Selcouth;

Chapter 2

By: M.S.Jing

Jihoon POV

   English was boring, even worse than listening to Chan talk about how muscles react to certain exercises. Though not as boring as Fiction Writing, that was even more boring than listening to Mingyu talk in Chinese, which I understood about. In English, we at least got to watch the first years stand up in front of the class and introduce themselves in English. But Fiction Writing he told us to write a short story about our dream summer vacation using certain words, then left and locked the classroom door.

"I have a meeting about our trip to China, I'll see you in Gym" Mingyu waved, walking off in the other direction with a cheery smile as soon as we exited the now unlocked classroom. Which left me to go to our locker and get my homemade lunch and by lunch I mean a cold, unorganized sandwich in a plastic bag. I was serious yesterday, we really can't cook or bake . I was almost to the beautiful sun filled courtyard when I saw them, Soonyoung, Wonwoo and Vernon were walking towards me, laughing about something, hopeful not noticing me. Though with the hallway only having scattered people at this point I didn't have a good chance of escaping.

   So, I mean, of course, I hid behind Jiho and his group of boys that happened to be in front of me. This was probably the only time I'm glad I'm smaller than average, blending in. We walked past them in what felt like an hour when it was only 3 seconds and they didn't seem to notice me so I calmly continued walking behind them. Though a few seconds after danger past I felt someone's hand on my shoulder, my body freezing up. ''.

I was swirled around on the heels of my feet in a matter of milliseconds and was now facing Soonyoung who was at least 10cm taller than me, "look who's trying to hide behind the 3rd years". "I was just talking with Jiho-hyung about the project for our Composing class" I lied, looking behind me to see Jiho actually looking back with a 'what are you doing?' face. I just mouth 'nothing' before turning back to the three boys and smiling the best I can.

   "Why don't you hang out with us today, Jihoonie" Vernon suggested, coming up beside me and wrapping an arm around me. "I was actually about to-" I was suddenly cut off by Soonyoung's words and hand pulling me along "nonsense, come". I glared at the back of his head, meeting eyes with Wonwoo who looked away immediately, looking nervous. He pulled me all the way to the theatre/vocal room where Joshua and Seungkwan were sitting on the stage with pizza hanging out of their mouths.

"Hey, you brought the midget" Seungkwan cheered, putting the cheese that was hanging from his lips into his already full mouth. "What about the ice giant" the American wondered, also shoving the rest of the pizza into his mouth, pulling Wonwoo down beside him to eat. "He's at a meeting for our China trip" Soonyoung informed the rest, making my spine tingle when he made me sit with the rest of them on the edge of the stage.

   "So, Jihoonie, you have Composing with our Seungcheolie?" Joshua hummed, stuffing a piece of pizza in everyone's hand, even mine. "Yes, and?" I nodded, eyeing the piece of pizza warily while still trying to be overly aware of my plain surroundings. "He told me that you're good at it". "Wow, that must be a first" Soonyoung scoffed, his lips shiny from the pizza grease. I wanted to strangle that but he'd win in a fight, hands down so I just held it in.

   Just when I was about to ask if I could leave the door opened "Hey, I'm sorry that I'm late, I had to go to the nurse fo-". Seungcheol. Why now, why couldn't you have gotten a concussion in gym class and had to go to the hospital. "You brought a kitty". "I found him in the hallway, you like him?" Soonyoung grinned, wrapping two arms around my torso and looking over to the boy who plopped down beside me. "I lobe him" the dark haired boy played along, petting my hair, making it fizz up.

"I'm not a cat" I grunted, carefully taking both of their limbs off of me and as far away from me as I could. "It speaks" Vernon joined in, Seungkwan and Joshua bursting into small fits of laughter. "You're not eating" Wonwoo pointed out, chewing on a piece of mushroom, everyone's gazes looking at the pizza in my hand."Do you not like pizza?" Seungcheol questioned, taking my hand and inspecting the pepperoni-mushroom pizza in my hand.

   "No I like it, it's just..." I trailed off, scared to say the next words as Soonyoung's hand was inches from punching me. "You think we drugged it" Wonwoo accurately guessed, Joshua squeezing his thigh in annoyance probably, eyes of fire. "We didn't" Seungkwan muttered, taking a concerningly big bite of his piece, making Vernon check to make sure he didn't choke.

"No! I just don't like-". And cut off for the second time today I was even more surprised. Seungcheol. Choi Seungcheol. Took a bite of the piece in my hand, my pizza, I mean I was wary about it but it was mine, I hate when people take my stuff. He literally just grabbed my hand, lifted it up and took a bite from the point of my pizza, the best part. "It's not poisoned". I wish it ing was, at least you'd leave, but then that'd be bad because I'd have to do our project alone.

   "We may be better than you, but we're not horrible people" Vernon sighed, patting the older's back as he almost did choke. "I’m sorry, but...” I apologized, actually feeling sorry when I saw Seungkwan and Joshua’s expressions. They looked like someone just punched them in the stomach and took away their dog, it made me feel guilty, even though it wasn't even my thoughts. Out of the corner of my eye, Soonyoung hadn't moved since I said the word drugs and it scared me. I've known him, good or bad, for years, he's scarier when he's silent.I even brought myself to take a bite, that is until Soonyoung slapped me.

“ you Lee Jihoon” he growled before standing up and storming out, making sure to slam the door behind him. My cheek was burning, he slapped me pretty hard, I mean considering the angle he was pretty strong. “I was going to say I didn't like mushrooms,” I said again, throwing the food down and scurrying out, escaping to the courtyard where Jeonghan and Dino were running after Seokmin. “Jihoon-ah, where were you?,” Seokmin called, running over and leaning down so he was equal height to me “are you okay?”. “I was in the composing studios, I forgot something there and I couldn’t find it” I lied, smiling a pretty good fake smile. “Well that’s okay, you’ll find it later” he assured me, now hiding behind me as Jeonghan came over and tried to hit him.

I stayed with them and we played around in the courtyard fora while before splitting up and going to our next classroom. Gym was truthfully nothing special, just another round of dodgeball because the teacher was too lazy to think of anything else for today.

Next thing I knew I was standing in front of our studio door. The one that Seungcheol and I were supposed to record and compose in, it was an assignment, so why couldn’t I move? I even had my hand on the doorknob but I couldn’t bring myself to open it. Maybe it was because I was scared Seungcheol would yell at me about thinking that way about his friends, or even worse ignore me, we would be stuck in an awkward silence. I hope he heard me say the mushroom thing. Maybe I should apologize again, to all of them. Except for Soonyoung, he slapped me.

I don't think I was wrong, they just cut me off too much, but my cheek still stung a bit, his nails are sharper than I thought. “Jihoon-ah, come in” Seungcheol’s voice came from inside, calm and non-hostile. I wondered how he could see me but it didn’t stay in my mind long because other thoughts kicked it out soon. I opened the door and quickly went to sit down in my own chair, not even sparing a glance to him as I the computer. “You forgot your lunch, it doesn’t look that good, and Soonyoung-ah,” he started, rolling his chair over, putting my lunch box on the counter and turning on his own computer before looking over at me “he’s trying”.

I let out a snort before putting headphones on and playing what we had so far, it was slightly calming. I felt Seungcheol’s hands tapping my shoulder and poking at me. He finally stopped when I turned the volume up and started working on the percussion line. After maybe 5 minutes I felt his hand on my shoulder again, poking away. I couldn’t bare to look at him.

Instead of stopping this time he grabbed my face, hands on both sides of my face, and turned it towards him so we were now making eye contact and he mouthed something like ‘wrap up’. I shook my head and looked back at the screen and tried to finish the percussion line. Then before I could do anything, my headphones were slid off my head. And I was facing towards the bigger man again. “I said ‘let's go’”. I swallowed a lump in my throat and nodded.

After 3 minutes I looked back at him, everything saved. “Finally” he decided, pressing the off button with one hand and taking my head phones off again with the other before taking my wrist and running out of the room. I was barely able to comprehend what happened and grab my bag before I found myself running through the halls with the other.

“What the hell” I huffed, jerking back and standing my ground, making the other stop and look back at me with a straight face “somewhere magical”. “What are you talking about?” I hummed, changing his grip so he was holding my hand instead of my sore wrist. “Do you want me to carry you, Lee Jihoon” he threatened, pulling me closer so at any moment he could grab me and pick me up like a rag doll. “Don’t you ing dare” I growled, feeling like a cat as I stepped back and tried to dig my nails into his hand. He showed a half-smile before pulling me along again.

“Seriously where are we going?” I asked as we left the building as a whole, still jogging hand in hand. “Trust me and you’ll have fun,” he promised, stopping when we got to the gate, it being locked as it is still school hours, it was at least 7ft tall “now climb over”. I stared at him, eyes blank and heart basically stopped, I could almost hear Mingyu’s laughter in the back of my head, saying ‘you? Climb? No way!’. “What?”. “We’re skipping, now climb before someone catches us” he hissed, using the rocks sticking out to scale the wall and easily sit on the top in a matter of seconds, scoping around. “No, I don’t wanna skip, we have work to do” I scoffed, turning and going to walk back only to have my hair be pulled by the one now laying down on the wall, barely able to reach me.

“Jihoon-ah, trust me” he pleaded, holding out his hand and sitting up on the wall properly. I thought about it for a second and sighed, starting to climb the wall myself. It was pretty hard and the grip I got was bad but when I was almost at the top, ready to jump down when... my foot slips. I felt myself falling and in this moment I thought, this is usually the moment where ‘the prince’ would catch ‘the princess’ by the waist and share a loving gaze before he gently set her down, I even slightly hoped for that.

But today fate decided to be a and let me fall onto the other side onto, concrete. It wasn’t much but I definitely knew my knees would be at least bruised tomorrow along with my hands if that was even possible. “Jihoonie, you’re very clumsy” Seungcheol scolded, jumping down beside me, putting his hands on my waist and lifting me up “Mingyu-hyung calls it being special”. “Of course, you’re just special” he assured me, starting to walk away.

I tried to follow him but a sharp pain ran through my right leg from my knee up, the pain getting greater by the second, the shock must've hidden the pain for a few seconds. "Wait" I called trying to get up still, him turning around and iraising an eyebrow "coming?". "I can't" I laughed nervously, stopping my efforts altogether, the pain was not worth it. "Stop being a baby and let's go, we'll go to the arcade or get ice cream" he grunted, turning back and around to start walking again and in that moment I saw a small trickle of blood down my foot.

   Umm… how do I tell him that “my leg is bleeding and I can’t stand up because of the pain”. “What!” Seungcheol screeched. I guess that’s how thinking it out loud. I immediately found him by my side trying to roll up my pant leg, which was an unsuccessful attempt because my jeans were too tight. “Damn it, you’ll have to take them off” he decided, making my eyes widen as he reached for the button of my pants, swatting them away. “No way!”. “You have to unless you was the wound to get infected” he pointed out, making for a second attempt. “Then we’ll just have to go back inside the school” I grunted, trying to get up once again only to have him hold me down by the hips and stare at me in the eyes with the look of ‘don't you dare’.

I couldn't help but be still, I had no arguèrent, I didn't want to go back in either. “We can't, they'll know we tried to skip” he reminded me still holding the position even though I have no resistance. Just then I realized we were on the streets, and people could pass by anytime. Lucky for us there was minimal traffic, I mean still embarrassing but not the worse that could happen. “Where do we go, my apartment?” I hissed sarcastically, him sitting down beside me “sure, where is it?”. “I-I didn't ac-actually mean…” I hesitated on the remarked and decide to take it somewhat seriously “by Chocolate Snow Cafè”.

“That's too far, we’ll go to my place, it's closer” he decided. Suddenly I felt all contact to the ground disappear, strong arms under my back and knees. “Seungcheol-ssi!” I gasped, wrapping my arms around his neck out of reflex, making him laugh “are you scared of heights?”. “No, it's just… yo-you’re too close for my taste” I lied, his defined collarbones and board chest were right in my face. Well, there was that and the fact that I was gay, I mean… My problem, not yours kinda thing.

“You'll have to deal with it unless you'd rather ride on my back, but the pain would be worse since I'd have to hold you by your knees?” He suggested, starting to walk along the street. “I guess this works” I sighed hiding my face in his chest I case we get seen by anyone I know. To be perfectly fair to him, I'm smaller than usually and skinny than most guys, so I'm hesitant to say this but... I look like a girl from certain angles. So if anyone he knows sees us, it'll look normal, I mean as normal as it can get.

Before I knew it after two blocks and a right turn into an apartment complex then up an elevator and down a hall we were at his place, number 207. Well, we were standing outside the door at least. "Seungcheol-ssi, did you forget your keys?" I wondered, looking up at him and his lost and confused face, and only shook his head no "then what?". "Umm... They're in my front pocket, but I can't reach them while carrying you" he admitted, looking down at me with a helpless face. I was confused at this point "so just put me down for a second". He shook his head like a dog shaking water, "Choi Seungcheol, I am dropping blood on the floor, put me down, open the door and I'll walk in by my self" I practically yelled. He raised an eye brow at me for a second before leaning down to set me on the ground by the side of the door, unlocking the door. "Wait here, I'll get something to hold the door open".

I sighed and listened to the squeaky door close. He came back a few seconds later with a weight in his hand, putting it to keep the door open as he lifted me inside and set me on top of a towel he had set up on one of his white chairs. "Seungcheol-ssi this is a white room, are you sure it's okay with your parents?" I asked, looking over at him busy in the kitchen getting the medical stuff. He froze for a split second before going back to what he was doing, his face darker and almost lifeless "I live alone". My heart melted, 'great second time today you made him feel sad'. "It's nothing, you wouldn't understand, living with your parents and all" he grumbled, obviously trying to be nice only ending in offense and a slightly mad me. "I don't live with my parents, I live with Mingyu-hyung" I snapped as he came over with the supplies and kneeled down informer of me, a painful smile on his face "oh, so you two are really dating".

"No, gross, we've known each other since we were 5" I corrected him, swinging my good leg out of habit. "Really, take your pants off" he scoffed, tugging at the hem a little. "Excuse me, I'm good" I mumbled, shy about being half in front of him, in fact, It just kinda settled in 'I was in Choi Seungcheol's apartment'. "Just strip and then put these on, call me when you're done" he muttered, throwing an extra towel at me before leaving the room to what I assume was the bedroom. I nodded and watched him go, now I've done it, he's mad at me.

I took off my pants and wrapped the towel around my waist taking some time to appreciate his 'humble abode'. A majority of the apartment was white, the chairs, the walls, the cabinets, the floor, one of the couches. The only exceptions were a brown couch, a blue-green carpet, the table, the office area and a few smaller black items. After I rolled up the pants and looked around from my spot on the chair I called for Seungcheol to come back. He came back in silence, solemnly sitting down and starting on my leg "it's not that bad". The silence was killing me.

"Seungcheol-ssi, I'm sorry if I said something wrong, please don't be sad" I finally spoke, his eyes looking up at me before looking back down "I'm not sad". "You're a lot less spirited from when we got here" I squealed as he used a wet cotton pad to remove the blood from the surface, stinging. "It's just... Family" he huffed, switching out the cotton which stung more. "Okay, how about we talk about something else, like where were you planning on taking me before I got hurt?". His face almost immediately lit up as he pulled off a loose piece of skin, making me wince. "I was planning on taking you to my favorite arcade, the boys never like to go there because there's always couples and these drunk thugs that think they're cool". "That sounds really fun" I oohed, imagining how that would go, the two of us sitting at a table while watching two drunk boys yell at a machine.

"Then we'll go in a few minutes, we'll tie up your leg, you can use my old crutches and we'll go on a date" he confirmed, grabbing my ankles out of excitement. "Okay, Seungcheol-ssi, calm down," I laughed nervously, leaning down to put my hands on his shoulders "a date?". He looked up and tilted his head with an innocent look on his face "If you still want to... If not we can do other things", when he said other things he started running his hand up my thigh, under the towel and coming closer to my face. This felt like a threat. "No, a date sounds great" I quickly agreed, grabbing his hand and pushing him back. "Good, I'll finish up then," he smiled, putting a special tape on the bandage and packing up "you can go through my closet and choose something to wear". He picked me up again and carried me to his bedroom, sitting me down in front of his wardrobe.

"This bed is weirdly big for just one person" I commented, bouncing on the comfy bed as he opened the doors, showing off his clothes. "I roll around a lot when I'm trying to fall asleep" he explained, walking to leave "I'll step out, be ready in 5 minutes". I watched him leave and turned to his wardrobe, he had so many clothes stuffed into the medium place, though it was pretty organized. I leaned on the door and looked at the sizes, choosing a white T-shirt, black sweater and black leather pants, yes leather pants. Usually, I would not wear leather pants because of how uncomfortable they are but since Seungcheol is a size bigger than me it was loose enough. And they look good and match.

His room was themed black and dark blue. His bed was king sized and his sheets were white, he also had two white lights hanging above his bed. Mahogany drawers to the right of his bed and a chair a little bit away from the foot of it. The wall at the foot had a black work desk with a Mac laptop, desktop and iPad all plugged in and charging. What stood out and interested the most was that he had a keyboard perpendicular to his desk with musical sheets on top of it. The whole room was almost completely different from the pure white main area.

I ended up half hopping, half crawling to the seat that was there, comfortably sitting down. I didn't feel bad about looking around a little, it's not like I'm looking at his diary. I picked up on me of the sheets on the piano and started reading the music and lyrics. It was a ballad.

Hello angel You are like a painting, when I look to the sky I can only see you
City street lights when the lights go out and the moon disappears, it’s still bright
Because you are the star that the sky dropped

"What are you doing?!" Seungcheol's shriek came from behind me, making me jump and drop the paper "I was just looking, it was on the desk". "You shouldn't snoop" he whined, grabbing all the papers from the desk and growing them in the bottom drawer. "I wasn't, are we going to go or not?" I huffed, turning in the chair to face him, he seems mad but not too mad, this might be fun. "Jihoon-ah, are you going to at least apologize" he questioned, eyes burning and arms crossed, his breath trying to stay stable. "I wasn't snooping it was already out" I pouted, crossing my own arms and looking up at him through my eyelashes. "Jihoon-ah, I'm serious, that was personal, I didn't have time to put it away last night" he looked like he was going to kill me at this point, which he might have if I wasn't wearing his clothes.

"It was a song and it was good, I have nothing to apologize for" I insisted, getting up and using the desk to try and walk to the door. Before I reached the door I felt his a hand on my wrist, pulling me back and pushing me back onto the chair, leaning over me, a knee between my legs. "Maybe I'll drop us back off at the school, I can tell the teacher you made me skip" he threatened, smiling like it was nothing. I made a pouty face, contemplating my possible decisions. Get in trouble or admit you're sorry. "Fine, I'm sorry, now can we go". He nodded and walked out, coming back with a pair of crutches, handing them to me. I followed him out of the apartment and to the elevator, leaning on the railing. Crutches are not easy.

4 ~ 3 ~ 2 ~ 1 ~ P

"Seungcheol-ssi, I think you pressed the wrong button," I thought out loud, gesturing to the light that said P as he got out. "No I didn't, hurry up or it'll close" he disagreed, holding the door to the parking lot open. I was confused as I hopped out of the elevator and through the door being held open. He obviously was faster than me by just normally walking, walking over to a shiny Red 2016 CR-V Honda. "Is this yours, it's like 30k" I oohed, softly running a finger over the hood, careful not to scratch it. "It was a reward for getting all As last year" he hummed, going over to open the door on the passenger side. "Seungcheol-ssi... I'm 15, I can't drive" I scoffed, staring him straight in the eye as he rolled his "I'm opening the door for you". I laughed on the inside, slowly processing what was happening. I'm basically being kidnapped by Choi Seungcheol, friends with my enemy who I had another encounter with today. I'm skipping school with him and cut/bruised my knee, I'm about to put my life in his hands as I sit in a car that's worth more than anything I own and let him drive it. Great. As I got in and stuffed the crutch I'm beside me I started thinking. How am I going to explain this to Mingyu?

"Seungcheol-ssi, how do I explain this to Mingyu-hyung" I wondered, cringing at the though of getting advice from him, the silence was worse though. "Umm, well you could pretend to fall while having chased the bus or just tell the truth" he suggested, smoothly pulling out of his reserved parking spot. "Pretend to fall sounds good" I decided, crossing my legs to make it feel more comfortable. "Are you ashamed to have been with me?" He interviewed, driving through the rows of cars, pressing something in the roof that made the gate start to open. "Well... Not exactly, it's just Mingyu has a second-hand grudge against you guys and he'd be kinda mad if he thought I was 'going over to the dark side'" I explained while we went onto the street, making me wonder about his driving skills. "Okay... Let's just go on our date" he chuckled with that deep spine-tingling voice of his. This was going to be fun.