#so if the crinoline works out ok I’ll be two-thirds of the way to an outfit!

[cultivating-wildflowers]

“I’ll just swing by the craft store to see what they have” I said.

An hour later I am officially invested in this project.

[thearcaneescape]

Chapter 9

It’s not that Yoongi and his twin didn’t get along, it’s just that Yoonji was far more vocally aggressive than he was, which more often than not got both of them in trouble. She didn’t take anyone’s sass, she’d been involved in several fights, and she was highly protective of both Yoongi and her girlfriend.

“They were calling her names, Yoon! I wasn’t gon’ let them talk shit abou’ my girlfriend! If you ‘ad your own sap, wouldn’t you do the same?” Her voice, as quiet as it could be, could also reach levels that could be heard over the music booming through the club.

“Alrigh’ sure, I would defend them, bu’ I wouldn’t take on dickheads twice my size, are you mental?” Yoongi shouted over the music, shaking his head when his sister laughed.

“I took ‘em down, I ain’t a fuckin’ wimp.” She grabbed her brother’s hand and started dragging him towards the stairs that led to the downstairs lounge area. “Fuckin’ place is givin’ me a headache.”

To anyone new to the club, the Min twins would look completely out of place, Yoonji in a black high-waisted skirt with a black crinoline under it, white blouse tucked into it, pearl buttons all the way up to her throat, puffed sleeves and vertical-stripe black and white tights. Her jewellery was dahlia bite piercings in heavy copper and iron, and 30 mm plugs with found objects, nuts and bolts and cogs, some of which also decorated her heavy black-red, knee-high boots. Yoongi, on the other hand was wearing a pair of distressed black jean shorts with a faded white pelvis printed on them over black tights with white bats all over them. His shirt was black and loose, tucked into the shorts, a Ouija decal printed on it in white, and over it he wore a pastel pink harness, the two straps around his belly sporting heart-shaped rings. He’d exchanged his matte black nose ring for a pink one, small pearlescent bits of rainbow quartz studding it, and his labret hoop was still black. The plugs on his lobes were rose-gold plates silver tunnels with little cat ears and whiskers on the edges, and the facemask tucked under his chin was a similar pastel pink with a kitty nose and whiskers decal on it in black. The highlights of the outfit were the pastel pink collar choker on his throat with a large kitty bell hanging from it and the pink creepers on his feet, with small paw prints all over them. They stood out from the crowd of ripped jeans and colorful clothes, but no regulars in there dared mess with them.

“It’s much quieter down ‘ere.” Yoonji fixed her bangs, striking black hair cut into a bob that reached her shoulders, one of the few things that distinguished the Min twins. They could easily switch places, and had done so during their school years, exchanging uniforms to get out of exams they hadn’t studied for.

“Yeah.” He turned to look at the bartender, ordering their usual, which was a whiskey sour for Yoonji and a mint julep for himself. “Where’s your girl then?”

“Got an early shift at Waterstones. Can’t have her loose sleep.” Yoonji fiddled with her plugs, the heavy metal making her earlobes swing. With a sympathetic pat on the shoulder and a smile, Yoongi then looked around, playing with the pastel pink cat-skull hair clip in his bangs, scanning the lounge area before he caught a glimpse of bright red hair sitting in one of the settees, surrounded by 5 other men. “Ah, are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me?”

Yoonji followed her brother line of sight, a smirk falling on her black lips. “Is that the chav you talked about earlier? Talk about coincidence. If I believed in that kinda bullshit, I’d say you’re soulmates.”

“Ah, fuck off.” Yoongi pushed his sister playfully, motioning towards the lounge bar with his head. “Let me drink first and then you can make fun of me, alrigh’?”

-

Hoseok was the only single in the whole group and he hated it. Well not hate, but really, deeply, profoundly, didn’t fucking like it.

“I’m going to get a drink.” Joon stood up, brushing down his jacket. “Anyone coming with?”

“Sure, I’ll go.” Hoseok stood up as well, placing his bomber on the settee. He needed a drink, despite how much of a lightweight he was.

“We’re gonna go dance for a while, are you ok alone, Jinnie?”

“As long as Joon gets me a cosmo, I’ll be fine.” Jin smiled, leaning back on the settee. “Besides, Joon and Hobi are literally right there, the bar is not that far.”

Hoseok and Joon nodded and then made their way to the lounge bar, Hoseok’s eyebrow flying up at the sight of a young woman dressed like a Victorian lady, down to the ruffled blouse. Her and a guy with a pink facemask on walked away from the bar at that moment, going to sit at the darkest corner of the lounge.

“One cosmo and one greyhound.” Joon had to raise his voice a bit, because the bar was the closest to the stairs, which meant the music was louder there. “What are you getting, Hobi?”

“Ah, I’ll have a cosmo as well.” He smiled brightly at the bartender, who nodded and started mixing their drinks.

“So, are you going to do as Jimin and Tae want and hook up with someone?” Joon leaned back on the bar, looking at where Jin was sitting with a fond look on his face.

“To be honest, no. I’m not a hookup kind of guy.” Hoseok sighed, a small smile starting to form on his lips. “You have to promise not to tell Jimin or tae about this, but I saw this guy at the Oxfam near their flat. He was so fucking cute, Joon, you have no idea.”

“Shit, really? How cute was he? On a scale of corgi to sleeping kitten.” Joon perked up, turning his body completely to face Hoseok.

“Like a whole litter of sleeping kittens, mate, but here’s the thing, his voice is so fucking deep, and I think he’s from North London, cuz I could barely understand his fucking accent.”

“Mate, you just fucking met him and you fell hard. I wanna meet this guy.” Joon chuckled, straightening up when the bartender cleared his throat and pushed their drinks towards them, Joon grabbing his and Jin’s drink. “Let’s get going.”

As soon as he said that, a shout went through the lounge.

“Oy, cuntmuffin! Didn’t’cha hear the guy!? He’s got two fuckin’ partners! Can’t you take a fuckin’ hint and piss off!?”

Hoseok whirled around, panic setting into his belly, and by the looks of it, Joon was also both panicked and furious. They ran towards where Jin was standing, the guy who apparently had been harassing him now looking at who had shouted at him. It was the young woman dressed in Victorian clothes, an eerily familiar look on her face.

“It’s none of your fuckin’ business, bitch!”

“Hey! It’s a hundred-fuckin’-percent my business if you’re harassin’ someone in front of me, you absolute bell-end!” The girl was in the process of tying her hair back, a fierce look on her face. “If you want this to fuckin’ escalate, keep going, mate!”

The young man with the kitty facemask had stood up at this point, grabbing the girl’s arm. He pulled down the facemask and Hoseok would’ve melted to the floor if the situation wasn’t so high-pressure.

“You heard her, get the fuck away from my boyfriend, fucker.” Joon’s voice, raised just a tiny bit in anger, was a booming growl throughout the lounge, and suddenly everything seemed to freeze as everyone turned to look at him. He wasn’t the tallest one there, but the aura he had around him was enough to make everyone shrink down.

“O-oh fuck.”

“Oh fuck is correct. Now step away from my partners, cunt.” Jungkook’s voice made Hoseok turn his head to look at the younger, who, dressed head-to-toe in black, arms bared in a tank top that had such wide gaps for his arms that more skin than fabric was showing. His anger was scarier than Joon’s because he seemed to agree with the Victorian lady’s sentiments of a fight. The guy almost literally ran off, bumping into equally-as-angry Jimin and Taehyung.

“Thank you for standing up for my boyfriend.” Joon was still tense, but he managed a warm smile to the young woman, who waved her hand, a wide gummy smile on her face.

“No problem. I know the type, and it’s easy to undermine them.” She tugged on the band holding back her hair before outstretching her hand. “I’m Yoonji. The shadow behind me is my twin brother Yoongi.”

“Oh, hey. You were at our bar last week.” Jin brightened up, smile returning to his face. Yoongi’s eyebrows quirked up slightly, making Jin laugh. “I was the one that greeted you at the door.”

“Ah, yeah. Hey, nice to see you two again.”

Hoseok was almost shaking with excitement, because not only new friends, but also his new crush was standing in front of him for the second time in one day.

“Shall we all sit together?” Jimin had already sauntered over, all smiles. The twins looked at each other and nodded, going back to where they had been sitting to get their drinks.

“Joon, where’s my drink?”

“Fuck.”

-

“So, you all work together?” Yoonji’s eyes were sparkling, just a smidge more expressive than Yoongi’s but he was also invested in what the others were talking about.

“Yeah, we all work at this bar called The Arcane Escape. We all pitch in in some way. Us four perform, Joon and Kookie are servers.” Jimin was on his fourth glass of gin and tonic, still quite coherent. Hoseok was slowly working his way through his second cosmo.

“I do some waitressing as well, but yeah, I’ve started performing with Jimin, Tae and Jin.” He took a sip of the sweet pink cocktail, feeling the beginnings of an alcohol-induced blush on his cheeks.

“So you four have, like, different names and shit?”

Jin laughed, his cheeks already dusted with pink from his third drink. “Yeah, we do. Mine is Jeannie Heart.”

“I go by Gigi Diamond, mostly because me and Tae stone the shit out of our clothes.” Jimin giggled, downing the remains of his gin.

Taehyung took the glass from Jimin, he was the only sober one left in their group, a glass of strawberry juice on the table in front of him. “I chose the name Victoria Nike.”

“Oh, I get it. Victory in Latin and Greek. It’s a cool name.” Yoongi piped up from where he was lounging, his metal cup held precariously from his fingertips.

“Wait, is that what your name is supposed to be?” Jungkook’s eyes were almost bugging out of his skull, slightly addled by the alcohol. Everyone laughed, making him look around, bewildered before Joon and Jin, both sitting on either side of him calmed him down with simultaneous kisses on the cheek. A furious blush bloomed over the already-apparent alcohol flush, and he covered his face with his hands, making everyone laugh again.

“What about you, Hoseok? What’s your drag name?” Yoonji aimed her eyes at him, cat-like eyes sharp and piercing, just as much as Yoongi’s.

“Ah, it’s Jolie Hopper. I didn’t choose the last name, I was just playing around with like “très jolie” and jolly, and when I told Sugar I was planning on dancing swing, he said something about lindy hop and the last name just came from there.”

“Wait, Sugar? Fuckin’ tall, bleach-blonde hair and way too many tattoos?” Yoongi leaned forwards, a frown on his face.

“Well, he’s got black hair now, but that sounds like our Sugar. You know him?” Joon also leaned forwards, one eyebrow raised, mouth set in a way that made one dimple appear.

“We met him when we were 18, he went by his real name back then, but he used Sugar when he did drag. Got us out of a bad situation at this one bar, it got closed down after that.” Yoonji pursed her lips, eyebrows slightly raised. “Small world.”

Hoseok could feel a chill run up his spine. What the hell was going on here?