It takes Seungcheol a long weekend and endless hours of thinking to decide what to do next. As he walks in the university building on Monday he’s determined to continue his life as nothing happened on that Friday night. As for Jihoon… his thinking didn’t help that much. He just hopes he won’t have to face the pink haired boy too soon. 

His day goes relatively well, if he ignores the boring classes and annoying students. In the end all hell breaks loose at the lunch, as he sits down next to a few of his classmates. 
“Have you heard the news?” Sohyan, one of the girls asks. He shakes his head, along with two more friends, and proceeds to take a bite from his cheeseburger.
“There’s a new gay in school.” She answers, slightly bend over the table, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. Seungcheol stops chewing, his eyes darting to the girl, almost forgetting to close his mouth. He feels his brain freeze and his breathe blocking in his throat. He hears them talking, but his brain can’t really process the words. All he can think of is “How?”. There’s still something wrong… why does nobody look at him? The other four persons at the table are turned to Sohyan, listening to what the girl has to tell. ‘It’s not me.’ He dares to think, forcing himself to breathe and eventually swallow the food.

“They broke up this morning.” Are the first words he understands and he breathes in relief. Definitely not him. He didn’t break up with anyone. He doesn’t even have a girlfriend.
“How did she find out, anyway?” Areum, the other girl at the table asks.
“His neighbor told her. Seems like he and Maya are friends.”
“Maya?!” Seungcheol chokes on his own breath.

************
“She’s my girlfriend.”
“I didn’t know you had one.” The smile Jihoon gives him then is strange but he can’t point out how exactly. 
“I might even get engaged soon.” The smaller says and Seungcheol looks at him surprised. No matter what, he can’t imagine Jihoon married. The image is strange.
“Aren’t you too young for marriage?” he asks. Jihoon gives him the same smile. Is it fondly or sad? Or maybe both?
“We’ve been together for a long time. And even before that we were childhood friends. Marriage is just the next logical step.” Just that for Seungcheol it doesn’t seem logic at all.

“Are you in love with her?” he asks before he can actually think the question. However, it seems like he hits the right spot because Jihoon tenses visibly.
“She is… very dear to me.” He eventually answers softy. It’s certainly a vague remark, Seungcheol thinks. His confusion must show on his face because Jihoon opens his mouth to continue.
“I wouldn’t stand to hurt or disappoint her. I own her too much and I care for her just as much.” He says in the same tone.
“So you don’t love her…” Jihoon opens his mouth to protest “in that way.” He shuts up the smaller who looks away, guilty gracing his face.

“Why marriage, though? Can’t you take care of her just as a friend?”
“Our parents want us to get married. They say we are old enough.”
“But it's still not something you should do just because they tell you to, you know?” Sincerely, Seungcheol doesn’t know why he is so worked up about this. It’s not his business after all. But perhaps it’s because this is not as Jihoon at all. He’s slightly disappointed that the free spirited Jihoon is willing to let others decide for him like this.
“I don’t mind it, really.” The smaller says, his voice more convincing but still soft. “I’ll do anything not to hurt her.”
**********

“His neighbor saw Jihoon bring a man home.” Sohyan continues.
“Maybe it was his friend.” Areum tries to defend.
“Yeah. Because you kiss all your friends up the door, right?!” the first girl bites back.

The sentence brings back an unknown memory. He can feel a small body pressed to his and he digs his head down to taste a pair of soft lips and all he can think is how much he wants more. His face turns scarlet red and he looks at his forgotten lunch to hide it. That was him? With Jihoon? What on earth is happening to him? He asks himself as he recalls the pure lust he felt in that moment. It’s the first thing he remembers from that night and doesn’t help at all.

“It’s not such a big surprise.” Jangin, a tall, lanky boy says, his voice dripping disgust. “What kind of normal person dies his hair pink?!” 

A loud screech interrupts Seungcheol’s thoughts and he looks up to see Wonwoo, a boy from the same year as him, get up from the table next to them. Before he walks away, he throws Seungcheol a dirty look that makes a single shiver run down his spine. Maybe his friendship with Jihoon wasn’t as secret as he thought.
He remembers how a few months ago his meeting with Jihoon was cut short because an overexcited Wonwoo appeared, fluttering a piece of paper and screaming “I finished it.” Later on Seungcheol found out that Jihoon often collaborated with the ‘emo boy’, as he was known on the campus. He also learned that Wonwoo is not emo at all, judging by the large, almost blinding smile he showered Jihoon with that day. Was Wonwoo upset at what Jangin said or maybe because he found out about Jihoon? Seungcheol could only wonder. 

“Who was the one with Jihoon?” Areum asks, drawing his attention back to his classmates and forming knots in his throat once again. He can feel drops of sweat on his forehead as he waits for the answer. His eyes obsess over the table’s imperfections while tracing an old scratch in the wood. Anything just to avoid the others.
“Who knows? The neighbor didn’t know him, I guess.” Sohyan answered after what seems like an eternity. And despite knowing that he shouldn’t, Seungcheol breathes relieved. The feeling stays only for a few seconds before the image of a certain boy fills his mind and Seungcheol feels like an once again. That little smile Jihoon graced him with haunted him ever since he left the younger alone in that bed.  He can still remember how small Jihoon looked between the white sheets, how fragile and yet stronger and more mature that Seungcheol ever was. And here he is, happy to know that nobody saw him that night when Jihoon’s life is probably shattering to pieces. 

“He didn’t even deny it.” Sohyan continued to relate the story.
“How do you know all this?” Minhyuk, the last boy at the table voices out Seungcheol’s thoughts.
“I was there.” Sohyan says and Seungcheol frowns. 
“There?” he speaks for the first time since all this discussion begun. They all turn to him, like they forgot he was even there.
“Yeah. They broke up this morning in the courtyard.” The girl answers with a small laugh that makes Seungcheol’s stomach twist. “You should have been there. I never saw anyone cry so much and still manage to scream so loud.”

“The devil didn’t say anything?” Jangin asked. Seungcheol didn’t know what annoyed him more: the mocking smile on the boy’s face or the nickname he used for Jihoon. He knew that many called the small boy like that, but it still annoyed him. Jihoon once had a good laugh about it, saying that he likes it, but Seungcheol didn’t find it funny.
“He just stood there until the end. I didn’t get to see his face or something, he must have been really ashamed since he was only watching the ground.” “He should be!”- Jangin.

Seungcheol could almost see it, Jihoon’s small body looking even smaller as he bends in shame and regret. Jihoon wouldn’t cry. His pride would never allow him to. Seungcheol didn’t know if he should see this as a strength or weakness.  But he listened to Jihoon for long enough to know that the boy was more sensible than he shows. He also could hear what Jihoon said about Maya that day: “I’ll do anything not to hurt her.” He couldn’t stop thinking how he ruined everything for Jihoon. But he still managed to feel relieved when he found out that nobody knew that he was implied in all this. 

“I have to go. I have to get to class.” He announces as he gets up. He’s actually lying, but he can’t stand the look on Jangin face and he also needs some time for himself. 

This weekend he thought a lot. At first he was shocked: ‘How could he do something like that?’ Then he started asking exactly how he ended up in Jihoon’s bed. He remembered that he went for a drink. Life wasn’t exactly nice to him these days. But from there everything went blank. He even started to blame Jihoon at some point, that until he checked his phone and saw the message sent by him at 3 am and also the calls he made to Jihoon’s number that night. The fact that Jihoon may have taken advantage of him while he was drunk was out of the question. Not only that the smaller would have never done such thing, but now Seungcheol clearly remembered that he was the one that pinned Jihoon to his door. He tried to ignore just how much he wanted to younger. ‘It was the alcohol’, he tells himself. 

It seems like the bad news weren’t done for the day. As Seungcheol left the school in the afternoon and surrounded the building to shorten his path, he’s welcomed with rather an unpleasant image. Minhyuk was straddling a boy on the wall, one of his hands circled around the boy’s neck, while Jangin was smirking at no other than the object of Seungcheol latest thoughts. 
Jihoon looks like the definition of rage at the moment and for a second Seungcheol contemplates if he should stay or run. There’s fire in Jihoon’s usually calm eyes. His hands are formed into tight fists, his nails visibly digging into the flesh of his palm, reddening it. His lips are brought in a sharp, straight line and his cheeks are painted with anguish. 

Seungcheol can barely hear some mocking whispers that escape Jangin mouth, but he is sure that he heard something like “pathetic” or “” and he feels the anger grow in him as well. “ it all!” he thinks as he takes big steps towards the group of four. He hears the boy pinned to the wall make some choking noises and wonders if he should free the kid first.

The noises don’t attract only his attention, Jihoon moving his eyes from Jangin towards the wall and then to Seungcheol. For a brief moment the anger disappears and there’s something else that Seungcheol can’t give a name to. But then the fire is back and Seungcheol can swear that it consumes the younger, changing him even in physical ways. That look is enough to stop him in his tracks because he can see that that anger is all just for him. 

“Let him go.” Jihoon speaks and his voice is low and dark, nothing like the smooth sound Seungcheol is used to. His eyes leave Seungcheol to settle on Minhyuk and the boy. Seungcheol classmate snickers, but nothing else. The next few seconds surprise everyone present, as Jihoon moves swiftly and in a few moments is next to the two by the wall, his knee finding a violent contact with Minhyuk’s stomach. The taller lets go of the boy on the wall, preferring to use his hand to cradle his aching abdomen.

“You worthless piece of !” Jihoon’s voice is so uncharacteristically low that Seungcheol blinks a few times, to make sure that the one who spat the words is indeed the short male. “If you damaged his throat in any way I will find you and I’ll rip you to pieces, you tard.” he growls in the same tone.

‘This is not Jihoon’ Seungcheol thinks as he gulps loudly. His knees tremble, silently telling him that he should run and he thinks that this is stupid. Jihoon wouldn’t hurt anyone. Just that the image of Minhyuk still holding his stomach as he grunts in pain tells him otherwise. 

“Seungkwan, let’s go.” Jihoon speaks to the stranger.
“Hyung?” the boy asks with a trembling voice and Jihoon snaps angrily at him.
“I said: let’s go! I need to finish that song today.” He explains, his voice a little louder, successfully scaring the boy in front of him more. Jihoon sees how the boy, Seungkwan, visibly flinches and sighs deeply.
“Can you sing?” he asks a little more gently this time and Seungkwan relaxes, slowly nodding. “So I think”. Jihoon dips his head and makes a move for the boy to follow him.

“Where do you think you are going, ?” Jangin asks. But it was evident that he too was affected, his voice lacking the confidence he had earlier. Jihoon stops, but he remains with the back to his bully.
“Park Minhyuk.” He said, his voice the same dark level as before. “You usually have two up to five girlfriends at once. Most of them are underage.”
“W-what?” Minhyuk whispers, taken aback, forgetting for a moment about his throbbing stomach. Jihoon ignores him.

“Kim Jangin.” Seungcheol saw the called one wince. “Last year you used to sell drugs to the freshmen, right? One of them even died…” Jihoon let out a sardonic laugh that made Seungcheol’s hair lift on the back of his neck. “I heard the police still seeks for the dealer.” The silence that falls after his words is thick enough to suffocate all of them. And then Jihoon slowly turns around, his face the perfect resemblance of calmness, his now iced eyes stopping right on Seungcheol and the latter knows he’s ed. If Jihoon wants, he can expose every single dirty secret he has because he willingly told them all to him. The eye contact took barely five seconds, but it was enough for Seungcheol to review all the things he told Jihoon.  

“And there’s Choi Seungcheol.” Jihoon says, a single corner of his mouth going up in a grim smile, his eyes filled with the joy of someone who knows that he won. “the perfect example of an idiotic brain waster. Wanna play with little, pathetic Lee Jihoon? Wait and see when it bites back” He ends, his eyes resting above the older just for a second before he turns around and walks away. Seungcheol stays there, once again watching the smaller’s back, as he feels like he just got slapped.

A.N:

Here is the second part. I'm sorry if there are any mistakes, I'll proof read it again tomorow. Hmm... aa. The characters that aren't members in Seventeen are fictional... this is awkward haha I haven't written a A.N in such a long time.

Anyway, I want to thank all of you, for reading, subscribing and upvoting. I can't believe I have 18 subscribers already haha Please leave me a comment, it means a lot to me. Tell me if you have any sugestions, criticism is also welcomed. 

Thank you once again. See you in a few days. Bye bye *wave wave* ^^/