ChangMin started drinking his third glass of alcoholic drink that evening.
Having drank two glasses of champagne in the SM dance studio, his reasoning had gotten looser.
Not that ChangMin couldn’t handle booze, but he had principles before...
One of them was his own basic rule to drink two glasses at the maximum.
Since his hyungs had made him break his rule, he wasn’t fixated on his rules anymore.

ChangMin wasn’t the worst case...
His hyungs had lost their sanity long ago and JaeJoong and YunHo were singing together while hugging each other’s sides, holding their beverages in the other hand.
They were singing some sort of ballad but ChangMin couldn’t hear which, because they were singing gibberish rather than words.
It seemed they didn’t know either, because they were really out of tune...
YooChun was giggling, all the while draining glass after glass.
JunSu was the worst...
He stood on the bar, showing off his duck with a ridiculous dance.
If ChangMin hadn’t drank more, he would have been deeply embarrassed, maybe he would be tomorrow when he would see everything in a different light...
If he could remember...

After three drinks it was enough for ChangMin.
No more alcohol, I have school tomorrow, he thought.
Making this new promise to himself, ChangMin was determined to keep it.
But then YunHo had one of his brilliant ideas... *cough*
‘Yah... Yorobun! Let’s take a shot!’ He said excited, actually, he yelled excited.
Everybody got excited, everybody, except ChangMin...
He never had a shot and he knew it contained a high alcohol percentage.
‘YunHo, get us one each!’ JunSu cried out.
‘Aza, aza!!’ YunHo said, motioning for the bar man and then ordering 5 shots.
This is getting wrong, ChangMin thought, but he didn’t want to disappoint his hyung so he accepted it...
It tastes really strong and he could feel his senses getting a kick...
The world become oddly clear to him.
It was not a lasting feeling, but in the split second that it lasted ChangMin had seen a very familiar figure.
Not far away, in a dark corner was the brother of DaMae...
ChangMin believed his name to be DongJae.
DongJae was not alone, he was with a girl and they were drinking too, not like his hyungs, but like sophisticated civilians.
They looked very much in love.
ChangMin gazed at them, the booze had probably gotten his feelings to get out of control.
He felt a weird sense of emotion go through him at the sight of the two lovers.
A mixture of jealousy and envy, a sense of pride also...
He pictured DaMae and him there, how he wanted to see her now.
Suddenly the picture perfect got screwed up, a man bluntly walked up to them and started speaking to them.
ChangMin couldn’t hear what he said, but it sure wasn’t a polite conversation...
He saw only the worried expression on the girl’s face and the back of the man, who blocked DongJae from ChangMin’s sight.
What’s happening? ChangMin thought.
His curiosity was awakened as he kept staring at the scene.
The man continued bothering DongJae and the girl, ChangMin noticed how the man swayed a little after he talked.
The man was clearly drunk, just like half of the crowd here...
Suddenly the man got angry with DongJae, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and lifted him from the seat.
The girl let out a scream.
ChangMin looked at his hyungs, they hadn’t noticed anything, they were too pleased with themselves.
Then he got up.
In any better state of mind ChangMin would’ve never did what he just did.
He walked up to the man, turned him around and punched him in the face.
Of course that didn’t knock the man down.
The man started attacking DongJae, since his drunken mind probably reasoned it was all DongJae’s fault.
The girl now got into action and jumped on the man trying to pull his head in her headlock, without success.
Suddenly the bouncer of the place showed up and threw them all out.
On the street ChangMin realized his hyungs were still inside and he hadn’t wanted to leave them...
They needed someone to bring them home, or at least get them to stop drinking before they would do stupid things...
The drunken man had his attention now fixed on the girl.
‘Baby~, I’m gonna be lucky t’night!’ The man said.
‘DON’T TOUCH HER!! OR...’ DongJae screamed.
‘Or what?’ The man answered getting annoyed. ‘You’re gonna kick me? Bring it on!’
Instead of waiting for DongJae to kick him, the man grabbed the girl and started slumping off, carrying the screaming and kicking girl away.
DongJae duck down and hold onto one of the ankles of the man.
Then the doors of the club swung open and ChangMin saw his hyungs being kicked out.
‘Hyungs? Why are you being kicked out?’ ChangMin asked with wide eyes.
JaeJoong, YunHo and YooChun turned red and started scratching the backs of their necks.
JunSu looked at his embarrassed hyungs and then bluntly said: ‘They were harassing the daughter of the club owner.’
‘JUNSU-AH!! We were just complimenting her, how could we know she was the daughter of the club owner?’ JaeJoong defended.
‘Yeah... You were saying that her ... mm... mmm... mm...’ JunSu begun but YooChun covered JunSu’s mouth.
ChangMin burst out in laughter.
But it quickly died down because he heard a desperate cry from DongJae.
He looked at DongJae and saw him sitting on the ground, crying his heart out.
His girlfriend was just stolen from him... literally.
In the distance ChangMin saw the figures disappearing into an alley.
Without thinking he ran after them to get the girl back.
For some weird reason he felt like losing DaMae as tears started to roll down his cheeks.
Stupid booze!
I need to get sober quickly, ChangMin thought.

In the alley he saw the man trying to undress the girl.
The girl was struggling wildly and crying for DongJae.
As a wild man ChangMin stormed at the man, ready to push him off and save the girl.
The man turned and an annoyed look covered his face.
‘You again?’ He asked with an irritated voice.
ChangMin smelled the penetrating odor of alcohol and urine.
It drove him mad and he started attacking the man.
ChangMin’s hyungs and DongJae who had followed ChangMin finally gotten to the alley and helped him attack the man and free the girl.
DongJae and ChangMin had taken care of the man, because they were the only ones still capable of aiming their fists.
After a few minutes of chaos the man lay knocked out and DongJae and his girl were reunited.
Everyone was glad nothing had happened to them.
‘Let’s celebrate this! I know a nice place not too far away!’ JaeJoong said, excited about his own plan.
That made one of them...
‘NOOO!!’ The rest yelled in unison...

________~END OF CHAPTER 40~________