Chapter 21 – Chill

After the play ended, everyone headed down to the 3^rd floor to check out the haunted house. The drama boys, as well as Suga, all went away to get changed from their costumes, and Rapmon insisted that it would be boring for him since he’d spent so much time in there already, so the two girls entered it alone. It was only a small maze but it was sufficiently well made that it managed to have the desired effect. So even though she’d spent hours setting up the space herself, Insook still managed to get spooked by one of the boys disguised as a zombie, and Soonja spent most of the follow-up minutes laughing at her after they’d come out.

“I did not scream that loud, ok?!” Insook replied sullenly, once they were back into the normally lit hallway. But her friend kept on gwaffing.

“Kyaaah!!” she imitated in an exaggerated manner, holding on to Insook’s arm as if fearing for her life.

“Oh?” asked Rapmon, who’d been waiting for them, “is our Insookie afraid of monsters?”

Both girls at the exact same time and shot him a dark look; Insook, for obvious reasons, and Soonja, because she didn’t appreciate that the rapper had just used her personal nickname for her friend so casually.

“Alright, well if you guys are done, shall we get going?” asked Suga, who was now dressed up in normal street clothes and had thrown on a snapback over his dishevelled hair. He’d removed most of the makeup from his face too, but his eyes still remained somewhat rimmed with black, which gave his gaze a rather intense look.

“Where’s your house?” asked Soonja, as they started walking towards the stairs.

“In Hongdae,” replied the red-haired boy, “about 3 blocks down from your restaurant, actually” he added, smirking at her.

Insook nodded thoughtfully, but then looked up suddenly, thinking, ‘wait. How does he know that?’

Suga, who seemed to have read Insook’s mind (though let’s be honest here, it wasn’t that hard, since the girl displayed all her emotions on her face), leaned in and whispered, with his little mysterious smirk, “Oh, we go there a lot.”

“Oh…” retorted the teenage girl, satisfied, but still puzzled.

Soonja cast the boy a thankful look, and changed the subject as they kept walking.

***

The party was nothing like the first time that Insook had visited Suga’s apartment. First of all, they were the only ones there, and the apartment had obviously not been prepared for a mass-gathering. It looked just like a regular apartment: the sofa and kitchen table all in their normal place, and no special DJ equipment set up anywhere. Second, it was barely 6pm, and everyone was sober. They remedied the problem by sending Jin (who looked the oldest) and Rapmon (who had a fake ID) out to buy drinks and snacks, while the rest of them sat on a couch watching a music show on TV.

The two elders returned about 30 minutes later, armed with several boxes of fried chicken, and about 10 bottles of Soju. But nothing could have prepared them for the scene that greeted them as they re-entered the apartment.

“Wtf is going on in here?!” exclaimed Rapmon, nearly dropping one of his bags on the floor and letting his mouth hang open.

The sound of a famous song by a popular girl group echoed through the sound system, and Jimin, Jungkook and J-Hope where dancing – in synch – to the very y, very feminine choreography, in front of the TV, while Suga, V, and the girls where in tears, pissing themselves laughing on the couch and cheering.

“Oh hey guys!” Suga waved a hand at them while he still laughed.

Rapmon just looked around, wide-eyed, as if he didn’t know what sort of universe he had just stumbled into. Jin put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head, giving him a comforting smile, and a look that said ‘don’t ask…’ before he walked over to the coffee table and deposited his wares on top of it.

“Oooh, food!!!” exclaimed J-Hope, giving up on his dance and running over to the table, opening one of the boxes of chicken without even asking and shoving one of the pieces in his mouth. “Mmmmm!!!!!!” he made a high-pitched sound of delight and such a funny face as he chewed that the others couldn’t help but laugh.

“Are you sure you’re not already drunk??”

“No yet, my friend!” he said solemnly, putting a hand on Rapmon’s shoulder, “but give it time!”

***

Eventually a few more people showed up, but it still remained a very chill affair. The girls themselves were surprised at how much fun they were having, and how well they were fitting in with their little group. Soonja especially, was rather mad at herself for it, but as she drank more and more soju, she soon stopped caring and actually started enjoy Rapmon’s witty banter. Indeed, the blonde boy spent most of his time trying to entertain the girls – alternatingly making a fool of himself or sounding incredibly intelligent – and the pretty girl had to admit that there was definitely some kind of charm hidden there… under all the cockiness.

Suga and Jin had a darts competition, which kept everyone entertained for a good thirty minutes as they turned it into a drinking game, and by the end of which, nobody was sober anymore. Jin won, and they made Suga chug an entire bottle down as a punishment. And V, who was diligently avoiding Rapmonster, had somehow decided that Suga was the coolest hyung ever and started following him around; helping him with with serving snacks and cleaning up, which cracked up Jimin and Jungkook to no end.

Later, when the red-haired boy had escaped to the room where his producing equipment lay, V popped his head in asking what he was doing. Suga had only come in to copy a song he wanted to show the rest of the crew onto his iPod, but he ended up going into details on the know-how of producing with Taehyung, who just lapped everything up like an obedient little pupil. They ended up staying in there for nearly 2 hours, before anyone thought to come looking for them.

“Heeey!!!” exclaimed Rapmon, throwing the door wide open and disturbing them, “there you guys are!”

Both boys turned around and Suga said “hey man, I was just showing V some stuff here… what can I do for you?”

“Actually I kinda wanted to talk to the kid,” replied the blonde boy, leaning against the doorframe.

“Ahh… maybe later…” replied the ashen-haired boy, turning back his attention to the computer screen.

“Ahh, come on, don’t be a d*ck!” Rapmon muttered in drunken frustration, and he walked over and grabbed V’s arm and dragged him out of the room, keeping pulling on his sleeve until he’d brought him upstairs and out into the fresh night air.

“What?!” finally exclaimed V, irritated, “you’re ing drunk, and why do you have to drag me here?! Why do I have to talk to you??”

“We were friends before, Tae! When are you gonna let it go?!” shouted Rapmonster, his voice echoing into the empty night.

“We stopped being friends the minute you screwed with my sister!” V spat back, just as loudly.

“I scr… what?! I never…” the blonde boy was actually stunned.

“You slept with all those girls!! Rubbed it in her face!!” V went on.

“Kid, Inah dumped me!!”

V looked at him like he didn’t believe him and then said, “it doesn’t matter we stopped being friends even before that.” He was angry.

Rapmon grabbed his arm but V, didn’t let him and just flipped him away, getting all in his face.

“You used me! To get to her, you used me!” he was looking at him so intensely, but to Rapmon’s surprise, it wasn’t anger he saw in his eyes, but pain, and tears threatening to come out, “And now you’re doing the same ing thing to Insook!” he snapped, the anger coming back, and Rapmon was taken aback.

“You think I don’t see it? You’re all sweet on her friend so you’re being nice to her!”

“Don’t change the subject,” Rapmon said, quietly.

“She likes you , and she can’t see anything else because you’re being nice and she thinks she still has a chance!”

Rapmon was quiet, but then he looked up and asked, “What is this about here..?”

Taehyung threw his hands in the air and screamed. Rapmon just watched him in quiet awe.

“You done?”

There was a long moment of silence while V looked into the distance, trying to calm himself down.

“Yeah.”

“Tae...”

“Don’t call me that.” the younger boy snapped back, still not looking at him.

Rapmon walked over and put a hand on his shoulder.

“I was always your friend” he said softly, and rather sadly.

V didn’t look at him, his face working, but his mouth quiet.

“Even before Inah, she never had anything to do with it. The fact that you thought that… all this time… I’m just…”he paused, took a deep breath and went on, “look I don’t know what to say, and I guess I’m not blame-free in all of this either but… can’t we just start over?”

There was a long pause in which Taehyung looked at the ground, while Namjoon looked up him expectantly. Eventually, the boy sighed.

“You need to stop playing your games, man. In the end, it’s all the others around you who just end up getting hurt.”

Taehyung didn’t even bother to look at him as he said that, and then he turned around and walked back down the stairs without answering his question, and leaving Rapmon just standing there.

***

Hoseok was in the kitchen, cleaning some plates when Jimin stumbled in.

“There you are, hyung!!” exclaimed the boy, in the cheerful manner of people who are very, very drunk.

“Oh, did you notice I was gone?” said J-Hope in a falsely offended voice as he turned the tap off, “Your precious Kookie gone somewhere?”

Jimin laughed. It was the cutest sound J-Hope had ever heard and made his heart tighten.

“Hyung, are you jealous?” asked Jimin, playfully.

J-Hope looked up to find his dongsaeng standing just besides him, grinning at him like a child who was up to something, and he wondered how exactly Jimin had managed to close the few steps from the doorway to be standing right there in front of him so quickly. But it didn’t really matter because there he was, smirking at him, with those lips that looked perpetually pouty, and those eyes that looked sultry without even trying. Playing with him. J-Hope had had enough.

 “Yes” he answered, deadpan.

“Hyung, don’t be jealous,” said Jimin, teasing again as he put a hand to Hoseok’s cheek and started it clumsily.

The whole thing was obviously just a big joke to the boy, but Hoseok couldn’t take it. Alcohol blurring his judgement, he lifted his head up and pressed his lips against Jimin’s.

The boy was still laughing and didn’t really seem to realize what was happening. When Hoseok pulled back, he was still chuckling, asking:

“Hyung, did you just kiss me?”

“I did” answered Hoseok, seriously.

There was a pause, in which the elder could see the wheels inside the younger’s brains turning to try and make sense of the situation.

“I like you Jiminie.”

“Oh.” was the only word that Jimin managed to say, as if some semblance of sense was finally returning to him.

“Don’t tease me like that again.” said the dark-haired boy, sternly before turning away.

“Who said I’m teasing?” said Jimin, grabbing his arm to prevent him from running away, though his wide grin obviously contradicted his words.

J-Hope’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

“Jimin…” his voice came out like a whimper, pleading.

“Shhhhhhhh….” said Jimin in a sloppy drunk way, taking a step closer and putting a finger on Hoseok’s lips.

“It’s ok…” said the brown-haired boy, and Hoseok thought he might just start crying.

“Just for tonight, it’s okay.” said Jimin.

And then he replaced the finger with his lips.