LOVERBOY → SF9 INDA | TAENI | JUWOON ZUWOON

jaws on the floor

The possibility of drowning is the only thing that makes Inseong unscrew his eyes and sit up further, water washing over his head as it breaks the surface. He still tastes blood faintly on his lips when he licks them, and feels a burning sensation behind his skin underneath his nose and on his cheek. He vaguely remembers the man laying him out in front of the bar, but thinking back on it makes the pain in his head throb further, so he tries his best to forget about it entirely.

At least he'd gotten the rest of work off for the Summer Exhibition, he supposes. He lays back in the bathtub further, the music blaring from his phone jarring when it shifts from a quiet instrumental to a hard rock cover he'd downloaded earlier that day. He sighs, shaking his head slightly before sinking down lower. The water circles his face, and he forces his head underneath it once again before pulling it back up, taking a small breath in before brushing his hair back with a hand, his fingers slipping through the soaked and thoroughly washed strands effortlessly.

It's late; maybe two in the morning, Inseong isn't sure what the exact time is. He just remembers checking his phone when he'd gotten home after being released from work early, seeing a blinding 1:05AM lighting up his screen viciously. It had been roughly an hour, if he were to guess, that he'd spent in the scalding water to attempt to calm his tensed muscles.

He isn't even sure why his boss had wanted to station him in front of the bar that night. He wasn't nearly strong enough to defend himself if somebody, let alone somebody who was under the influence, chose to get violent for not being allowed inside (which is exactly what he'd encountered that night). He supposes they just wanted someone new to test a lower piece of tech they'd recently coined; contacts that displayed the information of anybody the user made eye contact with next to their head. Name, age, sex, and anything else the user chose to program into the contacts would appear in bright neon letters, easy to read for optimal data recovery. For Inseong, his boss had programmed in another line to show blood alcohol content, and told him to turn away anybody who was considered legally intoxicated.

Inseong didn't even look tough. His soft, pretty pink hair and slender build made him look everything but violent. He appeared completely innocent, and the man who he'd turned away saw that instantly. Inseong remembers standing nervously before he blinked, and he woke back up on the pavement in a puddle of his own blood.

The bath drains slightly when the temperature of it dips underneath a comfortable 80 degrees fahrenheit, and a side panel opens before more hot water pours into it to warm the water back to what Inseong had selected. He sighs, frowning as he raises a hand to his sensitive nose, wincing at the touch of his fingertips against the skin. "Fuck..." He murmurs, reaching over the edge of the tub to grab a towel off the hooks he had installed on the wall, stretching his arm to manage to reach the towels.

He stands up and wraps the towel around himself, stepping out of the bath before crossing the bathroom to stand in front of the mirror. The rock song playing from his phone fades and is replaced by another soft, gentle instrumental. Inseong recognizes it vaguely, but ends up not humming along to the tune as when he does so for a brief moment his face begins burning. He reaches forward and clicks a button underneath the mirror, watching as his reflection appears after the fan above the mirror kicks on and begins to blow out hot air onto the fogged glass.

The city he lived in was more advanced than others. In 2089, Seoul had actually become the technological powerhouse of the globe. At times, he felt lucky to be surrounded by all of the newest tech, but he knew how dangerous the city became if those inside didn't abide by its silent rules. He'd heard stories of tourists disappearing off of the streets, or ducking into the flashy casinos or brothels and never coming out. Inseong knew how dark things got within the confines of an inescapable city, and was careful to listen to the whispered rules to avoid becoming the next meal to the starving streets, kicked back like a pill before he was issued missing and his only lasting impression on the cruel streets were tattered posters on the sides of buildings.