Drinking is the only thing that eases jongins mind on hot summer days in the suburbia of Buson. only after a long day of playing video games and reading comic books inside, occasionally assigned a task by his nagging parents, is when jongin escapes. The routine is a ritual now; his parents go to bed at 11:00pm, so he tip toes out of his room at 11:30 into his florescent lit bathroom. There he swiftly lifts up the air vent, takes out a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of clear venom he likes to refer to as soju, before skipping downstairs and sliding past the screen door into the hot and humid summer air. 

He usually stays in the backyard, sitting underneath a tree or laying in the grass and staring at the stars, unless his legs are restless and he is out of cigarettes, then he will walk around the neighborhood and pack up marlboros at the 24-hour convenience store. jongins life during these relentless summers has consisted of this nightly ritual all throughout high school, and now that jongin is entering his senior year he fears that he will begin to miss the soothing smell of smoke and the harsh taste of soju on his tongue, instead plagued with stress and college and well… life (which he hasn’t quite figured out yet). but this is his escape, this is when jongin knows he is truly alone and with his thoughts… drunken thoughts. jongin has never had any problems with his routine either. no one ever catches him and his parents never notice, occasionally he will get too worked up and take it our on the neighbors mailbox, but that is a rare occurrence that the neighborhood watch usually blames on the rebellious teenagers from the neighborhood over (rumor has it they watch too much american television).

Even after 3 years the first gulp of soju still stings and makes jongin wince, but he continues until his hands don’t feel like his own and his lips become tingly and numb. He loves running his fingers through his messy hair because he swears he can feel the individual strands gliding across his skin. Consequently this action just makes his hair even more messy and greasy, falling in front of his eyes like the goth kid next door.

Tonight after almost tripping on the last step down the stairs, jongin plops down on the grass that was just mowed that afternoon, giving it the smell of, well… freshly mowed grass. He pops open the bottle of soju and opens the pack of marlboros to be greated by nothing. 

“” he mutters, growling in annoyance and throwing his head back before lifting himself up. It must have been his sister, who had just recently started to pick up on what jongin was doing every night at 11. Jongin puts his hands in the pockets of his sweat pants while walking to street on his way to the convenience store. 

There is something so calming about the streets at night, the way the street lamps cast a orange haze on everything. Everything is so still and quiet, and the pavement always smells like fresh rain. Even the houses are nice, most of them 2 stories but small enough to be comfortable for an average size family, and just separated enough that everyone has their privacy. this is the neighborhood that jongin grew up in, its where he feels most at peace. 

The boy started trotting down the hill loudly in his flip-flops before turning the corner and arriving at the convenience store brightly lit up with white lights and floor to ceiling windows. The door opens with a ding and the old man at the cash register glances up from his paper to nod his head. jongin bows politely and heads to the back of the store where he grabs banana milk, and while grabbing his tuna triangle kimbap he hears a scoff and the shuffling of feet behind him. he quickly turns around on his heel to lock eyes with a boy probably his age. he has pale skin and a round face with black hair covering his forehead. and his eyes, his eyes are huge and wide, the boy looks like he just saw a ghost. hes cute. hella cute. but jongin has to act cool. 

“whats so funny” jongin firmly questions. 

The cute shocked appearance immediately turned to that of disapproval or anger or confusion or… jongin has no idea. he can’t read this boy. 

“um… nothing its just your, uh, your is grass” the owl boy replies

“grass?” he mimics 

“yeah grass. and i wanna mow it.” theres a moment of silence before he continues “no nope nonono too far sorry thats just… uh a saying and i thought its was funny you know… because you literally have grass on your ” 

“what the…” jongin turns trying to look at his rear. and the boy is right, there is indeed a giant green stain on his sweat pants, right where he sat in the grass. “” he mumbles, trying to brush it off and cursing his father for mowing the lawn today.  

The owl boy proceeds to talk while walking up to jongin, who continues swatting at his . 

“you also have the wrong flavor”

Jongin pauses. “the wrong what?”

“flavor… tuna with mayonnaise , it tastes like eggs. try the tuna and barbecue it will change your life.”

“yes teacher…” jongin replies, deciding to take owl boys advice and try the barbecue. 

“what did you call me?”

“nothing” 

“whatever, my name is kyungsoo by the way” 

“nice to meet you teacher kyungsoo my name is jongin” 

Jongin walks and kyungsoo follows him to the counter, while checking out he asks for the marlboros, the man puts them on the counter without even asking for jongins (totally fake) ID, because the boy is such a frequent at the store anyway. 

as jongin is handling over the money kyungsoo comments “smoking is bad for you, you know” 

“yeah, yeah i know” the cashier hands him his receipt and jongin is out of there before the man can say “have a nice day”. Owl boy is cute but weird and jongin doesn’t deal with weird very well. 

He’s already half way up the street before he hears the loud stomp of feet behind him, and soon owl boy is right by his side breathing heavily. Jongin continues walking and looking ahead. the familiar sound of a lighter sparking turns his attention to the left, where he finds owl boy lighting a cigarette haging off his lips, using his hand to prevent the wind from killing the flame. 

jongin scoffs and rolls his eyes.

“what?” kyungsoo asks once his cigarette is light and he blows the smoke though his lips. he sounds genuinely confused. 

 “i thought you said smoking is bad for you” jongin replies, deciding to light his own. 

“yeah it is.”

“then why are you smoking? thats usually something someone says when they disapprove of the activity” 

“nah, I’ve been doing it for a while so i don’t mind it, i guess i just don’t want someone as pretty as you to be dying of lung cancer any time soon. 

Jongins eyes widen for a moment and he brings the cigarette between his fingers up to his lips, inhaling deeply and letting the smoke fill his lungs. 

a few minutes pass in silence before he breaks it, “do you live around here or something?”

“actually just moved” Kyungsoo replies

“well… do you want to come over to my house?” Jongin briefly wonders why he is doing this and what he is getting himself into but oh well, yolo. "my parents home so we can’t go inside but you could consider this a housewarming party of some sorts…” 

“sounds great!”

“cool”

This is going to be fun. 

 

 

 

bad spelling and no capitalization sorry guise

this is my first time so like jongin said, this is going to be fun.