With little argument from Sungjong, his mother had convinced him to attend school, to spend time with his favorite hyungs during the time leading up to graduation. They were the only people he could spend time with, honestly. He hadn't made any friends during school, due to the fact that he was ostracized based solely on his weight--nobody wanted to hang out with the fat kid.

As he walked with Hoya and Dongwoo, Sungjong felt himself becoming more self-conscious the closer they got to campus. "I don't have a uniform, hyung. Will I get in trouble?" he questioned, holding onto Dongwoo's blazer at the elbow.

Dongwoo shook his head, "I'm sure the teachers know of your circumstance. You said your mom talked to the dean, right?"

Sungjong nodded.

"So it should be fine." He grinned and ruffled the younger's hair, putting him a little more at ease about walking around on campus.

Yawning, he stretched his arms above his head. It felt nice to walk with his hyungs to school again, especially since he hadn't done so in around six months? Checking his watch, he saw they had a good half hour before classes started.

"I should talk to my teacher before class, right?" he questioned Hoya, who nodded. 

"I mean, it's not like they're gonna recognize you right away, anyway. So talking to her is probably your best option."

Sungjong bit his lip nodding. "Makes sense," he murmured, continuing. They paused at Sungjong's classroom, both Hoya and Dongwoo ruffling his hair and saying their words of encouragement.

"If they bother you, just text me and I'll be over in a heartbeat," Hoya smiled, waiting for Dongwoo.

"You can do it Sungjong-ah. We're in the same class, so just text him and we'll both be over, alright? See you at lunch. Fighting!"

"And don't forget to eat your snack on break!" Hoya told him, giving him a briefly stern look before smiling and parting ways with the younger, Dongwoo in tow.

Sungjong nodded to himself before entering the classroom hesitantly, seeing the teacher behind her desk. "Teacher?" he questioned softly, approaching.

Looking up, she smiled, tilting her head curiously. "Yes? Can I help you?"

"Ah, I'm not sure if the dean told you yet, but I'm supposed to rejoin the class for the next two weeks," he explained.

"Hm...Lee Sungjong is supposed to rejoin us, he told me...so wait." She paused as she looked him up and down, "Are you Lee Sungjong?"

Sungjong bit his lip and nodded, jumping when she stood, grinning, "You look so good! Whatever you did, it worked really well! I'm sure you'll be able to charm anyone's heart." She grinned, winking and patting him on the back.

He flushed, looking down as he bit his lip and smoothed the hair on the back of his neck. "Ah...that might be a bit much..." he murmured, feeling embarrassed. "But thank you."

She smiled again and nudged him in the direction of his seat. "Class is going to start in fifteen minutes, but students should start filling in within the next five minutes or so." She looked at the clock, "I'll let them figure it out for themselves, alright?"

Sungjong nodded gratefully before hiding his face with his hands, calming down his heart and flush. He hadn't expected such an energetic reaction from his teacher of all people. She was actually the last person he expected to have such a reaction, but this just meant that other reactions would be more extreme, so he had to prepare himself.

He checked the clock and sighed softly--not much time now. He tried not to attract too much attention as other students started to file into the classroom, hiding his face behind a textbook.

He peeked over the top of the textbook and saw people staring at him, causing him to feel self-conscious all over again. 

"Isn't that Lee Sungjong's seat?"

"Who's that?"

"Is that a new student?"

"But it's the end of the year--why would anyone transfer schools now?"

"I wonder what happened to Lee Sungjong?"

He wanted to put the book down, but he wasn't sure if anyone would be able to recognize him, and if they did, would they freak out?

"Hi, my name is Park Eunji." Sungjong jumped, nearly dropping the textbook at the sudden voice.

He looked at the girl in front of him and saw her smile, feeling nothing negative from it but still feeling very hesitant to respond.

"Are you new to this school?" she questioned, and Sungjong shook his head.

"I haven't...been here in a while," he murmured, looking down and feeling flustered. She'd never talked to him before, but she had never contributed to any of the cruel words either, so she was good to him in that sense.

"Really? How come?" His gaze flickered up to her face before looking down again.

"I...I had to do something away from school," he explained, trying his best to keep things vague.

"Ah, well, I hope it all went well," she told him, giving a disarmingly bright smile, causing him to become flustered as she turned back forward.

Usually not many people talked to him, but even less so girls, so it was incredibly embarrassing and different and he had no other reaction but to be flustered and at a loss for words. 

As soon as the rest of the students settled in, attention was no longer really focused on him--or so he thought.

When the class started, one of the students on the other side of the classroom pointed directly at him and asked the teacher, "Who's that and why is he sitting in Lee Sungjong's seat?"

Sungjong silently cursed to himself as he let his head drop on his desk with a muffled thud, attracting other students' attention.

The teacher looked at him, eyes asking him if it was okay to tell them and he gave a barely visible nod. "Lee Sungjong has rejoined our class for the last two weeks of class. Please focus on class now--if your attention strays too much, I'll have to keep you all after class to clean the classroom and hallway. Is that understood?"

All students answered in the affirmative, and she continued the lesson with little irrelevant interruption.

~

When break came around, Sungjong took out his snack--an egg roll his mother had packed him. However, along with snack time also came most of the students crowding around his desk, asking him various kinds of questions and honestly making him uncomfortable.

"You lost so much weight, Sungjong-ssi," one girl commented, "You look really good now!"

"I never noticed how handsome you were, Sungjong-oppa!"

"What are your measurements now?" another girl questioned.

"Ah...I think twenty...twenty-four around the middle..." he murmured, looking down as he took a bite of his egg roll.

"Twenty four!? I'm twenty-eight! How's that fair!" she cried out. He cringed at the loud outburst, hoping that break time would soon end.

"How'd you do it? How much weight did you lose?" Park Eunji questioned, leaning on his desk.

"My noona told me I'd lost a lot..." He bit into his egg roll. "Can I please eat my snack...? Hoya-hyung told me to..." he explained meekly, hoping to get out of this situation.

"Hoya-oppa? I guess if your snack is really that important..." Eunji nodded, turning back to her friends. The rest of the girls dispersed, giving Sungjong room to breathe.

The last question really bothered him--why does it matter how much he'd lost? Sure, he was proud of how much, but he felt unhappy about the focus on his weight. He'd rather them ask him about how he was doing or concerning his interests, but he supposed he should have prepared for this kind of response after losing so much weight, right?

After finishing a good amount of the egg roll, he put it away, possibly for later, but probably not. He didn't have the appetite to eat a lot really anymore.

He felt eyes on him, and he looked up, seeing Kim Myungsoo at the door. He waved, smiling a little at the harmless upperclassman. He earned a small smile and wave back before he retreated to the outside of the classroom, probably returning to his own classroom.

He didn't mind Myungsoo at all--he was more quiet than anything, but he didn't seem to have any bad intentions, from what he could tell. Maybe they could be friends?

~

When lunch came around, Hoya and Dongwoo joined Sungjong in his classroom, their behavior falling into the same pattern as last semester and all the years prior except Sungjong was a little more withdrawn. Hoya figured it was because it was overwhelming to be the subject of conversation in a positive way for once.

Taking out both his and Sungjong's lunches that Sungjong's mother had been kind enough to make and supply, Hoya nudged Sungjong's in his direction, giving him a look telling him to eat as much as he could.

Intimidated by what would happen if he didn't, Sungjong proceeded to eat his mother's homemade lunch, avoiding the rice--this surprised both of his friends, since they both knew how much he loved rice. However, they knew better than to question it, since he had good reason, probably.

"Ya! Lee Sungjong, I heard you came back! Some nerve--"

All three of them tensed, but Hoya was the first to jump to his feet, his body taut and poised to fight Kim Sunggyu if need be. Sungjong wasn't good at fighting to begin with and now that he had lost what real mass he had to either protect or serve as a form of intimidation, he really couldn't defend himself.

Dongwoo wrapped an arm around his shoulder, rubbing his shoulder and absentmindedly wondering about how skinny he was.

Sunggyu was taken aback at the ferocity in Hoya's face before Woohyun met it head-on with his own sort of taunting, only further serving to piss off the third-dan black belt. He felt like punching someone and either Woohyun or Sunggyu would be the target.

But Sunggyu froze when he saw Sungjong, trembling in fear at the possibly harsh words about to escape his lips. His eyes were wide, and he felt his stomach churn uncomfortably due to his distress at seeing his bully of a good seven years at least.

"How...?"

Everyone froze at the weak tone in his voice, unsure of what was going on.

"You can't just...You can't just change like that!" Sungjong jumped at the rise in his voice.

Woohyun smacked him in the chest, "Ya, what are you talking about?" He looked over at Sungjong then, freezing as his mouth fell open slightly, a mixture of shock and confusion playing on his features.

"Lee Sungjong?"

The tension in the room rose and the rest of the students evacuated to the doorway, watching from the entrance.

Sungjong nodded hesitantly, unsure of how to handle the situation. "Y-yes..."

"How..." Woohyun stepped forward, toward Sungjong and past Hoya, hands outstretched slightly. Everyone motionless, Hoya finally froze as Woohyun cupped Sungjong's face with both hands, turning his head and looking it over. "How the did this happen?"

Hoya grabbed his arms, ripping them away from Sungjong and holding them behind his back in the most uncomfortable position possible. "Don't ing touch him," he snarled, voice low as he threw him to the side.

Sunggyu backed off to help his friend, gaze fixated on a petrified Sungjong, trembling as Dongwoo rubbed his back. 

"Namu...let's go back," he murmured absentmindedly, unable to look away from Sungjong as he dragged his friend out of the classroom hurriedly.

Just as they felt like they were safe, they heard another familiarly loud voice, "Ya, Lee Sungjong! I heard you came back!"

Jumping slightly, they all looked over, and Hoya growled, standing inbetween Sungyeol and Sungjong. Sungjong noted blank-looking Myungsoo in tow as usual. He didn't really do anything, and he seemed to go along because he and Sungyeol seemed to be friends for some reason.

He trudged over to where they were and sat in a chair not far from them, his posture tense yet relaxed, if that was possible. "Hm...So the rumors are true. Looks like you can look like a real human being," he taunted, causing Sungjong to cringe and turn away, feeling incredibly hurt at the other's words. 

He thought it would stop when he lost weight, but Lee Sungyeol was really cruel...and completely right. He felt a wave of nausea come over him as he became distressed over the other's taunting and cruel words. Did he really still not look okay? Was he still as undesireable as Sungyeol had said months before?

"Jongie? Are you alright?" Dongwoo felt him tense up and reacted almost instantly, yet he was so confused and unsure as to what was going on.

His breathing quickened as he covered his mouth, body jerking in response to the inevitable yet unintentional purge-to-come. He jumped out of his seat, running out of the classroom and hurrying to the bathroom just in time to vomit his stomach's contents into the toilet bowl, tears leaving his eyes as he gripped the toilet seat tight enough to turn his knuckles white.

It hurt. It hurt a lot. Not only his stomach but his throat hurt. His throat felt raw, and it hurt to swallow. As he spit out excess vomit, he wiped his mouth with his sleeve, his entire body shaking violently.

Back in the classroom, as soon as Sungjong made a mad dash for the door, Hoya grabbed Sungyeol's collar with both hands. "You bastard, what the is wrong with you!?" he snarled.

As Dongwoo and Myungsoo ran out of the classroom--probably to help Sungjong--Hoya dragged Sungyeol to the wall and slammed him against it, knocking the taller student out of his breath. He lifted his fist, completely prepared to knock out a few teeth but stopped himself as he realized Sungjong would probably not want him to ruin his record this close to graduation. So he threw a fist, stopping just short of impact, leaving him shaking in fear. 

"Let me tell you this Lee Sungyeol: I could easy kill you. Break your bones, dislocate your joins--possibly even tear you limb from limb--but the only thing stopping me is Sungjong. You better bet your that I'd be willing to even break the law if it meant that you weren't around to harass Sungjong for no reason," he growled, dropping his fist, "So you better chill the out and never talk to him unless you have intentions to do nothing but beg forgiveness for all the hell you and your friends put him through."

Throwing him to the side, he hurried out of the classroom to join Dongwoo and Myungsoo in the bathroom, locking the door before looking around the bathroom for Sungjong, eyes falling on the sight of his friend shaking and sobbing into Kim Myungsoo's arms and embrace.

Just seeing Myungsoo there and associating him with Sungyeol made his blood boil, but the fact that he'd gotten here faster than Dongwoo even said a lot. He figured that Kim Myungsoo wasn't that bad, and though he had a ty friend, that didn't really make Myungsoo a bad person. 

Dongwoo was crouched beside them, rubbing his back but not really able to do much more than Myungsoo was doing. 

Myungsoo was hugging him, his hair and murmuring things neither Hoya nor Dongwoo could hear. He didn't know what he was saying, but it was working at calming him down.

Now that Hoya had calmed down, what the hell actually happened? Had this happened before? There was something seriously going wrong in Sungjong's head, Hoya knew it, but to get him to talk about it was another thing. How did his body react so volatilely to a comment that, just last semester, would have just hurt his feelings and made him cry at the very most?

Hoya frowned at the whole circumstance and wondered if he should consult his uncle who works at the hospital about it. 

He turned his attention to Sungjong, who had steadily calmed down and was now more or less emotionally stable. "Jong-ah..." Dongwoo murmured, petting his hair, "Are you okay?"

Pulling away from Myungsoo in a bit of a daze, he nodded. "Ah..." He cleared his throat, "I should be okay. Sorry for worrying you hyungs, and sorry for making you go through this too sunbaenim." He bowed slightly to Myungsoo, earning a shake of his head.

"It's fine. You worry me Lee Sungjong. I mean, it's partially my fault for not keeping Sungyeol in check--you having to go through this--but if it helps, I can always try and support you and take care of you?" he offered, smiling a little bit, looking up at Hoya for approval.

Hoya mulled it over. "I don't see a problem--you seem harmless enough, but you need to keep Lee Sungyeol in check. If anything like this happens again, I'm going to hold you as accountable as him. Plus, we're gonna need someone to help him out next year if people decide to bully him," he reasoned. Sungjong's safety was his top priority a lot of the time, especially when considering friend for their group.

Sungjong nodded, smiling weakly and covering his mouth a little bit, "I'd like it. The more the merrier, I guess." He nodded again, looking at Myungsoo, "So does that mean I can call you hyung?"

Myungsoo grinned, "Of course. As long as I can call you whatever nickname I can come up with."

"I'm sure there isn't one that Dongwoo-hyung or Hoya-hyung haven't thought of yet," he teased, before moving to get up, almost falling from stumbling. Dongwoo caught him though. "Sorry, felt lightheaded," he apologized softly, looking over at Myungsoo flushed the toilet and cleared the bathroom of the smell of vomit.

"Is it alright to join you guys for lunch?" Myungsoo asked as Sungjong brushed his teeth (because who doesn't carry around a spare toothbrush and toothpaste to school?), earning a nod from the elder two.

"Cool," he smiled, rubbing Sungjong's back as they all left the bathroom together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

a/n: So two/three updates in the span of 24 hours--pretty good if I do say so myself~ Although it is 6:40 am and I'm tired, so I'll check out here for sleeping. Good night, and I tried to put in some myungjong at the end, so I hope that was enough for now.

I've done quite a bit of writing over the course of a month, so be proud of me~♡ As always, I love you all, and I hope that you like this fic enough to comment or anything else, but I really love comments (cries they always make my day better tbh) but I'm tired, so I'll check out here~ Night/Morning/Afternoon/Evening~