UNDER PRESSURE || HUENING KAI

18. Unlocked

HUENING KAI—

I never usually went to things like these. I was more of a homebody, and enjoyed being by myself watching anime rather than out at a bar or party. Soobin was usually the same, but he'd always ended up feeling guilty for not going with the others—like when we performed at Lollapalooza, I was the only one that stayed back at the hotel while the others went. I much preferred the comfort of my room, cuddled up in bed with snacks.

I probably would've left early had it not been for Y/N. I knew she was going and decided I also wanted to go, because I was just curious of how she acted in this sort of environment. I thought it'd be entertaining and not too bad if she was there as well.

I didn't drink. I didn't like the taste and when I was drunk I just felt incredibly nauseous and it was overall unpleasant. I rarely, rarely ever got drunk, but I remembered the first time I did was with the members on my 19th birthday, and after that night I couldn't look at soju the same.

Tonight though, was fun. Everyone was happy because we made it through our first comeback stage and things were hopefully going to finally slow down from here. We worked our asses off for this and we deserved a night to ourselves. I was happy to see my members being chaotic, acting like teenage boys given alcohol for the first time.

Soobin, sat beside me, was quiet and kept giggling at everything the others did. He was just a bit tipsy, and you could tell by how his smiling eyes never went away. Beomgyu was across from us him, clearly drunk because he was talking at an incredible speed and ten times louder in volume. Taehyun, to many peoples surprise, also would talk your ear off with some alcohol in his system, and would suddenly become the funniest person you'd ever meet. And lastly Yeonjun, was just cute when he was drunk. He was always confident and sure of himself but when he was drunk he became a bit dorky but still incredibly funny and endearing.

And Y/N...although I tried my best to not look at her throughout the night, I didn't miss the cute blush on her cheeks and the way her eyes were slightly lidded—she wasn't slurring as she spoke and was quite composed, but I could tell she was feeling that beer she had downed. She didn't eat much, so I was worried that the alcohol wouldn't be good on her tonight, but I relieved to see she seemed to be doing fine. She remained her quiet and reserved self—well, maybe she was a bit more talkative, but not by much. She still looked out for her members carefully, constantly glancing around me and the guys to see what they were doing.

Yeonjun was chatting with her all night, which was probably easy because they were sitting across from each other and he was usually very friendly towards everyone. He was talking to her a lot, though. Maybe it was because they were both the oldest in our groups that they could relate to each other, or because the both of them were known as the legendary trainees of BigHit back in the day. They seemed to have a lot of things in common and related to each other.

Of course it was difficult to not feel jealous. I wanted to talk to her too, but I couldn't find it in myself to join their conversation. She seemed more friendly and open, giving thoughtful responses in contrast to her normal short and quip ones to me. I didn't want to ruin her mood or make her uncomfortable, so I remained quiet and envious of their growing friendship.

Yeonjun, of course, seemed to have noticed this.
"—yeah, so our old dorm was small and there wasn't much space for anything. We had our bike in the kitchen, in front of the stove for a while, remember that, Huening?"

My head snapped up and I looked at Yeonjun and Y/N, mostly Y/N, who was actually looking at me for the first time tonight. Up close she looked very pretty, cheeks and lips flushed and hazy eyes. I could feel my heart speeding up. "Y-yeah...I remember we'd sit on it while cooking." I chuckled softly, managing to tear my eyes away from hers. She remained still, eyes boring into the side of my head.