two
Blush for Me(I cheated a bit this time. Whoops.)
2. What she drinks dictates how her nights end.
Vodka makes her sloppy.
Like, sorority-girl-at-pledge-week sloppy. She gets too loud, stumbles over her own feet, can’t figure out how to open doors (“It says ‘push’ YoungJi!), and constantly loses, like, everything. Seriously, it gets so bad that SoHyun makes a game out of taking a shot every time YoungJi blankly stares into her purse and bemoans,
“Where’s my (fill in the blank with something she left at the bar/bathroom/car/wherever she was two seconds ago)?”
It’s a fun game that everyone enjoys until YoungJi loses her phone for the 5th time in the past two hours and Jackson grabs the shotglass before YoungJi can down it.
“Yaaah Jackshuuun Waaaaang!” She slurred indignantly, narrowing her eyes at him. “What’re you doin’?!?”
She reaches for her drink but Jackson wards her off and says/shouts over the thumping music,
“You’re done for the night!”
“Ooohoho!” JaeBum threw an arm over Jackson’s shoulder and the liquor sloshes in the glass but doesn’t fall over. “Did I hear wrong? Is Jackson actually stopping someone from drinking??”
“She’s had enough.” Jackson gestured to YoungJi who proved his point by swaying back and forth until HyoRin, laughing because she thinks this is all hilarious, steadies her.
“YAH!” YoungJi yelled with HyoRin’s arm around her waist. “Who d’you theenk yoo aare? My father?!”
“I thought he was your husband.” JaeBum muttered into his drink with a droll snigger but his mouth is right by Jackson’s ear so the latter elbows him for being annoying (not that it matters because JB’s abs are too intense to feel anything anyway).
“Heey Jacksoon.” SoHyun sings happily, her face aglow with an inebriated flush. “You can’t waste good alcohol just because YoungJi’s having fun!”
And Jackson just kind of closes his eyes, briefly regrets coming out that night and counts to five before throwing his head back along with YoungJi’s shot. SoHyun cheers, JB barks out a laugh and HyoRin claps her hands while chanting,
“Black Knight Jackson!” Over and over again.
Personally, Jackson wasn’t a fan of vodka but then YoungJi smiles all the way up her eyes.
“Nyo,” She corrects HyoRin with a lazy slur, “He’s a Dreammmy Knight.”
(It’s the vodka that makes him feel warm, he’s certain)
Tequila leaves her on the floor and regretful.
YoungJi and JiMin watched Amber, riveted. The f(x) singer the tattooed cross at her wrist, sprinkling salt over it like fairy dust onto the moist surface. She then gestured to the bottle she got while in Mexico last month and the little slices of lime by Henry’s chopsticks.
“Salt, shot, lime.” Amber instructed the younger girls and Jackson just knew this was a terrible idea.
Amber demonstrated first. She swiped the salt with her tongue, followed up with downing the shotglass of nearly colorless liquid and then reaching for a lime… except they weren’t on the table anymore. Amber glanced around briefly before settling her glare on Henry, elbows propped on the table, chin cradled in his hands almost cutely, and a lone lime wedged in his widely-grinning mouth.
Jackson laughs loudly, JiMin gasps, and Amber makes a disgusted noise (they’re not sure if it’s because of the taste of distilled agave in or because Henry’s being Henry.)
“You’re so gross.” Amber managed to choke out before leaning forward to claim her lime. YoungJi squealed and, on Amber’s other side, Eric rolled his eyes,
“You’re both gross.”
What’s really gross, as it turns out, is the tequila itself and, three hours later, YoungJi’s bent over a toilet and Jackson’s holding her hair, torn between being amused and sympathetic. The others are still in the karaoke room with JiMin and Henry on their third duet of the night and Jackson rubbed her back after a particularly awful heave.
“I told you that you shouldn’t have had that fourth shot.” He chastised with a smirk, handing her a paper towel.
“Yahh.” YoungJi turned from the bowl and swiped at to pout at him drunkenly, “Aren’t you supposed to be my Black Knight?”
“Does that make you my widdle pwincess?” Jackson teased in a disgustingly cute voice, pinching her cheek lightly. She swats his hand away with a mild glare but he patiently gathers her hair again when she feels another round come back up. He brings her water afterwards and she looks at him like he’s brought her a diamond-encrusted tiara.
(He’s a knight, she’s a princess, and the toilet is her porcelain throne)
She makes new friends because rum makes her friendly.
…a little too friendly, if you asked Jackson. But no one asked Jackson because he’s off in the corner at the party and YoungJi’s on the couch, wedged between KangJoon and YeRin, laughing at something HyungSik just said. She’s got a Cuba libre in hand, her second that night, taking sips of it every so often when she isn’t busy giggling or talking to any and everyone. Seriously, Jackson thinks he’s seen her chatting up with at least half the room that night. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, except he knows she’s usually a little more reserved and cautious about meeting new people, so he’s happy to blame her sudden social enthusiasm to the Captain and coke she’s drinking through a tiny straw.
“You know,” NamJoon said idly, coming up beside Jackson, beer in hand. “You can spend your time doing something other than staring at her.”
Jackson his teeth, “I’m not staring.”
“Fine.” NamJoon shrugged and rephrased, “You can spend your time doing something other than glaring at her.”
Jackson glares at him out the corner of his eyes and NamJoon smiles into the rim of his red SOLO cup.
“C’mon.” NamJoon tugged him lightly towards the kitchen, “The MAMAMOO girls are destroying JaeBum and SanDeul at flip cup. Let’s go watch their manhoods get hurt.”
Jackson only relents because watching JB lose at anything was always entertaining. True to form, his leader’s meltdown was fun to watch and he forgets to be annoyed for a while. The next time he catches a glance of YoungJi, her drink has been refilled and she’s standing by the back patio, talking to MinHo. She’s giggling and flipping her hair and (gag) touching him.
Not inappropriately of course (otherwise Jackson might’ve needed to intervene).
But she is touching his arm and laughing loudly in his personal space and, considering that Jackson had to spend a (very long) while trying to get YoungJi used to Jackson just slinging his arm over her shoulder, he’s just a little bit miffed that all it took for her to loosen up in front of MinHo (someone she only met because of Jackson, by the freakin’ way) was some soda and ethanol. Jackson contemplated going over to join (interrupt) in their conversation (what the hell would they even have to talk about anyway??) but then HaRa appears and the rum makes YoungJi so happily affectionate that she’s throwing her arms up in a loud squeal and hugging her senior like a teddy bear. As they turn, HaRa winks at him over YoungJi’s shoulder and Jackson feels like he’s been caught so he walks off to the living room instead.
He plays a round of beer pong before collapsing on the couch. He idly contemplated whether to get another drink or call it a night when,
“Are you mad at me?” YoungJi asked, seemingly appearing out of thin air to sit beside him on the couch.
Jackson skirts the question even as he makes room for her, “Why would I be mad at you?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged and he realized that she doesn’t have a drink in her hand anymore. “I feel like I haven’t seen much of you tonight.”
“That’s probably because you’ve been busy being a social butterfly.” He tries to not sound annoyed but he’s kind of buzzed so it’s hard to put up a front now.
“Hey,” YoungJi nudged him, expression dazed and amused. “What’s wrong with making new friends?”
“You have me.” Jackson shot back, flicking her forehead. “What other friends do you need?”
To his surprise, she just laughed, the sound low and warm, her head coming to rest on his shoulder. She snuck her arm to curl around his and basically nuzzled into his bicep.
“Of course.” She cooed at him, placating, at the same time HakYeon passed by, winking at him and gesturing to their position on the couch. Jackson haphazardly wondered if he should create some distance between them for propriety’s sake but then YoungJi said (maybe more soberly than she should have), “You’re absolutely right. If I have you, I don’t need anyone else.”
He rolls his eyes because she’s tipsy and sarcastic, but he doesn’t pull away. Their hands land by each other on top of their touching thighs and he wonders if he’s imagining the way her fingers look like they’re twitching to curl around his. She doesn’t do it, but she does hum KARA’s latest song by his neck and the melody rings clear in his ears louder than the booming music blasting from the speakers ten feet away from them.
(Jackson decides that maybe rum isn’t so bad...as long as he's around)
Whiskey knocks.her.out.
“Are you sure she’s okay?” SungJae sounded skeptical because YoungJi looked borderline-catatonic, propped up on the table on her arms where they haven’t been able to rouse her from for the past twenty minutes.
“Ah, don’t worry.” BoMi shrugged carelessly. “This happens all the time.”
“How often do you girls drink??” JinYoung had to ask.
“Enough to know that we don’t give YoungJi whiskey to drink unless we’re home.” HaRa chimed in almost cheerfully, putting her phone away. “Our manager should be here in a bit.” But then she scratched the back of her neck, frowning because they’re on the fourth floor and, “We still need to get her to the ground floor though...”
Moments later, Jackson huffed with every step he took down the stairway, stopping only because he felt YoungJi slipping. He hoisted her up with a grunt, readjusting her sleeping frame behind him.
“First I’m your Black Knight and now I’m your pack-mule,” Jackson lamented aimlessly because the girl couldn’t hear him. “What’re you going to make me do next??”
Trudging leaisurely few steps behind them, SungJae snorted because, “Hey, you’re the one who just decided to pick her up. I told you I could carry her.”
“With your wimpy arms?” Jackson scoffed and SungJae doesn’t bother to be offended because he knows Jackson’s good at finding excuses.
“And we did offer to help you walk her down the steps, too.” BoMi added, JinYoung’s hand at her waist to steady her because she refused to ditch her high heels.
“This girl can’t even wake up, let alone walk.” Jackson shook his head, “What kind of a man would I be to make you dainty girls try to haul her around?”
“I’m not that dainty.” HaRa protested but SungJae laughed a little, saying,
“HaRa, you’re the size of my left thigh.”
“Does he not know that I have a black belt?” BoMi asked JinYoung but he just shook his head.
“Let him rant.” JinYoung grinned crookedly as Jackson stopped once more and craned his neck to check on YoungJi’s position. “He enjoys this.”
BoMi frowned because she’s not sure if JinYoung is referring to the complaining or YoungJi but then they’re downstairs in a back alley, away from the swarm of fans that they knew were waiting by the elevators they’d wisely chosen not to go down in. There are a bunch of cars parked nearby, all seemingly nondescript and indistinguishable from each other, but Jackson walks to one of them purposefully at the same moment a man waves from the driver’s side.
“Oppa,” HaRa calls out to her manager, “Thanks for coming so quickly!”
“Whiskey, huh?” He says to Jackson knowingly as he opens the door to the back row.
“Don’t look at me.” Jackson shrugged with some difficulty because he’s still got an idol on his shoulders. “She’s the one who kept ordering them.”
HaRa climbed into the passenger seat after bidding SungJae goodbye, the BTOB singer getting into his own company van down the street. BoMi’s car is coming in five minutes so she stands at the curb and waits with JinYoung’s hand still at her waist. In the meantime, Jackson set YoungJi down in the back row of KARA’s car, muttering something about girls holding their liquor in Mandarin when all of the sudden,
“I~ can undurshtand you, y’know?”
Jackson looked up, surprised to find YoungJi narrowing her eyes at him (although whether it’s because she’s trying to glare at him or because she can barely keep them open, he wasn’t sure). She smacked her lips and slapped his chest...or at least tried to because there’s no effort behind the action so, to Jackson, it felt like he’d been grazed by the feather of a baby duckling.
He had to chuckle, “Yeah? You can understand new languages when you’re this drunk?”
“Hey!” She pointed a finger at him warningly, but her vision swam a bit so the threatening intention is lost when her finger swayed in the air. “Watch how you speak to your princess, y-you peasant~!”
And then her finger and hand drop altogether and her head slumped to one side and she’s out...again. He snorted, shaking his head,
“As you wish,” He told her unconscious self, reaching across to buckle her seatbelt in place. YoungJi was going to wake up with a crick in her neck if she slept like that, so Jackson cupped her chin to reposition her head and brushed her hair aside because it’d fallen over her face like a curtain. She mumbled something incoherently and HaRa caught the stupidly-goofy grin on his face that he probably wasn’t aware of.
“Thanks for getting her downstairs.” She told Jackson when he’d shut the door, careful to mind YoungJi’s legs.
“No problem.” Jackson told her easily, watching as BoMi bid JinYoung goodbye before getting into her own car. He grinned and gestured to the sleeping YoungJi in the backseat and added, “It’s always entertaining when YoungJi drinks.”
“At least it wasn’t soju.” Their manager said, glancing at Jackson through the rear-view mirror with a little chuckle as he revved the engine. “Now that might’ve been embarassing.”
The taxi JinYoung called pulled up then, HaRa wiggled her fingers to say goodbye, and his intoxicated princess rode off into the night.
(One of the last thoughts Jackson has that night is that, huh, he’s never actually seen YoungJi drink soju.)
(“What is YoungJi like when she drinks it?” Jackson asked HaRa one day, moments before she's due on stage for her solo performance. He watched as KARA’s visual glanced at him, her mischievous smirk looking crooked in the mirror, and kind-of-but-not-really answered,
“Shameless.”)
5/29/15
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