1st of November, 2016

Boom, boom, boom, the bass thumps.

Loud trap music is flooding the room and all Junhoe can see is people all over each other. There are small mishaps where guys ‘accidentally’ (or purposely, he can’t really tell) trip and coincidentally let their hands land in a girl’s s. Shameless. The room is loud with chatter and Junhoe feels like his head is going to explode. This is disgusting. His skin is sticky with sweat and there’s a stench that he can only describe as a ‘club smell’ and since no one has any idea what he’s talking about, he would only describe it as stinky, smelly and gross. Even that’s an understatement because his description didn’t even make it seem half as disgusting as it really was. It might be an exaggeration but this is the first time he felt such a strong desire to take a hot shower and tuck himself in his warm and cosy bed. It's not even fair. Everyone else seems to be having fun but he doesn’t feel like he belongs here. He just wants to go home.

Today, Junhoe is sitting in a corner as usual. He’s sick of this place. He would be more happy if he was one of those people standing in the centre of the room and having fun because at least time would pass quicker, but he isn’t because he’s trying not to have fun incase some netizen finds something to say about it again. To make it worse, they’ve been here for four hours but he feels like he’s been here for four years (another exaggeration but it’s not far from the truth). Lounging on the sofa, he quietly observes the drunk people messing around and trying to strike conversation with each other. They amuse him—it’s probably the only reason he’s still here (well, also because he much prefers having a ride home than having a walk home). He watches s goof around and if he didn’t know them, he would say “Wow, they look dumb” but Junhoe already knows they’re dumb so it’s not worth noting.

He sees Chanwoo sitting with some of the hyungs from Winner. He's pretending to drink wine but everyone knows it's just grape juice since he’s still underage so they all laugh about it. Jinhwan is lying on the floor, probably drunk while a laughing Donghyuk is trying to take pictures of him. Gosh, he swears he can hear the annoying high pitched sound of Donghyuk's laughter over the music, he is that loud. Yunhyeong and Hanbin are in the corner of the room where the karaoke machine is. He thinks he hears Cheer Up by Twice playing and Hanbin is singing along terribly. Junhoe inwardly snorts. Way to ruin your image, he thinks as he lets out a deep sigh. Now, who’s left? Junhoe looks around to find the last member. It’s their rapper, the one that’s not Hanbin. He catches sight of Jiwon who is dancing and partying with some friends in what Junhoe likes to call, the jungle. ‘The jungle’ is basically the middle of the room where the empty circular space reserved for dancing is or if that doesn’t exist, it’s basically anywhere that large numbers of people can gather. It is the scariest place in a party because everyone is always crowded around that area which ultimately means human contact which Junhoe is currently trying to avoid. Jiwon is standing right in the centre of ‘the jungle’ and having fun with everyone else. Compared to Junhoe, he looks carefree and he secretly wonders how the rapper can appear that unfazed by everything. It's almost as if he's not an idol and he’s not being watched, not being hunted down by the media.

Jiwon chats with a pissed Dowook who is complaining about a missing Yunhyeong. He only laughs because he’s got an idea to where he might be. His speculation is soon confirmed as he hears some tragic singing to what he believes is TT and he spots a mop of blond hair crouching down and laughing his off. Dowook seems to see them as well because he grits his teeth and starts heading over to their direction. He lets his body freely ride the rhythm as he dances, his eyes catching sight of the other members from time to time. As he excuses himself to get some snacks, Jiwon notices Junhoe sitting in the corner. It's the usual these days, he'd noticed the younger one avoiding parties since that one scandal broke out and when they ever managed to drag him to one, he always sat at the corner by himself. The reason was so, so, so goddamn obvious that anyone who didn’t know would have to be dense as hell. By the way Junhoe straightened up every time someone got too close, he just knew why (If you still don’t understand at this point, congratulations. You are slower than a snail). There were two types of people who hold cameras—one of them took pictures out of love and passion, the other took pictures to expose someone’s worst moments. Junhoe was now aware of those people who could be just hiding in the corner and watching, camera ready to snap the moment he lowered his guard. He was definitely being cautious. He can't really blame the guy though and because understands, he doesn't interfere. Besides, Jiwon is pretty sure that even if he does go speak to Junhoe, they’ll just get more awkward so he tries not to bring it up. If he’s feeling awkward and lonely by himself, he can just get over it himself since he was the one isolating himself. It’s none of Bobby’s business.

But today is different. Junhoe looks extra uncomfortable and extra uneasy. Jiwon figures why. Two girls have been trying to chat him up since ten minutes ago and while Junhoe seems to be gently refusing to converse with them, the girls are persistent and don't look like they'll be going away anytime soon. The two girls are sitting on either side of Junhoe and they're chatting to him as if they were all long-time friends but Junhoe? His posture is hilariously straight and it strangely reminds him of how a child looked after a harsh scolding. Jiwon wants to laugh at how much of a Junhoe is being right now, but he holds back his laughter because he knows that Junhoe isn’t wrong for being so cautious. In fact, it’s probably better to be safe than sorry.

So instead of laughing, Jiwon decides he'll help out his dongsaeng. He can leave his friends hanging. He takes one glance at them and they’re already back to partying again—they wouldn’t notice one missing person—so Jiwon goes into action immediately. Acting drunk, he stumbles to Junhoe’s table and shoves left-girl away to make space for himself. Left-girl glares at him and right-girl is rolling her eyes but he doesn’t give a because he slings an arm around Junhoe's shoulder and starts whining.

"I'm tirrrrreeedd.” Jiwon complains in a drunken slur. He giggles hysterically before he continues, “Let's go on a trip on our favourite rocket ship, reaching to the dorms, little Einstein!”

“Hyung, get off. That doesn’t even rhyme—or make sense.” he groans. Can his day get worse? He’s being pestered by two girls and a drunk-as- Jiwon?

Jiwon almost lets out a sigh of frustration because Junhoe is too dumb to fit in his scenario. He’s meant to say “Right hyung since you’re tired, let’s go home” but since Junhoe is really dense, he doesn’t say that for flip sake. He tries to make it more clear by throwing his arms up and down while screaming.

“I wanna go home! Let’s go home!” he half screams half yells, “Junhoe-yah won’t you do your hyung a favour and take him home?”

Junhoe’s eyes light up at the mention of home. He would be more than glad to take his hyung back to the dorm than stay in this hole. Honestly, Junhoe has no idea why Jiwon is bothering him out of everyone and while he doesn’t want to be bothered by his hyung, he sees a chance to get out of here right in front of him so he seizes it. He stands up, supporting Jiwon's body and forces out a "Sorry ladies. This idiot hyung is drunk as hell and I've gotta take him home. Talk to you next time." before he literally pushes drunken Jiwon to the exit with him. Before he leaves, he catches the girls he was with ‘whisper’ something in the lines "not fair", "only a few minutes" and "he didn't even speak" to each other but he doesn't care, he only wants to get out of this place right now.

As they leave the venue of the party, Jiwon yells "To the dorms!" as if they're going on an adventure. There aren’t many people near, but all of them seem to turn to stare and he feels his face getting hot, but Junhoe would much rather deal with Jiwon being an embarrassment than go back into that place with those girls so he holds the urge to smack the hyung and powers through the embarrassment.

He’s a few meters away from the entrance when he realizes something’s wrong. There are no taxis around, not even any cars, and it’s so, so cold. He turns on his phone to check the time and , it's two in the morning. So that’s why there are no taxis around! He tries to think about his other options. Their manager is probably still waiting for the others in the party so they won't be taking their usual car home and he knows for a fact that the subway doesn’t run past one in the morning… So he has to walk? Heck! It’s ing three degrees celsius and both of them are only wearing thin jackets. He sighs heavily. Will life treat him nicely for once? Well as far as he knows, this place is only a twenty-minute walk away from their dorm so he just has to follow google maps and hope they get home safe and sound.

They’re silent. Jiwon is walking alongside him. He’s no longer stumbling but he’s still holding onto the railing of the road.

“You know,” the rapper starts awkwardly, “we’re here for you.”

Jiwon internally facepalms. For starters, that was probably the corniest way to start the conversation and he wasn’t even meant to say it out loud but his big fat mouth had to slip up and blurt that out. He has got to blame that one glass of champagne in his system.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Junhoe asks. He has no idea what Bobby is trying to say. He knows the members are there for him already so why is he bringing this up?

“Uh- Never mind. Forget I said that.” he tries to end the conversation there but Junhoe is eying him suspiciously.

“No. Tell me. What were you going to say?” Junhoe pries, a firm expression on his face.

Jiwon can tell by the look on Junhoe’s face that he’s not going to stop asking until he gets an answer so he clears his throat. There’s no backing out now. “I mean, you don’t have to hide anyth