The most challenging thing to go through would possibly be this. This, as in, having to come back to class and face Renjun after their conversation a few days ago. For a brief moment, Jongin can’t help thinking it’s unfair to him, to his friends too, for the judges to eliminate him in a snap with the single word passed to them from a man with the integrity of a coyote. Wouldn’t they have to do some investigating before anything else? 

Now Jongin has to face the foreign student, Darren from Business, and do his best to forget the fact that that position previously belongs to him. Never mind simply losing, but losing because Jaehyun ratted him out for something that was perfectly justified is another matter altogether. 

Jongin had a talk with Jongdae this morning, about what happened, and reliving the whole event second after second proved to be more breath-hitching, distance-gazing, and word-stuttering than he expected. Jongdae was a great help and a great hugger—though, it would have been much more comfortable if they weren’t in the middle of campus and unfamiliar faces scowled at them for blocking the way. Jongin thinks it’s fine, he’s fine. Even as his skin tingles once again, begging to be clawed from the way it itches, Jongin’s sure he’ll be fine again.

He’s getting the support he needs from Sehun who came over to comfort him anyway he can, from Jongdae who hugged and cooed the out of him, from Baekhyun who spammed his phone with questions and empty threats for Jaehyun, and from Chanyeol who’s soothing his back with a strangely comforting brotherly smile on his face. This is it. This is the moment Jongin silently agrees to himself he won’t let anything bad happen to these people if he can help it. 

He’s pretty sure he’ll get more than just support once Taemin and the rest finds out. They’re way too protective. It’s true that in a contest of pure strength, Jongin can never in his entire life beat them, and that has unconsciously resulted in them fussing too much over him sometimes. If word about what Jaehyun did to him reaches one of them, Jaehyun’s quite literally as dead as a roach drowning in insect repellent. 

Maybe Renjun’s disappointment in Jongin will barrel through rock bottom and create a new record that way. Jongin spares a quick, sheepish glance in Renjun’s way. The prodigy doesn’t do so much as look his way. 

“You!” 

Jongin’s muscles throughout his whole body locks up. He doesn’t make any move to run away nor does he make any move to look away from the familiar gruff voice calling out to him. Jongin reaches out to whoever’s next to him, grabbing a handful of their shirt in his hands as he balls his fist. 

“You have the nerve to talk to him while I’m here?” Ravi grits out in fury as he flies past Jongin and throws a punch aimed perfectly at Tattoo-neck. Even before the punch, Jongin noticed the wounds scattered across his face, the bruises, the evidence proving he received a beating prior to this one. 

Tattoo-neck is a huge man. He’s simply big-sized, bigger than Ravi, but the latter throws the older man around as if he weighed like a single grain of dirt. Plea after plea coming from him to stop, spare him, to let him go, but Ravi doesn’t give him a chance. Jongin searches for any guilt, any remorse left in his system and flings it to the side as he watches Ravi’s handiwork. 

Moonkyu jostles Jongin. The latter turns around questioningly, asking him what he wants. “What I want is for you to start moving. Taemin’s waiting for us inside. Let Ravi have his fun.”

“Oh, okay…” Jongin timidly starts walking. Before he lets Moonkyu completely whisk him away, he turns to his friend who’s busy unleashing his anger on someone else and says, “Don’t kill him.”

Ravi pauses mid-punch, a fist hovering above his head, and he coughs out a boisterous laugh. The man under him whimpers. “Hear that? I can do anything with you, I just can’t let you die.”

Chanyeol ruffles his hair, still with that smile, and ruins the moment by saying, “You remind me of my pet ferret.”

“First of all, you,” Jongin reacts not a beat too late. 

Chanyeol bursts out laughing as loud as someone his size would. His lungs, it seems, corresponds with his height. Chanyeol stifles his laughter behind his hand eventually as he mumbles out, “But it’s true!”

“That’s information I didn’t need nor want to know,” Jongin grumbles. 

Chanyeol continues with his teasing until he notices Yukhei walking into class with a downcasted expression. He’s upset about something, like he’s sulking to the world, as he petulantly plops on the seat next to Chanyeol and sighs extra loud. He lolls his head to the side and gives both Jongin and Chanyeol a peculiar look. 

“What’s wrong?” Jongin takes the liberty to ask, considering how Yukhei is practically waiting for that very same question. 

“My family told me off for hanging around my own cousin,” Yukhei laments. “I don’t get it. I mean, I know Minho’s like a… a… uh… I know he looks like a gang leader—”

“Looks like?” Jongin snorts. “The guy has an alias which he insists we use in front of the other friends we see around him quite often. And those guys literally kowtow at his feet—and I’m not talking a normal bow, it’s ing kowtowing.” 

“Okay, maybe he’s not the… uh, most morally righteous person I know, but he’s still a kind man!” Yukhei slumps in his seat. “I don’t get why I can’t even spend time with my cousin. My family’s like so close from disowning him for no reason at all!”

“Hey, what is his deal, anyway?” Chanyeol chirps in. “Who is Minho? Why does he like being called Blue?”

“He’s Taemin’s old friend. Apparently, Taemin was broke and Minho was a senior friend from High School, and Minho offered to help. You get the gist. And Minho basically has a whole, uh, legion of people swearing their loyalty because he helped them too.” Jongin waves it as something light. “Oh, and Moonkyu has life issues and Minho helped so he’s indebted. Ravi, too, pretty much. Am I talking too much? I feel like I’m exposing all of my friends’ secrets.

“So, basically, he’s a cult leader,” Chanyeol jokes. 

Yukhei cackles. “How can he be the leader if he’s the one they’re worshipping?”

“Your cousin has narcissism issues,” Jongin states. 

“Yeah, it runs in the family,” Yukhei sighs out. 

“What about you then? How did he help you?” Jongin jumps in his seat when a voice to his side takes their turn to ask questions. Sehun grins, waving hello. 

When did Sehun even arrive? Was he so into talking about Minho that he didn’t even notice Sehun coming in? Chanyeol narrows his eyes at Jongin, not because of Sehun but because he wants to hear Jongin’s answer to Sehun’s questions.

“Minho protected me. He took a liking to me and he protected me even though I get pissed at him a lot. He said I remind him of his younger brother.” Jongin brushes his friends’ intrigued expressions away and instinctively turns to the front of the class. He doesn’t expect to meet eyes with Renjun, getting caught off guard that way. Jongin avoids his gaze and pretends as if nothing happened. “My friends and I wouldn’t even know each other’s name if not because of Minho.”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, please!” Tattoo-neck screams, curling into himself as he sobs. Jongin doesn’t have the courage to come any closer but he doesn’t move further away either. His gaze slides up from the man crying with his face pressed against the ground to Ravi who’s out of breath from all the exercise.  “I’m sorry.”

“What’s going on here?” Minho steps out, looking all posh and perfectly sober. Much unlike what Jongin expected. This late into the night, Minho should have been drunk off his as elegantly a man of his position could possibly allow himself to be. Ravi stiffens up at Minho’s interference. “Why are you beating him up? Wasn’t the last time enough?”

“Do you have to ask?” Moonkyu snorts. “We already told him to stay away. We warned him that if he showed his face around again we won’t stay still.” 

“You have no rights to tell him where he can or can’t step foot in.” Minho’s voice is soft but sharp, kind but firm. The way he meets Moonkyu’s eyes renders the latter motionless. 

“You don’t understand—”

“Make me understand,” Minho interrupts, “You won’t tell me anything, you stand on my territory and you’re telling my people off. Don’t blame me if I call you out.”

“Tell him what you did, tard,” Ravi turns to Tattoo-neck and forces him to spit everything he did. When Tattoo-neck refuses and attempts to pathetically seek consolation in Minho’s presence, Ravi rolls his eyes. “I’ll tell him myself, and trust me, you don’t want that.”

“I… I drugged… him. And I… I…” Tattoo-neck coughs, wheezes even, before spitting a chipped part of his tooth out. 

“Why Blue?” Chanyeol squints, internally mocking the name. “Is his favourite colour blue?”

“I asked him once and he said Blue because to all his men who work for him, every time they look up at the blue sky, they’ll remember he’s always above them.” 

“Damn! Really? He said that? That’s cool!” Yukhei beams, slapping Chanyeol’s arms repeatedly as he fawns over his cousin.

“He sounds terrifying,” Chanyeol says, eyebrows raised to the roof. “I don’t want to get someone like him as my enemy.”

“Hey, is that why you’re so…” Yukhei smacks his lips, pausing for exactly three seconds—yes, Jongin counted—for the lack of vocabulary to describe Jongin. “Is that where you learnt your ways?”

“My ways?” Jongin grimaces. “I don’t like how that sounds. What do you mean by my ways?”

“Well, you’re… well, uh, you’re freakishly strong sometimes, but only when you want to be. You run fast—”

Sehun snorts. Jongin laughs. Chanyeol stares in confusion. Yukhei is busy remembering that one time Jongin chased him around campus with no shoes to cover his feet from the rough terrain. To think Jongin’s that fast without shoes on.

“Well, I am fast,” Jongin boasts. Then, he frowns. “But I’m not so sure about being strong. Not physically, anyway. I mean, between me, Taemin and the rest, they usually have to protect me.”

Minho straightens up from squatting next to Tattoo-neck, twisting his body to the side to be able to face Jongin. Minho pins his questioning gaze on Jongin. Yet, the latter doesn’t notice much as he has his eyes scrunched close to conjure up the happiest thoughts he’s had. Jongin stutters on a breath in, holding his breath still for a second before letting a shaky one out.

Seeing how shaken up Jongin is by the slightest mention of what happened, Minho’s convinced that with every visible bruise he can count on Tattoo-neck’s face, he deserves twice that. All too suddenly, Minho swings a kick to Tattoo-neck’s face. The abused man wails in pain, rolling on to his other side as he cradles his broken nose. 

Jongin jolts at the sound of something cracking, a bone cracking. He shoots his eyes open and sees Minho going at the poor excuse of a man lying before him. Jongin turns, blinks his stagnant tears away, and walks alongside Moonkyu into the club to find Taemin. 

“Alright, settle down,” Renjun projects his voice as loud as ever but he sounds exhausted, like he’s dreading the thought of having to go through another day. This is not because of him, that much Jongin can tell, because Renjun is smarter than that to let someone like Jongin affect him like that.

Jongin asks himself whether it’ll still be acceptable if he approaches Renjun later and ask what’s wrong. There might have been a misunderstanding between them, but surely Renjun wouldn’t be the unforgiving type. Plus, Jongin had a reason. Worse comes to worst, he’ll have to retell the tale once more, that’s all. With that thought in mind, Jongin wiggles in his seat as he adjust himself to get comfortable for today’s lesson. 

          Baekhyun stands on stage with a proud grin practically lighting his whole face up. He steps around the wire connecting the microphone to the speakers and greets everyone in the room in a somber but cheeky way. Just like last time, his friends are hanging around at the back of the bar. Only difference is, Sehun’s with them now. A surprise? Definitely. 

When Jongdae invited Sehun to come along—and it’s always Jongdae who does the asking—Jongin had been greatly alarmed. As much as he loves Baekhyun, he can’t possibly take anymore of that little brat feeling up Sehun’s arm. Even if it’s meant to , ruffle his feathers to get him to loosen up, Jongin doesn’t want to put himself under such unnecessary stress. Thankfully enough, Baekhyun hasn’t shown signs of acting up ever since they got here. He’s too focused on today’s performance.

Jongin can understand why when he watches Baekhyun talk on stage. 

“Today, I bring with me a newly composed piece,” Baekhyun explains, clearing his throat with a smile before he resumes talking, “I’m a busy Med’