The alcohol burned his throat as it went down. Beer wasn’t cutting it, he was drinking whiskey straight instead. He understood why people always tended to mix it with something else, it hurt like shit on its own. He supposes it was fitting though, he felt shittier than the pain and the flavour anyway. It wasn’t like his friends would have stopped him if they were around, they never really hung out with him properly these days. They weren’t even friends anymore, they just avoided him at this point and really who could blame them? Being friends with the University’s whore wasn’t desirable by any standards. Nobody wanted to be him, let alone go near him. The thought stung deep and he hurled the bottle of whiskey he had stolen at the wall, letting the glass shatter as he realised something.
He didn’t even want to be himself either.
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A couple days had passed since Seungmin's breakdown in the bathroom and he seemed to have gone back to his usual self. Although Minho was skeptical of how quickly the younger bounced back, he never questioned it. The two had managed a brief chat by the main building's entrance, along with a short hug initiated by the younger before he ran off to somewhere Minho didn't quite catch.
He'd learnt a few new things about Seungmin over the past days though now, like his fear of his own phone. Minho had asked about why he was scared of it but the younger refused to answer which he respected and didn't push much further despite his spiked curiosity and worry. In fact, it was making him consider giving Seungmin his old phone. As selfish as it sounds, he wanted to at least have some way to talk to Seungmin because it wasn't exactly easy for them to talk in person. Not while Minho's friends were so hostile about them having any kind of relation with each other. For some reason he felt drawn to the third year, he just couldn't get enough of him no matter how many times they caught eyes or brushed shoulders in the corridors and courtyards.
"Hyung?"
"Oh? Sorry… I wasn't listening." Minho admitted, scratching the back of his head. Jisung, who was walking alongside him, sent a pointed glare towards him before sighing and grabbing Minho by the forearm.
"Aish, Hyung… you need to listen more." Jisung said, his expression becoming more of a teasing smile. Since they started talking again, Jisung had been very quick to go back to his usual self, though he still seemed to have moments of discomfort especially whenever the topic of Seungmin was brought up. "I was talking about that winter dance competition, I was curious if you were gonna sign the team up for it? You kept talking about wanting at least one other win as captain…"
"Wait, it's the one in Busan, right?"
Jisung hummed in agreement, swaying close to Minho and holding his arm with both hands now.
"Yeah, I signed the team up yesterday." Minho smiled, excited at the prospect of being able to lead his team for one last time before University was over for him and he had to go out into the real world and be the adult everyone expected of him. Thinking about no longer being in education like this made his stomach twist in all kinds of weird ways, it just seemed so surreal. All he and his friends have ever known their whole lives was this and to think that so soon, in a mere matter of months, it would all be over and they’d all be going off their separate ways in life felt unreal. But he supposed that was just the way the world works, it didn’t care about the way people like himself felt. “We’ll start working on it on Thursday when they announce the theme.”
“They set themes during competitions?” Jisung asked, clearly confused by the concept. Then again, Minho couldn’t blame him, the last competition Minho took the team to didn’t have a fixed theme. It was more of a choose-your-own kind of theme and allowed a lot more flexibility for the dancers to play to their own group strengths as well as individual ones during the solo dances. There was also more freedom in that only one dancer per team were required to prepare solo performances rather than the minimum Minho had grown up with of at least two. To be frank, Hyunjin’s solo performance had definitely carried them to the win last time and dragged them up out of a potential draw with another University’s team.
“Yeah, they normally do.” Minho continued. “I’m hoping for a theme that Hyunjin is good with so we can put him up for the solo performance. Anything dark or mysterious, something mesmerising.”
“Dude, he’s pretty damn mesmerising as it is. I don’t think the theme would make that much difference, right?”
“Sung, the themes make so much difference! You really haven’t seen Hyunjin trying to do a comedic dance before and it shows.” Minho laughed, gently elbowing Jisung as they walked along. Their classes lined up and as a result they both had some time to kill as they approached the corridor both of their next classes were in. They had a longer break period between their last lesson and this one.
“I mean, I’d buy you dinner to see that actually. Hyunjin hyung’s just such an incredible dancer, he could be making a fool of himself and I’d still find it cool!”
“Someone has the hots for Hyunjin, hm~?” Minho teased, pulling a little face at Jisung who grimaced in response, turning to the side and pretending to heave.
“Gross man.” Jisung said with a shudder. “No way, I’d rather date you first and that’s saying something because, my God, have you smelt yourself. Disgusting.”
“Woah! What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Listen, man, I know I told you that I like when you wear Linx but it only smells good if you smell clean beforehand.” Jisung explained. “So, in short, scrub your balls better please, I can smell them from here.”
“I think it’s time you exercise your manners.” Minho chuckled, slapping Jisung around the back of the head in a friendly manner. “When’s the last time you’ve bought me dinner, huh?”
“Hmph! Help me, Minho hyung’s using me for my money!” Jisung cried in jest towards a random boy who looked to be in his first year walking nearby. He gave them both a weird look, raising his upper lip in disgust and unintentionally showing off his braces. Even though his bowl cut covered his eyebrows, Minho could tell they were definitely pointed downward in a scowl, though his youthful child-like face only made him look cute rather than threatening or serious. “Oh, won’t you pity this poor hyung?”
“What the fuck…”
Safe to say, the first year was quick to carry on with his day, walking with more urgency than before. To be honest, Minho would’ve done the same had he been in that position himself. Not to diss his own best friend but, goodness, he could be a bit much for first impressions.
“Look at you, scaring away kids.”
“Oh, shut up hyung.”
“You still owe me dinner, no matter how many kids you scare.” Minho said, wrapped an arm heavily around Jisung, pulling him into a friendly and loose headlock so he could scruff up his perfectly styled hair. It was, of course, followed by lots of grumblings and whines.
“Ugh, fine.” Jisung huffed, fixing up his hair as he was released from the older’s hold. “What do you wanna get?”
“I want… Hm, I’ll pity your wallet because we’re both poor as shit so let’s go to our favourite barbeque place.”
“It’s a deal, see you later!” Jisung begrudgingly agreed, giving a cute smile before heading to his class which was further down the corridor and started in a few minutes' time. Minho gave a small wave towards his retreating figure before checking his phone. He unlocked it and swiped down his notification bar, initially planning to swipe it further down to put his phone on silent before going to class but was caught up by a certain message on his notifications.
***
승민:
Hey hyungg~
It’s kinda scary texting you rn but I wanna talk to you
