-          ___’s POV     -

“Okay, so chemistry book.. Check. Biology folder.. Check”

I stuffed the insanely thick books and folders to my bagpack and feel like my shoulders are about to fell off. I’ve devided the books into another smaller totes but it weighs the same and it actually just struggles me even more. How can the students here bear with these kinds of textbooks?!

“Good morning!”

“Oh, hey Doyoon oppa” I said as I smiled at him “Long time no see, I’ve missed you!”

“Yeah, where have you been? You’ve been out for couple days, haven’t you? The school’s starting to spread gossips since you, Seventeen, and Nu’est are out of sight”

“Gossips? Well some people finally noticed me, huh?” I said as I chuckled upon his words. I closed my locker quitely and placed the backpack over my shoulders. Looking back at him with a smile, a question then ran across my mind, “Wait, Nu’est boys were gone, too?”

He nodded, “Yeah, but I think they informed the school cause I have some classes with them and the teacher doesn’t seem to look for them.  They only look for the missing Seventeen boys”

“Oh.. Could they be the group Seungcheol fought with on the other day?” I mumbled.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, nothing” I fake smiled and pulled him away from the locker, heading to our classes “So is there any other hot news that I need to know about while I’m gone?”

“Naah, not really. Just some rubbish news and all. You know how school loves to make cheap news and such things” Doyoon said. He has this funny frown everytime he thinks about something and I can’t help but to think that it’s cute and quitely giggles about it. “So ___-ah, about the Seventeen boys and all.. I still don’t really understand your relationship with them.. I mean, you don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to, but-..”

“Oh, no no, it’s okay. I need to tell you eventually since you’re my only friend and.. Friends are not suppose to keep secrets from each other, right?” I said as I smile to him.

So I begin telling him the ‘story’ of me and the Seventeen boys. The way from the lockers to the classes feel so far because I actually had time to tell him everything. From the fact that Seungcheol’s my brother, Chan’s my favorite little brother, until the day that they actually came up with the name ‘Seventeen’ when they total of them are not even 17. Well maybe, not yet.

“Woah, that’s a lot of facts in the morning” he said with a disbelief face “I can’t believe you’re Seungcheol’s sister. I mean, you don’t look like him at all. Oh wait.. Now that I look at you better.. You kinda have the same eyes like him”

“Really? I’ve always love his eye sand he would always tease me on how better his eyes were..”

“Yeah it is, actually.. I mean, you both have the same shape of big brown eyes. Only that you have a more twinkling and longer eyelashes than him”

I blushed a little at how Doyoon stare at my eyes deeply and compliments me. No one had ever say good things about my eyes when I actually think that they’re the most unique part of my body. I mean, how many Koreans have a natural big brown eyes, like me?

As the both of us talked, we didn’t realize that we’re already standing in front of my class and soon enough, the ball rang, making the students to run to their classes.

“I need to go to my class. See you later, okay?”

“Sure. See you later, Doyoon oppa” I said with a smile before walking myself into the class.

As usual, everyone went quiet as I stepped in and I’m actually confuse about it. No one knows that I’m the younger sister of Seungcheol or the girlfriend of Soonyoung, then why are they afraid of me?

I quietly walk to the empty spot and placed my bags down. I sighed deeply as the students begin to whisper around. Not talking about me, but the fact that they’re lowering their voice for me was such a bothersome. I’m not that kind of sensitive person who gets angry when it’s noisy, so why bother whispering?

I look around and notice that the teacher’s not there yet, so I take out my phone and find a new text,

I don’t like seeing you hanging out with that loser, Jang Doyoon. You can be friend with anyone in this school but Nu’est and him, do you understand? I don’t want to see you walking around with him anymore, ___-ah

-Seungcheol

I raised an eyebrow from the text. Now what? He’s forbidding me to hang out with Doyoon again when he was all fine when Doyoon accompanied me to remove my casts? What’s wrong with him? And a bigger question is..

How’s Nu’est related to any of these?

***

I kicked the small pebles on the ground as I wait for Soonyoung in ‘our’ secret garden. We made a plan to meet up after school and so here I am, waiting for him as I walk around that fauntain I always admire about. It was quite sometime that I’ve waited for him and he knows exactly that I don’t like waiting for people. Especially after school..

I let out a big sigh as he still didn’t show up after a 30 minutes of waiting. I love this place, no question on that. But the fact that I need to wait here alone where it’s really quiet and boring, really makes me even more tired.

So I picked up my backpack and was about to exited the hidden gate before someone shouts from behind, “No, wait! I’m here, I’m here! Wait!”

I look back and saw Soonyoung doing small parkour on the fences to get into the garden. He was soaked in sweat and he was panting hard as he stood in front of me, “Where have you been?”

“I.. I have some detention to attend at” he said between his pants “I’m really sorry about it, I really am”

“Yeah, but you could’ve texted me or something..”

“My phone’s out of battery, see?” he said as he showed me his phone. It was black dead like he said, so it’s not entirely his fault. I stare at him who’s still trying to control his breath and tried to patiently wait until he could spill some words out.

Seeing how tired he is, I led him to the bench and urged him to take a seat to just take his time to calm down a little. “Calm down, okay? It’s okay, I understand. Just.. Give me some note if you’re going to be late or anything, okay?”

He nodded and I handed him my water bottle. He gladly take it and take a big gulp which I could clearly hear and obviously laughed about it. As he calmed a little, he started to speak with that trademark smile on his face, “So how’s school?”

“Yeah, so-so. Just like usual. Still no friend but Doyoon oppa. Oh, I did hear something from him though..” I said and turned my head to see him clearler. He raised an eyebrow, anticipating on whatever I would say and I eventually continued, “He said that were worried about me and you and the other Seventeen boys’s absence”

“Worried? People still worried about us?” Soonyoung said with a chuckle. His face was still covered with a sheer layer of his sweat and it somehows made him sparkles under the sunlight. Kinda funny and cheesy now that I say this, but I find it really cute for his face to sparkle like this and how his eyes got disappeared from his laughter.

“Apparently they still do..” I said “Oh and that’s not just the one I heard from him.. I also heard that Nu’est was absent too..”

Soonyoung stopped smilling and he awkwardly played with the emptied water bottle. He looked away and cleared his throat, showing that he’s either nervous or he has something hiding inside. Either way, I know that it would be something I will definitely get curious about.

“Soonyoung is there.. Is there any chance that Nu’est is actually the gang you’re fighting with?”

“No”

“But now that I think about it, you guys kinda don’t like it when I hang around Aron and he’s obviously a member of Nu’est, so could they be-..”

“No they’re not, and no. You’re not allowed to ask anymore question, ___-ah. The more you know, the more danger you’ll get yourself in to” Soonyoung said as he handed me back the water bottle, “Is there anything Doyoon said to you?”

“Um, no.. Oh but talking about him.. Do you have any idea why Seungcheol texted me to avoid him this morning? He texted me out of no where and he doesn’t reply any of my texts, so I’m really confused here.. Did he say anything to you about it?” I asked.

He looked at me deeply without blink and his hands are slowly taking mine, intertwining our fingers together as he let out a small sigh, “I think.. I need to agree with Seungcheol hyung in this point..”

“Agree? Agree with what?”

“Agree with you to avoid Doyoon.. You might don’t know who he is and all, but trust me, ___, you want to avoid him”

“Avoid him? Why? He’s very nice to me” I said with a raised eyebrow and take my hands away from them slowly, “You know what, now that I think about it, I think you guys have no right to forbid me to hang out with anyone, especially him. You guys bullied him before and it’s such a miracle that he still wants to befriend with me when no other kids want to. You guys should thank him for that, not forbidding me to hang out with him like this”

“___-ah, there’s a lot of things you don’t understand about the Seventeen boys, and-..”

“Well then there’s a lot of things you guys don’t understand about me and Doyoon oppa, too. Soonyoung, you could never expect me to keep any distance from him because he’s my only friend and I would do whatever it takes to keep our friendship”

“___-ah, you’re missing the point” he said as he sighed “I understand you value your friendship with him and I highly respect that. But this time is not the best time for you to be around him, and-..”

“Well then when would be the perfect time for me to actually befriend with someone?!” I cut him “Oppa, I’ve been here for a few months and the only friend I have is him! I can’t even count the Seventeen boys as one since you guys are always avoiding me when I didn’t even do anything wrong!”

“We’re not avoiding you, we’re just-..”

“What, protect me? Yeah, protect me from what, exactly? I’m tired of playing this game. You guys would ignore me at school and when I tried to be friend with someone, you guys would tell me to get away. Seriously, I’m tired of all this ”

I furiously grabbed my bag and stood up. I’m so sick of all of these nonsense the boys had been talking about, nowadays. They ignored me, I tried to make friend, then they told me to stay away. Exactly which path do their mind go to?! I’m being a complete loner at school and all I’m asking for is to just have one single friend! Wich part of it that is so hard to understand?!

I quickly walk to the gate, but before I could exit, Soonyoung spoke up again, “If I ask you who to choose between the Seventeen boys and him, who would you chose?”

I turned around and see his poker flat face, “What?”

“Yeah, who would you choose, ___? Us or him?” he asked “Who do you think more important in your life? You would you put on your first priority list? Who would you-..”

“Are you telling me to pick between the boys and him?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m saying” he said with straight face. He walked closer to me and asked once more, “Who would you choose between all of the Seventeen boys and him ___-ah? Who would you choose between us and him? Who would you choose between me and him?”

I stared at his face and can’t help but to feel mad and disappointed at him. I thought he was the one who said that it’s fine to hang out with Doyoon when we were back in the hospital. I thought he was the one who promised to always backed me up. Where’s that boy now?

“You’re sick” I said as I turned around.

Again, before I could leave the place, he spoke up “So it’s true then. You’ve value him more than us now, haven’t you?”

I turned around to face him with my confused look. The words I’ve known for my entire life seems to be leaving one by one as I become speechless from his demanding questions. He had never been a very demanding person like this, especially to me. He would always put me on first no matter how silly or stupid it sounds. Even when he would get hurt by it, he would usually do whatever I stepped on. So now that he’s standing on his own foot to go against my will, I’m beginning to question, what has gotten into him?

He stood up and grabbed his backpack, “You’ve exchanged us in your priority list into someone you just met for a couple months? Unbelievable. I could accept the fact if you’re replacing me with him because I haven’t been a very good boyfriend lately, but the Seventeen boys? You’re replacing them to some boy you just met?!”

“Oh, shut up, Soonyoung! You know nothing about me and Doyoon!”

“I know more than enough about you and Doyoon, ___-ah” he said and smirked which seriously giving me the creeps. Since when does he have that kind of smirk? “I can’t believe you’re replacing us for him. You don’t even believe our words when all we want is your safety!”

“What kind of safety are you talking about?! I’m completely fine! I can take care of myself! I don’t need any of you to babysit me! I don’t-..”

“Well if you could take care of yourself that well, how did you get that scar, ___-ah?! Tell me how, tell me!” he said as he pointed at the scar on my left hand. It was the scar I got from the car accident few weeks ago and I can’t believe his actually bringing it up in this kind of argument. Where’s the mature Soonyoung that always understands me? Where’s the calm Soonyoung that always listen to what I really feel and need? Where’s the old Soonyoung?

I stare at him with that hurtful eyes that I could feel tears forming on it. What happened to him? Why did he changed this much? Was I really the one that turned him into this kind of person?

He stare back at me and did nothing when he knows that I’m in the edge of crying. He just stood there, hands on his backpack straps and the expression on his face was so flat that I was hurt by it. Why doesn’t he do anything to comrfort me and prevent my tears to fall? What is happening to him?!

After a few seconds of staring, he take a real big sigh that I can feel his hot breath on my face. His eyes suddenly softened and it just surprised me that he tucked in some strands of my hair. He said nothing, but his eyes feel like it’s trying to say thousands of words. With one last smile, he let out a last sigh and left me.

Yes, he left me.

He walked away after making me feel so lost like this and I can’t help but to pour all of the tears I’ve been holding in. Why should he be so mean like this?

Why, Soonyoung? Why..

---

[ Hey guys!

So I kinda update this one in a rush because I need to wake up early tomorro for school (yeah I still have school after exams.. poor me ;;) and I think I might make a lot of mistakes on this one chapter so I might have to change somethings a bit if I got the time. I'm sorry for the inappropriate update though..

But how do you guys feel about this one?

I know that the chapters nowadays are just like, 'fight - makeup - fight - makeup - and fight again', but I promise you the following ones would be better!

There would be prom, confession, kiss, and new characters coming soon, so I hope you guys would still support Deliquenteens!

Much loves and thanks

xoxo ]