Short Stories-Kai Ships Only! Volume 3

Tyunning- Alcoholics Anonymous

Taehyun wanted to burry himself into a hole and close it forever. That would've been easier than sitting in a circle with a bunch of strangers staring at him. "Uh... hi. My name is Taehyun. I'm an alcoholic."

The group collectively said "hi Taehyun."

His palms began to sweat when he counted 9 people other than himself. "I um. What am I supposed to say in these things?"

An older gentlemen with a salt and pepper beard, politely said "you can tell us a little about yourself. If you want, I can share my story first."

"Yes. Yes please."

The man set his coffee in his lap and addressed the group. "Hi. My name is Harry and I'm an alcoholic."

"H-hi Harry." Taehyun felt weird after saying that. His palms were nervously rubbed against his pants to get the sweat off of them. He then gripped his coffee cup like it was a safety blanket.

"My journey with alcohol started from a young age I suppose. I'm German so alcohol is deep within our culture. We start drinking it ever since we're able to hold a pint in our hands. Coming to America and having the drinking age change to 21 was an adjustment to say to the least!"

Taehyun politely laughed when everyone else did. His nerves were calmimg down when it truly hit him that everyone there had a story like his.

"Then I joined the army. From there, it got worse. Been to Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran all in the span of 8 years. Being under that kind of stress made my drinking worse. But hey. We all did it so I didn't think I had a problem. Everything, and I mean everything, changed when I was injured in the line of duty."

Taehyun tensed up when Harry explained that a rocket hit a nearby tank which caused significant nerve damage to the left side of his body. He felt slightly better when months of physical therapy got him to 75% again.

"So yeah. Things were looking better for me. I could hold a coffee cup with my left hand." Harry proudly raised his glass to show off he could. "But then my father died. Then my squad leader died and things went from better to worse. Alcohol was always there for me. My buddies all drank with me but it wasn't until one of them died of alcohol poisoning that I realized I had a problem."

While this story was nothing like his own, Taehyun realized he was lucky to be alive. Having his stomach pumped was one of the worst things he had ever been through.

"I'll never forget what the doctor told me in that hospital room. He was so blunt about it that it shocked me. He said that he could smell the alcohol on me and if I didn't clean up my act, that was gonna be me next. Now twenty years and 186 days later, I am proud to say I am sober!"

Taehyun clapped along with everyone else. When the eyes turned back to him, he still didn't feel ready to share. He thought his story was going to be too boring compared to what came before him. He breathed a sigh of relief when someone his age, a thin shaky blonde, offered to go next.

"Hi. My name is Kamal and I'm an alcoholic."

"Hi Kamal."

Kamal looked directly at the newcomer and spoke as if they were the only two people in the room. "My name means perfection. My parents named me that because they're prodigies so naturally they assumed I was going to be one too. And they were right. I was one. I became a doctor at age 22 when most people just finish their four year degrees. I've had a lot of success but all that success demanded high expectations. My parents were happy but never satisfied. They're still not satisfied and I doubt they ever will be of me."

Taehyun couldn't keep his eyes off of the blonde no matter how hard he tried. The coffee in his hands was becoming cold yet he didn't dare take a sip.

"To get through med school and residency, I drank. Hell, I even bragged that I could show up to tests drunk and score higher than everyone else. I was a total loser in high school but drinking somehow made me cool. For the first time in my life, I was accepted. People wanted to be around me when I was drunk so I kept drinking. Like most professions, especially mine when lives are on the line, it's illegal to work intoxicated."

Taehyun's stomach squeezed into a knot. His own turning point was working drunk on the job. The burns on his shin was the harshest wakeup call he could ever ask for.

"Lucky for my patients, my Chief of medicine smelled it on me when I stepped through the door. He could've fired me but he didn't. Honestly? I still think he should've. Like Harry's story, my boss told me that if I keep going down this path then he'll be the one treating me next. I was warned to never do it again or I'd be fired and arrested on the same day. That scared me enough to go here. I'm proudly 1 year sober now. It's been hard but also the most rewarding thing I've ever done. So, what's your story?"

Taehyun took a deep breath and a long sip of coffee. He still didn't feel ready but looking at Kai somehow made it a little easier. "Hi. I'm Taehyun and I'm... I'm an alcoholic."

"Hi Taehyun."

"I guess I started drinking when I got my first promotion from a line cook to a chef de partie. Being just a line cook, you know you put your head down and you do what you're told. There isn't a lot of responsibility beyond what goes on at your specific station. I probably should've started by saying I work at a three michelin star restaurant. The standards are near impossible. You have to be perfect every single day."

Kai nodded and leaned forward in his chair.

"It was something I could handle until I got the promotion. Everyone around me coped with cigarettes and hard drugs. I refused to do either so I chose alcohol as my coping method. Then I was promoted again to sous chef. The responsibility broke me when I first started my current position. My boss is a very throw you into the deep end kind of person. There's no dipping your toes in. You either sink or you swim and if you sink, you lose a chance to be apart of the highest honored culinary group in the world."

Taehyun's desire to melt into a puddle increased when Kai reached out and grabbed his hand. "Most chefs would kill to be in my position. I would've when I started out. Now I just can't stop drinking."

Kai squeezed Taehyun's hand harder and asked "what was your breaking point? You don't have to share if you're not ready."

"My breaking point was like yours. I showed up to work drunk only I tried to push through it." Taehyun rolled up his pant leg to expose the 3rd degree oil burns scarring his shin. "This was my breaking point. This is why I'm here. I need help and I didn't know where else to go."

Harry turned to the newest attendee and thanked him for sharing. He then gave others the opportunity to share things. No one else told their stories but some did share their current struggles of their journey. A woman shared she recently lost her job so she might need extra support until she gets back on her feet. Another said his father's death anniversary was coming up and asked for prayers for him.

20 minutes later, Taehyun was relieved when he heard their time was coming to a close. He was surprised to see Kai hang around to help Harry clean up. Wanting to be around him more, he volunteered to clean too.

Kai cutely grinned when they reached for the same chair like a rom com. "I got it."

"Sure..."

"You wanna get some pie after this?"

"Oh. Um..."

Kai softly placed the last chair in the corner then grabbed his jacket to hide his disappointment. "It's okay."

"It's not that I don't want to." Taehyun grabbed his jacket as well. "I just don't really like pie. I'm more of an ice cream kind of person."

"They have milkshakes."

"Chocolate I hope."

Kai giggled "they have chocolate."

"Sounds great." Besides his desperate desire to be sober, Taehyun had a new reason to keep going to meetings. He only hoped that whatever relationship they ended up having, would end up helping him along his journey instead of destroying it.