“You ing bastard!” Myungsoo spat and knocked Dongwoo off of his feet. The older fell onto his back with a thud, one hand cradling his injured eye.

“What the , Myungsoo?” fumed Dongwoo as he tried to stand up. Myungsoo shoved the older back onto the floor with the heel of his foot. The visual kicked Dongwoo once in his ribs, relishing in the fact that the others were still too shocked to stop him.

“I told you, I told you didn’t I?” Myungsoo loomed over Dongwoo and fisted the front of his shirt. “I told you to stay away. I told you to not lay a single finger on her should you ever come upon her ever again!”

Myungsoo hit Dongwoo on the cheek with his throbbing fist. The other hand his collar as to not allow the older the luxury of landing on the floor just yet.

“How the am I supposed to live my life if I have to worry about you getting your hands on her every ing second of my existence!” growled Myungsoo. “Quit pretending it’s okay to with her just because she said it’s okay! You should know better, you- you bastard.”

Another kick in the ribs before the younger crouched over the rapper, pulling him so that their faces were mere inches apart.

Dongwoo ogled at Myungsoo with horrified eyes. Mouth gaping as recognition finally finally hit him smack right in the face — literally.

“Y-you!”

“ME!” Myungsoo shook Dongwoo by the scruff of his shirt that was threatening to rip apart, “You think I wouldn’t have found out? Did you think you were safe to do whatever you want? I knew who you were all this damn time. Can you possibly imagine what that was like for me?”

Something hot blurred Myungsoo’s eyes and he couldn’t see properly, but he still continued on either how, hands grasping tightly on Dongwoo’s shirt.

“Y-you have no idea how long I waited. I’ve been dying to tell you I knew what kind of a ed-up you were.” Myungsoo sniffed, “Do you even know how many times I’ve imagined you dying? Can you imagine how many nightmares I've had ever since she left? You made her leave! You don’t ing know how terrified I was. I was THIRTEEN! Then you killed him— and eleven— s-she was eleven—”

Myungsoo’s throat was closing up. He couldn’t even see Dongwoo anymore. He wanted to see the expression on Dongwoo’s face, bathe in it, but all he saw was the outline of the guy who had made up all of his nightmares.

“She left. S-she left me. I didn’t know where she was and I— do you have any idea how many times I’ve had to wake up screaming my head off?! , you wouldn’t know. Every. ing. Night. I had to watch you murder her in a million different ways.”

Myungsoo clutched onto Dongwoo shirt, his own voice had already cracked and lost its volume ages ago. Now his words were all torn and barely more than a whisper. A desperate hiss like that of a gas leak overflowed with memories and the horrors being relived over and over as every word scorched its way out from his throat.

“Y-you wouldn’t know what that’s like.” Myungsoo’s broken voice thickened. Tears burnt their ways down his cheeks, finally finally, his visions cleared. “You, y-you have no idea.”

The world has gone silent. Nobody could make themselves move, much less attempted to. Nobody was probably even breathing at this point.

Dongwoo watched Myungsoo with a horrified expression, stunned and drained of colour. Sungyeol watched Myungsoo with an emotion stuck somewhere between revelation and shock. Sungjong gaped at the pair sprawled on the floor with tears in his own eyes. Every muscle in Hoya’s body was taut and tense, his skin all red from neck up. Woohyun’s face contorted between disbelief and disgust, he wasn’t even staring at Dongwoo anymore, as if he couldn’t even make himself look at Dongwoo even if he tried to. As if the image of Jang Dongwoo might scorch his eyes.

Sungyeol was the first to move but halted when Myungsoo began speaking again. This time, his voice steadier, calmer but just as dark and vulnerable.

“You. You didn’t have any right to go looking for her,” Myungsoo sniffed noisily, “How could you? When I found her, I didn’t— I couldn’t even— she was my only friend. I cared about her. I-I loved her. I couldn’t even make myself talk to her. So how could you? Do you have any shame?”

Myungsoo’s grip on Dongwoo tightened again.

“I-I was going to confess to her that day. How dare you. Do you even know it was her birthday? Why did you have to come? I was going to tell her who I was. I was going to tell her e-everything.” Myungsoo choked out and then gritted his teeth. “Then you showed up. I knew it was you, hiding like a bastard that you were. What were you planning? I told you then didn’t I? If something happens to her I’d kill you myself!”

And then Myungsoo shoved Dongwoo against the floor one last time, before standing up. His shadow loomed over the man of his childhood. He straightened himself to his full height, shoulders stiff as he dusted himself off and glared down at the horrified man.

“Then again. She wouldn’t have wanted that. Do you know what she would’ve said?” Myungsoo smirked, “She would’ve told me you're not even worth my time of day. Much less hers.”

Two seconds later, Myungsoo found himself in Sungyeol’s arms as the older dragged him away, muttering ‘calm down, hey, calm down Myungsoo come on’. Myungsoo hadn’t even realised he’d been crying until he found Sungyeol’s shirt damp against his face. He was pretty much hyperventilating by now.

A hand placed itself firmly, but still gentle, on his shoulder — it wasn’t Sungyeol’s. Myungsoo knew it was Hoya’s. He hugged Sungyeol even tighter as the older whispered words of reassurance against his ears. And then there was an uncertain pat on Myungsoo’s back that was neither Sungyeol’s nor Hoya’s. It was Woohyun’s. And Myungsoo wanted to scream at how pathetic he was. It was so damn sad how he could even distinguish them just by the weight of their touches.

And really, this kind of reassurance from them was actually everything Myungsoo had ever wanted. So he started sobbing obnoxiously loud. Because, , he couldn’t explain why he was crying in the first place. And why were they still so nice to him after what he just did?

“Hyung, hyung…” Myungsoo made to grab blindly for Woohyun with one hand.

“Hey, hey. We’re here. What is it?” Came Woohyun’s voice somewhere to his left. An unfamiliar palm found his and Myungsoo grasped onto it tightly.

“Don’t, don’t leave me. Stay with m-me…”

“We’ll stay, Myungsoo.” whispered Hoya somewhere close by, “It’s okay—”

“N-no, it’s not okay.” Myungsoo argued petulantly, not even sure where his other two hyungs were, “She is— he— and now she’s—”

He hiccuped and Sungyeol made a ‘tsk’ sound as if to say ‘you idiot’ and it almost made Myungsoo smile despite of himself.

“Hey, hey, we understand—” Hoya started, squeezing him reassuringly on the shoulder, but Myungsoo was still pretty much hysterical.

“Nono, you don’t— you don’t understand. You can’t.” He repeated, gripping the back of Sungyeol’s shirt, along with Woohyun’s hand, even tighter.

“Yeah… you’re right,” Hoya agreed, as calm as ever. “We’ll never understand. Or can ever understand what it was like for you to have to live through all of that on your own. And yeah, I also can’t imagine having to spend the last— um, half a decade with someone who pretty much made up most of your childhood nightmares.”

At this point, Myungsoo wasn’t even sure whether he was sobbing or laughing. Probably both.

“But Myungsoo, we are here now. I know all seven of us made a pretty crap team for the last five years or so—”

Somewhere to Myungsoo’s other side, he heard Woohyun snorted.

“—what I’m trying to say is, I think all of us are ready to accept how we were to each other— you know, even if—”

“No thanks to Dongwoo.” Myungsoo added childishly. Woohyun might’ve snorted again and Myungsoo had the urge to ask if he needed a tissue, but didn’t have it in him to pull away from Sungyeol. Not anymore.

Woohyun quickly agreed, “Yes, no thanks to him. But we will work things out. And even if happens, well… I don’t know about you but I personally learnt something from all of this—” Woohyun squeezed Myungsoo’s hand, “—like, we may not be able to choose our fate and stuff, but Myungsoo, we do choose how we live. The kind of person we are, what we do, how we treat the ones around us and those we care about. Those are the things we get to choose and I think— I think those kind of make up for the whole ‘ happens’ epitome.”

And then there was a pause where Myungsoo hiccuped and Woohyun might’ve glanced around uncertainly.

“…does that even make sense?” Woohyun asked, voice quieter than before. Sungyeol chuckled, chest rumbling gently, slender fingers absently running through Myungsoo’s hair.

“Yeah, hyung. It really does.”

Myungsoo could feel the smile on Sungyeol’s face as the older answered and the thought that Sungyeol was smiling while hugging Myungsoo, despite for entirely unrelated reason, made his stomach flutter.

Hoya chuckled, “That’s what she said.”

“What?” Woohyun asked, perplexed.

“No, I mean. That was what um, Myungsin said, when I for being good all the time.” Hoya might’ve shrugged, “She said she wasn’t good, she only did it because the world doesn’t want her to be so she’s, like, I don’t know, rebelling—”

Sungyeol snorted.

“—Myungsin wanted to show that whatever it throws at her, she won’t let it affect the kind of person she wants to be.”

“Pft, what a frigging princess. I can’t believe a dumb person like her actually exist.” Sungyeol commented, despite his words, his voice was filled with such affection it seemed to fill up to the brim with adoration and possibly love.

Myungsoo snorted, lips pressed onto the exposed skin of Sungyeol’s neck. The older stiffened.

“Do you think she’s gonna be okay?” Woohyun finally voiced out the concern that had been simmering through their minds ever since last night.

Nobody could answer. Not even Myungsoo.

∞ ∞ ∞

It was about one in the afternoon by the time Myungsoo calmed down. Woohyun and Hoya were still sitting by the seats in the hallway with snacks from the vending machine strewn over the empty seats. Myungsoo and Sungyeol opted to sit on the floor in order to make room for their junk food. Because who doesn’t worship junk food?

Sungjong had probably taken Dongwoo somewhere to deal with him but they really couldn’t be bothered with that right now. Sungjong was feisty, he would be able to keep the guy in line. Besides, nobody wanted to bring up anything that would make Myungsoo start throwing violent tantrums again, so they figured they would deal with that later. Hopefully, after they inform Sunggyu. Because, dude, Sunggyu was like their superman.

And Hoya would happily kick anyone who thought otherwise.

“Hey, remember when you were called an apple and Sungjong was an orange?” Woohyun asked, stuffing a cream roll into his mouth, purposely avoiding saying Dongwoo’s name.

“Hm?” Sungyeol looked up, “Yeah, why?”

“Nothing. Just thought it was kinda funny.” Woohyun shrugged, a smile lingering on his face.

Hoya chuckled to himself and the other turned to stare. He glanced at them from his bag of chips and shook his head to dismiss the subject.

Woohyun whined and elbowed Hoya, “Dude, cough up.”

Hoya shook his head again, “It’s nothing. It’s just, why are Sungyeol and Sungjong fruits?” asked the dancer, “Like, Myungsoo and Myungsin are apparently sea creatures. So why—”

“Sea creatures?” frowned Myungsoo, head tilted curiously to the side as he drank Sungyeol’s coffee.

Hoya turned to him and smiled, “Yeah. I was told, um… actually you can probably survive without salt water?” the dancer scratched his head thoughtfully, “Well, Myungsin is apparently a blowfish and Myungsoo is a leech.”

Sungyeol and Woohyun snorted simultaneously and started cracking up.

“Points to whoever told you that,” the tallest of them commented, “Myungsoo is a human parasite.”

Myungsoo then promptly made an irritated noise and latched himself onto Sungyeol, which further proved the point.

Woohyun smiled smugly, “So you guys made up. You’re like buddy-buddy again after what— a year or something?”

Sungyeol scratched his face with one hand while using the other to push Myungsoo off.

“Uh, yeah. Kind of,” Sungyeol twisted his lips wryly, “Still gotta get him to work on his ty people skills.”

Myungsoo stifled a horrid groan into Sungyeol’s shoulder blade and the other two hyungs just smiled appreciatively at the leech and the apple situated on the ground.

∞ ∞ ∞

After they’d finished all their snacks, Hoya, who had initially stashed an unopened box of pepero, brought it out from behind his back and proceeded to stare at it in contemplation.

“Dude, why are you making sappy faces?” Woohyun frowned, tried to snatch the box out of Hoya’s grasp but failed.

Sungyeol then prompted, “Hey, should we go check on Myungsin?”

He stared at Hoya and Woohyun with immense hope in his eyes — then that hope was snuffed out when the two hyungs glanced at each other worriedly.

“What, what is it?” asked Sungyeol.

Hoya scratched his head indicatively, secretly elbowing Woohyun on the shoulder. The vocal then purposely jabbed the dancer’s calf with his knee. Hoya frowned at Woohyun and then helplessly made eye conversation with the latter, who pretended not to understand.

With a groan and a roll of his eyes, Hoya sighed, “Well um… you see.”

His eyes flickered to Woohyun for some aid, but the older only folded his arms over his chest and leaned back unhelpfully in his seat.

“What is it, hyung?” prodded Sungyeol, who was starting to look worried. Myungsoo watched them silently on the sideline.

And then something must’ve clicked together.

“Is this about Sunggyu?” scoffed Myungsoo.

Hoya sat up straight at the same time as Woohyun, “How did you know?”

The visual rolled his eyes like a bored teenager who had just watched his parents do something lame.

“Why wouldn’t I?” he said smugly.

“Wait. What is this about?” Sungyeol pried Myungsoo’s arm and shook it lightly as the younger swayed from side to side like a drunk dandelion, “What about Sunggyu hyung? What does it have to do with Myungsin?”

Myungsoo opened his mouth but froze when Hoya arched his brows at him threateningly. And Hoya’s brows have always been very threatening.

“Nothing,” Myungsoo shrugged. “Not my secret to tell.”

A triumphant grin made its way onto Hoya’s face, as if to say ‘good boy, here, have a treat’.

end of 27

a/n: this is a really cool article on sungkyu https://jioo.jux.com/2106615 
and i hope you liked this chapter. your happy myungyeol.