Bound To Him | ✔️

4

~Katya's POV~

When I got back home to my apartment, I peeled off the clothes I'd worn to University that day and tossed them in the dirty clothes hamper, not bothering to put on other clothes before I flopped into my bed and sighed. I knew that the party was supposed to start at eight PM, according to Saki, so I had about four more hours before I needed to be ready. Of course, though, it never took me that long to get ready.

So instead, I decided to just lounge around in bed in my underwear, watching movies on FX to pass the time. It was at about seven thirty PM that I decided to go take another shower, not needing to stay in very long except to wash my body and wash and condition my hair again, as I'd shaved my body just yesterday.

I stepped out of the shower once I was done, my fiery red hair now looking dark brown due to it being wet. As I didn't have enough time to let it air dry, I decided to use my blow-dryer and then set it back beneath the sink when my hair fell down my back in straight, smooth strands. Wrapped in a towel, I headed into my room and quickly did the little amount of makeup that I always did, glancing at myself in the mirror as I stood from the chair in front of my vanity. Tossing the towel I had wrapped myself with into the laundry hamper, I headed to the storage shelves that contained my underwear and quickly picked out a pair to put on.

Next I went and dug an outfit from out of my closet, pulling on the pleated dark blue, denim miniskirt that I picked out. I grabbed a white, ribbed tank top that had a high neckline and black ringed sleeves. The word 'spunky' was spelled across the chest in a funky black font. Biting on my bottom lip, I quickly grabbed a pair of white high top sneakers with black laces and pulled them on, knowing that Saki was probably going to be here soon to pick me up since I had no car and no idea where this party was at.

Deciding to leave my hair down as it was, I swiped on a little bit of deodorant and then spritzed myself with perfume before I grabbed my phone and a small cow print purse to keep my things in. I heard a knock on the front door and Saki calling my name obnoxiously loud, causing me to run down the hall to answer the door as quick as possible. The last thing I needed was for my neighbors to file a noise complaint against me, and after only a week of me being here.

My eyes were wide as I swung open the door, heaving out a breath when my eyes met Saki's. I was out of breath just from running down the hall, and knew I probably should work out more.

"Ready to go?" Saki chirped at me, as she often did. She was a very cheery, happy go lucky person, I'd come to learn in this past week of knowing her. I nodded my head and stepped out of my apartment, using my keys to lock the door behind me before we headed out to her car together.

The drive to this house that the party was at was surprisingly short and, before I even knew it, she pulled her car to a stop at the curb of the filled driveway. It was dark outside already, but I could see the silhouettes of people that were entering and exiting the house, some of them hanging out in the yard instead of inside. Admittedly, the house looked rather normal on the outside—modernly fancy and dark themed, but still pretty normal.

Saki got out of the car first, likely far more accustomed to these parties and therefore more comfortable, and I scrambled to follow after her with my eyes focused on the house. We entered the house and I stuck as close to her tiny frame as I could, undeniably nervous about being here. I recognized a few vaguely familiar faces but I couldn't put any names to them aside from Ichiro, and I straight up didn't know anyone else that my eyes landed on. Seems like Saki was right when she told me that a lot of people went to these parties.

I let my eyes trail over my surroundings as I lingered behind Saki, familiarizing myself with my new surroundings while I aimlessly let her lead me wherever she was going. The first room that we walked through was the living room, which had nice dark brown wood floors and a long white couch that sat atop a black and white ombré rug, several people resting their drinks on top of the white coffee table that was almost in the shape of a tear drop. To the right of the couch was a bar that looked into the kitchen and to the left was a hallway that seemed to wrap around back to the bar by the couch.

We wandered out of the living room and I followed her as we made our way down the hall, and she seemed to know where she was going so I assumed she'd been here before. "Where are we heading?" I asked Saki, glancing at the dark gray walls and the closed occasional door. "Oh, my friends don't usually hang out with that loud crowd of people in the living room. They like to get together more privately with each other in the second living room instead." She responded, turning her head to look at me over her shoulder. My lips parted and I wondered briefly if I had heard her correctly. "Second living room?" I mumbled to myself, awed. I'd never been in a house that had more than one living room before.

She stopped at a door that was at the turn in the hallway, pushing it open before she looked my way and smiled, gesturing for me to go in first. I hesitated at first, mostly because I knew that I wouldn't know any of the people in that room, but I eventually walked through the doorframe with her following me inside quickly.

This living room was just as darkly themed as the rest of the house that I had seen so far, with dark brown wood floors and dark grey walls. A dark brown, square shaped coffee table sat in the middle of the floor atop a large black rug. There was a large charcoal grey colored couch against the left wall, the L shape of it making it so lots of people could fit on it, and a small beige colored chair sat off to the open space on the left side of the couch.

There were six people, one of them being Ichiro, Saki's brother, but I couldn't place a name to the other faces. However, I recognized the man with the cornrow braids and the guy that I hadn't heard speak but a few times in English, both of who sat with her and Ichiro. The other three were people that I had never seen before, so I didn't recognize them at all.

A girl with dark brown hair and pale skin sat between Ichiro and the guy with braids, scrolling through her phone. Her dark green eyes flicked up when Saki and I entered the living room, the door swinging shut behind us, and so did the eyes of everyone else sitting on the couch. There was another girl beside the quiet guy with blond hair, her full lips pulling up into a grin as she spotted Saki behind me. She had dark grey eyes and pretty, caramel colored skin with long, curly black hair that fell to above her waist.

"Kiki!" The girl cheered, raising her arms in excitement as she shot up from where she sat on the couch. She bounced on her feet and Saki laughed, slipping around me to wave at all six of her friends. "Hi, guys." She chirped, earning a bunch of mixed responses from the lot of them.

I stood quietly behind her, feeling like she was shielding me despite the fact that her thin figure didn't hide my curvier one behind her whatsoever. Saki glanced over her shoulder at me and smiled, pulling me forward for them to see me better. "This is Katya. She's new in town." Saki introduced me to all six of them, and Ichiro gave me a friendly, familiar smile that I returned. "Hi!" The girl who had excitedly greeted Saki said to me, coming over to give me a hug that caught me incredibly off guard but also made me feel a little more welcome. "I'm Zena." She told me with a bright smile that was almost blinding.

Zena turned around, gently grasping my forearm as she pointed to the other girl sitting beside Ichiro. "That's Cordelia." She said, beginning to give me everyone's name on the couch so I could familiarize myself with all of them. Her finger then moved to the man with the cornrow braids. "Julius." She added, pointing to the quiet blond guy next. "That's Yosef." She continued. Then, she pointed to the last guy, who I hadn't yet had the chance to look at. "And that's Onyx."

My gaze fell onto Onyx for the first time and when I did, I found myself staring, wondering how the hell I'd managed to not see him the first time.