Amalia's POV
Although we had a few more hours until seven o'clock, Riley immediately began getting ready to go out for the night and she refused to leave me out of her little makeover montage. I was dragged over to our wardrobe and told to pick out an outfit, something I honestly didn't care about putting much effort into; it took multiple attempts for me to piece something together that she approved of, and even then, she made a few tweaks. In the end, I slipped into a red floral patterned sundress along with a denim jacket and cute black ankle boots, whilst Riley herself got dressed in a white and beige all-in-one. I was fine leaving it at that, but I was soon forced into the seat at the dressing table so I could have my hair and make-up done; likely because she knew I wasn't going to do it myself. Thankfully, Riley didn't go overboard, simply twisting my long blonde hair into soft curls and applying some light blush, mascara and lip gloss. It was more than I normally wore, but I liked it.
Pleased with her work, Riley then similarly styled her own hair, tying the front section back as she usually did to keep it out of her face before doing her makeup the same as mine, with lipstick instead of gloss. As she rubbed her lips together, she turned to face where I was sitting cross-legged on my bed, her expectant expression clearly asking what I thought of her work. I made a heart with my hands which I knew was the reaction she wanted, but even so, I didn't doubt she knew she looked great.
Once we were all dressed up, there wasn't much to do aside from wait and so Riley connected her phone to her Bluetooth speaker and put her Spotify playlist on shuffle; I was happy with the variety, even if there were a bunch of Taemin's songs sprinkled in. She crawled onto the bottom of the bed opposite me, and we enjoyed the music in mostly silence until a thought suddenly entered my mind.
"Oh, I meant to tell you ā you'll never guess who I bumped into earlier today."
Riley, who had been scrolling through social media, paused and slowly glanced up at me, thinking for a moment before shaking her head with a smile. "You're right, I won't." I giggled a little at her reaction which lead her to lean forward. "Who?"
"Felix." Her eyes widened as she gasped; it was hard to tell whether she knew who I meant. "You remember him?"
"Yeah! Oh, man... that's crazy," she said, leaning back on her hands. "Who would've thought he'd still be living across the street?"
"I know... I'm surprised he still recognised me."
A hint of a smile began to pull at Riley's lips, her eyes scanning my face for a second before she continued, "You two were always super buddy-buddy."
I frowned and shuffled in my seat. "We were all buddy-buddy, Riles. We spent every summer together for at least ten years."
"I know, but you and him..." I couldn't help wondering what she meant, but it didn't seem as though she was going to explain. "Never mind. What did you guys talk about?"
Feeling a little awkward, I cleared my throat and fiddled with the corner of the blanket, eyes avoiding her gaze for a moment. "Not much. We caught up, he mentioned us all hanging out again at some point, and that was about it. I said I'd ask you about it and let him know."
"Oh, yeah, we should totally hang out again! Does he still have the Aussie accent?" I nodded, to which she grinned in response. "Awesome... d'you think he'd wanna come to the club with us?"
"I don't know, it might be a bit late notice." That was one reason, and I couldn't stop myself from blurting out the other. "Besides... I'm not sure he's a Taemin fan."
"Has he told you he isn't?"
"Well, no... we've never spoken about Taemin, but Iā"
"Then how do you know?" Riley's response was quick, and there was a growing tone to her voice that was difficult to decipher; it wasn't exactly aggressive, but she was pushing for an answer. "He could be." As the last word left her mouth, a song by who I could only assume was Taemin began playing, causing her to close her eyes and sigh. "How could anyone not like him?"
I pulled one of my favourite patterned cushions out from behind me and clutched it to my chest before leaning back against the headboard. What more could I say? It was best to leave Riley absorbed in her own little world than try to explain why someone other than me might not be interested in a random K-Pop celebrity... not that she really knew I didn't like Taemin to begin with, but that was a conversation I didn't want to get into. Regardless of how silly I thought her fan-girl obsession was, or the fact that she thought meeting the guy would lead to anything other than a selfie she could show off to friends, I loved her and supported her, and was going to continue doing so.
I just hoped that tonight would help her realise there was nothing special about Taemin Seong.