Choi Seungcheol was that type of child that every parent prayed not to have. He was always searching for a playmate, needing constant attention. Who cared if his parents were dead tired, busy or preoccupied with their own problems? Definitely not little Seungcheol. But he also had this adorable side that made you forgive all his other flaws. One smile, paired with those sparkling big eyes, could brighten anyone’s day. However, there was something that always drove Seungcheol’s parents mad: if they ever told Seungcheol to do something the kid was doing exactly the opposite. Later on, when Seungcheol grew up to be a handsome teenager, he admitted that he hated to take instructions from anyone. Not like he ever created big problems or something, but it definitely made his mother insane at some points. From seeing her new carpet full of small, muddy footprints to finding her eight year old boy bleeding on the kitchen floor after he played with the same knife she asked him not to nearly an hour ago. But what could not be forgiven after the little boy showed you one of his brilliant smiles? 

Seungcheol was always like that, so after a classmate at his new university advised him to stay away from the short, pink haired boy he sees passing around, it wasn't a surprise that he did exactly the opposite. His classmate seems an anyway. Also, there’s nothing weird with Seungcheol spying on the pink haired guy.

“What are you doing?” someone whispers in his ear and Seungcheol nearly lets out a bloody scream. He turns around to find a boy staring at him curiously, hands pressed together behind him, his whole body slightly bent forward as he balanced on his tiptoes.
“Nothing.” He answers in the same silent tone. The boy in front of him smirks a little and it looks so strange on his kid-like face, but still the mischief in his eyes seems to fit.
“You are following Woozi.”
“Who?” 
“The pink haired one, Woozi.” The boy says, smirk still on his lips, as he points to the short boy who is seated at one of the tables in the library. Seungcheol hides again behind the bookshelf. ‘Woozi.’ He thinks. ‘Sounds kind of familiar.’

“So why are you spying on him?” the boy next to him asks once again and Seungcheol sighs. He found a nosy one. 
“I was just curious. Some dude in my class told me to stay away from him.” The boy nods his head, thinking for a brief second.
“He was right. You should do that.” He says and takes a step back.
“Wait.” Seungcheol harshly drags him back by the arm. The boy rolls his eyes, clearly not satisfied with the treatment, but Seungcheol ignores it.

“Why should I stay away from him anyway?” he asks. The boy smirks yet again.
“It’s not like if you try to approach him you will succeed.” Seungcheol frowns at the answer but lets the boy continue. “Woozi has a really short temper, if you piss him off you’ll definitely get hurt.” 
At this Seungcheol scoffs, throwing another look at the short boy who was inoffensively writing something in a notebook. The boy in front of him follows his gaze and lets out a little dark chuckle.

“He looks so small and innocent, doesn’t he?” his question brings Seungcheol's attention back to him. “But he is not. He is a little devil, listen to me.” The boy’s voice rises a bit above a whisper, and Seungcheol finds it funny how his eyes grow larger. “I heard that he knows martial arts and that last year he beat up five guys. At once!” 
“Seriously now?” Seungcheol asks, smiling. The boy’s statements are ridiculous.
“Laugh all you want. But don’t tell me I didn’t warn you. Everyone in this school knows Woozi is dangerous.” 
“Oh, is he popular or something?” at this the boy looks at him strangely, almost judging.

“Don’t tell me you don’t know who he is.” Seungcheol shakes his head and the boy gasps. Seungcheol really finds his dramatic reactions amusing.
“I thought that’s why you are following him. Are you new here or something?” Seungcheol nods and the boy before him smiles strangely again and starts scanning him from the top of his head to the tip of his toes and back up. Seungcheol shifts uncomfortably under his gaze.
“Rap, right?” the boy asks after he’s done with his strange check out. 
Seungcheol nods. “And vocal.” He adds. 
“Anyway, how can you not know Woozi? Everyone knows him. He’s like... this university’s pride.” And that’s when it clicks and Seungcheol gasps loudly.
“He is that Woozi?!”
The kid scoffs. “It’s not a common name, you know? What took you so long?” 

Of course Seungcheol knows who Woozi is. Anyone that ever went on the university’s site would know. And not just that, but the pink haired boy’s YouTube channel had almost 500K subscribers and his songs always passed at least a million views. Since his first song he uploaded last year, almost every teenager in Korea knew his name and everyone was asking when he would make an official debut. Let’s just say that his mind works a little slow today and that’s the reason he didn’t connect the dots. That and the fact that nobody knows how Woozi looks since he only uploads audios. 
“So that’s how he looks.” He whispers to himself.
“Not what you would expect, right?” the stranger says and Seungcheol nods. “But again, don’t judge him by the looks. After all, he is the only one in this school that has a scholarship.”

“Wait,” Seungcheol frowns. “I thought this university doesn’t give scholarships.”
“It doesn’t” the boy smirks. “But Woozi has one. Nobody knows why or how, but he has it. He even has a free room in the dorm, all for himself.” The boy is obviously frustrated with the situation, his voice getting louder. And Seungcheol doesn’t know why, but he feels like the kid is more concerned that he doesn’t know why Woozi has a scholarship than by the fact itself.
“There are rumors going around that he is the secret son of the headmaster or something. That’ll…” The boy doesn’t get to finish his phrase as a book hits him. Hard. Straight in the face. And it leaves both of them frozen in place, the boy with a red mark on his forehead.

“Boo Seungkwan I swear I’ll kill you one day.” A low voice surprises them and Seungcheol turns to stand face to face with an angry looking Woozi. The first thing that goes through his mind is that the boy looks even shorter standing next to him, even cuter. But he guesses it is a bad time to say that.
“Hyuuung~” a whiny voice interrupts his thoughts and he looks at the boy that’s apparently named Seungkwan. “It hurts!” he continues in the same voice and Seungcheol cringes.
“Good. Then maybe you’ll stop spreading rumors about me. I bet you made up half of them.” The pink haired boy’s voice is cold, but Seungcheol can see that the same coldness doesn’t spread to his eyes. 
“Are saying it’s just a rumor? The headmaster is not your father?” Seungkwan asks and Seungcheol thinks that he should be a journalist or something. He obviously knows how to use a situation. Woozi huffs angrily.
“No. He is not my father. I’m an orphan.” He answers, annoyance dropping. Seungcheol turns to stare at him, surprised.
A small “Oh.” Leaves Seungkwan’s lips and an awkward silence settles between them.

“Then how did you get the scholarship?” the boy really doesn’t know when to give up, Seungcheol thinks. But Woozi doesn’t seem to mind the questions. A small smirk adores his features as he answers:
“I’m a genius, that’s how. Right, Sir?” Seungkwan and Seungcheol turn around at the same time to see the headmaster himself walking through the library with a book in his hand. 
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, brat.” The man mumbles on his way out.  Woozi throws Seungkwan a smirk and the latter whispers something that sounds pretty similar to ‘smitten’.

“And you are?” Woozi points at Seungcheol, reminding him that he did not introduce himself. But when he opens his mouth to do it Seungkwan cuts him off.
“He’s your new stalker. But he’s rude. He hasn’t even introduced himself to me.” Seungcheol glares at the kid. He’s not a stalker!
“I’m Choi Seungcheol.” He grumpily says. “I just transferred here.”

“A rapper? Are you good?” Woozi asks. 
“I think so and how would you know?” Seungcheol replies back, remembering that Seungkwan also guessed right.
“Your voice and the way you pronounce the words. Also…” the smaller says kind of impassive and measures Seungcheol’s body with his eyes. This is definitely more awkward than when Seungkwan did it. “You are pretty build up, but you don’t have a dancer’s body… or grace.” Sincerely, Seungcheol doesn’t know if he should feel offended or not. 
“I can dance pretty well.” He defends himself anyways. Woozi’s eyes turn cold.
“I didn’t say you can’t. I said you are more a rapper than a dancer. And I’m right.” He states and Seungcheol nods.
“Also…” the pink haired boy says and smiles for the first time, a smile so sweet it takes Seungcheol aback. “Stop following me around. You are not as subtle as you think you are. And Boo is right. I won’t hesitate to hurt you if you annoy me.” He ends and walks back to his table. Seungcheol gulps hard.

"Told ya~” Seungkwan sing-songs as he also leaves the library. 

Woozi’s day was uneventful, if you ignore the incident in the library. But Seungkwan bothering him became almost a daily activity, he’s not even annoyed anymore. Somebody following him around is also pretty normal. The freshmen always do it, thinking he’s some kind of celebrity. It makes Woozi feel like an animal in a zoo and he is somehow glad that the rumors, or Seungkwan, scare them away. 

As the clock strikes 7 pm he takes his notebook and exits the library, planning to continue his work in his room.  The school emptied out by now and it makes him restless. At least his room/studio is more secure. When he gets out of the university’s building he remembers that he doesn’t have any food left in the dorm so he changes the trail, walking towards the small supermarket near the campus. 

At first he hears the laughs and he knows from the start that it sounds like trouble. Then he hears the distinctive sound of flesh meeting flesh in an angry, sardonic way. And at the end comes the painful groan and Woozi knows he should walk away. This is not his business, he shouldn’t get involved in anything. But he has to pass through there to get to the supermarket. He could always go to another one, but he would have to walk a little more. And he is here anyway. So he steps in the alley and walks as quickly and silently as he can. 

The side he chose is wrapped in shadows so he can easily go unnoticed. He sees them, a group of four surrounding a single one, on the other side, just two meters away. He can recognize two of the four, one is Jiwoon, he takes modern dance at their university, and the other is Minju, Jiwoon’s friend. The other two must also be friends of theirs. He narrows his eyes as he gets closer to them, trying to distinguish who is the one who’s beaten. And he recognizes him easily, maybe because of his distinctive cheekbones. It’s a freshman, also a dancer. He noticed the kid because of his choreographies. Woozi admires him for his talent. But he is a kid, and watching him receive a fist in the stomach pains Woozi. He sighs, he knew he should have not walked here.

“Jiwoon.” He calls, voice just loud enough and composed. They hear him anyway, the four turning around to watch him leave the shadows.
“Oh, Woozi. What are you doing here?” Jiwoon’s voice is calm, like he didn’t just beat up some kid. Woozi salutes him shortly with his head.
“The question is: what are you doing?” he turns it around. He sees the other tense immediately, eyes turning into slits. 
“Teaching someone a lesson.”
“He’s a kid, Jiwoon. That’s not how you teach kids, don’t you know?” Their conversation keeps a calm tone, like they are discussing everyday life, but Woozi can feel the tension around him. He eyes the other three and knows that he can take them down with some effort. They probably know just how to throw a punch or two, street fighters that are so sure about their strength that they believe they are invincible in front of someone as Woozi. But he knows better. He can see that they have no idea how to use their feet or how to defend themselves. Still, he prefers getting out of this without a fight.  He glances at the beaten kid and sees him clenching his arms around his abdomen, looking pale and a bit green. But inspite of a broken lip and a few bruises on his jaw he seems fine. His eyes bore into Woozi’s, big with surprise and maybe hope. Woozi sighs. Poor kid.

 “What did he do to you anyway?” he asks Jiwoon, still scanning the kid. He makes a small sign with his hand, indicating him to get up and thankfully the boy understands and discretely lifts himself off the ground.
“He insulted my choreography in front of the whole class. The brat should know to respect his elders.” 
Woozi sighs. “Let’s be honest, Jiwoon. You are not the best choreographer out there. And you obviously can’t stand being criticized.” He sees Minju move and prepares himself for the attack. But Minju must be pretty stupid, coming forward like this, without any defense. He’s way taller that Woozi and probably thinks it’s enough.
“You should shut up.” He hisses in Woozi’s face. The smaller smiles at him sweetly. Minju raises his arm, but Woozi just bends down a little and hits the other’s knee hard, letting him fall harshly on the ground. 
“Be careful. I bet you don’t want to scratch your pretty face.It's your only value after all.” He mocks the fallen one as the boy tries to massage his knee. Woozi turns to look back at Jiwoon. The other two bullies look a little frightened, but Jiwoon only frowns. 

“Let the kid leave, ok?” he says and moves forward, signaling the kid to come to him. The other three don’t stop him. “And don’t try this next time. You wouldn’t want the headmaster to hear about it, would you?” he says as he helps the kid walk. 

They pass by Minju and Woozi throws him another sweetened smile as he steps straight on the boy’s stomach. “Feels great, doesn’t it?” he says over Minju’s groans. 

 “Thank y-you.” The kid brokenly whispers as they leave the alley. Woozi leads them to the small shop and helps the boy sit on one of the plastic chairs that are placed outside of it.
“What was your name again? He wonders aloud.
“Lee Chan.” The boy answers and offers Woozi a bright smile. His lower lip cracks from the stretch and the boy moan a little in pain.
“Wait here, Chan. I’ll be back in a minute.” When the boy nods Woozi runs in the shop and quickly gathers some cotton pads, disinfectant and a box of band aids. As he leaves the register he spots a coffee machine and chooses the only tea it has. Outside, Chan is waiting, just as he left him, slightly bend forward. He looks greener now and Woozi congratulates himself for buying the tea.

“Here.” He says handing the boy the paper cup. “Drink up. It will help with your stomach.” Chan quietly thanks him and Woozi also hands him the other things, letting the boy tender his wounds.
“Thank you again.“ Chan says and this time a band aid stops his lips from bleeding. 
“You should be more careful, kid. Don’t provoke them like that.” 
“I did not!” the boy gasps loudly and Woozi prays he hasn't found another diva like Seungkwan. But the boy quietens down, lips gathering in a soft pout. No, Woozi doesn’t find him cute.

“The teachers asked me what are the flaws in their choreo, I couldn’t say it was perfect when it was pretty obvious it wasn’t.” Chan says. Woozi just nods as he amusingly watches the kid sulk.

“I saw you dance to one of my songs once.” He says, maybe it will distract the kid. It does, Chan eyes shooting up to him, wide with surprise.
“Really?!” he gasps and Woozi approves.
“Oh my God!” the kid nearly screams, making Woozi jump a little in his seat. “I’m so sorry hyung! I really tried not to ruin the song!” 

Woozi looks at the panicked boy and chuckles a little. “You think my songs are so easy to ruin, brat?” Chan quickly shakes his head no and Woozi can’t help but smile. He likes this kid. He raises his hand and gently pats the boy’s head.
“The dance routine was good. It fit the song well.” He says and Chan breaks in a huge smile, probably ripping his lip open once again by the groan of pain that follows immediately. It makes Woozi laugh loudly.

Neither of them see Seungcheol watching them from the store’s window. 

A.N:

This chapter didn't really work as I planned it, but I'm pretty satified with it :D I was wondering if I should include a real fight but it didn't seem to fit. 

What do you guys thinks? A lot of you subscribed

Also.. I have a huge exam in a few days so the next update may take more than this one... please be patient. 

Bye bye~