Seoul City

Ch. 32 - Truth or Drink

Jungkook was only on his 3rd glass of wine, watching everyone else in amusement as they practically tripped over each other by the bonfire. After the football game, Lisa forced them to eat dinner in the form of a barbeque and mingle session. Although the tension between the two groups had dropped remarkably, they still weren't in the place to casually have dinner and long conversations together. To remedy that, Bambam and Lisa had brought a trunk full of alcohol with them, and to say the group was making the most of it would be an understatement.

Everyone had breathed a collective sigh of relief upon seeing the alcohol which was more proof of how tense they'd all been these past two days. Three hours later and beer cans, empty glasses of vodka, tequila, whiskey, and Soju were scattered all over the woodchips and earthy ground surrounding the Parks' lake-house. Mark and Jackson had already passed out near the front door of the house, Namjoon was freestyle rapping in the corner with Jin's wiper-screeching laugh to motivate him to continue. Hoseok and Yoongi were trying to play a game on their phones, but kept dropping the phone and chasing it further and further away from the group until they weren't even on the premises anymore. By far the most troublesome Phoenix member of all, though, was Yugyeom who was constantly trying to call his ex – an action Jungkook made his responsibility to prevent.

The Griffins were no better, with the majority of them fast asleep either inside, on the couches, or leaning against a tree by the campsite. One of them, Chanyeol, had been playing guitar for the past two hours, the sound becoming increasingly irritating with every glass of alcohol he ingested.

Jungkook was one of the only people still conscious and alert. He was consuming about one glass per hour to avoid becoming drunk, only using the alcohol as a distraction while he waited for Chaeyoung to join them.

As soon as they'd reached the house, Chaeyoung had accompanied Taehyung to his room, and his mind was going haywire as he thought of all the possible reasons she was taking so long to come back down. A part of him hoped she was simply taking care of him, like the kind-hearted nurse and friend that she was – but another part of him wanted to stomp up there and demand to know what was taking so long.

The emotions behind such thoughts surprised and concerned him because they were completely new. He'd never experienced jealousy, and was under the impression that it was an emotion for those that weren't confident enough in their own abilities to make others love them – but now, he was beginning to understand it much better. Seeing the way Chaeyoung treated and interacted with Taehyung in such a purely loving way ignited such a forceful emotion in him that, for a second, he thought he could palpably feel his heart being crushed. That jealousy was what caused him to tackle Taehyung so roughly in the first place – but of course, that worked against him as Chaeyoung's attention completely shifted to healing Taehyung and tending to his needs, leaving Jungkook alone to fume about her whereabouts amongst a group of drunken gangsters. Karma was a real bitch.

The only other, semi-conscious people to keep Jungkook company were Lisa, Bambam, Jennie, and Jimin. But, that was mostly because the two couples were too busy making out to consume too much alcohol. Jungkook was no where near drunk, but seeing the sight of their PDA caused so much annoyance that he wished he were. That's why – well, that and his confusing thoughts regarding Chaeyoung – he eventually gave up on the wine to pour himself a much more potent glass of vodka.

Just as he finished his first sip of the drink, he heard the front door open and looked towards it in anticipation. Not to disappoint, Chaeyoung was standing there in a mixture of horror and shock as she absorbed the wild party that had occurred without her knowledge. Seeing her expression that was so Chaeyoung-like, Jungkook's face lifted in a half-smile only she could invoke – the kind that he really tried to fight back but couldn't. How was he supposed to survive when just seeing her was enough to make him feel fireworks?