At the end of the day Sehun waited impatiently outside the the classroom, and when Jongin came out he grabbed the boy’s arm, practically dragging him away from a confused looking Luhan.

    “Why don’t you hurry to practice, we’ll catch up in a second!” He called, feeling a little bad for leaving Luhan alone.

    “Okay!” Luhan called after them.

Sehun’s heart warmed at the sweet tone of Luhan’s voice and that only made him feel more grim as he pulled Jongin into the bathroom.

    “What the hell man? What are you doing?” Jongin questioned as soon as Sehun stopped moving.

    “What do you think I’m doing? I need to know just how much you know about what happened to Luhan.” Sehun got uncomfortably close, and Jongin flinched away, lowering his gaze to the tiles with a sigh.

    “You’ll probably think I’m a terrible friend no matter what I say since I let something like this happen to him in the first place...” Jongin began slowly and Sehun grimaced, he didn’t like where this was headed, but he agreed, Jongin was a lousy friend.

    “Go on.” He prompted.

    “I know that no one at school would dare to hurt him. I mean, he’s... he’s so...” Jongin didn’t finish his sentence and he didn’t have to. Yes, Luhan was just so... fragile? Weak? Adorable? Precious? Wonderfully perfect in absolutely every way. There was no way anyone at school would hurt him. Sehun was sure even the bullies would have a hard time touching something so pure.

    “So I guess what I’m saying is that I have no idea.” Jongin held up his hand to stop the inevitable protest from Sehun, “Every time I bring it up, he has some dumb excuse and blames himself for being clumsy or forgetful or some , and I can’t push him to tell me the truth because... Because I know it would break him to hurt me, or anyone I guess.”

    “Wait a minute, you’re saying this has happened before? Like multiple times?” Sehun was incredulous, what was his poor fairy having to suffer through? Jongin only nodded.

    Sehun’s heart was wrenched uncomfortably in his chest. It was just like he’d thought, Luhan was trying to protect them by holding all his pain inside and bearing such a huge burden by himself. Stupid, stupid Luhan. Sehun shook his head, now beginning to feel angry at Jongin. How could he let something like this continue to happen? One time was one thing but multiple times was entirely different. Luhan’s resolve not to hurt anyone, if they wouldn’t help him they deserved to be hurt!

“You let this happen? You keep letting this happen?” His voice was dangerously low. Jongin cringed.

“You don’t understand-” Sehun gripped Jongin’s shoulders tightly, freezing the other boy with his gaze and cutting him off, “no you don’t understand. Listen, someone deliberately inflicted pain on your best friend, they did so multiple times and you don’t know anything. You keep pretending that everything’s fine and believing him when he lies about it, how you can even begin to call yourself a friend to him? How? No friend sits by and watches as their friend suffers in silence!”

Jongin pushed Sehun’s hands off his shoulders, breaking eye contact.

“Don’t try to tell me you wouldn’t have done the same thing.” Jongin spoke quietly but Sehun caught every word.

“No. No. I wouldn’t have done the same thing. And I won’t. Because unlike you, I really care about Luhan.” With that Sehun turned and left Jongin standing dumbstruck against the wall in the bathroom.

He felt as though he was floating in a dream as he walked down the hallway, out the door and into the locker room. He couldn’t hear anything as he passed by the other soccer players, suiting up for practice, he couldn’t see anything but a glowing figure, waiting nervously in the back of the room.

Luhan’s face brightened when he caught sight of Sehun, and he gave a little wave. Sehun felt nothing as he roughly took Luhan’s arm and pulled him into the empty shower room, pushing him against the wall and trapping him there with his arms.

“S-sehun w-what are y-you doing?” Luhan’s eyes were filled with a mixture of confusion and fear as he looked up, and Sehun felt a little bit bad for treating him like this but he needed to, he needed to save him.

“Luhan.” His face was dark and Luhan shivered when he spoke his name. “Will you answer a question for me? And you have to promise to tell the truth.”

Luhan gulped and slowly, nodded.

“What happened to your eye?”

Luhan gave a very nervous laugh, averting his eyes.

“I-I t-told you, it was my f-fault I-”

“Cut the crap Luhan!” Sehun slammed his fists into the wall beside Luhan’s head causing the smaller boy to squeak with fear. He looked up again, meeting Sehun’s gaze with tears in his eyes.

“W-why do you c-care?” And right then, staring down at that poor, shivering and absolutely flawless boy, Sehun lost every ounce of self-control. Why do I care Luhan? Because I love you.

Sehun leaned forward just a little and pushed their lips together.

Luhan’s eyes widened and he stood frozen, every coherent thought lost with that kiss. Sehun pulled back and looked directly into Luhan’s wide brown eyes.

“Because I care, okay, so tell me.”

To Sehun’s utter astonishment Luhan’s eyes brimmed over with tears and they spilled over his cheeks, cascading to the floor like tiny diamond raindrops.

Luhan’s legs felt so weak that he started to collapse, but he felt strong arms around his waist, holding him up, supporting him, and gentle hands rubbing his back comfortingly. He let Sehun hold him and allowed himself to feel comforted by the feeling. No one ever cared. His whole body with tingling with the strangest warmth and it just made him cry harder. Is this what love feels like? He wondered. The kiss, this warm embrace, it was the most pleasant thing Luhan could imagine and even so his heart was hammering away in his chest. He owed something to Sehun, and that something was an explanation.