Enigmatic

Something New

Karina's POV

I ended up staying with JB for three months now. But then, I started to feel like a burden, especially since I felt so much better now. He assured me that it's okay for me to stay, but I insisted that I go back to my place, because I need to learn to live on my own eventually. When I moved back into my house, JB, Wonpil and Taeyeon-unnie visited me and helped me redecorate just so it would not feel quite the same. And I was really grateful for that. It really made all the difference.

A lot of things have happened already, and now my birthday is coming up fast. JB planned a birthday party for me and I am not sure if I'm excited about it because there's a part of me that's dreading it. I went to shop for clothes because he told me to dress to kill and that he would just pick me up on the day itself.

The day of my birthday, I thought about the last time that I celebrated my birthday wrapped up with Minji at her place in New York City. It was the last trip that we had together as well. It was a good thing that we loved travelling because in that way, I don't really have to avoid a lot of places here in South Korea.

Stopping myself from remembering all of that, I took a deep breath as I waited for JB outside my house when he told me that he's minutes away from me. I am still unaware of the things that he planned for me tonight, but I guess, I'll just go with the flow.

If he invited his cousins again, then most probably, they'll set me up with someone, same as the last time that we were all together. I rolled my eyes at the thought as I saw JB pull up in front of my house. I grabbed my bag and headed towards the car, and when he stepped outside, he immediately hugged me.

"Happy birthday, Karina!"

I kissed his cheek and replied, "Thank you!"

He held onto me for a little bit longer than usual, rubbing his hand on my back. When he finally released me, I looked at him questioningly, but he just smiled at me.

He was talking animatedly as he drove towards the party location. And when we did arrive, it was a club. Just a regular club. And I was right, both Wonpil and Taeyeon-unnie were around and they immediately greeted me.

"Happy birthday, Karina," Unnie sang, and I wondered how much she'd had to drink already. "Let's go get you drunk and find someone for you to take home for the night!"

JB glared at her and I laughed. "Noooo! I'm just here to party. I shouldn't combine alcohol and sex, unnie!"

"Well, you should. I know that I most certainly will be!" She giggled.

They clearly had a lot of friends that they invited to the party, some of them I know, and others were strangers to me. JB and I went around to say hi to the guest as they told me their birthday wishes.

"This club just opened and my friend offered it to me. So I grabbed it." JB said proudly as he wrapped his arm around my waist. "You look really wonderful tonight. I'm really glad that you're starting to recover."

"Well, I have a few people who keep checking on me, and I want to be better, JB. I think that I'm almost there, really."

He laughed. "Then why did you turn Taeyeon-unnie's offer into getting you a hook up?"

But rather than snapping at him, I actually thought about his question. Should I be open to looking for something new? My doctor and I had talked about finding someone new, but I never got the courage to actually do it. And unnie offered just something for the night, and I'm not sure if I want to go down that route.

Irene and Seulgi arrived a couple of minutes later interrupting my thoughts. I'm really thankful that no matter what happened with Minji and I, her family still treated me like family. And when our other friend, Joy and her other friends, Yeri and Wendy, arrived at the party, she immediately looked at JB's hand on my waist, raising her eyebrow.