Daffodils only Bloom in Spring

9

"Okay, Hoseok, we're ready. Go ahead."

"Right. Well I guess I'm here because of a party that took place around a month ago, mid-December. A bit of context, I'm a bit of a party animal, pretty much went to parties at least once a week. Now, anyone with experience will tell you that the best "social gatherings", if you will, take place outside of campus and that's where most of them are held. This party was particularly far away but my friends and I really wanted to go. The major problem was that I had afternoon lectures so my friends had to wait for me to finish because I've always been our ride in situations like this. And don't worry, these sorts of parties are ones for predominantly university students and the people hosting know we need to drive to get there so they allow us to stay the night.

"Anyway, because of how quickly it gets dark in December and curfew and everything, we needed to leave campus as soon as I was free to go. I must have had a lot on my plate that day, I mean what university student doesn't, but bottom line is, I was meant to bring an extra injection that I could take on our way to the party, since the last time I had injected myself was in the morning, but forgot. I decided not to mention it to anyone but I started feeling weird as I was driving so that got me a bit panicked. Luckily, I managed to get them to the venue safely. But the feeling didn't go away. So I started drinking to get my mind off it, hoping that it would just pass after a while. It obviously didn't work though. If anything I think I started to become even more jittery.

"I must have looked like there was something wrong with me because this woman came up to me, asking if I was okay. She looked like she was a couple of years older than me and didn't seem like she had any company with her. She ended up leading me upstairs. I didn't object because my head felt like it was going to explode, I needed a distraction and she looked like a good fuck." Jungkook visibly flinched at the comment, his unease not going unnoticed by Jimin, who placed a hand on the younger's knee, hoping to reassure him.

"Much to my surprise though, when we got to a spare bedroom, she started taking care of me. She gave me water and pills to sober me up, opened the windows so I could get some fresh air and gave me space to gather my bearings. I was so confused but I just sat there, with her not saying a word, just standing by the door. Once I was in a better state of mind, she took out a syringe from her bag and sat down on the bed next me. She started explaining that she was going to inject me with something that would make me feel better and that I needed to trust her and honestly at that point I was starting to freak out. But before I could say or do anything, she was already leaning forward and the needle was in my skin.

"When she was done, she sat back with the most satisfied smile on her face while I was just cursing at her. But after a couple of minutes I started feeling really good and like Taehyung said, I realised that this was how I had felt before I started taking the government injections. You really do forget what anything other than fatigue feels like when you're under the influence of that substance. Anyway, she told me that that was an injection that somehow removed all the remains of the tranquiliser in my bloodstream. She said it broke it down or something, I don't know the science behind it.

"She then gave me a full bag of injections that she said were fake. She said I had to inject myself with them as if they were the normal ones and never touch the government substance again, that I would feel like I used to before the dictatorship and that I could feel confident going to the tests because the results wouldn't reveal my disobedience. She told me specifically to not try and find a way to contact her- no name, no phone number or address. She said another party would be held the following month at the same location because at that point the supply of injections she had given me would have started to run out and she would have to give me more. I was meant to meet her again but that didn't happen because of lockdown.