Chapter Text
This setting was a bit strange. Joshua could not understand how he managed to be in the same friend group which his ex was a part of. But then again, they have always been a strange group of friends.
Jeonghan and Joshua used to date back in college. They broke up a year ago. Afterwards, Jeonghan had never contacted Joshua again.
More like—Joshua didn't give the older a chance to contact him again afterwards.
Joshua blocked Jeonghan on all platforms after their breakup and cut off all connections with him.
Or maybe not all connections since technically they were still in the same friend group and they had a lot of mutual friends. That's part of the reason why Joshua did not bother to change his number after their breakup. Jeonghan would be able to find him anyway through their friends if he wanted to. And as much as Joshua wanted to avoid his ex lover at any cost, Joshua was not ready to break his friendship with the rest of his friends. Just because he was petty.
After their break up, this was the first official gathering they had in a while. Also, it was Joshua's first time to see Jeonghan after that break up.
Jeonghan looked— good. Not that Joshua was expecting him to look depressed or devastated but….he was at least expecting the elder to look a bit—how does he say it? Sad? Gloomy? Heartbroken—
Call him petty but when you have spent every single night for the past few months after your break up, crying for the love of your life not being in your life anymore while that said love of your life— ex love of your life to be exact— looks completely fine and healthy is bound to make you feel like absolute shit.
Joshua felt the same. It was like Jeonghan didn't even care about him all that much. Not that Joshua cared but still.
While Joshua here was sweating profusely and nervously shifting on his seat to be in the same proximity of his ex lover again after so long, Jeonghan there looked like he could care less about his surroundings. He didn't even look mildly concerned.
Joshua felt like—
His train of thought stopped abruptly when he heard one of his friends calling out his name.
“—hyung, the bottle landed on you,”
Joshua blinked in confusion. What were they talking about again?
“Huh?”
“Truth or dare?” the younger asked.
Oh right. They were playing the classic truth or dare game. Somehow, his friends have always liked to play this particular game whenever they were together. Joshua didn't give it much thought and just replied, “Dare,”
Unbeknownst to him, that was a choice that would make him regret it soon.
His friends dared him to kiss any one person among their friend group.
The fuck?
Joshua's nervous eyes searched for everyone in the room. How could he kiss his friends? It was ridiculous. The loud music of the club was doing a good job hiding the tremor in his voice as he spoke.
“A-Anyone?” he asked.
Everyone nodded and cheered for him loudly. Most of them were half drunk or fully drunk at this rate. Joshua wondered if he should just try to escape instead of doing this.
But a game is a game and all of them were single.
His friends were waiting for him to complete the dare. And if he chickened out, he'd have to face a worse punishment. That is— taking off all of his clothes and remaining in only his underwear.
Joshua's face went pale just with the mere thought of it. Because of course he had to be foolish and wear his favorite black lingerie today. What was he thinking? Wearing the skimpiest lingerie known to mankind underneath his party clothes on the same day that he had an outing with his friends.
There's no way Joshua was letting his friends see how much of a freak he was.
Okay. What's the worst that could happen? He just needs to kiss someone. That's it. There's nothing wrong with kissing a friend. Even though his ex is watching him currently.
Joshua refused to look at Jeonghan who was sitting on the opposite end of the circle, as Joshua's hesitant eyes roamed around the circle to choose a suitable person to kiss. It's probably the pressure of countless pairs of eyes focused on him that Joshua finally made up his mind and made the first move.
He leaned towards Mingyu, one of his younger friends, and laid a chaste kiss on the younger's lips, who visibly reddened by that move. He could feel his heart hammering against his ribcage, and the voices cheering in the background did nothing but to amplify it.
Joshua made the mistake of looking at Jeonghan who's sitting across from him.
And for some unknown reason there's a nauseating feeling that bubbles up within him when he sees the indiscernible look on Jeonghan's face. Would it be considered self centered if he said Jeonghan looked…..somewhat jealous?
Or was the alcohol in Joshua's system making him see things?
Either way, Joshua tried to reason out that Jeonghan had no right to be jealous. It's been a year since they broke up. Joshua was not Jeonghan’s and Jeonghan was not Joshua's. Joshua had made it clear long ago that he no longer wanted to have anything to do with Jeonghan.
With that Joshua looked away from the piercing gaze of his ex.
The game continued like before.
A few more spins & Seungkwan was in Vernon's lap currently, clinging on the American's neck, Seungcheol was already shirtless, and Hoshi's passed out against the couch beside him.
Joshua was once again dared to gulp down an entire glass of alcohol. This was his second glass.
It wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't for the fact that Joshua was as lightweight as a feather and he was embarrassing as fuck when drunk.
Joshua drank the entire shot without any complaints, remembering the consequences of chickening out of a dare is taking off all his clothes. No thanks.
Besides, he felt like he needed more alcohol in his system to forget this hell of a night. He had exceeded his quota of socializing for the day. No more.
In a moment of confidence, he took another glance at Jeonghan & found the male's eyes still glued to him. It sent a shiver down his spine and his entire body felt flushed with heat.
The best thing to do at that moment was to look away but Joshua can't seem to pull his gaze away from the way Jeonghan was eyeing him with that gaze, the gaze that Jeonghan used to give him when they were still together. when they still were madly, stupidly in love with each other, not being able to remain separated even for a day. That's how much they were addicted to each other's presence in their lives.
Joshua gulped down the new forming lump in his throat before looking away.
At one part of the game, someone proposed that the truths and dares were becoming way too repetitive so they changed the pattern and threw some papers into the game with outrageous dares written in all of them. No truths.
Joshua was conversing with Mingyu who was sitting beside himself when he heard the deep voice of his ex.
Joshua was just in time to witness Jeonghan's turn to pick up his dare. He was dared to take off his jacket and unbutton his shirt from top to bottom.
Everyone cheered loudly and for someone who claimed to be ‘not interested’ in his ex anymore though, Joshua found his eyes oddly glued to the scene playing out in front of him, his eager eyes taking in the sight of his ex's naked body.
Jeonghan did as he was dared, took off his leather jacket first and then slowly unbuttoned his shirt.
Joshua has to swallow thickly and force his eyes away from the tempting sight when he sees the latter's toned torso.
His mind spiraled back to the passionate nights he spent with the older, tangled in bed, mouth not leaving each other's as Jeonghan made love to Joshua countless times. Joshua can still remember those days vividly. Days when Jeonghan used to spend less time doing other jobs but more time feasting on Joshua's body.
Now Joshua reminded himself that he shouldn't be wavered by these feelings.
It was him who broke up with Jeonghan. He reminded himself why he even broke up with his ex in the first place. How Jeonghan betrayed him that day—
Joshua's train of thought was cut off when he felt an arm snaking its way around his waist. Joshua turned his head to see that it's Mingyu's. Joshua smiled slightly, the puppy-like younger has always been a little close to Joshua, and Joshua too was fond of the younger, adored him even.
It was one of the reasons why he didn't feel so awkward to kiss Mingyu in front of all their friends. He chuckled silently when Mingyu hugged his waist tighter and buried his face in the crook of his neck, nibbling on the skin lightly like an actual puppy. Seems like the puppy was drunk and not actually aware of what he's doing.
Joshua did his best to lean away when he felt teeth on his skin but Mingyu whined, the puppy freaking whined and well Joshua was just weak.
Maybe he could blame the alcohol for this later. because honestly Joshua didn't want to stop as well. And he was kinda craving to have someone hold him tonight. It's been so long since someone last touched him like this so he let the younger suck marks on his skin.
The game was long forgotten as they got lost in their own world.
The rest of their friends perhaps didn't notice them practically devouring each other or maybe Joshua just didn't care. One night of letting himself loose, one night of being reckless and making some mistakes. Joshua did not care.
Soon Joshua was having his mouth pried open by Mingyu's tongue as they made out like there's no tomorrow, like two people hungry for some release, with Mingyu's hand shoved down his shirt and roaming all over his warm burning skin. Joshua felt like his body was on literal fire.
But all of a sudden he broke the kiss.
Joshua himself wasn't sure why he did that but he just felt like it. He watched Mingyu's eyes filled with lust pointed at him, wanting to dive back into another kiss. Joshua could even feel the latter's bulge pressing against him. The tension was so thick in the air it could be sliced with a knife.
Joshua wasn't too sure himself what's stopping him from dragging Mingyu to one of the guest rooms of this club and have a quick fuck when it is pretty much clear that Mingyu wanted this. Both of them were single and Joshua's hole was practically begging to be filled with a cock after having been starved off it for a year.
Maybe Joshua was starting to see the absurdity of all of this now that he's starting to sober up a little.
Or maybe it's the way Jeonghan has been staring daggers at them for the past 2 minutes now, jaw clenched, his previously stoic expression now replaced with something akin to a hostile one.
As soon as Joshua met his eyes, he felt all sorts of color draining from his face.
At that moment, Mingyu decided to kiss his neck again, unbuttoning one of the buttons of his shirt to get better access, seemingly getting impatient by the lack of response from Joshua.
Oh God! Joshua wanted to die as he closed his eyes and tried to stop the drunk affectionate puppy.
“Joshuji,” Joshua heard that deep voice call his name after so long.
Joshua was about to turn his head towards the source of the voice, when Mingyu hugged him tighter.
“ Joshuji ,”
The danger laced in that tone made Joshua finally come to his sense and find his strength to push Mingyu away as he looked at Jeonghan to see the older glaring daggers at him.
For a second Joshua couldn't process why his ex was calling him. His head was so occupied that he didn't even notice that the bottle had stopped & pointed at him. His stomach dropped & the nauseating feeling came back.
He watched as a smirk bloomed across Jeonghan's face.
Then it clicked.
Jeonghan was currently holding the piece of paper where the dare for Joshua was written and judging by the older's smug expression, it's not something Joshua would like.
Among all the buzzing noises and cheers within the crowd, Jeonghan's voice was the loudest as he dropped his next words.
“Do seven minutes in heaven with me.” Jeonghan threw one last glare at Mingyu's direction before fixing his sharp glare at Joshua's direction who had already paled by the threatening tone.
“Right fucking now .”