Renjun sends them off with a wave after hearing the progress report regarding the situation with Jongin. Chanyeol’s with him because, as he said, he must be there as his fellow P.A. Jongin doesn’t mind it either way because the walk back from the Linguistics department to the dance room all the way at the other side of campus is a little too far for him to bear through alone. 

Chanyeol idly chats about his girlfriend who Jongin has yet to meet, and Jongin listens with occasional nods in between to indicate that he’s paying attention. 

“When can I meet Joohyun?” Jongin questions, shooting a brief quizzical glance in Chanyeol’s way.

“Eh…” Chanyeol grimaces. “She’s not really fond of people in general. It took me like 2 years of talking about Baek and Dae for her to feel familiar enough to meet them.”

“2 years?” Jongin gasps. “That means you’ve been dating for quite some time.”

“Yeah, I’ve known her even longer before I confessed and she laughed in my face. She ended up liking me back in, like, a month.” Chanyeol snorts, his eyes staring right ahead as he spaces out. 

He’s most likely recalling the memories of that specific time. That leaves Jongin’s mind to wander off too as the silence serves him such a chance. Despite that, his mind doesn’t get to go too far for Chanyeol speaks up. The latter’s asking for permission to ask Jongin a question. Jongin hardly has anything to hide from Chanyeol so he gives him the green light without much thought. 

“Why do you like Sehun?” 

Chanyeol faces the ground as he asks, too scared to meet Jongin’s eyes and see the hesitance in the latter’s orbs. He clears his throat unsurely. Chanyeol’s too wary about making Jongin uncomfortable. After the last time he confronted Jongin about Sehun, it’s become a sensitive topic for the both of them. 

“I like Joohyun because she helped me get up on my own two feet. And while she helped me, she helped herself. She’s kind of like my idol. She’s really mature, strong. Some people think she’s mean but I think she’s just straightforward, and I like that because it makes me feel like I don’t have to be scared to talk to her.” Chanyeol purses his lips tight, smacking them. “So what’s your reason?”

“Because he’s a nice person. By far, he’s the nicest person I’ve met. Not even Taemin would be that nice. He paid for my sessions with the psychologist, he’s calmed me down, he stayed even when I pushed him away at first.” Jongin lets out a deep sigh, one that’s extracted from deep within his core. “And now that he’s opened up to me, I feel like he trusts me even more now. It makes me feel like he cares even more.” 

“But didn’t he also hurt you?” Chanyeol voices his concern with a confused lilt in his tone. Jongin can just hear the frown in his question.

“It’s really minimal, actually. It hurt more than usual because I trusted him with my whole heart, but it’s not the worst I’ve gone through.” Jongin scoffs at a memory about the actual worst that has happened to him before and after the Sehun incident. “I had a crush on my old best friend, Daein, and he told everyone about it. It started when I was 13. You can imagine what happened next.”

“And that’s when Sehun stepped in?” Chanyeol guesses.

“I was 16 or 17, I’m not too sure, but it stopped. Really suddenly too. There were two groups of people bullying me. One hates me because I liked boys, and the other group thought I was arrogant and was just in for the fun. They did try once or twice after that, but whatever Sehun did worked and there was no more.” Jongin chuckles as if his past was laughable, but Chanyeol knows best that it’s not. 

Jongin just feels awkward talking about the times where he was still the victim. He hated feeling that way. So to lighten up the mood, he laughs, because that’s the only thing he can do in this situation. He doesn’t want to seem too serious in Chanyeol’s eyes because the latter might take it as if he’s still bothered by the bullying. Jongin isn’t. Yes, from time to time he’d have nightmares, but he’s spent way too much time and effort to build himself up again for Chanyeol to deem all that useless. 

“So you like him because he helped you?” Chanyeol’s tone tips around incredulity and uncertainty. It stirs something akin to irritation—but not quite—within Jongin as he gives Chanyeol a sharp look. “There’s more to it?”

“Of course there is,” Jongin responds with a scoff. “To stop all those people must have taken a lot of courage. It must have been hard on him. And knowing now that he was facing problems as serious as mine, if not more, but still standing up for me… I can’t imagine what it must have felt like going against the whole school for one single person like me.” 

Chanyeol’s at a loss of words. Being in Jongin’s shoes before has offered Chanyeol the opportunity to see things in Jongin’s perspective. Chanyeol himself feels indebted to Jongdae for all his life. He’s always wondered how Jongdae did it, so it’s not unusual for Jongin to feel the same. With his case, however, he simply happens to fall in love with his saviour. 

Chanyeol admires Jongdae, and he swears he’d be a good friend to him. To the point where he would bend and break Earth itself for Jongdae if he could. He’s sure Jongdae would do the same for him. Maybe Sehun felt the same way. Maybe Sehun regarded Jongin with so much care and respect that it affected Jongin’s heart. Jongdae, albeit being a great listener and being extremely understanding, doesn’t express it much. 

Sehun’s a different case. Jongin is too. 

“What was the one thing he did that made you finally accept him back wholeheartedly?” 

Jongin pauses in the middle of the pathway, blinking twice or thrice to give Chanyeol’s question a deeper thought. Was it when Sehun promised not to hurt him? Or was it when Sehun cried in front of him? If not, then it could be the time when Sehun comforted him during his father’s funeral. Or… 

“The first time I went to see the psychologist, Sehun came with me. He brought me out when it seemed like I couldn’t handle it anymore and he talked to me. I told him I hated him because he was too nice to me and he told me not to give him hope.” Jongin smiles at the memory. “We had dinner and we ran to his house because it started raining and he—and I have this problem against the rain. He told me to stay over but I refused. He looked so dejected.”

“Wait a minute,” Chanyeol suddenly interrupts, a frown in place set with parted lips ready to continue babbling nonsense, “he went in with you? Like, into the room with the psychology guy in it?”

“Yeah?” Jongin responds in a puzzled manner despite letting his face don no emotions. “I thought you knew?”

“We all knew he went with you, but we didn’t know he went in with you!” Chanyeol’s eyes widen in surprise. His voice grows louder by the second as he yells at Jongin about something he can’t even understand. Chanyeol grabs onto Jongin’s shoulder and shakes the other vigorously. “Are you sure—and by that I mean cross your heart and hope to die—are you ing sure Sehun doesn’t have a secret crush on you?”

“Get off of me!” Jongin says with a huff. He shrugs Chanyeol off of him before taking a step back for good measure. He holds his hand out in case Chanyeol approaches him again. “Will you stop it with your dumb ideas?”

“I’m just saying that it’s—” 

“That it’s what?” Jongin snaps. “What, Yeol? What are you saying?”

“It’s not normal is what I’m trying to say!” Chanyeol retorts. “You can say no all you want but whether or not Sehun knows it himself, I really think he’s interested in you!”

“He’s not! Stop rubbing it in my face!” 

“I’m not rubbing anything in your face!” Chanyeol cleverly responds.

“Yes, you are!” Jongin stresses out.

“I’m not! Face it, Jong! Has he ever shown interest in girls? Or boys? Or anyone really!” Chanyeol stomps his foot on the ground like a child who couldn’t get what he wants. Jongin would have laughed if he wasn’t hit with such a hard question. 

“I don’t know, I think so!” Jongin groans. “He has an ideal type so I assume he has had an interest in someone before!”

“Huh, really?” Chanyeol’s eyes abruptly changes into one of mild surprise. The flaring aura emitting from him earlier on dims significantly. “What is it?” 

“Yeah, he told me, like, a long time ago. And recently he said it didn’t change.” Jongin, too, abruptly stops frowning and joins Chanyeol on their walk back to the dance room. His tone is calm, his demeanour is calm. “Kind, understanding, accepting—I think—and soft hair. It was a really short list.” 

“Soft hair?” Chanyeol snorts. “Why is that so unpredictable yet so expected of him?”

“Right?” Jongin snickers. “But that’s proof enough that he had someone in mind. Male or female, I can’t say, but I’m pretty sure it’s not me.”

“It’s really not normal, though,” Chanyeol strains out. He frowns hard, giving Jongin a look telling him it’s time to get serious. “It’s not. Even Baekhyun or Jongdae wouldn’t follow me into my sessions last time. Not even Joohyun would! I’m not saying this just to poke fun at you.”

“So what? That doesn’t automatically mean he likes me, Yeol. Let’s be real here.” Jongin rolls his eyes, having almost enough with Chanyeol insisting on things he’d rather not put so much hope in. “There’s a chance that you’re right, but it’s very slim. Like I’ve said many, many times; I don’t want to gamble my all on that chance.” 

“I’m not asking you to go all in. I only want to see you at least have a little bit of hope.” Chanyeol sighs. “I just don’t want you to regret anything.” 

“Fine,” Jongin says with a nod, rendering Chanyeol speechless. Jongin chuckles at Chanyeol’s dumbfounded expression. “Yes, I said fine. Fine, I’ll try. But don’t force me back in when I want out.” 

“Fine,” Chanyeol repeats after him. “The reason why I really want you to try is because I truly feel the both of you would do a lot of good for each other. Sehun seems a lot happier, and you’ve finally stopped looking like a train wreck. And that’s after you and him have gotten considerably close again.” 

Jongin seals his lips shut. His eyes trace after the lines in between the cracks of the pavement. 

“Thank you,” he mumbles lowly.

For looking out for him, for thinking about what’s good for him, for taking care of him. Jongin’s thankful Chanyeol’s here for him. Even though they haven’t been friends for long, Chanyeol’s managed to understand him and help him. He can’t even get mad at Chanyeol for being so annoyingly naggy. So he’s thankful.

“You’re welcome.”

          In the middle of practice, Sehun gets a call from Renjun. Because of the loud music blaring through the room, no one noticed his phone ringing until it was the fourth time where they had to restart the music. Baekhyun hands the phone over to Sehun, mumbling how he had three other missed calls. 

Sehun pushes himself up to a stand, exhaling a long and exasperated breath. He snatches his phone from Baekhyun with a natural frown on his face. It’s getting to him, the long hours spent practising. And it’s not just a day, it’s been almost two weeks straight with no off days in between. It’s hard to do pretty much anything else when practice becomes top priority. 

It’s not like anyone can complain. The rest get tired too to always stay cooped up in the dance studio. They can’t imagine how Jongin and Sehun must feel. 

“What?” Sehun grimaces, clicking his tongue as he listens to what Renjun has to say to him. “Alright, just… I’ll be right there.” 

He pockets his phone as soon as the