Right Here | SunNew / Sunric

「31」

★Eric Sohn★

"The trial is tomorrow. And we still haven't been able to find anything concrete." Juyeon sighed.

"Neither of them are going to budge. Chanhee's still too worried about how it'll make him look, and Sunwoo cares too much about him. I just wish he could see how toxic their friendship is." Eric said.

"Good luck telling him that. Before you came along they were practically attached at the hip." Juyeon scoffed.

Eric and Juyeon had been trying for days to find something that would prove that Younghoon was lying. They'd considered giving up multiple times.

Eric sighed dejectedly and laid down on Juyeon's bed. He was tired. Not physically, but just drained mentally. Eric and Sunwoo started dating just a month ago. This was supposed to be their honeymoon phase. Dating someone shouldn't be this hard. Helping them shouldn't be this hard.

He stared at the ceiling for what felt like an eternity. He didn't even notice Juyeon climbing in next to him.

"Why won't he get it?" Eric asked quietly. He was genuinely curious.

How could someone be so blind? Anyone that paid attention could realize that Chanhee only cared about himself, but Sunwoo was a good person. Too good.

"All he's ever done was help Chanhee; he picked a fight with Younghoon, blackmailed him, and nearly turned him in for Chanhee. He'd been so selfless with him, and he's about to get expelled for something he didn't do for Chanhee. All this and he still wants to protect him." Eric continued. "It's not fair to him, Juyeon."

"Of course it's not fair." Juyeon replied, "regardless of how Chanhee thinks, people like Sunwoo think about everyone else before themselves. Sunwoo was like that to me too, way back when. I still remember he would ask his mom to pack him extra lunch just so he could share it with me, he knew my parents couldn't afford much. It was before free school lunch was a thing. I was too embarrassed to admit that I'd go hungry everyday without him. But he knew, he always knew."

The story made Eric smile. He could just imagine little Sunwoo batting his boba eyes at his mother as he asked for extra portions in his lunch. Just so he could make sure his friend could eat that day. It nearly made him cry.

So he decided to tell his own story. "One night, my parents got into a fight over something stupid. I don't even remember what it was. But I just couldn't take it. He'd called to say goodnight and he heard the yelling through the phone. He didn't say anything about it though. About 20 minutes later he'd climbed up the side of my house to get to my bedroom window. He brought food and his laptop so we could watch a movie. He stayed until I fell asleep." Eric recounted.

"What movie did you watch?" Juyeon asked.

"God, I don't even remember. It was some comedy movie, it was really stupid but it made me feel better. I think he knew it would." Eric laughed softly.

It was pretty quiet after that. Both just reminiscing in the times they spent with Sunwoo.

A knock at the door startled them both. They looked at each other confused. Both of Juyeon's parents were at work, so it couldn't be that they had guests.

They walked out of Juyeon's room together. He stayed behind to let Juyeon answer it himself. The door was blocking Eric's view of whoever it was. Juyeon just turned to Eric before he let them walk in.

"Chanhee." Eric breathed. "What are you doing here?"

He looked upset. Sad almost.

"You were right." He said to Juyeon, who was still standing by the door. "I know Sunwoo would move mountains if he thought that's what I wanted. And I took advantage of that." He admitted. He sounded guilty. Good. "I was so ungrateful and that cost he his friendship once. And I don't want it to happen again."

"Okay, so?" Juyeon asked. "Will you let us turn in the recording?"

"No." Chanhee said.

"Then what the hell are you doing here?" Eric raised his voice.

"I have something better." He added. "A couple of days after you went to see me at my house, I did some digging. I heard from someone in my physics class that Younghoon is paying someone to stand at the trial tomorrow to say that Sunwoo and Younghoon were hazing him. So I followed Younghoon when he was going to meet with this guy and recorded their little meeting."

Chanhee pulled out his phone and played the video.

In it, Chanhee was recording from behind a wall, it was zoomed in so the quality wasn't that great but you could still see their faces.

"So about tomorrow, do I just have to say that you two bullied me?"

"Yup. And add details, I don't care what they are but make sure you point the finger at Sunwoo more than me."

"I don't know about this...Sunwoo was really nice to me..."

"Do you want the money or not?"

"Well yeah, but are you sure it'll work?"

"100%. And if you even think of bailing on me, not only do you not get the money but I will go postal with that video of you and your little boyfriend in the bathroom."

The kid was scared, you could see it in his face. He was petrified.

After Younghoon spoke you could hear a twig snap. The video cut off right there.

"I got spooked and ran off but this is more than enough to get Younghoon expelled, he's bribing and blackmailing this poor kid at the same time. Both are against school policy and enough to get him expelled." Chanhee explained. "I also have some screenshots of texts he sent to me talking about how he's going to get rid of Sunwoo and how it'll be my fault."

This is perfect. More than enough evidence to prove Sunwoo's innocence.

"Chanhee, this is amazing. Thank you." Eric smiled.

"Please don't thank me. This doesn't make up for everything I've put him through." Chanhee frowned.

"But it's a start." Juyeon shrugged. "And everyone's gotta start somewhere."

Chanhee then directed his eyes at Eric. He looked somewhat...scared?

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" He asked.

Eric looked a Juyeon for a moment, who just shrugged.

"Yeah, sure." Eric replied.

The two walked outside, Eric shutting the door behind them.

"What's up?" Eric asked.

"I just wanted to say thank you. For everything you've done for Sunwoo." Chanhee smiled. "I see it in his eyes when you're together, he loves you. You've made him happy in ways that I wish I could. You were there for him when I wasn't, so thank you."

"You don't need to thank me. I love him, too. It why I do what I do." Eric responded with a smile.

"It's comforting to know he has someone he can count on, someone like you who he can trust." Chanhee continued.

"So, the hearing tomorrow. Will you be there?" Eric asked.

"I'll be there. I'll forward everything to you tonight." Chanhee said before bidding goodbye.

Wow. He really stepped up. Safe to say neither Eric nor Juyeon expected that.

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Hey, besties!😌

At this point idk if I should still apologize for updating so rarely. This story isn't finished yet and I still plan to, so I guess that's all that matters😭😭

Anyway:) sorry for the short chapter, the hearing chapter is going to be longer(I hope)

Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'll see you in the next one!

Bye!

-Kiara♡