hayoung hasn’t slept in days – unless passing out in the middle of nowhere after ingesting an astronomical amount of illicit substances falls is regarded as having a well-rested night. her body’s running on the thrill of mischief and the need for misbehaviour (and the copious amounts of coke she’d snorted); experience is the best teacher and so she has learnt that the moments which make for the best secrets all take place in the dead of the night. jaehyun’s obliged to deliver these skeletons to rose – and what kind of friend would she be if she didn’t bestow her investigative skills inane ability to be at the right at the right time?
what she doesn’t anticipate is hamin. his voice resonates through the silence, her histrionic shriek and abrupt stop in steps an entirely disproportionate reply to the hollow greeting of his hey. “jesus christ, hamin,” she cusses, clutching her heart melodramatically, as though to soothe its frantic thumps. she squints through the dim lights, his face obscured by the light but hayoung’s lived with hamin for twenty-two years, she doesn’t need to see him to know he’s got the same vacant look and hollowed eyes. (hayoung had once asked hamin if he was going to kill her in her sleep because ‘you have literal serial killer eyes.’ he’d just given her that same look with a ghost of a smile. hayoung locked her room doors that night.)
“why the fuck are you just standing there?” she probes, head tilted and brows raised expectantly. there’s something atypical of hamin tonight – she’s never glimpsed him in such a state of dishevelment before. what more, with two cups of drinks in his hand – wait, is that alcohol? she inches towards the drinks, takes a whiff to validate her hypothesis and the smell of tequila pervades her senses. hayoung knows, it’s a fact printed in black-and-white ink, brandished for all to know: jin hamin doesn’t drink. her parents spin it into an image of virtue; their morally upright son, with the willpower and grit, refusing to concede into the tempations of alcohol. “why do you even have alcohol?”
“hamin!” she whines, shooting him a mildly incensed glare, “you never drink when i ask! why now? did haseok make you do it? and don’t ask me what i’m doing or whether it’s past my bedtime, you’re not mum or dad.” she pauses, a cheeky beam that illumines the night growing on her lips. “also, i really don’t think you really want to know what i’m up to.”
“am i not allowed to just stand here now?” is the sarcastic, yet flat-toned quip. and hayoung always was good at riling him up, as much as one could rile up the seemingly emotionless jin hamin. and maybe that’s a sibling thing -- the unfallible talent to get under your skin. sarcasm isn’t a commonly used device in his normal speech, but hayoung never fails to bring it out of him.
“i didn’t drink it,” he sighs, and the tone is quite litereally bored, shaking the cups in both hands as if for emphasis. “a loud group just passed by and suddenly i had these,” he explains monotonously, eyesbrows furrowed in slight distaste. “it smells disgusting,” his tongue sticks out in a retching display-- but he couldn’t even cover his nose with both hands occupied. “i’d be more likely to listen to you then haseok,” he replies drily-- and he’s sure that hayoung knows this fact.
“wanna take them though? i am definitely not drinking it,” he declares with another wrinkle of his nose. “i already drank some earlier--” and he realizes his mistake too late, his teeth clicking shut as he closes his eyes. “don’t wanna repeat the experience,” he continues with a defeated sigh. he seems to have a decent tolerance, though he was already uncomfortable with the memory of his fuzzy head earlier. and jin hamin, the least religious of all the siblings, says in all seriousness, “i can see why the call alcohol the drink of the devil now.” with another, barely noticeable expression of disgust, he thrusts both out to his sister, “enjoy.”
he’s not even surprised at this point, and neither is his sigh, “does it involve drugs? why do i feel like it involves drugs.”