Chapter 38

Sehun pulled his knees up to his chest and buried his face in them. Everything since Kai had burst in on him and lay had been a blur. He couldn’t believe they had all seen him like that and that they knew about his secret relationship. His heart pounded erratically in his chest and the irregular feeling left him nauseous.

There was a beeping noise in his pocket and he suddenly remembered his phone. Drying his eyes on his sleeve he pulled it out and saw Lay’s name. With trembling fingers he opened the message.

I’m so sorry. Please don’t hate me.

He almost laughed. That was so like Lay to try and take the blame himself when it was no one’s fault really.

It’s not your fault, he replied. I love you.

I love you too. Are you ok?

Before Sehun could answer the door opened and Suho came in. Sehun had hurried to his room as soon as they had returned to the dorm but he shouldn’t have been surprised that Suho had come to see him so quickly. He put down his phone and looked away. He was definitely going to be kicked out of the pack for this. Suho was a fair leader but no alpha liked having their rules disregarded like Sehun had.

“Sweetie?”

Sehun looked up in surprise as Suho sat down. He rested his hands on the maknae’s knees and rubbed them gently.

“I need you to be honest with me, ok?”

Sehun nodded dumbly.

“Just tell me if he hurt you or made you do anything you didn’t want to. I won’t be mad.”

“What? No, it’s not like that. He wouldn’t. He loves me.”

“I know he told you that but sometimes people say things you want to hear just to get you to do things.”

Sehun was astounded. Suho knew Lay and he knew he wasn’t like that. Besides they had only had twice and it had been Sehun who suggested it in the first place.

“It was my idea,” he said strongly. “I wanted to.”

“I know you feel that way…” said Suho patiently.

“No!” Sehun pulled his legs away from Suho and didn’t bother hiding the anger in his expression. “You don’t know him. He loves me.”

Suho looked at him for a long moment. Long enough to make Sehun regret his words. When he spoke again his voice was steady but it sounded like he was trying hard to keep it that way.

“When did this start?” he asked.

“A few weeks ago. After he started tutoring me.”

Suho snorted. “And I wonder why he offered to do that.”

“He was just being nice.”

“Sehun, please just think about this sensibly. He’s older than you…”

“So? That doesn’t mean anything.”

“You’ve never even been in love before. You’ve only had a few times.”

Sehun’s cheeks turned bright red. “I’m not a child.  I can choose who I want to be with for myself.”

“No you can’t!”  Suho finally snapped. “Not when you make stupid choices like this. You don’t even know him.”

Sehun shrank. His eyes filled with tears. He had never made Suho angry before. He had always taken special care of him as the maknae and now he was so, so angry.

“I’m sorry,” he whimpered.

His phone beeped again and his eyes went wide. Suho instantly guessed who the message would be from, as if Sehun’s guilty reaction wouldn’t have clued him in anyway.

“Is that him? You’re talking to him after everything that just happened?” He grabbed for the phone.

“No!” Sehun wasn’t quick enough to stop him and he scrambled after his leader as he opened the message. They were both standing now and Sehun read the message quickly from over his shoulder.

Sehunnie, please talk to me. Is everything alright?

“See?” he said. “He cares about me. He’s worried.”

“And that makes it ok to cheat on your pack and break your alpha’s rules, does it?”

“N-no, but…”

“Your pack mates got hurt fighting for you and all because you wanted to sleep around with someone else.”

Sehun’s face fell at his hyung’s cruel words. “Suho,” he whispered.

“Just stay in here,” said Suho, exasperated. “I’ll sort out what to do with you later.”

“Are you going to kick me out of the pack?” Sehun asked even though he was dreading the answer. How would he cope without a pack? He had had one since he started the school and he had heard all the stories about living in a dorm of lone wolves without a leader. It sounded horrible.

“I haven’t decided yet,” said Suho.

He pulled open the door but Sehun shouted after him when he realised that Suho still had his phone.

“Hyung, wait. Please, give me my phone. Please!”

The door shut in his face without another word from his leader and Sehun felt tears well up in his eyes again.

It was a while after they had returned to the dorm, after everyone had calmed down a little, before Chen went to pick up some of his things. Suho’s words about their packs staying apart ran through his head as he unlocked the front door to his dorm and crept in. Luckily Chanyeol and Baekhyun were nowhere to be seen.

He packed up a change of clothes and a few other things before shouldering his bag. He was almost out the door when his dorm mates returned. They stopped in the doorway and looked at him in surprise.

“Sorry,” he said, “I’m just leaving.”

“Leaving?” Chanyeol frowned. “Where are you going?”

“I’m staying with Kris tonight. Didn’t you hear what happened?”

“With Sehun and Lay?” asked Baekhyun. “Yeah, we heard.”

“We just came from the other dorm,” said Chanyeol. “It’s pretty tense.”

“But… aren’t you mad?”

“A little,” admitted Chanyeol, “but Sehun says he’s in love and you always say how nice Lay is so…”

“He is nice,” Chen insisted. “He really must be in love with him to risk so much.”

“Still, whatever happened with them, you don’t have to leave.” Baekhyun gave him a warm, genuine smile.

“But Suho said he doesn’t want our packs mixing.”

“Yah, don’t be stupid,” said Chanyeol. Next thing Chen knew he was being wrapped up in a giant bear hug. He felt Baekhyun wriggle in beside them and wrapped his arms around both his dorm mates.

“You live with us,” said Chanyeol. “This is your home.”

Chen couldn’t help his smile and hid his face against Chanyeol’s chest.

“We wish you were in our pack,” said Baekhyun. “Then everything would be easier.”

“Yeah,” Chanyeol agreed, “you should be with us.”

Chen gave a little laugh. After everything that had happened at least he could rely on Baekhyun and Chanyeol to still be friend with him. He broke their hug, as nice as it was, and smiled at them.

“Thank you but I really should stay with Kris tonight.”

“We know.” Chanyeol ruffled his hair. “We’re still your friends though, right? I’m sure all this stuff will get sorted out.”

Chen nodded and agreed. It felt like he was the one caught in the middle of all this; a member of Kris’s pack but still living with members from Suho’s. He even knew about Xiumin and Luhan’s relationship. Well, if he was going to be stuck in the middle then he was determined to make sure everything worked out. Though he wasn’t quite sure how he planned on doing it just yet.

Let me know what you think. I was going to add a little more to this but it's late and I'm super tired so everything was starting to not make sense.