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Lucas didn't go home for the next few days; he felt he couldn't, especially after what he learned about the group of friends.

He had no excuse to stay any longer without looking weird, so he sacrificed his reputation among the others. There were lots of things he needed to do but he could give up his time.

They were all downstairs watching a Disney movie per the request of 4 out of the 6 of them. Jungwoo was half asleep and cuddled up with a throw blanket on the edge of the couch. The others were very indulged in the storyline, despite having seen the movie hundreds of times before.

Taeyong was in the kitchen making snacks when they heard an excessively loud knock on the door. They all froze.

They weren't expecting anyone.

Everyone gathered up in the far corner of the kitchen, holding their hands over the mouth of a very sleepy Jungwoo.

Lucas stood up boldly and walked up to the door. Upon opening it, he was met with a man not much taller than himself. He wore an unfitting frown and clenched jaw.

"Where's Taeyong?" He asked.

Taeyong poked his head out from the kitchen and stopped before running up to him. "What do you want?"

"I want what is mine." He stepped in and pushed both Lucas and Taeyong to the side.

In the midst of it, Lucas whispered to Taeyong, "Who is he?"

"Seojun." Taeyong whispered back.

Lucas angrily eyed him walking through the house and stopping once finding Jungwoo.

"Come here, brat." Seojun pounced forward onto the huddle of boys, hitting away arms and legs that were constraining Jungwoo. He finally got a solid hold of his wrist and pulled him up, staring at his teary eyes. "Do you know how much I paid to be here? It's your fault that all that money is gone. It's because you can't take care of yourself."

Seojun began dragging him to the door by the wrist. Jungwoo screamed and reached out his other hand for anyone to take hold. Just as they reached the doorframe, someone did.

He wiped his tears on the shoulder of his shirt and saw Lucas on the other side of him. Seojun grunted and pulled harder. All hope Jungwoo had was shattered when he heard something pop and felt an excruciating pain in his shoulder.

He was thrown to the ground and watched as Seojun got very close to Lucas' face.

"Who are you?" He growled.

"Someone with common sense. How could you do that to someone?"

"I'm helping him survive. Can't you see he's useless?"

"He's not useless!" Lucas shouted, causing a ring of silence to follow.

As Lucas and Seojun continued shouting, the others came down to aid Jungwoo. "Are you alright?" Yuta asked.

Jungwoo sobbed and shook his head. "It hurts...it really hurts."

Jaehyun put a hand on his unharmed shoulder. "We called 911 and an ambulance. They should be here soon, okay?"

He only groaned in response.

Before Lucas and Seojun were about to get physical, they heard the sirens. Seojun turned to him one last time and punched him in the mouth before running out the open door and down the street.

The responders soon arrived and loaded Jungwoo into an ambulance. Lucas went with him. The rest stayed behind and gave a witness report to the cops.

In the ambulance, Lucas gripped onto Jungwoo's hand and mumbled things to himself. Little did he know, Jungwoo was very aware of what he was doing and even tried to reassuringly tighten his grip back.

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Jungwoo was later released from the hospital after an extremely painful replacement of his dislocated shoulder. He was told to keep his arm in a sling, but he knew he would disregard it after a while since he didn't typically do anything that would cause a dislocation of a joint anyways.

Lucas was very careful with him; he offered to help him eat, get dressed, even bathe (although he was refused the last one). It came to a late time when Yuta and Sicheng felt it was time for them to leave. Jaehyun declared to be staying the night and would sleep in Taeyong's room.

Jungwoo was sitting in his bed when the door to his room opened, revealing Lucas with blankets and pillows.

"What are you doing?" He asked softly.

"I'm sleeping in here tonight."

He watched as Lucas laid out the blankets on the floor. Jungwoo felt bad. "Oh, don't do that. Sleep on the bed, I'll sleep down there."

"No you won't. Did you forget about your shoulder?"

Jungwoo looked down at his sling and back up at Lucas. "I'm really fine, you should just-"

Lucas put a finger in front of him. "I'm sleeping down here, you're sleeping up there. Any objection will be repayed with tickling."

He backed away, not really wanting to be humored for the time being. He let Lucas get situated on the floor. When all was silent, he saw Lucas look up.

"Jungwoo..."

He hummed.

"I want you to know something."

Lucas leaned in as close to the bed as possible.

"I will not let Seojun get you, okay? As long as I'm here, he won't lay a finger on you."

Jungwoo looked up at him with hopeful, glassy eyes. "Do you mean it?"

Lucas nodded.

Unable to control his emotions, Jungwoo thrust forward and hugged Lucas in the best way he could manage. Lucas pulled him tight back.

"You're safe with me. I promise."

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dang we already at 200 reads

I'm pretty hyped about this book. I'm glad some of you guys are liking it too!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Have a nice day/night!💓💓💓

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