.  * * *

  Holding my breath, I looked into the iron door and blinked swiftly.

  Inside the dark, two people were staring at us. One was a man, and the other was a woman, who were both wearing red wine suits. They had gold name tags shining on their chests which had their titles of ‘manager’ engraved onto it.

  When I realized that they were the staff of Club Papillon, I checked above the iron door. Geez, I had to anticipate the level of their security system. Right above the iron door, which looked like the backdoor to the club, a surveillance camera was installed on the wall.

  They would indeed have those devices since this place was for exclusive members-only, and no strangers were allowed. I turned my head back to the front.

  Gosh, what should we do? They would definitely interrogate us, asking, ‘What were you guys doing here?’ or ‘Get out of here ASAP!’ While I had those thoughts in my head, the man and woman suddenly showed us a rich smile. Eh?

  They said, “Welcome to Club Papillon. Please follow us.”


  Before Jooin and I exchanged eye contact, they let us step inside. Listening to the iron door clank shut, Jooin and I both shared a look of perplexity.

  As soon as we got inside, a piece of booming music echoed along the narrow hallway. While the entire space was showering with loud laughter, glass clinking sounds, and numerous footsteps, I walked in the hallway and thought, ‘Is it really okay to get in here like this easy? Is this it?’ That was when the female manager flung a question while walking across the dark hallway.

  “By whose invitation did you join this club?”


  “Uh… excuse me?”


  After a moment of stammering, I quickly realized that they had misunderstood us as members of this club.

  They then seem to grasp the situation immediately from my attitude. That was when I murmured to myself, ‘Damn it, I totally screwed up,’ while watching their faces stiffened.

  The two managers paused their steps and instead of getting angry, one of them held my hand with a face wreathed in smiles.

  “Oh, you didn’t make a reservation, did you?”


  … What was she talking about?

  “You are very much welcome! This side, please.”


  “Um, uh… yeah…”


  Getting dragged by them, I showed a bitter grin, but then I noticed that they had fastened their gazes at Jooin, not me.

  Jooin looked puzzled with his eyes cast down, but it wasn’t a problem at all for boasting off her… I mean… his beauty. The look on his face had a similar effect like that of Ban Yeo Ryung, who had her mouth shut when she got mad, which made other people get even more fascinated by her cold beauty.

  Next, I realized that none of the two managers were paying even a bit of attention to me. At that moment, I felt the rage rising deep within my… no, that didn’t happen at all since I was so used to others treating me like an air when I was staying beside the Four Heavenly Kings and Ban Yeo Ryung. Oh, hold on… please, no tears. I was sincerely fine…


  I looked at the front again. We didn’t have a membership, get invited, and made any reservation; however, the manager spoke to us with an excessively amiable attitude.

  “Then, you aren’t planning to meet anyone, are you?”


  As soon as I heard that question, my thought reached the point that Ban Yeo Ryung and Lucas might already be inside here. Maybe we could join each other without any difficulties then.

  That was when I tried to take out my phone as if something flashed through my mind and say, ‘Oh, we have friends in here waiting for us.’


  “Then, please follow me. We have some perfect guests for you ladies to have a great time tonight.”


  “Eh? Excuse me?”


  Was this something like a speed dating…??? While I was getting bewildered, the female manager came closer to me and linked her arms tightly with mine. So did the male manager, who approached Jooin and tried to do the same thing. Jooin seemed to refuse the guy’s arm, but he soon looked at me and just bit his lips.

  Although Jooin was the smartest kid among the Four Heavenly Kings, he was still the main character of a web novel; therefore, even if he might be the weakest among them, he would surely know how to fight. Did you see a male protagonist bad at fighting? This law was also applied to Jooin, so he wasn’t weak or far from being athletic than his overall appearance.

  However, if he, who dressed up as a slender girl looking as fragile as a twig, refused the grownup man’s hand with much force, Jooin would fall under suspicion. He, therefore, couldn’t do anything but just got dragged together with me by the managers.

  Being led by the two, we headed for the stairs leading to the second floor.

  In front of that floor, someone, who was dressed in the same red wine manager uniform, threw a glance at us then stepped aside in silence. Wasn’t this a similar pattern that happened in Eun Jiho’s hotel? Only VIPs were upstairs, but maybe they would be bringing us there just by looking at Jooin’s gorgeous face.

  Compared to the first floor, which was like a hell’s furnace full of crowds and the Saturday night fever, the second floor was very secluded. No one was leaning against the terrace. Everyone was inside their rooms that had beaded curtains in front and didn’t come out. I heard loud laughter and conversations coming from each room; however, the voices sounded younger than my expectations.

  It wouldn’t be what I was thinking, but they seemed to be kids our age… Then at the moment, the two managers opened the beaded curtains and pushed us into the room.

  Reeling under their sudden actions, Jooin and I barely stood straight.

  “Then, have a great time in Club Papillon!”


  What they had just dropped before they left made me feel sick. How could they say to us, ‘Have a great time,’ when they almost forced us to go upstairs and locked us in a room? What if we weren’t the type of girls the people in this room were looking for?!

  Rambling those thoughts, I raised my head at last. Through the beaded curtain that was still on my hair, I began to see a few silhouettes reflected in the blue light inside the foggy space.

  There were some fruit and deep-fried food plates on the table; a few bottles of expensive liquors were rolling around in front of the lamp attached to the table.

  On the dark red sofa placed along the wall, about five to six people were sitting there. Four of them were guys, and the two were girls. That was when I grasped why the managers put us inside this room. They would have wanted some extra girls to match the number of guys.

  Even though I got aware of the situation, there was something that I could still not understand at all.

  “Why are you guys wearing school uniforms…?” I murmured while looking at their beige jackets on top of their white jacket shirts and dark gray neckties.

  Among the numerous assumptions that popped up inside my head at that moment, only one possibility was acceptable. This club might be operating the second floor with a concept of school uniform-only; therefore, only guests who looked young enough to look good in school uniforms could get in.

  Just then, a boy, who put his wine glass on the table with a thud, directed his eyes on us then flaunted a grin. His following remark made me touch my forehead as if I was suddenly having a headache.

  “We’re ‘One-card,’ the ranking society in Dae Woon High School.”


  Each student then pointed themselves one after another and introduced, ‘I’m Spade, Heart, Clover…’ which wasn’t unfamiliar to me at all now. I had gone through a similar case just a few days ago.

  Once they finished introducing themselves, they asked us with a smile, “So, how old are you? Are you in college?”


  Staring at them vacantly, I wondered for a moment should I also say to them, ‘OMG, I think we’re the same age! You guys are here too! If you don’t hit the club once a week, you aren’t a teen!’ If I could say like that, maybe we could move on quite naturally.

  When I turned my head aside, Jooin didn’t look surprised or perplexed at all. Instead, he rubbed his chin and murmured in a severe face.

  “Is this place where the rankers gather regularly… Hold on, then…?”


  As if they were replying to Jooin’s murmur, the boys spoke with a grin, “Hey, if you’re about to have a quiet time, you picked the wrong day.”


  The boys then spread their arms as if they were holding the table in their arms.

  “Because the entire second floor is where we, the nationwide rankers, gather.”


  Listening to their remark, I could feel my jaw dropping to the floor.