sometimes, it was enough that she had someone to hear her problems. she didn’t mean for jongin to know about her miseries in life, but she couldn’t deny she felt immense relief after admitting them to someone, finally. she wished she could have said more, maybe she should have shown her gratitude.

but, alas, she was, unfortunately, utterly wasted. so much so, that the two were laughing uncontrollably but they couldn't remember at what. maybe it was the fact that both of them were secretly living miserable lives.

"you want to hear something strange?" jongin gestured seulgi to come closer.

she leaned across the table. "what's strange?”

jongin had a mischievous glint in his eyes as he spoke. “i suddenly remembered i have park jimin’s number in my phone.” 

"huh? why do you have his number? let me see," she grabbed his phone from the table and quickly typed in his passcode.

"i remember taemin invited him when we were drinking with sungwoon — remember him, guy from hotshot, currently in wanna one? you met him once. anyway, he dropped by and we became friends that night. probably." he couldn't remember as his brain was currently fuzzy, but he knew they messaged each other often enough. and he definitely knew his hoobae had a not-so-little crush on his best friend.

"oh!" seulgi jumped from his suddenly loud voice. "i remember him saying it was his day off today? should we invite him? clear up the bad air between the two of you?" jongin's eyes twinkled in mischief. he knew jimin genuinely liked seulgi and that seulgi was apparently in a secret relationship, but he'd rather she date jimin than taeyong.

that kid was bad news, he just knew it. no one in exo liked him, not even junmyeon the angel. therefore, jongin wanted him as far away from seulgi as possible.

"give me that," he snatched his phone from her grip and called jimin.

"what are you doing? yah, i didn't agree to this!" seulgi panicked as she tried to get his phone.

"i'm just helping you fix your problems one at a time!" he laughed. "oh, hello? park jimin?"

the other line sounded pretty quiet. "hi, hyung.”

"where are you right now, jimin?" jongin swatted off seulgi's attempt at grabbing his phone. "cheongdam? what, all by yourself?" he winked at her.

"stop it!" she whispered at him. jongin was such an when he's drunk, seulgi concluded. she couldn't believe he thought it would ever be a good idea to bring the source of many of her problems right here, in front of her.

"you're so stupid, kim jongin," she whispered at him again, but he determinedly ignored her. “taeyong’s gonna kill me if he finds out,” she mumbled.

"i'm actually at this bar in cheongdam with my friend. i have a feeling you'll want to come here,” jongin was doing his best to hold in his laughter as seulgi stood up and paced their private room in frustration.

"jongin hyung, are you drunk? do you need me to take you back to your dorm?" he could tell that jimin was suspicious from the hesitant tone in his voice, but jongin wasn't going to give up now. he was gonna set things right for all his friends.

"listen, just come here. i promise you won't regret it. i'll text you the address," with that, he abruptly ended the call. "can you stop moving around so much? you're making me dizzy."

"why did you do that? are you crazy? if word got out..." seulgi moaned in frustration. "so many people will attack me. joohyun unnie would kill me! plus, i'm sure taeyong would--" at the mention of his name, she frowned.

perhaps he wouldn’t believe her at all, she thought. no, she was willing to bet that he would insist there would be no way jimin visited them for her. 

jongin looked up from his phone when she suddenly became quiet. "what did that punk say to you?" he narrowed his eyes.

"it's nothing," seulgi grabbed an unopened can of beer and roughly opened it. "taeyong's just..." she sighed.

he took the beer away from her. "hey!" she pouted.

"what did he say to you, kang seulgi?" he swore to whatever god there is, if that nobody said anything…

he knew his antagonism towards taeyong wasn't unfounded! if he did anything to hurt seulgi, he swore to god, he will receive the wrath of not only him, but all their other friends, plus all their sunbaes in sm entertainment who treat seulgi as their closest hoobae.

"he just said some mean things during one of our arguments, but it’s nothing… it’s nothing i haven’t heard of before.” she still winced at thought of their most recent fight.

"he laughed when he found out about the whole nonsense with jimin sunbaenim. then, he compared me to joohyun unnie..." seulgi bit her lip at the unpleasant thought. she loved her unnie, so it hurt her to no end that she was always compared to her and always ended at the shorter end.

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