January 2017

I told myself that I came here to only say hi and then, I would leave this sick place as soon as possible. A club has never been my favorite place, ever. The music was too loud to the point you couldn’t hear your own voice when you were talking to someone.

“Excuse me, do you know where G-Dragon is?” I asked one of the guests whom I bumped into on the dance floor.

“What did ya say?” was all the stranger said.

I thought it wouldn’t be so hard to spot Jiyong in a crowded place since he only wore eye-catching outfits, but it turned out that it wasn’t that easy. Of course. There were probably a hundred of people in this place, hitting the dance floor in all when they knew the dance floor was already full, they might not be able to move freely if they still insisted on coming. Not only you wouldn’t be able to move around, you also wouldn’t be able to breathe in oxygen. The smell of cigarette and sweats mixed in the air, leaving you with no option but to hold your breath.

Come to think of it, I used to come to this kind of place as often as not. I still couldn’t believe the old me was able to stand the atmosphere that every nightclub had! Maybe the atmosphere back then wasn’t like this? I remember I had so much fun with some friends I made. We didn’t go down to the dance floor unless we were really drunk and got carried away in the heat of the moment. We just sat down in the VIP room and talked about… random stuff, anything that crossed your mind. But then I came to realize that this lifestyle wasn’t really for me, it didn’t suit me at all. I just lived the way I used to because I wanted to be accepted, that’s all.

Maybe the atmosphere had always been like this. Maybe I was the one who had changed after all.

Little did I know, I had cut ties with all friends I made at the clubs. Looking on the bright side, the hard time I went through hadn't just gone by and brought nothing but the experience I could learn from, it also revealed who my true friends are. When everyone else had turned their backs on me and forgotten completely about my existence, Kwon Jiyong was the only one reaching out to me first. Out of everyone in Nuthang (the circle of friends Jiyong associate with, I know the name sounded weird at first you heard it, but you’ll get used to it after a while), Jiyong was the only crew member I still stayed in touch with and the rest… it had been quite a long time since I saw them so I wasn’t really sure.

At first, I only came to Big Bang’s after party because Jiyong invited me to. He even asked me to come to their concert, but I didn’t think it would be a very nice idea. Since I couldn’t attend any boy group’s concerts (maybe I would be allowed if it were Shinee) as I pleased, I thought turning up at the after party was the very least I could do. It had also been some time since I last saw Jiyong. Besides, his group had just made a successful comeback recently, so I thought I could congratulate him as well.

Suddenly, I remember I still had flights I had to catch the next morning. My sister would be really mad if she knew instead of going to bed early, I decided to show up at Big Bang’s after party. She had warned me beforehand not to get too close to any Big Bang members, but since she was good friends with Seungri, I didn’t think I should really do as she said. Be that as it may, I knew what kind of person Jiyong really is and to tell you the truth, he wasn’t as obnoxious as the media tried to make him out to be.

But having to catch flights tomorrow might be a good idea to escape from this place. Jiyong would understand if I said I had to fly to Hawaii in the morning, that’s why I couldn’t attend the after party he invited me to. Oh, maybe I could get him a gift from Hawaii? I wonder what kind of gift he would love to receive—

“Soojung-ah!”

Shoot. I was supposed not to be able to hear anything this clear! Why this voice sounds so familiar to me?

I sped up my pace and walked off the crowd.

“Jung Soojung!”

It’s definitely Kwon Jiyong’s voice!

He suddenly grabbed my arm from behind, “Where are you going?”

I turned around, “Looking for you?”

“Hmm, why does it look like you’re actually avoiding me?” He replied.

“Is that so?” I let out a dry laugh.

“Well,” he added, “Why don’t you come with me?”

“To where?”

“Upstairs,” his finger pointed up. “Everyone’s been waiting to see you.”

“Everyone?” I furrowed my brows, “Who do you mean?”

Jiyong suddenly grabbed my wrist, “You’ll see.”

***

“Guess who's here with us!” Jiyong let go of my wrist as he began.

For the first time in a while, I came face to face with the Nuthang Crew. They looked a bit more surprised than I was. I had prepared myself just when I was aware that Jiyong would walk me to the VIP room upstairs and re-introduce me to his friends, that’s why I seemed less surprised. I gazed at their faces one by one. Deep down, I was glad their appearances had not changed so drastic, at least I could still recognize them at first glance. They didn’t utter a word as yet. It seemed like they would ask me to leave any minute now and not to show my face in front of them ever again. Just when I was ready to accept the abusive remarks they were about to come out with, their blank expressions turned into smiling faces.

“I can’t believe it’s our Soojung!” Kyungil exclaimed.

“Where have you been?” Asked Lee Soohyuk.

“I think you’ve become prettier, Soojung-ah!” Praised Xin.

“Um, hello guys, it’s been a while,” I stuttered, didn’t know what to say. I didn’t expect them to be this welcoming, though.

“How come you’re only keeping in contact with Jiyong! You know I can always give you a shoulder to cry on.” Declared Danny.

“Yeah, Soojung, you suddenly disappeared without a word. We thought you needed some privacy, that’s why we didn’t want to bother you.”

After all these months, it turned out that there was a misunderstanding going on between us. In fact, it wasn’t them who cast me aside, but I was the one who walked out on them first. And now that it all had been clarified, I felt regretful. I felt like a terrible friend.

“Don’t worry, Soojung-ah. Even though you’re not dating Seunghyun anymore, we can always kick him out of the group so that things won’t get awkward between the two of you.” Reminded Xin.

“Xin, you !” Glared Soohyuk.

And now that Xin mentioned it, I began to wonder where Seunghyun was. I hadn’t seen him since I entered this room.

All of a sudden, the door was wide open, revealing Choi Seunghyun and a petite woman behind his tall figure. For a few seconds, our eyes met and he looked as though he was taken aback to encounter me again. In next to no time, his expression became normal as if my existence was nowhere in the first place.

Why did he have to come at a time like this?

“I don’t know why Kyungil persisted in girls joining us, so I asked Dara-noona to come.” Announced Seunghyun as he glanced at Sandara Park who was standing behind him.

“I know almost all of you!” Dara’s gaze shifted toward Jiyong, “Nah, except you.” She then giggled like a little kid, “Just kidding.”

“Have you met Soojung before, Noona?” Jiyong responded

“Of course! We met on music shows before. Amber and Luna had also come to Sugar Man, they’re so lovely.”

In return, I exchanged a nod with Dara as we smiled at each other.

“Seunghyun, how many cigarettes do you have now?” Asked Kyungil randomly.

“I have a full pack.”

So he still smokes, huh…

“Give me.”

Seunghyun passed a pack of cigarettes to Kyungil. Out of the corner of my eye, I darted a glance at Seunghyun. His hair was neatly combed, much to my surprise; he already had his hair dyed to its natural shade. He was also not wearing anything too flashy like a mismatched pair of contact lenses. But I wonder why I couldn’t distract my eyes from him.

“Ever heard of the King Game?” Kyungil began.

“Cigarettes aren’t toys, Kyung—“

“Don’t cut me off! This is a drinking game, only adults can play this kind of game.”

“Hmm, okay?”

“I’ll explain in brief,” Kyungil went on, “So, one of these cigarettes has been marked as the King. The person who becomes the king has the right to give an order to the ones who possess the numbers he’d like to pick out. The king’s order is absolute, but you can refuse to obey it if you choose to drink this vodka straight out of its bottle.”

“What if I tell you to kill yourself?” Suggested Danny.

“Try and make me.”

Phew. I was so thankful that I had to leave for Hawaii in the morning, so I didn’t need to join this stupid game. As I stood up from my seat, all attention was suddenly riveted on me.

“Where are you going?” Jiyong who sat next to me asked.

“I have to go, I have morning flights to catch,” I answered.

“You can’t!” Xin picked up the king’s cigarette. “I order you to stay!”

“We haven’t drawn out any cigarettes, you moron!”

I heard someone told herself that she would leave this place after she said hi to her friend. And here I am, persuading myself to stay for another round.

The game began a short time after I sat back, “First, shut your eyes.” Commanded Kyungil.

“Don’t try anything silly, Kyung.” Warned Soohyuk.

“Just so you know, I close my eyes as well,” informed Kyungil, “Now, reach for the cigarette. On the count of three, we’ll pull out our cigarettes at once.”

“One… two… three!”

I opened my eyes slightly and found out that I got number 4.

“Who’s the king?” Asked Jiyong.

“Oh, me! I’m the king!” Exclaimed Danny.

“.”

“Can we withdraw again?”

“Shut up.” Danny turned to Kyungil, “I can pick out more than one number, right?”

“Yes, my Lord.” Kyungil nodded.

“I think I like this game,” Danny cracked a smile. “Number 3 and number 5, I order you to start a dating rumor. I don’t care if you both are males… if you two are females, well, one of you can always take the drink. So, who is this couple?”

I heaved a sigh of relieve. That was really close!

Altogether, Jiyong and Sandara both rose to their feet. For a little while, they looked at each other embarrassingly.

“Danny! How dare you! You know that I’m preparing for 2ne1’s last comeback! I can’t get caught in a dating scandal now!” Dara’s face turned red as she went panicked.

“I only asked you to start a daring rumor, Noona, not an actual scandal. All you have to do is walk hand in hand with Jiyong, for example. Not something difficult to do, isn’t it?”

“Come on, Noona, this is just for fun. If the fans speculate that something’s going on between us, we can always say that we are merely friends.” Jiyong assured.

“With benefits.” Added Seunghyun.

“When do we have to perform it?” Dara looked as if she was considering it.

“Right now,” ordered Danny. “I’ll call you two back after the taken photo has reached my SNS.”

“Fine. I hope someone will get my revenge, King Danny.”

“We’re off.” Announced Jiyong and the two departed from the room.

“The six of us left,” said Soohyuk.

“Yeah,” Danny smirked, “The next king has to be more intense than I am.”

“Let’s start the next round, I’m all fired up!” Declared Xin.

“I’ll laugh my off if you get picked.” Seunghyun challenged.

“We’ll see.”

Thump. Thump. Thump. I really had a bad feeling about this. I told myself that I would say my farewells just when the first round had come to an end. But I don’t know what happened to myself, I didn’t feel like going home anymore.

“Woohoo! Hail, the new King!” Xin showed off his cigarette that had a stain on it.

“Alright, the game’s over. Let’s we all go home.”

“What the hell, Dan. I’m about to rule.” Ranted Xin.

“The photos of Jiyong and Dara spread like wildfire on the internet.” As Kyungil made it known, everyone in the room checked their respective phones only to discover photos and videos of the Big Bang’s leader embracing the ex 2ne1 member on our SNS’ timelines.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to call them back, Dan?”

“Nah, just pretend I don’t have my phone with me,” insisted Danny. “Go on, Xin.”

“I want number 1 and number 5 to… smooch.”

I sneaked a look at my cigarette.

“Who are the next victims?” Xin smiled smugly.

“Me,” I got up. “I’m number 5.”

“So who is this lucky bastard?”

I should have followed my heart to leave as soon as the first round got done. Heavenly Father, I don’t mind anyone to get number 1 but Choi Seunghyun. I’d rather kiss a frog that will transform into a prince than kiss a prince whom will transform into a frog. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen.

“If anyone won’t admit, I’ll make out with number 5 instead,” Xin repeated.

“This bastard got number 1!” Shouted Soohyuk, pointing at Seunghyun.

“Oh, please, Seunghyun. I’d kill a man to be in your place.”

“Why did you lie, though?”

“You two did it all the time shamelessly back then. It shouldn’t be so hard.”

“Because Soojung is seeing somebody else, His Majesty.” Reminded Kyungil.

“That EXO kid, huh?”

“Actually, we were really in shock when we heard you were dating EXO's Kai. I thought you and Seunghyun would last longer.” Admitted Danny.

“Soojung-ah, we promise we won’t tell anyone about this. It’s only between the 6 of us.” Xin guaranteed.

“Yeah, your secret is safe with us, Soojung.” Soohyuk continued, “A gentleman doesn’t wait for his woman to make the first move, Seunghyun.”

My heart beat faster than it did last time. I couldn’t turn down to carry out the order, not because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t. I clenched my hands into balls. My nails were digging into my sweaty palms. Bear this in mind, Jung Soojung, you already have a boyfriend who has his faith in you and you can’t betray him by breaking his trust. I came to wonder what a bottle of vodka would taste like. Will it burn my throat if I gulp it down at one time? Will I get drunk after I drink it off or will I pass out?

Seunghyun stood a meter away from me. Just when he walked casually toward me, I spontaneously closed my eyes. At the moment, I felt like the silence was deafening and all I could hear was the sound of my own heart throbbing against my chest.

A few seconds had ticked by, I expected Seunghyun’s lips to brush against mine in a little while, but I didn’t feel anything up to now. Hence I braved myself to open my eyes slowly but surely. Seemingly, Seunghyun had passed me by and drank the bottle of vodka behind me.

I wasn’t sure he did so because he knew I couldn’t be unfaithful to my boyfriend and was hesitating whether to refuse the King’s order and take the drink or not or because he just didn’t want to kiss me.

{a/n: hi, guys! i had so much fun writing this hehe to tell you the truth, im more of a vip than a meu. so nuthang crew does really exist and is the circle of friends gd&top affiliate themselves with. the group itself consists of... more people than i showed in this fic. i only picked out the most popular ones. aside from gd&top, both xin and danny were 2ne1's stylists, lee soohyuk is an actor (and he's awfully gorgeous), song kyungil is history's leader.

remember the dating rumor gd and krystal had? my friend told me that peaceminusone (gd's private ig) is still following vousmevoyez. not a gdstal shipper but gd will be perfect for the older brother role~

also, thank you for those who are still in this crack ship lmao lets sail this ship one more time! dont mind kaistal and big thanks to y0onda for commenting <3

don't forget to give me some feedbacks guys hehe}