What Starts in Chaos
From the surveys answered and answers gathered (courtesy of Jinki and Taemin) the school trip was finally decided upon.
“Amusement park? Fuck yeah!” Jonghyun throws a fist into the while hopping on Jinki’s bed. Jinki cringes, splayed across his couch, too caught up in the claws of exhaustion to pull a jovial Jonghyun off his bed. “This is gonna be so cool! I hope the press doesn’t find out, though.”
“Don’t worry.” Jinki muses, scratching his stomach from underneath his shirt. “I got you these.”
Jonghyun slides off the bed to snatch the plastic bag from Jinki’s offering bag. The plastic crunches under his touch as Jonghyun rifles through the materials inside. He finds a pair of cheap aviator sunglasses, two kinds of wigs (one of which was an afro-all Taemin’s idea if Jinki’s going to be asked), a stick of gum, a mustache, sideburns and an eye shadow palette holding four shades from nude to ash brown. Jonghyun holds up the stick of gum. “Gum?”
“Taemin wanted that. He forgot to take it out of the bag.”
“The both of you need new friends. Seriously. Hanging around each other doesn’t bode well for either of you.”
“Well, I’m not exactly like you, Mr. Popular. I don’t have a line of people pounding at my door, just dying to be my best friend.”
“Sure you do.” Jonghyun slumps back on the bed. “You don’t really see yourself all that well, Jinki. People like you.”
“They like what I can do for them. They like what I represent. They like the idea of me.” Jinki says with a wave of his finger for added emphasis. “That doesn’t mean they like me for who I am, really.”
“Oh.”
“What?”
“It’s nothing. I just. I just realized that we had something in common.”
~o~
Jonghyun might have wondered why Jinki stuck with Taemin for so long, all his wonder vanquishing in an instant the moment Taemin flutters his eyelashes at him as they scrolled through the candy aisle of the first rest stop on their school trip.
With a simple fine, kid. Get whatever the hell you want. On me. Taemin’s hands moved with record speed, snatching up candy bars and gummy worms, hugging them to his chest.
“You’re such a sucker.”
“He reminds me of a dog I once had, okay. I can’t help it.” Jonghyun protests when Jinki passes him by the line to the cash register. Taemin was jumping up the balls of his feet, candy packs in hand while Jonghyun stood beside him, a pack of chips in his arm.
Taemin and Jinki join forces on Jonghyun’s disguise much later into the trip. Minutes away from their arrival, the pair take Jonghyun to the back of the bus, shooing the science club away and tossing Jonghyun in the seat. Jinki takes what they need from out of his bag, laughing at Jonghyun’s look of fright when he sees the afro peeking from the zipper.
“I just forgot to take it out.”
“That better be it, Jinki. Or I swear to god you’re gonna mysteriously disappear from one of the rides today.”
Taemin makes use of the double sided tape, acting like an assistant nurse to Jinki as Jinki extended his hand idly and asks in a monosyllabic tone for what he wanted. Jinki looked pleased, almost too pleased, as if living out a dream he had had as a child.
With a few smudges of brown eye shadow alongside the bridge of Jonghyun’s nose and under his cheeks (Jonghyun finally drawing the line when Jinki said he was going to give Jonghyun a very natural looking mole with the use of an eye liner pencil below his chin) paired with the rest of the ensemble, Jonghyun was indeed unrecognizable. In fact, as Taemin and Jinki stood apart and allowed Jonghyun to stand up from his seat, glasses and flat, black wig donned, to get off the bus, the other students, including his so called friends had almost mistaken him for the driver. Which made Jinki proud because in some way, that was exactly what he was aiming for.
Jinki is the first to reach the ticket booth, discussing with the girl inside what school they were from and how everything was arrange. With the go signal given the gates burst open with students flowing and the best part was that today the amusement park was locked specifically for field trips which means that they had to the whole park to themselves, no lines, no nothing.
Jonghyun stands in the entrance as Taemin and Jinki move forward, the flock of excited students racing towards separate rides ahead of them. Jinki halts and spins around, noticing the vacancy to his right and he finds Jonghyun taking his glasses of to soak in the blinding light of the sun, breathing in the brackishness of the air caused by their proximity to the ocean.
“Jjong?”
“You know, the last time I was in an amusement park was when I was eleven.”
Jonghyun doesn’t have to say more but he still scoffs at the looks Taemin and Jinki give him even though he knows he deserved it. He shoves his glasses back up his nose.
“This disguise is stupid.” Jonghyun walks ahead the both of them, leaving the two to exchange mischievous glances because they know Jonghyun is happy behind all of that make up and that he’s probably going to have a good time today.
They jog after Jonghyun, Taemin flying on Jonghyun’s back with his arms around the other boy’s neck, screaming at all of the rides that they pass by while Jinki covers his ears with his fingers.
~o~
It’s a little later in the afternoon when Jonghyun, Jinki and Taemin finally decide to have lunch that Jonghyun decides to throw his wig and wipe his makeup off, the glasses he keeps because he thinks it goes well with his outfit today, when in reality anything goes well on him, Jinki thinks.
Jonghyun’s ordering a hotdog and fries from one of the stands in the outside food court, gathering his order on a tray and spotting Taemin and Jinki’s table without much effort. On his way there a hand takes a hold of his left shoulder and Jonghyun finds Minho, smiling down at him when he spins around to face the person who dared to mess with him while he’s hungry.
“You still mad at me?”
“Can we just leave it, Minho? I’m not in the mood for-“
“Jjong, come on. You know I didn’t mean it. I feel like we haven’t talked in a while. Come sit with us.” Minho nods towards a table in the far right, a group of people that Jonghyun’s familiar with but would not mind losing.
“I’m already sitting with Jinki.”
“Jinki?” Minho asks as if he’s insulted. “Lee Jinki? You’e trading in our table for Lee Jinki? Wow, you really are mad at me.”
“Hey, don’t be an asshole.”
Jinki and Taemin wait on their seats, observes as the two exchange hushed words, Jinki seeing the way Jonghyun’s brows furrow further.
“Oh, the art of seduction.”
“What?” Jinki pops a fry in his mouth, grinding it with his teeth with unnecessary force as he sees Taemin place his chin into his propped up hand from the other side of the table.
“Minho wants him back.”
“They were never together.”
“Hyung, there’s this thing called body language and you should learn how to read it. Look at that. Look at how Minho’s eyes never leave Jonghyun and how his toes are directly pointed at him as they speak.”
“My toes are probably directed at you right now, but all I want to do is choke you with my fries.”
“Look again, hyung.”
Jinki rolls his eyes, averting his gaze momentarily to his feet which, inconsequently, were facing the direction of Jonghyun and Minho and Jinki is sure as hell that he doesn’t think of Choi Minho in any way remotely romantic. He gulps down a fry, hard.
“Just what I thought.”
When Jinki looks up Jonghyun’s walking after Minho to their table, head bent low and what angers Jinki more is the fact that he doesn’t even spare the two of them an apologetic glance. Jonghyun is welcomed by the rest of the people on the table with heys and where have you beens, leaving Jinki and Taemin nibble at their food silently.
~o~
A no alcohol policy on school trips was simply an excuse for high school to rebel and place vodka and rum into cleaned out bottles of shampoo, taking them out from their bags once the sun was breaking in the horizon to make the sky bleed orangey blues. Jinki’s getting out of the horror house by himself after having been (what he thinks) molested by an aggravated mummy.
He comes out of the fogged exit tearing astray tissue paper from his nape when Jonghyun and Taemin come jogging up to him.
“There you are.” Jonghyun breathes. “Come on. We’re gonna start drinking.”
“Yeah, hyung.” Taemin beams the way four year olds smile at cakes on display of a bakery store window. “Drinking!”
“I’m not drinking. You should stick to banana milk and you,” Jinki’s brow raises as he glares at Jonghyun. “can do whatever the hell you want. Just don’t get Taemin or me involved.”
“But I wanna get involved, hyung.” Taemin whines when Jinki virtually drags him away by the wrist. Jonghyun catches up to them in no time.
“What’s your problem?”
My problem is you being a moron all the time and not calculating your actions before doing them. “I have no problems okay. I’m problem free.”
“Hyung, they’re breaking the shampoo bottles ooooooouuuuuut.”
“I’m trying to be nice, Jinki.”
“By intoxicating me? I appreciate the gesture but no thanks.”
“You know what, Jinki? I get it, okay.”
“You get what?”
“This! This whole stunt you’re trying to pull. And if you don’t say it I will.”
“Hyung! I see shot glasses!”
“Quiet Taemin! What, Jjong? What do you think is going on?”
“You’re jealous!”
“Jea-that’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?”
“Jealous of what?”
“Of Minho and me and that’s fine, Jinki. You like Minho-“
“Hyung, you’re gay for Minho? I thought you liked J-“
“TAEMIN! Zipyourlidjesusfuckingshrist!”
Jonghyun exhales harshly through his teeth, defiantly staring at Jinki. “There’s no use denying the obvious.”
“The only thing that’s obvious right now is you having brain damage. I don’t-I mean. How did you even-Minho? really?”
“Tell me it isn’t about Minho then? Come on, look me in the eye-“
“I don’t wanna have to crouch down.”
“Paging the two pansies arguing about god knows what and the.. uhmm.. Taemin.” Kim Kibum’s voice was an unmistakable tinge of milky huskiness, coming through the speakers of the amusement park as he keeps his finger on the button of the announcement stand not that far from where Jonghyun and Jinki were standing. “Proceed to the food court please or get the fu-“
Kibum’s voice quickly fades to a rapid string of apologies accompanied by what Jinki and Jonghyun know to be one of their teachers, reprimanding Kibum for making use of the microphone.
Jonghyun with his lips cast in a frown, parted in the center, returns Jinki’s stare without blinking, forcing his eyes open.
Jinki sighs, looking away and Jonghyun keeps himself from grinning at his victory, realizing how silly it was of him to be happy to not be the first whose gaze strays.
“I never expected you to come.” Jonghyun’s tone sends Jinki and Taemin to look back up at him. “I just asked because I was being nice.”
Jinki doesn’t say anything although his eyes narrow even more because without any need for further confirmation, Jonghyun was right. Jinki would never drink on a school trip while the teachers were wandering in the parking lot, scattered around the bus while they were safely concealed in the compound of the amusement park. Jinki would never sit with Jonghyun’s group of friends, anywhere beside Minho and take a shot of whatever was inside those shampoo bottles. “Wrong again, Jonghyun.”
Taemin and Jonghyun blink hurried at Jinki’s back as he moves away from them towards the tables gathered in the food court where their batchmates awaited the lined up plastic medicine cups (which Jinki assumed where the shot glasses Taemin was referring too) to be filled with alcohol.
“Hyung,” Taemin jogs after him in tiny steps, Jinki striding in an opposing calm demeanor. “Hyung, are you seriously going to drink now? You’re not just doing this to prove a point?”
“I don’t know Taemin. I don’t really care.” Jinki finds a vacant seat next to Hyoyeon and Sunyoung, girls from his batch that he’s seen around campus from time to time but never really talked to. The girls yelp in surprise at the site of Jinki, hands over their mouths before laughing and introducing themselves as if it was the first day of school. Jinki didn’t mind.
Taemin sits next to Jonghyun and Minho a few bodies of students to Jinki’s right. They position themselves in an oblong around the adjoined rectangular tables pushed together, distributing shots around. Jinki eyes the medicine cup in his hand, the clear liquid harmlessly resting within it. Jinki doesn’t even wait for the count off to end, downing his drink before anyone else while Sunyoung laughs and follows suit, the rest patting his back with smiles on their faces.
The liquid turns vapid in his throat, clinging to the cilia in his trachea and bruising it. Jinki coughs during the first shot, deciding ultimately that he can go for another.
~o~
When Jinki is asked by a rather tipsy Kim Kibum to step to the center of the table and down a whole bottle of alcohol filled shampoo, it was entertaining seeing Jinki fight to get on the table when balance has clearly left him.
With his hands carefully leaving the table as he stands up, JInki beams as he realizes that he’s standing up. “Lee Jinki, my man.” Minho commends, handing the shampoo bottle over. “Where were you hiding all this time?”
“The library.” Jinki answers honestly , the others mistaking his answer for a joke that they should laugh at. Alcohol makes you do funny things, Jinki thinks.
Taemin, with his wits still intact after five shots (because evidently, he’s not as much of a lightweight as he expected) elbows Jonghyun who’s in the process of filling his cup. Taemin nods towards Jinki, his expression worried.
Jonghyun waves a hand dismissively. “He’s fine. He’s having a blast.”
Taemin stomps a foot on what he thinks is the ground, smashing Jonghyun’s toes instead. The older boy yelps, frowning at Taemin. Taemin decides not to apologize, instead pursues to give Jonghyun looks to save Jinki.
Jonghyun sighs defeatedly because even if he’s not willing to admit it he was not thrilled with the idea of a drooling hungover Jinki the day after his first encounter with alcohol.
Jonghyun rises from his seat and taps Minho on the shoulder. “He’s had enough. I don’t want him puking all over the bus seats.”
“What are you talking about?” Minho doesn’t slur his words when he’s slightly intoxicated. Maybe this is a perk of being having cool for blood. “He looks good to me.”
“He’s drunk Minho, come on.”
“You’re drunk.” Jinki protests from the table, flipping the lid of the shampoo bottle open. As the crowd begins to chant Jinki’s name out, Jinki raises the bottle, swaying, and Jonghyun loses his last strand of sanity, pulling himself up on the table and snatching the bottle away. Jonghyun tosses it somewhere to the side as their classmates boo at them repeatedly.
“Jonghyun! What the hell?” Minho holds both his hands up in question as Jinki tries to regain his composure, failing as he falls to his hands and knees. Jonghyun bends lower to keep a hand on Jinki’s back while Minho continues to question the both of them.
Taemin sits silently in his chair, hands on his lap helplessly as the rest of the students begin to glare at Jonghyun and Jinki. And just as Jonghyun is about to decide on a course of action Jinki’s cheeks puff up, hand clamping over his mouth while one of the students yell oh shit, he’s gonna barf!
Jinki scampers off the table, the students parting to make room for Jinki as he hurriedly staggers to his feet without an ounce of grace, making a bee line for the comfort room.
Taemin jumps from his seat but Jonghyun holds his hand up. “I’ll get him.”
~o~
Jonghyun is greeted by the man stench of the men’s bathroom and Jinki making rather loud hurling noises in one of the cubicles. Jonghyun walks across the hall of blue doors, pushing each one he passes by until he finds Jinki slumped into the walls of one cubicle, unspooling tissue paper from the dispenser.
“Please don’t look.” Jinki’s voice comes out muffled from behind the tissue paper, one hand shutting the lid of the toilet. “I don’t think we’re close enough for you to see my insides puked out.”
Jonghyun does not point out how living together automatically constitutes that they’re ‘close enough’ opting to keep his mouth closed because he was just as disinterested in Jinki’s puke as the rest of the world. Jinki crouches over his knees, arms stretched out.
Jinki wipes every inch of his mouth clean, making use of every space on the tissue paper. He chucks the tissue over his shoulder only to have the tissue bounce back from the wall to the floor, beside Jinki’s thigh. His back was sore, neck in knots and he can practically see the germs from the toilet rubbing on him as he continued to remain still on the damp tiles but his bones ceased to hold him together, vision loosening at the seams.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like bruised peaches.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Like hell you are.” Jink half laughs while Jonghyun looks insulted.
Jinki pushes off the wall to the opposite one, hands flat as his legs push up. Jonghyun stands too, hands moving towards his back and his waist until JInki swats them away. “I can do it.”
“Jinki-“
“I said I can do-“ Jinki can’t do it. He slides from the wall, falls on his ass on the lid of the toilet, begrudgingly cursing at the wind.
“You shouldn’t have drunk so much.” Jonghyun disapprovingly adds, taking hold of the tip of the tissue in the dispenser, unspooling what seemed like half a roll and slapping it on Jinki’s mouth.
Jinki tosses the tissue away, cringing at the thought of wasting trees but not caring enough to correct it. His fingers roam over his temples, eyes closing. He mumbles, “-tle black.”
“What?”
“I said that this was so typical pot calling the kettle black.”
“I’m not drunk off my fucking ass that I’m seeing two.”
“I’m seeing one okay. I’m seeing one just fine and fuck you. I do what I want. I’m just a rich bored kid, right? Might as well act the part.”
“Whatever, Jinki. Fuck it.” Jonghyun spins around.
“Yeah, okay. Go walk away. That’s all you’re good for anyway. Walk away from everything and room in with Minho this time.”
Jonghyun’s back freezes and Jinki’s drunk as hell. Gradually, Jonghyun turns around to face Jinki again but instead of the look of fury that Jinki was expecting, he’s faced with a puzzled stare.
“So this is about Minho.”
“No, it’s about why the merry go round looks like it’s about to spin off-yes, it’s about Minho! Of course, it’s about him! Are you stupid as well as stupider?”
Jinki does a sway stand, batting Jonghyun away from the door of the cubicle to make his way through. “Oh world, stop spinning for a sec.”
“Where are you going?”
Jinki’s already out the door, the sunset blinding him slightly and Jinki feels ridiculously drunk under its paint. In the distance are the tables, students beckoning him to come back, Minho somewhere in the middle, Taemin pulling away from tangled arms to breathe and run to Jinki. But Jinki doesn’t want any of that. There was an exit here somewhere that didn’t lead to the parking lot and Jinki found it behind the men’s cubicle, a fence too weak to give a fuck if a student separates from the pack and runs off the nearby beach.
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-- unbeta'd okay. :) sorry for the wait.
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“Amusement park? Fuck yeah!” Jonghyun throws a fist into the while hopping on Jinki’s bed. Jinki cringes, splayed across his couch, too caught up in the claws of exhaustion to pull a jovial Jonghyun off his bed. “This is gonna be so cool! I hope the press doesn’t find out, though.”
“Don’t worry.” Jinki muses, scratching his stomach from underneath his shirt. “I got you these.”
Jonghyun slides off the bed to snatch the plastic bag from Jinki’s offering bag. The plastic crunches under his touch as Jonghyun rifles through the materials inside. He finds a pair of cheap aviator sunglasses, two kinds of wigs (one of which was an afro-all Taemin’s idea if Jinki’s going to be asked), a stick of gum, a mustache, sideburns and an eye shadow palette holding four shades from nude to ash brown. Jonghyun holds up the stick of gum. “Gum?”
“Taemin wanted that. He forgot to take it out of the bag.”
“The both of you need new friends. Seriously. Hanging around each other doesn’t bode well for either of you.”
“Well, I’m not exactly like you, Mr. Popular. I don’t have a line of people pounding at my door, just dying to be my best friend.”
“Sure you do.” Jonghyun slumps back on the bed. “You don’t really see yourself all that well, Jinki. People like you.”
“They like what I can do for them. They like what I represent. They like the idea of me.” Jinki says with a wave of his finger for added emphasis. “That doesn’t mean they like me for who I am, really.”
“Oh.”
“What?”
“It’s nothing. I just. I just realized that we had something in common.”
~o~
Jonghyun might have wondered why Jinki stuck with Taemin for so long, all his wonder vanquishing in an instant the moment Taemin flutters his eyelashes at him as they scrolled through the candy aisle of the first rest stop on their school trip.
With a simple fine, kid. Get whatever the hell you want. On me. Taemin’s hands moved with record speed, snatching up candy bars and gummy worms, hugging them to his chest.
“You’re such a sucker.”
“He reminds me of a dog I once had, okay. I can’t help it.” Jonghyun protests when Jinki passes him by the line to the cash register. Taemin was jumping up the balls of his feet, candy packs in hand while Jonghyun stood beside him, a pack of chips in his arm.
Taemin and Jinki join forces on Jonghyun’s disguise much later into the trip. Minutes away from their arrival, the pair take Jonghyun to the back of the bus, shooing the science club away and tossing Jonghyun in the seat. Jinki takes what they need from out of his bag, laughing at Jonghyun’s look of fright when he sees the afro peeking from the zipper.
“I just forgot to take it out.”
“That better be it, Jinki. Or I swear to god you’re gonna mysteriously disappear from one of the rides today.”
Taemin makes use of the double sided tape, acting like an assistant nurse to Jinki as Jinki extended his hand idly and asks in a monosyllabic tone for what he wanted. Jinki looked pleased, almost too pleased, as if living out a dream he had had as a child.
With a few smudges of brown eye shadow alongside the bridge of Jonghyun’s nose and under his cheeks (Jonghyun finally drawing the line when Jinki said he was going to give Jonghyun a very natural looking mole with the use of an eye liner pencil below his chin) paired with the rest of the ensemble, Jonghyun was indeed unrecognizable. In fact, as Taemin and Jinki stood apart and allowed Jonghyun to stand up from his seat, glasses and flat, black wig donned, to get off the bus, the other students, including his so called friends had almost mistaken him for the driver. Which made Jinki proud because in some way, that was exactly what he was aiming for.
Jinki is the first to reach the ticket booth, discussing with the girl inside what school they were from and how everything was arrange. With the go signal given the gates burst open with students flowing and the best part was that today the amusement park was locked specifically for field trips which means that they had to the whole park to themselves, no lines, no nothing.
Jonghyun stands in the entrance as Taemin and Jinki move forward, the flock of excited students racing towards separate rides ahead of them. Jinki halts and spins around, noticing the vacancy to his right and he finds Jonghyun taking his glasses of to soak in the blinding light of the sun, breathing in the brackishness of the air caused by their proximity to the ocean.
“Jjong?”
“You know, the last time I was in an amusement park was when I was eleven.”
Jonghyun doesn’t have to say more but he still scoffs at the looks Taemin and Jinki give him even though he knows he deserved it. He shoves his glasses back up his nose.
“This disguise is stupid.” Jonghyun walks ahead the both of them, leaving the two to exchange mischievous glances because they know Jonghyun is happy behind all of that make up and that he’s probably going to have a good time today.
They jog after Jonghyun, Taemin flying on Jonghyun’s back with his arms around the other boy’s neck, screaming at all of the rides that they pass by while Jinki covers his ears with his fingers.
~o~
It’s a little later in the afternoon when Jonghyun, Jinki and Taemin finally decide to have lunch that Jonghyun decides to throw his wig and wipe his makeup off, the glasses he keeps because he thinks it goes well with his outfit today, when in reality anything goes well on him, Jinki thinks.
Jonghyun’s ordering a hotdog and fries from one of the stands in the outside food court, gathering his order on a tray and spotting Taemin and Jinki’s table without much effort. On his way there a hand takes a hold of his left shoulder and Jonghyun finds Minho, smiling down at him when he spins around to face the person who dared to mess with him while he’s hungry.
“You still mad at me?”
“Can we just leave it, Minho? I’m not in the mood for-“
“Jjong, come on. You know I didn’t mean it. I feel like we haven’t talked in a while. Come sit with us.” Minho nods towards a table in the far right, a group of people that Jonghyun’s familiar with but would not mind losing.
“I’m already sitting with Jinki.”
“Jinki?” Minho asks as if he’s insulted. “Lee Jinki? You’e trading in our table for Lee Jinki? Wow, you really are mad at me.”
“Hey, don’t be an asshole.”
Jinki and Taemin wait on their seats, observes as the two exchange hushed words, Jinki seeing the way Jonghyun’s brows furrow further.
“Oh, the art of seduction.”
“What?” Jinki pops a fry in his mouth, grinding it with his teeth with unnecessary force as he sees Taemin place his chin into his propped up hand from the other side of the table.
“Minho wants him back.”
“They were never together.”
“Hyung, there’s this thing called body language and you should learn how to read it. Look at that. Look at how Minho’s eyes never leave Jonghyun and how his toes are directly pointed at him as they speak.”
“My toes are probably directed at you right now, but all I want to do is choke you with my fries.”
“Look again, hyung.”
Jinki rolls his eyes, averting his gaze momentarily to his feet which, inconsequently, were facing the direction of Jonghyun and Minho and Jinki is sure as hell that he doesn’t think of Choi Minho in any way remotely romantic. He gulps down a fry, hard.
“Just what I thought.”
When Jinki looks up Jonghyun’s walking after Minho to their table, head bent low and what angers Jinki more is the fact that he doesn’t even spare the two of them an apologetic glance. Jonghyun is welcomed by the rest of the people on the table with heys and where have you beens, leaving Jinki and Taemin nibble at their food silently.
~o~
A no alcohol policy on school trips was simply an excuse for high school to rebel and place vodka and rum into cleaned out bottles of shampoo, taking them out from their bags once the sun was breaking in the horizon to make the sky bleed orangey blues. Jinki’s getting out of the horror house by himself after having been (what he thinks) molested by an aggravated mummy.
He comes out of the fogged exit tearing astray tissue paper from his nape when Jonghyun and Taemin come jogging up to him.
“There you are.” Jonghyun breathes. “Come on. We’re gonna start drinking.”
“Yeah, hyung.” Taemin beams the way four year olds smile at cakes on display of a bakery store window. “Drinking!”
“I’m not drinking. You should stick to banana milk and you,” Jinki’s brow raises as he glares at Jonghyun. “can do whatever the hell you want. Just don’t get Taemin or me involved.”
“But I wanna get involved, hyung.” Taemin whines when Jinki virtually drags him away by the wrist. Jonghyun catches up to them in no time.
“What’s your problem?”
My problem is you being a moron all the time and not calculating your actions before doing them. “I have no problems okay. I’m problem free.”
“Hyung, they’re breaking the shampoo bottles ooooooouuuuuut.”
“I’m trying to be nice, Jinki.”
“By intoxicating me? I appreciate the gesture but no thanks.”
“You know what, Jinki? I get it, okay.”
“You get what?”
“This! This whole stunt you’re trying to pull. And if you don’t say it I will.”
“Hyung! I see shot glasses!”
“Quiet Taemin! What, Jjong? What do you think is going on?”
“You’re jealous!”
“Jea-that’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?”
“Jealous of what?”
“Of Minho and me and that’s fine, Jinki. You like Minho-“
“Hyung, you’re gay for Minho? I thought you liked J-“
“TAEMIN! Zipyourlidjesusfuckingshrist!”
Jonghyun exhales harshly through his teeth, defiantly staring at Jinki. “There’s no use denying the obvious.”
“The only thing that’s obvious right now is you having brain damage. I don’t-I mean. How did you even-Minho? really?”
“Tell me it isn’t about Minho then? Come on, look me in the eye-“
“I don’t wanna have to crouch down.”
“Paging the two pansies arguing about god knows what and the.. uhmm.. Taemin.” Kim Kibum’s voice was an unmistakable tinge of milky huskiness, coming through the speakers of the amusement park as he keeps his finger on the button of the announcement stand not that far from where Jonghyun and Jinki were standing. “Proceed to the food court please or get the fu-“
Kibum’s voice quickly fades to a rapid string of apologies accompanied by what Jinki and Jonghyun know to be one of their teachers, reprimanding Kibum for making use of the microphone.
Jonghyun with his lips cast in a frown, parted in the center, returns Jinki’s stare without blinking, forcing his eyes open.
Jinki sighs, looking away and Jonghyun keeps himself from grinning at his victory, realizing how silly it was of him to be happy to not be the first whose gaze strays.
“I never expected you to come.” Jonghyun’s tone sends Jinki and Taemin to look back up at him. “I just asked because I was being nice.”
Jinki doesn’t say anything although his eyes narrow even more because without any need for further confirmation, Jonghyun was right. Jinki would never drink on a school trip while the teachers were wandering in the parking lot, scattered around the bus while they were safely concealed in the compound of the amusement park. Jinki would never sit with Jonghyun’s group of friends, anywhere beside Minho and take a shot of whatever was inside those shampoo bottles. “Wrong again, Jonghyun.”
Taemin and Jonghyun blink hurried at Jinki’s back as he moves away from them towards the tables gathered in the food court where their batchmates awaited the lined up plastic medicine cups (which Jinki assumed where the shot glasses Taemin was referring too) to be filled with alcohol.
“Hyung,” Taemin jogs after him in tiny steps, Jinki striding in an opposing calm demeanor. “Hyung, are you seriously going to drink now? You’re not just doing this to prove a point?”
“I don’t know Taemin. I don’t really care.” Jinki finds a vacant seat next to Hyoyeon and Sunyoung, girls from his batch that he’s seen around campus from time to time but never really talked to. The girls yelp in surprise at the site of Jinki, hands over their mouths before laughing and introducing themselves as if it was the first day of school. Jinki didn’t mind.
Taemin sits next to Jonghyun and Minho a few bodies of students to Jinki’s right. They position themselves in an oblong around the adjoined rectangular tables pushed together, distributing shots around. Jinki eyes the medicine cup in his hand, the clear liquid harmlessly resting within it. Jinki doesn’t even wait for the count off to end, downing his drink before anyone else while Sunyoung laughs and follows suit, the rest patting his back with smiles on their faces.
The liquid turns vapid in his throat, clinging to the cilia in his trachea and bruising it. Jinki coughs during the first shot, deciding ultimately that he can go for another.
~o~
When Jinki is asked by a rather tipsy Kim Kibum to step to the center of the table and down a whole bottle of alcohol filled shampoo, it was entertaining seeing Jinki fight to get on the table when balance has clearly left him.
With his hands carefully leaving the table as he stands up, JInki beams as he realizes that he’s standing up. “Lee Jinki, my man.” Minho commends, handing the shampoo bottle over. “Where were you hiding all this time?”
“The library.” Jinki answers honestly , the others mistaking his answer for a joke that they should laugh at. Alcohol makes you do funny things, Jinki thinks.
Taemin, with his wits still intact after five shots (because evidently, he’s not as much of a lightweight as he expected) elbows Jonghyun who’s in the process of filling his cup. Taemin nods towards Jinki, his expression worried.
Jonghyun waves a hand dismissively. “He’s fine. He’s having a blast.”
Taemin stomps a foot on what he thinks is the ground, smashing Jonghyun’s toes instead. The older boy yelps, frowning at Taemin. Taemin decides not to apologize, instead pursues to give Jonghyun looks to save Jinki.
Jonghyun sighs defeatedly because even if he’s not willing to admit it he was not thrilled with the idea of a drooling hungover Jinki the day after his first encounter with alcohol.
Jonghyun rises from his seat and taps Minho on the shoulder. “He’s had enough. I don’t want him puking all over the bus seats.”
“What are you talking about?” Minho doesn’t slur his words when he’s slightly intoxicated. Maybe this is a perk of being having cool for blood. “He looks good to me.”
“He’s drunk Minho, come on.”
“You’re drunk.” Jinki protests from the table, flipping the lid of the shampoo bottle open. As the crowd begins to chant Jinki’s name out, Jinki raises the bottle, swaying, and Jonghyun loses his last strand of sanity, pulling himself up on the table and snatching the bottle away. Jonghyun tosses it somewhere to the side as their classmates boo at them repeatedly.
“Jonghyun! What the hell?” Minho holds both his hands up in question as Jinki tries to regain his composure, failing as he falls to his hands and knees. Jonghyun bends lower to keep a hand on Jinki’s back while Minho continues to question the both of them.
Taemin sits silently in his chair, hands on his lap helplessly as the rest of the students begin to glare at Jonghyun and Jinki. And just as Jonghyun is about to decide on a course of action Jinki’s cheeks puff up, hand clamping over his mouth while one of the students yell oh shit, he’s gonna barf!
Jinki scampers off the table, the students parting to make room for Jinki as he hurriedly staggers to his feet without an ounce of grace, making a bee line for the comfort room.
Taemin jumps from his seat but Jonghyun holds his hand up. “I’ll get him.”
~o~
Jonghyun is greeted by the man stench of the men’s bathroom and Jinki making rather loud hurling noises in one of the cubicles. Jonghyun walks across the hall of blue doors, pushing each one he passes by until he finds Jinki slumped into the walls of one cubicle, unspooling tissue paper from the dispenser.
“Please don’t look.” Jinki’s voice comes out muffled from behind the tissue paper, one hand shutting the lid of the toilet. “I don’t think we’re close enough for you to see my insides puked out.”
Jonghyun does not point out how living together automatically constitutes that they’re ‘close enough’ opting to keep his mouth closed because he was just as disinterested in Jinki’s puke as the rest of the world. Jinki crouches over his knees, arms stretched out.
Jinki wipes every inch of his mouth clean, making use of every space on the tissue paper. He chucks the tissue over his shoulder only to have the tissue bounce back from the wall to the floor, beside Jinki’s thigh. His back was sore, neck in knots and he can practically see the germs from the toilet rubbing on him as he continued to remain still on the damp tiles but his bones ceased to hold him together, vision loosening at the seams.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like bruised peaches.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Like hell you are.” Jink half laughs while Jonghyun looks insulted.
Jinki pushes off the wall to the opposite one, hands flat as his legs push up. Jonghyun stands too, hands moving towards his back and his waist until JInki swats them away. “I can do it.”
“Jinki-“
“I said I can do-“ Jinki can’t do it. He slides from the wall, falls on his ass on the lid of the toilet, begrudgingly cursing at the wind.
“You shouldn’t have drunk so much.” Jonghyun disapprovingly adds, taking hold of the tip of the tissue in the dispenser, unspooling what seemed like half a roll and slapping it on Jinki’s mouth.
Jinki tosses the tissue away, cringing at the thought of wasting trees but not caring enough to correct it. His fingers roam over his temples, eyes closing. He mumbles, “-tle black.”
“What?”
“I said that this was so typical pot calling the kettle black.”
“I’m not drunk off my fucking ass that I’m seeing two.”
“I’m seeing one okay. I’m seeing one just fine and fuck you. I do what I want. I’m just a rich bored kid, right? Might as well act the part.”
“Whatever, Jinki. Fuck it.” Jonghyun spins around.
“Yeah, okay. Go walk away. That’s all you’re good for anyway. Walk away from everything and room in with Minho this time.”
Jonghyun’s back freezes and Jinki’s drunk as hell. Gradually, Jonghyun turns around to face Jinki again but instead of the look of fury that Jinki was expecting, he’s faced with a puzzled stare.
“So this is about Minho.”
“No, it’s about why the merry go round looks like it’s about to spin off-yes, it’s about Minho! Of course, it’s about him! Are you stupid as well as stupider?”
Jinki does a sway stand, batting Jonghyun away from the door of the cubicle to make his way through. “Oh world, stop spinning for a sec.”
“Where are you going?”
Jinki’s already out the door, the sunset blinding him slightly and Jinki feels ridiculously drunk under its paint. In the distance are the tables, students beckoning him to come back, Minho somewhere in the middle, Taemin pulling away from tangled arms to breathe and run to Jinki. But Jinki doesn’t want any of that. There was an exit here somewhere that didn’t lead to the parking lot and Jinki found it behind the men’s cubicle, a fence too weak to give a fuck if a student separates from the pack and runs off the nearby beach.
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-- unbeta'd okay. :) sorry for the wait.
comments are much appreciated :)