Another long evening spent working at the cafe left you tired and ready to go home. As you walked down the dimly lit streets, you suddenly heard clumsy footsteps from behind and a few grunting noises.
Great. There's probably some old drunk guy trying to follow me. Just what I needed at the end of my day.
You quickened your pace and carefully watched the cars driving past, trying to find the best moment to cross to the opposite side of the road in an attempt to escape.
"Heyyy yoou! I- I know yoou!" His words slurred together in a way that was uncomfortable for your ears.
You continued with your fast-walking, ignoring his random mumbles. To be fair, any normal person would have at least started jogging by now, but as an unfit tired teenager, who was never really good at PE, you just couldn't be bothered at this time of night.
"It's meeee! Jeonginnie, your class buddy!"
Wait. What?
You cautiously turned around and took a good look at his face as he removed his hood.
What the hell.
It was actually him. Your best friend from when you were thirteen. It had been four years, but you could still clearly recognise him. For starters, he still had those same braces on.
When you moved to a different high school, you had naturally drifted apart and lost contact with each other - as you do when you're only young.
"See it's me!! Do you remember me?!" He suddenly started yelling, causing you to quickly shush him and calm him down.
He almost lost his balance as he stumbled towards you and automatically grabbed your arm for support as soon as he could reach it.
He absolutely reeked of alcohol. It was repulsive.
As he accidentally tripped, he pulled you into a sort of hugging position to try and stay upright again. You immediately moved your face away from him to avoid his awful breath.
"Ah kissss... I want- I wanna kiss yooou!" He exclaimed, but you chose to ignore his comment.
"What happened Jeongin? You know it's illegal to be underage drinking, right?" You asked him sternly.
"Hmm... but I was just hanging out with my friends..." He groaned as started to feel a little nauseous, "The guys are actually really cool, you should meet them."
What guys? Please don't tell me that he joined the gang... please.
Your old high school was notorious for having the worst gang in the area. They were the main reason why your parents had transferred you out of there early on.
You allowed him to lean his weight on your body as you guided him towards your house. He would be dead if his parents saw him like this.
"You're a good kid Jeongin, you shouldn't be hanging out with those older guys. They're bad news." You sighed as you realised your words weren't even going to be heard by him.
His head slowly drooped down as he fell asleep. Another sigh escaped your lips as you dragged him along the rest of the way, and thought of how you were going to explain this situation to your own parents.
With a lot of struggle and some help from your brother, you finally managed to dump the boy onto the guest bed.
"Geez, and I thought I was a bad drinker." Your older brother whispered as he stared down at your friend sprawled across the bed.
"I think it was his first time drinking." You assumed as you carefully adjusted the blanket over him.
"Ouch. That much alcohol for a beginner? He's going to feel dead tomorrow morning." He said surprised.
You shook your head, "If I find out tomorrow that he joined the gang, he'll actually be dead".
Your brother laughed, "Well good luck with that sis, I'm going to bed now." He told you before heading to his own bedroom.
Since you were already so exhausted you turned to go to bed as well, but then Jeongin suddenly rolled over, catching your attention.
"Y/N... I looove yooou... haha mbdujmsm... miss you soooo much... sntrmmm..." He mindlessly muttered random words in his sleep, although the mention of your name did make you wonder a bit.
No, it's just the alcohol talking. He doesn't actually mean it.
The next morning, Jeongin woke up with the worst headache he had ever experienced in his life. He could barely open his eyes as he felt like the sunlight coming through the curtains was burning them.
But when he did finally look around, he got quite the shock.
He was actually very familiar with that guest room. Well, he did sleep in there almost every other weekend when he was younger. Why he was in there now though, still remained a big mystery to him.
He rolled out of bed with a groan, clutching his head to try and stop the constant throbbing. He peeked out of his door cautiously, before nervously going over to your room and knocking.
You opened the door and just raised your eyebrows at him.
"Uh hi." He said scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Care to explain why you're in my house Jeongin?" You asked, trying to keep a straight face. What he had done was seriously dangerous and you wanted to make sure that he didn't do it again.
"Umm, well, I was hoping that you could explain that..." he trailed off shyly.
You sighed. "Ok but first take these painkillers, they should help with the headache." You said as you shoved the pills and a water bottle into his hand. "And secondly, go take a shower. You still stink." You told him bluntly.
He simply nodded and thanked you as he quickly left embarrassed.
When he made it downstairs, he joined you and your brother for breakfast and couldn't help but smile at your choice of food. "A bowl of cornflakes and apple juice. Your taste buds really haven't changed have they?"
"No, but it seems like yours have." You replied smirking, "It's quite a big jump to go from milk to alcohol, isn't it?"
Jeongin gulped as he sat down opposite you, "Was I bad last night?"
"Hmm let's see, you were yelling in the streets, you couldn't stand up straight and then you suddenly fell asleep, so I had to drag you all the way back to my house." You said unimpressed, "It's a good job I was there to help you. You could have been arrested or someone could have taken advantage of you, or you could have been hit by a car!" You scolded him.
He grew wide-eyed as he listened to you. How could he not remember any of it? "I'm so sorry Y/N. Thank you so much for helping me out, you probably saved my life."
You nodded, "But why were you even drinking in the first place?"
He looked down and hesitated for a moment, "The gang randomly approached me after school. I don't know why, but they wanted me to join them and I thought that if I refused, they'd probably beat me up. So then I ended up agreeing and they invited me out last night. We went to a bar and they just kept giving me more and more drinks, until I think I vomited and I assume I got kicked out after that."
Your brother suddenly interrupted, "No offence kid, but I don't think they actually want you to join the gang. They were probably just looking for another naive victim to have some fun with yesterday."
Jeongin glanced up, "Well in that case, do you think they'll leave me alone now?"
You quickly shook your head, "I wouldn't risk it. Now that they've picked on you once, I doubt that they wouldn't do it again."
"Yeah, I say your best bet is to transfer schools as soon as possible. They're usually too lazy to try and find people after they move away." Your brother advised him.
Jeongin sighed as he tried to take in the information. "But where can I go? It's kinda hard to transfer in the middle of the year."
You immediately smiled, "Come to my high school, they take new students all the time."
"I'll think about it and ask my parents." He replied, although he actually really loved the idea of being able to see you more often again.
Just before Jeongin went back to his own house, he suddenly turned and looked at you curiously. "I didn't say anything weird to you last night, did I?" He asked, causing you to think for a second.
Like how you love me, miss me and want to kiss me?
"Uh nope, nothing weird. Just a lot of incoherent mumbling." You said with a smile.
"Oh good. I heard that drunks tend to uncontrollably speak their mind. I just hoped that I wasn't rude to you." He said before he returned the smile and waved goodbye to you.
A few weeks later, as you were doing some last minute homework in class, your classmates began whispering about a new kid. You curiously looked up to see your teacher walk in the door, "Attention everyone! We have a new student joining us today. Please welcome Yang Jeongin."
Your eyes automatically lit up as you watched the boy walk inside, and he also gave you a large grin as soon as he spotted you. After he finished introducing himself, he was told to sit next to you.
"Nice to meet you class buddy." He happily held out his hand with a small smirk on his lips.
You laughed and gladly shook his hand, "Nice meeting you too, buddy."
_
Geez my chapters seem to be getting longer 😂
Next week the 2000 liners are going to become adults, and then next year it'll be Jeongin 😢 they're growing up too fast 😭
Please vote and comment if you enjoyed reading! 👍🏼
- Lucy 💕