AUGUST: F**K, (is this) My Life (?)

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13 Chapter Recap:

SEUNGCHEOL accidentally lied to JEONGHAN about starting up a relationship with MINGHAO. JEONGHAN is having a hard time dealing with the big changes happening in his family. MINGHAO is freaking out after seeing JUNHUI, his first love that shattered his heart, and also juggling keeping up with SEUNGCHEOL's silly lies. JUNHUI is having a sad and f*cked up pity party (bless his heart), but thank god he has WONWOO and MINGYU. Except, WONWOO collapsed just before the semester began right in front of SEUNGKWAN, a family friend, and now the kid is the only one who knows of his health issues. MINGYU is kind of trying to be more independent to get over WONWOO, so he gets a job at JEONGHAN's cafe. VERNON is seeing weird shit that he doesn't understand and having a hard time with his father, JEONGHAN. Luckily HOSHI is having a blast at college with his best friend, DINO, and his two new roommates, SEUNGKWAN AND SEOKMIN. SEOKMIN is ready to charge head first into another successful school semester without getting distracted. JOSHUA is having a sexual identity crisis that only his bff WONWOO knows about, while WOOZI is getting restless sitting on the sidelines as his friends suffer in the romance department.

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AUGUST 23: At SVT Sounds, Cheol, Woozi, and Minghao's discussion about what to do with SeungHao "dating" steers in a direction Minghao doesn't know if he's ready to discuss...

- Jun gets caught off guard by someone unexpected actually wanting to hear what he has to say...

EARLIER THAT DAY: Seungkwan accompanies Wonwoo to his doctor's appointment...

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Seungcheol loves his job. He loves being the boss of a company that makes incredible music and brings joy to millions of people around the world. The success feels great and looks even better on the young, thriving CEO. When it is you who is on top, isn't the world your oyster?

No, not quite. Because reality has much more ugly layers that collide so painfully, heat to excruciating temperatures, and have created suffocating pressures for this shining diamond to surface.

The top floor of Seventeen Sounds consists mostly of one office: the CEO's. When he was younger, Choi Seungcheol used to come every Thursday after school to visit his grandfather at work. He always gawked at the tremendous show of elegance and power the room bestowed, and the man in the chair who owned it. Exquisite paintings hung all over the walls surrounding a view of the city like no other. A bathroom fit for a king next to a small gym, and one of those silly little basketball hoops hanging off the end of a door. His grandfather was a perfect balance of kind and affirmative, though Seungcheol rarely saw that harder side the man needed sometimes to run the company.

It was during his early years of secondary school when Seungcheol's grandfather passed and the position was handed down to his father. The splendor that the grandfather brought to the company was immaculate and unmatched, providing high hopes for the son who now cradles such a future in his hands. It wasn't too long before the soft colors on the walls were painted to an empty brightness, and the art that once reflected the pristine ways were replaced with flashy and obnoxious pieces to match Seungcheol's father's strange, fictitious smile.

The man then hired unqualified staff such as buddies or lovers whom he would drink, party, and gamble the day away with. Seungcheol did not like what his father had become but still, after years of the man he once knew having long disappeared, he had hope. He tried so hard to hold on, even after his mother left.

The year Seungcheol turned seventeen, he was called down to the office in the middle of a school day to be given the news that his father died. So, he attended his second funeral just five short years after his grandfather's. That's all it took; five years for his father to spiral and get himself killed over a job. Then, his mother would remind him that this is not just any job and not just anyone can handle it, and his father's the perfect example. This job and business is their entire family, and has been for generations. Seungcheol loved his mother and still does, but since she decided to take over the position in his stead while he finishes school, she soon became different, too. More quiet, less expressive, more reserved, less loving.

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