"Is this all you will be borrowing today?"

Sehun smiled at the friendly old librarian who was giving him a toothless grin and nodded. He loved Mrs Kang. She reminded him of his grandmother with her curly grey hair and deep dimples despite all her wrinkles. She also had the same kind of warm smile that made him feel all fuzzy inside. 

As she scanned the barcode on the Prose and Poem 101 textbook, Sehun felt someone come and stand next to him. He turned to his right to find a very familiar person reading a notice on the counter on the procedure of borrowing books.

"Hey, Kim Jun-Junmyeon right?"

The freshman turned with a rather startled look, but broke into a smile upon seeing who it was that called out his name.

"Oh, hi! Yeah, that's me. Wow, you remember me?"

"Of course, how could I forget one of the most earnest auditionees we've had?" Sehun chuckled, though for a spilt second as he thought about that day, a certain other unforgettable auditionee entered his thoughts as well, much to his displeasure. 

Junmyeon laughed a little awkwardly, making it apparent that he was not very used to receiving compliments.

Which Sehun would find hard to believe given how handsome he was, and by what he's seen so far, how charming he was as well. 

"Ah, I just wanted to try my best. I'm working harder though, hopefully next time the outcome will be different." 

Sehun grinned and patted his shoulder lightly.

"I'll look forward to that."

"Okay dear, here you go." 

Sehun turned back to Mrs Kang and took his book from her, offering his thanks at the same time. As Junmyeon passed his book to the librarian, Sehun could not help but glance at the title and raise his eyebrows.

"You take philosophy?"

Junmyeon laughed awkwardly again, though Sehun was coming to find it rather endearing, and shook his head. 

"No no, I'm helping my roommmate borrow a book he needs. He's busy working on a dance number."

Wait-

Dance number?

"Oh! I just realised, you probably know him." Junmyeon chuckled but Sehun became dead-serious.

Junmyeon was a freshman.

Freshmen always had other freshmen as roommates.

A freshman who was working on dance...

Oh -

"Kim Jongin! Ah, I heard he really killed his audition when he went in after me. I've seen him dance a few times, man he really is something else isn't he? I hope I can be like him one day."

Junmyeon was smiling widely as he was speaking, whereas Sehun was trying his best not to grimace in annoyance openly. 

Kim Junmyeon, one of the nicest people Sehun had ever met, was rooming with Kim Jongin, the literal devil. 

Of course. 

And what did Junmyeon mean by hoping to be like him one day? People always hoped to be like Sehun, not Jongin.

, it was already happening. 

"Hey?"

Sehun snapped out of his thoughts as Junmyeon nudged his arm. That was when he realised he had actually gone very quiet, which made Junmyeon rather tense and even more awkward. 

"S-sorry, just thinking of some schoolwork, haha..." 

Great, now Sehun was sounding awkward as well.

this all.

"Oh, it's alright, um, I have to go now though. I'll let Jongin know you say hi!" 

The bubbly freshman waved goodbye at Sehun before leaving with a small skip in his step.

Ugh, he was so precious.

But Junmyeon's adorableness aside, Sehun was still rather unsettled by how he talked about Jongin. It was becoming more and more clear each day how Jongin was gaining popularity as a dance idol, and how people were starting to forget Sehun was supposed to be the one they looked up to. 

Kim Jongin.

Sehun was already getting sick and tired of his name. 

Jongin this. Jongin that. Jongin's so great and Jongin's so cool.

Yeah well Jongin's quite a prick as well.

And Jongin's not as hot as him.

Well sure he was hot as undeniably, but Sehun was still hotter, there was no question in that.

And who the takes philosophy anyway?

How pretentious. 

As Sehun walked out of the library and down the corridor leading to his class with all these thoughts swimming in his head, he bumped into an equally tall and slender body.

"Oh, Sehun! Sorry man, didn't really see where I was going."

"Yixing!"

In that moment, it was like a lightbulb went off on top his head. 

This was his chance.

He could just tell Yixing it was really Jongin who stole the funds. 

Yixing would anyway choose to believe him over a freshman so what did he have to lose.

"Actually, I've been meaning to talk to you. About-"

"Ah, sorry but I'm actually running late for class, maybe tell me some other time?"

"No no, wait, it's about the club funds-"

"Club funds? You mean, you know who stole the money?" 

"Yeah, it was Jongin."

Yixing folded his arms, and Sehun knew this was not going to be easy. This was going to require a lot of on-the-spot, quick thinking, which he was not very good at unfortunately.

"Jongin? Our freshman? But he's the one who reported the money."

"Exactly, don't you find it weird that he just happened to find a labelled envelope with the missing money? That's really suspicious. I think he stole the money at first but then became panicked at the prospect of getting caught and decided to return it, but through these means so that he's not suspected."

Sehun had never bullted so much in his life before, but as he let the words roll out, he realised he didn't sound that bad. He was actually making sense to an extent, which he thanked his lucky stars for because Yixing was not someone to be lied to that easily. 

The dance team leader had a single brow raised as he considered Sehun's words.

"That's a pretty serious allegation Sehun, do you have any proof?" 

Crap.

"Well, no, but-"

Sehun stopped as Yixing huffed, looking at his watch.

"I'm really sorry man but I need to dash. I understand why you may have that suspicion, but I can't do anything without solid proof or if the real culprit turns themself in. And since it's past the deadline I gave the club members, it's out of my hands as well. The school disciplinary team is looking into it so we'll just have to hope they somehow find whoever did it."

With that, Yixing turned and dashed off, leaving a stunned Sehun who had his mouth ajar and his book on the verge of slipping through his fingers. 

-------------------------

"Oh man, what if they find out it was you?" 

Sehun didn't reply though he was carefully considering Jongdaes' words.

", this really is all my fault. ."

Chanyeol had his head in his hands, while Jongdae was tapping his fingers on the table and Sehun was just staring at a freckle on his hand, thinking of how much he wanted to move to Alaska at the moment.

"It was all our fault. We were all in on the plan. Hey Sehun, bro if they find out it was you, we'll go down with you."

"That's right. In fact, I'll take the blame. Tell them I stole the money. It was my idea so I should be the one to be punished."

"Yeah, just tell them it was Chanyeol."

"Hey, what happened to we'll all go down together?"

"Well yeah but, objectively speaking it was indeed your idea so it is only noble for you to take the fall."

"Guys-"

Jongdae and Chanyeol paused their little row and turned to Sehun, who was pinching the bridge of his nose. 

"if y'all don't mind, please, please for the love of God, shut the up. I already have a migraine and you guys aren't helping." 

The 2 friends went silent rather sheepishly, looking a bit offended as well, but Sehun couldn't care less about how they felt.

He felt like utter .

Yeah what he did was wrong, yes he did feel guilty, but at the same time what he hated more was how that freshie punk made him act as irrationally as he did.

He hated how jealous Kim Jongin made him feel.

It was that jealousy which made him so frustrated that he listened to Chanyeol's stupid plan and carried out the mission.

It was that jealousy that plagued his thoughts so much that not a day went by without him thinking of how someone had just waltzed into school and replaced him effortlessly.

It was that jealousy that made him feel and act like a complete idiot, and that in itself made him loathe Kim Jongin even more. 

"Hey guys."

Baekhyun sat at the table with Kyungsoo next to him, and while Sehun did not bother to reply or pay them much attention, he did notice the very obvious glare Jongdae was giving both his boyfriend and the group's new acquaintence. 

"Um, why is everyone so tense?"

"Shut up."

Jongdae was always snapping those 2 words at him, but this time there was a certain amount of animosity in his voice which took everyone aback, especially Baekhyun.

"I-I was just asking," Baekhyun was trying to laugh it off, but it was clear that the situation was not funny at the moment, which made his laugh disintergrate into an awkward chuckle. 

"Maybe if you had been here earlier with us, you'd know what's going on."

Jongdae was really not making any effort to hide his anger, and Sehun knew at that point just what Jongdae was experiencing as it was the very emotion that had been haunting himself for weeks now.

"Baekhyun and I were just-"

"Stay out of this."

Kyungsoo stopped mid-sentece as Jongdae snapped at him, which made everyone even more uncomfortable and tense. It was clear things were getting heated up, and Sehun knew an angry Jongdae was not easy to deal with.

"Jongdae."

Chanyeol glared at his irritated friend, who would not stop throwing daggers with his gaze at Kyungsoo. 

"Yah, calm down J, Kyungsoo and I were talking ab-"

"Kyungsoo and you. Nice. That's how it's been the whole week right? Kyungsoo and you. Well Kyungsoo and you can keep these 2 company then, because I'm out of here." 

Jongdae got up and left the table with a huff, his whole body tense and his fists clenched. 

"Jong-"

"Don't. Leave him for now, he's too worked up."

As Sehun stopped Baekhyun from getting up and going after his livid boyfriend, Kyungsoo cleared his throat awkwardly and rubbed his neck.

"Well, I guess that's a sign it's time for me to leave as well."

"Kyungsoo..."

"It's alright Chan, I don't want to cause any trouble here. Tell Jongdae I'm sorry. Baek, if you want the plan to still go on, I'm still up for it so just let me know."

Kyungsoo then got up and left as well, leaving just 3/4 of the squad behind, upset and frustrated for their own reasons.

"Wait, plan?"

Baekhyun, who was intensly frowning at his folded arms on the table, looked up at Chanyeol's confused face as the latter voiced his curiosity a few minutes after Kyungsoo left. 

"Yeah, that's why I've been meeting Kyungsoo so much this week. We came up with a plan to help Sehun out of this mess."  

-------------------------

A/N: Hey! Just wanted to say thanks for the lovely feedback so far. I know not much is really happening now and there's still rather limited sekai interaction but please bear with me, I promise there'll be much, much more in the coming chapters. As usual, I hope you guys are enjoying and if you have any feedback, please do let me know in the comments as I love getting constructive criticism! That's all for now, thankssss xoxoxo :)