𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬, park sunghoon

021. smokers vs non-smokers

SMOKERS VS NON-SMOKERS

the four teenagers had only been at the party for less than an hour and they were pretty much wasted from the one too many drinks they had consumed in such a short period of time. not to mention, the four had already lost each other after about ten minutes of being there.

heeseung ran into someone he knew and went to talk to them. jungwon was making out with some girl he just met. kaiden was standing with a bunch of people, playing beerpong and befriending them. lastly, sunghoon was shooting down anyone who hit on him, which was practically half of the people at the party.

now usually, sunghoon would've already been on his way to his apartment with the first person that approached him , but he made a promise to himself to make sure kaiden would get home safe. therefore he didn't allow himself to leave the party without her, which meant there wouldn't be any sleeping around with anyone this night.

not even a minute after some girl approached him, another guy walked up to him, trying to get into his pants. the guy was very attractive, sunghoon wasn't going to lie about that. however, as said, distractions weren't allowed, so shooting him down was his only option.

"sorry, i have to go look for my friend." sunghoon awkwardly scratched him neck and stumbled off to look for the rest of the group.

due to his drunken state, he staggered around, almost tripping over certain objects and people, but eventually he was able to find his way over to kaiden. at first, she didn't seem to notice him since she was too busy trying to land the pingpong ball in the plastic cup, but after a few seconds she spotted him standing a little further.

immediately, she dropped the ball and left the game, leaving the rest of the people at the table a bit disappointed, but she didn't care.

"hi." kaiden smiled at sunghoon in a noticeably drunken way, while putting her hand on his arm.

"hey." he replied, suddenly turning a bit shy, even though he was never that way around her.

the brunette girl turned her head to peek at the window for a second before facing the boy in front of her again. "wanna go outside for a cig?" she proposed, reaching for the pack of cigarettes in her bag.

"i don't smoke, but we can go outside if you want to." he rejected her offer but was still willing to go outside. after all, he found parties pretty much disgusting, so some fresh air didn't sound too bad.

the girl just shook her head, smiling at him. "if you don't smoke then i won't either." she said to him.

"just because i don't, doesn't mean you can't."

"way to be a bad influence." she joked while taking his wrist, taking him him outside.

"maybe you just give in too easily." he shrugged his shoulders, insinuating that the girl, who now had the cigarette ready in her hand, had no self-control, which frankly, wasn't far from the truth.

the two sat down on a small bench near the concrete wall. while she lighted her cigarette, sunghoon just stared at the girl with the terribly unhealthy habit of puffing cancer sticks. he wasn't a big fan of smokers, but he believed in people making their own decisions, as long as he didn't have to live with the consequences.

"you ever think of stopping?" he pointed at the lit tobacco stick in her mouth as she inhaled the smoke. he watched her blow out the smoke, which to him, for no reason, was a little attractive.

damn, focus sunghoon. killing your lungs is not attractive. the boy's thoughts woke him up from his trance.

"yeah." it was a short and simple answer, but it was the truth. though she wasn't like a chainsmoker who smoked two packs a day, one cigarette was already one too many, so the idea of stopping was on her mind sometimes.

"then why don't you stop? is it really that hard?" even though sunghoon didn't smoke and probably had no idea what he was talking about, the girl surprisingly shook her head in response to the last question he asked.

"it's not. i guess i do it because it relieves stress and it has sort of become a habit." she just shrugged, not really knowing a specific answer as to why she hadn't stopped yet.

the boy was deep in his thoughts, trying to think of something to say, that would actually be useful in the conversation.

"list a number of reasons why you'd wanna stop." he said out of nowhere.

"what?"

"just do it." he insisted she did as he told.

"okay. well, they're bad for you." she began by stating the obvious, most popular reasoning why most people would stop the nasty habit. "if i smoke too regularly i'll become dependent on them, they give me throat infections more often then when i don't smoke, yellow teeth, loss of appetite."

the girl didn't even need time to think about the reasons, because she already had them lined up in her head. she just kept on listing more and more reasons.

"oh, and the smell." she chuckled while pressing the cig out in the ashtray.

"you know," she continued, "someone once refused to kiss me unless i rinsed my mouth or something." the girl laughed it off, not expecting the following statement to be such a bold one.

"i wouldn't care." sunghoon abruptly stated, which caught kaiden by surprise. she wasn't sure he he meant what she though he was saying.

"what?"

"i would still kiss you even if you've had one." the boy repeated the statement, only with a few added words which clarified kaiden's previous thoughts.

"do it then." the girl teased him. freaking him out was initially her goal by saying what she just said, but maybe that was to hide the fact that she wanted him to do it.

"no."

"oh." a sudden wave of disappointment flew through her body. the girl looked down in her embarrassment after her bold statement, that was apparently a bit too bold. though she didn't expect him to kiss her, she didn't expect him to shoot her down like that either, which was a little hurtful. "why?"

"i'm not going to kiss you when you're drunk. ask me again tomorrow." he blatantly stated as he stood up and walked back inside as if he didn't say what he just said.

ask me again tomorrow? what the hell does he mean by that?

"hey!" the brunette abruptly stood up trying to catch up with him. "you're drunk too. and what does that even mean?" she pointed at him, stating the obvious.

"yeah, but you're a few too many drinks ahead of me, therefore it goes against my principles." he threw his hands up, almost in defeat, because he was right. it did go against his principles to do anything with anyone who were too intoxicated.

it was basic knowledge that everyone with a little common sense should've understood, but unfortunately even that bar was too high. therefore, sunghoon just stated that it wasn't something he would ever do.

"okay, i respect that. but you're ignoring my question. what do you mean by ask me again tomorrow?" the girl quoted the thing he said before he tried to leave the situation, but she needed some clarification as to what he meant by it.

"exactly like i told you, princess. just ask me again tomorrow."