Chanyeol spent the rest of his day sulking. He wanted to cry but didn't really know why.

"Snap out of it, Yeollie. You look worse than the time I sat on your favourite drumsticks and broke them." Baekhyun said.

"Don't worry about it, Yeollie. I'm sure Luhan and his friends will understand once you have the chance to explain to them what happened. It's just a small misunderstanding. They're not going to hate you." Kyungsoo comforted. He linked arms with Chanyeol's since he wasn't tall enough to put his arms around him.

Maybe that was it. Chanyeol was always fine with the fact that he was unwanted and not liked by many. But never in his life had he been hated. Remembering Wufan's loathing glare made Chanyeol want to curl up in a ball and just sob his heart out.

"Yeah and besides, even if you didn't mess up today, who said that they were going to be friends with us anyway? So technically, you haven't lost any friends." Kyungsoo shot Baekhyun a deadly glare for his lack of tact. Baekhyun just shrugged and looked at his watch.

"Ok I've gotta get going or I'm going to be late for my dance session. I am definitely not missing the dance-off audition. I'm gonna be back at around 10-ish so don't lock the door too early. Time to laugh at the first years!" Baekhyun chuckled to himself and jogged towards the Dance Hall.

Kyungsoo sighed at his useless friend and looked at Chanyeol with his big, soft eyes. "Are you going to be okay? I can skip choir practice today if you want. Like Beakhyun's dance session, it's mainly just auditions since it's the first day, so I won't be missing much really." Chanyeol shook his head slowly and smiled weakly at Kyungsoo.

"Don't miss choir for me. I'm fine to go home by myself, umma. I'm a big boy now." Chanyeol gave him his normal Happy Virus smile, hoping that Kyungsoo wouldn't follow him so that he could return home to cry alone.

Kyungsoo looked doubtful but agreed, "Alright then. Give me a text when you get home. There's still some spaghetti that I made from last night so you can just pop that in the microwave for dinner. I'll be back a bit later as well. Sleep a bit earlier if you can help it." The wide-eyed boy gave Chanyeol a big hug and rushed off to the music rooms. Chanyeol breathed a sigh of relief and plugged his headphones in. Hoping that listening to some of his favourite upbeat, rap music would cheer him up a little.

It didn't.

***

Chanyeol was close to collapsing by the time he reached his apartment. His brain hasn't stopped thinking about the incident earlier today yet and this made him mentally exhausted.

He thought about the young boy - Sehun - and how hurt and scared he must have been to have all these people staring at his scar. And as if all the excessive staring wasn't bad enough, Chanyeol was pouring salt all over his wound by grinning like a dork about it. He remembered Sehun's eyes filled with tears, frightened and helpless.

How could you be so heartless, Chanyeol? he thought to himself, the boy must've been through a lot already, and you were smiling about his tragedy? You are despicable sometimes.

Then he thought of Luhan, his new friend, and his emotionless face when he approached Wufan. Luhan didn't even bother looking at Chanyeol throughout the encounter, his main focus was always on the young Sehun. He clearly cares for the boy a lot.

You are unbelievable. This is your one chance to make some new friends and you just had to go and ruin it didn't you? Chanyeol was beating himself up now. Will Luhan still be my friend after I've hurt Sehun and pissed off Wufan? Chanyeol imagined various scenarios as to what would happen in Economics tomorrow morning. Would the boy still be so friendly with him after what happened today?

He then thought of Wufan and his eyes. Those beautiful yet hating eyes. Tears filled his eyes quickly and he sobbed, allowing all the emotions he'd held in that day to overcome him.

Eventually, he managed to make himself some dinner, following Kyungsoo's instructions. He the TV but wasn't really watching whatever was on the screen.

He didn't want to be at home alone anymore. So he took a jacket and set off to his favourite place in the world.

***

This was his special place.

Chanyeol found this abandoned park a while ago when he first moved to the SM Estate. It was a children's playground with swings and slides but nobody comes here anymore. Not after they opened an even bigger park just a few streets down the road from here with new sets of playthings and even a bouncy castle. It was the product of a rich student's charity event a few years ago and Chanyeol hated it.

He preferred this small park. It was quiet and for all the times he's been here, he's never seen another person hang out here. He normally came here for comfort and some peaceful thinking.

Except this time, he wasn't alone.

He saw a brunette boy sat on his usual spot on the swing with his back facing him. The boy wasn't really swinging, but rather rocked gently back and forth carefully on the swing.

Chanyeol subconsciously bit his fingers and contemplated on whether to stay or to turn around and go home. When he looked up, the boy had turned around with a big smile on his face. Chanyeol jumped as if he saw a ghost.