A Cliché Family fiftyeight   “Do you think this is a good idea?” Jongin asks and Taemin nods his head.

“Yes! They’ll never know!”

Taemin smirks and Jongin shrugs as he produces two bottles of soju from the refrigerator before he goes to find a bottle of wine from the drinks cabinet in the living room.



They’re home alone. Jongin’s parents have gone to the theatre to watch a musical with a couple of their friends and have left the two teenagers at home. Taemin is still bitter his fathers have said no to let them go to the festival and he has decided the best revenge plan. Convincing Jongin to get drunk wasn’t very hard either. Jongin usually doesn’t go against his parents, but with Taemin, being rebellious is easier. Taemin gets his schemes from watching his brothers and while Jongin doesn’t really feel the same sense of being babied, he does relate to his best friend.



Taemin gets the bottle of wine from Jongin before they move into his room. They close the door, put on loud rock music and plop down on Jongin’s bed. They have two water glasses for the wine and have decided to get a bottle of soju for each of them. Jongin fumbles with the wrapping on the cheap white wine while Taemin sets up the video game they’re going to play while drinking.

None of them feel like partying hard like their siblings. They just want to get drunk even though they’re underage. Taemin has been longing for a taste of alcohol ever since he caught Minho with a hangover when he was 14. Now that he just turned 16 it should be the right time.



Being drunk looks fun and both Jonghyun and Minho make it look like it tastes good. Taemin can’t wait to get a taste of alcohol.



They start with the wine. The dry wine has both of them wincing. They turn to each other and laughs. Jongin grabs his controller and starts looking through the car he wants to play with. Taemin has already chosen his. While Jongin chooses his car, Taemin takes another sip of the white wine. It’s still dry and it has a bitter after taste. It’s better than the first sip, though. Maybe he can get used to it if he drinks enough. Jongin finally chooses and they start playing.



They play one round, Taemin winning and glowingly ordering Jongin to empty his glass of wine. Jongin coughs when he finishes and pouts at Taemin. Taemin just laughs at his facial expression. The next round Jongin wins and he has Taemin drinking the rest in his glass as well.



The bottle slowly empties and the two teenagers move onto the soju. They’re laughing out loud while they their ranks become progressively worse the more they get. Jongin leans on Taemin’s shoulder and starts shaking with laughter, bottle of soju in his hand. Taemin turns to look at him and then suddenly breaks out into giggles again. He doesn’t know what’s so funny but it’s funny.

“You’re …” Jongin tries. He continues laughing. “You’re …”

Taemin starts laughing out loud at Jongin’s inability to find the words. Jongin points his half-full bottle towards the TV where the rank 12 is on Taemin’s side of the display. Taemin grabs his controller and tries to move forward but he bumps into the rail once and can’t figure out how the reverse the car so he gives up. Jongin is ranked 11 but none of them are able to actually cross the finishing line.

They are holding onto each other when the finish their bottles of soju, Taemin clinging to Jongin like he is going to disappear if he doesn’t. Jongin continues giggling into Taemin’s shoulder and Taemin starts laughing.

They’re drunk but it’s elevating, it’s fun. It’s exhilarating and Taemin wants more.

“We should take more!” he says and Jongin nods a little. They get off the bed for the first time ever since they started drinking and both of them stumble over their own feet. The ground is no longer flat and it takes a lot of focus for the two of them to enter the kitchen.

“Oh ,” Jongin suddenly says. “Pee!”

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