The Reason? - Yoon Jeonghan [✔]

Bonus 1 - Seungcheol / 2019

Seungcheol's point of view throughout the story, and slight epilogue from where Chapter 57 ended.

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There was one thing that Seungcheol cared more than his own health, and that was Seventeen. Not the members in particular, but them as a group altogether, and their balance as one. And now, there was this girl in the middle of it all.

They couldn't do much about it at first. But then, well, this Ophely chick was starting to leech on.

It was slow, with her starting a relatively friendly bond with the two English-speaking members as they helped with developing her language skills. Then it was when their manager had to work for her too, and took her under his wing needlessly. That was followed with her not actually needing to be close to Jeonghan anymore but staying with them longer than necessary, all the while sparking friendships all around the group, especially with the calmer members, those who often broke up fights. She was weaselling her way under their skins inconspicuously - forming alliances against him.

He knew where that was going. She was going to be there one day, and then she was going to disappear. And bring down the bonds she had made. Why even had the boys rebalanced themselves around her? He knew that the change she had brought was temporary, yet they took it as foundation, building on top of it.

And now she was giving the rest of the boys false hope by staying in Korea to finish her high school, she didn't even need that diploma as she had graduated from her French high school. She was leeching, and he hated that as the leader.

A few months still in their home, and she wasn't even looking for a university course.

He kept his eyes on her, not understanding what she was waiting for. He only understood her motives when she kept giving heart eyes to his friend, though that one knew not to act on it. It got worse in his opinion when the girl stayed in the agency, finding a permanent fixture in the creative department. Why with them? It was weird.

He knew she wasn't a Sasaeng, but she still kept to herself. But there was still something wrong with the way she held herself, the grip she kept on his friends. It was always there. She was always there, in the conversations, in the plans the boys had.

Seungcheol had thought that after she had moved out things would get better, their dynamics would go back to how it was, balanced. Maybe it would be hard for some of the boys that had been too close to her, but it wasn't. Everyone of his friends lived well with her departure, kept in contact with her and still enjoyed her presence around the company.

She was there and nothing changed.

She was everywhere

She was everywhere she wasn't supposed to be at. She was supposed to have finished her high school, which she did, and Korean high school had been a back-up plan, she wasn't supposed to keep doing that one. Even when the boys had a tour, she couldn't not attend due to the omnipresent problem of her and his friend still swapping bodies. And then she had passed her Suneung, which wasn't any use to her since she wasn't going to study in Korea. She actually had not.

So why was she still here?

Seventeen's leader went through every event containing her in his mind. Yet he couldn't understand why she was still with them, why she had glued herself to them like she had.

Ophely had started working, good. So why was she still coming over to them when she was done, bringing them snacks from time to time and acting as if she was their friend? She was not. A friendly acquaintance at best. But not their friend, was she?