I know it’s hypocritical of me, since I wanted nothing but to return up to Seoul back when I’d  been lazing around at home, but the closer the countdown to the beginning of the semester came, the more anxious I got. Maybe I’d forgotten back at home how horrible school was with all those exams and professors who thought we all only took that one class; because honestly, why assign a five page essay just a week before final exams otherwise. Was it too late to try and run away now?

Most of my days left over were spent rolling around in my room, groaning incoherently and once almost breaking out into tears (they were manly tears and all for very good reason too, mind too) when I’d nearly screwed class registrations - I would have forgotten completely, had it not been for Heechul, who’d messaged me five minutes prior if I was ready for the war. Needless to say, I owed Heechul dinner.

And before I knew it, before I was good and ready, school was just a week away.

Hell was coming and no way was I prepared.

I tried calling up my friends, almost begging them to go out and do something fun for a change before life took over, but the most of them were still halfway across the country on some family trip. Something about the winter waves had suddenly appealed to them. Really, they couldn’t have the sense to visit Busan when I was actually there, but now they decided to go? Tsk, some friends, really. (Or maybe they were avoiding me on purpose.) In the end, I was left with no more contacts and empty promises of free lunch once school began. How dull.

That’s how the last of my countdown went, bored and utterly friendless. The most fun had probably been cleaning up the dorm for the first time together with Jongup last Sunday - as weird as that might sound, considering the state I’d left my room back at home. That had certainly been a blast, judging as I’d nearly cracked my skull open slipping on the wet restroom floor while cleaning it. Luckily, my skull, according to mom, is a little thicker than the average human. Actually, the real fun had been when Jongup tripped over the bathtub trying to help me up; we both ended up drenched and aching but too busy laughing to feel any of it until the next morning. The next morning had been hell with a lot of heat patches, groaning, and walking around half bent over like old grandparents. We still laughed whenever we saw each other grappling at sore hips like we’re seventy.

But other than that, I’d taken quite a liking to hanging upside down on the sofas, my foot hanging over the back and head dangling off the edge. Maybe if there had been a tv in the gaping hole of our living room furnitures, our last week of freedom wouldn’t have felt as quite so wasted.

“Are you … okay, Daehyun?”

And that’s how Jongup found me on Sunday, the last day before classes began. We’d started cleaning earlier that day and finished early, parting ways so I could lay down from inhaling too much bleach fumes. But the dizziness had worn off an hour ago and left in place a more destructive feel of needing to do something - anything! - before classes began.

“No,” I was groaning, being just downright immature (not that it even mattered by this point), “I’m going to die of boredom before my professors get a chance to do away with my life as I know it.”

Jongup laughed again, hiding away behind his hand and shaking his head to my obviously over exaggerated comment. He could laugh all he wanted, but he’d been locked up in his room the whole last week as well - he was rotting in pre-hell with me. “Why don’t you go out or something?”

I glared. He knew I’d been trying to make calls around to ditch, but had thus far been unsuccessful. So I don’t know why the hell he even bothered give me those innocent eyes of his. I knew there was evil behind that sparkly squint; he couldn’t fool me.

And that’s where the idea came - or maybe not, but I did have my moments. “Oh!” Throwing my legs off to the side and slipping back onto the main part of the sofa, I righted myself in position, crossing my legs over the cushions as habit. “Let’s go out!”

He blinked, once, twice, and then frowned.

“You,” my finger jabbed toward his chest, his eyes followed, “and me!” It was brilliant. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought earlier of trying to get Jongup out with before. Think of it as … roommate bonding.

There was a pause from my suggestion and his answer, but by the time he’d gathered up his thoughts to say yes (he’d better have said yes), I’d already dragged him halfway down the street. It was pork belly and soju tonight and no one in the world was going to stop me from it.

Nobody was going to stop me, except maybe too low alcohol tolerance.

I don’t know what I’d been spewing half our trip down to the restaurant, but it felt nice. The alcohol stung on its way down, but hearing that Jongup hadn’t had a proper drink in a while, the first thing I did was pour him a glass. That one glass, mirrored in like by mine, turned to two, and then three, before five empty bottles sat at our table, empty and tipped over in my drunken need to check them over again anyways.

“And … and! And they like,” I squinted my eyes, clearing my throat when a horrible squeak escaped, “... I forgot.” I sighed, slapping my hands against my cheeks with a grumble. I’d never been that great of a drinker, but that didn’t seem to have stopped me from following Jongup to tipping back shots.

Jongup on the other hand was as dull as ever. His cheeks had tinted a faint pink, but other than that (and a slight slouch) he seemed as boring as ever; though his eyes seemed to have disappeared into lines an hour ago.

And … that’s all I remember before shooting my hands up in cry for another bottle of soju.

I should really cut back on the alcohol.

an: happy new year. i'm going to japan again. will still be updates. hopefully. also. the random titles are how i plotted this story. ignore them. just thought it'd be fun to share how dumb my brain works at times.