ELYSIAN || enhypen.

Chapter 2

A rager meant that the entire grade was invited. Plus some odd few anomalies from other year groups. Things were bound to get messy at ragers. There's never been a good rager in Halcyon history where something interesting hasn't happened.

Jay's infamous rager from spring last year caused a whole police department to come knocking on his door. At Thomas' rager just last month, two ex-lovers were caught in bed together. Mid-way through Natasha's rager, a teacher got arrested for showing up and trying to grope a student's breasts.

For Mona's rager, the scandal, though it was going to be kept a loose secret, was that someone smuggled in opium. And that someone was standing leaning his slim figure against the kitchen door, his dark complexion illuminated by purple flashes. Victor Tengku.

Opium was the single drug that was made completely illegal during the Great Change. Halcyon is the city suspected to still be producing and distributing the banned drug, however, there's never been enough incriminating evidence to make charges. It was too much of a taboo topic to touch on. But even if Halcyon was in the possession of this drug, so what? Surely you could find opium all around the country if you looked in the right places or knew the right people.

"So why's this shit even illegal here?" Jake Sim crept up behind Victor, a lit up cigar resting between his index and middle finger. He examined it, before taking a long drag. "Isn't even that bad."

Victor rolled his eyes, grabbing the cigar away from Jake's fingers. "Don't fucking sniff it all up. This is fucking pricey and took forever to get my hands on. Plus, it's some strong stuff. Dealer said 5 puffs per person a day. No more." Victor took in a single puff for himself, before blowing out the smoke and placing the remnants in his pockets.

Jake raised his eyebrows. "What are you going to do with the rest of it?"

Victor pulled an exasperated look. "Keep it for later, obviously."

"Hm, fair enough." Jake shrugged, looking around to find something more interesting. He spotted Nicole nearby. He began making his way to her.

"Oh yeah, and Jake?" Victor called out to him a moment later.

"What?"

"Remember to stick by what I said. Keep it between our group. Maximum 5 puffs."

Jake wasn't sure what to make of the statement. It sounded kind of silly in his mind. Only 5 puffs? That didn't seem like a lot. What was so bad about this stuff that they were only allowed so little of it? But Victor sounded serious, and Victor was the most experienced when it came to all sorts of drugs. Victor wants to be a doctor when he grows up. Victor knew what was right and what wasn't. And Jake had to take his word for it.

"Yeah, man." Jake left him alone by the entrance to the kitchen, hurrying away. "Hey, Nic!" He called out.

Nicole Atlas was the daughter of two lawyers. Her family were filthy rich, owning up to 3 grand mansions across America and even a private yacht in Barbados. "Jake, hey." She got up to greet her friend with the classic French-style kiss to each cheek. "What's up?"

"Nothing, thought I'd stop by." Jake flopped down on a nearby sofa, greeting two girls on either side of him with a flirtatious smile.

Nicole found Jake's whole frat-boy/playboy persona extremely annoying. She knew he was actually a real nice guy deep down inside. So why did he feel the need to bed every female to cross his path? The answer was beyond her.

"Scooch up." Nicole squished her body into a tiny gap on the end of the sofa. "Jake!"

"What?"

"Stop fucking man-spreading."