UNIVERSE / BTS.

66: growing pains / 2seok

"give me your number."

digits are scrawled on a sweaty arm with a pen, and seokjin leaves the bathroom with swollen lips and hazy eyes, finding his friends at the door. jeongguk's sporting a hickey like australia on his collarbone, but he's more sober than chaeyong and seokjin, the younger girl leaning on jisoo. the ravenette grins at seokjin. "everyone's at mine for the night, c'mon."

seokjin awakens a full nine hours later on a blowup mattress in jisoo's rose gold painted room, jeongguk by his side and a poster of frida khalo hanging on the wall above him. he clutches at his head, throbbing with last night's regrets, and pushes himself up from the floor, feeling queasy and gross, mouth like an old beer bottle. the bathroom down the hall has cornflower blue tiles, and seokjin stares at himself in the mirror.

jesus—fig coloured love bites litter his skin, from his jawline to his collarbones, and he winces when he presses a finger to one of them. his eyes are shot with poison red veins, hair sticking up, and he generally feels like he's been run over. teenage toxicity and its side effects. sighing, seokjin washes his face with lukewarm water and washes his mouth out with sky blue mouthwash, thinking of the hazy memory of him and hoseok last night, and those parting words, "to be continued". he has hoseok's number in his phone now; he's practically a cheerleader.

leaving jeongguk sleeping in jisoo's art poster fairy light bedroom, seokjin walks downstairs, finding mr kim in the kitchen. seokjin's eyes widen-he wasn't expecting an encounter with any parents-but then he sees chaeyong and jisoo sat at the island in the middle of the room, drinking coffee and looking far more composed than he does. jisoo's father smiles when he sees seokjin, raising an eyebrow at the hickies all over his neck.

"someone's got a sweetheart," he laughs, dressed in his azure hospital scrubs, probably about to go to work. he's a typical single dad, leaves his daughter alone in the house far too much. "goodbye sweetheart," he pecks jisoo on the cheek. "bye everyone."

a banal goodbye is said and then he's out of the door, and seokjin collapses into a chair with a groan, massaging his forehead. "fuck me gently with a chainsaw," he drawls, taking a cup of coffee from the cluster in the center of the island. "everything is ow."

"teenage hangovers, what fun," chaeyong deadpans, her pink hair tied into the rattiest ponytail she's ever worn. "you got something last night though. this mean you're done with me?"

"fuck yeah. i got jung hoseok's number!" seokjin punches the air, suddenly euphoric at the memory. jisoo rolls her eyes. "seokjin and chaeyong is over, babydoll."

"so is jisoo and jeongguk," jisoo comments, getting up and opening a cabinet to take out some cereal. "baby gukie got to second base with saxophone boy last night, quite publicly."

"by publicly, she means taehyung pushed him up against the wall and shoved his tongue down his throat while he whined like a bitch in heat," chaeyong deadpans again; she's a sarcastic bitch when she's hungover. "anyway, we're all through, but i've got mark's friend youngjae as backup, seeing as he "isn't supposed" to be dating jackson wang. we'll start dating next weekend."

"i'm just waiting for the onslaught of manslut insults written on my locker," seokjin says with a blunt bark of a laugh, sipping down half a cup of coffee. "uncreative twats." he winces when his head throbs again, and jisoo tosses him a pack of ibuprofen painkillers, the bloodshot brunette popping one with a gulp of coffee and a shudder.

"well, it can't get any worse," chaeyong says, smiling when jeongguk makes his way into the kitchen. "mornin' guk. how are ya?"

"hungover and shit," jeongguk curses, taking a bowl from one of the cupboards and stealing jisoo's box of lucky charms cereal, eating the rainbow sugary things without milk like a weirdo. "ugh, taehyung really had to do this to me," he squints at the hickey, looking over at seokjin's. "think you got it worse, hyung."