Philia [Taegi]

8.1 New Neighbours

"Alright, I'll be outside in ten... Don't worry, I got some... Yesterday, three grams... Shut up... Yeah okay, see you." Yoongi hung up his phone he recently bought. It had been a little expensive but ever since he had started his job Yoongi could afford a bit of luxury. Jennie was quite jealous of it, Samsung Galaxy S4, maybe he would buy another one for her as a Christmas present but that was still half a year away and her parents would probably get her a nice phone anyway, so maybe not.
Shouldering his former school backpack Yoongi headed for the front door where he put on his also new black boots. "Where are you going?" his mother stuck her head out of the kitchen. "Hoseok is picking me up." "But I'm almost done with dinner." his mother sounded disappointed but Yoongi couldn't be bothered. "I'll eat with Hoseok." "Or you could both eat here, I definitely cooked enough." she had hope in her voice and Yoongi would have been sorry, if he didn't know he was saving them all a screaming match. "Sorry mom, but the others are waiting for us." "Your mother took so long to prepare dinner and you just say no, thank you? Are you really going to disrespect her like that?" Yoongi felt his muscles tense, as always when his 'stepfather' was around. "I have to get going, I didn't know dinner would be ready." Yoongi grinded his teeth. "Is your nose broken? Can't you smell it?" Kim Jitae, his so called stepdad, questioned him while standing in the doorframe to the living room like he was all high and mighty. Yoongi hated his stupid stern face. Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't because he wasn't Yoongi's real dad, his dad died in a car accident before Yoongi turned one, so it wasn't like he remembered any other father figure to begin with. The thing just was, that Jitae was a shit father figure. "It's alright darling, Yoongi can eat with his friends. Have fun, dear." she smiled at Yoongi but her eyes were incredibly sad. It always broke Yoongi's heart a little to see her like this but he knew it was still  the less painful way. "Thanks mom, love you." he said and grabbed his jacket, making sure he didn't spare Jitae another glance. Still, he heard him say, "You can't always let him go, he has been out of school for a whole year, it's time for him to go to university." to his mother while Yoongi closed the door behind him. As if on call, at that exact moment an old, dented, silver car pulled up in front of his house. Yoongi's face immediately lit up as he quickly walked towards it and opened the passenger door. "Somebody's exited to see me, stress with the oldies?" Hoseok asked, teasing. "Just the usual." Yoongi shrugged while climbing into the small car. "You are getting new neighbours?" Hoseok asked and nodded his head forward when he saw Yoongi's confused expression. He followed the direction Hoseok showed him and indeed, there was a big truck parked in front of the house from which people were carrying packages inside. "Looks like it." Yoongi commented. Hoseok snorted. "You are unbelievable, do you even know who is moving in? What if it's a hot girl?" Hoseok asked, seemingly growing excited at that idea. "Yeah and she will change in front of the window while leaving the blinds open." "Exactly! That would be crazy, bro." Hoseok continued enthusiastically, clearly he had not picked up on Yoongi's sarcasm. The older gave his best friend a slight hit to the back of his head. "Stop making up porn and drive, the others must be waiting for us." Hoseok pouted but did as he was told. While he drove past the truck, Yoongi caught a glimpse of a teenage-boy carrying a big package out of the truck. He concluded that this must be the son of the new neighbours, as he was the only kid around, but didn't say anything to not burst Hoseok's bubble just yet.

When they arrived almost half an hour later at the run down house on the edge of the city, Yoongi was relieved to see that only a few cars were there yet, which meant most of the others hadn't still arrived. Hoseok parked his car behind a few bushes just like the others did.
Afterwards they stepped inside, there was no need to knock or anything, as the doorlock broke years ago. Despite, there was no point of a locked door as pretty much every single window in the building was smashed.
The hideout, as Yoongi and his friends liked to call it, was a ten storey high building that had been part of an ambitious project by the mayor in the ninetees. His plan was to drastically expand the living space of the city, so he let a lot of buildings be erected just about a mile outside the town. Obviously nobody wanted to live so far away from their work, family and the general infrastructure, that's why these types of houses had been abandoned and ever since served as meeting spots for young adults who lived on the outer circle of the city. For the past three years it had been Yoongi's and his friend's place to chill and escape. Actually, for most of his friends it had been longer, since the majority of them were a bit older than him, Hoseok was the youngest amongst the group except when someone would maybe once in a while bring their eighteen year old brother but no one younger, their hangouts weren't suited for kids anyway.
"There he his, the man with the weed!" Mark yelled after Yoongi and Hoseok had climbed up the old stairs to the second floor. He was sitting in one of the tattered couches they had picked up and brought here. When Yoongi had started hanging out with the others there were only two of them facing each other. Now there were six, building a large circle around a fireplace. Yoongi sank down on one of them and Hoseok next to him. "Common man, don't leave us waiting." Mark pressed until Yoongi opened his backpack to grab one of the three small plastic bags he kept in it. "Roll up then." he said in annoyance and threw it in Mark's lap. "Somebody's in a good mood." Suho commented and raised an eyebrow. Yoongi shrugged. He had mentioned before that his mother and her husband were really adamant about him going to university but it was not something he would discuss in the group on a daily basis. In addition, he was also just annoyed that Mark would always try to get some of Yoongi's weed the moment he knew he got something, but their group didn't really have the dynamic where things like these were discussed. Either you suck it up or you man up. No other option.
"Done." Mark exclaimed and proudly held up three perfect joints. "Let's wait for the others." Xiumin said as he lit up a cigarette. "Can I have one?" Yoongi asked. The elder passed him his pack. "You know, you shouldn't respond all sassy when Mark asks you for weed if you're going to ask for a cig every single time." he commented. Their friend group didn't really have a social leader but if they did it would have definitely been Xiumin as he was the oldest of the bunch and the only one with a semi respectable job. The rest just worked part-time like Yoongi or didn't work at all and simply drained on their parents' pockets. That was part of why Yoongi didn't understand Jitae nagging him about his career. As far as he knew, he did more than most of the others. He didn't ask for money, ever, and even bought groceries from his own earnings from time to time. "Jo, Hoseok, how did the show go yesterday?" Suho suddenly asked. Hoseok's face promptly lit up. "It went great actually, we got a lot of applause and the other crew members said if I keep it up I can become a member of the centre group." His friend pulled out his phone and started showing the others his performance on video, and so they continued to talk about everything and nothing until the other guys arrived. Eventually all of the couches were more or less filled and they started to pass the three joints around. That's how they spent most of their evenings and nights. Getting high in this lost place while talking and joking around. Though they didn't always smoke, sometimes they got drunk too, but that was more a weekend type of thing when they weren't at house parties.