Sighing the boys headed back to their dorm knowing that they would have to talk with Junhong tomorrow, after saying goodnight they went into their rooms. Jongup curled up on his bed but couldn't stop thinking about the younger boy, he hated being in the room by himself biting his lip he slowly got up grabbing his favorite stuffed bear he headed to Yongguk and Himchan's room. Just as he reached the door he heard moans and blushed deep red knowing that they were probably having their special time, sighing he grabbed a blanket from one of the chairs and curled up on the floor outside of their door hoping that just being this close to them would keep the nightmares at bay.

Zelo quickly climbed up the drainpipe to his bedroom window and crawled inside he was so lucky that his bed was right there so that when he landed he made no noise. Scrambling around as he pulled on clothes the clock hit three and he dove into bed pulling the blankets over his head just as the door banged open and his dad stumbled in. Zelo's heart started beating fast and he was afraid that his dad could hear it, hearing his dad curse he realized then before the first blow landed that he had forgotten to pick up his clothes. Muffling his cries with his pillow as each blow landed, he couldn't keep them in much longer when his dad yanked off the blankets and grabbed his belt hitting him hard on the back.

"..Jongup." Yongguk yelped when he walked out of the bedroom and almost tripped over the small boy who was sound asleep. Sighing softly, he bent down and lifted him up into his arms smiling at the teddy bear he was holding and wen to the bed settling him down on a chair before going to Himchan and shaking him gently knowing that he must be exhausted. "Channie, its Jongup."

"Is he okay?" Himchan asked yawning his eyes widening in surprise when he saw the boy buried under his blanket and clutching his teddy bear "Go on I got it."

"Great." Yongguk nodded leaving the room, he smiled lsightly knowing that Himchan had a crush on the younger boy even if Himchan didn't realize it.

"Uppie..what are we going to do with you?" Himchan murmured quickly getting dressed, he quickly switched out the sheets throwing the dirty ones in the laundry before lifting Jongup and tossing him onto the bed. Jongup just yawned burying his face into the pillow, Himchan climbed up beside him wrapping his arms around him running his fingers through his hair gently.

"mine." Jongup whispered turning slightly to wrap a leg around Himchan pressing close to him. Yongguk returned and smiled slightly at the sight in front of him, he knew that he would have to find someone other than Himchan to form a relationship with.

Zelo groaned softly when his alarm went of and hit it repeatedly until it went quiet, biting his lip to hold back his scream of pain as he moved finally sitting up and standing he swayed as the room blurred around him. Clutching at his dresser he found his uniform and slowly pulled it on, making sure to stay quiet he went to the bathroom and cleaned up as best he could, there wasn't anything he could do about how pale he was, he still had his shirt on from last night under his school shirt, he knew that his back had bled from the welts and that the shirt was stuck, after gym class he was going to try and take it off in the shower. Arriving at school he made sure to keep his head down as he moved quickly toward his class, he could hear the students talking but didn't pause to talk to anyone he was so focused  on getting to his class that he slammed into someone knocking them down.

"Omg, I'm so sorry." Zelo said softly pulling the kid up with ease as he quickly picked up the papers that had scattered, Jongup smiled slightly it was just the boy he wanted to see and took the papers.
"Junnie...lets go to class…together." Jongup murmured, Zelo looked at him surprised at the nickname and bit his lip his dad's words echoing in his brain.

'they will only hurt you'

'who wants to be friends with someone like you'

'I'm our only friend'

"everything alright?" Himchan asked concerned walking over, he had been watching them after they walked into each other and could see the scared look on the tall boys face.

"I just wanted to see if he wanted to walk to class together." Jongup replied smiling brightly Zelo bit his lip his eyes darting between the two, as the silence stretched Himchan grew annoyed tapping his foot.

"Its not polite to not answer your hyung." Himchan said softly, Zelo looked at him wide eyed quickly bowing in apology. Jongup rolled his eyes worried that Himchan had scared the younger boy.

'Hyung, don't be mean." Jongup murmured stepping on his toe, Himchan yelped in surprise narrowing his eyes. As the two boys glared at each other Zelo made his escape, Yongguk who had been watching from down the hall rolled his eyes at the scene.

"Idiots." he grumbled heading towards the direction that Zelo disappeared. Jongup up finally turned back to speak and his mouth dropped open in surprise.

"AH hyung, you scared him off!" Jongup whined stomping his foot, Himchan smiled slightly wrapping his arm around the younger boy guiding him along.

"You have him in your next class Uppie, I'm sure you can talk to him then." He soothed, Jongup just rolled his eyes still whining about the older boys attitude.

Zelo sighed in relief resting back against some lockers brushing the hair out of his face with shaking hands. Taking a deep breath Zelo straightened to his full height and walked into his classroom avoiding everyone especially Jongup because of the other boy scolding him. As he settled down he thought back to what the older boy had said, Zelo smiled slightly realizing that the older of the three had given him permission to call Jongup hyung, he had always wanted a hyung. Jongup noticed the empty seat beside Zelo and quickly headed over sitting down surprising the younger boy, Zelo refused to look up almost jumping from his seat when the smaller boy placed his hand over his patting gently in reassurance.

"Channie hyung, he didn't mean to scare you." jongup murmured as the other students filed in looking for seats, they were allowed to sit wherever they felt like and most of the time the students sat in different seat every class. Not expecting a response Jongup was pleasantly surprised when a soft voice responded.

"i..i..wa..was….beingrudeandimsorry." Zelo stammered before quickly speaking, he wasn't sure if the older boy understood him but Jongup nodded slightly pulling as hand away and getting out his things when the teacher appeared, they worked in silence the rest of class until their teacher announced something.

"I've decided that since we are a fairly big class we are going to do a partner project to get to know everyone, your partner will be the person beside you. I have made up questions and you will ask them and then find a unique way to present the finished project to the class." She announced, everyone groaned but were relieved as well because they had pretty much chosen friends for their partners except for Zelo and Jongup. Once the bell rang Zelo was quick to leave, Jongup moved as fast as he could to keep up with him but the teacher had stopped him.

"Yes." Jongup said softly, the teacher smiled hoping that her plan to figure out what was going on with their tall giant would work.

"Jongup, I believe that something is going on in Junhong's life and I made special questions for you to ask him. I need you to make sure he's I a good environment and you can ask your hyungs to help you…can you do this for me?" Mrs. Cha asked gently, handing him another sheet of paper as she continued to explain "I want you to do the questions the rest are doing for the project, and this other sheet when your at his house I want you to observe and write down anything you see."

"Of course." Jongup said, they talked a few more minutes before Jongup left hurrying to his next class his thoughts on how to get Zelo to be comfortable around him.

"You okay Uppie?" Yongguk asked softly, they were the only ones at the lunch table waiting for the others to arrive, but the younger boy was silent even more silent than usual.

"Its just..my teacher things something's wrong with Junhong." Jongup said softly not wanting anyone to overhear him, Yongguk moved a little closer curious as Jongup pulled out some papers from his bag. "she assigned a project today but asked if I could do this as well."

"let me see." Yongguk suggested, Jongup eagerly handed the two sheets over waiting anxiously as Yongguk skipped the project paper and went directly to the special paper.

**paper**

1. Does Junhong seem to be afraid of family members, if so who and how does he react….

2. How does he react when you try to initiate skinship……

3. Does he protect others because no one is there to protect him…..at home or school………

"We'll help you Uppie." Yongguk smiled gently patting his shoulder and handing the paper back to him, Jongup sighed in relief deciding to discuss it with the others when they got back to their dorm.

"great job guys! Go on get cleaned up and you can head home!" Their teacher announced, everyone cheered exhausted, they had played a long game of Soccer. Junhong kept his head down trying not to yelp in pain every time one of the kids on his team hit his back telling him good job for blocking the goals.

Junhong stood there nervously the others were showering as well but he couldn't take off his shirt knowing that they would see his wounds, some of which had opened while playing and he knew were bleeding. Shrugging he went to one of the showers wearing his boxers and t-shirt not changing, the others looked at him surprised and confused but just laughed it off cooing about how cute the youngest boy was and that he must still be too shy to change in front of them even though Junhong didn't really mind. After the last person had left, Zelo took a deep breath and slowly started to take off his shirt, biting his lip so hard to keep from screaming as his shirt started to pull away from his bloody back. Youngjae came back into the shower area to grab the towel he had left there and froze in horror at the sight in front of him. Leaving quickly before Junhong could see him he ran from showers slamming into Daehyun, the older boy stared at Youngjae concerned seeing how pale his boyfriend was.

"What is it…what happened?" Daehyun demanded, Youngjae shook his head dragging him from the school he wanted to wait until he saw Jongup to say anything