GLOW-UP

32 | sooyoung's wine night

if there was one thing moon taeil was good at - it was fucking things up.

and right now, despite his flood of emotions, he knew he'd dug himself even deeper into a hole he couldn't get out of. in many ways, this hole was comparable to a grave, and the gravestone would read something like:

MOON IDIOT TAEIL
BORN 1994
CAUSE OF DEATH:
fucked up his own life
too much to continue on

man, he really was so angry though. he thought he'd come to a deal with johnny seo, and that deal was supposed to hold. he thought he could trust him, but johnny had withheld the truth about halloween - a truth that could have changed taeil's life. he thought johnny was on his side, helping him to get what he'd longed after, not destroy all his hopes in a single lie.

maybe he'd thought wrong.

but even if johnny really wasn't on his side, it still hurt so much that he'd trusted the american with everything about his life, and all of his insecurities and hopes and dreams, and all he'd got in return was betrayal.

maybe johnny wasn't the hero taeil thought he was after all.

"hey, taeil..."

sooyoung had grabbed his arm and was looking at him with a gaze of careful concern. she tried to formulate a sentence in a way that would hurt the least, trying to breach the topic of taeil's unawareness about the taeyong-make-out situation. but all she ended up saying was,

"me and the girls are having a wine night tonight. wanna come?"

taeil bit his lip as he met her eyes. wine sounded good right about then. "sure," he agreed easily.

park sooyoung was the definition of cool and confident. and taeil knew he was going to need a lot of both of those things if he was ever going to face johnny again... or even just move on with his minefield of a crush, or the rest of his life. he hoped some of sooyoung's confidence might rub off on him.

sooyoung burst into a grin. "you'll come back to mine then? i'll text the girls to come over now..."

taeil nodded, eyes trailing back down to the rink in search of a certain traitor who'd already slipped away to the locker rooms. pfft. it was obvious johnny lost his team the game, and he didn't even have the balls to face up to it.

then again, it wasn't like taeil could say much. he didn't have the balls to face up to anyone; least of all johnny or taeyong.

"you coming, moon?" sooyoung's voice broke into taeil's daze, and he felt her hand slip into his as she pulled him out of the stands and down towards the exit.

wow. holding hands with park sooyoung sure was a confidence booster.

it almost felt like the whole world was watching as taeil followed sooyoung out of the sports hall, jealous of their intertwined fingers. taeil felt a rush of adrenaline course through him, not dissimilar to the lurching feeling he'd got when watching jaehyun collapse not half an hour ago. but this energy was like he'd been recharged to 100% and was ready to slap a bitch.

taeil suddenly wished johnny was watching. he knew johnny was attracted to park sooyoung (like every other straight male on the surface of the earth) and taeil was filled with the sudden desire to make him wickedly jealous.

by the time they'd caught the bus to sooyoung's and were approaching her apartment, taeil was certain he'd pretty much overthought his entire life.

and now his brain hurt.

"hey, chill out," sooyoung reasoned as she opened her front door, "if you wanna talk about anything later, i'm all ears. but for now, come inside!"