Ever since he was little Wonwoo always had trouble making friends. The other kids thought he had a strange sense of humor, read too many books, and was just weird overall. At first getting ignored felt like the worst thing they could do to him. It made him feel incredibly lonely, uninteresting, and worthless. During middle school a group of bullies found a perfect target in Wonwoo and he quickly found out that there were way worse things they could do to him other than ignore him. They forced him to do their homework, they had repeatedly thrown raw eggs at him, followed him on his way back to school and beaten him up, called him names on a daily basis, and he'd had to fish countless of his books out of toilets. It had made him long for the days he was just ignored. He had been miserable then too, but at least he hadn't smelled like egg and his books had been dry.

Everything changed one day. He was having a reasonably good day. Some of his usual bullies were out sick with the flu and the others didn't seem too interested in making his life miserable that day. He didn't even have to hide from any of them on his way from school. Feeling good, he decided to drop by his favorite bookstore. Not a place where he would run into any of them anyway. He was flipping through one of the new releases when he overheard the person standing next to him talking.

“Yeah, yeah, just a minute. I just want to check if this new book is interesting enough for me to consider reading it. His last work was only okay, hoping he redeemed himself with this new one.”

Wonwoo glanced over at the book the person was holding and without looking up or thinking he opened his mouth, “He didn't. His old work is much better. This one is even more tedious than the last one and the so-called plot twist is embarrassingly obvious. I suggest the In Dark Alleys series if you enjoy this genre.”

His heart almost stopped when he did actually looked up at the person who was holding the book. He knew this kid. He went to his school. He wasn't one of his bullies, but most people stayed clear of him. He looked like he could, and would, murder you with his eyes alone. Eyes that were now staring at him. “I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-”

“Where are those books?”

“W-what?” Wonwoo squeaked back.

“The ones you just mentioned that are supposedly a lot better than this one. Where are they?”

“Over in the Crime & Thriller section...”

The slender boy dropped the book he had been holding back onto the pile and walked away. He was followed by another boy Wonwoo had seen at school. A lot shorter, but with an equally intimidating look in his eyes. He glared at Wonwoo, looked him up and down and followed his friend.

Wonwoo almost dared to breathe again, but not until he was sure both of them couldn't see him anymore. He wasn't sure if he had just added two more people to the list of ones he had to look out for and if possible avoid. He hoped he wasn't memorable enough for them to be interested in him. He guessed he would find out at school tomorrow.

The next day he found himself in an, unfortunately, familiar situation. Back pressed against his locker, surrounded by boys bigger than himself. The biggest of the three pressed some papers in his hands. “Have it done by tomorrow.”

“T-tomorrow? I don't think I'll have time to-” He stopped talking when a fist slammed into the locker dangerously close to his face.

“What was that, loser?”

“N-nothing. Tomorrow, of course.”

“That's what I thought.”

Wonwoo sighed and turned around to place the papers in his locker. He almost let out a yelp when he closed the door and found the same eyes as yesterday staring at him together with the short one and a third person who looked far too friendly to be hanging out with them.

“Why are you doing that 's homework?”

“I eh...”

“Just go over there and tell them they can go themselves.” The short one told him. “If they try anything The8 here will punch them in the face for you.”

“W-what?” Wonwoo wasn't sure if they were trying to be nice or just cause trouble, but somehow he felt like it was the former.

“Or one of their kneecaps.” The one apparently named The8, although Wonwoo figured that was a nickname, added.

“I think punching him in the face will do for today. Don't want to get you expelled.”

“I don't think it's a good idea if I go over there...” Wonwoo mumbled with a soft voice.

“It'll be alright! They're s for making you do their homework, that's not cool.” Wonwoo looked at the third boy. His aura was completely different from his two sultry friends. He was cheerful and seemed friendly and warm, almost like the sun.

“Look kid, you can either go over there and let them know you're no longer going to take their crap or The8 will punch you.”

He couldn't explain why, but somehow Wonwoo didn't feel threatened at all by his words. Instead he found it weirdly comforting. He looked over at the group of boys that made his life miserable every day and felt himself moving in their direction.

“H-hey!” His voice didn't come out as strong and manly as he had hoped, but he blamed unfinished puberty for that, not at all his lack of confidence.

The boys turned around and looked at him, but waited for him to talk.

“I...I'm not going to do your homework.”

The leader of the group stepped closer, “Do we have a problem?”

“No, no. No problem, I just think that it's best if you do your own homework from now on.”

“Well, I disagree. So you better get it to me by tomorrow. Or else-”

Wonwoo would never have to find out what else, because in the blink of an eye The8 had entered the scene and punched the guy right in the face. He landed on the floor and for a moment sat there in confusion before he jumped back up. What followed was a fight that escalated quickly with the rest of the bullies, the other two boys, and even Wonwoo joining. Wonwoo had never fought back and was completely at a loss what to do and ended up hitting someone with a book. Someone yelled out that teachers were approaching and the fight ended as quickly as it had started as all the boys scattered. Wonwoo felt himself getting dragged away and ended up behind the school dumpsters with the three boys that had made him stand up for himself.

“I'm Jihoon, mostly known as Woozi. Call me Woozi in public.” The short one spoke. “You already met The8, Minghao behind closed doors. And this here is Seokmin, DK.”

“W-Wonwoo, public and private.” He wasn't sure what was supposed to happen next so he just asked what was on his mind, “Why did you guys do that? Why did you help me?”

“The8 wants to start a book club and needs more members.” Jihoon answered.

“Oh...”

“That was a joke, Wonwoo.” Seokmin laughed and slapped him on the shoulder.

“No, but seriously” The8, who spoke with a bit of an accent Wonwoo now noticed, “These two hardly read and you seem to know a lot about books.”

“Yeah, you seem interesting.” DK smiled at him. Jihoon gave him a nod.

In all his life no-one had ever found him interesting and now this weird , a small angry scary one, a skinny scary one, and, perhaps weirdest of all, a happy smiley one, thought he was interesting. It took a while for Wonwoo to feel at ease with his new found friends, always thinking they would lose interest at some point, but from that day onwards the weird became a quartet and over time Wonwoo trusted in their friendship more than anything.

During high school Jeonghan joined their little group. He just walked up to their table during lunch and sat down. “My name is Jeonghan, I'm new here and I think I'll have lunch with you guys from now on.”

Jihoon looked him over. “Whatever.”

People always seemed to think their group was hard to approach, so anyone who would just sit down and join them had a 50/50 change of being accepted right away or getting the kicked out of him. Jeonghan had a way about him that made you want to buy him things rather than beat him up and the others knew that Jihoon's whatever meant that Jeonghan was in.

<>

Wonwoo was at the convenience store buying snack when he noticed the magazine. He glanced over the article and clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“What are you reading?” Seokmin said, peeking over his shoulder. Wonwoo showed him the magazine. “Oh...I thought he said he wasn't going to-”

“Yeah. He did.” Wonwoo replied, clearly annoyed. “I'm going to go talk to him.”

Wonwoo dropped the magazine on Jihoon's desk with a loud smack, open on the page of the article. Without looking up Jihoon calmly picked it up and skimmed the text.

“What happened to I just want to find out as much as I can about our rivals and maybe use it for blackmail just so they'll leave us alone?” Wonwoo started.

Jihoon dropped the magazine back on his desk and looked up at his angry friend, still not saying anything.

“Is this really who you want to be, Jihoon? I thought you said you wanted to do things different from your father? I'd get it if it was in retaliation, but even then this is not-”

“It wasn't me.”

“Oh come on! I know you had guys working on this!”

“Correct. I also told them that I was going to be the one deciding what to do with the information they would find. I never gave permission for this.”

“Jihoon...Are you lying to me right now?”

“Excuse me?” Jihoon's eyes had a dangerous look in them that would scare most people, but Wonwoo wasn't most people. In all the years that he had known him he had learned that Jihoon's intimidating attitude was definitely not just for show. He knew Jihoon, Minghao too, did some shady stuff and he might have had a hand in some of it too, but he had also always felt that the things Jihoon did or ordered them to do were somehow justified. But lately he felt like Jihoon was losing control over his choices and the way he handled things. This article about one of the Ruby's was one of those things.

“I'm not stupid, Jihoon. I know there are things you only tell Jeonghan and Minghao. Things you don't think me and Seokmin would want to know or shouldn't know for whatever reason. But if this is how it is now...ruining people's lives just because they rub you the wrong way...”

“Wonwoo. I am not lying to you.” He sighed, “You're right. I don't tell you everything that goes on here. You don't need to know everything that goes on here. You don't really want to know everything. Isn't it easier for you to act all high and mighty whenever I do something that you don't like without having to turn a blind eye to all the other things I do. Isn't it much easier to be selective in your knowledge?”

“Aren't you just afraid that I'll turn away from you if I knew everything, if I found out what kind of person you're really becoming? Don't pretend that you keep things from me and Seokmin to make it easier for us. It's much easier for you. Minghao just follows your orders and probably agrees with the you do, Jeonghan isn't much of a moral compass to begin with, Seokmin wouldn't go against you even if he disagrees. And that's easy for you. You don't have to question the morality or consequences of your decisions!”

Jihoon slammed a fist on his desk and stood up from his chair. “Don't pretend like you're some sort of innocent bystander in all of it Jeon Wonwoo! Don't act like you suddenly care! We've done things to people, you have done things to people. Why are you suddenly so pressed when it's a Ruby we ruin?”

“I don't care that it's a Ruby and I'm not saying I'm innocent. I'm saying that I don't like this direction you're going in! In the past we've always done things to protect our own. We've done things to people who came for us, but we don't go for them first!”

“As if they haven't done to us in the past! You know those s can snap their money laced fingers and ruin my entire business! Everything I've worked for! And I know they had something to do with Jeonghan getting drugged!”

Wonwoo scoffed. “Not this again. There is zero proof for that! Let it the go. I'm pissed about what happened too, but I don't go around ing over everybody in the hope that the perpetrator is among them so I over the right one somewhere along the way! And you don't want your business ruined? Tell Minghao to stop dealing drugs in it. Stop ordering customers to be beaten up and try throwing them out instead of putting them in the hospital. You've always said that you don't want to be like your father and I thought that meant you wanted to run your business in a fair and more legal way, but what you really want is to do the same he does but feel like you're somehow ethically above him. Well, you're not.”

“Stop pretending like it's so easy! You're a part of this too!”

“Oh that's nice. So you keep me out of the loop for most things because you want to feel like you're protecting me, but when hits the fan I'm part of the inner circle again? you.”

Wonwoo stormed off and slammed the door. Jihoon sank back into his chair. Having a fight like this with Wonwoo was a first. Wonwoo was usually quiet and reserved. Jihoon had never seen him like this and his you had a larger impact on him than Wonwoo knew. He was probably right, too. He had been slipping lately. He had said he didn't want his club to be another drughole filled with unsavory and unstable clientele, but he turned a blind eye to Minghao's dealings because of the money and customers it brought in. He felt like everything was slipping out of his control and it made him go down the path he didn't want to choose all the more. This article was just another thing that had gotten away from him. He had ordered for some of his people, his father's people to be more exact, to find out what they could, but this hadn't been the point.

Jihoon sighed and picked up the phone.

<>

Seungkwan and Hansol walked into the living room to find Soonyoung slouched down onto the couch with Mingyu and Seungcheol sitting in the chairs on opposite ends of the couch. To their surprise they also found Jisoo there. He stood behind Seungcheol's chair with some distance between them. While Seungkwan moved to sit down on the couch next to his friend Hansol walked over to Jisoo.

“What are you doing here?” Hansol whispered to him.

Jisoo looked down at his hands, not sure how to properly explain himself. “I, ehm, was with Seungcheol when he got a phone call from Mingyu to come over right away and, ehm, it's no big deal okay, we just-” He stopped talking when he felt a hand being placed on his arm.

“Dude, I'm the last person you have to explain yourself to. I was just asking.”

Jisoo looked up and nodded thankfully.

“Anyway, that's not what's important right now. How are things going here?”

“They're not. No-one has said anything for at least fifteen minutes. Mostly I've been standing in a corner feeling like I shouldn't be here.”

Hansol looked over at Soonyoung and Seungkwan sitting on the couch. He had never seen him like this. He had always known Soonyoung to be either in an extremely good mood or an extremely angry one, or a drunk one. But the man on the couch looked deflated.

Seungkwan softly placed a hand on Soonyoung's arm. “Hey.”

No response.

“Are you okay?”

Soonyoung scoffed, “Yeah, I'm great. It's just that my father is a cheating , my mother was easily convinced to give me up for money, my stepmother has always hated me, and my sister is the person I should have been, but I...wait what did it say again.” He opened the magazine he still had in his hand, “Oh yeah, Even with all the right upbringing, a bastard will never become a prize-winning showdog. Did you know I was a dog, Seungkwan?”

Seungkwan was shocked by the harsh words and he took the magazine from Soonyoung's hands to read it for himself.

[…] Mr.Kwon allegedly offered no small amount of money to the boy's real mother, which she took without much need for persuasion before giving up her child. According to our source, who worked for the household around the time the boy was born and brought into the house, Mrs. Kwon was cold to the child and always favored her daughter. Understandably; it is difficult to love the child of your husband's affair. […] Even if Mr. Kwon himself did not have the heart to tell his son the truth, the boy must have suspected something was off during his youth. He doesn't share the natural charm or poise that his stepmother and half-sister share. Nor do his academic results or involvement with the community live up to those of his sister. If his lack of resemblance to the woman he might have thought was his mother was made up for by a resemblance to his father it would be understandable, but he also does not live up to those standards. No, when cast under the light of his true heritage we can conclude that Mr.Kwon, once one of the most respected and influential businessmen in our country, created a different breed with his affair. After all, even with all the right upbringing, a bastard will never become a prize-winning showdog.

Seungkwan threw the magazine on the floor and stood up, “What kind of crap is this? Is this supposed to be journalism!? What do they even hope to achieve with this? They can't even decide if they want to portray you as an innocent victim or as a complete disgrace who-” He met Seungcheol's eyes and stopped talking. “Sorry...I just mean...” he sat back down again, “What I want to say is that this 'magazine' is full of bull.”

“Yeah, well, this bull is sure to cause a lot of for my family. Maybe my stepmom can finally get that divorce she always wanted. If she survives the hit to her precious rep. Or maybe people will think she's a saint for taking care of a bastard dog.”

“Have you heard from your dad at all?” Seungkwan tried asking.

“Yeah, he wants me to come over to discuss things tomorrow. Not sure what kind of things. Probably to disown me or something.”

“I'm sure that's not true. Your dad loves you, I'm sure.”

“More than he loves his company or his money?”

Seungkwan wasn't sure what to say, because, honestly, he wasn't sure. He didn't dislike Soonyoung's father, but he wasn't exactly an affectionate man.

“Is there anything you need from us? We're here for you.”

“Can you build a time machine so you can go back in time to tell my dad to not have an affair?”

“I wouldn't even if I could, because if we did that you wouldn't be here. Idiot.”

“Yeah, well, wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.”

Soonyoung let out a yelp of surprise when Seungkwan suddenly leaped forward and locked his arms around him.

“S-seungkwan, I can't tell if you're hugging me or trying to squeeze me to death like one of those big snakes.”

“I'm aggressively showing you my love for you!”

At this point Seungcheol had gotten up and walked over to the couch. He leaned forward and grabbed Soonyoung's face with both hands, “Listen to me. I know this is a ed up situation, but I for one am glad your dad impregnated his mistress to create you.”

“Eh...thanks?”

“I'm serious. We all care for you, man. Okay?”

“Okay, okay, but I can't breath and I think someone is trying to call me so can you two please let me go before I get a bit too excited about my phone being on vibrate.”

As soon as he was free he fished his phone out of his pocket. It was an unknown number, but he felt like hanging up on a reporter anyway so he answered, “Hello?...What!?” His tone was annoyed and angry, “How did you even get this number? I- You really think that- Okay, but you don't think that I'd- Fine, okay, whatever! We'll be there in about half an hour.” He hung up and stood up from the couch. He looked over at Mingyu, “Mingyu, grab your coat. We're going out.”

Mingyu, along with everybody else in the room, looked at him confused, “J-just me? Where are we going?”

Without answering Soonyoung grabbed his own jacket and walked towards the door, “Guys, thank you so much for being here for me. You too Jisoo, Hansol. I know you're probably just here for the Seungs, but you didn't have to come so I appreciate it. I have to go out for a bit, I'll tell you later. Mingyu, hurry up.”

Mingyu, still confused, looked at Seungkwan and Seungcheol, who were equally confused, but they just shrugged, so he got up and went with Soonyoung.

Seungcheol sat down next to Seungkwan on the couch. “Well...that was weird.”

Seungkwan nodded, “Yeah...also...are we supposed to be the Seungs?”

_____________________________

A miracle! An update! omg why did it take so long T___T I'm so sorry, and I'm sorry that this isn't so good...Please enjoy the story about how Wonwoo joined the Daebak gang~
And I know it's selfish to ask after not even updating for so long, but...if you can please leave a comment <3