Slopes

t w e n t y e i g h t

<^>

"May I present to you," Jaemin starts, drawing out the syllables for dramatic effect. "Organized Crime and Chaos!" He gestured wildly at the board behind him, a google slide presentation projecting on it. The theme was orange and white, with the letters OCAC front and center in bold Roboto font. Jaemin was standing next to the board, a glass of some horrendous concoction hanging dangerously from his fingertips. Despite his fruitless protests that he was just tipsy, everyone knew he was horribly drunk.

But the others weren't far behind him. Jeno was on his fourth cup of beer, but he was known to hold his liquor and he looked pretty aware. Shotaro, who was the whole reason this gathering was happening, was drinking some sort of amateur martini Jaemin had made for him (though there was a good chance most of it was just straight tequila.) Donghyuck himself was holding a joint in between his fingers, the smell wafting around him like cologne. He had in his other hand a McDonald's sprite– which was probably just as toxic as whatever Jaemin was drinking, all things considered. Meanwhile Sungchan (a friend from the neighboring town who they rarely got to see) was probably more out of it than any of them, a vape laying empty at his thigh, and his fingers pinching at Donghyuck's face as a sign to pass him the blunt.

"Shotaro, I–" Jaemin placed a hand on his chest, trying his best to sound normal but his Satoori accent still peaked through, making it next to impossible to understand him. "–want to formally introduce you to this friend group. We *hiccup* have had this presentation for years now, and everyone has had to undergo this process." he clicks the spacebar on his computer and a new slide pops up, this one labeled 'Table of Contents'.

"It is tradition that we all get absolutely wasted during the initiation process so that whatever *hiccup* we may do is to be lost to the night." He cocks a finger at the first bullet point on the slide. "First we will show everyone in this friend group." Jaemin's small smile grows manic as he continues on blubbering about the information listed– most of it coming out a garbled mess as he takes another swig of his...drink.

There's another click and the slides change again to a picrew next to the name 'Na Jaemin'. Below is a choppy paragraph with horrible grammar which introduced who he was. It hadn't changed much from when Donghyuck and he had made it when they were 14, but there was an obvious edit of "and im dating jeno"– which Donghyuck recalled Jaemin was very excited to add in.

"I'm Jaemin, obviously. And though I'm sure you can read just fine, you are also drunk so *hiccup* I will read it to you." He smiled and bowed as if he just did a magic trick. "Hi, I'm Na Jaemin. I'm eighteen and I go to the local high school. My favorite movie is Howl's Moving Castle–" he drabbled on, meanwhile Jeno and Sungchan exchanged looks while Donghyuck took another drag of his joint. He let the taste fill his senses, his body deflating with every exhale he released.

"Next up is Donghyuck. Get up here you dipshit." Jaemin grasped onto Donghyuck's arm, pulling him up to a standing position and handing him the marker Jaemin was using as a fake mic. He passed his blunt to Sungchan, who took it gratefully, before flexing his shoulders and began to speak.

"Uh," he glanced at the slide and sighed. "I'm Donghyuck...I'm currently 18 years old and my birthday is June 7. I like Demon Slayer and my favorite book is The Giver. I like video games and..." he blinked, the weed hitting his brain and making the words foggy. It didn't matter though, he'd read this out enough times for his other friends that he had the words ingrained in his head, flashing behind his eyelids every time he blinked.