Craving (JJ x James)

08.

'Have you talked to Justin yet?' Mrs. Lee asked her son in the kitchen as she packed up the contents of her handbag, ready to leave for night duty that evening. Mr. Lee had already confirmed that he was not going to show up till the morning.

'No mom, he's being really hard.' Sangwon sighed. 'I don't know how to get him to open up.'

'But you know you must.' Mrs. Lee shook her head. 'Find a way to do it, you can't let him go back home facing the same problems. Both his mother and I trusted you with this.'

Sangwon nodded. Mrs. Lee smiled at her son then walked out of the house.

He angrily started to look for the chicken to make supper for Justin, he was getting tired of this. Why was Justin his responsibility as if he were his child? And this would have been easier to handle if Justin wasn't so hard to get to, but alas, the boy was concrete.

A while later, his best friend James walked in. He found him in the kitchen and smiled as he leaned on the counter.

'Hey hey Sangwon,' he greeted him in a happier tone than yesterday's. 'You told me I could come over since your parents are working late.'

'Yeah, hi,' Sangwon answered flatly.

'What's up?' James asked him with slight worry. 'You don't seem so happy.'

'Just that...dealing with Justin is really tiresome. He doesn't open up and I'm supposed to...' Sangwon sighed and dropped the tray of chicken breast he had just taken from the refrigerator. 'I'm so mad at him.'

'Right, but hey, at least he seems a little interested in me now, I could try again.' James then smiled at him. 'But I'm also under a lot of stress. Let's go to the club.'

'Now?' Sangwon shook his head. 'I have to make supper for Justin and I can't leave him alone...'

'Pssh, come on.' James cut him. 'Justin is like what? 16? He can make his own supper.'

'I don't know,' he sighed. Even though Sangwon and James were best friends, Sangwon was far more responsible. He was the only child who had learned how to do everything when his busy parents weren't home.

'You're too stressed to be here.' James continued to persist. 'Let's go to that 21+ club.'

Sangwon was slowly getting convinced, he really needed a break. 'Did you bring your fake ID?'

Of course they would have never been let in a 21+ club without a fake ID, they were too young for the extreme living of the nightlife.

'Of course,' James grabbed his ID out of his pocket and flashed it at Sangwon.

Sangwon looked at it for a moment then looked at his best friend with a disappointed face. 'That's your school ID idiot.'

James immediately looked at the ID, and he frowned. 'Oh man, I grabbed the wrong one.' he thought for a moment. 'Let's go back to my place and get the fake ID.'

'If your parents see you leaving this late at night, you're dead meat.' Sangwon warned him. 'Let's just not go.'

'They won't see me, they're both really busy tonight. They're at the mayor's public conference.'

Sangwon sighed, finally defeated. 'Okay, okay, fine. Let me just tell Justin we're leaving.'

'Fine.' James nodded and sat down by the counter. He looked angrily at his school ID as if it had snuck it's way into it's pocket.

'Justin!' Sangwon opened the door to Justin's room. Justin was drawing while sitting by the desk and temporarily stopped when he saw his cousin. 'I'm going out.'

Justin almost asked him where he was going around the hour of 7pm, but he chose to nod.

'You're gonna make your own supper right? Chicken breast, peas and some mashed potato.'

Justin nodded, although he was unsure whether he was going to make that or not. It was a lot of work for someone who didn't like eating very much. Sangwon smiled and shut the door, and Justin could hear the two friends suddenly excitedly leaving the house.

Justin moved to the window of his room and watched them below as they ran off. Wherever they were going, Justin knew they were going to have fun. He could have never dared to leave his house at that time – he had only done it once and he greatly regretted what had happened after that. In fact, it's what dragged him in the mess. He knew for sure that James was a bad influence on Sangwon – Sangwon would have probably not left the house if it weren't for him.

Once they were gone, he went back to his desk and continued to draw. He smiled to himself as he drew a friendship photo of him and October_rooster. It was what he always drew. If his parents saw this, they would certainly be disappointed in him.

Half an hour later, Justin couldn't hold back the feeling of hunger. He could feel his stomach rumble as his body asked for food. But he still didn't feel like cooking – there had to be a snack in the refrigerator, perhaps a piece of cake or something.

Justin walked down the stairs and made his way to the empty kitchen. Before he could reach the refrigerator, his interest was piqued by a flat white card on the table. He walked over to the counter and looked at it; it was James' school ID. He probably forgot it there.

Justin ignored it and grabbed a jar of pickles from the refrigerator, then sat down at the counter as he stuffed his face with the spicy vegetable. He curiously looked back at James' ID, now trying to know the age of this troublemaker.

'Oh he's just a year older than me.' he said to himself then continued eating. He was more courageous than Justin despite their small age gap though.

Then something dawned on him: October 14th 2005. That was James' birthday on his ID. It can't be, he thought to himself. He put the jar of pickles down then looked at James' ID intensely. Thoughts filled his confused mind.

October; October probably stood for the October in October_rooster. And his Chinese zodiac for the year 2005 was a rooster; that could explain why his Instagram username was October_rooster.

But they were so different, how could James be October_rooster? No, there had to be another explanation. Besides, why did James act like he didn't know Justin if he was October_rooster? October_rooster had clearly seen his face on his Instagram profile picture.

But it all made too much sense; no wonder October_rooster and James had the same playlist.

'Oh my goodness,' he said outloud to himself, covering his mouth in awe.

October_rooster was just under his nose, and he was far from what he had expected. 

craving.