Evening dawned on Saturday, and Umbramoor Manor was currently the liveliest place in Moonhaven, with early every student from Somber Ridge High had showed up there.

Every year on the first Saturday of the first week of school, since their freshman year, Ziro threw 'the party to start the year', and invited most of the kids that attended Somber Ridge. Encouraged by Ridley to consider widening his coterie of friends, Ziro, though unenthusiastic about it, arranged for these parties to be executed with the help of the group, and this year would be the last one.

Alex loitered in front of Ziro's closed bedroom door as he contemplated what to do. There was a metal sign with rope attached that hung from a nail on the door. It read: 'Do Not Disturb' in a menacing font and black lettering. After scouring the near entirety of the massive house, and then just resorting to asking Lev, Alex had deduced that Ziro was definitely in his room.

Though Lev had also warned him to obey the sign on the door, Alex couldn't fight his curiosity on knowing what exactly Ziro was up to while his own party was raging on. None of the group seemed to know the answer either, and usually communicated with him by phone if an issue arose during the event.

After a full minute of eyeballing the door in thunderous silence, Alex grabbed the knob and slowly twisted it open. To his surprise, it wasn't even locked and the lights were on too, but before he could get a clear view of anything, something sharp flew at him in with curt speed. Alex staggered back a full two steps before catching his bearings. He glanced over to the left of his head, and saw a black shuriken with six points stuck in the wall.

His gasp came out breathless, more in amazement than disbelief, then looked over and saw Ziro perched crossed-legged on his bed, earphones in and all his attention seemingly on the pack of cards he was playing with.

"You missed," Alex said from the doorway.

Ziro took out a single earphone and lifted his head to look back at him. "Yes, on purpose. It was a warning shot, meant to scare anyone not welcome in here."

"What about the group and me? Aren't we welcome?"

"You are. If you know me at all, then what I did shouldn't have scared you. Were you scared?"

"Well, no actually...wait, was this like a test or something?"

Ziro grinned, small yet warm. "Yes. But just for fun. It took almost four years for one of you to figure it out. Feel free to flaunt your accomplishment to the others. Now shut the door and come sit."

Alex gently impelled the door and ambled over to Ziro's bed. Before sitting, he reached a hand out and plucked the unoccupied earphone from Ziro's fingers, and slipped it into his own ear. Ziro glared at him with jagged vexation, but he was hesitant, too late to take the earphone back.

"Oh, you like k-pop?" Alex asked, eyes glittering with excitement.

Ziro swiped the earphone back, then moved to pause the music on his phone. "닥쳐 (dak-cho)."

Alex continued as if he hadn't heard. "And Syn really likes it too. I've been meaning to start listening to some songs myself...Hey, maybe one day the three of us can do a cover! My singing actually isn't that great though, so maybe a dance-"

"죽을래? (Jug-eu-llae)" Ziro uttered, his face twisting partially, becoming threatening.

It took a moment for Alex to understand what he had said. "Oh...oh. No thanks. I'm very fond of living. Why don't we talk about something else, like why you're holding yourself up in your room during your own party?"

"I'm not a party person," Ziro said blandly.

"With all the setting up we did today, you've fooled me."

Ziro's grin was sharp. "It's my mom's idea, I'm just giving it a shot. But I've been realizing that I'm not so good at making friends in situations where meeting someone is inevitable. I've thrived better in unconventional circumstances."

"Accidents?"

"...destiny, maybe."

Dramatically, Alex fell back onto the bed and brought his hands together atop his stomach. "Pfft! All that power and you preach about destiny."

"What power?"

"I have never met any other teenager whose mom let's them throw huge, unsupervised parties. I'm almost certain that if your 'no drugs or alcohol' rule was lifted, kids from Somber Ridge would make a statue in your honour."

"Pfft," Ziro mimicked. "I'd sooner forfeit a hand-to-hand combat match against Tate."

After a still moment, they both erupted into laughter. Ziro fell back onto his bed as well, his own laughter increasing. The combined noise of the two nearly rivaled the roaring EDM tunes coming from downstairs. Their bout went on for what seemed like forever, but eventually they quieted down and ended up gazing at the abstract white patterns on the ceiling.

"But seriously," Alex started, "you've really just been spending time alone up here for three years? Why not spoil this test of yours a bit, drop a few hints or something?"

"That's no fun."

"Ah right, fun. I hate to break it to you, but I think Lev's got a slightly better definition of 'fun' than you."

"What's he up to anyway?"

"Nova's downstairs, busy taking the party by storm."

"...is he playing pool?"

Alex smiled to himself, an uncontrolled sight. "Has been for the past thirty minutes. Hasn't lost either."

"Hasn't been losing for years."

"Not even to you?"

"Never to me. He's...better."

"Whoa, Nova said that too, but I didn't entirely believe him. Guess I owe him a foot rub."

Ziro chuckled. "Why don't you two just bet money?"

"That's no fun." Alex mimicked. Again, there was unstirred before a surge of laughter came, but much more brief than previously. When it died down, Alex turned on his side so his body could face Ziro. "I've been meaning to say this. Sorry in advance for any immaturity my dad may continue to display once our families merge."

Ziro grinned as he turned his head to see Alex. "하지 마 (ha-ji-ma). He's kinda like an older version of you."

"That's not really a compliment, but I'll take what I can get."

A cell phone suddenly rang out then, and after hearing the esoteric ringtone a few times, Alex was sure it wasn't his. Ziro sat up and quickly checked the ID on his phone before answering.

"Tate, what's going on?"

"Intruder alert," Tate cautioned.

"Intruder..." Ziro repeated, voice tensed. Alex didn't hear him ask who it was. "What's everyone doing?"

"Well Syn's having a k-pop karaoke competition; Remi's taking on Marc Jaden in a few rounds of Zombie Farm; Nyne's been inviting people to do dramatizations of Shakespeare plays; Evan's hosting a fashion show; Lev's still creaming people in the crowd in billiards; last I saw A.P. he was headed upstairs, and I'm moments away from challenging the entire Science club to name the most species of insects. So far, I've only told you about the intrusion."

"Let's keep it that way for now. Alex is with me, we'll handle it. Get back to what you were doing." He ended the call with only a push of a button, then Ziro shuffled off the bed and slipped his feet into a pair of black indoor slippers.

"What's going on?" Alex finally spoke.

"Someone's here that shouldn't be. You have my back, right?"

Alex was off the bed in no time at all and onto his feet. "Of course."

"Good, let's go."

Nick navigated through the roistering crowd in the main hall as he scanned the surroundings with glaring ridicule. Next to him, was a timid, shorter boy with messy ash-brown hair, thick black frames rimmed around his eyes.

The room was charged with uproar, but Nick didn't miss Ziro's merciless voice as he descended from the stairs nearby.

"What are you doing here?" Ziro demanded, calm yet callous as he reached the final step of the stairs, and Alex was a watchful step behind.

Nick smiled at them both. "Hey now, I thought the whole school was invited? You're not really still mad, are you Ziro?" With open arms he tried coming closer, but Alex quickly stepped around Ziro, obstructing Nick's trajectory. "Woah, Alex! Wait, don't tell me — don't tell me! You've joined in on their delinquent fight club? Looks like I'll really have to watch my back, won't I?"

"I'm only going to ask you one more time. What are you doing here?" Ziro said again. The calmness had vanished from his words.

"Oh, that's right! I didn't come all this way to be part of your mediocre shindig. There's actually another, merrier, party that I'm attending, but that's quite a distance, and my new friend here — Charlie, say hello, man." He glanced back at the boy with ash-brown hair.

"Um, hey," Charlie murmured. He didn't sound as timid as he looked, but the way he clutched the floppy green notebook in his arms told Ziro and Alex a different story.

"See, I promised Charlie I'd bring him to a party tonight, but as I've said before it's too far for him. So I thought, maybe he could kick it here tonight? Won't be as fun as the one I'm going to, but as they say, 'something is better than nothing'. And let's not let our differences get in the way of an innocent kid's right to party, hmm?"

A minute almost went by; only undaunted stares between three were exchanged. Charlie seemed like he considered interrupting, but ultimately held back behind Nick.

"Fine, go," Ziro finally said to Charlie.

"Oh, uh, thanks," Charlie stuttered. He loosened his grip on the notebook and clumsily made his way through the crowds of other teens. Nervously, he glanced back at Nick, who cheerily nodded back at him to go on.

"And you," Ziro said sternly to Nick, "get out."

Nick's chuckle was bitter yet joyful. "Alright, alright. See you in class next week, A-lex." He waved goodbye at Ziro and Alex, even though neither of them waved back, and uttered a goodbye to many of the teens standing in the vicinity of the front door before finally, he had left.

"You're really just gonna let someone who hangs around Pierce stay?" Lev's voice suddenly emerged, along with him just a skip away from the stairs. He leaned against the wall holding a black cue stick over his shoulder.

Startled, Alex jumped at his presence, and even Ziro had seemed somewhat surprised that he hadn't realized Lev was there.

"I'll watch him," Ziro assured, his calmness having returned so smoothly.

"How long have you been standing there?" Alex questioned.

Lev shrugged, stalking closer towards them. "Long enough." He flicked Alex on his forehead making him voice his pain, and that's when Skelkin appeared from the left chest pocket of Lev's unbuttoned shirt, and stuck his tongue out at Alex. "You said you went to the bathroom, but never came back," Lev went on. "You made this little bastard worry."

"Sorry," Alex said to them both while rubbing his forehead. He kissed a finger of his free hand, and pressed it to Skelkin's head in apology. "I was in bed with Ziro, having a really good conversation."

Lev seemed to take a moment to process the words, but the way his face was contorting into exasperation made Alex sure things weren't going to in his favour. The peeved moment passed, and then Lev was leaning in, his gaze growing amorous, closing in on Alex and making him falter.

Alex could hear Ziro's soft bit of laughter, and wondered if he was swooning on the inside as much he was. Lev was inches away from reaching Alex's lips, Alex slowly letting his eyes lids shut as he waited impatiently. The moment was stolen though, when Alex was then yanked away and dragged by his wrist down the main hall, away from Lev.

"Sorry! Gotta borrow Lexy for a while! Thanks!" Carsyn called back to Lev and Ziro as she disappeared within the crowd along with Alex.

"I owe you a foot rub!" Alex yelled back, his smile back at full force, despite the pang of disappointment lurching around his heart. Lev stood there appalled as he watched them go, not realizing he was also glaring.

Ziro gave him a playful pat on his back, finally stepping off the the stairs. "Hey, let's play pool. You versus me."

"What? Do you have some secret fetish for losing or something?" Lev grinned as he looked to Ziro. "And why so social all of a sudden?"

Ziro shrugged. "It's your boyfriend, he's contagious. I'd skip out on that foot rub if I were you, don't wanna catch what I might be catching."

"Pfft! I'll take my chances. Aren't you supposed to watch that Charlie kid though?"

"We can both keep an eye on him while we play. Now are we doing this, or what? Loser sneaks a bottle of Red Velvet Rum from their mom's liquor cellar."

Lev laughed, and Skelkin ducked back into his pocket as if preparing for a storm. "You're on."