[tw: underage parties + talk of date r*pe]
High School is a time in everyone's life that their adult counterparts will always say one of two things about. One, that it
was the best time of their lives, or Two, that they hated every single second of it.
Currently, Mingyu can think of about twelve the quiet kid memes to sum up his own experience.
But he'll admit that the anticipation of a party sweetens up the deal a little bit.
Now, Mingyu isn't exactly a party animal. He's selective of the ones he attends, always based off of who exactly is throwing the party and whether or not the cops will get called within ten minutes.
He's the type of teenager at parties that likes to get high and just drunk enough to enjoy the shit storm that unfolds in front of him and occasionally hook up with the more sober party go-ers.
So when Minghao brought up that there's a party being thrown by a graduate named Seungcheol he doesn't turn down the want to go.
Seungcheol is best known for his parties, even after he graduated he'd still throw them and still allowed the high schoolers to join. He was a laid back guy, and while Mingyu had only met him a few times he seemed like a decent guy.
Wonwoo had apparently dated him, but that doesn't reflect onto them in a very good light regardless of which side you took.
As Mingyu changes his clothes he wonders if Wonwoo will show up too.
After the previous Saturday fiasco they hadn't spoke much, the occasional text that never really went anywhere conversation wise and a wave or two in passing at school.
Their relationship felt weird, unknown and confusing to him. It didn't feel normal, like new friends or even crushes. It felt like two people who didn't actually know who to start a relationship at all, dancing around each other with awkward talks and coincidental meet ups.
It sucked, Mingyu wanted to be the others friend, or something at least. But that's also the thing, did Mingyu want to be his friend or did he want to date him? He wasn't sure, sure Wonwoo was pretty but Mingyu had never been in a real relationship and Wonwoo didn't seem like he could be in one.
It felt weird and uncomfortable for Mingyu to think of Wonwoo like that, but it also felt weird want to call him just a friend. It was hard to explain, it didn't make sense to even him.
Mingyu liked Wonwoo, but whether it was strictly platonic or romantic he couldn't pin point.
Plus Wonwoo was a mystery in itself.
Because even now, almost a month into knowing and speaking to the older, Mingyu knew almost nothing about him. Even rumors did nothing to help form a solid idea of just who the other was.
Maybe that's what drew Mingyu in so bad, the thought of not knowing and not being able to automatically label caused him to want to understand even more. Humans didn't like the unknown, if they didn't understand stand something they feared it. It's why some people fear darkness or space, you don't know what's out there.
Wonwoo was a lot like Space, Mingyu realizes. Beautiful to look at but mysterious and a bit lonely.
He sighs, tugging a plain black shirt over his head while stepping over to his bed to grab his phone. The screens notification light blinking at him.
He unlocks his phone and checks the new messages in Minghao's and his thread, grinning a bit. It's only Minghao asking about what to wear, which is dumb considering that Minghao has always had a much better sense of fashion compared to Mingyu.
But still he humors his friend, confirming which outfit looks the best out of the five pictures the other had just sent to him.
He loves his friend, but Minghao couldn't be more obvious about trying to impress someone. He doesn't even think Minghao realizes he's doing it. Poor unfortunate soul.
Mingyu shoves his phone into his pocket after sending Minghao a text that he was on his way and grabs his keys and wallet from his desk.
He hustles down the stairs, ignoring the railing and even skipping the last two steps completely in his haste.
"Ah, Mingyu! Where are you going?"
Mingyu freezes, the familiar low voice of his father making his stomach burst with an uncomfortable feeling as he turns to face the other.
His father is standing in the hallway to the kitchen, briefcase in hand and suit jacket thrown over his shoulder. He looks tired, the dark circles under his eyes seem much darker compared to the last time Mingyu saw him. He almost feels bad, almost.
Unlike his mother, Mr Kim doesn't come home nearly as much. His job requires him to go on a lot of business trips from Japan to Sweden. Mingyu hadn't seen him in a good few months, he'd almost completely forgotten what he looked like, just like him mom.
He's a tall man, both of his parents are, with greying hair and a sad face. Mingyu wonders if that's how he'll look at that age, even without the work schedule.
"I'm going out..." He supplies, watching the man as he nods.
"With that one boy...what's his name...Ming?"
"Minghao."
"Ah yes! Minghao, good kid. Are you guys still friends?"
"Yeah..." Mingyu bits down on his inner cheek to stifle the annoyed huff he feels building.
His father smiles, lazily and dazed.
"How's school going? I know freshmen year isn't easy!"
Unfortunately there's nothing he can do to stifle the sharp unwanted pinch he feels inside of his chest, he can barely stop the air that suddenly leaves his lungs. He stands there for a moment feeling something akin to anguish fill up his body, eventually he lets out a shaky breath, feeling a bit light headed.
"Dad, I'm a junior..."
The older Kim frowns, titling his head in confusion before his eyes seem to darken a bit and he feels even more tired than before. Mingyu can't find it in him to feel sympathetic.
"Oh...wow...time really does fly..."
Mingyu shrugs, feeling the stinging burn building in his eyes. He spins on his heel.
"Sorry dad, but I'm already late! See you later!"
He quickly rushes out of the house, almost slamming the door shut and making a bee line to the garage door, slamming his thumb down onto the button connected to his keys multiple times in an attempt to make it raise faster.
He feels like vomiting, a heavy feeling falling onto his shoulders and weighing him down as he tries to breathe.
Mingyu isn't sure if it's the fact that his father didn't know what grade his own son was in or if it was the sadness that came after he realized it.
His parents felt like strangers to him, they knew as much about him as he knew about them.
Mingyu swallows down the lump in his throat and ducks under the slowly raising garage door, going straight to his own car and pointedly ignoring his dad's SUV parked next to it.
He didn't use his car often, more likely to use his skateboard or hitch a ride with someone else than drive around.
He jumps in, inhaling the clean leather and very faint perfumie smell of Minghao's own cologne. Because he didn't drive it often, the car never truly worn down. The new car smell still lingered even after almost two years now.
Mingyu doesn't hesitate, jamming the key into the ignition and starting it up. As he's backing out he also pulls his phone from his pocket, waiting until he's in the road to shuffle through his music. He hums as he selects something to help distract him before he leaves, subconsciously watching his house get smaller and smaller through his rearview mirror.
Minghao's house isn't far from Mingyu's, barely a five minute drive, so when he pulls up to the familiar old white house and sees his friend sitting on the porch he feels a bit better.
He watches his friend jump up and dash to his car, nearly tripping over the curb as he does. Mingyu snorts at the brief look of panic on his face.
Minghao flings the door open, plopping himself into the passenger seat with a audible oof. He turns to the other with a raised eyebrow after a moment.
"What's got you super emo?"
Mingyu huffs, pulling the car away from Minghao's house and heading towards the other side of town to Seungcheols.
"I'm not emo, why do you say that?"
The other shrugs, turning to do something on his phone.
"You look down, smell like smoke more than normal, and your blasting emo rap, what's up?"
"I listen to this all of the time?"
"Don't deflect."
Mingyu groans, regretting leaving the house. He slumps in his seat a bit, debating in his head if he should bring his dad up to Minghao tonight or wait for another day.
He knows that if he tells him now Minghao will most likely stress and worry about him the rest of the night, and if he waits to tell him Minghao will get grumpy about him waiting. It's kind of a double edge sword, he frowns.
"It's nothing, tonight is meant to be fun. No drama or worried tonight, okay?"
Minghao looks like he wants to argue but keeps his mouth shut, nodding with a unheated glare in his eyes.
Mingyu sighs, it'll be a long night.
Seungcheols house is on the outskirts of the city limits, it's in the nicest area and probably costs more than Mingyu, Minghao, and Seokmins houses all together.
Because it's so out of the way and he doesn't have extremely close neighbors it's a prime spot for loud parties. They rarely get busted by the cops, and the only reason they were the last time was because someone brought fireworks to set off.
Mingyu also just really liked Seungcheols house. It was three stories with more rooms than one could count, he had a large pool and basement filled with comfortable couches and gaming systems. How Seungcheol wasn't busted by his parents after every party was a mystery, the mess was always horrible.
By the time the two arrive the sun is starting to set already and the party is in full bloom, the heavy bass from the blaring music inside is rumbling the ground as they walk up on the lawn.
Minghao is bouncing beside him, almost skipping to the beat. Mingyu wonders we're all that energy came from considering his friend wasn't normally the most visibly excitable.
"宝贝! Mingyu!"
The voice that calls out in the slightly familiar Mandarin draws both Mingyu and Minghao's attention.
Jun is running up to the two, clothes wet and hair dripping into his eyes, looking a bit like a soaked rat. He's shivering, but the sunny smile on his face is nearly blinding.
Minghao yelps from beside Mingyu, rushing over and spitting out words so fast that Mingyu can't tell if they're in English or Mandarin. Be steps over to the two, choosing to ignore the very dull red tint to his friends cheeks.
"Jesus Jun, the hell happened to you? You know it's almost November right? Not exactly the best time for swimming."
The older laughs, shaking his head and sending water droplets flying around him.
"Yeah...Lucas and Johnny were trying to jump over the pool and I got caught in the crossfire and pushed in..."
"Jun, why haven't you changed yet? 天冷了,你会生病的!" Minghao fires off, smacking the eldest upside the head with a huff.
Jun whines, rubbing the side of his head.
"小浩...哎哟! That hurt!"
"It was supposed to you idiot."
Mingyu snorts as he watches the two, eyes darting back and forth as they converse. He doesn't understand much Mandarin, barely picking up anything out of the years he'd know the two but he can get the general idea of Minghao scolding Jun.
He wished they'd stop dancing around each other too, the mutual affection was too obvious between them and seeing them both deny it was painful.
Mingyu pats Minghao's shoulder, cringing as he does the same to Juns wet one, and sends them both a smile.
"Alrighty love birds, I'm off. Jun, you should ask Seungcheol or Joshua for some clothes before you get hypothermia."
Jun sends him a thumbs up while Minghao splutters out a curse at him as he walks away towards the busy house.
Mingyu recognizes a few people on the porch and in the door way but most seem to be from out of town as far as he can tell. Compared to where Jun and Minghao are the music is near deafening as he enters the packed house.
There's too many people, and it's moments like this that he forgets just how many people they can cram into one room to dance and sing in.
He pushes his way through the crowd, glancing around for anyone he knows or is on good terms with. He sighs as he can't find anyone and continues to trek through the bodies to get to the kitchen.
Thankfully it's much less occupied, filled with a makeshift beer pong set up on the dinning table where none other than Seungcheol is currently chugging down the alcohol in a red solo cup.
Mingyu snorts as the host slams the cup down and burps with a grimace on his face, the other player cackling at his endeavor.
The junior steps away and instead heads over to the counter filled with bottles, he goes to grab a bottle of vodka before he pauses. He shouldn't drink, he's driving after all and should really watch Minghao since the other likes to inhale alcohol at parties like a dehydrated man. But at the same time, Jun is with him and will likely watch over him much better.
He frowns, glancing behind him at the partiers around him. Screw it he think, if it comes down to it he'll just stay the night.
Mingyu grabs the bottle and a cup but gets interrupted by a voice that's too familiar even with it slurred and muffled by the music.
"Mingyu!"
He turns to see Wonwoo stumbling into the kitchen with a dazed by happy look on his face. It's one of the only times that Mingyu has ever seen Wonwoo without his signature hoodie and he'll admit that it's a nice change, even if it's a bit distracting.
Instead of his normally baggy and grungy clothes he's got on black jeans with holes in the knees and a purple and black top that Mingyu wouldn't have realized was cropped if Wonwoo hadn't lifted his left arm up to wave to someone off to the side.
Wonwoo was also obviously drunk, or at least baked, Mingyus not really sure until the older gets close enough for him to be able to smell the heavy stench of alcohol on his breath.
The other grins as he looks up at Mingyu.
"Hi..."
"Hey, you good?" The junior asks, grabbing the others shoulder to steady him after he starts to lean too far forwards.
Wonwoo nods, hair falling into his face more and covering up his eyes.
"Yeah, just a bit drunk..."
Mingyu snorts "Already? It's only 7 something."
Wonwoo shrugs, letting out a hiccup as he replies.
"Yeah, but someone gave me a drink earlier and Im pretty sure they did something to it."
Mingyu frowns, watching the other more closely.
"Like roofies? Maybe you should sit down..."
The other shrugs again, less enthusiastically than before.
"Maybe, it happens a lot it's fine..."
"Wonwoo that's not okay, what the fuck? Come on..." Mingyu feels tense, the fact that the older mentions being drugged so nonchalantly worries him.
He pulls the other to the empty counter space by the sink, he pats the counter top and mumbles for Wonwoo to sit, watching as he complies and hops up and slumps against the cabinet. Mingyu grabs a clean cup from the pillar next to the bottles of alcohol and fills it with tap water, pushing it into Wonwoo's hand and telling him to drink it.
The other does as he's told, and sighs.
"Ah...I didn't realize how bad my throat was burning. Thank you Mingyu."
The junior shakes his head, frown still warping his face.
"Hey, are you okay? Has anyone tried to...?"
Wonwoo shakes his head, chewing on the edge of the plastic cup.
"No, I'm good."
"Wonwoo, does this happen often? You said it happened before..." He hated that he feels like he already knows the answer.
The way the other nods, eyes still just as unfocused and dazed as before attempting to lock onto him, also confirms before he speaks.
"Almost every party I go to. I don't know why...they could just ask me instead of spiking my drinks...it's really annoying."
Mingyu doesn't know what to say, the way the older talks about this so calmly concerns him and makes his stomach churn. He glances around the kitchen, nobody is paying them any attention. He feels so uneasy.
He pulls his phone from his pocket, pulling up his thread with Minghao and texting him to come to the kitchen. He glances at the time too, he's only been at the party for an hour.
Mingyu shoves his phone back into his pocket without waiting for a reply and looks back to Wonwoo, who's still chewing on the cup silently.
"How are you feeling?"
Wonwoo blinks are him for a moment before tilting his head, accidentally spilling a bit of the left over water in the cup as he does.
"Hungry?"
Mingyu wants to roll his eyes, but instead chooses to take the emptying cup from the senior and refilling it. He glances around, notices the pile of snacks sitting on the bar top in large piles, the steps over quickly and finds something light enough that won't make Wonwoo throw up. He grabs a pack of peanut butter crackers.
Wonwoo is still sitting quietly, kicking his feet out and hitting the counter door with loud bangs, either he doesn't notice or he finds it funny.
Mingyu opens up the plastic sleeve and shoves a cracker into Wonwoo's hand, a mumbled thanks falling from the others lips.
Thankfully as Wonwoo is eating Mingyu spots a dry Jun dragging Minghao into the kitchen, looking around for Mingyu. Minghao spots them first, speed walking over to them much to Mingyus relief.
"What happened?"
Mingyu sighs, hearing Wonwoo pause his kicking as the two approach.
"Someone spiked Wonwoo's drink."
Minghao's eyes widen, concerned as he glances at the senior. Jun looks angry, frown set deep in his face as he steps to Wonwoo and looks him over. The other grins a bit, taking another sip of the water as his friend looks at him.
"Jun, why's your hair wet?"
"Was he alone when you found him?" Jun asks, glancing at Mingyu.
The junior nods "Yeah, he found me when I was about to get a drink." He pauses, frowning "Jun, Wonwoo said this isn't the first time this has happened..."
Jun sighs, nodding in a sad manner.
"It's not, it honestly has happened more times then I can count. Thankfully I normally I can find him when he's wondered off before anything happens."
"That's horrible..." mumbles Minghao, a frown tugging his lips down. Jun nods, brushing the hair from Wonwoo's face to see his eyes a bit better.
"How about I take him home? If you could drive Minghao back that is..." Mingyu offers up, glancing between the two.
Jun nods again, still tensed but seemingly slightly relieved.
"Yeah, that's fine with me. Hao?"
Minghao shakes his head
"It doesn't bother me, Wonwoo really needs to rest and sleep this off."
Mingyu hums, turning to Jun.
"Where does he live?"
There's an uncomfortable pause before Jun shifts awkwardly, Mingyu bites his tongue at the action.
"Actually, do you think you could take him to your house for the night? I don't think Wonwoo would like for Mrs Jeon to see him like this..."
Mingyu wants to ask more questions but decides against it once he feels a weight lean into him, he glances to see Wonwoo slowly falling onto him, eyes closed. He ignores the random increase of his heart rate and sighs, nodding his head and pushing Wonwoo to sit up straight again.
He nods
"Sure, I'll take him back to mine. You guys'll be okay right?"
Minghao and Jun both nod, the youngest still watching Wonwoo with concerned eyes. Jun helps Wonwoo down from the counter, steadying him as he looses his footing at first.
"Don't worry, I'll watch over Hao. We probably won't stay much longer, I'm gonna ask around and see if anyone's saw someone messing with Woo though."
Mingyu nods, grabbing Wonwoo by the shoulders and steering him to walk away.
"Okay, be safe. I'll text you guys later."
The two make noises of agreement that are drowned out by the crowds music as Mingyu and Wonwoo force their way through the sea of people.
Thankfully most people move when they see him, though some just raise their eyebrows at him.
Once the two are out of the house Mingyu takes a deep breath, the outside chilled air cooling him down and giving tiny nips to his skin. Beside him Wonwoo sighs too.
He finally let's go of the others shoulders, coming up to walk beside him instead of behind. He leans down a bit to see the others face.
"You still okay?"
Wonwoo nods lazily, side stepping at he walks and bumps into Mingyu. The other doesn't pull away, instead chewing on his inner cheek in both concern and slight amusement.
The two continue their walk to Mingyus car silently, the music from the party slowly fading out as they get closer.
Mingyu pulls his keys out and unlocks the doors, helping Wonwoo into the passenger seat. He'd forgot that Wonwoo's shirt was cropped until his hand hit a strip of skin when he touched the others back, he frowns at how cold the others skin is.
Once Wonwoo had gotten settled, Mingyu pulled open the door to the backseats, grabbing the extra zip-up hoodie he'd left there from months ago. He shuts the door and pulls open the passenger door again, handing the senior the hoodie.
"Here, put this on."
Wonwoo hums in response as Mingyu shuts the door again and and by the time the other jogs around the car to the drive side Wonwoo is already wearing the hoodie like a snuggy.
Mingyu wants to question it, after all that's not the way to wear a hoodie, but Wonwoo looks content so he just shakes off an eye roll and starts the car.
The drive back to Mingyus house is silent, the senior having fallen asleep within a minute of their trip. Even when they arrive and Mingyu has to carry the other into his house like a parent it's silent, and when Mingyu lays down on his floor to sleep it's silent.
It leaves Mingyu to gloss over the nights events as he watches the other sleep.
He wants to say that he's disappointed to have to have left the party, but deep down he realizes that he doesn't mind that much. After all, he's glad nothing happened.
It also makes him think of what could have happened, if he either hadn't shown up or if he'd gotten there any soon or later. Wonwoo could have been seriously hurt, and that doesn't sit right with him.
The weird thoughts of just who Wonwoo was to him came back, the odd feelings that he can't describe flooded him each time he glanced at the older, curled up in the passenger seat as if he was almost as tall as Mingyu.
There's one emotion that Mingyu does recognize though, because he feels it for Minghao. Protectiveness.
He doesn't know why, Wonwoo is older and could take care of himself. But deep down Mingyu feels like he can't, that there's something so frail about the senior that he can't pin point.
He's not sure he'll ever understand what he feels or how Wonwoo plays into his life. It's as mysterious as the senior.
Mingyu sighs as he shifts onto his back, staring up at his ceiling and listening to Wonwoo's breathing until he drifts off as well.
Translations:
1. "宝贝!" : Baby!
2. "天冷了,你会生病的!" : It's getting cold and you could get sick!
3. "小浩...哎哟!" : Little Hao...ouch!