no regrets 。taekai 。

xxiv

"you ready, nini?" baekhyun called from outside jongin's room.

they were invited to a music show's after party (which jongin totally didn't know existed) and jongin was taking extra long to dress himself.

"almost!" jongin called out unenthusiastically.

"hurry up, bitch!"

jongin sighed as he tucked in his red silky shirt into his skinny jeans, grabbing his wallet and keys before exiting his room.

"finally, baekhyun was about to punch something." sehun scoffed, placing his hand on baekhyun's waist as they all made their way out of the building, jongdae and junmyeon being the ones who had already left with one of their managers.

"we're going alone?" jongin asked as the couple playfully pushed eachother around on the parking lot, "c'mon guys, i'm going through my own one-sided love crisis and y'all are making me want to burn my eyes and feed it to lucky."

"ew." baekhyun scrunched his nose, to which sehun pinched his cheek while opening the door for him, "poor lucky."

"yes, we're going alone, but i'm a pretty great driver so don't worry." sehun smiled and it just made jongin 10x more anxious.

sehun wasn't lying about driving badly, but jongin was kept on edge the whole drive as baekhyun made little subtle attempts to get sehun's attention, which made sehun almost drive off the road a few times.

they arrived on the venue and jongin was the first one out the door, breathing in fresh air from the outside world and thanking all the gods for assuring that he saw the moon at least one more time.

"it wasn't that bad." baekhyun affectionately smacked jongin's back.

they got to the elevator and jongin noticed how sehun and baekhyun were barely even acknowledging each other anymore, in contrast to the lovey dovey couple jongin saw in the dorms everyday and just a second ago.

it must have been so natural for them to change from being clingy and adorable to stand-offish and indifferent and that made jongin's chest hurt a little bit. he felt sad that the happy couple had to act like they were just friends even if the world knew they were dating.

"wow... who the fuck is paying for this?" baekhyun nudged jongin and the latter looked up to see a very fancy ballroom decorated with neon balloons and the chandelier covered in pink and blue fairy lights.

the loud edm music boomed off the walls and jongin was a little startled at the size of the place.

"they made cinderella's living room into a nightclub." sehun gaped and received a slight punch from baekhyun followed by 'that was silly.'

the couple lead jongin to a round table in which a few of the exo members were sitting.

"no cameras here! isn't that great? i thought there'd be at least few paps but they weren't allowed in!" yixing told jongin, already shoving a mysterious glass towards the boy.

"what's this?" jongin asked taking it from yixing.

"i don't know," yixing leaned on jongin a bit, clearly tipsy already, "probably some expensive ass aged wine. i really don't care, it's delicious."

jongin took the older's words for what they were and agreed, it was pretty delicious.

sehun and baekhyun went straight to the buffet where minseok and junmyeon were already getting some food.

"jongin!" chanyeol screamed over the music, "you made it, now let's go to the bar."

"shouldn't you guys eat something first? i'm not taking care of anyone in the morning by the way, y'all are on your own." kyungsoo warned.

"it's fine," chanyeol waved a dismissing hand, "we'll be fine, we'll just get really drunk and then head home."

yixing and chanyeol dragged jongin to the bar, bumping into a few people who were dancing.

"oh!" someone exclaimed, "watch where you're going. oh! jongin! chanyeol, hi!"

it was taemin. jongin sighed and looked down as chanyeol gave into small talk with taemin and kibum.

"loved the new song, by the way." chanyeol put a hand over his eye and said 'destroy me more' in a very dramatic way.

"thanks!" taemin smiled and jongin couldn't help but notice the hoarseness in the boy's voice.

jongin looked towards the bar to see yixing already downing a cup and decided that he would also do that all evening.

"excuse me." jongin gave taemin a small smile before leaving chanyeol to drunk sing with kibum.

。。。

taemin furrowed his brows as he watched jongin leave without saying anything.

he thought back to the last day they had met and he felt a little anxious. was jongin mad at him? if so, for what?

he drank a little more from his bottle and decided he would just enjoy the night and talk about whatever was bothering jongin later.

—————

i really appreciate comments and they do make me want to write more but don't feel pressured by it!

i'm sorry if the story timeline is kind of messy but i've been writing this fanfic for a bit more than a year now and i feel like i should try to end it at least before december of this year, maybe i'll end it and then make a last chapter like a christmas special or something to close it off.

i planed for this fanfic to have around 40 chapters so there's still a bit of story to cover.

i said this before, but this time i swear i'll try to update more often... ♡