× closet.

@taeyong sometimes, jihoon wonders why he's in university in the first place.

he remembers leaving high school with a rather impressive track record, enough for him to land a place in a university with the country's so-called brightest students. he remembers enrolling as a computer science major because they said the future lies in artificial intelligence, only to transfer into another random course a few months into his first semester because he simply has no interest in it. it took him two years and five major changes for him to realize that he simply did not belong to school — and the worst part is, he couldn't bring himself to drop out either.

jihoon doesn't consider himself a partygoer, but there's something about his college's frat parties that brings him fleeting comfort whenever he attends them. perhaps it's the alcohol he indulges himself in, or the numerous drunken one night stands he would end the night with. or perhaps it's the music he teaches himself how to make because of that one time they made him an emergency dj for the night, which he surprisingly ended up enjoying — but pursuing music is a one-way ticket to starvation and jihoon knows better than to his future up even more.

a waft of fresh air greets him upon stepping out, as if it's congratulating him for managing to squeeze his way out of the crowd. he nearly jumps in surprise at the sight of the figure leaning against the wall with a cigarette trapped between his lips. it doesn't take jihoon a long time to recognize him: lee taeyong, a poster child for perfectionism and everything jihoon isn't. his gaze trails down to the pack he's holding — and back to the seemingly lifeless expression he wears. jihoon wouldn't have guessed that he had just won the season championship earlier today if he didn't know any better.

he taps his pockets for his own pack, only to realize that he must have left them in his flat in a rush. he curses under his breath and eyes the other's pack one more time. while those aren't the ones he usually buys, he figures that he probably can't last the night without a smoke, so he moves closer towards the him and reaches his hand out. "mind if i have one?" he asks, breaking the silence between them. "i left mine at home."

@woozi // ENJOY!! //

he hated crowds but this one in particular, he had little to no words for. the whole house buzzed with a cacophony of voices and music that was far too crass for his liking, the air filled with the pungent stench of body odor, smoke and things he did not want to know. taeyong could feel a throb build in his head, searing pain flashing between his eyebrows as he pushed and maneuvered his way through throngs of partygoers, a soulless smile gracing his lips in greeting every now and then. did he even know these people? truth be told, no. he did not and nor did he have much of a care for them either. but he knew better than to swerve such a crowd.

as much as he hated it, he bore a certain burden on his shoulders— as the son of the mayor and the school's star quarterback, he could not -for reasons he could not imagine- afford or dare to sabotage the reputation his father had to uphold. it was a pretentious life, he often thought to himself. there was always a way he had to act, to hold himself and behave, no matter how much his heart screamed otherwise. and it was no secret that despite being the golden boy, taeyong had his demons. the kind that haunted him day and night in an attempt to destroy whatever peace or little of it he had.

he breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed that the back porch was empty, free of peeping toms and even uglier brown-nosers. finally, a breath of fresh air, he thought to himself as he sank himself into a corner and onto the floor, legs stretched out in front of him and back pressed against the wall, fingers all the while toying with the pack of malborro's in his hands.

it was a good night, having won the season championship and all but why did he feel out of place, filled with nothing as he sat there, a thin stick of cigarette between his lips, watching the smoke at the tip billow in tendrils in the air before vanishing after he lit it up?

@woozi @mark [] happy roleplaying!