BTS HYYH Notes (Book 1, 2, BUS Game) // COMPLETE [Part 2]

2022, Jun 18 - Namjoon (A Drink With Seokjin Hyung)

[Place: Street pub]

When I asked him if we could meet, Seokjin hyung took his time but said yes. We met at a street pub near Songju Station. It was the end of a weekend, and the people at the street pub had no intention of going home.

From the pub, I could see an old, decrepit commercial building waiting for redevelopment. A few places like that were in Songju. A couple of ahjussi came out of the street across the road, and walked away, singing.

We gulped down our first drinks even before they brought us the side dishes we'd ordered.

"How are you doing?"

Hyung answered without any emotion whatsoever. He didn't tell me anything of himself, and didn't ask about me or the other friends. The pub owner brought us the side dishes but we didn't touch them.

When Taehyung had told me those strange stories, I couldn't believe them and felt a sense of foreboding. I'd known Seokjin hyung, and I was close to him. But who was this person in front of me now?

"When was the first time you drank?" I asked him with the cup in my hand. Hyung just looked at me. I began telling him my story. "When I turned the corner to my house, I saw our furniture and kitchen things piled up on the ground. I was carrying my abeoji on my back from the hospital when I saw our stuff dragged out of the house key. 'Namjoon-ah, what should we do?' My eommeoni said desperately. Apparently, my dongsaeng got into a fight with the landowner's son when they showed up for the overdue rent. Fortunately, the supermarket owner let us stay in the storage room next to the market. I lay my abeoji inside and carried our stuff to the room. When we were done, it was night. My eommeoni placed chopsticks in my hand and told me to eat something, but I couldn't swallow a thing. Seeing all our stuff stacked up in one corner of that storage place, I just wanted to drop dead. I walked out and sat on a bench outside the supermarket. When my eommeoni asked me where Namhyun was, I yelled at her. How should I know? Namjoon. Namjoon---Namjoon. I was sick and tired of everything. I regretted telling my dongsaeng he should always hold his head high. We could get by a couple of days in the storage room, but I didn't know what to do after that. I was blank. Then the supermarket owner handed me a can of beer. That was the first time I tasted booze. I was sixteen, I think."

Seokjin hyung listened emotionless.

(A/N: This story happened on May 2, Year 18, from the Part 1 of the Book I created.)

"Isn't that funny?" And I asked again, "When was the first time you drank?"

"I don't know," he answered, not wanting to be bothered.

I said, "When you came to see me at the gas station for the first time, why did you ask me to look into Jungkook?"

Seokjin hyung frowned a little. As if asking what was the point of all of this. Turning his head around, he spat out, "Just because I thought it would be nice to see everyone."

He was lying. That night when we had all decided to get together at the container, he refused. (A/N: Lots of loops happened.)

Our conversation came to a stop. When I brought up our days in high school, he would change the topic or react with irritation. He was not the person I used to know. He wasn't interested in us and was impassive to our memories together.

"Have you heard of the map of the soul?" He suddenly asked.

It was the first time ever for him to ask me something at the street pub.

"What is that? Is it a map of some place?"

"Something I have to find. Something that can end all of this..." he didn't finish. And he shook his head as if he shouldn't have said it.

(A/N: Moments after)

When we came out of the pub, it was close to midnight.

He turned around after a short goodbye, and I said to his back, "I thought you were like me."

He looked back very briefly and walked on. And I watched him as he walked away.

I knew the first time hyung had drank. It was in my second year high school.

(A/N: kinda throwback)

We'd skipped classes and snuck out of school only to get ourselves into a scuffle with thugs. There were four of us: Seokjin hyung, Jimin, Taehyung, and me. The end of the scuffle was obvious. None of us knew how to fight. We got our asses kicked, and when the thugs left, we were painting under the bridge by the Yangji Stream.

Jimin went and bought cans of beer. Or was it Taehyung? Seokjin hyung opened one clumsily. We cheered half in anger and half in frustration at having our asses kicked, and guzzled down the whole can. And we ended up spending the rest of the day drunk and flushed, talking gibberish, falling asleep, and waking up again only to talk gibberish again.

"This is my first time tasting booze," hyung said like a confession.

Someone asked him, "Is there anything else you haven't tried yet? You can do it all today."

Seokjin hyung had thrown a punch in drunken booze for the first time.

(A/N: End of throwback)

But he didn't remember that day at all.