It’s too early for humanity, Seungkwan whines. The world is not awake at eleven in the morning, Soonyoung can chill. The exams just ended!

“No one told you to come.” Soonyoung says. Seungkwan pouts in response. He still feels guilty at breaking tradition, this silly boy. Even though their tradition isn’t anythign special. It involves mixing sauces in different proportions and eating so much fries it's amazing they don't fall sick. If you need to be such a good and sweethearted person to get a cute girlfriend it’s no wonder why Soonyoung doesn’t have one.

“Anyway you’re totally abandoning me later. No one dresses so nicely to rot away in the rooftop shed.”

Seungkwan looks down at this collared shirt and black jeans. Then he looks at Soonyoung’s messy hair, loose shirt and training pants. Damn, busted. It’s true you can’t fool someone who knows you this well.

“You just have no standards.” Seungkwan says with mock superiority. Who is he trying to fool? No one, Soonyoung also knows the truth. That his clothes weren’t cute pajamas was already a tiring exertion on a Saturday morning.

From downstairs Soonyoung can already hear a familiar voice singing. Welp, there goes his hopes of a peaceful dance practice. Looks like it’s going to be Seungkwan’s nervous grumbling plus Seokmin's loud singing as background music. Even though it’s an “unearthly” time. Maybe he should have woken up later.

But it's nice like that. With the frankly excessive amount of noise they make, the rooftop shed feels really cozy. Almost as if it wasn't too big for three of them, that the room was full with lively chatter. Seungkwan cutely complaining, Seokmin singing annoying love songs just to get on Seungkwan’s nerves and Soonyoung doing a slow dance while playing both the guy and the girl. It’s not his fault that he doesn’t have anyone to dance with. Dance Club demanded off and who was he to deny them?

There’s way too much laughter and teasing. And even though Seungkwan is supposedly regretting his life and friendship choices, his earlier nervousness has gone down a notch. It’s almost a waste that Seungkwan has to go. Leaves fifteen minutes to pick his girlfriend up like the exact epitome of a good boyfriend. And there’s Seokmin fluffing his bangs so they fall nicely and Soonyoung making sure that the cuffs in his sleeves much.

“You look cute. Now shoo.” Seokmin says, chasing him out of the rooftop shed. And even though they pretend to stay upstairs because they’re supposedly too lazy to send him off, the moment Seungkwan has his back turned they’re trailing after him like a pair of terrible private investigators. Press themselves against walls, hiding behind trees and buildings trailing after Seungkwan until he reaches the bus stop. Watch carefully from behind as Seungkwan fiddles with collar and checks his reflection in the windows of a classroom on the first floor.  Supress their bursting desire to coo at the sight of Seungkwan checking his watch when the bus doesn’t arrive right on schedule. And he’s fifteen minutes early.

But the moment he’s on the bus, they’re craning their necks out from behind the school gate trying to catch a final glimpse of Seungkwan. Ugh, they’re pretty disgusting themselves. Like overzealous parents smothering Seungkwan with unwanted affection and watching him grow up and go out on his (god knows what number) date. Soonyoung is pretty sure it’s six, but Seokmin can swear it’s seven. Whatever, no one will fight over minor details like that.

So far it’s been a good day.

---

Except now it isn’t. Soonyoung is this close to throwing his phone across the room and storming out of the rooftop shed. Nothing is working, none of the songs work for the festival. How difficult can it be, choose three songs, make some choreo and practice it? But there’s always something wrong, it isn't what Soonyoung wants. And it’s making him so frustrated he can scream.

He can’t fail. Not now, not like this. Not for the festival. He’s got to build something strong, lay a solid foundation for the two weeks leading up to the festival.

But like last night struggling through Question 17b, Soonyoung doesn’t know the answer. But this time he can’t take his anger out on the walls like he took it out on Mr. Fluffles before. While Seungkwan always says he’s a er for punishment, getting bloody knuckles the day after the exam is kind of dumb, even for him. So instead he’s pausing every song fifteen seconds in and fighting the desire to hurl his phone across the room or down four flights of stairs. A broken phone is another expense he can’t afford to have. So maybe he’ll take the cheaper way out and toss himself down the rooftop. Maybe that’ll be better for everyone involved. Especially Jihoon.

“What’s wrong?”

Soonyoung stumbles backwards. Whoa, when did Seokmin get so close? Is he a ghost or something?

“Careful.” Seokmin keeps him from falling embrassingly onto the floor, pushing him back to his feet. “The festival worrying you?”

“Something like that.”

It’s not really the festival. Soonyoung isn’t really scared of being a clown, making a fool of himself in front of the public. As Seungkwan aptly puts, he lacks a basic sense of shame. But what’s weighing him down is this sense of responsibility. The festival is a major event, where all the clubs showcase what they’ve done for the first half of the year. It’s a celebration. A happy occasion.

And it’s also when the Dance Club first fell apart.

The memories are clearer than the rainy sky on the day of last year’s festival. The sound system sounded soft because of how loudly the rain was pounding down on the tentage but it didn’t bother them at that time. All the nine of them were so happy, eager to step on the stage and dance away. Right up to the point they got off stage, they were so happy.

So stupid.

“It’ll be okay. In two weeks you’ll have a great dance and everything-well, not better than my performance.”

Soonyoung lets out a coarse laugh at that. Seokmin’s trying so hard to amuse him but nothing sounds funny to him now.

“Yeah. And after that it’ll come apart again. And that’s the end. I’ve failed.”

His shoulders are shaking. Soonyoung didn’t even notice until Seokmin places steady hands on them.

“You only lose if you let Jihoon get to you. You’ll be fine. The Dance Club will be fine.”

“Easy for you to say. People like you won’t understand.”

He shouldn’t be doing this. Seokmin is perfectly innocent, the classic case of wrong place wrong time. Soonyoung takes a lot of his pent-up anger out of him for not valid reason. Probably because they spend time together and Seokmin just listens to his angsty teen girl venting patiently and kindly. 

“Sorry. Forget it.”

“We're similar. I would understand. More than anyone else, actually.”

---

Seokmin has no idea what possessed him to open his mouth and say those words. Great job boy, right after you and Soonyoung become humans-who-interact-peacefully and somewhat friends you decide to say things that will definitely spoil your relationship. Things so bad that even if Seungkwan did it he’d probably get kicked onto a curb and left out as feed for wild dogs.  

But Soonyoung deserves to know. He’s not alone. It can be won. He can win it.

"Before Lee Jihoon hated you, he hated me." 

In first year when the clubs were actively recruiting, Seokmin was one of the dozen who showed up for the rock band auditions, sitting in at the session and generally horsing around. Singing way too loudly as usual, except this time the seniors were encouraging him to go on. He remembers the shorter boy auditioning. A good guy for a band, one who could play instruments and sing pretty decent, that's what Seokmin thought. Even offered up dance skills, defintely a good catch. 

But when he was offered the main vocal spot on the Rock Band for their year and Jihoon was offered the second spot, that’s when his (moderately) peaceful high school went to hell. Don’t accept it or you’ll regret, that’s what he was warned.

Jihoon sounded so much like the Choir Club seniors that Seokmin took out the form in front of Jihoon and accepted it on the spot. Pretty much signing his death warrant, but give him the benefit of all the hindsight and Lee Seokmin would have done exactly the same thing. Except this time with more sneering, mock superiority and even more condescending parting words.  

Jihoon has grit, that much Seokmin will give him. Worked hard at spreading rumours that Seokmin was some playboy who dated multiple pretty noonas from nearby universities when in reality he spends more talking with the cleaning ladies. Destroying whatever reputation he has, something that truly irked him. But not enough to make him scream, because he doesn’t feel the need to be liked very much. Most of the time his sharp tongue sends people running and he’s gotten used to it. Being unloved is pretty much his default setting, anyway. 

What was really frustrating is that Jihoon convinced all the kids in their year to avoid the Rock Band, weaving an entire story about high club fees, trashy seniors and the frontman being an absolute jerk. (That may be the truth, but Seokmin likes to lump them with the blatant lies anyway.) So the Rock Band was exactly like the Dance Club was at the start of the year- except instead of four, their member total was truly tragic – one.

Unlike Soonyoung, Seokmin has less morals. Rather than throwing himself in the fray and slaving his off to sway the undecided kids to join the Rock Band, Seokmin takes the easy way out. Approaches a bunch of handsome but lazy guys, offering them a good deal. Join the Rock Band, no instrument experience needed. Only practice twice a week in a relaxing air-conditioned environment, untalent is absolutely welcome. All he cares is that they’re handsome so they’ll get fans to give the Rock Band legitimacy. Because for some reason all his fangirls leave after three days, a phenomena that genuinely makes him sad.

He just wants the Rock Band he was so excited to join keeps exsisting for the juniors. And he’s willing to frontman the lousiest Rock Band in the history of Pledis High with drummers who drop drumsticks, guitarists who strum random strings and Grade 3 keyboardists if it means the Rock Band will last another year. So that the juniors will want to join and have a real band not rather than some farce floated on handsome faces.

---

Ah, that makes sense. Totally explains why Jeonghan, Mingyu and Wonwoo all gathered in the Rock Band. And why Seokmin keeps all these fangirls to pad club memberships. Soonyoung will not lie, he is Impressed. Even in situations like this Seokmin is a natural winner. The junior rock band is really legit, their music is pretty good.

But just because Lee Seokmin can beat Lee Jihoon does not mean that just anybody can. Seokmin is some blessed creature, something mere mortals like Soonyoung cannot hope to touch. Soonyound doesn’t even know these words are spilling from his mouth until Seokmin reaches out to put a finger to his lips.

“I’m not done with my story. I screwed up big time. Made a huge mistake I can't fix.”

Soonyoung nods half-heartedly. Sure, tell him about that inevitable lapse in judgement that caused a tiny error. Like the one mark on the Physics paper for incorrect number of significant figures that stops Lee Seokmin from scoring 100.

“The mistake was you.” 

---

a/n: feel so bad at the long wait between chapters and wrote this as a present :xx hope you enjoy it ^0^