discontinued.

o n e | wild cards

JUNG HOSEOK SLAPPED HIS PALM against the linoleum lunch hall table, a glossy slip of paper splayed underneath his fingers. conversations hushed and eyes fixated upon him briefly, more out of instinct than interest.

"this," he said, eyes wide and serious. "is our next wild card."

six pairs of eyes gave him — or more accurately, the slip — their full attention. kim namjoon even managed to tear his gaze away from the screen of his laptop for a brief three seconds before returning it back.

park jimin plucked the slip out of his grasp, caramel eyes scanning the flashy writing before they flicked back up towards hoseok. "this is an invitation to kim hyejin's 18th."

a grin tugged at hoseok's heart-shaped lips — kim taehyung ducked his head, shielding his eyes behind a thin curtain of silver.

"exactly," he plucked the laminated sheet back out of jimin's fingers, waving it before a group of indifferent faces. "my dealer's got a shipment coming in this tuesday morning — thirteen different species of reptiles bred out of captivity from south america and ugan—"

"we are not releasing lizards at hyejin's birthday party." kim seokjin stabbed a chunk of rubbery chicken with the blunt of his plastic fork. "again."

hoseok's infectious smile dropped. "why?" he pleaded, indignant, as if one were entitled to the right to set foreign reptiles free in the homes (or penthouses) of their classmates.

"because she'll eternally detest us?" namjoon supplied, frowning at the digital documents and spreadsheets overflowing his screen.

"she already eternally detests us," hoseok pointed out, tapping a finger against his temple.

"and yet invited us to her birthday party." jimin shot back drily, picking at a soggy lump of indistinguishable vegetable with his fork.

"well . . ." hoseok eyed the invitation, shrugging. "not exactly."

seokjin's head snapped up, eyes piercing hoseok like shards of glass. "what do you mean?" he questioned, tone devoid of trust, eyes narrowing in suspicion. hoseok began stumbling over unintelligible words in explanation, suppressing a shudder.

"damn, hoseok," jeon jeongguk cut in obnoxiously, a grin so arrogant plastered onto his face that hoseok wouldn't have minded reaching over the table and slapping it off. "who's dick did you have to suck to get free entry into kim hyejin's penthouse party?"

taehyung flushed a bright red. nothing out of the ordinary — vulgar sex wasn't exactly his preferred topic of conversation. they would call him prude, if they didn't all love him half to death. min yoongi, on the other hand, whom had remained silent up until this point, sighed something about the love of god into his palm.
 
"i didn't suck anyone's dick!" hoseok protested, desperately smacking his palms against the table. "though i may have falsely promised to. the point, though, is that everyone we hate is going to be there, not to mention the ultimate fucktard of a host herself, and we haven't drawn a wild card since—"

"you can afford thirteen different species of living reptile from african and south american wildlife reserves and pay whatever perverted price one of hyejin's creepy clique members demanded from you in a grimy boy's bathroom cubicle to gain access into her exclusive penthouse party but you can't buy me a french vanilla fucking latte when i've got no spare change?" yoongi's head collided so forcefully with the linoleum table that the smack resounded throughout the lunch hall.

"sixty." namjoon said, eyes glued to the laptop monitor but lips split into a wide grin.

"sixty whole words?" seokjin nearly spluttered on his chicken. "impressive, yoongi."

"i will pee on everything you love." he muttered, his cheek squished against the desk.

"joke's on you," seokjin retorted, sipping from his mug of tea. "i lack basic human emotion,"

taehyung spoke — it was lost in the commotion of jeon jeongguk's noisy reply and min yoongi's aggravated response.

"i said, hoseok's right about the wild card thing." he said a little louder, earning their attention this time.

mention of the wild cards had the tendency to tame their boisterousness, if only for a moment. they were a tradition of sorts within the group — if you could call them such. truly, no one remembered why or when they had started inventing new reckless stunts to satisfy their strangely unhealthy addiction to thrill and danger, but none of them were proposing a breach of the unspoken contract anytime soon.

they were just young, stupid high schoolers. their youth was still (in their eyes) an indisputable justification to get away with the things they did — until they had to leave for college and act like big, responsible adults. they didn't ponder the thought too often.

"how will we get in at the door?" jimin inquired, pushing his lunch tray a few inches aside as if to imply that he was, as of now, far more invested in the wild card strategy than the shitty cafeteria food (which somehow simultaneously managed to be both the driest, chewiest food in existence and also the wettest and soggiest lumps of slimy moist he had ever held within proximity to his mouth).

"that's a good point," jeongguk furrowed two bold eyebrows. "i heard her mum doubled the security staff and reinforced the gates twice to keep anyone out who shouldn't be there."

"yeah," namjoon confirmed, frowning at his screen. "we're never getting in there alone, never mind with foreign reptiles."

"wonshik told me she's even supplied fake dates and times," seokjin nodded, grinding his way through a particularly rubbery mouthful of food.

"you know how she is," jimin said, glancing back towards hoseok. "the bitch is so precious, there's no way she's leaving the door open to just anyone."

hoseok heaved a sigh, slumping into a stiff plastic seat. of course they were right — he couldn't deny that. he was, more often than not, the type to let himself run wild with whatever idea sprung into his mind, and let the rest of them handle the more realistic elements — the strategies, the alibis, the equipment, the probability of arrest, in most cases. sometimes he felt as if realism were like sack of bricks chained to his ankles when all he wanted to do was spread his wings and smoke a shit ton of weed and take to the skies. was it really so much to ask?

"well," namjoon adjusted in his seat, fingers a rapid blur over the keyboard. "it has been a month."

fond, reminiscent laughter bubbled in hoseok's throat. "and that had been fun." he giggled out, receiving an assortment of affectionate mumbled agreements and nostalgic smiles.

it had also resulted in seven lifetimes bans from the national tokyo zoo, but hey, c'est la vie.

it wasn't long before a shrill, ear-splitting ring echoed through the noisy ruckus of the lunch hall, indicating the beginning of afternoon periods. yoongi's lump of a figure sat motionlessly, groaning, as students began to stand from their tables, scoop their bags up and migrate towards the exits as the hum of loud, idle chatter continued to buzz throughout the hall.

"we'll think of something, buddy," namjoon assured, slapping a somewhat comforting palm against a forlorn jung hoseok's slumped back, who simply nodded despairingly. under his breath, as he packed the bulky laptop into his backpack and slipped it over his shoulder, namjoon added exasperatedly: "we always flipping do."

when i said coming soon i meant coming after two millennia, three world wars and a rare cosmos supernova phenomena, welcome to this shitty start but bear with me ily bye