Warning: ual assault, and mentions of

          Renjun impatiently drums his fingers on the table, waiting for Jongin and his team to finally understand what he’s getting at. He deadpans when none of them responds.

“At least one of you must have understood?”

“Um, I don’t really understand how people, in the midst of having fun with their friends, would pay attention to you professors,” Jongin says with a grimace.

“Mr. Kim, I advise you to elaborate,” Renjun grits his teeth, mouthing his words out as best as he can.

“People won’t find interest in the announcement for our election.” Jongin blinks, staring back at Renjun’s expectant eyes once he’s finished with the sentence.

“That’s all you have to say?” Renjun asks solemnly. Jongin doesn’t answer. With a roll of his eyes, the prodigy sighs and parts his lips to explain in more detail, “Trust me on this, people will take interest in the election. All the other years prove so. If your level isn’t interested then your seniors definitely are.”

“Oh,” Jongin draws out, his team chorusing after him.

Renjun stares at them disapprovingly, hands busy filing his documents into one neat stack. “Let’s continue this meeting tomorrow. I have a headache.”

When the whole of Jongin’s team gets ready to head out, Jongin stays a seconds longer, communicating with Renjun using only eye contact. He’s asking if Renjun’s doing fine, and guessing by the way the latter brushes his gaze away, Jongin figures Renjun’s doing well enough to fend on his own. He leaves his office after his friends.

Jongin stares at Moonkyu from the other side of the room, lips and teeth gnawing at the edge of a plastic cup. His eyes scan the people surrounding Moonkyu. The frail, drunk Moonkyu. His friend’s undeniably a strong person, and an even stronger opponent, but when he’s too intoxicated to realise up from down, left from right, and right from wrong, it gets troublesome.

“Taem,” Jongin calls out.

Behind him, Taemin blinks his eyes in a harsh manner, trying to will away the way his body tips a little to the left with every step that he takes. He feels like he’s going to fly off the ground anytime soon. Jongin picks up the bubble of a snicker at the way Taemin stumbles, but quickly recedes it when he hears Moonkyu’s voice.

“Taem, I think we should help him out.” Jongin tugs on the hem of Taemin’s sleeve, eyebrows furrowing deeply to reflect the growing panic going off like a deafening siren in his mind.

Moonkyu yelps again, loud enough for Jongin to act on his worries. He crosses over to where his friend is and plies two of the men surrounding him away. They fall back with a string of profanities hanging from the tip of his tongue. Jongin shoots them a glare and only then do they choose to leave, but not without mutualising Jongin’s heated gaze.

Taemin cusses someone under his breath, tugging on a man fully hovering above Moonkyu like it’s nobody business. The man grunts in pain when Taemin uses his feet to push him off, and when he turns to look, Jongin catches the light reflecting off the tiny piercing in the corner of his lips. Moonkyu’s already sobbing miserably, hands pinned down tight above him by two other men, one with a tattoo of a rose on his neck and another with an ugly scar stretching across his throat. It’s a futile attempt at making the people stop whatever they’re doing to Jongin’s precious friend.

“Stop it!” Taemin orders. “I’ll have Blue take you in.”

“Look, you can tell Blue for all I care, but this one’s too pretty to let go,” the tattoo guy pinning Moonkyu’s right hand down sneers, his lips stretched apart to display a full set of teeth, crooked and disgusting like him.

Once outside, Chanyeol shrieks something about seeing his girlfriend before running off while Baekhyun lingers for a while with Jongdae and Jongin as they walk to the cafeteria to have some food. On the way there, they got stopped by Jaehyun. Jongin stares in wonder. As if it was on cue, Baekhyun points at something in the distance before making an attempt to pull Jongin along.

“Jongin, I need to talk to you,” Jaehyun says, loud enough for Jongin, Baekhyun and Jongdae to stop and stare.

Sometimes Jongin forgets that Jaehyun and Johnny are in his team too. Johnny didn’t even attend the meeting in the first place so Jaehyun’s all alone, standing there like he’s proven how he could be the most awkward thing Jongin’s ever seen played out before him. Jongin shrugs Baekhyun’s hold around his arm away and steps closer to Jaehyun with a smile of his own.

“Hey! I heard some girl from Business likes you.” Jongin gives Jaehyun a pat on the shoulders. “Is she nice?”

“She’s come up to me a few times but I’m not really interested in her.” Pink dusts Jaehyun’s ears. He feels embarrassed talking about it, no doubt, so Jongin lets the matter go and changes it to something they both can talk about.

“Johnny’s throwing a party of his own, right? You’ll go, that’s not to be questioned. I’m going too! Actually, all of us ar—”

“Jongin, I like you.” Jaehyun takes a deep breath, as if he’s just let go of the one thing that’s been weighing him down so much. “I really do.”

“Jongin,” Baekhyun cuts in, and when Jongin looks, he sees his phone in Baekhyun’s hands and a worried frown sitting upon his face, “I think you would want to look at thi—”

“And I’d really love it if you give me your answer,” Jaehyun interrupts.

Jongin hears Baekhyun releasing a heavy, restrained breath through his nose, probably fuming at the fact that he wasn’t allowed to speak. Jongin turns back to Jaehyun whose face conveys impatience, desperation, and fear. It’s not every day Jongin has someone who’s this desperate to get together with him, and although he should feel flattered, he feels like a heavy burden has just been dropped on him instead.

“Can you give me time?” Jongin purses his lips tight into a grim line, face conveying reluctance more than uncertainty. Jongin knows what his answer is but he doesn’t know how to say it out loud.

Slowly, like Jaehyun’s not really convinced Jongin needs time, he nods his head. “Tomorrow?”

“After the election?” Jongin pushes his luck.

Jaehyun’s jaw clenches in frustration but he nods anyway. His movements are stiff, restrained and very much calculated. When Jaehyun steps to the side to continue walking ahead, away from the scene, his fingers brushes the skin on Jongin’s wrists. Jongin stiffens up, breath hitching to a halt as he waits for the moment to pass. Something about that touch leaves Jongin in a shaken up state. The touch serves as a warning of some kind, as a message, and Jongin does not know what it is.  

“Unless the prettier one over here gives it up.” Scar-face tips his head in Jongin’s direction, the tails of his lips raised in a suppressed smile.

Jongin almost gags, but Taemin reaching a hand out to pull Jongin behind him breaks his train of thoughts. Jongin’s fully capable of taking care of himself but Taemin just likes to exert his protectiveness sometimes. Jongin doesn’t mind, though. It makes him feel safe knowing that there’ll be people holding him up if he’s ever fallen.

“You’re not so bad yourself. No, no, you’re perfect.” As if they shared the same mind, all of them turn to Taemin, eyes expectant.

Instead of backing away like how he should be doing, Taemin steps forward, like he’s offering himself. “Let him go.”

“There’s three of us. Why not one for one? That’s better.” Tattoo-neck calls dips on Jongin, Pierced-lips calls for Moonkyu and the one who suggested the one for one idea, Scar-face, turns to Taemin. “Guess you’re with me.”

The piece of reaches out for Jongin's hand but the latter takes a small step back, eyes widening on their own as fear courses through his vein faster than his blood does. The rough pads of the guy’s skin feels like sandpaper to Jongin. It’s two against three since Moonkyu’s too rattled to comprehend anything. It’s two skinny guys against three very experienced buff men. Jongin wishes it wasn’t dread that just flushed through his system but it was.

“I have friends in the police force,” Jongin blurts out,” and friends who are sons and daughters of governors. They’ll make this viral. They’ll expose you. Everything about you.”

“Oh, yeah?” Scar-face mocks. “They’ll know how much I’m packing down there then.”

“I don’t ing care if I’ll get dragged down too. I’ll bring you down till you’re on your knees begging for air to breathe.” Jongin wills his face to show the most stoic expression he could muster. He wants them to know how serious he is. Technically, Taemin has the associations and Jongin’s just there, but it still counts. “Let my friend go, or else.”

Pierced-lips stretches to a sitting position, teeth reflecting the dim light in the room. The twinkle of humour in his eyes blinds Jongin. He hates it. He hates the fact that they can’t take him seriously enough.

“If you say so, Princess.”

It’s too easy. Everything’s too easy. They leave after a few minutes of meaningless taunt thrown in Jongin’s way just to rile him up. It can’t be that easy to make them leave. Yes, he threatened them, but they clearly did not take his words as a threat. It’s not supposed to be this easy.

“Baekhyun, what did you say?” Jongin chooses to focus on something else. Anything else other than Jaehyun and the way he makes Jongin feel paranoid.

Jongin jolts when he finally realises Jongdae and Baekhyun staring at him in disapproval. It’s like they disapprove of Jongin’s existence itself. The latter waves a hand right before their eyes, wanting them to move or, at the very least, blink. It’s creepy how they can hold their eyes open for that long.

“I think the three of us have tried to make it very clear to you for so many times. Many, many, many times. Many ing times.” Jongdae sighs. “Stay away from Jaehyun, you extra long broomstick.”

“Is there a reason why or should I not question about that too?” Jongin then frowns, pausing midway as he shoots the midgets a confused look. “Should I comment on that new nickname?”

“Don’t question it first. We’ll tell you. Eventually. I guess. And no because I’m gonna call you that from now on.” Jongdae grins, then making a noise that Jongin quickly realises is out of suddenly remembering something. “Your Mom texted. She said she wants to go home tomorrow.”

“What? No!” Jongin shrieks.

Jongin doesn’t even remember when Baekhyun took his phone. He must have asked Baekhyun to hold it for a moment when he talked to Jaehyun. Jongin’s palms tend to get clammy and sweaty when he’s nervous or scared of something. Talking to Jaehyun nowadays has become that great of a hindrance to him. When Baekhyun hands his phone back to him, Jongin quickly skims through the long chain of texts that his mother has sent to him.

“She can’t go so soon.” Jongin wants to dial her number and ask her what’s the matter, but there’s a really big chance she won’t pick up. Jongin groans in frustration. “It’s too soon.”

          “I just feel like my stay is a little overdue. Don’t you think so too?”

“No, I don’t.” Jongin sighs. “Tell me honestly, please. Why do you want to leave? Is it because I got mad the other day?”

“Yes and no.” His mother folds her arms around her frail figure, hugging herself to feel secure. Jongin’s eyes soften at the sight. How could he ever stay mad at his mother. His fragile, soft-hearted mother. “I don’t feel so comfortable l