[fic] Same Shit, Different Day: Chapter 3
1988: Even Jaejoong Gets the Blues
To say that Jaejoong's marriage didn't work would be like saying that the launch of the Challenger space shuttle went a little big wrong. Kim Jaejoong and Park Inhee make it through eight months and then kapow, there goes my baby, somebody help me pick up the fuckin pieces.
Jaejoong is basically a happy guy, any of his hang-out buddies would tell you that, but this is his dark time.
He doesn't see any of his old friends (the ones he think of as his real friends) except for the one week in November when they are together every year, and last November he and Inhee had still been hanging on. By a thread, granted, but still hanging on.
Now he spends a lot of his time-too much, he knows, in the bars of Portlands' Old Port district, The Porthole, The Seaman's Club and The Free Walk Pub.
He is drinking too much and smoking too much of the old rope-a-dope and come most mornings he doesn't like to look at himself in the bathroom mirror; his red-rimmed eyes skitter away from his reflection and he thinks I ought to quit the clubs. Pretty soon I'm gonna have a problem the way Yoochun's got one. Jesus-Christ-bananas.
Quit the clubs, quit the partying, good fuckin idea, and then he's back again, kiss my bender and how ya doin.
This Thursday it's The Free Walk, and damned if there isn't a beer in his hand, a joint in his pocket, and some old instrumental, pouring from the juke.
The Free Walk is mostly empty, maybe half a dozen guys at the bar and another half a dozen shooting eightball in the back, Jaejoong and three of his hang-out buddies in one of the booths, drinking draft Millers and cutting a greasy deck of cards to see who pays for each round.
Jaejoong doesn't join in the talk. All at once he wants to get out of here, out of this stale going-nowhere bar, and get some fresh air.
It's all puff and blow, Jaejoong thinks, and suddenly he is desperately depressed, more depressed than he had been since Inhee packed her stuff and moved back to her mother's. This is utterly unlike him, and suddenly the only thing he wants is to get the fuck out of here, fill his lungs with the cool, salt-tanged seaside air, and find a phone.
He wants to do that and then call Yoochun or Junsu, it doesn't matter which, either will do; he wants to say Hey man, what's going on and have one of them say back Oh, you know,Jae, SSDD. No bounce, no play.
Jaejoong gets up.
He walks away, walks toward the men's room with its yellow-pink smell of piss and disinfectant, walks past it, walks past the women's, walks past the door with OFFICE on it, and escapes into the alley. The sky overhead is white and rainy, but the air is good. So good.
He breathes it in deep and thinks again. No bounce, no play. He grins a little.
He walks for then minutes, just walking and clearing his head. At some point, he can't remember exactly when, he tosses away the joint that has been in his pocket.
And then he calls Yoochun from the pay phone in Jim's Smoke Shop, up by Terra's Square. He's expecting the answering machine; but Yoochun is actually there, he picks up on the second ring.
"How you doing, man?" Jaejoong asks.
"Oh, you know," Yoochun says. "Same shit, different day. How about you, Jae?"
Jae closes his eyes. For a moment everything is all right again; as right as it can be in such a piss-ache world.
"About the same, buddy," he replies. "Just about the same."
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A/N: Jae's 24 years old now, i think, for this story. lmao i hate maths...the dreaded x
I swear there's a story line somewhere, just the pace is really really slow and crap, i'll just write what i can...when i can...oh dear.
at least, we all know now that Jae's an alcoholic and a smoker and he's still friends with YooSu?
Next chap will be Yoochun centric i think and i still don't know about the HoMin askdjlkasdj02w0202jfdk keysmashing is fun lsjf.awfjikjdlfi9q
school in a week dlsfjkafakld. NO NO NOdklfsjlfkgjskdfg better finish this goddamn fic hlfgjkadfgjk!!!!
:) Comments, nice people?