Here it issssss!! Double update SUCCESS!!! And to all 81 of you subbies, I truly, truly thank you for continuing to support me, and remaining patient and all!!!!! I've never had as many as 81 subbies for one fic alone before!! Love you guys!!! <333333333333

My happy fangirl heart :)

The huge boy was clutching his jaw (Sungyeol couldn't help but feel pleased that he'd actually been able to inflict some kind of pain on the guy). When he turned towards Sungyeol, his eyes were alight with fury. But Sungyeol didn't care. His eyes flicked straight to Myungsoo's, and he was relieved to see that the boy's eyes looked focused--the hit to his head couldn't be all that bad. Sungyeol hoped.

When he tried to make his way over to Myungsoo, he was shoved into the wall, painfully grazing his palms on the rough surface. He'd used his arms to brace himself, and prevent himself from smearing his face onto the wall, so that was the extent of his injuries, but he didn't once look at his hands. On his mind was Myungsoo, Myungsoo, Myungsoo. It was rather frightening.

Sungyeol watched as Myungsoo's eyes trained on something behind him, and he just knew that the shove wasn't revenge enough for the guy--the boy was coming for Sungyeol. But there was no sense in getting Myungsoo mixed up in this mess. All Sungyeol wanted was to have Myungsoo safely out of the way, so that he could be beaten up, like those countless times before, and get the whole ordeal over with--for the day, at least. Sungyeol only wanted to protect Myungsoo.

Protect. That was a new word for Sungyeol.

Sliding his body slowly down the wall, Sungyeol crouched beside Myungsoo, and linked their fingers to get the boy's attention. When Myungsoo's eyes flickered to his face, Sungyeol tried to lift the corners of his mouth in what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

"I'll distract them. When I count to three, run. Run to your school. Run as far as you can, away from here. It's me they're here for, so they won't come after you..." Sungyeol took a shaky breath. "Probably..." He risked a glance over his shoulder, at where the bullies were gathering , leaving only a small gap for Myungsoo to squeeze through, if he tried hard enough.

"One..." Sungyeol turned so that he faced the oncoming group of boys, and tensed his body, ready to lash out at them on the count of three, to (hopefully) distract them, so that they'd (probably) focus on him, and (maybe)forget about Myungsoo. Sungyeol had to hope.

"Two..." Sungyeol gulped, and steeled himself.

"Three!" Sungyeol tried to stand, and strike out at the boys now surrounding him and Myungsoo, and found that Myungsoo hadn't moved, and that his hand was firmly anchoring Sungyeol's to the ground, so that his brave attempt to try to fight back failed miserably.

Sungyeol frowned. Was Myungsoo stupid? If they just got beaten up like this here, nothing would be resolved. If Myungsoo kept sticking up for Sungyeol, he'd just get beaten up, and then Sungyeol would try to kill them, and then get whacked to the ground too. Why was the boy being an idiot?

Myungsoo looked down at Sungyeol's fingers that had found his, and wrapped themselves around his hand. Myungsoo saw the liquid red patches on Sungyeol's beautiful, long fragile fingers, the blood trickling down into his own palm, mixing with the blood he'd wiped from his forehead, so that he couldn't tell where his blood ended, and where Sungyeol's small trickle started. Myungsoo thought about how stupid Sungyeol was for thinking that he'd just up and abandon Sungyeol to the mercy of these people.

"Aww... Holding hands." The big boys circled around Myungsoo and Sungyeol on the floor, jeering, kicking at them. Myungsoo only held on tighter. He tried to block to kicks to Sungyeol's body, but when one kick landed on his stomach, and forced all the air out of him, it was all he could do to hold in a muffled groan, and hold tightly to Sungyeol's hand, as if for dear life.

This made Sungyeol go a little beserk.

The boy lunged for the flashing feet, scratching and scrabbling at them like a wild thing hungry for blood, drawing straight scratches down their limbs when they bent down to rain punches on them. Sungyeol gave up though, when the assault continued, and settled for using the sheer length of his body to cover Myungsoo's relatively shorter one.

"Don't..." Sungyeol's voice came out as a whisper.

Don't what, he didn't know. Don't kick anymore? Don't hurt Myungsoo? Don't hurt them any further? He had no idea. Probably all three.

Myungsoo stiffened, and held his breath, when the now familiar feeling of the tight, burning pain in his chest held him in its grip. He ran his fingernails along the cement pavement, and the noise made everyone shudder alittle. His mouth opened and closed wordlessly, his face scrunched up in agony, his legs cycled uselessly in the air, and his hands gripped at his school shirt, as if trying to rip the pain away from his body. The pain was intense, so much so that he couldn't try to cover it up for Sungyeol.

Damn it. Myungsoo had wanted to be the one shielding Sungyeol from the blows. Myungsoo had wanted to take the shower of punches, of kicks bravely, and be strong for Sungyeol. He had wanted to show Sungyeol that he was there for him. He had wanted to protect Sungyeol.

Protect. That was a new word for Myungsoo.

"Hyung..." One of the boys hesitantly tapped his leader's arm.

The rain of blows gradually stopped, as one by one the group of boys halted to stare at Myungsoo writhing in agony on the ground, until only the first huge boy was left kicking them.

"He doesn't look too good, Hyung..." Another boy added doubtfully, pointing the fact out uselessly.

The kicking stopped gradually, as one by one the boys halted to stare at Myungsoo writhing in agony on the ground, until only the first burly boy was left kicking them.

All of a sudden, there were shouts of surprise, and two, then three bodies thumped into Myungsoo’s line of vision, lying with one cheek pressed to the cold hard ground. The burning in his chest slowly subsided, and Myungsoo sat up painfully, slightly disoriented. His eyes widened at the sight before him.

Sunggyu had the leader in a secure headlock, and Woohyun was standing over a very obviously well-battered member of the pack. Both Hoya and Dongwoo had a boy each under control. Even Sungjong was yanking the hair out of the leader guy (Sungjong had a unique mindset--he couldn't inflict much bodily damage on the nasty guy, but he could help in horribly denting his self confidence. Sungjong smiled as he pulled out another tuft of hair. He was going to make the guy go bald, bald, bald. Normally, Sungjong cared too much about images to ruin someone else's, but anyone who dared touch his friends deserved to die.) Hoya, Dongwoo, Sungjong and Woohyun looked manacing, but Sunggyu looked positively murderous. Myungsoo couldn't remember his friends ever looking so scary before.

"What. The. --" Sunggyu leaned down to speak through clenched teeth into the writhing leader's ear, "--Do you think you're doing."

What Sunggyu said wasn't a question, but rather a spoken statement of unbounded fury. And the boys seemed to understand that. They shook off Myungsoo's friends with growls, and spat at the ground, and uttered an unhealthy amount of curses and swear words, fleeing with the promise of revenge in their wake.

"Whew." Sunggyu smiled at Myungsoo and Sungyeol on the ground, instantly back in his usual hamster mode. "You're a mess..." He stuck a hand out to help them up. Sungyeol swatted the hand away, and leapt to his feet, glaring at Myungsoo, who only looked back, dumbfounded. He'd never seen Sungyeol look like that before. He didn't think the boy had it in him to be angry. What was Sungyeol upset about?

"Are you a freaking retard?" Sungyeol's voice increased in it's volume with every word uttered.

Myungsoo scratched his head. "What?" He didn't understand.

"When I say run, you run. You just made everything worse, you know?!"

Myungsoo leaned back on the balls of his feet, stung.

"What could I do?! You mean you expected me to just run? Like that? Leave you all alone?" Myungsoo paused, mouth curling upwards bitterly, "You had that little faith in me?"

Sungyeol's hand gestured wildly in the air. "I didn't need you to stay and get beaten up. I can handle them. I've been handling them alone. I don't need your help."

Myungsoo snorted. "Yeah. And get beaten up."

Sungyeol stiffened visibly, and turned to go, slinging his bag over his shoulder carelessly, as if all he wanted at that moment was to get away from Myungsoo as fast as possible.

"What's the difference when I just get beaten up along with you?"

And then he started running, feet hitting the pavement, faster, and faster, till he was just a bobbing grey dot down the road. It didn't seem like he was going to show up in school that day.

"Whoo..." Woohyun scratched the back of his head as he looked from a dumbfounded Myungsoo, and the distant Sungyeol, "Couple spat..."

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Hahas, I've already gotten the next chappie sorted outttt.... I think I'm on a rolllllllll :D