They were both startled by a loud knocking on Jongin's door. Jongin almost dropped the glass of water he'd just poured. Sehun laughed at his clumsiness. He tried to stop himself from blushing as he set it down and made his way to the door. Had the other two come back having decided to join him and Sehun after all? Jongin doubted it, they were the type to try and barge in even if a door was possibly locked. Not to mention that he would probably have heard their loud voices the second they got off the elevator.

As he approached he could, however, hear soft voices.

Definitely not them then.

“This is completely unnecessary,” one said.

“Don't worry I won't do anything stupid.”

“Why do I not believe you?”

He swung the door open, but before he could see who it was, he saw a blur of skin and something collided directly with his nose. He staggered back clutching his face with both hands, tears forming in his eyes and the taste of metal invading his mouth. He gulped in a deep breath, not from his nose, he was too scared to do that. His vision was unfocused but he could see two figures in his doorway.

“What the hell, Jongdae? You promised nothing stupid!”

“Oops.”

Jongin felt hands on his shoulders.

“Are you okay?” Sehun asked, sounding slightly frantic.

Jongin's vision was slowly beginning to return to normal. He nodded to let Sehun know he was fine, but regretted the decision immediately, as he began feeling dizzy. Suddenly, the ground was no longer under his feet, but a strong arm stopped him from hitting the floor too hard.

He reached out and caught onto Sehun's shirt as he tried to stop everything from spinning, one hand still on his face. Sehun pulled that away too.

“It's not bleeding too much,” he said quietly. He guided Jongin's hand back to his nose. “Pinch it.”

“It hurts,” Jongin whined. He didn't want to imagine what he looked right now. He was ninety percent sure he was crying too.

“It'll help.” Jongin did as he was told and pinched his nose. He felt Sehun's shirt slip from his grasp and he slowly looked up, praying his head wouldn't start spinning again. Sehun stood in front of him, facing the two people at the door.

“Can I ask what the hell you did that for?” Jongin had never heard Sehun sound so angry.

“Ask him,” was the reply. He assumed it was the man that hit him that responded.

“I asked you,” Sehun said. He sounded so calm even with the anger—considering he wasn’t completely sober—but the threat underlying his tone was anything but masked.

“I apologize for him, I really didn't think he would do that, but, we received some, uh, upsetting news earlier. A complaint was put in against us and we just wanted to inquire about it in a civil manner. Sorry for it having gotten so out of hand before we even had a chance to explain ourselves.” It was the other man who spoke.

“I'm not sorry.”

“Y-you think I put in a c-complaint against you?” Jongin asked as he attempted to get up with the support of only one hand, as he was still pinching his nose with the other. Sehun turned around to help him and let Jongin lean against him as he swayed dangerously on his own two feet.

Jongin immediately recognized the two men in his doorway. He'd met them briefly, several times, coming and going on the elevator or waiting for it. They lived on his floor.

“Well considering your apartment is the only one ours shares walls with, and you had plenty to say to Yixing about the noise we make and our lifestyle and how it's so wrong I don't see how it could have been anyone else.” The one who hit him, Jongdae, crossed his arms as he spoke, a scowl seemingly permanent on his face.

“What?” Sehun glanced at Jongin. “These are the neighbours that—”

“No! No, of course not.”

“Listen, there's no point in hiding your homophobia. But if you have a problem with me and my boyfriend and what our mind blowing life sounds like then you can move!”

“Shut up, Jongdae!” The other man tried to pull Jongdae out of the doorframe.

Sehun's eyebrows raised. “Jongin, you—”

He stopped and averted his gaze.

“No it’s nothing like that at all!” Jongin insisted. His head ached so much. He hoped he could formulate coherent enough sentences to clear up this misunderstanding. “The complaint wasn't about you! It wasn't even a complaint at all. I just— I went to talk to Yixing about the people living on the other side.”

Jongdae scoffed. “The other side? As if that's a viable excuse.”

“I swear! I didn't want to intrude but,” Jongin hung his head, “I was just worried. I don't like letting people get hurt and I thought something… like that was happening. I just wanted to inform Yixing because I didn't know what to do about it myself. This is all a misunderstanding. Please believe me.”

Jongin was sure he looked pathetic right now. But he hoped that was enough to have the two men believe him. He didn’t feel comfortable saying the details of Kyungsoo’s situation out loud, however, which is exactly how he got into this misunderstanding in the first place, by not being able to explain it well enough to Yixing. He raised his head again to see that everyone, even Sehun was staring at him. He was sure his whole face was as red as the blood dripping from his nose under so many gazes at once.

Jongdae just looked confused. He kept muttering the words ‘the other side’ as if he couldn't comprehend that other neighbours could make noise. It was clear his anger had blinded his judgement, but he didn't exactly look remorseful, just confused.

The other man took a few apprehensive steps forward and took Jongin's face in his hands, a look of focus taking over his features. “Don't worry, I'm a doctor. Well, sort of.”

Over the next fifteen minutes or so, Minseok, as Jongin found his name out to be, tended to Jongin's face. The first thing he had done was pull Jongin's fingers off his nose, replacing them with his own. “You're lucky Jongdae doesn't have much of a right hook. Nothing's broken or out of place, but you're gonna look like hell for the next couple of weeks.”

Then he guided Jongin to his kitchen sink, instructing Jongdae to fetch a tube of something Jongin didn’t catch the name of, from their apartment. Jongdae was still frowning as he left. Sehun was also frowning. But he didn't say anything as he watched Minseok clean up Jongin's face gently with water and a paper towel. Minseok asked him a few questions. Was he feeling dizzy? Not anymore. Was he nauseous? No. Was his head hurting? More than he thought bearable.

Jongdae returned with a tube, what looked like q-tips and something in a plastic packaging. Minseok applied some of the substance from the tube to a q-tip before shoving it gently up Jongin's nose and wiggling it about a bit. He did the same with the other nostril, not giving Jongin the chance to move away because he had Jongin's chin in a firm grip.

Jongin was sure this was simultaneously the most embarrassing, painful, and awkward moment of his life.

Mostly he really wanted to know what Sehun was thinking. He hadn't said anything in a while and Jongin couldn't read his face nor would the other boy make eye contact with him, choosing to focus on Minseok's hands.

After Minseok was done, Jongdae stepped up to him, holding out the plastic package. He reached for it tentatively, and quickly realized it was a cold pack.

“Sorry for punching you in the face,” he said rather quietly. “I act on impulse sometimes. And it can be a bit of a sensitive topic.”

“It's my fault,” Jongin said. “I should have been clearer with Yixing. I'm just not that great with my words.”

“Yeah, I can tell. So you say you're hearing horrible things happening from the apartment on your right?”

Minseok grabbed Jongdae’s arm. “That is none of our business.”

“But—”

“We’re going to go. You should probably rest anyways.” He started dragging Jongdae towards the door. “Regular over the counter pain medication should work just fine. And again, we're both really sorry.”

They shut the door, not so quietly on their way out, leaving Jongin and Sehun in indecipherable silence. He didn't know whether to be uncomfortable or not.

Until Sehun spoke. “That was really weird.”

Jongin looked at him.

“How are you feeling?”

Jongin scrunched his face up. He wasn't sure how he was feeling. Confused was definitely one emotion. Hurt. Sad. Even a little angry.

Sehun shook his head at him. “You're overthinking. Of course you have conflicted emotions right now, but I meant physically. You sure you don't want to go to the hospital or something.”

“No, I'm fine.”

“Okay.” Then Sehun held out his hand towards Jongin. He looked down at it and frowned. Sehun sighed loudly before plucking the cold pack out of Jongin's hand and looking at the packaging. Then he grabbed it by the ends in both hands and twisted it till there was a faint tearing sound. He grabbed Jongin by the wrist and pulled him to the chairs in the main part of the living room and sat him down before sitting down himself. He shook the cold pack around a bit and went to reach for Jongin's face but stopped himself.

Jongin was sure Sehun was about to apply the cold pack himself but then Sehun just held it out to him. He hoped the disappointment wasn't too evident on his face as he grabbed the cold pack and pressed it gently to his nose. Sehun watched him, frowning again.

“It's barely touching you.”

“It's touching just fine.”

“Your face already looks like a balloon,” Sehun said, snatching the pack back. “Do you want it to get worse?”

Jongin shook his head and let Sehun hold his chin with one hand as he applied the pack to one side of his nose. The pressure hurt a little but Sehun was right, the swelling would never go down otherwise. After he deemed that side sufficiently numb he moved the pack over to the middle of his nose, then to the other side, repeating the process over and over. The whole time, Jongin stared at Sehun, not able to stop his eyes from drinking in the other boys features at such close proximity. Sehun didn't look up at him even once.

The only time they'd talk was when Sehun asked him if it was better or when Jongin let out a hiss of pain at too much pressure and Sehun mumbled an apology. The cold pack was barely cold when Sehun finally pulled away, dropping the pack on the table and stretching out his arms, no doubt tired from the position they'd been in for so long.

“Thank you Sehun. I don't know if I could have managed that on my own.”

“I didn't really do anything.”

“You were there. It could have gone in any direction and just having you here was a comfort.”

“It's not a problem. I'm glad I was here too. I don't know how worried I would have been if you showed up to class looking like this and not being in the know of the situation.” 

“Really?”

“Uh, yeah.”

Jongin smiled at that.

“So… I hate to say this, but for a second there I was really scared.” Jongin's eyebrows knitted in confusion. “I mean, don't get me wrong, I could have totally snapped that Jongdae guy like a twig. But I was scared that what that guy was saying was true. That you'd, you know, complained about them because…”

“I'm not homophobic.”

Sehun let out a sigh. “Good, good. That's, uh, good, I guess.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Actually it's great. Like, really great.”

“Um, I guess it is…?”

“Because then I can do this,” he leaned forward and pecked Jongin's lips lightly, “and you won't like, murder me or anything.”

Jongin's mouth fell open and he was sure his eyes were wide and confused. That did not just happen.

He reached up to touch his lips and them unconsciously. A pained expression crossed Sehun's face.

“Don't do that. I'll just want to kiss you again and I already know I shouldn't have done it the first time.”

Jongin hesitated only slightly before he grazed his tongue over his lips again. It was a clear invitation, and he wasn't sure Sehun understood that because nothing happened right away. But then Sehun put a hand on Jongin's cheek this time before leaning in to mold their lips together properly this time. Jongin was amazed at how easily he was able to push all of his problems and the pain out of his mind.

Early update because next chapter may take a while.

Comments are greatly appreciated and very motivating!

I love reading what people think of my writing and what all of your predictions might be about anything in the story (about Kyungsoo or the future of SeKai or what role the others will play in the future etc.)

I think the only one not yet mentioned is Luhan so where do you think he fits into in all of this?

Even if you don't have any comments about the story tell me about yourself, your hopes and dreams, what you ate for dinner, or anything you want to get off your chest. Honestly I just want to interact with all of you more.

Hope you enjoyed :D