UGH! / SOPE & VMIN.

SEVEN, A VERSION OF ROMEO AND JULIET.

A VERSION OF
ROMEO AND JULIET.

     THUMPING DISCO LIGHTS strobe over the sharp features of a rockstar wannabe, hoseok sitting on a sofa in a loft full of people possessed by the lyrics of a blaring sex pistols tune, risking being poked by spiked accessories as they whirl and jump and shout. hoseok laughs at the scene, a can of larger in his hand, soft smile on his lips.

jeongguk's dancing, all out in his punk getup, his ripped jeans held together by the same safety pins stuck through the holes of his small ear gauges, all big clunky doc martens and sleeveless studded jacket. the girl he's dancing with has porcupine spiked, venomous green hair and a huge yellow buzzcocks t-shirt that she's wearing as a dress, fishnet tights ripped and frayed. it's every party hoseok's ever been to, but still, it rocks, 'cause there's booze and drugs and sex to go round, your pick of pretty boys and girls, needles and lighters and lines ready to be used, bottles just waiting to be downed.

"fuckin' come on, seok, ya cunt!" jeongguk yells at him, suddenly standing in front of hoseok, accent thickened now he's had a few drinks. hoseok grins and stands up, dragging his alcohol heavy bones to the dance floor ( more like a mosh pit ), the smooth tones of annie lennox's voice making their way into their  empty ribcages like thorns of roses blooming in their hearts, poisoned by heroin. seokjin's dirty dancing with maxxie, all made up in crimson lipstick and long dangling earrings, stilettos narrowly avoiding people's toes, bellybutton shown off by a silver sparkling cropped top. there's cigarette smoke in hoseok's eyes and music in his veins and fuck he needs more drugs if he's going to continue this.

he exits the crowd with jeongguk in tow, over to one of the many couches scattered around the big, expensive apartment, where there's oxford student boys on a night out, in a punk getup so different from their twattish uniforms, snorting posh boy powder off the chest of some girl so fucked out hoseok doubts she knows what's going on. but he's not on the prowl for coke, too much of a heartrush, so he steals their six pack of larger and a half empty bottle of smirnoff vodka left unattended. cunts.

"anyone you know who's got e's, guk?" hoseok yells over the guitar solo taking over the room. jeongguk strawberry head shakes, taking a swig from a can and leaving to go find another girl to not care about. hoseok rolls his eyes; bastard.

anarchy in the uk blares from shot speakers, the dj some black kid with a mohawk, whilst hoseok manoeuvres his way round, on the prowl for some sweet sweet ecstasy, those poppin' pills in little plastic bags that turn your world upside down.

and bang, bullseye — he's just seen his bloke.

black hair, pulled into a girl's ponytail but he rocks it like prince in eyeliner. a loose t-shirt in deep navy, but it could be black in this bad light, over that a tartan shirt, and jeans that've clearly had bleach chucked over them, vertical black and white stripes of patches seen onto the denim. and in his hand, a bag of pills. they're yellow, or maybe white, tinged blue in the party lights, and that's all hoseok's focused on right now. he is pretty, though. not in the way boys usually are. subtly pretty, like he doesn't give much of a fuck.

what the fuck's in my head, hoseok thinks, ignoring his thoughts and ambling over to the bloke with the pills.

"alright mate?" he says, friendly, causing the ebony haired bloke to look him up and down, wondering if he knows him.

"alright, yeah — who the fuck are you?"

the manchester laddish accent is the first thing hoseok picks up on. then, the aggressiveness in his tone. he grins lazily.

"'m hoseok. and you, mate, have some pills, by the looks of things. and i'm fuckin' desperate for a kick."

"a kick in the bollocks, you mean," the bloke grumbles under his breath, irritated, the long-term usage of nicotine evident in his voice. "i've got pills, yeah, my mate bought 'em back from 'nam. fiver for ten of them."

"any clue what they do?" for some reason, they're moving themselves away from the writhing mass of bodies, feet subconsciously leading them to the kitchen, where there's less people and they don't have to scream into each others ears.

"'e said they make yer eyes feel like they're meltin' or some bollocks, but to be fair, he were high when he told me that," the bloke leans against the marble counter, which is speckled with remnants of lines of coke. "i dunno if you'd wanna try them while in 'ere though, 'cause, like, bad trip in this situation — you'd be shittin' yerself."

hoseok hums in agreement. "'ve got a car outside, and some booze, and some weed — wanna get away from the fucking commotion?"

the stranger cocks an eyebrow, probably considering the dodginess of it all, before shrugging. "fuck it, why not. if yer kill me, at least dump me somewhere decent, like. no fuckin' ditch on the side of the road type bollocks. a park or somewhere."

hoseok laughs, already leading the way to the door, hoping that pills bloke is following. once the front door is open and closed — the music muffled, johnny rotten shredding it and screaming something about fucking the government —, hoseok offers the bloke a cigarette, and they start towards the stairs.

"m'name's yoongi," hoseok's personal serotonin man mumbles around the end of the cigarette, which his lips hold quite prettily. "you're korean, hm?"

"yeah. parents had to leave 'cause of like, war or some shit. dunno. uk seemed decent," hoseok chuckles, lighting the cigarette between his lips, watching yoongi strike a match on his thumbnail, the glow lighting his features better than the buzzing strip lights above them. "aight, so my car?"

five minutes later, and there's smoke flowing around the inside of seokjin's shitty mark 4 ford cortina, one window cracked open like yoongi cracks open the ziploc baggie of strange, powder blue pills, spilling them on the dashboard while he puffs cig smoke out of the side of his mouth. hoseok turns the keys so that the tape player can start up, rewinding seokjin's queen tape so that bohemian rhapsody can soundtrack their high.

"right, so," yoongi throws the small cigarette out of the window, running a hand through his loose hair. "my mate — alright, my mate's mate — said that you gotta take two of these for a proper buzz, like, and if you add, like, hard alcohol, we're fucken set."

"safe¹," hoseok nods, showing yoongi the bottle of stolen vodka, which the other takes, chucking two pills onto his tongue and swallowing it down with a burning mouthful. "alright, alright, calm yerself."

he does the same, pills going down with a trail of fire behind them, coughing a bit as his eyes water. "fuck me! that's like paint thinner, that is."

yoongi laughs, red rimmed eyes scrunching up. "what's wrong, rockstar, canny handle a bit of the strong stuff?"

hoseok scoffs, and, in defiance, takes another swig, handling it better this time, before presenting both middle fingers to yoongi. "fuck you, pill man."

yoongi rolls his eyes, slumping back in the passenger seat as freddie mercury sings about seeing a little silhouette of a man ( scaramouch scaramouch will you do the fandango? ), and the drug seems to begin to flood through his veins, stomach acid dissolving the ecstacy the way insanity eats away at your brain. his limbs start to get heavier, and there's lights flashing before his eyes like when you used to close them too hard as a kid just to get a kick.

"woah..." hoseok slurs out, because it's taking effect and the streetlights outside are swirling in front of his blazed eyes, the stars are dancing and there's some sort of magic in it because freddie's moved on to the next side of the tape and he doesn't wanna be stopped now.

right there, in that moment, they're high outta their starstruck minds, and the stars have begun to sing with freddie mercury's voice, and there's something slow and hot in the air. that's all hoseok registers before he closes his eyes and surrenders himself completely to the drug.

━━

written – 020319

BRITISH VOCAB
¹safe: slang, meaning 'good', 'nice', 'great'.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
super quick update cause spring break is coming up and im gonna bust my ASS tryna get more chapters for this book written 😷 hope you guys like and WOO SOPE FINALLY HMMMM??? Y'ALL HAPPY I FED YOU???

i love you!!!

— love, jace