Sudden realization that it should've been Sewoon and Dongho fighting/tension in this fic/chapter but it ended up being about Dongho and Minki fighting/tension... welp... this is a very late realization... in complete honesty I just wanted to write about Playing With Fire team =v="

The cafe had a cozy atmosphere, a nice place to relax at after a stressful day of school. Pledis Cafe was well-known for its coffee and live music performed by the employees. Sewoon went too the cafe once with his friends but they didn't stay for long due to coming to 10 minutes before closing time.

"How do we have Mink-ssi warm-up to us?" Daehwi asked once they've reached the entrance. The older had to think for a bit before sighing, "I'm not quite sure either. For now, let's try our best to get along with him."

Once they opened the cafe, they were greeted with the scent of coffee along with the sounds of a guitar and a soothing voice. Sewoon and Daehwi walked around the cafe in a clueless manner before finding the blond sitting at a table by the corner, messing with his phone. Minki was completely distracted by his phone as a cup of tea and a slice of chocolate cake covered with whipped cream were laid out in front of him, both completely untouched. When they reached the table, Sewoon's gaze was focused on what was dangling off of Minki's phone; the black bracelet with a pink bead was re-tied as a phone charm.

Minki looked up eventually, saying in a bored tone, "Oh, you're here." The blond places his phone on the table before gesturing to them to sit across from him as he reaches for his bag to pull out a small laptop.

"So how much did you get done so far?" Sewoon asked as they settled down.

"I've picked some resources on music history in Europe. Other than that I haven't started summarizing on anything," Minki opened his laptop and showed the two his resources before adding, "Anything specific I should add?"

"Try to figure out if there's been any instrument or type of music that came from outside of the continent. That would help in making the presentation go smoother since each of us are assigned with different continents," Sewoon said, glancing over to Daehwi who suddenly froze in his spot. He wondered if the younger spotted an old friend of his or maybe a tormentor but he looked up to see Dongho.

The table went silent as Dongho stared- probably glared- at them. Minki spoke up with venom in his voice, "What are you doing here?"

Dongho didn't answer, his gaze drifting towards the table and landing on the phone with the black and pink phone charm. The infamous rebel picks up the phone, staring at the phone charm while talking in an amused tone. "You kept it?"

"GIVE THAT BACK!" Minki abruptly got up from his chair and charged after Dongho, trying to grab his phone only for Dongho to dodge consistently from his grabs.

"You even kept your password the exact same, not to mention you still have Lady Gaga as your background?" he teased, making Minki's face turn bright red from an obvious mixture of anger and embarrassment.

Sewoon didn't think that the situation could worsen from this but he was quickly proven wrong. Minki grabbed the plate with his slice of chocolate cake and smashed the cake into Dongho's face before grabbing his phone. The blond harrumphed, placing the plate back onto the table before checking to see if his new phone charm hadn't snapped yet like when it was still a bracelet. He didn't realize his guard was down as Dongho had grabbed his cup of tea and poured the cooled down drink right over his blond head before placing the empty cup back down nonchalantly.

The two that were still sitting down watched in horror as Minki tried to actually attack Dongho. Too bad that the latter had a buffer build, easily overpowering the blond into a headlock. The blond struggled to get out of his grip, eventually trying to claw against Dongho's arm. Sewoon was about to tell the latter to stop but noticed something about his facial expression.

Nostalgia.

It was like Dongho was looking at the struggling blond with warmth that Sewoon thought that he would never see.

"OW! Why did you bite me?!" Dongho lets go of Minki once he bit his arm. The latter childishly sticks out his tongue, saying with irritation, "I would've bitten a chunk of your skin out if it was sanitary!"

"What are you a psychopath?!"

"And what are you, an idiot?!"

"You're driving me crazy!"

"Well so are you!"

"Ahem." The two stopped bickering when they turned to an employee who stood there, looking unimpressed as he states, "I'd appreciate it if you two carry your argument outside instead of inside the cafe."

And the four were now outside of the cafe, contemplating on what life choices had led them to this point. Sewoon glances back to only end up seeing two blurs: Minki silently heading off in one direction, Dongho heading off in the other direction. He shared a glance with Daehwi before both of them sigh.

20 days left.

Sewoon didn't have much of a clue as to do anymore. As much as he could tell, they missed their chance to actually discuss with Dongho as to what their project is and Minki disappeared from school yet again. As he sat on a bench, he strummed a tune on his guitar, a tune that didn't exist on a music sheet yet. He wondered where Daehwi was as he waited outside for the boy so that the two could plan how to get in contact with Dongho again. He shouldn't feel impatient considering that Daehwi only needed to talk with his math teacher about grades but he was still antsy either way as the days were decreasing.

A sigh escapes his mouth before he looks over when he feels a presence sit besides him. When he looks over, he ends up nearly jumping out of shock because the last person he expected to see at a park after school was Dongho.

"U-Um, hello..." Sewoon greets awkwardly. Dongho didn't really help in the already awkward atmosphere as he didn't even greet back at all, his gaze instead being on his guitar. The school rebel asks, "You have an interest in music?"

"Yeah... I like the instrument aspect of it."

"I like the vocal aspect of it."

~Awkward moment of silence.~

"Uh... what kind of music do you like? I like acoustic."

"I like rock."

~Another awkward moment of silence.~

"... Dongho-ssi?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not doing this on purpose, right?"

"No."

. . .

Sewoon actually jumps in his seat when Dongho suddenly bursts out into laughter- very loud laughing that is. Honestly though, who wouldn't jump when the "big-bad iljin" of the school is laughing so freely with Ponyo. Would he have caught on to the contagious-ness of Dongho's laughter? That would probably be a yes if he wasn't currently thinking 'he can laugh?!'

"Ha... sorry, it's just that this conversation is really funny..." Dongho wheezed a bit. A smile was still on Dongho's face as he held his stomach that probably hurts from laughing so hard. Sewoon couldn't agree at that though as he practically hugged his guitar in confusion. He stops a sigh from escaping from his mouth when he responds with, "I guess I'm glad you find the conversation funny...? But this is conversation is more awkward for me than it is anything else..."

"You're not scared?" Dongho asked suddenly, an abrupt question that changed the topic completely.

He was close to answering 'yes' without a second thought before the word got caught in his throat. Any other time, the iljin looked impossible to walk up to with that intimidating glare and that large figure that towers over anyone. That's at least how the campus sees him as but right here at this moment of time... Sewoon couldn't really see such an image at the moment. Maybe if he squinted or focused on his intimidating body he would be scary, but all he could see at the moment was how the smile was so easy on Dongho's face. The smile seemed to fit with so much more ease than that constantly glaring face.

"Actually... no, not really," the words felt a bit foreign but it worked nonetheless, "You're not as intimidating as the school makes you out to be, especially when you're smiling so... freely..."

"That's nice to hear- well, this environment is better anyways and not as stuffy as the one at school. It's nice to be away from all of those judging stares," Dongho sighed, a tired expression to match. "You know, you're actually the second person to say that truthfully."

"Second? Then who was first?"

"As hard as it is to believe, it's Min-"

"WHY DO I HAVE TO SEE YOUR STUPID FACE HERE?!"

"-ki..." Dongho sighed again. As if on cue, Minki comes marching over with Daehwi- who looked panicked- following after the blond who begins to start yelling at Dongho about the incident from yesterday. Sewoon would've tried to stop their argument before it grew worse but he was too busy being stunned over this new found information. The idea of terrifying Dongho and cold (not to mention extremely sassy) Minki originally being friends or at least on talking terms was a bit hard for Sewoon to digest what with Minki always looking bothered by Dongho's presence.

"L-Let's not fight-"

"I can't believe you're here with Ponyo after you poured tea all over me!"

"I can't believe you held a grudge for three days."

"Yah I don't care if you're older than me by a few months but no one scoffs at me!"

He watches Daehwi waddles like a crab awkwardly away from the two over to his side, asking, "When will they not fight?" Sewoon could only shake his head, "I have no idea. By the way, how did you get Minki-ssi to follow you?"

"It's because he was in to catch up on what he missed during school and spotted me after leaving," Daehwi awkwardly laughed. That was easier to understand than the argument he was watching at the moment. Sewoon lets out a sigh, "Anyways, can you guys not argue in public again?"

"No, Ponyo! In fact I'm gonna continue to yell at this guy even though my a** is freezing off!" the latter sentence was further proven by Minki's pale complexion some how becoming paler then before. Dongho murmured something along the lines of 'you still have a potty mouth' and caused the blond to shoot a glare.

"Well..."  everyone turns to Daehwi, who hesitantly continues, "My house is actually nearby... if you want to continue talking..."

After a moment of walking that was awkwardly silent that made the trip seem longer than it was, they finally reached Daehwi's house. They immediately met the youngest's more than excited mother as she freely tells them to stay as long as they want, basically implying that they should have a sleepover since tomorrow would be the weekend. The sight was endearing nonetheless, seeing how her eye shined with excitement whereas her son's face burned with embarrassment before he rushed the other three upstairs to his room.

"She's nice," oddly enough, Dongho was the first to speak up once Daehwi shut the door closed, "Reminds me of Minki's mom." At the last comment, Sewoon and Daehwi blinked before turning to Minki, who turned and huffed childishly.

"Hwi-yah! Come back down to get some refreshments for your friends!" so they heard Daehwi's mother shout from downstairs. Daehwi groans in embarrassment but Minki offers to help bring said things up stairs. The youngest glances to Sewoon with a confused expression and Sewoon could really only mouth, 'you'll be fine. I'll stay behind with Dongho and talk about stuff so maybe try to stall?' He felt kind of sorry for the awkward Daehwi as he follows Minki back down but he really did want to try to figure out this whole mess between Minki and Dongho.

"Aah, I think he really hates me." Sewoon turns to Dongho, who tiredly sits on the floor and uses Daehwi's bed as a back rest. He follows the latter's lead in sitting down on the floor before hesitantly continuing from that sentence, "So about our conversation earlier at the park..."

Dongho glances over and easily clicks along with where he was trying to go along, "Oh. Yeah, Minki... he actually said those exact same words at Pledis Academy." Sewoon's eyes widened a little, "You guys... went to the same school?" Although Dongho could've taken offense to such a question, he just chuckles, "M-hm. I went to the same school for junior-high as Minki, in fact, I was friends with him, Minhyun, Jonghyun, and these hyungs called Aron and Jason. I guess you could say that we were all as close as brothers."

"What happened then?" he had to ask because comparing it to something like that would make no sense at their current time.

At that, Dongho sighs yet again that day, "I'm not quite sure either, but all I know is that everything went crashing down on Minki the most like a domino effect. We were grouped together for a project on a similar situation as right now in our 1st year: Aron was the transfer student from America, Jason was the foreign exchange student from China, I was still the iljin, and Minki, Minhyun, and Jonghyun were childhood friends. The difference was that Minki was much more shy and insecure. Somehow we made it through the project with the best grade out of the class and that was how our friendship started in some weird way. Wherever one of us went, the rest followed. We depended on each other, we teased each other, and we took comfort in each other.

"Some where along the way, we forgot that Jason was only an exchange student and suddenly left us without anyway of contacting him. Since Minki was the softest I guess you can say, he took it like he died. He locked himself in his room and wouldn't come out for days. We managed to pull along eventually which led to the end of 2nd year and Aron's end of 3rd year. Aron didn't leave us completely because he waited for us after school and we always managed to hang out some how even with busy schedules, but as time goes on with connections that are hard to keep track of... eventually he was out of the picture. It hit all of us pretty hard at this realization since we built more of a connection with him. It led to all of us blaming each other and opening old wounds with the add on of rumors we promised that we would never believe. Honestly, looking back at the damage we caused each other, it's a miracle that we even made up-"

"And you opened them and left them to bleed this time."

Sewoon and Dongho stopped with eyes wide of shock before both turning to the open door with Minki and Daehwi. The latter was holding some water bottles but was staring worriedly at the blond- anyone would, really. Minki's hands were curled into tight, shaking fists as his teeth were gritted, his eyebrows furrowing on the borderline between anger and sadness.

"You keep talking to me with the face of one of my dearest friends but you...!" Minki's voice goes strained, "You're nothing like him... he would've never hurt me by saying those things and if he were to leave... he would've left silently without extra damage..." The blond turns and runs without another word, not even stopping when everyone shouts his name.

The bedroom's atmosphere stiffened as they were unsure as to what to do. Dongho broke the silence, apologizing guiltily, "Sorry for ruining the atmosphere for something so serious. I should've kept my mouth shut when... I should probably leave now."

"I-It's fine!" Sewoon exclaimed in a panicked manner, "I- well- this honestly makes no sense!" Dongho and Daehwi were just as shocked as Sewoon was at himself for raising his voice like that since even he knew that his voice would- should not raise even when panicked.

"What do you mean, Sewoon-hyung?" Daehwi asked quietly.

"Because... Because if there's anything that I've learned from this project...!"

"People hate me and say that I give off a weird vibe... How else am I suppose to react to that? I mean, doesn't hyung think that too...?"
"Just because I'm 'cool and chic' doesn't mean I don't know how to cry for someone I don't even know... how to protect someone I don't even know... how to deal with the idea of being more flawed than anyone else..."
"That's nice to hear- well, this environment is better anyways and not as stuffy as the one at school. It's nice to be away from all of those judging stares."

"It's that we have no right to judge someone... until we've fully heard what they have to say for themselves...!"

17 days left.