It’s quite a fuss trying to squash ten grown- guys into the rickety bus out of school. Especially when so many others are also trying to escape the school grounds as fast as possible. It’s equally impossible to find a place that sits ten of them nicely, especially when everyone wants to sit as close to Seungkwan as possible. Boo has never felt this popular-- or claustrophobic in his life.

Right now he’s being stifled to death by overgrown teen boys eager to hear him dish the dirt on Lee Seokmin. Ten guys stuffed in the fast food table meant for six. Really efficient use of space (McDonalds should love them) but they’ve only ordered three fries, two onion rings and one extra-large Coke (McDonalds should chase them out).

Seungkwan loves hearing the way his voice sounds, but right now fleeing sounds pretty ideal. These cheapskates aren’t even paying for his food.

Except he can’t. Soonyoung is pinning him down with one foot rather insistently. Wonwoo on Mingyu’s lap is pretty damn heavy when it comes to squashing Seungkwan on the other side.

Seungkwan isn’t quite sure what he did to deserve this. Wait, he does. Became friends with Lee Seokmin. Maybe he should renounce all friendship ties and become a cool loner.

Cool loner. Hah. As if people-loving Boo is capable of that. He wants hugs and snuggles and people who love him.

“So spill. How are you guys friends?” Soonyoung presses. The others nod furiously. What are they, bobble heads? Does Joshua even know who Seokmin is or is he just eager to sit pressed up against Jeonghan?

Seungkwan sighs. It’s a real long story.

“Middle school. You know when you were fooling around in dance practice after school I was singing hallelujah-world-peace-praise-the-lord songs?”

Soonyoung nods. He remembers that pretty clearly. Seungkwan was terribly cute in the silly choir outfit, shirt buttoned up to the top with that oversized ribbon tie. Adorable. Soonyoung still has pictures of Seungkwan in that outfit saved on his phone. Set it as his screensaver for weeks on end just to torture Seungkwan. Ahh, good times.

“Hang on. Seokmin was from the our middle school?”

Duh. He isn’t installation art at Pledis High, you know? Typical Kwon Soonyoung, so focused on setting goals and meeting them that he’s totally ignored people who don’t affect his life that much. Seungkwan shakes his head.

“No, Seokmin is an alien from another galaxy and he’s holding my life captive. I’m a Chosen One on a top-secret mission to get him to understand basic human sympathy so he won’t go back on his alien spaceship to press the Destruct button on all of humanity.”

Chan gasps. Mingyu nods sagely. Wonwoo his imaginary beard.

“Of course not you idiots! Ugh I’m going hom-“

Seungkwan tries to escape, but Wonwoo and Mingyu are using their combined forces to stop him. Curse tall and big-sized people, really. Why did Mingyu get the height? And who gives him the right to bully small innocent people like Seungkwan? He’s never committed a single sin in his life- okay, so he was the one who ate the last cookie from Soonyoung’s cookie jar. But Soonyoung’s mum let him!

“That sounds pretty possible. Would explain why Seokmin is this heartless.” Soonyoung says. More sagely nodding. More scandalized gasps about how Seokmin had them totally fooled.  “But I think you’ve done well? Seokmin is much more human these days.”

“Oh my god. For crying out loud! You know how I was that young upstart who sang too well for the seniors to like? Well the senior weren’t very nice and they kept pushing me around. Fetch the score sheets, sweep the room, ragging on my singing. I got really sad. Pretty depressing times.”

The table seems to quieten down at that. For someone as bubbly as Seungkwan to be this uncomfortable talking about the past, it must have hurt.

“Anyway, when I was really down and thinking of quitting Seokmin was this stupid fool who was all fired up at the unfairness. Always making snarky remarks about it. Getting dragged down by me even though he could totally just ignore everything and be happy”

 It’s pathetic to feel this threatened by a mere junior.

The duty roster teaches me about the inequality of the world. Punish people who you guys are afraid of.

Never seen seniors this cowed by someone. Right, Seungkwan is just that good at singing. Forgot.   

There’s a word for what you’re doing. Bullying. And it’s only because the lot of you are way too scared to fight on stage with Seungkwan. All of you are that sure Seungkwan is better. 100% certain that the cute junior is going to win.

Even when he says these words he can remember the way Seokmin said it last time. Shorter, face chubbier and cuter. Similar sharp tongue. Ridiculously strong sense of justice.

Not popular in choir at all. Sang too loudly, words too cutting. But a great friend. Even when the seniors started bullying Seokmin for being friends with him, Seokmin was the one sweeping the purposely spilled food with Seungkwan while grumbling about what a waste of good potato chips that was.

And like that Seungkwan stayed on. Started talking back to the seniors, worked even harder at his singing such that he’ll kill any senior stupid enough to fight him. Spent choir talking with Seokmin and forgot every lousy thing the senior said about him. Ignored the senior’s never ending scoldings when Seokmin praised him for improving.

“Hang on, I thought you were pretty popular. The kids in choir in my year always talked about how cool Boo Seungkwan was. Couple of them were massive fans.” Chan pipes up.

That’s right. Soonyoung remembers how in second year he’d always get delayed by the choir juniors who wanted to spend more time with Seungkwan. The resistance was so strong he practiced even longer after session.

“The junior liked me. The seniors hated me. Maybe that’s because I tried to be a really good senior that helped everyone. Exactly the opposite of how the seniors treated me.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

The fry wedged between Soonyoung’s fingers has gone cold. Why didn’t he know anything about this? All he remembered was meeting Seungkwan late as choir practice always seemed to drag. Both of them happily heading home together after that. Soonyoung listening to Seungkwan sing the latest song he practiced.

“Wasn’t going to tell you. You were always super happy after dance practice, I didn’t want to ruin your mood.”

Stupid. Stupid Seungkwan. Always thinking about everyone else but himself. Soonyoung wants to scold him. Tell him about what’s on your mind, stop worrying about me. Don’t feel the pressure to always be happy and carefree. I’m your friend, right? You’re supposed to share your worries with me too.

“Don’t feel bad. It got better rather quickly. Seokmin did scare the seniors off. And he always made sure I felt happy real quick.” Seungkwan soothes Soonyoung’s back. That’s exactly what he thought Soonyoung would feel like then. The young Boo wasn’t wrong.

Kwon Soonyoung has never had a high opinion of Lee Seokmin. Hell, if you asked him at the start of the year Seokmin would fall into the Top 3 of biggest jerks in Pledis High. Everyone’s heard the rumours of him dating multiple girls at once from different schools and dumping them in the very same week. His general behavior did nothing to improve that terrible view of him. Beating him at Physics papers and being the rock band head made Soonyoung think of him as an all-rounded Jerk.

But now? Soonyoung thinks Seokmin is a really, really nice guy. Sharp tongue and annoying brains, but not somebody to hate on. Somebody he should bake apology muffins to and thank profusely for being that nice to Seungkwan. So that’s why they’re friends.

Maybe Seungkwan’s right. Seokmin is like an angsty emo boy, badly misunderstood.

Minghao suddenly laughs, whispering something into Junhui’s ears. Now Junhui’s laughing too.

“What? Tell us what’s so funny.” Vernon pressures the duo who have taken to sitting in each other’s laps. A shorter mirror of Mingyu and Wonwoo.

“Just thinking, if Seokmin’s a choirboy, doesn’t that mean that he wore that ridiculous choir outfit?”

Damn. Minghao raises the best points ever. Soonyoung takes out his phone and starts scrolling through his old pictures. Somewhere here, there’s an entire album of Seungkwan and his friends in the choir outfits. When Soonyoung was to trigger happy after a concert and took pictures of Seungkwan with everyone.

There. Found him. A young Lee Seokmin in the flesh, wearing that bright blue vest and red ribbon.

Wonwoo rips the phone from his hand. Junhui makes a grab for it. Now they’re fighting over the phone, trying to catch a glimpse of a stupidly-dressed Seokmin. The whole table is filled with obnoxious laughter.

Soonyoung must be going slightly mad. Because when he saw that photo the first thing he thought something really whacked out.

Cute. 

Too damn adorable for words.

Maybe he’s caught Seokmin’s cold. Maybe having so much body heat isn’t good for rational head function.

Seokmin could potentially be a nice guy, but Soonyoung definitely does not, in a million years, think that Lee Seokmin is cute. Or adorable. Or any synonym of cute. Arguably attractive is the most he’d grudge him.

What is wrong with him?

Jeonghan’s phone rings. Seokmin’s calling to make sure they put the instruments back in the rooftop shed, which of course they did. The rock band might at playing instruments but the least thing they have is common sense. At least, Mingyu does.

“Get well soon, choir boy!” Jeonghan coos.

Over the phone there’s spluttering.

“Who’s a choir boy?”

“Aww, don’t lie. Never knew you could be so kind. This photo of Lee Seokmin in the choir outfit is just perfect. I’m going to ask Soonyoung to send it to me and print it out. Paste in on every corner of the rooftop shed. I’m sure the dance club would agree to it.”

Junhui and Vernon nod eagerly. Chan’s too lost in laughter to even reply.

“Boo Seungkwan you little-”

“Peer pressure from Soonyoung made me spill. Don’t kill me! Oh, what’s that? A spaceship? See you Seokmin! Superhero Boo needs to save the world from an alien invasion. Don’t call me, I won’t pick up. You don’t want Planet Earth to explode, do you?”

Seungkwan presses the end call button hastily. Sighs heavily, Seokmin just might not forgive him this time round. Then again, he did the rock band a gigantic favour, so Seokmin kind of owes him. When he’s less angry Seungkwan will activate his best quality aegeyo to live another day.

“Hey, next time we see Seokmin we’re all going to call him choirboy, okay!”

Whoever thought Jeonghan was an angel could not be more severely mistaken. Fallen angel who fell so far he became a devil is more accurate. Although from the way Joshua is looking at him, he may as well be all that is good and holy in this world.

Soonyoung looks at the photo of choirboy Seokmin again. Damn, he’s totally adorable. The stupid choir outfit suits him in a weird way. Although he’s pouting and looking at least seven different kinds of grumpy.  

Hang on. Not adorable. Devil in disguise. Even though he might have risen enough to be considered a sinning mortal.

Well, then Soonyoung must have fallen pretty far into hell. Eight cheering boys practicing how to say choirboy in the most taunting manner possible does sound like part of it. 

A/N: Merry Christmas everyone!! This is my present to all my readers, subscribers and commentors <33 hope you enjoy it and hope you receive much better presents than this ;A; !!! 

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