thank you so much for getting this story to 1k reads in a month ♡♡♡ it really means the world to me
anyways, onto the chapter :)
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if it were up to seungkwan, he would stay inside the safety of their hotel room and bundle himself up in a blanket. maybe he would rent a cheesy romcom and cry pathetically over his losses.
and yet, as if by some crazy happenstance, aided by seungkwan's severely unlucky persona, when his friends asked if he wanted to go out to a club that night, he said yes. he said yes sarcastically. he was very clear about that. well. not clear enough.
the young boy was sure if his friends knew where seungkwan would end up that night, stranded in the streets of a city he hadn't visited in two years since he graduated, they probably wouldn't have decided to go out that night.
but seungkwan himself didn't know this. so there he was, happily getting ready for another night out. he decided after crying himself to sleep in wonwoo's arms two nights ago, that not only did he want to stop bringing the mood down with his sour attitude and his mood swings, he just wanted to forget. in any way possible.
seungkwan was usually the person who had to push his friends to go to clubs – if they were comfortable, of course. they'd usually have to drive to a nearby city, seeing that their small town didn't have any clubs, just one dingy bar that always smelled like barley and floor cleaner, which they did visit when they were particularly bored, but seungkwan just loved the excitement of getting dressed up with his friends and pre-gaming before they left for a big night out. maybe he just enjoyed those moments before they went to the club. throwing clothes at each other, jokingly flirting with each other, soonyoung insisting everyone had to do their eye makeup that night, the karaoke sessions they'd have on the drive there.
maybe seungkwan should have just stuck with that.
as expected, his friends didn't disappoint. all of their pre-night out traditions were completed, with one exception: there was a couple in the group now. and they were clingy. and their friends loved to tease them for their clinginess. seungkwan, though he was screaming on the inside, joined in on the teasing, booing loudly with his friends whenever they would stop getting ready to share a quick kiss or just stare at each other from across the room longingly. it was annoying, but even seungkwan would admit it was cute.
and for seungkwan's sake, he was going to take a step back. he knows he's tried to do this many times before, but after what happened the other night, him trying to kiss mingyu and falling into wonwoo's arms at the end of the night, he knew he had to separate himself from those two the best he could. it proved to be very hard. they were sharing the same hotel room for the next three nights, but he did try his best.
that was one of the great things about having so many friends. there was always someone there to distract him. so if seungkwan found himself in the bathroom with soonyoung and chan, fighting over hair mousse or a round brush, he could ignore the way wonwoo pressed up against him in the tiny bathroom to grab his comb.
seungkwan could just turn to soonyoung and scream, "why are we all sharing the same round brush?!" and the older boy would just giggle and say it was a way to bring all of them closer. and, yes, it did work, if the ten boys rushing into the bathroom vying for the same brush and hairdryer wasn't enough proof of that. but seungkwan was thankful for this. it was a good distraction from wonwoo and his looming presence in the bathroom.
and when mingyu beckoned seungkwan over to join them in their cab, he could just avoid his gaze and pretend he was being swept away by seokmin and jeonghan. the two older boys didn't mind, they just saw it as an opportunity to cuddle with the young boy. they may have been a little tipsy already. maybe.
see, there was a safety in numbers. of course, once seungkwan had a few drinks in his system, once all of them had a few drinks in their systems, this ideology flew out the window.
once the group made it inside of the club, hoards of sweaty bodies and loud thumping music greeting them, the thirteen of them split up. some of them went straight to the bar, some of them went to grab some tables for them, and some of them went straight to the dance floor. seungkwan, being one of the boys that went to the bar, stood behind joshua and jeonghan while they ordered a round of everyone's favorite drinks. seungkwan helped them carry the drinks, maneuvering through the crowd as they found the other part of their group that sat down.
seungkwan was about to sit down and enjoy his drink when he looked ahead and felt his eyes land on wonwoo and mingyu who were dancing close to each other, foreheads pressed together as they danced together. seungkwan felt his eyes soften as he saw mingyu laugh and lean his forehead on wonwoo's shoulder, the older boy laughing as well as he placed his hand on the back of mingyu's head.
seungkwan just looked down at the table and grabbed his drink, chugging the entire thing as if it were a shot. his friends, who were watching the whole thing go down, were amused at first, cheering loudly as the younger boy grunted loudly and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. but as joshua walked up to the table with some shots of something seungkwan didn't recognize until he grabbed two shot glasses and tossed them back – yep, that is tequila – his friends were a little worried.
seungcheol stood up in his seat and grabbed seungkwan's shoulders, jihoon gently coaxing the young boy into sitting down as joshua sneakily grabbed the shot glasses out of seungkwan's hands. the group tried to follow seungkwan's gaze, hoping to find out what stirred seungkwan so much, but was only able to see the large crowd dancing along to the music.
seungkwan continued to watch mingyu and wonwoo move closer to each other. someone pushed into mingyu, and he bumped into wonwoo. the older boy smirked as he wrapped a hand around the back of mingyu's neck and pulled the boy closer into a kiss. mingyu placed his hands around wonwoo's waist as he dipped the boy slightly, both boys visibly smiling into the kiss.
soonyoung walked up to the table at that moment, already sweaty from dancing for a few minutes. he spotted his drink, and his eyes sparkled as he grinned, reaching out for it the second seungkwan fumbled around for another glass, needing to take another drink. his hand grasped around soonyoung's glass, not noticing the older boy whining loudly. he only pulled his eyes away from the couple making out in the middle of the dance floor when soonyoung screamed and pulled the drink out of his hands.
"hey, that's mine!" soonyoung shouted. he looked around and grabbed one of the shots on the table, ignoring his friends shaking their heads and waving their arms as he turned to seungkwan, "here, kwan. take this one, instead." he grinned, hollering excitedly as seungkwan tossed the shot back. he laughed loudly and pointed at the young boy as he made a face.
vernon came up to soonyoung's ear and yelled over the music, "that's his third shot, hyung."
soonyoung's face fell, looking over at the boy who had his eyes trained on the crowd. he turned back to vernon as he shouted, "why is he drinking so much?" he watched as the young boy shrugged. soonyoung turned back to seungkwan, frowning as he began to regret letting seungkwan take that last shot. something was clearly troubling the young boy, and he definitely made it worse.
the group turned back to seungkwan, all screaming and scrambling to stand up as seungkwan grabbed another shot and tossed it back. he turned to soonyoung, ignoring the concerned look on his face as he grabbed him by the collar and grunted out, "i need to dance."
on his way over to the dance floor, seungkwan bumped into a tall guy who was carrying a drink of his own, the contents spilling onto his shirt. the two boys froze as the tall guy turned around, shoulders drawn back and jaw tense as he glanced between the two of them, his gaze softening as his eyes landed on seungkwan.
seungkwan's eyes widened as he clasped his hands together and profusely apologized, turning to soonyoung and yelling at him to grab some napkins. the tall stranger watched in amusement as the boy quickly ran to grab napkins, leaving just the two of them alone. well, as alone as you can be in an at-capacity club.
seungkwan felt something flicker in his brain as he looked up at the taller boy, fully digesting his appearance. like seungkwan, he was wearing a mesh top and dangerously tight leather pants. he had a faint hint of eyeliner and a noticeable amount of clear gloss on his lips. his hair was black and short, and he was incredibly handsome. like, to the point that seungkwan felt himself short circuiting. this only got worse as the stranger smirked down at him.
just as seungkwan was about to muster up the courage to ask the man to dance with him, soonyoung ran up and flashed a giant wad of napkins in seungkwan's face. the young boy blinked out of his daze, smiling awkwardly as he grabbed a napkin and began to pat the stranger's chest. he continued to apologize, throwing every wasted napkin at soonyoung who struggled to catch them. the stranger watched this with an amused smile.
seungkwan's pats gradually slowed down as he felt his eyes trail down, taking in the stranger's physique. he eventually stopped as the stranger gently grabbed his wrists, looking up at the man who was smiling at him. he leaned in closer and shouted, "it's fine, man. though, it would be better if you danced with me."
soonyoung, knowing that seungkwan was nearly drunk from the pre-gaming earlier and the drinks he had a few minutes ago, knew that the young boy wasn't in his right mind. he couldn't let his young friend go off with this guy, especially because seungkwan was noticeably upset earlier about something. he cautiously grabbed seungkwan's hand and lightly pulled him away, frowning as seungkwan didn't budge.
seungkwan, who was smiling up at the stranger, just lightly smacked soonyoung away with his hands, not taking his eyes off of the man as he reached a hand out for seungkwan to take. seungkwan grabbed his hand and let himself be led out to the dance floor. he stopped as he felt a hand tug at his, turning to soonyoung as he loudly said, "don't go to the bathroom with him." seungkwan just scrunched his face up and shook the older boy off, joining the stranger on the dance floor and dancing along with him.
soonyoung ran up to the table and urged them to sit back down, yelling as loud as he could, "seungkwan ran off with some guy."
jeonghan and jihoon stood up immediately, looking among the crowd as seungcheol walked around the table and demanded soonyoung to point them out. soonyoung turned around and felt his shoulders sag as he couldn't spot their young friend.
the stranger pulled seungkwan closer as he leaned into his ear and said, "so, what's your name?"
seungkwan smiled as he leaned into the stranger's face and introduced himself. he leaned closer, dragging his hands across the man's shoulders as he said, "what's your name?"
"minwoo."
seungkwan's face brightened, taking a step back as he doubled over in laughter, the man watching him in amusement and a little bit of confusion. at that point, the alcohol was starting to fully sink in, so the young boy couldn't help himself as he clapped a hand on minwoo's shoulder and said, "that's so similar to my friend's names, mingyu and wonwoo." minwoo just chuckled, not really listening as he pulled the boy closer and continued to dance.
seungkwan moved around loosely, pushing himself closer to minwoo as he felt people press up against him. and, as if by some stroke of luck, the exact people he was trying to avoid bumped into them just as seungkwan was about to lean in and kiss the stranger.
mingyu turned around to apologize, his eyes widening as he saw seungkwan wrap his arms around a mysterious man's shoulders. he looked to wonwoo in alarm, the older boy gasping as he reached a hand out and yanked seungkwan off of the man. seungkwan turned around, looking slightly annoyed as he turned to face his friends. his face brightened up as he spotted the worried faces of mingyu and wonwoo.
seungkwan giggled loudly as he wrapped his arms around mingyu's shoulders and pulled him close, ignoring minwoo as he stood on his toes and pressed his nose against mingyu's nose. mingyu's eyes widened as his hands instinctively grabbed seungkwan's hips, the younger boy grinning widely as he said, "hi, hyung. i made a new friend!"
mingyu, who was trying his hardest not to lean in or even snatch seungkwan away from the stranger, frowned as he said, "i can see that." he looked up at the man who glanced around awkwardly.
wonwoo watched the two of them with a confused tilt of his head.
seungkwan gasped as he let go of mingyu and latched onto wonwoo, mimicking his previous actions as he pulled the older boy close and said, "his name sounds so much like yours. and mingyu's. it almost sounds like a couple name." seungkwan gulped quietly, the older boy's eyes widening as seungkwan pressed their noses together. he glanced between wonwoo's lips and eyes as he mumbled, "god, it's like i can't outrun you guys anywhere."
seungkwan, fully prepared to blame it on the alcohol, leaned in and pecked wonwoo on the lips, smiling cheekily as he took a step back. he waved to his friends and stepped towards minwoo. wonwoo and mingyu were frozen in their spots as they watched seungkwan pull the tall stranger down and kiss him passionately, the man's eyes widening before he shrugged and closed his eyes, his arms snaking around seungkwan's waist as he pulled him closer.
minwoo dipped seungkwan down, his lips trailing down to the young boy's neck as seungkwan giggled loudly. in the same position, seungkwan pulled away and looked up at his friends, confusion clear in their upside down faces. minwoo continued to kiss seungkwan's neck as seungkwan shouted, "i'm going home with him. don't wait up."
minwoo stood up quickly and shouted, "you are?!" unable to hide the grin on his face. seungkwan turned to him and nodded, pressing a quick kiss to his lips as he grabbed his hands and gestured to the door.
just then, soonyoung, seungcheol, joshua, and jihoon ran over. the middle one of the four groaned loudly as he doubled over, his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. seungcheol grabbed seungkwan's arm and harshly pulled him away, looking gently at seungkwan as he said, "don't go home with this guy, kwan."
seungkwan forced a smile on his face, gently pulling his arm away as he insisted that he would be fine. he turned to minwoo with a smile, stopping as he felt someone grab his arm again. he felt his annoyance grow, but it soon dissipated as he felt another hand latch onto his arm. he quickly turned around and looked at wonwoo and mingyu, his best friends visibly worried as they loudly pleaded for him not to leave.
seungkwan looked over at mingyu, a deep frown on his face as he had a silent conversation with the older boy. he knew the older boy was worried, but one look in mingyu's eyes, and he could tell that the older boy was jealous. and seungkwan didn't think it was fair. he had spent the entire trip watching the men he had feelings for be all over each other, and he was just expected to sit back and smile? he just had to sit back and pretend that the three of them were just friends, and he knew it wasn't true. mingyu knew it wasn't true.
he was wrong to spend all of those nights in delusion, soothing his heart and convincing himself that he could be with either of them. he knew it was wrong, and it was impossible. so he wanted to have fun with this man that he would never see again, damn it.
seungkwan frowned as he said, "mingyu, let go of me."
mingyu, despite his better judgment, pulled his and wonwoo's hands away. seungkwan let out a breath, smiling brightly as he led minwoo out of the club hurriedly. his friends just watched seungkwan run away, jihoon turning to mingyu as he shoved him and shouted, "why did you let go of him?!" the group of friends that were crowding around ran after seungkwan, seungcheol making it out the door first. he groaned loudly as he saw the two boys were nowhere to be seen, throwing his hands up to his hair as he looked around once more.
mingyu just avoided their gazes as he walked away, pushing people aside as he stewed in his thoughts. wonwoo followed mingyu with his eyes, his shoulders falling as he saw the troubled look on his boyfriend's face. there was one thing he couldn't shake from his mind, his thoughts circling back to seungkwan kissing him as he reached a hand up and touched his lips.
minwoo, who was leading them to his apartment nearby, chuckled sarcastically as he said, "wow, you have a lot of friends."
seungkwan didn't notice his tone, too busy giggling as he clung onto minwoo's arm and said, "no, that was only like half of them."
they stayed silent after that, the two clearly drunk boys quickly making it to minwoo's apartment. seungkwan felt his stomach drop as they climbed onto the elevator, though he excused it as excitement. he excused all of it as excitement: his clammy hands, his racing heart, his darting eyes, his dry lips that didn't feel better even as he applied more lip gloss. he was excited. that's all it was.
and when they made it inside minwoo's apartment and the taller boy pushed him against the wall, seungkwan forced himself to smile. he didn't care that minwoo's hands were rough and his kisses were sloppy, seungkwan just wanted to forget. he needed to forget.
minwoo's hands grasped at seungkwan's body, clawing away at his clothes as his fingers latched onto seungkwan's shirt. his nails scratched along the fabric, the shirt forming small tears in the places his fingers dragged across. seungkwan was slightly annoyed, groaning as he felt the man clumsily try to slip his shirt off. it was one of seungkwan's favorite shirts, and he could feel the shirt tear up more as minwoo clawed at him.
of course, minwoo took this groan of annoyance as a groan of pleasure. because he was not aware that seungkwan was using him as some sort of rebound.
seungkwan smiled as he felt minwoo's lips trail down to his neck, a small moan escaping his mouth as the taller man pressed him further into the wall and against his chest. seungkwan let out a few strings of moans, clutching minwoo's head as he moaned out, "m-mingyu..."
seungkwan immediately froze, his hands beginning to clam up again as his eyes widened.
there's no fucking way i just said that.
thankfully, minwoo just found it funny. "my name is minwoo, silly." he looked up at seungkwan and smirked, chuckling dryly as he looked seungkwan up and down and said, "god, you're so hot." and resumed kissing seungkwan's neck, his mouth latching onto the other side this time.
seungkwan stood there, trying his hardest to shake away his awkwardness. he grasped at the strands of minwoo's hair, letting out a string of obviously fake moans as minwoo continued to kiss his neck. he took a deep breath and decided to close his eyes, trying his hardest to slip back into the good mood he was in a few minutes ago. minwoo was clueless to all of this, only feeling more confident as seungkwan writhed underneath him.
seungkwan's mind must have been playing tricks on him, because the second he felt himself slip back into the moment, the smiling face of wonwoo flickered behind his eyelids. his moans became real as he pulled the taller boy closer, tossing his head back as he moaned out, "hyung..."
minwoo furrowed his eyebrows, wondering when the two of them discussed their ages.
seungkwan didn't notice minwoo's inner turmoil as he pulled the taller boy impossibly closer, his lips parting as he moaned out wonwoo's name this time. seungkwan didn't even notice, he was too busy imagining it was wonwoo dragging his teeth across seungkwan's collarbone and grasping for his shoulders– wait, his shoulders?
seungkwan blinked up at the taller boy in surprise, tilting his head at the annoyance clear in minwoo's face. "okay, who the hell is wonwoo?!" the taller boy shouted, his voice raising as he glared down at seungkwan.
seungkwan blinked again, furrowing his eyebrows as he mumbled, "w-wonwoo?" his face fell as he snapped back to reality. he shook his head and plastered a fake smile on his face as he said, "wonwoo is my friend."
seungkwan tried to pull minwoo closer but the taller boy just shoved him away. seungkwan's face fell as the taller boy pointed at the door and told him to leave. seungkwan shook his head fervently, reaching out for minwoo as he tried to apologize. minwoo wasn't accepting seungkwan's jumbled up words, harshly grabbing seungkwan by the arm as he threw him out of his apartment.
in his embarrassment, seungkwan quickly ran out the apartment building, his chest heaving as he felt tears well up in his eyes. he didn't want to cry, especially over something stupid like this. but when seungkwan made it outside to the empty streets, and felt the fear sink in as he realized he was alone and didn't know where he was, that was when he allowed himself to cry.
seungkwan knew it was early in the morning, but still late enough for the bus and train stations to be closed. he had half a mind to call a cab, but something about a stranger driving him back to his hotel scared his still half-drunk mind. so, he did what he thought was the best decision at the moment: he called wonwoo.
the older boy picked up the phone immediately. "kwan-ah, where are you?! are you okay?! are– hey, babe, what's wrong?" wonwoo began to shout, his voice dropping down to a whisper as he heard seungkwan's muffled sobs on the other line.
"hyung, can you please get me?" seungkwan squeezed out, keeping a hand over his mouth as he tried his hardest to suppress his loud cries. he looked up and searched for a street sign, reading out the address as he repeatedly pleaded for wonwoo to get him.
wonwoo got there in record time, the cab he was in pulling up next to seungkwan who collapsed onto the curb, holding his knees to his chest as he cried endlessly. he didn't even look up as wonwoo silently picked him up and carried him into the cab. the driver took them back to the hotel at wonwoo's command, wonwoo rocking seungkwan in his arms as the younger boy continued to cry.
"seungkwan, what happened?" wonwoo whispered, brushing seungkwan's hair away from his face as he gently pulled seungkwan's hands away from his face.
"hyung, this night has been biting me in the ass. can we just ride in silence?" seungkwan pleaded, leaning his head onto wonwoo's shoulder as he let out a deep breath.
though wonwoo wanted to know what happened to have seungkwan so torn up, he knew seungkwan was too upset and still a little too drunk to talk. instead, he reached around his back and pulled out a water bottle that he brought for seungkwan. the younger boy whined loudly as he saw the bottle, pushing wonwoo and the bottle away as wonwoo unscrewed the cap. wonwoo just chuckled quietly, happy that seungkwan was still acting a little like himself. he wrapped an arm around seungkwan's shoulders and pulled him closer, forcing his young friend to drink some of the water.
the two boys made it back to the hotel soon after that, wonwoo helping seungkwan walk into the lobby and the elevator. seungkwan leaned onto the cool walls of the elevator, feeling a few tears slip down his face as he thought back to what happened earlier. wonwoo noticed this and sighed softly, squeezing seungkwan's hand as he reached over and wiped seungkwan's tears away.
the doors opened up to the eighth floor, wonwoo leading the younger boy into jeonghan's room where everyone was gathered. once wonwoo knocked on the door, it swung open immediately, revealing the concerned faces of soonyoung and joshua. soonyoung looked near to tears as he pulled seungkwan away and clutched onto him tightly, kissing seungkwan's head as he said, "kwan, i'm so sorry! i should've never let you leave! if he hurt you, i will kill him!"
the rest of the group ran over and pulled seungkwan into the room, their hands dragging across his face and shoulders as they checked if he was hurt. jeonghan's eyes widened as he pointed at seungkwan's shirt and asked what happened. his friends finally noticed seungkwan's torn up shirt and became infuriated. seungkwan jumped to action as he saw soonyoung, seungcheol, and junhui go to the door, each of them screaming something along the lines of killing that random dude.
seungkwan ran over and grabbed soonyoung's shoulder, his face scrunching up as he said, "he didn't hurt me. i may have hurt his feelings, and he kicked me out of his apartment."
seungcheol and junhui turned around, visibly relaxing as they listened to seungkwan. seungcheol stepped forward as he said, "you hurt his feelings?" he clapped a hand on seungkwan's shoulder, a proud smile on his face as he continued, "good job, kwan."
the group seemed to relax, beginning to poke fun at the stranger as they tried to ease up the atmosphere. seungkwan smiled in relief as he looked around at his friends, thankful that they were dropping the subject. he felt something climb in his throat and he swallowed harshly, slapping a hand over his mouth as he held his stomach. his friends quickly stopped talking, jeonghan holding a hand out as he slowly stood up.
knowing what was about to happen next, several of seungkwan's friends quickly stood up and ushered the younger boy into the bathroom. the ones left behind grabbed water, seokmin running over to a sink to soak a rag. all that was left was for seungkwan to vomit, which he did against his will.
well, this is the perfect way to end my night.
after a while of seungkwan emptying out the contents of his stomach, each of his friends decided there was no point in the thirteen of them crowding into the bathroom. so each of them took turns, soonyoung sticking around the longest as he felt the most guilt about letting seungkwan go. eventually, it was just seungkwan leaning onto the toilet with wonwoo rubbing his back and mingyu running his hands through his hair.
seungkwan sat back and closed the toilet, smiling softly as mingyu reached over and flushed it for him. he leaned onto the toilet, crossing his arms as he looked at mingyu. in any other instance, he would have been disgusted, but he couldn't bring himself to care. he was too busy relaxing into mingyu and wonwoo's touch.
seungkwan frowned slightly as he leaned his head into his arms and mumbled, "i'm sorry for kissing wonwoo, hyung." he felt wonwoo's hand freeze but he paid no mind to it.
mingyu smiled sadly. "it's okay, kwannie." he whispered, leaning in to press a soft kiss to seungkwan's temple. he leaned back and scratched seungkwan's scalp, smiling down at the young boy as seungkwan smiled softly up at him.
for some reason, as wonwoo was watching them, he felt strange.