12th of January, 2016-- a lot of things happened on that day. Thousands of lives took their first breaths while just as much took their last. Some were swimming in joy and ecstasy while others drowned deep in grievance, may it be any reason.

But 12th of January remains to be quite a remarkable day in the history of blossoms boarding school, one that none of them could ever forget; it was forged in the memories for the rest of their lives.

Amongst the many students residing beneath the roof of the prestigious school based in some secluded area near Gwangju, there were the graduating batch celebrating last prom with the second years; obviously having the best time of their lives.

Except someone.

~~~

gyuwo_
get me out of here

gyuwo_
where even r u?

minty.k
ffs plz let me be for once

minty.k
I'm trying to get laid here

~~~

Beomgyu rolled his eyes, slumping further in his chair as he closed off his phone. The blaring music and the teens tipsy in joy and love was enough of a turn off about the whole thing, added to the fact that Beomgyu was, infact, all on his own, now that his companion so gracefully had ditched him. Just fucking amazing.

And then there was also Kang Taehyun who had the amazing choice of just not attending the prom at all because he was too much of a nerd for stuff like these, which Beomgyu couldn't agree more. But due to this, he was now only left with Kai, the other friend with his bratty self and mint hair, and now even he wasn't around.

He could've just walked out of the hall and back to the dorms, he had that option all along. He couldn't bring himself to, however. It's the last prom for him after all, before he left it all behind to finally embrace his life as an adult.

He sighed, watched the dance floor and mourned in silence. What a dilemma.

"I'll be right back, I am just heading to the washrooms."

"Yeah, no that's fine. I am waiting right here."

With his sleezy eyes, Beomgyu gazed over to the source of the voices, just in time to see one Song Mingi stealing a kiss from his girlfriend, who-- by the way-- looked absolutely ravishing in that glittering white dress and her brown hair collected in a beautiful bun shaped to look like a flower with spiral of locks left on the either sides of her face.

Was he the only one alone in the entire hall, which, I kid you not, was larger than four of their classrooms collectively, and classrooms of Blossoms was know to be big. Hell, the whole school looked like a Victorian castle.

"Have you even seen Sumi's dress? I heard her dad spent a million won over it."

"She's just flaunting her father's money, I tell you. And that Choi Soobin had been swooning all around her, that man-stealing bitch."

It was Lim Yunha talking to Lee Chaeryeong, who gasped dramatically and Beomgyu just felt like running from that entire thing. Fuck the last prom, he was lying around anyway, might as well continue that back at the dorms where it would've been a thousand times more comfortable. Why were these girls being so over-dramatically annoying?

Without giving any other thoughts to it, Beomgyu stood up from his seat, took a last swig of his almost forgotten fruit punch and stalked away from the crowd.

He took out his phone again for a moment.

~~~

« [Twitter] Blossoms Gossip: Kim Sumi leaves the school in awe with her ethereal prom dress, making her look no less than a real life Cinderella... »

« [Instagram] <mingling singles> k.th_ : that was lame. »

« [Instagram] <mingling singles> minty.k : uu r just boring, grandpa »

~~~

The trip back to the dorms wasn't so long, or it was and Beomgyu was just all too familiar with the old corridors that he didn't even realise and the time passed, he couldn't really point out. All he knew that he was looking around for a certain blond which, to his surprise, wasn't anywhere.

"Tae?" He called out, but no one was around to answer. The room was fully and utterly empty.

The boy frowned, checking his phone again. Did the nerd finally decide to break the nerd rules for once?

Nonetheless, Beomgyu was back down the stairs and walking to the main building where the hall was, the muffled music could be heard in a distance.

He wasn't really minding his steps, very sure no one was around. He was proven wrong in assuming that quite soon as he runs against someone and barely managed to dodge a fall, thanks to the said someone who now had a hold of Beomgyu's arm in a tight grip.

Beomgyu clutched at the front of the other's coat eyes squeezed shut.

"You okay?"

The voice was rather soothing, but Beomgyu was in too much of a bad mood to register just that.

Once he gained back his conscience, Beomgyu pushed away from the guy and smoothened his dress coat which was an elegant mix of red and black velvet with diamond accessories adorning the cuffs and the front.

"Are you blind?!"

Of course Beomgyu was aware that in that situation, he himself was the blind one, but that was too much for his pride to administer.

And the other, who turned out to be none other than Choi Soobin, knew just that as he peered at Beomgyu's face with an expression as unreadable as the Physics textbooks. And then he had the audacity to look amused.

"Well, I am sorry for that."

The guy was an absolute bother, from what Beomgyu had known of him. He never minded his own fucking business. Fucking perfect kid with perfect grades and all.

Beomgyu stared at him for a while before rolling his eyes. "Whatever." He walked around the tall boy and further away until he heard,

"Beomgyu-ssi!"

The said boy turned around. "What?"

Surprisingly enough, a long silence stretched between them in which Soobin just gazed at him with those doe eyes of his that could make anyone fall for him.

"Are you going back to the party?"

Beomgyu was unsure what to say as a retort, so he just uttered a "Yes."

Soobin faced him fully. "I can accompany you there. You see, I was looking for someone."

That made the other frown. "Aren't you coming from there itself?"

He smiled. "No, I was just taking a detour to the gardens. The weather is pleasant, isn't it?"

Beomgyu didn't question him further, although he hardly believed any of his words. He just nodded, turned back to where he was headed, and said, "come on up then, loser."

And if only Choi Soobin knew how to keep his mouth shut for a while.

"You look good today. Like a prince charming of sorts."

"I feel honoured you think so," Beomgyu snorted sarcastically.

Soobin let out a chuckle, "Why is a beauty like you wandering out here all alone? Don't you have a partner for prom?"

"Do I need to have a partner for shit like this?"

"I mean, that's what I've seen."

"Clearly, you've heard wrong. I'm a shining solo and I'll let it be that way."

Beomgyu was trying his best to hold a descent conversation with that tall ass giraffe while his mood weighed heavily upon his head.

They turned a corner and, as if luck wasn't at Beomgyu's side at all that day, he stumbled yet again. Soobin was too late to catch up to him in time and he ended up sprawled on the cold floor.

"Fuck this shit!" He cursed aloud.

Suspiciously enough, Soobin stayed silent, almost too silent.

"Bitch-" He had whipped his head around to throw a sharp glare at him, but stopped halfway when he found he boy frozen at his place, his eyes fixated somewhere on the floor beside Beomgyu.

Beomgyu slowly looked down to see what he had stumbled upon.

A slipper.

A sparkling slipper of glass, to be exact, glowing blue under the thin moonlight coming from the long window. It was, however, smudged with something dark and thick.

And then, Beomgyu slowly veered his gaze to his side.

He felt nauseous.

//The clock struck twelve, Oh, the Cinderella is gone
Find her before she is locked up in her fate forever.//