GROWING PAINS
( part 1 )
WORD COUNT 4k
OVERVIEW teenage paradise—or so we thought / alt: these growing pains are keeping me up at night ( au: highschool au ft fake dating, jisoo & rosé from blackpink & side taeguk/yoonmin / warnings for underage drinking, slut shaming, homophobia & slurs )
PLAYLIST ( a lot of it is in the oneshot tbh ) growing paints / alessia cara, diet mountain dew / lana del ray, japanese posters / rebounder, summer / brockhampton, lost in love / brockhampton.
∆
BEHIND THE BIG TOWN movie theatre where all the blockbuster films show, there sits a boy and a girl on the wall above the dumpsters, a diluted orangeade sunset sky above their heads and cigarettes dangling between their lips. they share generic white ipod headphones, old and tangled, records they've heard a thousand times playing in a tinny tone, mr brightside playing while his hand rests on her milky white thigh.
he, the boy in pink john lennon glasses as a defense against the fading sun and a top cut short so it shows off his washboard stomach, is kim seokjin, a pretty boy in levi's jeans and cherry cola flavoured chapstick. she, the girl with deep pink hair like cranberry juice and fishnet tights that are all the range, is park chaeyong, a pretty girl in shimmering lip gloss and knee socks. the reason these two are here at 6:45PM on a thursday evening sharing cigarettes is because they're fake dating as a way to clear up rumours. they shared a plate of french fries at the greasy diner that only plays one album, and then came behind the aladdin theatre just to smoke.
"fuck this town, man." seokjin spews cigarette smoke into the stagnant air, his attitude so teenage that chaeyong giggles a little, thinking how seokjin would be a cool boyfriend, if either of them were straight. she could be kissing kim jisoo right now, tasting her vanilla chapstick lips, but she's technically forbidden from doing so. seokjin could be at home just being himself, alone in his room with probably an aretha franklin vinyl, a glass of his mum's red wine and a good book, but instead he's helping build her lie.
that's what good friends are for.
"we can go home soon, cherry coke," she says, which has seokjin's strawberry shortcake lips perking into a nearly there smile. "you can go back to your gay life, fantasising about the basketball player next door."
seokjin snorts and pushes her shoulder, but she isn't wrong at all. he'll probably end up watching jung 'king' hoseok, the star basketball player of foxhole highschool, work out shirtless in his room directly adjacent to seokjin's, while the latter sips stolen wine with gloss stained lips. and chaeyong will probably end up sneaking out at 10:00PM to meet her forbidden girlfriend at the kiddie park, which isn't so much for kids anymore. chaeyong, for now, picks lint from her pineapple patterned shirt and smiles when diet mountain dew begins to play, kicking high topped converse against the bare brick wall.
seokjin can't wait till he leaves the town for college. he and chaeyong are fake dating because neither of them can tell their parents about their sexuality, and because there's a lotta wildfire rumours about kim seokjin sleeping with the basketball team captain—he wishes. ever since someone (cough, byun baekyun, cough) supposedly saw seokjin making out with a pretty faced pink haired junior from the a capella club—and seokjin did do that, in fact—behind the gym, and then baekyun's friend saw seokjin with one of the basketball boys who happened to be dating her best friend, and whispered insults of manslut and whore followed his red converse through the hallways. hell, lee yerim even wrote it on his locker in candy crush pink nail varnish—the 'e' of whore still remains. it's all bullshit.
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.
"seokjin, chaeyong!"
jisoo runs up to the couple, pretty in her levi's shirt and black skirt, a wide pink gloss smile on her face. she looks at their lockers sympathetically, shaking her head. "that was kiki, by the way. posted it to the cheerleader groupchat."
"those bitches," seokjin curses, although he recognised the shade of lipstick right away and knew it was the sleek blonde cheer captain. jisoo's "boyfriend", the sweet faced junior jeongguk, hugs her from behind, making jisoo laugh. they're more friends than anything; seokjin's seen jeongguk making eyes at their friend taehyung, the tuba player of the school's marching band, during lunch. he's just helping soo out; thank god for the bisexuals, thinks seokjin, as he applys another coat of cherry coke chapstick.
"where we eating today?" jeongguk asks, walking alongside the three. he's a sweet kid, plays guitar for school shows and never gets detentions, hell, seokjin doesn't even think he smokes. probably the most innocent sixteen year old in this school, he thinks.
"band table," the oldest of the group answers, navigating his group through the hallways until they reach the water fountain; they've got five minutes to hang there until classes. "you can make eyes at the cute tuba player all you like, guk."
jeongguk blushes, holding jisoo's hand. "hyung! that'd be cheating!" he says, and the three burst into laughter. seokjin smiles; jeongguk's such a sweet kid, in his band jacket and nike shorts, fringe almost in his eyes and smile just a tad bit dorky. he and jisoo fit together, both of them sci-fi nerds who play magic: the gathering together on weekends. they'd be a good couple if soo wasn't madly in love with chaeyong.
"yeah, seokjin, that'd be cheating!" jisoo rolls her eyes, smiling wide. chaeyong smiles, kissing her girlfriend discreetly on the cheek, while seokjin drinks from the coppery water fountain. the bell goes and a sigh can be heard, as the four go their separate ways, chaeyong and jeongguk to the junior classes, seokjin and jisoo to the senior. maths is first on friday, and the two instantly feel their spirits dim as they enter the bland beige classrooms.
seokjin chews on his number 2 hb pencil with pearly whites, watching hoseok, who's just one row, two desks away. he's wearing a white tank that really exposes his arm muscles, and his hair is a little messy, skin a little sheened with sweat from an early game with his boys. seokjin's hand takes notes and his brain half-listens to mr kwon's boring equations, but his eyes stay focused on hoseok's muscled back, on his smile when aaron—the half american student from minnesota slash jeju—tells him a stupid joke or something from the desk to the side. our pretty boy has to rip his eyes away, though, to start solving a page of exercises, his wine red sunglasses hanging on his shirt and his spectacles on.
hoseok and his friends are goof-off, funny athletic boys, the kind seokjin's always sorta drooled over, top of the food chain but not too asshole-y. his best friend is jackson wang, the hysterical chinese student who likes to play pranks on everyone; seokjin once opened his locker on valentine's day and received a spray of pink heart shaped glitter directly into his face, as did every owner of uneven numbered lockers. he sometimes still finds glitter in the t-shirt he was wearing that day. their main group, seokjin and jisoo have observed, is hoseok, jackson, hyungwoo (probably the sweetest jock in school), shin hoseok (he prefers wonho), and seo johnny (american, rumoured to have slept with half the cheerleaders). they're the best players in school.
"seok," jisoo pokes him square in the back with her gold sparkly pen, and he turns around to look at her. "yoongi from band wants to know if we're heading to the party at namjoon's this weekend."
"kim namjoon? who does he eat with?" that's how to determine the social status of someone in foxhole; what clique someone eats with. there's several, seokjin and jisoo's clique being the band kids and the drama nerds, hoseok's the athletic yet nice guys.
"joon? he's math and science guy. y'know, with kihyun and yugyeom. somehow popular cuz he's rich." jisoo whispers, and seokjin nods.
"tell yoongi affirmative, get more details, and i'll bring wine."
their conversations are hushed yet rapid fire, years of hiding talk from the teachers. jisoo texts like a machine under the table, before whispering one last thing. "oh, nice athletic guys are gonna be there, by the way."
seokjin nods, turning back to his work. oh boy, a party with jung hoseok; he'll have to dress up real nice. maybe make it clear he isn't dating chaeyong, or have a big scandal... seokjin's always been one for drama. he chews on the pencil again and continues to write numbers across the page, smirking.
"i am wholeheartedly in love," jeongguk declares ninety minutes later, head in jisoo's lap as they sit in the school courtyard, sunlight highlighting his boyish features. jisoo laughs, stroking through his newly pink highlighted hair.
"with who, jeonggukie?" seokjin asks, smiling wide, humouring the boy as chaeyong paints his nails. it's their first break, a half hour to have a little something to eat and refuel before the senior's physical education class. jeongguk throws an arm over his eyes, blowing out a puff of air.
"kim taehyung."
"i fucking knew it!" chaeyong punches the air with a laugh, momentarily laying off seokjin's lavender nails. jeongguk giggles, looking up at the pinkette, his nike jacket falling off his shoulders when he props himself up on his elbows. seokjin smiles; they all knew of the limerence jeongguk has for the boxy smiled blondie from the band table, the sixteen year old just hadn't acknowledged it.
"that's great, guk," jisoo laughs. jeongguk's open about his sexuality, so seokjin supposes he and jisoo will have to stage a break up so he can get the man of his dreams. "how're you gonna confess?"
"well," the boy thinks, taking some strawberry bubblegum from his pocket. "i was thinkin' of breaking up with you, and the week after, coming into the cafeteria with a guitar 'nd singing something. not sure what though."
seokjin nods, musing over the idea. "sounds good. i'd recommend some old love song, elvis, or if you wanna go gayer, maybe troye sivan. bloom or wild are both good."
jeongguk nods, while jisoo bites into an energy bar, and chaeyong blows on seokjin's drying nails. they're the picture of 2018 teenagers, seokjin humming a lana del ray song with his wine glasses obscuring his eyes, the sun shining on all of them. fridays seem like they'll never end.
∆
"—SO SHE'S SAT ON my lap, all prettied up, and keep in mind this is a sixteen year old who has had far too much spiked punch and thinks she has a chance with me. me, the gayest kid here."
lunchtime, and seokjin's half paying attention to taehyung's rambling, eating his cafeteria burrito, when yoongi taps his hand. min yoongi, the head of band, he's the most popular underdog there is; he's got shoulder length hair, a nose piercing and a stick n poke tat of an angel on his shoulder, once kissed the lead singer of a big local band, and he plays the flute. his ebony locks are tied into a very small bun to keep his fringe away, and the rest settles on his shoulder. his black lips form a pout even while he speaks.
"so, kim, you're down for joon's party," he states rather than asks, and seokjin nods, sipping on his tasteless la croix drink.
"yeah, if you've got deets."
"starts at nine on saturday at his place, ends indeterminately, bring alcohol or drugs if you've got any—there won't be much, that i can tell ya—, bring as many plus one's as you can, and don't fuckin' do illegal shit." yoongi says, and the brunette nods, finishing up his burrito.
"what tables are going?" chaeyong asks as she sits, perching herself on seokjin's thighs and shoving a mouthful of homemade chicken salad into her mouth. yoongi shrugs.
"hey, mark, what tables are going to joon's?"
canadian exchange student and huge computer nerd mark lee breaks off his conversation with minho about D&D to answer. "three of the vegan goths, all of the nice athletic guys, none of the cheerleaders—not invited, apparently—, the pretty and smart team, the a capella club, the party animals obviously, all the foreign kids, us, and all of the edm and mc club. they're dj-ing."
seokjin whistles lowly, raising his eyebrows. "it's a be there or be square kinda thing, from the sounds of it. if the mc club are dj-ing, i'll be around. make sure you all bring decent fuckin' booze, and for fuck's sake, monitor all the juniors in the music associated clubs, don't let them smoke pot—i'm looking at you, jeongguk!"
the boy turns bright red from where he's squished between his 'girlfriend' and taehyung, smiling sheepishly. "yes, hyung."
yoongi flicks his hair with a smirk, a goth girl who isn't a girl, nose piercing glinting. "see ya there, seokjin."
"do i look gay enough in this?" jisoo asks late the next day, looking at herself in the mirror. the famous four are stood in seokjin's dimly lit room, trying on various outfits an hour before the party's actually starting. seokjin's mother raised a brow when his camaraderie traipsed through her house, inquiring why seokjin's girlfriend and his friends were round, and he'd quickly said they were going to the arcade downtown but wanted to chill at home for a bit. and now jeongguk's chosen seokjin's newest vinyl, brockhampton's saturation ii, as their soundtrack as the girls tear through seokjin's more feminine closet.
"you're a lesbian, of course you look gay," jeongguk replies to jisoo's question, dressed quite nicely in an aerosmith tee and baggy black name brand jeans with 'lost in love' written in bold over and over down the side of the legs. "you look nice, though."
jisoo's in her own pair of highwaisted black jeans, paired with seokjin's shredded tee-shirt advertising a tour for a band called 'motherfuckin' dykes'—he saw them at the lemondrop bar in the next town over with his fake ID last pride month—tucked into the waistband, a thick white choker around her neck and three inch heeled boots on her feet. her black hair's in a high ponytail, and with a little makeup, she'd look like a rock chick supreme. seokjin nods in approval.
"great. add my wine glasses to it, though."
she does, and it's perfect. seokjin then looks at himself in his big full length mirror, approving very much of his faded pepsi cola sleeveless shirt, blue levi's jeans and red converse, his adidas cap backwards on his head and a lemon lollipop in his mouth. very pretty boy chique. swamp begins as the two girlfriends kiss lazily under the orange glow of a street lamp through seokjin's window, the two boys sat on seokjin's bed with teenage smiles on their faces.
"kids?"
seokjin's mum knocks on the door and the girls jump apart, letting seokjin give his mum the okay to come in. she pokes her head round the door with a smile, which seokjin knows is fake but whatever. "just wanted to check up. anyone want anything, food, water?"
"mum, we're seniors, not little kids." seokjin laughs, humouring her, but he does ask for the six pack of cherry coke he's kept in the fridge for a while, and jisoo orders a pizza for pre party food. seokjin's got a bottle of red stashed under his bed, while the girls have vodka and jack daniels hidden in their handbags, and jeongguk has an eight pack of heineken shoved into his backpack. ah, naughty teenagers and their underage drinking.
"let's go sit out on the porch, it's suffocating in here." chaeyong suggests, and the four head outside, the cool evening breeze hitting them enjoyably as the sky turns sapphire blue. seokjin twists the cap off a cherry cola and pours the contents down his throat, sticky and sweet and bubbly, same as his smile. chaeyong, in her striped red and white shirt and pleated cheer skirt, looks pretty sat on her girl's lap with her lips painted sticky with shiny gloss, while jeongguk's features get highlighted in the fly-attracting light of the street lamp right outside of seokjin's house. the oldest feels something reminiscent of euphoria, a tingling in his fingers as he lights up a cigarette and leans against their youngest.
"the sky looks really pretty," jeongguk whispers, more to himself than anyone. "like those dark sunglasses chaeyong wears on fridays." she only wears them on fridays, seokjin thinks, nodding at the brunette's words.
the pizza delivery guy's all pimple and grease, handing them the extra large cheesy pepperoni n chilli pizza over the white picket fence, and they sit on seokjin's lawn as mosquitoes attack any bare skin possible and no-see-um gnats avoid the cigarette smoke from teenage chain smokers. the air seems crisper than it's ever been as chaeyong kisses her girlfriend without a care and jeongguk sings lana del ray tapping the love drunk tune onto the concrete path through the garden, and seokjin lies back on his elbows and thinks about how alive he feels. it's awfully good.
they set off for the party on foot, goofing off as they walk through the neighbourhood. jeongguk walks on the wall beside the sidewalk, chaeyong walks with an arm around jisoo and a bottle of vodka infused cherry coke in her hands, laughing when seokjin begins singing oasis's wonderwall and clapping his hands to the beat.
"and after all... you're my wonderwall!" they chorus stupidly, switching to the next song someone can think of (it happens to be let it be by the beatles). this is a game they came up with when jisoo and seokjin were freshmen, where one would start singing an older song they hopefully both knew, and they'd continue on like that. the four are a neighbourhood away as jisoo starts singing another brick in the wall, and they're clapping hands and laughing as chaeyong pumps her fist in the air, cherry coke teenage dreams under a sapphire sky.
everything's just bloody perfect, seokjin thinks, as the group approaches the party house, a pumped up remix of lucid dreams by juice wrld playing very loudly, the four feeling the bass in their bones as they walk up. the house is average for the rich neighbourhood, not massive or overly expensive, but with a big amount of land and a swimming pool. there's probably fifty or so people there, and that's enough for seokjin.
they're directed by helpful little signs to the back of the house, where there's a bar—stocked with alcohol bought with under twenty one's fake IDs—, a big rig for the mc club, and a few couches for people to mill around on. the host himself is talking to some girl by the bar, but seokjin couldn't care less about him.
"check it, there's band," jeongguk points out yoongi, taehyung, jimin (piccolo player), mark and wonwoo (percussion) all huddled together. it seems the band scarcely leave yoongi's side; he's got jimin on his lap and the younger's sporting hickies and swollen lips.
"kim, jeon!" yoongi says with a sly smile, offering them seats. "you got the goods?" he groans at seokjin's bottle of wine, rolling his eyes. "you pretty boys and your red wine. chaeyong and soo here know what's good, kim!"
seokjin just humours him, having spotted two of the athletics chatting with yugyeom by the back entrance into the house. hoseok looks damn good in his blessed tight skinny jeans and leather jacket, and seokjin wants to walk right over and kiss the life out of him. chaeyong catches him staring, smirks, and leans over to talk to him.
"for tonight, you're a single pringle, seok. go get him." she says, and seokjin's euphoric feeling gets even better. he grins.
"you best believe i'll walk out of here tomorrow having kissed that boy."
∆
230818
FUCK ME THIS IS LONG
but also this au is a fucking favourite????? i wanna??? write a book??? oof this is heavily based off the film 'brick''s aesthetic (seokjin is very inspired by brendon from that), the wp book 'dollar store candy' by 1-800-LESTERS and my love for this kinda aesthetic that i don't even know the name of (i call it the cherry coke aesthetic). in case you got confused, btw, seokjin, yoongi, jisoo and hoseok are all 18, jeongguk is 16, and chaeyong is 17, so yes, they're all drinking underage but that's what teenagers do
there will be a part two don't worry ur pretty heads. also full length fic of this or nah
—jace