always ↬ leading me on || l.dh • h.rj • z.cl

·eight·

That was officially when Donghyuck's life turned from sad to happy.

When he went to school the next day, no one dared to be mean to him. Everyone bowed their heads as soon as he stepped into the building and the complete 360 in attitude gave him whiplash. At first it felt weird, but walking down the hallways and seeing the fear in all of his bullies eyes made him start to feel something. He felt stronger, not really superior, but he felt as if he wasn't a punching bag anymore. He felt like people wouldn't step all over him like they used to and he relished in that feeling.

Jaemin and Jeno somehow didn't get kicked out. They told him that having 'connections with important people' payed off in the end and Hyuck didn't question them any further.

The duo continued as they usually did, but with an even bigger fan base. After the incident, for some odd reason, everyone loved them more. As they stepped into their lessons, there would always be whispers of how 'strong' and 'manly' they were. People would look at them with such admiration it would become creepy and they'd get asked out at least three times a day.

‣‣

Everything was back to how it was before, except this time 'round, they never let Donghyuck out of their sight. He'd have to always be with one of them. When Jeno had to skip maths for football practice, Jaemin watched over Hyuck and when Jaemin left english to prepare for his upcoming piano recital, he'd drop the brunet off to Jeno's drama class. Though they had separate classes, it didn't stop them from being together, even if that meant one or two of them skipped their lessons to go to the other person's. They wouldn't leave each other alone.

They sat together at lunch all the time and although many people had wanted to sit with them, they were always rejected. It was like their friendship was exclusive and in the beginning everyone envied Haechan for it.

But as time passed, Haechan was put on the same pedestal as the other two. Jaemin had convinced him to join 127, which was the school's official dance team and as he opened up more to people, everyone realised how fun he was to be with. Suddenly, the love he was shown by students wasn't fake anymore and he'd get the same heart eyes thrown at him as his best friends did.

As school progressed, the trio were held in high regard everywhere, even outside. No one could get enough of them and their popularity grew immensely.

As the new academic year started up, they held the title of the most popular and handsome students. Jaemin also joined the student council and Jeno joined theater on top of football. Donghyuck continued on in his dance group and joined Jeno's team as well, but he started to become mean towards everyone with the exception of Nana and Nono.

He wasn't really the rebellious one out of the three, that was more of a Jaemin thing. However, he started to become more snarky and malicious, always disobeying the staff and no one really minded in the end because somehow it went with his sunshine personality.

They just thought it was him being mischievous, which wasn't wrong because at heart, Hyuck wasn't a bad person. He just wanted to have fun, but sometimes he'd take it a little too far and he'd turn into a bully like the one's he'd despised so much before.

Obviously, Jeno and Jaemin supported him in whatever he did, so if he got into fights, then they did too and if he didn't like someone, nor did they.

That's just how the dynamics were for them, Haechan treated them in the same way as well, always having their backs and making sure they were alright.

‣‣

At one point in the summer holidays, the three had gone out to get the youngest's hair dyed. Jeno really wanted Jaemin to lose the pink and try something more exotic so when the colour started to fade into a reddish-grey, he took them all out to the hair salon.

"Nana~" Donghyuck sing-songed, "you should try blonde."

Jeno shook his head in disagreement, saying that he'd seen enough of Jaemin with light hair to last him a lifetime. Hyuck whined at that, complaining about how he hadn't seen Jaemin before he went pink so he hadn't seen the way he looked.

The two had started an argument about it in the middle of the salon and Jaemin tried his hardest to stop them, but they were both stubborn. In the end, he dyed his hair blonde with a blue fringe to satisfy both of their demands. Jeno was happy because it looked unique and Donghyuck was happy because he got an idea of what Jaemin looked like before they met.

Jeno and Haechan also left with different shades of hair than what they had walked in with and although it was unplanned, Jaemin managed to convince Jeno into changing his colour as well.

They went for a vibrant yellow, but it never really made that much of a difference — something about Jeno being an albino meant that the pigment didn't show up very clear on his locks.

It never bothered Jeno, but Jaemin started to pout and Hyuck literally deflated as they both stared at him sadly.

A minute passed before he glared at them, "what? It's not my fault that I was born like this. Stop giving me those looks."

They obviously weren't listening to him though, because they stayed like that until the elder threw a swatch at Donghyuck and told him to get his hair done.

And so as per Jeno's recommendation, Haechan got his hair dyed a fiery red and both his friends choked when they saw it because, hey, he wasn't supposed to look that good.

Hyuck was happy though. He felt like he fit in with them properly now, remembering when he had first met them a year ago. About how plain he felt against spring and winter. Now, he could be a season too. He didn't know which, but he knew that it was as beautiful as the other two - whatever it was.

(Jeno and Jaemin knew though. Their Hyuck was the summer that they had been desperately waiting for.)