“Just finished the try out?” Minghao hears someone approaching him as he walk past the soccer field later that evening. It’s Kim Mingyu apparently, still dressed in his soccer jersey, covered with sweats. Getting a nod and a hum from Minghao, he continues, “Oh, so you made it into the team?”

“Well, they actually did not even let me have a try out. They practically just told me to practice with them. And I am already appointed as the representative for 100 and 300 m. So… yeah, I absolutely made it.” Minghao thinks Seungcheol was that desperate for making him compete for two categories in his first competition with the team.

“Good news, isn’t it?” Mingyu grins as he starts to follow Minghao’s pace and walks beside him.

“I’m actually kinda shocked with the condition of athletic club. I moved to this school with hopes that I can actually join a bonafide club, yet they only got 10 members and only 3 of them are qualify enough to compete. I thought having a national athletic athlete in this school will boost the club ability, but I guess I was wrong then.”

“You must be overestimating Wonwoo-hyung’s charm? That charm you see from him in the television does not work for the students here. It’s only works for all the girls out there! So expecting his presence in athletic field will attract more students to get into the athletic club is a big mistake,” Mingyu says. He gulps the ionic drink in his hand and adds, “Just so you know, many students here actually kinda hate him. Don’t really understand why, but maybe because he is too popular. Boys do get jealous easily, you know?”

Minghao scrunches his nose in disbelief, all this time he only can imagine all the love Wonwoo ever got for being such an awesome and outstanding athlete, not this bitter truth about him getting all the hates form his mates at school. “Did he get bullied?”

“Not really bullies, well no one dare to bully someone like him. It’s just that they barely pay attention to him, barely noticing his presence, and no one ever make friends with him, I think? I always see him alone. That’s kinda breaks my heart too. I once asked him to have dinner with me when Seokmin was going back to his parents’ home, but he just kicked me, literally kicked me, out of his room.”

Minghao’s mind wanders to the image of Wonwoo sitting alone on his study desk late at night with all the lamps turned off. His build looks strong, but who can stay mentally strong all of the time knowing that he has no one he could talk to in this school. It’s frustrating Minghao somehow. The Chinese boy then promises that he will change that ‘no one’ into ‘someone’, which is him. Wonwoo is his roommate, it is his responsibility to take care of him.

“Minghao, can you wait? Let’s walk to the dorm together. But I have to pack my belonging first.” Mingyu shouts from the bench across the soccer field.

Noticing that Mingyu is no longer walking beside him, made Minghao realize that he must be dozing off for quite some time already. “Sure, take your time! I’ll wait here,” Minghao shouts back as he stops under a big oak tree, gulping Mingyu’s ionic drink that the taller handed him earlier.

After Mingyu waves his captain a good bye, both of them heads directly to their dorm. But right before they enter the elevator, someone grabs Mingyu’s shoulder making both of them stop, missing the elevator that flies into the upper floor right before their eyes.

“Mingyu, you remember our appointment for tomorrow right?” a chubby, pretty, blonde sings along as he moves his hands that were in Mingyu’s shoulder to grabs Mingyu’s hands, swinging it along as he stares affectionately at Mingyu.

“Ah Seungkwannie, sure how can I forget!” Mingyu replies with the same excitement in his tone. “Seokmin and I will meet you after the class tomorrow at the school gate, alright?”

The excitement in the blonde’s eyes suddenly vanishes and replaced by an offended look. “You asked Seokmin to tag along with us?” he pouts.

Mingyu does not answer for some seconds, “It is okay… right?” he asks doubtfully. “I thought you’ll be okay since he is also in the Choir with you, so I supposed you guys are close. Besides, he has been wanting to watch that movie for quite some time, he will get mad at me if I go watch it without him.”

Mumbling a faint ‘okay’ added up with some grumbles that can not be heard clearly, Seungkwan’s pouts gets worse when he noticed that Mingyu is currently not alone. “Who is this?” he scans Minghao from up to toe, this totally remind Minghao of the way Mingyu eyed him back in his first class yesterday. No wonder this two get along well.

“Oh this is Minghao, a new classmate of mine. He also lives across my room.” Mingyu answers, back to his cheerful self. “And Minghao, this is Seungkwan from 2-5.”

Minghao offers the blonde a hand to shake, yet Seungkwan decides to just slap the Chinese’s hand and take it back to his sides while reprims, “Tomorrow at 4 p.m. in the school gate, Mingyu. Don’t be late!”

As the two Class 2-4 students enter the elevator, Minghao asks playfully, “Someone is really popular, don’t they?”

“Who? Me?” Oblivious, Mingyu is sure oblivious.

Minghao rolls his eyes, “Of course it’s you, you were getting hit just now!”

“Oh I thought you mean Wonwoo-hyung since we were talking about him earlier.” Digesting what Minghao said earlier, the soccer player then adds, “And hey, who is getting hit just now? Me? Getting hit by Seungkwan?”

Minghao does not respond verbally, he just giggles seeing Mingyu panics.

“Of course not!!! Seungkwan and I were classmates back in 1st grade, and we are just going to watch movie tomorrow, like we usually do.” Mingyu protests. Obviously not realize that his so said former classmates was clearly flirting with him.

Instead of stopping, Minghao’s laugh getting bigger listening to Mingyu’s reply. He only stops laughing when he tried to unlock the door of his room, but failed. His expression drops down.

“What’s wrong?” Mingyu asks, noticing the sudden change of mood in Minghao.

“Wonwoo-hyung put the door on the latch. I guess he doesn’t want me around.”

Mingyu creates an ‘O’ with his lips, and fidgets around the door of his room, “You can crash at my place. Seokmin said he won’t be home before 9,” he finally says.

Minghao nods and steps in to Mingyu and Seokmin’s shared room. He lays his body on the carpet in the middle of the room as he and the taller boy keep chit-chatting about almost everything from Mingyu’s soccer team to Seokmin’s bad sleeping habits. Surprisingly enough for Minghao, Mingyu is someone who is really easy going, a bit far from what he expected from their first conversation in the class. He can actually talks about anything to this boy, and he always find Mingyu’s responds amusing. So if his naggy cousin, Junhui, asks him whether he is able to make some friends, it is kinda safe to say that at least he can mention Seokmin and Mingyu’s name now.

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The next day, Minghao wakes up thanks to the loud bang in his door. Wait he is not in his room right now, he fell asleep on the carpet in the middle of Mingyu and Seokmin’s room. “Seok, seok, hurry up we are late for the Choir morning meeting!! Jisoo will kill us if we come late for three consecutive days!” he heard Soonyoung’s voice from across the door.

“Hi, Minghao!” Seokmin is beaming a smile as he notice the Chinese has just woke up. “Gyu, I gotta go first, wake up please it’s almost 7!!!” he yells, shaking his roommate furiously.

“I’m awake, Seokmin. I just has not stood up. But I am awake,” Mingyu’s world is muffled under his bed cover.

“Ah whatever, it’s really tiring waking you up like this everyday.” Seokmin grunts as he open the door and is welcomed with Soonyoung’s hasty face. “You can just take a bath here, Minghao. Mingyu won’t wake up at least 15 minutes before the class starts.”

Minghao stands up and collects his belonging, approaching Seokmin and Soonyoung instead, “No, I think I’ll just go back to my room. Maybe Wonwoo-hyung unlocked the door already.” He reaches for the door handle of his shared room with Wonwoo, and he is right. Click, the door is swung open.

“Wonwoo locked him out?” Minghao swears he can hear Soonyoung very clearly eventhough the older tries to whispers in Seokmin’s ear.

Seokmin nods as he drags Soonyoung out the hallway, heading to the school gym, murmuring something that Minghao assumes is an answer to Soonyoung’s question.

When Minghao steps into his room, he can see Wonwoo is standing there in front of the mirror, as usual ready to left for his class. “I didn’t mean to lock you out. I just forget to put off the latch.”

Surprised, Minghao snaps his head up, learning Wonwoo’s expression. Hoping that he will at least give a little smile or a glace of apologetic look toward him. But he finds none. Wonwoo still have that serious expression on his face. “That’s okay, hyung. I was in Mingyu and Seokmin’s room.”

Wonwoo hums, before adding, “You should just knock last night.”

“Yeah, I will if you lock the door again later in the future.” Minghao answers softly, more like talking to himself. He does not understand why conversing with Wonwoo dry out his confidence a lot, when he can just babbles anything and everything nonstop while conversing with Seokmin or Mingyu.

“Excuse me, what?” Wonwoo’s turns his face, he looks confuse. Minghao only smiles in reply, so he says, “You can sleep in your bed tonight. I won’t be home.”

“But why? Do you hate having me around that much?” is slipping from the Chinese’s mouth. A strain can be heard from his voice.

Silence for about 8 seconds. “When did I say that I hate having you around? Your presence doesn’t really matter for me, so don’t worry. I have a photo shooting schedule with Seola-noona tonight. I might just crash at her place later. Since it will be too late to go back home.”

Letting Minghao debating with his own thoughts, Wonwoo leaves the room after he finishes wearing his necktie.

Seola-noona? Minghao’s mind working hard to digest who is this Seola Wonwoo talking about. His sibling? But Minghao sure remember the Jeon family tree, since he is a big fan of course, and knows that Wonwoo only possess one little brother.

A light bulb suddenly in his brain after he found a sport magazine he brought from home on his study desk. On the cover was Wonwoo and a gymnastics athlete with long black hair and a gorgeous body proportion. Seola. Yes, he remembers this Seola now. Both Wonwoo and Seola have been paired up for some commercial gigs these past few years. Sure model-like athletes like them will be loved by so many magazines and endorsers, he won’t be surprised.

But what was surprised him was the fact that Wonwoo decides to just crash later at her place after the shoots. A sudden realization hit him like a truck. Is Seola and Wonwoo dating all these time?

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Notes:

So that any of you won’t be confused, I just want to clarify that Seungcheol, Jeonghan, Jisoo, Jun, Wonwoo, Soonyoung, and Jihoon are all 3rd grader in this series. Meanwhile Seokmin, Mingyu, Minghao, and Seungkwan are in 2nd grade. Hansol would also be a 2nd grader, but he goes to different school.