"Minhyun-ah have you been doing well?"

"I've been fine, don't worry about it."

"Okay, but next time if you have a severe allergic reaction do you mind calling us first? We can take time out of our schedule to call the school about it instead of you having to ditch."

"... It's fine. I mean, it's called a 'business trip' after all, which you're dedicating your time to work."

"Well, okay, if you say so, honey."

His grip on the phone tightens slightly.

"I love you."

"Yeah, bye."

*Click*

Minhyun lets out a sigh he didn't realize that he was holding in. He falls back onto his bed, his gaze wandering over to his desk before he turns onto his side and away from the desk. He lays there, staring at the wall of his bedroom for a moment, his mind blanking out on him for once from staring at the empty wall. With a huff of impatience, he gets up to change his clothes and bandages to prepare for bed. When he slips his blazer off, something small clinks against the floor.

He looks down to the floor and sees a lollipop now cracked and broken inside it's transparent wrapper with yellow stripes.

"If you could become anything in the world, what would you want to be?"

A hum of thinking.

"I'd be a dragon! Those are cool!"

Soft giggling.

"Then I'll be a dragon too."

Arrogant scoff.

They look up.

"Adults should stop asking what kids want to be and ask about what problems they want to solve first."

Indignant harrumph.

"Hyung, there's no way any kid wants to do that."

Lazy glare.

"Oh please, everyone is the same, no matter the age."

He woke up to his alarm, sluggishly pushing himself up. Minhyun sits there for a moment, letting himself take a deep breath before heading to the bathroom to get ready. Everything feels mechanical as he slowly paces himself around the house.

When he opens the door, something is wrong.

Forget about it, was the mantra that he was constantly repeating in his head, zoning out from any surroundings in front of him. He tries to clear his mind at first before he feels a tug against the back of his shirt, making him turn around to an unfamiliar face.

"You ~~~~ ~~~~~ to ~~~ ~~~~ the ~~~~," the stranger says in what Minhyun could barely pick up as English but even realizing that it was English served no purpose in him trying to understand what the boy had just said. The stranger leaves luckily before Minhyun could say something that would probably make him look dumb in front of the foreigner.

He lets out a small sigh and turns before nearly flinching backwards at being met with the sight of a tree. Once he walks around the tree that obscured his vision, it clicks in his head that the foreigner had pulled him to stop before he rammed into the tree, making him silently thank the foreigner.

"Uh-"

Minhyun nearly lets out a curse from having to stop yet again before he turns and is met with the sight of a nervous looking Doyoon and an indignant looking Jonghyun, a scabbed over scratch underneath his eye. He wonders what the two could possibly want with him, the nobody, the dummy to bullies, out all of the people possible.

"M-Minhyun-ssi...?" Doyoon asks awkwardly, to which Minhyun nods at the question. The former stutters before asking, "Do you happen to know where Ren is? Um- because you guys are friends... right?"

Friends?

Unintentionally, his eyes narrow and the venomous tone with the word, "'Excuse me'?" leave his mouth. He quickly found himself in a familiar situation as Jonhyun grabs the collar of his shirt, hissing, "Hey, watch your tone."

"A-Ah, Jonghyun, please calm down, you're attracting a crowd and if he finds out then-" Doyoon managed to persuade said boy somehow as he abruptly lets go of Minhyun before walking off. Doyoon bowed with a quick apology before chasing after Jonghyun yet again.

Honestly why does Doyoon even hang out with that Jonghyun dude... Minhyun resists the temptation to scoff. He starts heading for his classroom before he feels a sudden jerk at his shirt collar. Naturally, he turns to yell at whichever jerk dragged him back but his voice and anger got caught in his throat once he meets the taunting yet furious gazes of Seungcheol and his lackies.

He stares up at the sky, wondering when is the last time he's been left behind feeling sore all over, dirt and blood clinging to his uniform. Although the pain is insufferable, he adjusts his arm to cover his eyes from the blue sky, wanting to blear its brightness that others enjoy too much.

And he just lays there. There's the random thought that passes by about when some adult is going to find him before dragging his beaten body to the office because he was ditching class and it was against the rules- but the thought flees as quickly as it came with a scoff. Like an adult in this campus would care enough to properly patrol the area for any hooligans not attending classes, that enough is apparent as much as he knows before he properly met-

Stupid. odd how his mind worked in a loop as he's stuck repeating the mantra in his head. He counts with an imaginary clock, waiting for such thoughts to disappear yet again.

Minhyun feels a nudge to his side, not only making him his in pain as a new bruise formed there but also cuss and glare at whoever decided to nudge at him. He feels himself freeze at the sight of Baekho, who has an eyebrow raised.

"Oh, so you're not a corpse."

"No duh Sherlock," Minhyun huffs.

"Are you gonna just continue to bleed out onto the grass? 'Cause I'd rather you not since I lay here during lessons so can you not," Baekho is very blunt and straightforward with his words and intents, something that Minhyun appreciates a little bit considering the people he's been in the presence of lately.

He lays there silently for a moment, realizing that the wound on his side obviously opened in an unceremonious manner. Minhyun ponders a bit before he lets out a sigh, "Can't move. Everything hurts."

They stare at each other for a bit before Baekho lets out a sigh of his own. Baekho asks but the question ends up as a statement.

"Why is everything related to him a pain in the ."