Training was finally over. Chanyeol quickly took a shower and put on his school uniform. Today he was not able to give his best. His mind was a roller coaster. On his way to the gym, he had spoken to Kyungsoo on the phone. His buddy had told him that he no longer wanted to be friends. Chanyeol repeatedly asked for a reason, but the latter gave him none. Ultimately, he had hung up on him without a goodbye.

“Yeollie?” Minho called for the junior, “What’s wrong with you? You’ve played awfully.”

Chanyeol frowned at the senior and grabbed his bag to get out of this place. All he wanted right now was to find Kyungsoo and talk to him. This simply should not be the end of their amazing friendship. At least it had felt that way to Chanyeol until today.

“Yah!” the charismatic boy caught his arm and made him stop, “What’s the matter?”

Chanyeol aggressively shook off his hand and pushed the senior away.

“ off!” he yelled angrily and stormed outside.

He slammed the door behind him. Minho looked perplexed. He was shocked by the attitude of his junior. That was nothing like him at all. The charismatic boy guessed that something bad had happened. He dried his hair with a towel, grabbed his bag and left the changing room too.

꧁༺ ༻꧂

Kyungsoo softly brushed his fingers over the keys of the piano in the music room, not pressing them. It felt cold and painful to look at the keys. He had started to play the stringed instrument because of Chanyeol, who was an excellent pianist. They had been to courses together until one day the taller boy had decided to play football instead of piano. Now it all hurt him, because he had to avoid Chanyeol too, otherwise he would be confronted with the issues between Kai and Taemin.

“Ah, you’re here already.” Jonghyun said with a calm voice and put his bag on the floor next to the seat, before he took place on it right beside Kyungsoo, “So? Have you been here all day long?”

The junior nodded quietly, which made the older boy smile lightly.

“You know, Soo…”, Jonghyun explained gently and pressed one key, “A piano is like your life… The melody you’re playing is only going to be good if you combine the white and black keys. The white keys are your happiest moments, while the black ones represent your darkest times. Only with great sadness, the happiness coming afterwards has a stronger impact.”

Kyungsoo listened to the senior’s words carefully. Jonghyun pressed some other keys, and it seemed beyond comparison effortless when he started to play a beautiful melody on the spot.

“It’s okay if you press the wrong key sometimes…”, he added and smiled with his eyes closed, “But you should keep your passion… and keep on playing your beautiful melody.”

Kyungsoo enjoyed the melody the senior was playing. It was touching his heart. The musical genius was infinitely gifted. Jonghyun smiled and seemed the happiest when he played the piano. He slightly turned his head to look at Kyungsoo and raised his brow, telling the junior to accompany him. The younger boy hesitated. He did not want to mess it up. He was nervous about it, but he needed to show his senior that he was capable of doing it. He took a deep breath and pressed the keys. As soon as his fingers touched them, Jonghyun stopped playing and leaned on Kyungsoo’s shoulder to listen to him enjoy the art of gracing the piano with a beautiful melody. The junior was caught off guard, but he kept going. It did not take long for the keys to feel warm and painless beneath his fingers. As his own melody went, he felt way better than before. His heart was not aching anymore. He put all his agony and sorrow into this one piece he had composed together with Jonghyun, that he was playing effortlessly today. And finally, he had a name for it, ‘Crying Out’. He had buried his feelings for Kai in it entirely, as he pressed the last note. Jonghyun smiled and put his arm around the shoulders of the younger musician to console him, because the junior was shedding tears without being aware of it. He gently patted Kyungsoo’s hair, as the crying student leaned his head on Jonghyun’s shoulder.

“Sometimes, it’s worth taking a step back to see what else is out there... It might be even for the better for you…”, Jonghyun said and added with a softer voice, “But you shouldn’t throw people dear to you under the bus to escape your situation.”

Kyungsoo cried silently and managed to nod lightly. He was grateful to the older student. Jonghyun genuinely made him feel better about his miserable state of mind. The senior patted his back and got up. He grabbed his bag and smiled at him once more before he left the music room.

꧁༺ ༻꧂

Chanyeol had called Baekhyun and Sehun for help. They were looking together for their friend.

“Are you sure he said that?” Baekhyun asked his friend again because he did not want to believe what he was told about Kyungsoo.

Chanyeol nodded with a worried expression. Sehun scratched his head and stuck his hands into his pockets. They decided to split up. Baekhyun was going to look for him at Kamong, Chanyeol was rushing to his home and Sehun stayed at the university building. He had a clue about where his friend would be. With steady steps he approached the music room and came across Jonghyun on his way. The senior gave him a warm smile, while he passed him with a blank expression.

He slowly slid open the door and entered the room. Kyungsoo was still playing the piano and Sehun stood in the doorway, listening to him silently from afar. When the pianist finished the piece, the tall boy clapped softly and went to his friend. Kyungsoo quickly wiped his cheeks with the back of his hands and looked up to face the other one.

“It’s really beautiful.” Sehun admitted with a nod, “You’ve improved so much.”

Kyungsoo thanked him. He shut the lid of the keyboard and got up.

“Do you like Kai?” Sehun suddenly asked without hesitation.

The question was finally out of his mind. Kyungsoo was startled by his words.

“It’s okay.” Sehun added and carefully touched his shoulder, “You don’t need to hide it. If you want to cry, cry out loud. There’s no one here to judge you because of it. If you want to punch him, let me be the one helping you with it. I’ve always wanted to smack that stupid smile off his face.”

Kyungsoo suddenly chuckled and finally raised his head.

“Please, keep it to yourself…”, he asked his friend for a favor and Sehun nodded understandingly.

Then the phone of the tall boy was ringing. It was Chanyeol. Sehun looked at his display for a while, when suddenly Kyungsoo took his phone and picked up.

“Chanyeol? Yes, it’s me… I’m sorry.” he apologized with a shaky voice, “I was being stupid just then… Are we still friends?”

“YOU BETTER INVITE ME TO DINNER! IT’S YOUR ING TREAT!”

Sehun could hear the angry yet relieved voice of Chanyeol. Kyungsoo smiled.

“Uh! I will.” he answered and wiped away another tear in silence, while Chanyeol was yelling at him.

The athletic student yelled because he had been stressed out about it for ages. Since Friday, he had a bad feeling and hearing Kyungsoo say that he no longer aspired to stay friends simply had broken his heart. Thus, he had all rights to feel this way and yell at him.

Sehun rolled his eyes and took the phone away from Kyungsoo.

“Yah! Stop it!” he scolded their friend, “It’s all good now. Let’s talk about it tomorrow. Bye.”

He then hung up, without waiting for Chanyeol’s response. Kyungsoo sobbed and wiped the tip of his nose with the back of his hand. Sehun sighed in relief, closed his eyes as he grabbed the wrist of the weeping pianist and pulled him for a tight hug.

“Idiot.” he whispered, and Kyungsoo cried into his shoulder as Sehun added, “Right, don’t hold it in.”

꧁༺ ༻꧂

The university’s chat went crazy once again, because of Kai’s provocative message.

.

.

“What’s wrong with this junior? Someone beat him up!”

“He’s so disrespectful!”

“Taemin should beat him.”

“Where is he? I’ll get him!”

“Taemin deserves it!”

“What the ?”

“Isn’t this chat for school related messages?”

“Jongin is the real chad!”

.

.

Minho was shocked. He was scrolling through all the messages in disbelief. How had everything come down to this? First Chanyeol exploded on him, now Kai messed up with his friend all recklessly. Were these juniors out of their minds?

“It’s their right to defend themselves.” Jonghyun explained and wrote an essay about Kyungsoo’s fast progress, “If you’re not good role models to them, you can’t expect them to be good to you either.”

Minho scratched his head in frustration and kicked his bed. Taemin stared up to the ceiling in deep thoughts. He was not hearing the voices of his friends. All he had on his mind was Kai’s attitude from earlier.

“I didn’t do anything!” Minho defended himself and sulked all offended.

Jonghyun looked up from his laptop and tilted his head with an expression that went along the lines ‘are you for real now?’. The lyrical genius did not have to speak out these words, because Minho could read it all from his face.

“I just asked him some questions about Jongin. What’s wrong about that?” the charismatic boy admitted and crossed his arms.

Jonghyun simply shrugged and focused on the essay. Not for too long though, because he was called by Key and of course he would pick up immediately. He told him about Kyungsoo’s progress with a bright smile. He made clear that he was extremely proud of his junior. Minho rolled his eyes and sat back on Taemin’s bed.

“Yah!” he shook his leg, “What are you going to do about it?”

Taemin was torn out of his thoughts. He straightened up and grabbed his phone.

“I’m definitely not going to lose.” he determined and knit his brows with a serious face, “I’ll never give up now. No matter what, Kai will be mine.”

Minho’s eyes doubled in size. He blinked several times in confusion. Did he hear right? Jonghyun likewise covered his phone for a moment and glanced at his friend in surprise.

“Jongie? Jongie?!”

Keys voice could be heard lowly through Jonghyun’s fingers.

Taemin entered the university’s chat, took a deep breath, and typed the words, which would make his friends baffle.

.

.

“Anyone hurting or bullying Kim Jongin from now on will be hurt by me.”

.

.

Minho checked the message on his own phone and nearly chocked. He quickly touched Taemin’s forehead for fever as he could not believe what his friend had written. Jonghyun uncovered his phone and smiled happily before he apologized t