GOT7 Dorm: December 24^th, 2015, 5:21 a.m. (Present day)

The sound of plastic crackling and clothes sifting sounds much louder when everything else is quiet. Because of this, these small noises appear so loud. Loud enough to wake Yugyeom up on his free day.

            The younger boy sits up and groans. How early in the morning is it? Don’t wake me up so early on our schedule-less day, Bambam… he can’t help but think.

            Bambam notices his friend wake up in the bed beside his. He quickly claps his hands together in apology. He then separates his hands, as if apologizing for the loud clapping noise as well. It’s typical of Bambam to be such a trainwreck in the morning. It looks comical, as if there were sweatdrops bouncing off Bambam’s head, so Yugyeom laughs.

            “It’s okay, Bam,” Yugyeom chuckles quietly, his voice still muttering.

            “Sorry, I was gonna wake you up later,” Bambam says, continuing to make the plastic noises. Yugyeom looks down and sees Bambam is actually packing his suitcase. He an eyebrow.

            “Are you packing already?” Yugyeom asks.

            “What do you mean, already,” Bam scoffs, “I have to go to the airport in two hours. I still need to pack, shower, get changed…”

            This hits Yugyeom harder and he wakes up out of his half-asleep state. That’s right. Bambam and Jimin are going to Thailand today. It had been about twenty-four days since he heard the news, and had come to terms with how to handle it: Just be supportive.

            “But still…” Yugyeom thinks out loud without noticing. When he sees Bambam is listening, he realizes too late, and decides to just continue talking. “It’s a shame you and Jimin won’t be here on Christmas.”

            Bambam smiles weakly. “Yeah… but it was like this last year, too. You ran off to America with Mark Hyung and Yerin during Christmas, and I went to Thailand.”

            Yugyeom almost yells that they made a promise this year. That they were supposed to move into a new chapter in their lives together. That they were supposed to, just one time, have that damn glass of liquor. But he bites his tongue, and nods slightly. “Yeah, it’s nothing new.”

15& Dorm: December 24^th, 2015, 5:21 a.m. (Present day)

Yerin sleeps in different rooms than Jimin, but she had made the mistake of leaving her door open at night, allowing the light of Jimin’s room to blind Yerin from across the hall. She, feeling annoyed at the light, turns to face the wall. But when Jimin starts to turn her loud desktop computer on, Yerin gives up and stands.

            Yerin marches over to Jimin’s room and knocks on the wide-open door. Jimin turns around in surprise, and cringes when she sees Yerin’s messy hair and dark circles.

            “Ooh… sorry, Yerin-Yerin…” Jimin nervously tries to put a playful spin on her roommate’s name to avoid getting hit. Grumpy Yerin is not a nice Yerin.

            “It’s fine,” Yerin says, relieving the smaller girl. “But why are you up so early? It’s like five.”

            “You didn’t know? I’m going to Thailand today, I just need to properly print out the receipts.”

            Yerin gasps and slaps her forehead. “Oh, my god! How could I forget! Seriously, you should wake me properly so I can send you off.”

            “No, just sleep again, I’ll wake you up when I’m really leaving.”

            Her soothing words make Yerin almost head back, but when she sees how messy Jimin’s room is, she does a double take. Unironed clothes spread over the bed, and about five pairs of mismatched shoes are sprinkled over the floor. She shakes her head and walks further into Jimin’s room.

            “H-hey…” Jimin follows Yerin with her eyes. “What are you doing?”

            “What does it look like?” Yerin retorts, picking up one shoe and wandering to the back to find its twin. “I’m cleaning up. There’s no way I’m letting you leave the country with your room in this state. Why is it so messy in here?”

            “I mean, Bambam is one of my best friends. I need to bring nice clothes to make a good impression on his family!”

            Yerin raises an eyebrow. “You wore sweatpants when you first met my dad.”

            “I was a shameless middle schooler. Even your fashion sense was a joke back then.”

            “Point taken,” Yerin immediately agrees, trying her best not to shudder at the image of her debut-days style.

            “And besides, Bambam was coincidentally wearing a suit when he met my mom. I have to look presentable in return or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

            Yerin watches as Jimin finishes printing her papers and scrambles to find her nicest clothes. The sight is rather sweet.

            “You’re really looking forward to going to Thailand, huh?”

            “Of course! It’s been over seven years since I’ve visited properly outside of the JYP concerts,” her eyes brighten when she says that.

            “I’ll miss you on Christmas,” Yerin says to herself, just loud enough for Jimin to hear. Jimin smiles slightly. Yerin getting this openly sweet and sentimental isn’t too common these days.

            “Ah, you’re too cute,” Jimin teases and ruffles Yerin’s hair, letting a yelp escape from the taller girl. “You left me last year, here’s my revenge.”

Airport: December 24^th, 2015, 7:50 a.m. (Present day)

Two hours pass, and the coincidence is that both Yugyeom and Yerin accompany their respective roommate to the airport, despite their sloppy clothing. Both cars, one with the GOT7 members and one with 15&, arrive at the airport and both parties can see some fans gathering. Yerin looks outside and gasps.

            “Oh my…” Yerin gapes at the sight of GOT7 fans, “Jimin, I totally forgot Bambam’s fans would be here.”

            “Oh? Guess I won’t have a calm airport experience,” Jimin shrugs.

            “No, what if they take photos? I look like a mess,” Yerin begins to get shy.

            Jimin laughs at her friend’s bashful nature. “It’s alright, Yerin. Just stay away from Bambam or whatever other members of GOT7 that tagged along. Remember they’re not here for you, so don’t let them take photos of you. Alright?”

            Yerin sighs and agrees. Both girls look out the window and see Bambam and Yugyeom leave the car, followed by tens of fangirls surrounding the pair. Yerin cringes and Jimin simply ruffles her friend’s hair.

            “Don’t worry, just don’t stand near them,” Jimin laughs.

            “Okay…” Yerin agrees.

            Yugyeom and Bambam see the girls of 15& exit the car, and both boys laugh when they see them. Jimin rushes over to Bambam and high fives him. Bambam slings an arm around her, but Jimin pushes his arm back off. The clicking of fan cameras gets louder.

            “Do you want to hug another girl around your fans?” Jimin scolds.

            “Ah, sorry, I forgot you’re taken,” Bambam smirks cockily, referring to Jimin’s one-sided crush on Jackson.

            “Go to hell.”

            It is true, though, that Jimin has a crush on GOT7’s Wang Jackson. The only people who seem to be aware of this are Bambam, Yerin and Eric Nam… as well as a good majority of her speculative fans. So when Jackson was revealed to have been dating Heo Youngji, she didn’t take it too well and started talking to him less. Not a great coping mechanism, but it was better than Yerin, who had to hear Mark wasn’t interested in 97-liners, and began going out with lots of other rappers.

            Back to the story, Yugyeom catches Yerin from across the airport. He waves to her, catching the attention of some fans. Yerin quickly avoids eye contact, in fear that GOT7’s fans would take photos of her pajamas and bare face. She whips out her phone and pretends to call someone.

            “A-Ah… Ayeon Unnie?” Yerin fakes her phone call and rushes back to the car. All Yugyeom can tell is she was avoiding him. Why?

            Jimin notices Yerin leave the airport interior and heads to the car. She laughs at her friend again and gives her a long hug. “Alright, I’ll say goodbye to you here. Okay?”

            “It’s so weird of you to be the mature one in our relationship,” Yerin laughs, “Sorry about this. I’ll see you! Okay?”

They hug again before Jimin heads off and grabs Bambam with her. Yugyeom heads back to his own car after saying his goodbyes, still a little confused on why Yerin avoided him. He grabs his phone and starts texting.

            “Yerin-ah, did you just avoid me?” he texts. Moments later, a bing sounds, signaling her response.

            “Sorry, Yugyeom, I just can’t be seen with you right now. But I’ll catch you later!”

            Yugyeom doesn’t know what she means, oblivious to the fact that she’s just very bad at wording her feelings. It takes a few moments to think of a proper response.

            “Sure. Will I see you at New Year’s? To become adults together.”

            After sending the text, Yugyeom realizes his words may have come out a bit more ually than he’d hoped. But nonetheless, he quite literally meant it. If two out of three can’t be there, he hopes for at least Yerin to be there to move into a new chapter with him. Moments after thinking about this, he receives a response.

            “I’ll be hanging at either Lound or Pierrot Strike with some oppas, you can chill with us if you want ^^” Yerin names two nearby pubs. But Yugyeom really doesn’t want to hang out with experienced drinkers. Wait… some Oppas? Yugyeom thought she was going to be with the rapper Olltii.

            “Is Olltii going to be there?” He sends.

            “No, he has his own schedule for the new year ;;;;; But there are some guys I met at a club who said they would hang out with me and teach me to drink, lol.”

            That sounds anything but good to Yugyeom. Some random older boys, teaching a naïve minor how to drink? Fishy. And chances are, if they met her at that club, they know she’s a singer. What would they do to her? Yugyeom cringes. “Hm, then tell me what bar you’ll end up at and I might meet you there. Okay?”

            “Okay, see you tomorrow on Christmas. You have a gift for me, right?”

            “Of course.” Yugyeom smiles at that last text before sending it. At least he’ll have her on Christmas.

Tick, tock.

            An hour passes.

                        Tick, tock.

                                    Two pass.

                                                Tick, tock.

                                                            Five hours.

It had been five hours now, and both Yugyeom and Yerin had been getting separate texts about the flight delaying. There had apparently been issues with the airport runway, and that a plane had taken the wrong place, causing their own flight to not have a place to land. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, because the other plane had to take an emergency landing because of a rising storm. Five hours, and no updates.

            The problem is, that this is the only flight. To get their hands on another last-minute flight to Thailand would be more difficult, considering many foreigners are hustling to get home for the New Year’s. And the last thing JYP would want to do is use their company privilege to get another ticket.

            So if this flight doesn’t work, nothing will.

Tick, tock.

            Another hour passes.           

                                    Tick,

                                                Tock.

                                                         One more.

Seoul: December 24^th, 2015, 3:21 p.m. (Present day)

Yerin gets a text from Jimin. “Yerin-ah… it didn’t work out.”

            Yerin’s face drops, and she feels genuinely sad. “Oh… I’m so sorry. Come home and I’ll make you some hot chocolate and cookies for you.”

            “Ah, Yerin… I’m on a diet, you know.”

            “That’s the least of your worries.”

            There’s a pause, and Yerin knows that Jimin is mourning over the loss of that trip to Thailand that she’d been giggling in her sleep for. The poor girl only wanted to see her old friends, and meet Bambam’s family in real life instead of over Skype.

Yugyeom gets another text from Bambam. “Yugyeom… we might be coming back home.”

            Yugyeom freezes up at the sight of the text. The instinctive move he should make is to comfort him. But instead of feeling sad and empathetic towards his Thai friend, Yugyeom feels something much, much worse.

            He feels relieved.

            Yes, relieved that Bambam and Jimin, who haven’t seen their loved ones in ages, aren’t returning to their childhood homes for the holidays. He’s relieved that his selfish wishes of having his own idea of a perfect transition into adulthood is being fulfilled.

            He can’t really feel bad, can he? It’s his own wish.

            But he does feel guilty. All he can really text Bambam back is “Sorry.”

            “What are you apologizing for? It , but nothing you can do.”

            That’s when it snaps in Yugyeom. Yes, he wants to drink. Drinking is used as a form of celebration—in this case, celebrating becoming adults. But drinking is also used as a way to forget one’s worries and move on in life. Yugyeom nods to himself. No use sitting around feeling guilty. He should make New Year’s worthwhile.

            “I’ll make sure we have a good time together, forget your worries. Let’s drink together, even.”

The Seen sign shows up next to Yugyeom’s most recent text, so Bambam has definitely read the text already. But it takes a bit of time for him to think of a response.

            “Hey…” Bambam texts in one bubble, then continues in another, “Didn’t we make a sort of promise earlier this year to drink together?”

            Suddenly bringing up his past promise, which Yugyeom tried so hard to forget himself, makes his heart pound. Did he really know?

            “Oh! I completely forgot about that one! ㅋㅋㅋㅋ” Yugyeom can smell his fakeness over the phone. “Yeah, we made a promise like that. Let’s drink, okay?”

          “And we’ll invite Jimin, too. She’s sleeping in the car right now, but she was feeling even worse than me. She deserves a drink. Yerin should join us!” Bambam rambles through text, making himself sound even more excited than Yugyeom. Sure, he forgot the original promise, but recreating it isn’t a bad idea, either.

            “Yerin made some plans with some ‘oppas’ she met at a club.”

            “We’ll reel her in. ㅋㅋㅋ” Bambam sounds awfully confident, especially with a winking emoji at the end of his text, boosting Yugyeom’s confidence, too. Everything seems to be falling into place.

Ah, Yugyeom’s enjoying this too much. He really is selfish, isn’t he? But screw this, he can enjoy a guilty pleasure here and there, it’s only what evil-by-nature adults do.

But he can enjoy himself. Who says fate is only working in Yugyeom’s favor? This could end up being a memorable night for all four of them.

Ah, that is, if they can get Yerin to join them.

A/N: Holla, there's chapter two! The next chapter will have GOT7 and Ayeon appearances, for IGOT7s or 15&ers who began reading for certain interactions... but the drinking chapter will come soon enough. Bear with me! Hope you enjoyed it~