UNIVERSE / BTS.

64: growing pains / 2seok

chaeyong pulls her headphone out and jumps the foot or so down to the ground, seokjin following suite. they walk hand in hand, seokjin offering chaeyong a stick of blue bubblegum that turns the insides of their mouth azure, chaeyong's lips getting tinted when she blows a huge cheerleader bubble. "we still on for tomorrow?" she asks as street lamps turn on above their heads, turning into their suburban dead dream neighbourhood. seokjin nods; they're catching the latest chick flick at the aladdin after school tomorrow, with jisoo and her supposed boyfriend, jeongguk, who seokjin is more than happy to flirt with while the girls make out in the dark.

chaeyong's house is number 21, and she kisses seokjin's cheek—keeping up the façade—before smirking and skipping up the driveway with a sly wave of her fingers. seokjin's headphones start with japanese posters by rebounder, and his red converse tap a beat into gum stained concrete while light pollution makes the stars disappear and he heads to number 32. he blows a bubble and jumps over the white picket fence, seeings the lights on; mum's probably watching her soap operas with juno, his sister, while dad's at the office late. a quick call of 'i'm back!' and then seokjin heads to the kitchen, stomach growling.

leftovers from that night's takeaway pizza remain, half a pepperoni with what smells like hot chilli sauce drizzled on top, so seokjin grabs the box and a bottle of sweating cold cherry coke from the fridge, sneaking the extra wine bottle that his mum won't notice is gone. the pretty boy heads to his rainbow fairylight lit room, the walls a deep red colour and the light muted by a yellow scarf, a warm candle scented atmosphere. seokjin sets the food and drinks onto his bed, and chooses a troye sivan vinyl as his soundtrack for the evening, picking looking for alaska up from the floor and letting his eyes wonder to the boy next door. hoseok's leaning on his windowsill, eyes on the stars, making seokjin smile.

the brunette settles on his blood red cotton carpet after removing his shoes and jacket, changing jeans out for ratty sweats, and he grabs the wine glass he keeps on his bedside, pouring the deep liquid into it, taking a big gulp of the bitterness and washing it down with mouth numbing chilli pizza. he's halfway through the battered book, having read it countless times before, his round spectacles settled on his nose and making his eyes glint. he yawns a little as heaven plays like a dream in the background, falling into a fictional world of alabama universities and girls in peach tank tops.

school is a bland experience for seokjin, who saunters down the lemon yellow school hallways hand in hand with chaeyong, whose knee socks are patterned with cherries on the side, the same colour as her stained lips wrapped around a lollipop stick. she and seokjin are the would be king and queen of foxhole high, if seokjin wasn't known as a manslut and possible fag and chaeyong wasn't known as the serial side bitch who supposedly seduced straight girls into one night stands even if she's never slept with anyone—they could be royalty, but hierarchy and rumours stand in their way. this fact makes seokjin sigh as he sees their lockers, coincidentally side by side, fag scrawled across the turquoise metal in kindergarten level handwriting. chaeyong scoffs.

"bet it was bobby. he acts his shoe size, not his age," she tutted, seeing bitch written in lipstick on her own. "hm. you reckon tzuyu? she's always wearing that summer delight red lipstick."

"nah, that's tropical fruit purple, chanel n #4, baby," seokjin says, swinging his locker open and seeing a picture of him and jisoo from freshman year stuck to the door. "you're lookin' at ten's sister, or maybe kiki."

chaeyong clicks her tongue, opening it and taking out her books, plus a pack of her obsessive cinnamon gum and a pair of heart shaped sapphire sunglasses. "probably was kiki, that bitch." she slips the sunglasses into her hair, which she's tied into a very neat pair of space buns. today she sports seokjin's navy letterman jacket from freshman year basketball (yes, he actually did that—he was popular before he got a music taste), dark denim shorts and a foo fighters tee, while her "boyfriend" is in adidas black sweatpants and a bowie t-shirt, an adidas cap covering his brown hair. they look like stereotypical popular people, but they're actually just two theatre nerds generally despised at this school.