Jeon Jeongguk refuses to be treated differently just because of his blue hair color so he makes sure to dye it black as often as possible. Although fate seems to be against him hiding his identity he'll do anything to just live a normal life, even i...
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"You cheater!"
"I'm not cheating, I'm just better than you."
Yugyeom laughed at Jeongguk's response while Bambam just seemed to pout as he threw his controller on the ground. Bambam had gone on a whole ordeal about how he was great at video games and every time Jeongguk beat him he would demand a rematch.
"Use honorifics when you're talking to me!"
"You never make me use honorifics at school!" Jeongguk said laughing as Yugyeom toppled off of his bed from seeing the situation. Bambam was trying to scowl at Jeongguk but he looked more cute than scary. "And you never make Yugyeom use honorifics either!"
"Yugyeom isn't better than me at video games."
"Hey!"
Jeongguk felt happy that he had ended up taking his friends up on their offer to hang out with them and they had been playing video games for the past hour. Sure he felt bad for denying extra hours to work at the cafe but after the incident last time he didn't really want to stay at the cafe to work as much as he did before.
And he couldn't tell if that was because of the protagonists seeming to go there more often or the rude customer.
It was Saturday now and his foster parents had been ecstatic when he asked if he could have friends over. Jihyo had been too but she ended up leaving to go spend the night with her friends instead. Their foster parents had ended up having to work overtime anyways which wasn't really surprising either.
Jeongguk knew that moving to the city was going to take a toll on their working hours. The small apartment they had was way more expensive than the large house they owned in the country and working overtime was the only way to pay the bills. Jeongguk really wanted to be able to help out and pay but his hair dye really was the first priority for him to spend his money.
Speaking of hair dye he had ended up redyeing his hair the night before. He had to switch his cycle to redyeing on Friday due to his hair turning blue earlier last week and that really was beginning to worry him. He hoped the earlier change of color was due to him messing up times or his poor health as he really didn't want to have to start redyeing his hair more often.
"Hey, what's this?" Yugyeom said as he grabbed onto a necklace he found on a dresser while Jeongguk tensed regretting not putting it away. "I never see you wear jewelry at school."
"Probably because jewelry is prohibited," Jeongguk said rolling his eyes noting how Bambam also seemed curious about what it was. He couldn't help but groan feeling how it was a very main character moment to have a locket with their dead parents in it and that's the reason why he never really wore it. Sure he definitely treasured the locket but keeping it with him everywhere seemed like too much of a protagonist move. "It's a locket from my parents."
"Really!" Yuygeom exclaimed as he messed with it until it unlocked. "Aw I expected to see a childhood photo of you with them, not just their photos!"
Jeongguk grimaced knowing that the photos were in color and thought how horrid it would have been if he had a photo of himself in there. They would have easily been able to see that he really was a protagonist, would they even talk to him after that? He knew how they idolized the main characters at school just like everyone else and didn't bother to try and be friends with them. It made him feel sick thinking that if they actually knew his real identity that they wouldn't even associate themselves with him.
"I don't have any childhood photos of myself so don't expect to ever see any."
"You don't have any?" Bambam said tilting his head while showing a shocked expression. "Your parents have to have some here, man."
"I live with my foster parents so they don't have any photos of me from when I was a kid." Jeongguk said as he looked down at the ground. He loved his foster parents with all his heart but thinking about what happened to his real parents always made him feel uneasy. "My biological parents passed away."
Before Jeongguk could continue he felt a pair of arms wrap around him and he looked to see Bambam hugging him. Yugyeom seemed to walk over and hug him too causing him to chuckle.
"Guys, it's fine. It was a long time ago anyway."
"That doesn't mean that it still doesn't hurt. I haven't seen my parents in a couple of years but I'm at least able to message them." Bambam said as he looked at the younger showing off a sad smile. "You don't need to act like it's okay if you're not. Yugyeom and I will always be here for you, you're our friend."
Jeongguk didn't know how to respond to that. He remembered being told that it wasn't a big deal that his parents died since he was a protagonist and that he shouldn't have been surprised by their death because of who he was. He had ended up being the reason they were dead and he needed to accept that. Nobody comforted him because he was a main character, nobody cared about what protagonists had been through because it's expected for their lives to suck.
But Bambam and Yugyeom cared and that's what caused Jeongguk to break down into tears. For the first time in his life someone else seemed to actually care about his feelings and validated that it was okay for him to feel sad or distraught.
