Chapter Text
“Can we please turn the fire on?” Jimin pulls his blanket tighter around his shoulders.
“I’m on it.” Taehyung slides out of their seat and steps over their seven friends, planted like landmines around the living room. They grab the lighter from the coffee table and squat in front of the fireplace, fiddling with the gas valve with one hand, flicking the lighter with the other.
“Oh, no,” Jungkook scoots away from the fireplace, “nope, no.”
“Hey, it’s me doing it, not Joon.” Taehyung defends themself.
“Hey! Come on!” Namjoon whines, knowing well enough that he’s hardly allowed to touch the gas valve.
“Remember the time you de-doored the shower?” Taehyung reminds him.
“Or the time you literally just broke the handle off?” Jimin adds.
“Or when you broke the actual escape room we went to?” Jungkook laughs.
“Don’t forget when the lampshade crumbled just from your touch.” Yoongi chimes in.
“Alright, alright, we get it,” Namjoon huffs, “doesn’t the ‘oh, Namjoon breaks things all the time’ thing ever get old for you people?”
“Hmm,” Yoongi taps his chin in thought, “no.”
“Nope.” Jimin shakes his head.
“Big no.” Father Kim chimes in.
“Nope, sorry.” Dawon shrugs.
“Sure doesn’t!” Hoseok laughs.
“You too?!” Namjoon sputters. Hoseok laughs and rests his head on Namjoon’s shoulder.
“Ah! Got it!” Taehyung grins triumphantly as the fire sparks to life.
“Oh, that’s nice.” Dawon sighs and leans a bit closer to the fire.
“So,” Jimin wiggles in his seat, scooting to allow space for Taehyung to climb back in between him and Rose, “where were we?”
“Well,” Hoseok plucks a piece of popcorn out of the bowl on the coffee table, “Taehyung had just finished a story about their and Jinnie’s parents being messy.”
“God, they really are.” Father Kim shakes his head with a laugh.
“Everybody gets a little messy sometimes,” Dawon shrugs, “everyone but me.”
“It’s true,” Hoseok nods, “she’s never been a mess, not once in her life. I, on the other hand, have been very messy, many times.”
“That’s also true,” Jimin agrees, “we’ve been messy together, in fact.”
“My favorite to get messy with.” Hoseok holds his hand out.
“Aw,” Jimin coos and takes his hand, “love you.”
“Do you have any favorite messy memories?” Jungkook asks, taking a handful of popcorn and shoving it into his mouth.
“What kind of messy? Define messy.” Namjoon finishes his drink.
“I dunno, like…any kind,” Jungkook shrugs, “messy drunk, messy dumb, messy kid, messy romance. Whatever.”
“Alright,” Namjoon nods, “I got you.”
“I think I have one.” Father Kim offers.
“Lay it on us,” Jimin turns to him, “we’re ready.”
“Okay,” Father Kim sighs, “it happened like this–”
***
Ten years prior.
“Hey! Bottoms up!”
If he hears ‘bottoms up’ one more time, it may be the death of him. He takes a deep breath in, ducks below the water’s surface, and attempts a handstand. He fails almost impressively.
Surfacing with a sputtering gasp and water pouring from his nose, he groans as he doggie-paddles his way to the edge of the pool.
“I saw that, Seokjin! You know what that means!” Jackson cackles.
“Yeah, yeah, I hear you!” Jin clings to the edge and looks up at Chae, who gives him a sympathetic look before pulling a beer from the cooler next to her.
“You know the rules,” she sighs as he heaves himself out of the water and onto the ledge next to her, “bottoms up or bottoms up.”
“This game is unfair because it gets way too hard once you fail a few times,” he twists the cap off of the bottle, “it’s not balanced. Can’t you do something about that?”
“I might be fresh into law school, but I’m pretty sure I know enough to know that house rule is the only legislation that applies to drinking games.” She laughs, takes the cap from him, and adds it to the ever-growing pile in a small plastic bin to the side. The box had been present at every cookout, pool party, camping trip and beach trip of the season. When the summer ended, they’d glue the contents to a big wood board and Jackson would display it proudly in his living room.
They were gathered to celebrate Jackson’s acceptance to culinary school. In a few weeks time, Jackson would hop on a plane to France for six months to learn the art of cooking, before promptly returning to New York to continue his education on fine dining while having every intention to use none of it and open a pizzeria. The reason they were together didn’t matter, though. It was really that they’d all crested into actual adulthood. Real, genuine, upper-case letter A Adults.
Jin drains the bottle - his fifth, but who was counting? - and does his best not to burp too obnoxiously right in Chae’s ear. She sighs as she swings her feet, her toes peeking up through the surface and disappearing again as she does.
“What is it?” He follows her gaze across the pool, where their friend Bom was chatting with Taehyung, who was all of 15 years old and ecstatic beyond words to be hanging out with them for the summer. Taehyung’s eyes had tripled in size with joy when they had been invited to Jackson’s family’s country house with the pool, hot tub, and sauna.
“I’m a wimp.” She pouts, still watching the two of them.
“Ah,” Jin nods, “Bom.”
“Yeah.” Chae looks back at the water, peeking periodically back up across the pool.
“You’re not.”
“Hmm?”
“A wimp. You’re…not a wimp.”
“Are you alright?”
“Mmm,” Jin burps, but holds it in, “mm, nope.”
“You’ve had, what, 3?” She laughs.
“Five,” he whines, “I don’t really drink.”
“Maybe ease up.”
“Yeah. Or…”
“No, no ‘or’.” She shakes her head.
“ Or I just throw common sense to the wind and go hard before I go pure.”
“Hmm,” she cocks her head to the side in consideration, “you certainly said that.”
“Join me?”
“What?”
“Let’s hit it hard, Chae. One last time.”
She looks at him for a long moment, then glances back across the pool, where Bom floats on a tube, chatting with Jackson, who’s laid out on a towel and Taehyung, who’s doing the most to hide from the sun in the shade of the patio umbrella.
“You know what? Yeah,” she pulls her feet from the water, grabs her towel and wraps it around herself and stands, “fuck it. Let’s do it.”
“Yeah! Yeah, let’s do it!” Jin stands as well.
“Do what?” Taehyung calls across the pool.
“Jackson! Where’s the liquor?” Chae shouts.
“The kitchen! Shots?” Jackson pushes himself up on his elbows.
“Yeah! Shots!” Bom raises her hands victoriously.
*
This was, as it turned out, the worst idea.
“Oh, no,” Jin rubs his burning-hot cheeks, “no no no. Why. Why, Jackson?”
“Hey now,” Jackson rubs his back, “you’re alright. If it’s gonna come up, it’s gonna come up. Don’t fight it.”
“I don’t think, ugh,” he gags, “I don’t think I could stop it if I tried.”
Jin sits on the cool floor of the kitchen, having forgone the bathroom because it felt too claustrophobic. He may be as skinny as a rail, but his legs and arms were too long and too noodly in his current state, he needed the vast expanse of Jackson’s open kitchen to fully get his puke on.
“Hey,” Taehyung’s head pokes over the island, “you good, bro?”
“No, br–um.” Jin furrows his brow up at Taehyung.
“Bro is fine. For the rhyme.” Taehyung nods solemnly.
“No, bro.”
“Can I get you anything?”
“He needs water,” Jackson winces as Jin’s body lurches and he vomits into the giant spaghetti pot between his spread legs, “and probably some electrolytes.”
“Do you have Gatorade?”
“I have Pedialyte pops in the freezer in the weight room. By the sauna.”
“You have a weight room? And you have a freezer in it?” Taehyung’s eyebrows raise impossibly high.
“Yeah, by the pool house. In the back.”
“That’s so cool.”
“Tae,” Jin lifts his hand, “please. Jackson is very cool and very handsome and very sweet–”
“Aw.” Jackson puts his hand over his heart.
“--but please. Your big brother is dying. Render aid.”
“Got it,” Taehyung salutes, “be right back.”
Jin lays back on the cool floor, the tile soothing on his back through his sweat-soaked tee shirt. The room is spinning but he thinks his stomach is done turning itself inside out for the moment.
Jackson leans back on his hands and looks down at him, smiling sympathetically.
“So,” he sighs, “what’s this all about?”
“I…drank too much.”
“Yes,” Jackson laughs and nods, joining him in laying on the floor, “but this is not like you. What’s the deal?”
Jin sighs and covers his eyes with his arm, the pressure is nice.
“I’m scared, Jackson.”
“Of what?” Jackson’s voice is soft and soothing.
“Getting old. Growing up. Being responsible. Leaving the home. Leaving Taehyung. Going to Seminary.”
“That’s quite a few things.”
“Yeah,” Jin laughs, “I’m scared of a lot.”
“Listen,” Jackson gently takes Jin’s hand, squeezing it, “you’re nowhere near old. And even when you are, no one said you have to grow up. Even when you’re 80, and you’re getting ready to retire from priesthood and do whatever retired priests do–”
“Emeritus priest. At 50.”
“What?”
“Biblically, priests retire at 50. And become emeritus priests. All the title, none of the responsibility.”
“See?! That’s so young still! So even when you retire at 50, you can still be a child, Jin. You’re still you.”
“...true.”
“And you’ve been the responsible one. For a long time. You’re a goof and a fool but you’re the responsible one. You’ve always protected and sheparded people.”
“Yeah.”
“And you know, even going to Seminary for a while, you’re bound to take over Holy Spirit.”
“I’m practically already contracted.” Jin laughs.
“So you’re not leaving. And you’re not leaving Tae. Even if you feel that, they don’t. They know you’re following your calling and what’s important to you.”
“You’re right.”
“You were meant for Seminary. That’s where your heart is driving you to go, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So follow it. If it feels right, do it.”
They’re quiet for a moment as Jin sits- or lays, rather- with Jackson’s words.
“Thank you, Jackson. You’re right. You’re absolutely right.”
“I know,” Jackson laughs and squeezes Jin’s hand, “can I tell you something funny?”
“Yeah, please do.”
“For the first three years of high school, I had a raging crush on you.”
Jin pulls his arm from his face and turns his head to look at Jackson with a laugh.
“What?!”
“Yeah,” Jackson laughs, “I was totally dumb over you.”
“Wow,” Jin blinks, “I had no idea.”
“I know. I’m glad. How embarrassing.”
“Hey,” Jin feebly slaps him, “you could do worse.”
“True, I absolutely could.”
They stare at each other for a moment before Jin pouts.
“Wait, had ?”
Jackson laughs and rubs his eyes before sitting back up.
“I got over it the summer between Junior and Senior. Right around the time you said you were going to Seminary. I said well, fuck, better squash this one now.”
“Alright, fair.” Jin laughs.
“Popsicles!” Taehyung’s voice booms across the kitchen.
“Thank the Lord,” Jin sits up and the room spins again, “please.”
Taehyung thrusts a bear-shaped, bright blue popsicle out and Jin eagerly snatches it from him. It feels delightful on his throat.
“Do you want some water?” Taehyung asks.
“No,” Jin shakes his head and lays back down, “I want this popsicle, and to go to sleep.”
*
“Jin,” he’s being gently shaken, the smell of coffee tickling his nose, “Jinnie. Hey.”
Jin cracks his eyes open and blinks hard against the light leaking in between the slats of the blinds on the window in front of him.
“Hmm?” He lifts his head, which throbs subtly with the movement. He doesn’t feel nauseous and his head isn’t splitting, his mouth tastes like blueberry and mint and his throat is on fire. All in all, small prices to pay for the prior night.
“Are you good?” Taehyung is sitting on the floor beside him.
He sits up and scans the room; he’s on the giant sectional couch in Jackson’s game room.
“Um,” he thinks for a moment, “yeah. Yeah, actually.”
“Good,” Taehyung nods, “Jackson made coffee.”
“He’s up already? He was awake later than me.”
“Yeah,” Taehyung laughs, “he’s already jogged, showered, gotten dressed and made coffee.”
“Christ.”
“Right?” Taehyung laughs and stands.
“I’ll be right there.”
“I’ll pour you some coffee.” Taehyung disappears around the corner.
Jin sighs and rubs his face, thankful that any semblance of the need to vomit had disappeared. He’s in pajamas he doesn’t recognize and wonders when and how he got into them, but he’s not too worried about it. They’re too comfy for him to care.
He shuffles into the kitchen and his stomach gurgles with hunger when he smells Jackson’s eggs.
“Good morning, hello! How are you, how are we feeling, how is it going?” Jackson grins at him, drawing out the syllables as he loads Taehyung’s plate with eggs.
It was clear that Jackson would make someone a very happy man someday.
“Honestly, I’m pretty good,” Jin laughs and takes a seat next to Taehyung, “surprisingly.”
“Oh, good! Must have been the popsicle.” Jackson nods.
“It had to have been.” Taehyung agrees around a mouthful of eggs.
“Are you hungry?”
“Starving,” Jin takes the mug of coffee Taehyung slides to him, “but I don’t know that I can handle eggs.”
“That’s fine,” Jackson gently puts his pan in the sink, “toast? Bagel?”
“Yes. And yes.”
“Got it.”
Taehyung destroys their plate of eggs and makes puppy eyes at Jackson.
“Bagel, please?”
“Of course.” Jackson nods.
Jin is on his third round of toast when a sleepy-eyed Chae shuffles her way into the kitchen, wrapped in a robe with Jackson’s initials on the breast pocket.
“Good morning, Miss Chae,” Jackson greets her, “hungry?”
“Mmm, no,” she shakes her head, “but I’ll take some of that coffee.”
“Coming right up.” He nods as she plops in the seat across from Jin.
“How are you feeling?” She asks.
“Fine, actually,” Jin finishes his coffee, “and you?”
“Pretty great.” She smiles.
“One coffee with two sugars for Chae.” Jackson drops the mug off to her.
“Blessings, Mr. Jackson.”
“Good morning,” Bom yawns as she half-stumbles into the kitchen, her hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, wearing one of Chae’s ridiculously oversized shirts from her camp counselor days that she slept in whenever she was away from home.
“Good morning! Breakfast?” Jackson offers.
“Fruit?”
“Absolutely.”
Taehyung realizes it before anyone else does, their eyes lighting up as Bom rounds the table. It doesn’t click for Jin or Jackson until Bom plants a kiss on top of Chae’s head and Chae beams at the action.
“Did everyone sleep well?” Bom asks as she takes the seat next to Chae.
“Like a rock. You?” Taehyung asks.
“Mmm,” Bom sighs, “yeah.”
“Yeah.” Chae nods.
Jackson gives an inquisitive thumbs up at Jin and Taehyung behind Chae and Bom’s back, Jin gives him a small nod and Jackson beams as he carries over a bowl of fruit and a fresh pot of coffee.
“Well,” he places the pot on the mat in the center and sits at the head of the table, “isn’t this nice?”
*
The car is packed, good-byes are said, hugs are given, Jin and Taehyung are on the road for the long-ish drive home. The windows are down and the music is right, the sun is near setting and the weather is gorgeous. Taehyung has their Senior year in front of them and Jin has Seminary. He feels at peace.
“You know,” Taehyung sighs as they watch the tres whiz by, “even though you threw your guts up in Jackson’s expensive cookware-”
“Hey.”
“I think it was a really great weekend.”
“You know what? You’re right. This was the right way to end the summer.”
“Yeah,” Taehyung nods, “yeah. It was perfect.”
*
“And that’s my favorite time that I was messy.” Jin shrugs.
“I remember that,” Taehyung leans back and grins, “that was such a good time.”
“Yeah,” Jin nods, “it really was.”