YANG JEONGIN, age eighteen, was gay. very, hopelessly, gay. and he had known this for quite a while now. but unfortunately, being a part of a tough biker gang meant that you had to keep up appearances, and that meant he couldn't tell this to anyone.

after he was born, jeongin's parents realized that they wouldn't be able to properly care for him as well as they should. so, they left him at an orphanage in hopes that he would be adopted by someone that would be good to him. someone who would be able to raise him right.

jeongin chuckled softly to himself. they would've been shocked if they found out that their baby boy had been adopted by a group of bikers that called themselves "stray souls".

"i.n."

the voice of jeongin's friend, hwang hyunjin, a flirtatious boy with visuals that could put an angel's to shame, snapped him out of his thoughts. "hm?"

"we're heading out." hyunjin gestured to the two other boys beside him— lee minho and seo changbin, jeongin's other friends— looking nothing short of intimidating in their black leather jackets and ripped jeans. "gotta make sure that those surfer scum aren't trying to take over the jyp café, y'know?"

jeongin rolled his eyes. "are you sure you're not just gonna flirt with all the girls there?"

hyunjin simply winked in response before turning around to exit the large living room that they were in, the other two following suit. from his spot on their beat-up green couch, the eighteen-year-old could hear the sound of engines revving up with a mighty roar, and remained still until he couldn't hear them any longer. then, he sprinted to the garage.

for as long as he could remember, the bikers had hated the other half of the small seaside town's population: a large group of surfers that completely dominated the beach. he was never told why, and every time he tried to ask one of his friends about it, he never got a straight answer. (he was starting to suspect that they had no idea as well.) nevertheless, he just accepted hating the surfers as part of his lifestyle, even though deep down inside he knew that he could never really hate them. if anything, he envied them for the carefree life that they got to lead. they had no people forcing them to wear all black on a scorching summer day; no people telling them to "act tougher"; and no people who scorned them for their sexuality.  that last point was a factor that jeongin often dwelled on. what would it be like to live in such an accepting environment?

it's not that he despised his life with the bikers, he thought to himself as he put on his helmet and readied his own motorcycle. on the contrary, he loved them a lot. they were all like one big family. a rough, tough, loud family who stuck up for each other no matter what. their leader had been the one to adopt jeongin as a young boy and treated him like a younger brother, constantly babying and teasing him, even as he got older. (she was the one who gave the gang what she deemed "cool" nicknames— jeongin and minho, for example, were given the names "i.n" and "lee know".) the entire brotherhood of bikers all loved to do so for some reason that jeongin couldn't fathom. although it got annoying at times, he couldn't deny that he wouldn't have them any other way. but still, that didn't stop him from yearning for a different life— one that he knew he wouldn't have. not in this universe, at least.

sighing, jeongin flipped up the kickstand on his matte-black harley before speeding away from the biker home and to the place he had been waiting to escape to the entire day. a place that called out to him no matter how much he tried to ignore it. a place filled with the people he was always told to avoid.

the sea.