A Night To Remember

“You’re late.”

“I know…” Jin admits sitting on a chair with an expression of sorry written all over his face.

On the opposite side of the table are Yoongi with his arms crossed in the middle, Namjoon with a disappointed look on the left and Hoseok with an excited naughty look on the right.

Jin just arrived late to a gathering that is one year in the making.

Namjoon, Yoongi, Hoseok and him have been bestfriends since college, shared dorm rooms and have gone through many hardships in life together. It has been five years since they graduated and now even though they have different jobs and different addresses, they’re still part of each other’s lives. They meet often from time to time to eat, drink and catch up especially during birthdays and special occasions. But what makes this meet-up special than usual is that Namjoon is present.

For the last two years he has been transferred to work overseas and compared to the other three who lives in the same city and meets up often, Namjoon only gets to join them personally once or twice a year. Most of their regular meet-ups Namjoon is only on the screen of their phones or computers, since he is now based on the other side of the planet.

Despite the darkness in the club, Jin can see the expressions on his friends’ faces and they are not amused, except for Hoseok who has that crazy-happy-excited face 24/7. He feels like he disappointed Namjoon big time, and Yoongi is about to make him regret coming late, then there’s Hoseok who is just excited about whatever Yoongi will make him do. For the reason that, they had this stupid agreement after they graduated that whenever they meet up everyone should be on time since they are all busy with their own jobs and whoever comes late will get a punishment.

Back when they were still college students their punishment would always be to pay for the meal or drinks or anything needed to be paid because they were literally broke and getting free food was like the best thing ever. But when they graduated and each started to work and can now afford to pay decent meals than the usual instant noodles they're used to in college, they decided on more fun punishments. Not just any punishment but a dare of sorts.

Jin isn’t usually late to these meet-ups, that’s actually Hoseok most of the time, it just so happens that in his work today they had an emergency staff meeting and he wasn’t able to do anything about it but wait for it to be done. So here he is arriving 10 minutes early…

...early before it turns exactly 2 hours after the original meet-up time.

And just his luck, well not really, Yoongi is the one going to dare him tonight. Apparently they already did rock-paper-scissors earlier before he arrived and Yoongi won so he will get to dare Jin. If he had a choice, Jin would’ve preferred Namjoon to dare him as Namjoon is always on his side and his dares are usually light. Even Hoseok is a bit better than Yoongi, he usually does make someone do a funny or stupid dare but not anything serious. Yoongi on the other hand, reminds him of those nights back then when he feared for his dear precious life.

That one night when they were on their way home after eating out, Yoongi dared Namjoon to drive. That might seem normal for other people to let one of their friends drive but for them it’s totally not. They never ever let Namjoon take the wheel for the sake of world peace.  

And that one night when they were at the hotel Namjoon was staying at and Yoongi dared Hoseok to run around outside the hotel in winter. The weather was cold enough but Yoongi thought it would be more fun if Hoseok would do it only in his boxers, so Hoseok did.

He is doomed. Jin is so doomed.

“Okay let’s hear it” Jin said, finally ready to hear the consequence of his late arrival.

“Whoah Jin don’t be too excited, besides we’re not that harsh, eat first and drink, let’s save the dare for later” Yoongi tells him while patting his back. Somehow that didn’t make him feel any better, just made him more nervous to what’s about to come.

“Save the best for last!” Hoseok cheers on Jin.

“Bottoms up!” Namjoon raises his glass first followed by everyone.

- - -

After lots of meat, a few drinks, some throwback stories and countless laughs, Jin almost forgot about the dare. He really loves being with his bestfriends, despite the many years, nothing has changed between them. It still feels like the old times except they got older and Namjoon being present making the group complete is much better than just the usual three of them. He momentarily forgets the stress from work and everything else, until of course someone reminded him about the dare.

“It’s time!” Yoongi announces.

“Okay, let’s get this over with” Jin says feeling less nervous than earlier, maybe because of the alcohol? he isn’t sure.

“You see the bar right there?” Yoongi says as everyone follows the direction he is pointing at.

Yoongi was referring to the bar counter at the far end of the club where there’s few people ordering drinks, then he continues “Kiss the person who orders a non alcoholic drink”

“WHAT?!!!” Jin’s eyes widened at the words that came out of Yoongi’s mouth just now. Namjoon and Hoseok were equally shocked as well.

Jin has always been confident with his face and how he looks physically, but he is definitely not the type to throw himself at other people.

“Good one Yoongi!” Hoseok is already warming up to the dare goes and high-fives Yoongi.

“You guys!” Jin protests and turns to Namjoon who is by now trying to hold in his laughter “Namjoon-ah help me!”

“Sorry Jin, you know the rules, one can only object if the dare is life threatening” Namjoon who usually is on his side is actually siding with Yoongi this time.

“It is! what if I get a disease from that person?! I could die!” Jin acts dramatically clutching his chest trying his hardest to persuade his friends against the dare “Can’t I just... hug the person or something?” he suggests.

“It’s only once in a blue moon that you’re the late one Jin, so I see why Yoongi gave you a special one. It shouldn’t be a big deal” Namjoon’s way of comforting him isn't really working.

“And what disease are you talking about? it’s just a kiss, it’s not like we dared you to the person or something” Yoongi said nonchalantly.

“MIN YOONGI! watch the language!” Jin exclaims totally going off-topic.

Sometimes his friends think Jin forgets that they’re not underage in college anymore who aren’t supposed to say words like that in public in case other people hears them, but then again Jin has always been the conservative one, the goody two shoes and the one who is never late, so this dare should be fun.

“Come on Jin! you’ve got nothing to lose, maybe you can even get a girlfriend or boyfriend” Hoseok raising an eyebrow trying to hint something.

“We know y