MY BABY LIKES TO ROCK.

     JEONGGUK HAS A CIGARETTE dangling from his lips and a pair of drumsticks in his hands as he and seokjin wait, like always, for hoseok to show up to practice. in the basement of menswear, with jeongguk's amps set up ( they're the main reason he's in the band, those amps ), seokjin's bass tuned and tears for fears playing from a cassette player, they're all set.

just missing the goddamn front man.

"that fucken' wanker," seokjin spits from his cranberry lips, all tight trousers and collarbone, ziggy stardust style, a button down hanging off his shoulders, tits on a disturbingly clear display. "i'm gonna end him. swear to god. i sing way fuckin' better than he does. bleedin' 'eck, maxxie could do his job, without the showing up late."

"yeah yeah," jeongguk quietly taps out a tune on his drum, bored and wishing he'd stayed in bed with the pretty girl he'd found at the party in bromley. she'd called herself fee and she was lovely — but jeongguk had scampered out of there, trouser-less and frantic for band practice at 9:00am. he's now in a pair of maxxie's lazy chavvy¹ trackkie bottoms², feeling like a bit of a twat ( as if that's big news ). seokjin picks up his bass, slings it around his shoulders, and turns off the tape player, a stormy expression on his perfect features.

"fuck it. le's go wit'out him." he strums the first chord of one of jeongguk's favourite songs to play, their cover of queen bitch, by the ever amazing bowie, and the strawberry head grins devilishly with his chipped tooth from a pub fight, beginning to keep the beat on his drums. seokjin riffs, stepping closer to the microphone, red lips morphing around the words.

"oh my heart's in the basement, my weekend's at an all time low..." his welsh accent adds something to it, a certain shebang that it just needs, and jeongguk nods along, biting his lip, but they both know they're missing hoseok's screeching lead, his nicotine rotted voice and his charisma. as much as they insult him, he's the cog that makes the band work — without him, they're good, but not as good.

seokjin's just starting up queen bitch when the door bursts open with a crash, bang, wallop and in stumbles a hoseok, in tight leather trousers and a 1982 glastonbury festival t-shirt, his purple speckled hair a complete mess and a wide grin on his face. "alright, you fags?" he says, and jeongguk swears he's actually sober. seokjin takes off his bass and stands with his hands on his hips, lips pursed.

"you're late, 'seok." he says, and hoseok rolls his eyes, grins.

"yeah, well, you big fat tranny, it don' matter, cause guess what? i've only gone an' written us a song!" hoseok throws his notebook at seokjin, who catches it so instinctively that jeongguk's almost shocked. seokjin flips through, and his eyes widen when he lands on presumably the new song.

"'my baby wants to rock and roll'?" seokjin says, reading through the lyrics, eyebrows raising. "holy— 'seok, you're fuckin' useful, man! gguk, 'ave a look at this, babe."

gguk crinkles his nose at the nickname distastefully, taking the notebook, but only after he stubs out his cig and replaces it with a fresh one. hoseok's handwriting isn't all that, but jeongguk makes sense of the scribbles, nodding his head as he reads over the words hoseok clearly wrote out quickly.

"when d'ya write this then?" he asks hoseok, tossing the notebook back over. hoseok shrugs, running a hand through his oil slick head.

"last night, when i got home — smoked some bangin' ganja and had a completely feckin' brilliant idea. there's an ace guitar solo in there for you, jin mate, would you adam-and-eve³ it?"

seokjin's eyes light up, grinning widely with cranberry lips. "fuckin' brilliant, jung! i could kiss you, you bloody amazing twat."

"don't think maxxie'd appreciate that, jin," jeongguk comments, tapping a tune on his drums as he looks at the chords scribbled above the lyrics, already figuring a beat out. his mind is buzzing with fast drum beats, wants it to have that punch that every good rock song has, with a killer drumline that only the true rock n roll renegades will notice, something to thrum in their veins and to stamp their feet to. the perfect riff. he looks up, eyes shining. "get your guitars, fags — i've got a beat."

"i love you, gguk," hoseok's grin looks like the cheshire cat from that creepy kids book, and jeongguk flips him off, tossing him the notebook so they've got the chords. "right, shall we?"

seokjin's bass starts it off, a fast and deep riff that jeongguk's pulse thrums to, and he comes in with the drums, a quick one-two-three-four-five, and hoseok's gravelly, cigarette scarred voice comes in. "my baby wants to rock and roll, she likes pictures, and thought control..."

seokjin keeps the bass, and when the chorus kicks in, jeongguk goes wild on the drums, and it sounds so right, and fuck, this is better than neon lights and late nights and it's like every drug just got injected into your eyeballs and you're riding some crazy kinda high — this is rock n roll, the true essence. hoseok has lips shaped like poetry, uses his lyrics like a knife, and seokjin and jeongguk are his backup warriors, jamming out, sweat collecting on them from adrenaline; jeongguk's tank top sticks to him, his hair matted and biceps sweaty, and he may be the drummer but goddamn his ego could rival bono right now, because he's the backbone of this euphoric moment, the roots of what could be an amazing hit. it's almost like an orgasm when they near the end of the song, because they're all sort of doing their own thing, hoseok grunting and growling the lyrics, seokjin headbanging and sweeping his hair out of his eyes, and jeongguk's sweating and his arms are starting to hurt, but god — it's rock n roll, baby.

when they finish, jeongguk collapses back in on himself, gasping as if he just ran a million miles. it's funny: all they did was play a new song, but they all look fucked out, all perspiration and heaving breath, smiles on their faces that rival the sun. hoseok's the first one to break the silence being occupied by heavy breathing, yelling out loudly. "fuck! holy shit! i think we did it!"

seokjin laughs, and jeongguk hasn't heard this much happiness at band practice since they started. he and hoseok high five. "damn fuckin' right we did it! did you hear that?" his highlands accent is even more prominent, and he beams at gguk. "that drumline, gguk, oh my god — fuckin' amazin', you were amazing!"

jeongguk tries to hide the cherry blush creeping up his pudgy cheeks, but it comes anyway, accompanied by an abashed smile and a 'it were nothin', really'. seokjin smiles still, all euphoric — he's beautiful, jeongguk realises painfully.

hoseok ties his lanky hair up with a bit of string from his pocket, wiping a hand over his forehead, the words 'resist the fascist bastards' tattooed on his wrist. he grins at his band mates. "fuckin' brilliant, lads. reckon that deserves a drink?"

seokjin shakes his head, much to their surprise. "nuh-uh, hobi. before you get hammered, we're gonna play that song again, and again, and again. i wanna make it even more perfect than that, if it's possible. like, perfect-fuckin'-squared, you get me?"

"i wanna rename the band," jeongguk cuts in, and the two older boys look at him. hoseok nods slowly, a sort of 'alright, go ahead'. jeongguk smirks. "i was listenin' to aca-daca⁴, right—"

"sorry, you was listenin' to who?" seokjin giggles, covering his mouth. jeongguk forgets he's not talking to irish blokes, and chuckles.

"ac/dc, soz mate. irish thing," he laughs, and seokjin nods, grinning. "anyways, you know their song, hell's bells? well, got me thinkin' about the hell's angels, like the biker gangs, right  — we could be heaven's devils."

hoseok's mouth goes into a comic book 'o' shape, and he nods, head bobbing. "oh yes mate! fuckin' perfect, that is! oh my god, we've cracked it, 'aven't we? my success formula — it's workin'!"

jeongguk's eyes sparkle, and he smiles. "hell yeah, 's working."

━━

written – 250319

BRITISH VOCAB.
¹chavvy: an adjective of the word 'chav', adapted from the romany term 'chavi', meaning a rough, working class / tasteless person. chavi originally meant 'young boy', but non-romany people changed the use and therefore the meaning.
²trackkie-bottoms: sweatpants.
³would you adam-and-eve it?: cockney rhyming slang for 'would you believe it?'.
⁴aca-daca: this is actually what my dad's mate used to call ac/dc and i think it's cute lmao.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.
wow we LOVE massive gaps between chapters being written lmao y'all stan a messy fuckin bastard boy

anywayyyyy the song played in this chapter by FIL is 'my baby wants to rock and roll' by iggy pop, which came out in the 90s, so in this it's FIL's original song. if you wanna know what the band is kinda meant to sound like, iggy's 'brick by brick' record is pretty much what i imagine them to sound like (especially pussy power and my baby wants to rock and roll)

oh so BY THE WAY the playlist chapter has been updated w seokjin, namjoon & jeongguk's playlists pls check them out okay they're good i promise

aight i'm off to a festival today so wish me luck i'm lookin forward to some muddy field fun 🤘✊

this note is way too long asfsgs anyway this is one of my fave chapters YEET i love y'all

— love, jace