After a morning of classes and then a midday lunch, the 7 boys stepped outside of the building during their afternoon break- all embracing the warm, spring air. They each took a seat on a bright green patch of healthy looking grass just outside the building, shaded by a big tree. They sat in a circle, making them look like primary school children having show and tell circle time.

“So the party later,” Namjoon began, feeling he should arise the topic.

“Yeah, I’m pretty excited actually,” Taehyung chirped. “We’ve been here a day and we’re already invited to a party!”

“That’s because it’s a first year’s party for the transfer students,” Hobi pointed out, “it doesn’t make us popular.”

“Yet...” Taehyung added.

“Yet?” Jin quizzed. All 7 boys looked at Taehyung inquisitively.

“After this party, the rest of the year group will see how awesome we all are- and then we’ll always be invited to future parties,” he proposed his thoughts, earning a mix of confused and sympathetically fond looks from his peers.

“And- what exactly are we going to do tonight that will make us this popular?” Namjoon questioned.

“Nothing,” Hobi interrupted, “ in fact I think we should keep our heads down,” he suggested.

“What? Why?” Taehyung whined.

“Go on…” Namjoon gestured for Hobi to continue his proposition.

“We’re new here, we don’t want to make a bad first impression, do we? If we keep our heads down and just attend the party, have a bit of fun and a drink- not getting too involved with anything- and then leave; we’ll just be known as normal students and our school lives will be easier,” he finished, smiling proudly.

“Agreed,” Jungkook chirped in.
 

“I agree too,” Jimin added.

“And me,” Jin also added.

“Same,” said Yoongi. Taehyung tilted his head slightly at his odd new group of friends.

“But Hobi, you’re so confident and friendly- I thought you’d think more like me,” he joked.

“Hobi has a point,” Namjoon joined in.

“And you?” Taehyung cried.

“This is a fresh start for all of us, we’ve all transferred for different reasons, right? But for whatever reason we’ve transferred, this is still a new beginning. I had a bad reputation in school, and I’m making it right here. So I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t want to be too well known here.” The rest of the group stared at him in awe, all nodding their heads along to what he was saying- except for Taehyung of course. They sat in silence for a few seconds before Hobi chimed in.

“That was deep.”

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8:45pm in the dorms

“I’m ready,” Hobi announced to Jimin and Jungkook, as he slipped on a sleek black jacket. After putting it on he went over to Jungkook and put his hands on the younger boy’s shoulders.

“Listen, I’m going to take care of you, okay?” he proposed, Jungkook nodded. “You can stick with me the whole night, and you don’t have to drink if you don’t want to.” Jungkook nodded again, and Hobi ruffled his hair before walking out of the dorm. Jungkook and Jimin trailed behind him while he walked the few steps to room 19 and knocked on the door lightly.

“Are you guys ready?” he asked through the door, leaning in close to the door so they’d hear him. A handsome looking Namjoon opened the door within seconds, straightening out his jacket.

“Yup, in fact, we were just about to come and ask you that,” he laughed, walking out followed by the other 3. The group walked up to the very top floor of the school, looking left and right at all the doors and entrances before they saw the common room they were looking for. When they entered, music was already playing and students were dotted around drinking and socialising.

“Remember what we said earlier?” Namjoon asked the group, who all nodded. Hobi put an arm around Jungkook and lead him into the huge common room, the other 5 boys following suite.

“Welcome!” a good looking student called, as he stumbled over to the boys who just arrived, clearly somehow already drunk out of his mind.

“Hi,” Namjoon smiled.

“Transfer students?” the student asked.

“Yeah,” Namjoon replied on behalf of him and his friends.

“Come in, come in,” the student slurred, waving his hands gesturing for them to come in further.

“I’m one of the first years that joined at the start of the year, my name is Haneul, what are all your names?” The group all said their names one by one, while Haneul just nodded, clearly not actually taking in the information that he would forget by the next morning.

“Cool! Well go and get a drink and socialise then. Have fun!” Haneul waved, going back into the small crowd of boys he came from in the corner of the room.

“Well then, let’s get a drink,” Hobi suggested, leading the other 6 over to the array of drinks on the table, which were becoming gradually less organised. They poured themselves various drinks in the infamous red solo cups that were seemingly used at every party ever. The party so far was awkward- to say the least. The 7 boys stood in an awkward little bunch at one side of the room, sipping their drinks, some at a faster pace than the others. Hobi, Taehyung and Jin both drank quite fast, Jungkook drank the slowest.

“Should we go and introduce ourselves to some of our classmates then?” Namjoon suggested, taking another sip of his drink.

“Yeah, I suppose we should at least socialise a little,” Jin agreed, “but don’t go overboard,” he warned.

“Got it. Come on Jungkook, let’s go and talk to them over there,” Hobi said, pointing to a group of friendly looking students and guiding Jungkook over to them.

“Yoongi, shall we go over to them?” Namjoon pointed out a different group.

“Sure,” Yoongi replied, going off in that direction with Namjoon. Jimin, Jin and Taehyung stood in a small circle, looking at each other expectantly.

“Well I’m just going to go around and mingle,” Taehyung laughed, “have fun guys!” He bounced away into the crowds.

“Us two then?” Jin said to Jimin.
 

“Looks like it, shall we go over there?” Jimin pointed to a different social group, Jin shrugged and they both headed over there.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Hi!” Hobi called out as he approached the group he went to.

“Hello,” they all greeted back, smiling.

“I’m Hobi, and this is Jungkook,” he introduced himself and the younger boy.

“Nice to meet you,” one of the guys in the group said. “I’m Junseo, and this is Jihoon, Hyunwoo, and Minjoo,” he said as he pointed to each of his friends in turn.

“How old are you guys?” Hyunwoo asked as he sipped his drink.

“I’m 17 and Jungkook is 15,” Hobi replied, resting his arm on Jungkook’s shoulder, starting to feel a bit tipsy.

“Jungkook isn’t much of a talker,” Jihoon pointed out, “is it because he’s so young?” he asked, talking as if Jungkook wasn’t right there.
 

“Yeah, he’s just a bit shy, he’ll warm up soon, right Kookie?” Hobi laughed, putting his arm round Jungkook, who stood there slightly bewildered.

“Yeah,” he agreed, laughing along uncomfortably.

“I promised to take care of him,” Hobi laughed, but still with seriousness in his voice, ruffling Jungkook’s hair once again. Jungkook frowned and shook his hair back into place.  

“Aw, that’s really sweet!” Junseo cooed, “we’ll also keep an eye on you, Jungkook,” he chuckled.

“Oh- oh thank you,” Jungkook gushed, he could feel the heat rising to his cheeks from the attention he was receiving.

“Hobi!” called a very tall, handsome boy with thick eyeliner on, walking past the group. Hobi turned around and recognised the boy instantly.

“Oh! You! From Korean class! Byunghee, right?” he asked, joining him to go and get a drink.

“Yeah that’s right, enjoying the party?” Byunghee asked as the two walked off to the drinks bar. Jungkook turned back around awkwardly to the group he was just talking to, to see that they had shifted further away and were enticed in their own conversations. He shuffled nervously, not really sure what to do with himself. Namjoon, who had been watching from a distance, came straight to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Ah, I knew Hobi would get drunk and leave you eventually, I’ll stick with you now,” he comforted.

“Thank you,” Jungkook said.

“Shall we go and sit over there, a little bit away from the crowds?” Namjoon pointed to the empty stairs, suggesting they go and perch on the bottom step. Jungkook nodded and followed him. Namjoon sat down, holding his cup in both hands and swirling the last bit of alcohol around the bottom of it. Jungkook sat next to him, putting his drink down by his side and leaning to rest his elbows on his knees and his chin on his hands.

“So,” Namjoon started, he downed the last drop of his drink and placed it next to him.

“How come you transferred here then?” he asked finally, while wiping his mouth with his sleeve. Jungkook sighed and looked down.

“Oh, you don’t have to talk about it,” he added quickly, waving his hands frantically, “I’m not pressuring you.”

“How come you’re here,” Jungkook asked, wanting Namjoon to share his story first before he himself opens up.

“It’s a long story-” Namjoon began, “I’ll go into detail one day in the future, but I’ll shorten it for now. So I got into a lot of trouble at school. I’m not a bad guy,” he assured, “but I mixed with the wrong friend group because they were just there at the time, and once I mixed with them, it was hard to go back.” Jungkook nodded, willing him to continue some more. “We got up to some stupid , I didn’t join in, but I was just there with them all the time so I got in trouble too, so obviously that was frustrating for me because people thought I was a bad guy, even my parents thought I was a bad guy and weren’t even proud to call me their son at one point, so they sent me here. I agreed to come, it was an excuse to get away from that group and have a fresh start, you know?” Jungkook nodded again.

“Don’t worry, I don’t think you’re a bad guy even though you got into trouble, I understand. And I won’t judge you for your past,” he said, kindness dripping from his voice.

“Thank you, Jungkook, that really means a lot to hear that,” Namjoon said sincerely. He wondered if Jungkook would tell him why he transferred here, but didn’t ask. He just waited patiently to see if Jungkook spoke.

“I-” Jungkook started, but stopped instantly.

“You can tell me,” Namjoon reassured.

“I won’t go into detail, not yet anyway,” Jungkook explained.

“I understand,” Namjoon nodded. Sitting patiently waiting for him to continue.

“I was born into a very abusive family, and have been abused both verbally and physically my whole life,” Jungkook admitted. Namjoon gasped a little, more taken aback than he expected he would be.

“So- you wanted to get away?” he questioned.

“Yes,” Jungkook replied. “I told my parents it was so I could get a better education and then get a well paid job when I grew up, they’ve always been strict on education and money, so they agreed.”
 

“So, why did you never tell anyone what was happening and get help?” Namjoon asked as politely as he could.

“It’s complicated being in a situation like that, feeling like you have no one to turn to, being threatened to keep it a secret, I’m still only young, and I was scared,” Jungkook admitted, playing with his hands.

“Jungkook I’m sorry,” Namjoon said genuinely. Jungkook nodded.

“Maybe I’ll talk more about it another day,” he sighed, “I don’t feel like talking much about it yet.”

“I understand,” Namjoon assured, “thank you for sharing that with me. Maybe we could hang out together sometime and talk about things. We could console each other. Then we’d both have someone to talk to when we wanted to get things off our chest,” he suggested.

“I’d love that,” Jungkook smiled.

“What...is Taehyung doing?” Namjoon asked, sounding somewhat exasperated just watching him.

“And THAT is why beavers are a key feature of today’s society,” Taehyung slurred, finishing his drunken story about beavers, having the rest of the group he’d mingled with in hysterics. Laughing at him rather than with him of course, but Taehyung didn’t care, he just loved making people laugh or smile- and that’s obviously easier when he’s drunk. He got a warm feeling from entertaining people, a sense of achievement.

“You’re so funny, Taehyung,” a boy named Seunghyun laughed. Taehyung bowed jokingly, making the group laugh more.

“Have you got anymore stories to tell?” Seunghyun pestered excitedly.

“Okay, one more,” Taehyung slurred heavily, tripping over a little and being caught by one of the boys in the group, who helped him back up.

“Once upon a time, there was Prince who lived in a castle waaaay up in the sky,” he began, “he was called-” the boys stood staring at him in anticipation.

“Seunghyun, the Prince of kimchi,” the boys all laughed.

“What? Why me?” Seunghyun laughed. Taehyung put his index finger up, gesturing him to be quiet and let him continue.

“The King of this castle, was called Youngjae, the great King of the East!” he exclaimed, causing the boy in the group named Youngjae to laugh more.

“And the North, and the West, and the South,” Taehyung added, “he was just the King of everything. He was the King of the East, North, West, South, North East, South West, and everything inbetween. He was the ruler of jajangmyeon and-” Taehyung’s story was interrupted by Namjoon pulling him away.

“That’s enough,” Namjoon chuckled.
 

“Wait!” Taehyung exclaimed.

“Come on, you lightweight,” Namjoon said fondly, pulling him away by the arm, Taehyung’s feet almost dragging along the floor where he couldn’t stand up properly. He sat Taehyung down at the bottom of the stairs.

“Geez…” Jungkook muttered, laughing a little.
 

“And I thought you were weird sober,” Namjoon commented. Taehyung shrugged.

“What happened to keeping our heads down here?” Jungkook quizzed.

“Mmm, I figured that a few of us wouldn’t stick to it,” Namjoon said honestly.

“I mean, we’re talking about a group of teenage boys here,” he continued, tutting as he watched Taehyung swaying from side to side.

“Hey!” Taehyung snapped, “Hobi was the one who suggested it and look and him!” he waved his hands to the corner of the room, where a drunk Hobi was laughing hysterically while holding onto the wall for support so he wouldn’t fall straight to the floor.

“I told you I was just gonna have fun, I stuck to what I said, if Hobi knew was going to end up drunk, he could have saved the lies,” Taehyung pointed out.

“Ah oh well,” Namjoon waved it off, “like I said, group of teenage boys, it’s not like we didn’t see it coming, leave Hobi to have fun.”

“Why couldn’t you have left me to have fun,” Taehyung pointed an accusing finger straight at Namjoon, less than an inch away from his face.

“You were having too much fun, Mr Storyteller,” Namjoon joked, pushing Taehyung’s finger away. Taehyung huffed and slumped in his seat.

“Let’s sober you up a little bit,” Namjoon suggested, “wait here,” he said, running to grab a glass of water and returning quickly.

“Here,” he passed the drink to Taehyung, his hands hovering near it, from the fear of Taehyung dropping it.

“Just sip it slowly.”

“Bread,” Taehyung stated.

“What?” Namjoon asked perplexed, tilting his head slightly.

“They say bread sobers you up, it soaks up the alcohol,” Taehyung pointed out, his voice dripping with pride as if he was a genius.

“We- we don’t have any bread, Taehyung” Namjoon informed him seriously, holding the glass now, tipping it up a little so Taehyung could sip it.

“But I like bread,” Taehyung pouted.

“There’s no bread,” Namjoon retorted, trying not to laugh. Jungkook just sat next to Taehyung, watching as Namjoon helped him to sip the glass of water slowly.

“I don’t feel good,” Taehyung complained, slumping down a little. Namjoon took the water and placed it aside.

“I’m going to get you back to the dorm, okay?” he asked, already putting an arm around the drunk boy without waiting for an answer. Taehyung seemed to comply and let Namjoon help him up.

“Get the other side,” Namjoon ordered Jungkook, gesturing him to support Taehyung from the other side. Jungkook got up quickly and put his arm round Taehyung’s waist, who stumbled across the room, with the 2 boys keeping him held up.

“Jin,” Namjoon called as they walked past a group of boys.

“Yeah?” Jin called back.

“We’re taking him back up to the dorm,” he shouted over the music, “someone’s had a little too much to drink,” he nodded his head towards Taehyung, “tell the others!” Jin just put his thumbs up and disappeared into the crowd to find the Hobi, Yoongi, and Jimin. Getting Taehyung down the many flights of stairs proved much harder than Namjoon or Jungkook could have imagined, as Taehyung just wasn’t coordinating properly to take each step one by one without falling. After what felt like hours, they finally managed to hoik him down the stairs and into dorm 19. They placed him down on the bed as gently as they could and Namjoon crouched by his side.

“Tae,” he said, “get some sleep okay? Jungkook and I are going to go back up to the party for a bit. I’ll be back soon with Yoongi and Jin, I’ll make sure they stay quiet when they come in,” he assured.

“Mmm” Taehyung agreed, rolling sleepily onto his side. Namjoon tutted.

“He’ll sleep it off,” he said, standing up.

“Yeah,” Jungkook agreed.

“Come on, let’s go and enjoy the party for a little while longer,” Namjoon smiled, following Jungkook out of the dorm and back up the stairs.

Hey guys! So I feel like this fic is starting to go somewhere now, so it should hopefully get some more comments now! But thank you Shikey for being my first commenter, you were my motivation to write this chapter^-^