A/N: First chapter! It tells Chanyeol's character and makes his actions more... understandable? idk...um... gives a reason as to why he's like that. The time is back to first day of school, before some of the prologue stuff happened. Enjoy! and don't forget to upvote! <3

[First day of the new school year]

Chanyeol was seated comfortably in the leather backseat of his family car as they drove down the busy highway towards school. Beside his foot was a leather backpack, the most popular and expensive brand in South Korea, but he threw it a look of disgust.

This was his younger step brother Do Kyungsoo's backpack.

The brother that replaced him, the brother whom he lost.

The backpack was just one of the many hand-me-downs he unfortunately received. His step father always favored Kyungsoo over him, but now that Kyungsoo’s gone, Chanyeol has to suffer the constant verbal attacks from his step father.

Maybe his stepfather still have not forgiven Chanyeol for the mistake he made a year ago, the mistake that lost Kyungsoo.

Chanyeol frowned and forcefully removed his glare from the innocent backpack.

Looking out the window, the familiar sign of Hongdae Park on the side of the road came into view, accompanied by a vast stretch of greenery and stone benches that lined the walkway.

“Mr. Kim, you can drop me off here,” Chanyeol said to the chauffeur.

“Are you sure? Mr. Do said to make sure you get to school,” Mr. Kim replied.

“It’s fine, I can walk the rest of the way myself.”

Chanyeol got off the car at Hongdae Park, reluctantly taking his used backpack along. He trudged into the public bathroom and opened his backpack. He took out his old backpack that he stuffed inside, the one he’s been using since seventh grade, and switched all the books to his own backpack.

There was no way he was going to use something that belonged to Kyungsoo.

It doesn’t matter if Kyungsoo is dead or not, Chanyeol doesn’t want anything to do with him. Nothing.

The backpack only reminded him of his mistake and if he wore it on his back, it would feel like a dagger forever stuck in his flesh, a painful reminder that made him bleed eternally.

On the sidewalk outside of school, Kris was met with a flying plastic bag full of unknown rectangular boxes, hitting him square in the chest, it’s hard corners digging into his skin. He caught it before it can fall to the ground.

The person who threw it is none other than his friend, Park Chanyeol.

“Your medicine,” Chanyeol simply said and joined his friends on the sidewalk.

“Thanks,” Kris said. His muscles were awfully sore these days due to intense training. He’s a trainee at Wu Entertainment, against his will, because his father is the CEO.

“Yo, Jongin and Sehun, welcome to high school,” Chanyeol said and swung an arm around each of them. He grinned; finally his two buddies, other than Kris of course, graduated from middle school and now the four of them can go to school together.

Kris is the oldest, coming to high school first, followed by Chanyeol, and now, Jongin and Sehun.

Sehun rolled his eyes while suppressing a smile. Kai just grunted like his usual grumpy self. The four of them have been friends since elementary school

“Wow, our ice prince Sehunnie is actually smiling,” Chanyeol laughed and poked the youngest in the cheek. “Did someone write you a $1000 check or something?”

“No,” Sehun rolled his eyes again.

“Then what’s gotten you in a good mood today?” Chanyeol pulled Sehun down by the neck playfully and removed his other arm from Jongin’s shoulder to rub his fist on Sehun’s head, messing up his hazelnut brown hair and also earning a laugh from all four of them except for Jongin.

“Stop it,” Sehun snorted and tried to break out of the giant’s hold. “My parents are taking me to Disney this weekend.”

“What are you? Five?” Kris joked and laughed by himself.

All of them knew how much this meant to Sehun. His parents never had time for there son, family bonding time did not exist in the Oh household. And yet, they’re going to spend time together for an entire weekend.

Chanyeol turned to the tan-skinned boy on his other side and said, “How ‘bout you Jonginnie, why do you look so grumpy today?”

The tall elf-like boy always goes out of his way to care for his friends, always smiling and laughing. But of course, that kind of bright behavior only happened for Kris, Jongin, and Sehun, and no one else. To strangers, Chanyeol was simply a jerk.

“Shut up,” Jongin looked away, not even bothering to smile a little bit or look at the taller. He hated being called by nicknames. He absolutely hated it. Nicknames sounded too happy and made him cringe. However, he likes being called Kai because it sounded cool. It’s not one of those sappy, cringe-worthy nicknames that Chan-stupid-yeol always came up with.

“C’mon, don’t be like that, Nini,” Chanyeol swung his arm around the sad-looking boy and gave him a five-thousand-megawatt rich-teeth smile that can melt any girl’s heart.

“Ew gross.”

“Did your parents beat you again? Should I break into your house and shove a stick up their ?” Chanyeol asked. The worst thing for Chanyeol, other than Do Kyungsoo and school, was seeing bruises on his best friend’s skin.

“Just leave me alone.”

“You know we’re always here for you if you ever wanted to talk something out, right?” Kris said.

“Yeah. I’ll tell you when I feel like it.”

That signaled the end of the conversation.

Music class is the only thing Chanyeol likes about school. Growing up with various instruments in his house and a deep, y voice, Chanyeol enjoyed making music. It was his favorite thing to do. It made him forget about his step father’s constant blaming and his mistake from two years ago.

His least favorite thing in the world is Do Kyungsoo.

Favorite things and least favorite things do not mix, but God decided to play with him and placed his least favorite thing in his favorite thing. Basically, there is a “Do Kyungsoo” in Chanyeol’s music class.

Well, he wasn’t exactly