old cigarettes | min yoongi

xxiii.

you woke up to a freezing bucket of water being dropped onto you, and to suga loudly swearing beside you. "what in the fresh fucking hell?!" you shouted too, jumping off the floor, dripping wet. you slipped slightly on the tiles, but thankfully landed on a stray beanbag. you heard laughter on all sides of you and you looked up, murder in your eyes.

taehyung, who had been holding the bucket, yelped and jumped back behind namjoon, who was shaking his head slightly as if to say, "i told you this would happen." you carefully stood up on the floor, succeeding in not falling over. you ran a hand through your soaked hair so you could see.

jin-ae was sitting on the couch, practically crying with laughter next to jin, who sounded more like he was cleaning windows than laughing. jimin and jungkook were laughing too, but were still making their way over to suga, who was still swearing like a drunken sailor. the two picked him up, taking an arm each, and led him towards the kitchen counter where he could lean on something without falling over. he was completely soaked too, and all of a sudden the pieces came together in your mind.

"as soon as i can walk across this damn floor without slipping, you're dead," you said, pointing your fierce glare at taehyung. he squeaked, trying to hide further behind namjoon. the water had stuck your clothes to you, chilling you to the bone. you shuddered slightly, looking around for your jacket. thankfully, they had the common sense to move it off you so they didn't soak it.

jin-ae, who had finally started to calm down, wiped a tear from her eye and went over to help you on your little beanbag island. it turns out she'd been sitting on your jacket. you scowled slightly at her, but would save the lecturing for when your only chance of not slipping wasn't her.

she gently grabbed your elbows and supported you to the couch. you didn't sit down, out of fear of making their couch wet. you had a feeling you would never hear the end of it if you did. instead you grabbed your jacket and wrapped yourself in it, before vaulting over the couch, practically sprinting over to taehyung.

he sprinted upstairs, and you tried to follow him, but he locked himself in his room. you squinted at it before heading back downstairs.

"has anyone ever told you that you look like the girl from The Ring when your hair's wet?" jin said, and you shot him a glare in response. but that didn't stop a corner of your mouth from twitching up.

you shook your head back, moving your hair out of your eyes. "what time is it, anyway?"

jimin looked over his shoulder at the clock in the kitchen. "about quarter to nine."

"we should be getting back soon," jin-ae said through a yawn. she didn't sound particularly concerned about it.

"let me get changed and i'll drive you two home." suga grumbled, moving past you and up the stairs. you shrugged. a free ride's a free ride.

~

finally home, and finally in dry clothes. you had never been more thankful for warm and dry clothes. as much as you wanted to just flop down on your bed and sleep for the rest of the day, you still had work to do. at one point during the day, you emailed your application to the email provided. according to the website, you should get an email back in a few days saying your application had been processed and to go to the building on a date.

you had no idea why they didn't just put that information on the website itself, but oh well. there were more important things to worry about, like fixing the guitar stand that had been sitting there for a week now. "jin-ae, i'm going to go buy a new stand. you cool to stay here until i get back?" you said in the vague direction of the string instruments, where you'd last seen her.

"yep, go ahead. see you soon!" she grinned back, emerging from behind one of the sheet music stands.

you headed out, the wind hitting you immediately. it smelt kind of weird, like rain was coming. you vaguely remembered hearing the weather forecast on the radio this afternoon, signaling storms. hoping that it wasn't going to start raining on you, you headed down the main street.

the shop that had the stands wasn't too far away, but it was a pain to get to. what made it even more of a pain was that, when you got there, you found out it had been shut down. "oh." you breathed out into the air, a slight puff of smoke appearing.

it wasn't much of a set back, but it did mean you had to order it online where it was more expensive. the shop was in a back alley, practically hidden from view. normally it looked like a little garage sale, with little tables set up in rows in what was once a storage container. but right now, the tin gate had been completely closed and locked and a small note was taped against it in loopy handwriting.

"closed, probably for good." that definitely sounded like the old owner. the old owner was one of your grandparents' friends, and he usually gave your family discounts. he was an old, cheery guy who never lost his sense of humor.

with a heavy sigh, you turned to walk out of the alleyway, only to hit someone's chest. "going somewhere?" said a taunting and familiar voice.