Wen Junhui was equally feared and despised throughout the halls of Pledis University. 

Feared, because many of the male students have told the tales of their mistakes when it came to Junhui. The Chinese boy had a slim, lithe body and a flower boy face that hardly smiled; it masked his numerous martial arts training that could probably kill a man, but even without so, it was glaringly obvious that he wasn’t one to be messed with. He was in many ways, ice personified— cold enough to hurt you if you weren’t careful enough. 

So despite being a new student, and a foreign transferee at that, the usual campus bullies stayed away from Junhui after a few encounters. One of the many stories floating about involved how one of the brutes tried to grab at Junhui’s thin wrist in an attempt to shake some lunch money out of him, only to get his face planted on the floor a few seconds later. 

Junhui just walked away, throwing a few coins on his face for good measure. 

Despised, because well, he was new and young. A bit too pretty, and because he was overall just better than everybody else and knew it. It got people thinking, how could a newbie such as himself even dare to walk the halls as if he owned it and even earn himself some stupid title like The Dragon? It was probably even more infuriating to think that as much as they hated the idea, they couldn’t do anything about it. Such badmouthed rumors spread like wildfire around the campus.

Nonetheless, he wasn’t all that bad.

At least, that’s what the rest of the student body thinks because if Junhui was such a terrible person, there was no way he could have landed himself a sugar-sweet boyfriend such as Xu Minghao. The latter was the school’s resident sweetheart along with popular names like Hong Jisoo, Yoon Jeonghan, Lee Seokmin, and Kwon Soonyoung. Everybody fawned over his doe eyes and soft-spoken voice, along with his amazing dance talent and general golden heart. 

Basically, Minghao was Junhui’s opposite. So, it seemed weird for the bystanders who didn’t know them personally to notice how Junhui was integrated in Minghao’s own group of friends, all of which were good people, great people even, the nicest around town. So, really, unless Junhui was secretly threatening Minghao and his group of friends for their company, then he couldn’t have been that bad. He smiled around them, sometimes. Still not enough around other people, but it was something. 

The thing with being a feared figure is that sooner or later, someone would be stupid enough to attempt to overthrow whoever’s on top.

Junhui knew this too, because it was one day during lunch when he noticed a group of students— all a year or two higher than himself— eyeing him in the cafeteria. They were a familiar group, Junhui mused to himself, probably one of the ones he’s had to deal with in the past. What was new this time, however, was that they weren’t particularly staring at him. Rather, they were glaring daggers at Minghao, who seemed oblivious as he chewed on his sandwich.

He nudged the brunette, “hey, Haohao.”

“Don’t call me that,” Minghao replied without missing a beat. Junhui noticed his eyes dart towards the group by the corner, the same one he noticed, and then back towards his sandwich. “Don’t you think they’ve learned by now?”

“They’re looking at you,” Junhui whined in a childlike voice— Jihoon sent him a judgmental look from across the table and muttered a small ‘how the hell are you feared’, which was nothing new, and which he promptly ignored. “I won’t be able to stand it if they hurt you because of me.”

Minghao shrugged, “I don’t think they’ll be that stupid enough to try again. Remember last month?”

Junhui did remember last month. 

Last month was when the first attacks that weren’t directed towards Junhui himself happened. It was initiated against Mingyu and Hansol; which was stupid enough in itself, because after Junhui caught the guy who trashed the two's gym bag and locker, Seungkwan made sure to unleash his own twist of hell on him too. There was screaming. Lots of screaming. He also remembered feeling extremely guilty and sulked for a few days over how he was creating problems for the group. 

“It’s not your fault,” Seungcheol had consoled him gently after Junhui had successfully roundhouse kicked the guy onto the floor, right after Seungkwan’s rant. Seungcheol wasn’t sure which one was scarier, either. “Some guys just don’t think about who they’re messing with. Most are too cowardly to face you themselves, too.”

At that, he sent a dirty look towards the boy named Taejin, who was lying sprawled on the floor, a bit beaten up but not bloody. 

“M-m-mistake,” Taejin wheezed out. “Stupid mistake. It