“Aw,” Seungkwan coos, “Did y’all come to visit me at work?”

Seungkwan seems to be everyone’s mutual (dramatic) friend because there's an onslaught of teasing remarks sent his way from the entire herd of them. The victim protests in a loud manner, which makes the banter all the more dizzying to Wonwoo. The commotion seems to not have attracted the customer's attention but other co-workers as well. Wonwoo notices Seungcheol, a friend of Jihoon’s, emerging from the staff room at the commotion. Following closely behind him is an extremely good-looking male with light blonde hair. 

Both of them look unkempt- Seungcheol looks slightly embarrassed while the other keeps a bored expression. Knowing Seungcheol, Wonwoo doesn't want to imagine what happened in the staff room. Customers have started pouring out of the cafe- there’s a few who stick their earbuds on with annoyed expressions while some just stare in amusement at the large group in the middle of the store. (Maybe they were glad for the distraction?)

Wonwoo shifts his attention back to Seungcheol. The older doesn’t even seem mildly interested in stopping the argument. Instead, he looks ready to jump into the verbal mess. Wonwoo wonders where the cafe's manager is. Noticing Seungcheol’s eagerness, the pretty boy beside him grabs the older’s arm, nodding his head towards Wonwoo.

That’s when Wonwoo blinks and realises that there are tears lining his eyes. He lets out a shaky breath. Why is he crying?  .  His ears catch the commotion unfoldinf in front of him.  The noise is starting to make his head pound.  Not only that- h is friends would soon probably ask him to take a break for a day and play with them. That equals to no studying and no studying would lead to bad grades and bad grades meant he would be a disappointment-

Wonwoo doesn't notice Mingyu's hand reaching for his own. He flinches at the skin contact before he hurries away from the entire situation. He pushes past the entire herd of them, as several shout for him to come back. Wonwoo manages to run all the way back to his dorm room, unlocking the door with teary eyes. A sense of deja vu washes over him. He laughs sadly, just last night he was running away from a problem too. How cowardly of him.

His legs naturally manage to find their way to his room while his head is filled with endless thoughts. The loud exhale escaping his lips manage to stop them for a moment. He flops onto his bed, curling in on himself. He wonders- when was the last time he faced his problems head on? 

With that, he slips back into his thoughts.  He can't help but think about that time. The first time his trust within people broke. 

Wonwoo stared at the group of boys gathering around him, eyes flitting towards the entrance of the school before landing on the boy in front of him. He assumed this must be their leader, of sorts. He gulped, noticing their height difference. The boy must be at least two years older than him. They were all wearing pink shirts underneath their school uniforms. There's a girl's name plastered proudly on the front, along with a number. 

"Sorry," he apologised confidently, trying to get out of the ring the boys have formed. Laughter greeted him from all around him. 

"So he has manners," the boy in front of him tauntingly said, turning Wonwoo to face him. He bent down, staring at Wonwoo directly in the eye. Wonwoo's throat ran dry at the act of intimidation. He wanted to ask if he did something to offend them? All he wanted to do was merely walk out of school. 

“Nam Do Il?” Wonwoo furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. He was curious to know why they knew his user ID from 2 years back. When he looked at the shirts again, he finally realised who these boys were. Before he could even say anything, he was roughly pushed to the ground.

He doesn’t want to remember the events that followed after that.

Wonwoo can feel his heart tugging at the vague memory of the names he was called. 

After the little incident, he came home just before dinner to his parents screaming at him. His little brother Bohyuk had bawled, scared of the loud fussing and the sight of bruises littered on his older brother's body. For nearly an hour, his father had nagged him about showing respect, especially to those older than him. Wonwoo hardly uttered anything after the incident. 

Though he never saw the group of boys again, he lost his friends. Several rumours about him being in a gang of sorts had spread throughout his middle school. He never said anything about the rumours, afraid to make things worse. 

He reckons that was the moment he started running from his problems. 

Every day, he'd went home straight after school. He'd study, read a book or maybe play a game. Books and games were a wonderful thing- they let you escape reality.  His parents had tried confronting him about his ... situation. He had avoided them by going to the library instead. 

It all changed when the fire nation attacked. Those were Soonyoung’s words, when he had thanked the slightly older boy for tugging him out of his … shell? The older, whom Wonwoo knew as Kwon Fire, became his closest friend in his second year of high school.

Coincidentally, they ended up in the same college dorm two years later. The three years they had spent together (with Jihoon and Jun joining them midway in the second year) really helped Wonwoo open up.  Clearly, he still hasn’t solved his avoiding problem situation though.

He wants to push the blame on the group of boys for making his life hell. However, he knows he only has himself to blame. It probably is karma for posting all those mean things in the first place.

“Wonwoo!” idiot (the one who yelled in the library last night) shouted after the taller. Mingyu wonders if he’s naturally this loud. Before the other could break into a run, the shortest of the group grabs his arm.

"But," he protests, trying to shrug the shorter's grip off. He gives up when he is wrestled to a stop. He whines, "Jihoon!" Jihoon doesn't seem to be affected by the other's whining. Idiot sighs, pouting slightly. 

 "I think we should let someone else talk to him," Jihoon suggests, nodding his head towards Mingyu. Mingyu blinks at the shorter in confusion. The other explains, "Sometimes it's easier to talk to a stranger, y'know?" Mingyu is slightly offended at being called a stranger. Then again, he's only met Wonwoo for not more than 3 hours. 

"That's actually a good idea," the Chinese male beside Minghao supplies, "I think texting him would be better actually." The rest stare incredulously at the male. 

"Junhui, that's just-" Minghao starts, scrunching his eyebrows at Junhui. Junhui rolls his eyes. 

"He does that to me sometimes- when I'm upset," Junhui explains, "I think he does that because texting gives him more time to reply. He's actually really blunt, it hurts sometimes. With text, you kinda get a filter ...?" He trails off a little, unsure of his logic. Jihoon's looking at him as if he's impressed. Idiot's glaring at Mingyu.

Jihoon forcefully throws the hand he’s holding, squinting his eyes disapprovingly at the other as if he could read his thoughts. “Yes, I know Soonyoung.” Soonyoung shuts his mouth, pouting slightly as he swallows his protest. Mingyu wants to scream at them because it's a little unfair that they're keeping him in the dark and talking as if he weren't here? Jihoon decides to add, “Also, weren’t you the one trying to set them up yesterday?”

Soonyoung punches Jihoon lightly on the shoulder. Mingyu nearly chokes on air. Minghao cackles at the sight of Mingyu choking. 

“Are y’all just gonna stand here and argue a little bit more, or?” Jeonghan joins their now-small circle, gesturing lazily at the door. Mingyu's slightly puzzled because didn't they start with an extremely large amount of people? Beside him, the other herd of them who were not actively participating in the conversation are rushing around the cafe. Seungkwan and Seungcheol are back to making drinks. Seokmin's tearing a packet of straws. (Jeonghan's persuasive powers are scary.) Jeonghan drags Minghao, Junhui and Jihoon beside him before saying, "The two of you should head off, quickly."

“Right,” Soonyoung quickly sighs before grabbing Mingyu’s arm. The both of them practically sprint (mostly being dragged, in Mingyu’s case) to the older’s apartment. Mingyu's dazed the entire journey there- this was escalating quickly. Silence greets them when they enter the apartment. Soonyoung doesn't say anything. Mingyu thinks the other can hear him gulp loudly as they make their way through the hallway.

Soonyoung nods his head towards a door, indicating which room Wonwoo is in. "Uh, so do you want to text him or?" Mingyu nods, passing Soonyoung his phone. 

"You didn't get his number?" Soonyoung curiously asks, raising a brow. 

"I did put my number in his phone though," Mingyu sheepishly admits, rubbing his neck awkwardly. Soonyoung punches in Wonwoo's contact quickly. 

Mingyu holds his breath as he sends:

hey, wonwoo! it's mingyu. you probably know me and soonyoung are outside your door. i hope you’re okay. we're here for you, so if you need anything, text me back okay? 

Not a minute later, he receives a reply. 

can i have kimchi fried rice?

Mingyu thinks he hears a stomach rumbling. 

A/N: HELLO! sorry for the short update, but this is probably gonna be the second last chapter HAHHA so ;)