lock him up in the bathroom and tie him down to the toilet seat so he wouldn't even need to go out to pee.

Why did I even agree to let him stay at my place for the entire summer holiday? I must've been out of my mind when my mother suggested the idea, bribing me with money.

“He isn't picking up,” I scoffed, sounding shocked which was a ridiculous reaction considering Joon had never picked any call from me before. We communicated through messages as if he was too sick of my lovely voice.

Lin's features twisted in worry, “Do you know where he can be?”

Oh, I knew too damn well where that ungrateful little brat was having the time of his life right now. This wasn't his first try to play an adult he was far from being – both mentally and physically – and I, as the good sister I was, had warned him several times about the consequences of ignoring my words. The fun was officially over.

After typing a short message, I hid my phone in the pocket of my jeans, pointing at the front door with a quick jerk of my head. “Let's go.”

“Where?” Lin asked, visibly confused. She followed me through the front door, waiting patiently for an explanation. I unlocked the car with a push of a single button and turned back to her, having a hard time believing myself what I was about to say.

“To Phoenix club.”

***

On the way to the club, I changed my mind and decided to first drop Na Lin off at her home so she wouldn't have to explain to her parents why she came back home so late at night. Her mother, although the sweetest woman known to earth, was also the biggest helicopter parent I had stumbled across. I was sure she would have already stick posters with Na Eun's face around the city if I wouldn't have brought her back before midnight.

After a short goodbye, I headed to the club where I suspected to find my younger brother with his new equally juvenile friends. If he even dared to touch a drop of alcohol, I would make sure to send him back home first thing in the morning, packed in a small cardboard box without any holes to breathe through.

That ungrateful brat.

The more I thought about it, the more certain I was that our mother had been too lenient with him this entire time. Now I had to deal with the consequences of her tiptoeing around Joon after father's death. But I wasn't mad at Joon for being a rascal and for acting like a total ass to every living creature on earth. I somehow understood his frustration and pain. We all had taken father's death very emotionally but Joon… he had been devastated. The news had broken him in a way no one of us had been able to fix back.

But when I tried to patch Joon's broken heart together to bring back the person he had once been, my mother didn't seem to care. She was currently too busy playing a marriage with her new husband - on her honeymoon in Hawaii. I think that irked me more than Joon's current awful attitude.

Trying to erase the picture of my mother performing a hula dance, I turned left on the intersection and my eyes widened at the sight of a horde of people waiting in front of the Phoenix club.

The hell?

I heard many times that this club was besieged by tons of people but the view just exceeded all my expectations. There were at least one hundred people waiting in line to get inside and the screams and waves of laughter coming out of the club indicated that much more of them were already having a blast inside. How I was going to find Joon in there was beyond me.

Sighing, I reversed a little and drove into a small alley on my right, knowing that it was impossible to find a free parking spot near the club. There was already a black Hyundai parked there and I had to stop with my car's back just a few inches from its hood, entirely blocking the owner of the car. I wasn't happy with it but if I left enough space for the other car to maneuver its way out, my own car would've been halfway on the main street. I debated for a minute what to do but eventually decided to leave the car that way, hoping the owner wasn't going to use his car so late at night. Besides, I was going to be back in a few minutes.

Locking the door, I made my way to the club. I had no idea how to get inside so I took out my cell phone in hopes my stupid brother had contacted me when I'd been busy driving. I unlocked the phone but there wasn't any new message or missed call. Well, I guess that was to be expected.

I looked at the crowd in front of the club. Phoenix was one of the most popular clubs in Seoul, full of dudes in black leather jackets matching the black combat boots, and scantily dressed girls with Virginia Slim cigarettes in one hand and a glass of fancy drink in the other. I didn't like that place and its hipster-like atmosphere was way too off-putting for me to visit it more than once.

For a short second, I wanted to turn around and go back home but then my conscience kicked in, serving me with thousands of scenarios of how this night could go wrong for my little brother. I knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep if I were to go back home without Joon. So, without a word of complaint, I walked past the crowd and headed to the back of the club in search of a miraculously open back door. After five minutes of frantically looking around, I found it.

A triumphant grin pulled up the corners of my mouth as I stared at the door clumsily left ajar. A loud beat of some dance song was pouring out of the club and when I pulled on the knob, the music hit my ears with so much loudness that I couldn't help but wince in pain. Nonetheless, I walked inside to something that looked like a back room and before I could figure out my surroundings, someone bumped into me.

“Oh, sorry.”

I was about to apologize as well when the familiarity of the voice I just heard slapped me in the face. I looked up just to see Joon standing right in front of me with an apologetic expression. I snorted at him, knowing he was about to feel sorry for all the different reasons.

When his brain finally registered who he just bumped into, Joon's eyes went comically wide. “Kia?!”

“More like your worst nightmare now,” I joked drily, reaching to grab him by his ear before he could run away. “I'm sure you know this already from my message but let me repeat it: you're a dead meat.”