#cstaeyong

[csjaehyun-blog]

let’s go out.

@cstaeyong

“hyung, do you wanna do my homework for me?” jaehyun groans and pushes his textbook away from him. he stopped seeing words ten minutes ago, the characters blurring into tiny unintelligible shapes despite the pressing fact that he has an exam on monday morning. god, why did he go into social sciences? there’s too many theories, too much to memorize. and too many grad schools to apply to and hope for the best. at least he’s hanging out with a friend; he’s not sure why taeyong came over to his little apartment this time but he was happy to see him.

jaehyun’s suddenly hit with the enormity of the things he needs to get done. he has work tomorrow afternoon, another six hour shift of serving coffee and staying out of the way of the bakers. he has a paper due at the end of the week. and on top of all that, his band – his favorite hobby – is down a drummer who they desperately need to replace if they’re ever going to book a gig again. oh god, the band. he really lets them down, doesn’t he?

“you’d think i’d be less of a nutcase, going into psych myself.” jaehyun grumbles and rubs his eyes, willing the jittery start of anxiety away as if that’ll help. “i’m about to think myself into a breakdown and i don’t have anything in the fridge. ugh, let’s go out. i need a drink.” he slams the textbook closed, punctuating his words with the muffled bang of hardcover hitting a thick stack of paper. “you’re not working on anything important over there, right?”

[tencs-blog1]

obligatory appearances.

@cstaeyong

it’s not even december yet and the elders are already breaking out their expensive liquor and polite masks in the name of christmas parties. he’s grown up in this life and he still doesn’t get it; no one here actually likes each other. it’s just a chance for everyone to flex on each other, to show off what expensive things they can afford or what new political allies they have wooed or positions they have won. it’s a charade, a well-scripted drama that ten’s been living since he was old enough to be trusted to speak by himself in public. and he can play his part well enough, but it’s so damn boring.

thank god there’s at least some youths his age who are forced to these same events.

his first flute of champagne is downed before he even has a chance to taste the flavor, gulped down in a manner that would make his father frown and his mild-mannered mother pull him aside for a reminder of his public manners. he doesn’t care. he’d drop the crystal glass on the floor and watch it shatter if he didn’t still have some respect left for his father and the nation he and his family supposed to represent at any public gathering. ten leaves it on someone else’s table instead. the hired help are paid to clean up after the social elite anyways, may as well make them earn their wages. he’s swiping a second drink off a serving tray as he scans the crowd. there’s familiar faces he expects to see, the ones who manage to make these parties a little less mundane.

taeyong.

ten zeroes in on the other young man, the fun twin as he likes to think of him, and lets a lazy grin slide across his face. target acquired. he homes in, a grace in his movement that comes from years of his mother’s careful attention to public appearance.

“frown more, someone might think you’re actually happy to be here.” the joke comes easily to ten’s lips, somewhere between casual familiarity of several forced meetings and his own reckless carelessness. “let me guess, you’re three drinks in and already thinking about leaving despite only being here for half an hour. i’m right, you don’t have to answer.”