Red Lights [BANG CHAN FF]

2. Pressure

Akari woke up on a Friday morning from an empty dream with a throbbing headache. All her mind could replay last night were Hyunjin and his shameless "offer" so she tried to erase those thoughts of him and his words and drown her anger in alcohol, going to the nearest bar with her ex-roommate and best friend, Sora.

She couldn't remember how many variations of drinks she had but all of them resulted in this dull pain that was squeezing her head and throat that begged for water and some painkillers.

Akari grunted and slowly opened her eyes. She was lying face down and every breath hurt. Lying on her stomach applied pressure to her gut and she hated vomiting so she gathered all her strength and slowly rolled on her back, letting out a tired sigh when she did so. Squeezing her eyes in the hope of easing the tedious pain in her head didn't help so she opened them slowly and turned her head to her left, seeing Sora still asleep while also lying on her stomach, her blazing red hair spread on the soft pillow.

"Shit... I feel like shit..." Akari grunted again, words rolling out in whimpering Japanese, and let out another sigh.

She smacked her lips but saliva was barely enough to ease the dryness of her mouth, so Akari carefully pushed herself to sit up, the aching pain returning harder to her skull the more she moved.

"Fuck you, Hyunjin..." She hissed, repeating the words she said a billion times last night as she was pouring alcohol into her mouth.

"Akari..."

A broken whimper came behind her, and Akari turned to see her friend grunting and mumbling, smudging her makeup on the white pillowcase.

"You okay?" Akari asked, knowing damn well that Sora was far from okay as she drank maybe even more.

"Water..." Sora dryly mumbled in Japanese, pushing her manicured hands into her hair and holding her painful head.

"I swear to God... if you throw up on my bed..." Akari mumbled back and Sora shook her head, whimpering again.

"I won't... Please get me water..."

Akari grumbled and slowly stood up, dragging her feet to the kitchen. She poured water for her and Sora, returned to her bedroom, and gave one tall glass to her best friend.

"Here you go," Akari said for Sora to look up and reach for the water, pushing herself up to sit and take a small sip.

"Fuck..." Sora cursed, gulping down the content her stomach threatened to spill out of her mouth. "We should stop doing this..."

"Agreed," Akari sat on the chair by her desk, taking small sips of water. "I'm sorry, it's my fault..."

Sora shook her head and opened her eyes to look at the other girl, "Don't blame yourself," she pushed a small smile, "It's that jerk who..."

But she couldn't continue. A hick came out of her mouth and, in the next moment, Sora ran out of the room to the bathroom that was, luckily, right across the hallway. Hurling and vomiting noises echoed and Akari closed her eyes, trying her best not to join her friend.

"Hyunjin..."

Akari tilted her head back, wanting to push away her gag reflex by thinking about the man who got her into this mess. If it wasn't for his "offer" Akari wouldn't have spent her Thursday night obliterating herself with alcohol. Instead, she would have ordered pizza and watched a cheesy rom-com but being so annoyed, she knew she needed something strong to ease that rage and Sora was always a good drinking company... although Akari hoped that at least one of them would stay sober enough to make it through the morning.

Sora's whispering voice, followed by another wave of vomiting, came to Akari's ears and she squeezed her eyes shut, pinching the bridge of her nose. They were both a mess, still wearing the clothes from last night, but, if there could be taken any positive thing out of everything, neither of them were raped.